Tithing in a Financial Storm
Should you be tithing if you are in a financial storm? By financial storm I mean that you may be facing the loss of your job and/or foreclosure on your home or maybe bankruptcy. You know, the BIG financial problems that are plaguing many families in the USA these days. Most of our politicians who are currently trying to “relate” to us have no clue what it feels like to face such desperate circumstances. I have been through a severe financial storm and can tell you that you must be prepared or you will be devastated by the destructive nature of these storms. You can loose more than your job, home, and credit rating. You could loose your life as you know it.
Our Story
My wife Sherry and I both were working when we got married. We bought two cars (on credit)1, our first house that we could only afford on two incomes2, and all the fixings that go along with being a first time home owner. The fixings were fairly big ticket items mostly purchased on credit3. These were things like window coverings, lawn equipment, refrigerator, freezer, lawn furniture, etc, etc.
Then we had our first child and decided that Sherry should stay home with Riley. We did not fully understand back then why God had put it on our hearts to have Sherry switch from being a full-time public school teacher to being a full-time mom, but that is a story for another day. From a financial perspective this was a very bad decision because we could not afford to live on a single income 4. We initially made up for the nearly $30K per year of lost income by cashing in some 401k accounts and paying for even more stuff on credit that we could not afford5,6. Then I took a job that paid more via the over-time that came with some required travel. The over-time pretty much made up for the remainder of the lost income and we got into a comfort7 zone with our household budget that as I said “required the over-time” to stay out of the red.
To this point I have noted and marked more than a half dozen major mistakes in our financial planning that would not be fully exploited until we hit our first real financial emergency. Never mind the fact that we had a zero balance in our savings account at that time. This emergency would not cost us a significant amount of money out of pocket, but the emergency would shed light into the dark corner of our finances that we did not even realize existed up until that point. The emergency caused us to fall back on my base salary for a period of nearly seven months.
So how big of a deal could it be to miss some over-time for a few months? We were in need of approximately $500 of over-time pay per month to maintain our bills. Our bills included more than $500 per month in minimum payments on credit card payments plus two cars that totaled another $770 per month. To boot, we were upside down on both cars and could not sell either because we did not have the cash to pay off the balance of the loan even if we could find a buyer at a fair market price.
The emergency we faced was the care requirements of our second child Caden. He was born with some severe medical conditions that we still battle to this day nearly four years later. As recently as last week he had another open-heart surgery. His medical conditions did not really cost us anything directly. The indirect related expenses were that we ate out more during his extended hospital stays and spent more on gas going to and from the hospital (100 miles round trip per day between MrsOzz and I), but that was about it. Caden’s genetic birth defect qualified him for Medicaid so that as a secondary insurance paid for all the deductibles and co-pays that my employer provided insurances did not cover. This particular Medicaid program (TEFRA – Katie Beckett) was designed to help families with children who are disabled under SSI (Social Security Income) standards, but do not qualify for SSI or regular Medicaid due to assets and income. This program helps families like ours avoid bankruptcy when the deductibles and co-pays reach well into the tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars.
So far I have described the climate before the financial storm and pretty well defined the make-up of the storm. While Caden’s birth did not cause our problems, his birth certainly exposed some VERY bad decisions we had been making in the previous four years working up to his birth. Our total financial damage can be described by saying that it would have taken $10,000 cash just to get us current on our bills at one point. We were 30-60 days behind on everything including our home. Not only that, I would have needed to have the opportunity to begin making the same amount of overtime again just to continue to make minimum monthly payments on our home, cars, and $60K worth of credit card debt if by some miracle we could round up $10k to get us current on everything.
What about tithing?
Tithing is a very touchy subject that I will not try to justify with a ton of scriptures. While there are plenty of biblical references on finances, they are best digested first hand. If you have never read the Bible and are in a financial storm, then you picked a perfect time to start. God does some of his best work on those in need. Sherry and I not only began reading the bible regularly within the year after Caden was born, but also went seeking advice on our finances. We enrolled in a Crown Financial class. We then peppered what we learned from that class with principles taught by Dave Ramsey who credits Crown founder Larry Burkett as a source of some of his principles.
So there we were in a pretty big storm. Each month, some lenders were not getting paid because we were about $500 short on breaking even on our bills without overtime. At that point in our life we were not tithing because we could not afford it. Most would say that is exactly how they would have been viewing tithing. It was not required to maintain life as we knew it so it should not have been in our “expenses”. Tithe was not included in our expenses then and it would never be in our expenses in the future. More on that in a minute.
