The power of a gracious giver.Part 1

One of the greatest revelations in the scriptures is that of the grace of God;the truth that our God, the God we love and serve is a gracious God.
The scripture affirms that he is kindly disposed towards us, that he is great in mercy and quick to offer it to those who turn to him with a sincere heart.
One cannot image that a christian has ever really or truly grasped the heart of the gospel unless they have seen the reality of Gods grace.
And this revelation of the grace of God has to permeate beyond a mere mental assent to a willingness of heart to likewise show grace to any and to all with which we deal day by day.
The grace of God is most captured I believe in an attitude of generosity towards others.
Even those who may seek to exploit me, misuse me and abuse me,some may ask?
Yes even to the ungracious and ungrateful for this is a tiny mirror reflection of Gods grace and mercy which he extended towards you and towards me.
There are many ways that we can show this generosity of course; in our forgiveness towards those who abuse and misuse us, in our time and service and love and believing the best of others(which is not a blind denial of the sins of others but a choice to see them and speak of them through the eyes of grace)
Think of the manner with which king David spoke of Saul on hearing the news of his death on the field of battle in 2 Samuel 1 v 23
"Saul and Jonathan were beloved and pleasant in their lives,And in their death they were not divided;They were swifter than eagles,They were stronger than lions."
Wait a minute David! You mean that Jonathan was beloved and gracious, not his father who hated and feared and persecuted you until his death.
David refusal to see Saul as he was in his sin but to see him as he should have been and was called to be is a powerful testimony from the scriptures of a heart of generosity that saw and spoke in grace.
Another of the most powerful ways that we can manifest the grace of God in and through our lives is in the area of our giving to others materially and financial.
James reminds us in his epistle of the hollowness of sending away a brother in need without aiming to do something practical to assist them when it is in our hand to help.
"If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food,and one of you says to them"depart in peace,be warmed and filled",but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body,what does it profit?"
It certainly does not profit the person in need and ultimately it does not profit us either for every time we harden our hearts and fail to respond to the Holy Spirits nudging we become more impoverished.
I have no doubt that the number one reason why more Christians do not give more freely to financially help others is because of fear.
And yet the bible is so full of wonderful promises of the heart of God to bless the giver and increase their capacity to give.
The first place to start if we want to hold our attitude of giving up to the light of the scriptures,the great litmus test is that of the tithe.
If we are right on this we will be moving in a direction of connecting with Gods grace in all our giving, if we fail on this then we will not and cannot experience the same measure of Gods bountiful grace ministering to us in our giving.
Contrary to some peoples assertions that the tithe is "an old testament principle which is not binding upon new testament Christians now" we need to remember that although the tithe was established as a precept in the law it did not originate with the law of Moses,rather it was introduced much earlier as a principle of obedience and worship for Gods people with Abraham,who is called the father of our faith.
You recall that Abram on returning from the slaughter of the kings in gen 14 18 was met by the somewhat mysterious figure of Melchizedek king of Salem(which was the first biblical reference to the present day city of Jerusalem),who blessed him and received from Abram the tithe.
What is the significance of this for us today?
The narrative reads "Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine;he was the priest of God Most High.
And he blessed him and said:
"Blessed be Abram of God most high,
Possessor of heaven and earth;
And blessed be God Most High,
Who has delivered your enemies into your hands."
And he gave him a tithe of all.
The tithe is simply defined as a tenth portion of that which we have.
A significant verse is verse 19 God Most high is described as" Possessor of heaven and earth."
In other words He who had just delivered Abram from a much larger army and given him the victory and restored his nephew Lot to him and given him the promises of inheriting the land was the One who possessed everything in heaven and on earth.
Everything belonged to him.
All of Abrams increase and wealth and future inheritance of the land was a witness to the fact that God most High was the possessor of it all.
The military intervention and success that the Lord gave to Abram was but a token of this fact and Abram recognized this truth and by revelation responded by giving to the Lord the tenth portion of all that he recognized that God had given him.
The most commonly held objection towards the tithe being a new testament requirement is that we should be free to give what we want when we want and not be required to give a certain portion.
Certainly we are free to give what we want however we should not give less then the tithe and we can always give more than the tithe if we choose to.
At the heart of our tithing needs to be the recognition that God is the possessor of it all,and nothing which we possess belongs to us alone, but is ultimately given to us by the Lord.
So then at heart the tithe is an obedience test; do we withhold what is not ours to keep, or give what God requires as a covenant act that declares that we belong to God and all that we are and have and will be and will one day have belongs to him.?
The tithe is important to God and so it should be to us to,for there is no other place that I know of in the bible where the Lord throws down the gauntlet and challenges us to prove him.
Malachi 3 v 10 says that we are to "Bring all the tithe into the storehouse,
That there may be food in my house and prove me now in this,"
Says the Lord of Hosts,
"If I will not open for you the windows of heaven
And pour out for you such blessing
That there will not be room enough to receive it."
