Give a Tenth

It always amazes me that people want to argue over giving a tithe, or a tenth, to God from what He so generously supplies to us in income. I'm not legalistic about it but I really cannot understand how anyone who has been saved from the wrath of our awesome, holy God and is permitted to live one more day on earth does not want to give minimally a tenth to God's church to reach others with the saving grace of Jesus.

Abraham, when he met Melchizedek, gave "a tenth of everything" to this priest (Genesis 14:18-20) and Jacob, when he met God at Bethel, made a vow to " give a full tenth to you". (Genesis 28:20-22)  Both these men lived 500 - 700 years before Moses and the Law. They gave as an expression of their acknowledgement of the blessings of God.

Paul, when writing to the Corinthians (2 Corinthians 8:1-8) tells how the Macedonias begged for the opportunity to give to help the poor even though they were poor themselves. He said giving generously is not a command but rather proof of our love for Jesus and for others. 

Jesus, when sitting near the temple collection box, praised the woman who gave a penny because she was so generous with what she had. (Mark 12:41-44) As always He was looking at the heart, her heart, that had faith to give everything she had to God. I saw this played out in real life in Kenya. The people lived in stick and mud huts, no running water, no electricity, no transportation, eating one small meal a day. Yet when they came to church they testified with their mouths to how blessed they were by God and testified with their money as they all managed to bring something to give, mostly small gold coins that weren't worth much to me but to them and to God it was a fortune. Their generosity put me to shame. 

I wonder what the churches could do to alleviate hunger in America if everyone begged to give generously to their local church like the Macedonians did. I wonder how single moms or orphans or drug addicts or out of work dads or the working poor could be helped by our churches AND hear about Jesus if Christians were not greedy but generous.

There are lots of organizations out there doing good things but what if the CHURCH took on the responsibility of caring for its own and for a lost and dying world because we stepped up to the plate and gave generously. What if we were willing to give up the latest iPhone or maybe our second car or eating out or the sports package on cable or maybe all cable. What if we got out of debt! What if we saw our money as a gift from God to be used for His purposes rather than our own. Then there would be no discussion about tithing because we would all be giving more than that!