Hark
Well-Known Member
2 Corinthians 9:15 Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift.
This gift is a church relying on God to provide cheerful givers for the church.
Tithing can give the church an appearance of covetousness especially when tithing is when you HAVE to give.
2 Corinthians 9:5 Therefore I thought it necessary to exhort the brethren, that they would go before unto you, and make up beforehand your bounty, whereof ye had notice before, that the same might be ready, as a matter of bounty, and not as of covetousness.
If you skip over verse 6 and read verses 7 & 8 and then go back to verse 6, you may see verse 6 as testifying of God in His Providence to the church.
6 But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully. 7 Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver. 8 And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work:
So whenever a church or a pastor insist on tithing and especially referring to not tithing as robbing from God's House, it is hard to see him and the church as having faith in God's Providence. That faith in His Providence is dead which was what the kind of faith James was talking about in James 2nd chapter as being dead and not the faith in Jesus Christ for our salvation.
Paul was a tentmaker; he worked to provide for himself when he could, but he did rely on God to provide cheerful givers when he could not, and yet he testified to contentment.
Philippians 4:10 But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that now at the last your care of me hath flourished again; wherein ye were also careful, but ye lacked opportunity. 11 Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. 12 I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. 13 I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. 14 Notwithstanding ye have well done, that ye did communicate with my affliction.
Did Paul pull out the need for tithing here in spite of them lacking opportunity? No. So why are the pastors & churches doing this?
Why would they lack opportunity when they were able to give before?
1 Timothy 5:8But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.
People always said that if the tax system changed to 10 % across the board, the poor would suffer more than the "well to do" and the "rich".
It is not funny how the churches cannot see this towards their own poor.
A pastor has a pension and a health insurance and benefits and whatever other perks that comes with the job like paying for the meals of any outreach gathering which would include his own. Yes, it is easy for him to preach to the poor to put faith in God to provide for their lives and not worry about tomorrow while he rests on the demand of tithing to the church to provide for him.
Can this be the reason why many of the church doors are closing?
So I pray that any pastor that has been preaching about not tithing as robbing from the church, do conssider that you are robbing the church of ever knowing God's indescribeable gift of providing for the church of what He needs it to run on for His ministry by way of cheerful givers.
Paid programs in the church and in the community are not the means for spreading the gospel. It is the members within.
A church closing its doors could very well mean that they left the job of spreading the gospel only to the pastors, but he is not the church. They are.
Romans 10:13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. 14 How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? 15 And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things! 16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report? 17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
This gift is a church relying on God to provide cheerful givers for the church.
Tithing can give the church an appearance of covetousness especially when tithing is when you HAVE to give.
2 Corinthians 9:5 Therefore I thought it necessary to exhort the brethren, that they would go before unto you, and make up beforehand your bounty, whereof ye had notice before, that the same might be ready, as a matter of bounty, and not as of covetousness.
If you skip over verse 6 and read verses 7 & 8 and then go back to verse 6, you may see verse 6 as testifying of God in His Providence to the church.
6 But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully. 7 Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver. 8 And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work:
So whenever a church or a pastor insist on tithing and especially referring to not tithing as robbing from God's House, it is hard to see him and the church as having faith in God's Providence. That faith in His Providence is dead which was what the kind of faith James was talking about in James 2nd chapter as being dead and not the faith in Jesus Christ for our salvation.
Paul was a tentmaker; he worked to provide for himself when he could, but he did rely on God to provide cheerful givers when he could not, and yet he testified to contentment.
Philippians 4:10 But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that now at the last your care of me hath flourished again; wherein ye were also careful, but ye lacked opportunity. 11 Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. 12 I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. 13 I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. 14 Notwithstanding ye have well done, that ye did communicate with my affliction.
Did Paul pull out the need for tithing here in spite of them lacking opportunity? No. So why are the pastors & churches doing this?
Why would they lack opportunity when they were able to give before?
1 Timothy 5:8But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.
People always said that if the tax system changed to 10 % across the board, the poor would suffer more than the "well to do" and the "rich".
It is not funny how the churches cannot see this towards their own poor.
A pastor has a pension and a health insurance and benefits and whatever other perks that comes with the job like paying for the meals of any outreach gathering which would include his own. Yes, it is easy for him to preach to the poor to put faith in God to provide for their lives and not worry about tomorrow while he rests on the demand of tithing to the church to provide for him.
Can this be the reason why many of the church doors are closing?
So I pray that any pastor that has been preaching about not tithing as robbing from the church, do conssider that you are robbing the church of ever knowing God's indescribeable gift of providing for the church of what He needs it to run on for His ministry by way of cheerful givers.
Paid programs in the church and in the community are not the means for spreading the gospel. It is the members within.
A church closing its doors could very well mean that they left the job of spreading the gospel only to the pastors, but he is not the church. They are.
Romans 10:13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. 14 How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? 15 And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things! 16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report? 17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
