Old and New Testament Giving

Warning:  this is unfinished as I simply didn't have it in me to finish this blog entry the other week.  I forgot to post it until now.  It would appear I'm unable to finish my writing at a later date, note to self: finish writing at the time I start  :)

What’s the key to giving then?  Well, there are some standards Biblically speaking I’d like to share with you.  Tithing is largely associated with the Old Testament although Christ does allude to it Himself in the New Testament.  The New Testament though I would argue usually says to give more than the tithe.  I simply dare you to find a passage of Scripture that says to give less than 10%.  I can show you where it says where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.  I can show you where Christ tells the young man to give away all his wealth.  I can show you where retirement is very frowned upon and God takes a man’s life in an illustration for hoarding wealth, aka retirement.  I have a retirement account as well to be sure, but I think it greatly depends on how you plan on using those funds later in life.  The very reason I started a retirement account was so I could continue to give if or when I ever retire.  There are also stories in the New Testament about how a tax collector came into contact with Christ and it radically altered his view of money and he gave away half his wealth to the poor.  The Macedonian church was commended for giving out of their poverty.

We have lost this ability for some reason to inspire other believers to give more.  We cower away from preaching about it on Sunday because we don’t want to be seen as being all about money.  We need to be all about God of course, but guess what’s involved with many of our daily decisions as well as is found in many different places in Scripture?  We do our people a great disservice by not talking about money and how it can affect our hearts.  I would even go so far as to say it is sinful to teach about everything but money.  What other subject affects people on so many different levels of their lives?  The number one cause of divorce is money fights.  Don’t we owe it to our people to bring it from the pulpit on how they should handle their money?