I have been reading in the Courier about the Great Commission Resurgence. As with any other endeavor, GCR requires money. The concern to me is the giving by the average Southern Baptist (2.5 percent of annual income) as stated in the article, “Penetrating the Lostness” (May 13).
Any copy of the Bible I have tells me that the prescribed giving to God is the tithe, and the only definition I have ever heard for the tithe is 10 percent. The tithe is also to be given to the church where one is fed the word, and any designated giving is not to be taken out of the tithe. Malachi 3:10 tells us to bring all the tithe into the storehouse (the church). Leviticus 27:30 tells us that the tithe, in whatever form, is the Lord’s. It belongs to him. If it belongs to him, we have no business telling him what to do with it. If we want to designate a gift, that is to be exclusive of the tithe and certainly not to be used to diminish the tithe.
By now, you may be getting the idea that I am firm, even fanatical, in this belief. I am 73, and this reflects my training from a child. On what do we give a tithe? First let me give this answer: What does God give us? He gives us our gross – gross pay, gross receipts from our fields, gross receipts of interest. Gross receipts, all the tithe! Not 2.5 percent (shame on you), not 6 percent, nothing less than the full 10 percent (and churches the same to their associations).
He gives us his best; is anything less due him?
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