Giving and the Church

"This is the final article in the tithing series and I want to answer some questions that might have been raised through the previous three. I suggest you read those first before reading this one. (Read Part 1, Part 2 or Part 3) If you have any questions, please write to us at contact@charismaministries.org

1. So does this mean I don’t have to tithe?

Yes. You do not have to tithe. Tithing was a practice demanded under the law to celebrate the increase God already gave you, by holding a feast with other people. Only animals and produce were to be tithed. The act of tithing was done by holding a feast with 10% of the increase of your livestock and produce and by inviting the Levites, orphans, widows, strangers and other people in your city to join you in a celebration of God’s goodness.

2. So does this mean I can stop giving to the church?

Giving and tithing are not the same thing. You do not have to tithe, and technically, you do not have to give either. But if you have the nature of God, the new nature of a born-again believer, you will exhibit the characteristics of God’s nature. His nature is to give. If you have a desire to give, then give. That is God’s nature and Spirit in you seeking expression through you. If you lift the law of tithing off of people and giving decreases as a result, it shows the people’s hearts were never expressing the desires of God anyway. If you remove the law of tithing and giving remains the same or increases, then you know the desires of the people are in tune with God’s will, they were just inhibited and strangled by religiosity. God is not under law, yet He gives. You are not under any laws or obligations to give either, but like God, you can’t help it because it is your nature.

3. Why then do we give to the church?

Eph 4:11-12 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ (NKJV)

If your church is serving and equipping you, then support them. If they are not serving and equipping you, why do you go there? Or more importantly, if they are not equipping you, why are they there? Find a place or ministry that is actually serving the body and support them. The more support they have, the more time they can spend serving you. (Also see 1 Cor 16:2-3)

4. Why do we support them financially?

Though we are not FROM this world, we do live IN this world. If you like going to a big flashy building with good sound and effects, then remember that all those things cost money. If you go there and you enjoy it and are being served, then support them. They have bills to pay. If you meet in somebody’s home, often times they are footing the bill for drinks and snacks. Help them by offering to buy some stuff, washing the dishes, bringing stuff from home. Help one another by serving one another. (Also see Rom 12:13)

5. Why doesn’t the church just trust God for the money?

They are. But you are God’s answer to most of the prayers prayed in this world. When you pray for revival, God is going to send on-fire believers. If you ask for provision, He will send somebody with money to bring that provision. God sends people to DO His will. So if you can help meet the needs of your church by giving finances, then that is a good thing. If you can’t give financially, find out where they might need volunteers and give yourself as a living sacrifice. Giving is God’s nature. Giving is your nature too.

6. So are there any do’s and don’t for giving?

Do’s and don’ts are tricky. They tend to come off as laws. Yet there is a practicality that is good to adhere to. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians is all about this. He wrote to them telling them how to use the gifts and how not to use the gifts. Was he giving them laws? No, he was just being practical and wise. He never told them they needed to start using the gifts because they were using the gifts more than any other church at that time. Yet they were using the gifts wrongly. You can use your gifts wrongly too. How do you use or do something good in a wrong and improper way? By doing it without love. (1 Cor 13). Giving without love is useless. You can accomplish a lot without love, but nothing that is eternal. Below are a few do’s and don’ts I personally stick to when it comes to giving:

When To Give:

1. When you can meet a need. (Matt 25:34-45; )
2. When you are happy to. (2 Cor 9:7)
3. When you are being equipped, served and edified by somebody. (2 Cor 9:10-11, 1 Cor 16:2-3)

When NOT to Give:

1. When you feel guilty or condemned for not giving. (2 Cor 3:4-9)
2. When you are told you have to give before God will bless you. (Acts 8:20-21)
3. When you are afraid God will curse you if you don’t give. (Gal 3:13-14)
4. Anytime really where giving is commanded as a law and that not giving would result in a negative effect.

7. What did Jesus say about giving?

Mark 12:41-44 Now Jesus sat opposite the treasury and saw how the people put money into the treasury. And many who were rich put in much. 42 Then one poor widow came and threw in two mites, which make a quadrans. 43 So He called His disciples to Himself and said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all those who have given to the treasury; 44 for they all put in out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all that she had, her whole livelihood.” (NKJV)

• Jesus doesn’t look at how much you give. He looks at why you give. Your motives far outweigh the amount you give. Always has, always will.

Luke 11:41-42 But rather give alms of such things as you have; then indeed all things are clean to you. 42 “But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and all manner of herbs, and pass by justice and the love of God. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone. (NKJV)

• Justice, mercy and love is more important than what is given. Give to let justice reign. Give to show mercy. Give as an act of love.

8. What did Paul say about giving?

2 Cor 9:7-8 So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver. 8 And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work. (NKJV)

• You can decide how much of something you want to give. You can give 10%, you can give 100%. You can even give 0%.
• Give cheerfully. NEVER give out of obligation, necessity, stipulation, duty or requirement.
• Give with thanksgiving.

1 Cor 16:2-3 On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with his income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made. 3 Then, when I arrive, I will give letters of introduction to the men you approve and send them with your gift to Jerusalem. (NIV)

• Support those people who are in ministry and on mission trips.
• Note Paul said you need to chose who you approve of, and then support them.
• Also note how he says that he DOESN’T want to be going around collecting money, but that he expects believers to take responsibility to make sure those people get the support they need.

Rom 12:13 Share with God’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality. (NIV)

• Share means to partake together. If you want to share food, go eat with the person you are sharing with. Otherwise they might think you are only showing them pity.
• PRACTICE hospitality, kindness, and generosity. That means if it doesn’t come naturally, do it until it does!

Don’t worry so much about what to give, instead, let God’s generous giving nature be expressed through you in the way that you give, the way that you serve and the way that you meet needs with what you’ve been entrusted with.