It was in the middle of this storm that we finally come to the realization that what we had possession of was not really ours. We learned from reading the bible that God made every single thing that we could detect with our senses so why were we holding so tightly to it all like it was ours? Could we take it with us when we died? Were we ever going to reach the “richest man alive” status and be remembered in the history books for our wealth and possessions? Even if we did, would it matter in eternity? We could not come up with answers to any of these types of questions that justified our continuing to act like we actually owned anything on this earth. God owns it all and we are just here to take care of it, to be stewards.
In late 2005, about one year after Caden’s birth, we decided to begin tithing. We had heard our pastor say along with many others who said similar things, “If you want God to help you with your finances then you are going to have to get him involved in your finances.” So what does that really mean? To us that meant tithing. I don’t want to stir an argument, but we do make a distinction between tithing, gifts, donated time, and charity. I realize that many people don’t see it that way, but they have a right to be wrong. That is another borrowed phrase from our pastor. I mentioned before that our tithe is not part of our “expenses” and it never would be. Below is an illustration of how we include tithe in our budget spreadsheet.
Income
Salary NET (Net amount of salary)
Carry-over (Add Balance from last pay period)
Deposits (Add Misc income from Internet)
Tithe (deduct tithe based on gross pay before taxes, insurance)
NOT CLEAR (deduct Checks/debits not yet cleared)
TOTAL Income
Expenses
Mortgage
Utilities
Groceries
Car payment
Car Insurance
Car Gas/Maint
Credit
Student Loan
Phone/Internet
Cell Phone
Childcare
Entertainment
Savings
Gifts
Charity
Total Out (total expenses)
Balance (Total Income – Total Out)
You will notice that tithe is a factor in our income and not our expenses. We now treat tithing as a necessity to the income of our budget. We have come to a point of enjoying the tithe check as much as the pay check. We have always had tithe at the top our budget list, but up until the fall of 2005 we just treated tithe like and expense and most often like it was at the bottom of our priorities with charity and gifts. This is a common theme I see with many Christian families that I talk to about finances.
We got to a point in late 2005 where one or more bills was not going to get paid each month to the tune of $500 per month. If we started tithing right off the top then that would just mean one or two more bills would end up falling off the bottom of our budget. Since we saw no way out with an almost certain foreclosure, repossession, charge offs, and/or possible bankruptcy if we could not get out from under the house and at least one car payment, what would it hurt to give God a shot at our finances? The first few months were just like I said above. A few more bills fell off the bottom and the mortgage got even farther behind. It was not until we finally staked the sign in front of our house that we saw things begin to turn. Sherry and I believe to this day that we were still holding on to the house as “ours” even after the above change in attitude on tithing.
It was at this time that God showed up in a BIG way. It was to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars in one year. I won’t go too deep into the details, but there is no other explanation to this day as to why things happened how and when they did to allow us to be where we are today financially. We are in the same house driving the same two cars (one already paid off) and we will have all our credit cards, student loan, and car loan debt paid off by next fall. That has all been done without “settling with the lender” on a single debt and by paying every dime we owe to our lenders.
Attitude on Tithing
It is best if you get the right attitude on tithing from the start. My suggestions are as follows:
- Tithe as an act of worship (enjoy it)
- Tithe to your local church
- Tithe based on gross of all increase
I will add a few notes just to clarify these points. First you must not see tithing as simple a must do act but rather an enjoyable act of worship. God does not need your money and you can not buy His love. Second you should tithe to your local church. Don’t have a church? Then that is another problem we can address in another post so just pick one to tithe to for now. Last but not least, you should not have to ask whether to tithe on gross or net income. If you have to ask the gross/net question then you did not get the first point about enjoying tithing.
In conclusion I will just say that the answer to the title quesiton is not for me to give you, but I can at least share with you how it has works for us. I don’t think that tithing in itself will fix your problems financially or otherwise, but if it grows your trust in letting God handle your problems then you will come out a winner in the end.
September 29th, 2008 at 3:15 am
Reigning As True Sons and Daughters of God
Over 2000 years ago, God gave Mankind a most precious gift—His Son Jesus Christ, who died at Calvary for our sins. By the shedding of His Blood, Jesus redeemed us from sin and from the curse of the Law. As part of the New Covenant, He made me and all who accept Him as their Lord and Savior, an heir to His promise of abundant living and blessing, promised healing in our lives and free from Satan’s power and authority. It is a free gift given to us by God if we simply accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. This gift is given to us out of God’s grace and not because of anything that we have done or can do in our lives. Part of this gift includes the power as Sons and Daughters of God to be completely free from Satan’s jurisdiction and to live as Abraham’s seeds and heirs according to His promise. It is the most precious gift that I have ever received in my life.
