Tithing, offering, and giving

Tithing, offering and giving

  This is a topic that brings a lot of confusion discussion and argument amongst Christians.  There is lot of unnecessary guilt that can be associated with tithing, offering and giving.  First let’s distinguish between them, tithing and offering and giving.  Tithing is a giving of the first fruits of your income. (First fruit- the first fruits of the crop: - first fruit (-ripe [figuratively), hasty fruit.)

The word tithe literally means a tenth “You shall surely tithe all of the produce from what you sow, which come out of the field every year.” Deuteronomy 14:22; Bring up the tenth of the tithes to the house of our God, to the chambers of the storehouse.” Nehemiah 10:38.  To summarize it give a tenth of what you have earned and to bring it to the store house. 

Since it was agrarian society, they were farmers and their tithe would be food of some sort they have grown or raised, or it could have been sheep they raised etc.  Fast forward to now our tithing would be money, because that is the fruit our work generates for us and we use money to get other things we need.  To sum tithing up you give a tenth of your earnings or what your work produces to the store house or in modern times the church you are a member of. 

Offering - an offering, according to Webster’s 1828 dictionary, Offering, n. That which is presented in divine service; an animal or a portion of bread or corn, or of gold and silver, or other valuable articles, presented to God as an atonement for sin, or as a return of thanks for his favors, or for other religious purpose; a sacrifice ( Sacrifice To offer to God in homage or worship, by killing and consuming, as victims on an altar; to immolate, either as an atonement for sin, or to procure favor, or to express thankfulness;); an oblation. In the Mosaic economy, there were burnt-offerings, sin-offerings, peace-offerings, trespass-offerings, thank-offerings, wave-offerings, and wood-offerings. Pagan nations also present offerings to their deities. Christ by the offering of Himself has superseded the use of all other offerings, having made atonement for all men. (Remember the last sentence from this definition; it plays a big part later on.)  Our offering nowadays is usually anything we give above our tithe.  It can also be a giving of time and talent. But we can offer nothing greater than Christ offered.  God was completely satisfied with Christ’s offering and we can never give anything to compare so ours could be called giving. Offering in the Old Testament was to please God. 

Giving- this should be the easy one- Bestowing; conferring; imparting; granting; delivering. Or you could say that giving is the passing on something you have possession of to someone you desire to.   Next week will discuss how these things are applied now days and how we should handle our possessions in relation to tithing offering and giving. 
 

     Let me know if I can help!

Tim West 4-28-13

Go West Coaching

Lottery odds

This is something I read and thought was interesting.

Lottery Odds

Lottery Odds

The concept of the lottery is so simple. Pay a dollar or so and pick some random numbers. If you pick right, you win big. If you don't, hey, you're only out a dollar.

Welllll ... there's more to it than that.

First, you're counting on false hope to lead you to prosperity when you play the lottery. Your shot at winning is ridiculously long. And lots of people don't just bet a dollar. They'll do 5 or 10. Each week.

On top of that, since the majority of people who play are struggling with money, that $20 or $40 a month really adds up. If a person of any income isn't doing a budget, they'll spend too much on the lottery and on bounced checks and overdraft fees.

The worst part is that, by investing that $40 a month over 50 years (you can play the lottery for that long) into a growth-stock mutual fund averaging 12%, you'll end up with more than $1.5 million. That sounds like a jackpot number to us, and it will happen every time instead of 1 in 800 billion gazillion.

Let's say you play a lottery where you draw six numbered balls randomly from a machine. The balls are numbered 1 to 56. The odds are 1 in 32,468,436 (we calculated it) that you will wind up with the grand prize. For some perspective:

You have about a 1 in 2,000,000 chance of being struck by lightning.

A pregnant woman has a 1 in 705,000 chance of giving birth to quadruplets.

Someone eating an oyster has a 1 in 12,000 chance of finding a pearl in it.



If that's not enough, here's a visual example. This one might seem a little out there, but bear with us.

Get a rope that is 59 feet long and lay it in a circle so the ends touch. Get a pair of tweezers and (we're not kidding) pick up a grain of sand. Toss it anywhere inside the circle that you want. Then pick up a second grain of sand and step into the center of the circle. Close your eyes and do something to disorient yourself, such as spinning around.

Once you are confused enough, drop the second grain of sand from a foot above the ground. Your odds of hitting the first grain with the second are roughly equal to 1 in 32,468,436.

Read how lottery winners don't really win anything when the smoke clears.

The reason people play the lotto is because they are greedy for something they can't or shouldn't have. They want a shortcut to an easy life so they can goof off. Pursuing that will lead you to ruin. Build your wealth the smart and slow way. Once you're rich, you'll be glad you did.

Source: Webmath, Saving Advice

Tim West

Go West Coaching  4-21-12

Doing it for God?

 Doing it for God?