"And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes,
So that he will not destroy the fruit of your ground,
nor shall the vine fail to bear fruit for you in the field,"says the Lord of Hosts.
Rebuking the devourer is good news, and there are many who have discovered to their cost that by withholding the tithe they find that their money is being quickly devoured in spite of their work and constant labour.
Haggai 1 v 6 says that
"You have sown much,and bring forth little;
You eat,but do not have enough;
You drink,but you are not filled with drink;
You clothe yourselves,but no one is warm;
And he who earns wages,
Earns wages to put into a bag with holes."
Earning wages to put into a bag with holes in it is a perfect testimony of what so many in our society would say of themselves,"I just don't know where my money goes", but to the tither things can be different.
I personally believe that the tithe belongs to God and that as believers our responsibility is to give the tithe as the Lord leads us to give.
Some people may say "I just do not have the confidence to give as the Lord leads; "
"How do I know that it is his voice that I am hearing?"
Firstly it is important to state clearly that no man or woman can tell another man or woman where they ought to give their money.
Two of the most tell tale signs of a church or church movement that historically has veered off course into that area of what we would call a "cult" or heavy shepherding is that they will begin to tell you who your friends should be, that is who you should and should not associate with;and they tell you what to do with your money and possessions.
Anytime you encounter this, run from it like the plague!
It is certainly legitimate that a man of God may bring to the attention of his congregation a need or item to prayerfully consider but this is entirely different from the motivations that tries to instruct and control other people as to how they should use their money and their possessions.
It has been traditionally taught in the church that the tithe belongs to the local church, and that an offering over and above this belongs to other kingdom concerns that require supporting also.
I must confess that I have never adhered to this rigidly and have come to believe that it is not a hard and fast rule that can be imposed upon Christians.
This is not because I have a light view of the importance of the local church or fail to appreciate the need of each church member to be willing to share the need to support the ministry of the pastor and other outreaches that are part of a churches mission.
Rather I believe that the tithe belongs to the Lord.
It is his, not the pastors, not any one need or any one ministry gifts exclusive prerogative to demand;rather it is the Lords and as his body in the earth he requires us to direct it to those places and people that he wants us to distribute it to.
This thinking is difficult for some pastors to conceive.
After all they are dependant upon the giving of the church members to support them, and should not be left wanting in this respect.
However I also believe that if more pastors were able to rejoice that their church members were directing their giving in other areas in the tithe God would bless them and bless the church and actually increase the income of that church.
I have actually heard of this happening.
In one large church in America the pastor would encourage his people to give a portion of their tithe to other ministries that had especially blessed them or fed them each week, and the results were that rather than losing income they actually gained income by taking this stance.
God never honours insecurity and fear but honours faith and trust and sees when we are truly looking to him for our support and supply rather than any single earthly channel.
It is important also to state however that I believe that every person who belongs to a good local church should be as supportive as they can be towards that local church,and that begins with our financial support.
It is obvious that if a church is small in its numbers then a greater weight of responsibility is going to rest upon the shoulders of those members who regularly attend, and so they will of necessity be in a position to give more to support the minister.
And really they should rejoice to do so.
The bible says "Let him who is taught share in all good things with him who teaches" this should not need to be asked for but should be freely and spontaneously given.
The reason that I believe that the tithe is the Lords and should be directed by each one of us as he requires it to be given is also because it develops our faith and responsibility to hear Gods voice and be faithful stewards of the grace of God in our financial giving.
If we give in a certain direction all the time with occasionally giving an offering over and above this then we can become lazy in our hearing God to give constantly as he directs :however I certainly believe that the first financial commitment that we have must be to give to support our local church.
Many Christians as I stated earlier lack the confidence to hear Gods voice in this area and yet like every other area it can be so easily cultivated.
God may so often nudge us or drop into our minds a thought of a person or of a ministry or He may lay upon our hearts a real desire to give in a certain direction.
All of these are ways in which he speaks to us and as we learn to yield to these promptings and respond quickly to them we soon grow in confidence.
(Even if you were to get it wrong and it turned out to be your own thought or desire what is so terrible about having given some assistance and help to someone that you had on your heart?)
Most often however it will most probably not be just our own thoughts or desires but the Holy Spirit working in and through our thoughts and desires to accomplish his purposes
So we should I believe see the tithe as Gods portion and ask him how he wants us to apportion it, how we can be the best and most faithful stewards of it as He instructs our hearts.
When I joined the local church which we are currently attending the Lord clearly placed upon my heart the amount that He required me to give into the offering each week.
I understood this to be the minimum required level that I was called to consistently maintain, but there have been times when He has prompted me to give more.
Hearing Gods voice in our giving is one of the most exciting and adventurous ways that we can live and it brings its rewards too.
In part two of this blog I would like to address the rewards of God and our motives for giving.