Now, I am taught with the doctrine of tithing that Jesus’ death did not redeem me from the curse of the Law, but I have to pay nearly $1,000.00 on a bi-monthly basis to keep me free from the curse. I am taught that I have not been delivered from Satan’s authority unless I pay my local church money for this protection. I am taught that the power to bind Satan and cast him out comes from tithing and not from pleading the Blood of Jesus. I am implicitly told at offering time on Sunday that Jesus’ Death and Resurrection did not make me an heir to the promise, but my blessings will come from my works through the giving of tithes. This message is a trick of Satan. By allowing Christians to believe that their source of blessing and protection comes from their works (i.e. tithing) and not from the finished work of Jesus Christ, the New Covenant message is diminished if not completely destroyed. This is the problem with teaching tithing today.
Matthew E. Narramore, in his book “Tithing: Low Realm, Obsolete and Defunct,” zeroed in on the issue of why Christians need to be concerned about the prevalence of the tithing message in the Church today with the following observation:
The devil doesn’t mind tithing. He welcomes anything that will take our attention away from the truth in Christ. . . .Tithing is not a threat to the kingdom of darkness. The devil knows that the church would have more power, as well as money, if Christians were taught how to live like sons of God, who are in a spiritual union with Jesus Christ. He also knows that Christians could grow up spiritually and begin to reign in life if the confusion that comes from mixing the Old Covenant and New Covenant spiritual paradigms was removed from the church. That is more frightening to him than the increase of money that would flow into the church if the tithing mentality was abandoned. . . .[Satan] can’t defeat [the church] by direct attack so he uses deception. Power and victory come to believers through abiding in Christ with faith in His finished work. Satan’s strategy is to get their attention on other things that promise results but cannot deliver. . .The devil’s wooden horse is made of laws, rules, principles, formulas and other ways of living, borrowed from men who were not in spiritual union with Jesus Christ. Tithing is one of those things.
Contrary to popular belief, churches who teach tithing are not teaching their congregants to live like the Sons and Daughters of God in spiritual union with Jesus Christ. This is because the tithing doctrine contradicts the New Covenant and diminishes the death and resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We are taught to put our faith in tithing as the source of our protection from Satan and our source of blessings from God. This is directly contrary to what the Word of God tells us about our source of power from God based upon the shedding of the Blood of Jesus Christ. As we examine the history of tithing under the Old Covenant, take down notes of what you have been taught about why tithing is important and discern for yourself whether it advances or destroys the power of Christ’s finish work on the Cross.
I pray at the conclusion of this study that when someone tells you in Old Covenant language that if you tithe, God will “open the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it,” you will be able to respond in New Covenant language, that “ And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed and heirs according to his promise.” [Galatians 3:29]
If someone tells you in Old Covenant language, that if you do not tithe, “ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation [Mal. 3:9], you will be able to respond in New Covenant language that there is no curse upon us in Christ. Jesus Christ bore it and “hath redeemed us from the curse of the law.”[Galatians 3:13]
If someone tells you in Old Covenant language, that God will rebuke the devourer on your behalf if you tithe, you can tell him or her that Christ has already defeated Satan, redeemed us from his works and delivered us out of his authority. We are not waiting for God to rebuke the devourer. Instead, Christ has given his Sons and Daughters the authority and the responsibility to enforce His completed work and that is why the Bible tells us: “Behold I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.” [Luke 10:19]. The power to bind the devil and cast him out in the name of Jesus is not based upon whether one gives 10% of their income to a particular church, but is because of the shedding of the Blood of Jesus. Under the New Covenant, the Body of Christ is completely redeemed. Satan is defeated and we are no longer under sin or under a curse. The Blood of Jesus paid the debt 100% for our complete deliverance and there is nothing that we can do, even tithing, to add to it:
For as much as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precision blood of Christ, as a lamb without blemish and without a spot. [1st Peter 1:18-19].
As Narramore further observes:
In the New Covenant, we are redeemed. It is finished work. It does not have to be redone every time we get a paycheck. Satan is defeated. We are not under his jurisdiction. We are not under a curse. The blood of Jesus paid the total price for our deliverance and there is nothing we can do to add to it.
In sum, God’s New Covenant principles for Giving and supporting the church is separate from and superior to any teaching of tithing. God has an ownership of 100% of us –which encompasses every aspect concerning us including our money, our time and our possessions. Under the New Covenant, the Holy Spirit will guide each person individually on what God requires from us, not some fixed percentage.
For full article on tithing, email me at kmtesq@aol.com or visit my myspace webpage blog at http://www.myspace.com/talleyesq The article is called “Am I A Thief: A Personal Examination of Whether Tithing is Required By Christians.”
September 29th, 2008 at 1:18 pm
1 Tim 5:8 But 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.
Your family essentials are first. Tithing is not a
Christian doctrine!
See my web site for over 150 articles, a book, an essay and a 2 hour DVD presentation.
October 1st, 2008 at 1:34 am
What a big post!!
But it really contains hell lot of information.