  When a person feels like they have found their calling they often feel like that’s what God has put them on earth to do. We feel like we need to do this for God.  I believe that our calling is a wonderful gift from God, but a lot of times we make that our god. We use our calling to define our identity and not who we are as Christians, sons of God. We as men, especially, shape our whole life around our work.   We look to our calling to bring us happiness, fulfillment, peace and joy. Our calling cannot hold up under this kind of pressure, it is not made to carry that kind of weight.   We want Gods power to push our calling on to the next level, to be better than everyone at what we do. Doing your work with excellence is what we should do, but if our work is not worship to a most holy God, we may have the wrong motives pushing us to succeed.  Don’t worry if you’re His child He will fix the problem so that you do not continue on that path.   We may not even be in our calling and we just try to add His power to where we are and say we are doing it for God.  I have, more than once, determined that Almighty God is self-sufficient and doesn’t need me or anyone to “do anything for Him.”   “Jesus didn't come into the world to lend His power to already existing appetites. That's the fundamental mistake of the prosperity gospel. Leave people untransformed in what they crave, and simply add the power of Jesus as the way to get it. That is not the gospel. It is a kind of acclamation that Jesus walks away from. John Piper” So one might ask; what needs to be my motive?  Do I have to do anything with the talents God gave me?  Shouldn’t I use the talents He gave me?  Am I just wasting my talent and passion?  I struggle with this a lot.  But, God will always lead us to where he wants us, teaching us a lot on the way. Humans default mode is generally, we have to do things in this world to earn approval of man. We carry this over in our relationship with God and assume we have to do everything in our life to earn Gods approval.   I have found out that I do not have to use my calling as a way to earn “God points.”  If I mess up it does not do well with man here on earth but Christ purchased my standing with God.  I am accepted and redeemed!  With that in mind this frees me to pursue my God given talents and passions as worship and not as a system to earn a smile from God. Our standing, as Christians, with God is the same as in Christ’s standing with the Father.  I don’t have to work at my calling to be accepted, I get to freely pursue the joy that it brings in my life and if I fail God sees me the same, accepted! The great thing about failure is that it teaches me to win by pursuing my calling in a new way or moves me on to where God wants me.  So, if you are a Christian, you can feel free to take the risk of your calling. If you mess up along the way, and you will, its ok you have nothing to earn with God.  Jesus took care of that for us!    Christ made our work acceptable to God as worship.  So let’s go out and worship with our work and enjoy our talents and remember that God uses our work to bless us and help others! Our calling should be used to worship God not to make God smile. Jesus made Him smile for eternity and we can enjoy it forever.   You don’t have to work, you get too!!      

     Let me know if I can help!

Tim West

Go West Coaching

Should I rent or buy a home?

Should I rent or buy? At some point in our lives we all have this question. Half of the people you talk to say rent and the other half say buy. Every situation is different and there is no one size fits all when it comes to this question. Let’s talk about a few of the issues that can arise from this question and help answer some of the problems you may run across. I will agree with most folks out there that, now is a good time to buy a house. This is true only if you can afford to pay for a house. Just because you can pay the monthly mortgage payment does not mean you can afford the house. There is more than just a mortgage payment to deal with. When you are the owner you must pay for the maintenance of your home, and any other fees that are applicable. Maintenance includes things such as heating and air conditioning systems, roofs, appliances, plumbing and everything else in your home. Just because your mortgage payment is a little cheaper than paying rent it should not be the sole reason to buy a home. If you have a major repair it can cost thousands of dollars that will cause not only a house problem but also a financial problem. Then there is the “you can use interest on your mortgage as a tax write off.” Don’t get me wrong tax write offs are great but if you are paying more in interest to the bank than you are to the IRS you are not saving money, you are actually spending more in your interest. Example, suppose you make 100,000.00 a year income, and let’s say you pay 10,000.00 in interest a year to the bank. If you are in the 30% tax bracket, with this income that means you would pay 3000.00 in income taxes on 10,000.00. Now answer the question would you rather send the mortgage company 10000.00 a year to avoid sending the IRS 3000.00? If you save your money long enough and have patients you could start off buying your first house and have it paid for. But most of us cannot wait and get a mortgage. Here are a few things that will let you know that you are ready to buy a house. If you have at least a 20% down payment when the time to buy rolls around. Since the mortgage bust a few years ago this is becoming more common when you get ready to purchase. You should also should have 3-6 months of emergency savings left after the down payment. Everyone has been told these things are impossible to do now days, but that is not true if you have the patients and a good financial plan to get you there. You should not get a mortgage payment that is more that 25-30% of your net pay, anything much higher will have the majority of your money going into your home and you will not have much fun outside of that. Also you should get a 15 year fixed rate mortgage. We tell ourselves a lot of times that we will pay extra on our 30 year but we rarely do that. A 15 year mortgage pays off in 15 years every time. If you can do these things your home will be an enjoyment to you and your family and not a source of worry and financial problems. Let me know if I can help! Tim West Go West Coaching