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Tithe With Out A Cheerful Heart?


The Glory Land

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Posted

Double honor is not money. If honor is money, then when are you going to start paying your boss for making you work? A servant is to honor his master.




This free will giving sound good to me, but it just will not work, people or Christians need a guide to give.
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Posted

This free will giving sound good to me, but it just will not work, people or Christians need a guide to give.

 

Here's the guide you speak of...

 

2 Corinthians 9:7
Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.
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Posted

If they give what others tell them to give; i.e., a ten percent tithe, then they are in direct disobedience to God's Holy Word.

2 Corinthians 9:7 (KJV) 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.

God says we should give as we purpose in our own heats to give. That means we choose for ourselves what we want to give. No pastor has the authority to tell those in his congregation that they are to give "x" amount of money. When they do, they are telling their flock to act in disobedience and rebellion to God.

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Posted

2 Corinthians is not talking about giving to your local church. Stop twisting the scriptures. It was a special offering for a special time and a special need. I mean, since you non tithers want to obey the letter and all.... just saying.

To condemn those that tithe as coercers and all that clap trap, then to quote a passage that has absolutely nothing to do with regular giving in a local church is beyond the pale.

 

lol

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Posted

Actually, 2 Corinthians 9 does not say it is a special offering for a special need and a special time.  Read it again.

2 Corinthians 9:1-7 For as touching the ministering to the saints, it is superfluous for me to write to you: For I know the forwardness of your mind, for which I boast of you to them of Macedonia, that Achaia was ready a year ago; and your zeal hath provoked very many. Yet have I sent the brethren, lest our boasting of you should be in vain in this behalf; that, as I said, ye may be ready: Lest haply if they of Macedonia come with me, and find you unprepared, we (that we say not, ye) should be ashamed in this same confident boasting. 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. But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully. Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.

The offering is for the ministering to the saints.  Doesn't say it is a special need or a special offering or a special time.   Nice try though.

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This free will giving sound good to me, but it just will not work, people or Christians need a guide to give.

2 Corinthians 8:12 For if there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not.

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Posted

And if someone purposes in their heart to give 10% of their income?

If they purpose to give of their own volition, and not because they have been taught that God requires that amount, nothing wrong with it. 

But from what I have seen, every Church where tithe envelopes are used, the pastors and teachers have taught that God requires the tithe.  So, the unlearned members blindly accept that God requires it and they give, not because they have purposed to give that amount on their own, but because they believed a lie.  They give the 10% because they were told to give it by a dishonest preacher or teacher.

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Posted

If that's what they've purposed, that's what they've purposed.   :)

But that "purposing" should be from the heart, not because they were told or coerced into giving 10%...that this is what God "requires" them to do.

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Posted

I was told that a Christian must tithe, with or without a cheerful heart. I cannot see this, that a person tithe when he is not right with God or with the church he is a member of. Can a person receive a blessing with anger in his heart?

In response to the original question, a Christian should always be happy to give to the Lord's work cheerfully.  The problem we face today is that my generation and younger do not really understand what it means to do something just because it is the right thing to do, and then embrace that thing, and learn how to do the right thing with the right heart.  So when a preacher teaches that you should not give to the Lord's work if you can't give cheerfully, what my generation and younger actually hears is "I should not give if I don't "feel" right."  And then they DON'T GIVE AT ALL based on their FEELINGS, instead of doing their DUTY AS A SOLDIER FOR CHRIST. 

Let's face it, when tragic or heartbreaking circumstances arise, we don't always "feel" like doing the right thing - like attending church, or putting our "tithe/freewill offering" or what ever you want to call it in the offering plate.  But that is where CHARACTER and DISCIPLINE come in, and we do the right thing because it is the right thing to do, whether we "feel" like it or not, and whether or not we are "cheerful" at the time of the offering. 

So I think we have to be careful in how we teach and train young Christians, that we do not obey the Lord based upon an emotional "feeling" - after all, we are not charismaniacs, we are Bible-Believing Baptists.  We should ALWAYS do the right thing (in this case - giving to the Lord's work) despite our circumstances, emotional condition, or anything else.  We can always work on the motive later.  I have found that as a Christian matures in the faith, those battles with motive fade away because the mature Christian knows how the devil attempts to hinder them from doing the right thing by using their own fleshly nature and emotions against them.

 

Having said all that, I don't know why we have to keep going over this SAME TOPIC a million times over - don't we have enough on tithing and pastor's salaries on this forum?  Is someone purposefully stirring the pot on this issue?  Is someone purposefully giving someone else a platform to voice their same nonsense non-stop? 

 

I don't know...just wondering....

 

I have said all I will say on this topic unless asked for further clarification.

 

In Christ,

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Posted

When you read what is written within Paul's epistles about giving, the majority of it deals with taking care of the needs of other poor and needy Christians.  This is an area; in which, many of today's churches fail.  There are many church members who need help financially, yet the church seems to almost turn a blind eye to that.  In my area, it's a big thing for church leaders to say that things ought to be done "first class".  

 

Now, don't get me wrong...there's nothing wrong with doing things right and making things look as nice as possible.  However, when you have a 80 year old widow who can't buy her medicine, groceries, or pay the heating bill, but the church decides they need to put brick around their metal buildings instead of helping her...something's wrong.  

 

Many years ago, I was a member in a church who gave $100 to those in need.  It didn't matter if they needed $100 exactly or if they had just undergone major surgery, their house burned down, they lost their job...or whatever...they gave the person $100.  It also didn't matter if it was a church member or someone outside of the church who was asking for help.

 

The church should be more careful to take care of their own.

 

What all of that has to do with this thread...I have no idea!  :nuts:

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