Before reading this article, I hardly knew about Tithing.
Good post.
And may God bless you all and specially Caden.
October 1st, 2008 at 9:37 pm
Kim and Russell,
Thanks for your comments. I knew there were some strong opinions out there and it looks like a few came out in your comments and links.
I tried not to say either way whether tithing is required by Christians. I could argue the point either way in a debate. Of course I do fall on the pro-tithing side of the debate when the day is done and I thoroughly enjoy it. What I believe is that tithing out of obligation is a bad thing.
Cassandra,
Yes…a wee bit long. Sorry about that. My take on tithing is not exactly what you will here in many churches as you will see from many other folks on the Internet. Thanks for the well wishes for our little Caden. He is an awesome kid.
October 2nd, 2008 at 10:28 am
A. Malachi is Old Covenant and is never quoted in the New Covenant to validate tithing (Lev. 27:34; Neh. 10:28-29; Mal. 3:7; 4:4).
B. In Malachi 3:10-11 tithes are still only food 1000 years after Leviticus 27:30-34 and Numbers 18:21-28.
C. Malachi’s audience had willingly reaffirmed the Old Covenant (Neh.10:28-29). The blessings and curses of tithing are identical to and inseparable from those of the entire Mosaic Law. The rain in Deuteronomy 28:12, 23-24 and Leviticus 26:1-4 is only obtained by obedience to all 613 commandments. Galatians 3:10 (quoting Deu 27:26) “For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continues not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.” Trying to earn God’s blessings through tithing only brings curses for failure to keep all of the law. See also Galatians 3:19.
D. Beginning in 1:6 “you” in Malachi always refers to the dishonest priests and not the people (also 2:1-10; 2:13 to 3:1-5): “Even this whole nation of you –priests” (3:9). In 1:13-14 the priests had stolen tithed animals vowed to God. In Nehemiah 13:5-10 priests had stolen the Levites’ portion of the tithe. God’s curses on the priests are ignored by most tithe-teachers (1:14; 2:2 and 3:2-4).
E. Point #12 of the essay. The Levitical cities must be included in a correct interpretation of Malachi 3:10. Most tithe-recipients lived outside of Jerusalem.
F. The 24 courses of Levites and priests must be included in a correct interpretation of Malachi 3. Normally only 2% of the total Levite and priest work force served at the temple one week at a time. Subtract wives, males under the age of 30 and daughters. Therefore 2% did not require all of the tithe. See 1 Chron 23-26; 28:13, 21; 2 Chron. 8:14; 23:8; 31:2, 15-19; 35:4, 5, 10; Ezra 6:18; Neh. 11:19, 30; 12:24; 13:9, 10; Luke 1:5.
G. Nehemiah 10:37-39 is the key to understanding Malachi 3:10, The people were commanded to bring their tithes, not to the temple, but to the nearby Levitical cities. Verse 38 says that the priests were with the Levites in the Levitical cities when they received the tithes.
H. According to Nehemiah 13:5, 9 the “storehouse” in the Temple was only several rooms. The real “storehouses” were in the Levitical cites per Nehemiah 10:37b-38. Only the Levites and priests normally brought tithes to the Temple (10:38). Two rooms in the Temple were far too small to contain the tithe from the entire nation and 98% of the Levites and priests lived too far away to eat from them.
Therefore, Malachi 3:10’s “Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse” only makes contextual sense if it is only commanding dishonest priests to replace the tithes they had removed from it or had failed to bring to it.
While the 3:10 of the Law in Malachi is so important to tithe-teachers they ignore the 3:10 of the Gospel in Galatians and 2nd Corinthians. Perhaps those wanting to enforce the 3:10 Law of Malachi should also enforce the 3:10 Law of Numbers. They share the same context.
Christian giving is freewill, sacrificial, generous, joyful, regular and motivated by love. That is enough to provide the needs of the Church.
October 3rd, 2008 at 3:32 am
You may like to read my article at http://personalfinancesolution.wordpress.com/2008/09/24/city-bank-stole-from-its-customers/ and give your valuable feedback
October 3rd, 2008 at 8:40 pm
Russell,
I didn’t follow everything your wrote, but your last statement I am in 100% agreement with.
Cassandra,
I appreciate the story you shared. It leads into a post I am wanting to do on why the bailout signed today is bad policy.
March 24th, 2009 at 12:32 pm
Tithing is not a scriptural component of the New Covenant we have with Christ. We are asked to give 100% of ourselves, not 10% of our finances.
However, we are asked to be good stewards of our money.
August 14th, 2009 at 11:46 pm
[...] face from time to time. You can read more about our financial testimony in a post I wrote titled Tithing in A Financial Storm. To summarize I will steal the words of our pastor, “if you want God to help you with your [...]