Bless you all!"

Cornel

Bind us together Lord...Bind us together

"How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity.....For there the LORD bestows his blessing, even life forevermore. (psalm 133:1-3) ...

Now, when a man preaches grace, he will be accused of causing disunity, and he will be threatened with "God is going to stop the blessing in your life"...but, for some or other reason the blessing keeps flowing for him...mmmm

If you think about it, a man can be sent to the moon, as long as the people doing it are unified...So often we think we have unity but its not real...on the surface, it looks great...but start to preach grace and BAM! Next minute all sorts of cracks start appearing...why?...Eph 2:14 says that the law brings disunity (so grace brings real unity), ... that's why Jesus abolished the law, to make the two, one..to bring unity...When we mix law and grace, we have to keep the unity with all sorts of control tactics...and we don't need the Holy Spirit for that we just need good management skills.

Hey, am i trying to be contentious, ABSOLUTELY NOT!! Jesus said you would KNOW the truth and the truth would set you free...the truth in and of itself wont bring freedom, one has to KNOW the truth for freedom to come...There is a shaking that's taking place in the church today...that shaking is showing the "unity" for what it is...God wants ...unity of the faith, resulting in maturity, signs and wonders and His everlasting glory, not unity of philosophical ideas, resulting in secular humanistic management programs masquerading as His thing...

If you are a Believer and you are reading this, even if you don't know what i am talking about, chances are, you probably agree with me!

Grace, grace, grace and more greasy grace to you all....

Struggling with sin

"For years I ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil (Gen 2:17) instead of the tree of Life (Gen 2:9). I was constantly gauging whether or not my behavior was good or bad and would meet with the requirements that God wanted for me. I tried and tried to walk in line with what I thought God commanded me to do…live my life by the Ten Commandments.

I thought that I should monitor my every behavior and for the most part I found that I was not committing sin, whether by repression or suppression my behavior on the outside looked good. Yet I struggled with the words of Jesus to the Pharisees (Mat 23:27) because I knew that my heart was still dirty and the more I compared my thoughts, intentions, words, and actions (both or omission and commission) to the law and to right and wrong, the more I knew that something was drastically wrong.

I had been told a half-truth of the gospel…yes, I knew my sins were forgiven but I did not know “The Rest of the Gospel”. In fact, the more I tried to live the Christian life the more I seemed to fall into more desperate acts of sin and even had a greater desire for it. I would read verses that said I was no longer a slave to sin (Rom 6:18) yet I still felt like a slave to sin because I continued in it (John 8:34). I wanted to be set free and to know what that freedom was like to live in but my entire belief system was set up to keep enslaved to sin. I tried and tried to do all I could do to gain victory over sin but continued to fail.

I was living in unbelief and I didn’t even know it. The victory was already won and given to me as a free gift…not just our salvation but our sanctification too. The more I tried to win the victory by living by right and wrong, the more I was telling God that I don’t believe that you want to give me Your victory and I can do it on my own by my own will and works. I didn’t know the Gospel in it’s entirety…it had been subjected to just being a “get out of hell free” card. I think the world sees Christians as hypocrites because that is all it really is to them…because they don’t know the complete Gospel or realize who they are in the New Covenant.

You died (2Cor 5:14) with Christ on the Cross and He bore all your sins (1Pet 2:24) in His body…past, present and future, He alone suffered and paid your penalty for sin. But that is not even the good news…if it were He would leave you free from the penalty yet still locked in the dungeon of your own carnal nature. In fact when you receive Christ (Joh 1:12) you receive His very Life (2Pet 1:4) in you.You were once spiritually dead (Eph 2:1) and hostile (Rom 8:7) with God but He reconciled (Rom 5:10) you to Himself by His very life, the blood (Luk 22:20) of the new covenant. And when He was raised from the dead you were in Him and you too were raised to newness of life (2Cor 5:17). He has come to give you His life (Joh 10:10) and to give it abundantly…it is finished, it is yours, now simply receive and believe this Good News.

As I understood this Gospel, the true Gospel, the Bible made complete sense. Look at every verb tense that is taught about what happened to us on the cross…here are a few to consider.

• Gal 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
• Rom 6:2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?Rom 6:3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?Rom 6:4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
• Col 3:3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
• Rom 7:4 Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God.
• Rom 7:5 For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. Rom 7:6 But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.
• 2Co 5:14 For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died;
• Eph 2:4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,Eph 2:5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ–by grace you have been saved–Eph 2:6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
• 2Ti 2:11 The saying is trustworthy, for: If we have died with him, we will also live with him;
• Rom 6:7 For one who has died has been set free from sin.Rom 6:8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.
• Col 2:12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. Col 2:13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses

Now I would ask that you look at the scripture…all of this is pointing back to a place and time in which a cosmic miracle in Christ took place. You were in Christ, all of your perverted personality and junk was laid upon Him and He bore you in His actual body. He did this so that we could have eternal life, His life, which starts at the moment of being born again.

Now our adversary walks about wanting to steal His very life (John 10:10) from us and put us back into bondage. He does so by deception and lies (John 8:44) wherein we give him authority in our lives when he actually has none. Hudson Taylor called this “The Exchanged Life” and what an exchange it is…the saddest part is that many will not believe the truth (John 14:6) because it is too good to be true."

http://www.promisedgrace.com

Galatians!!

On the book of Galatians...

"It is not difficult to see why this epistle has had such an impact throughout Christian history. Properly understood, this epistle will always serve to subvert the inevitable tendency of man to allow the Christian gospel of grace to lapse into legalistic religious performance. The letter to the Galatians is a constant summons to recognize the complete realization and fulfillment of God's intent in Jesus Christ, allowing no supplements or additional requirements.

Without a doubt, legalistic, performance-oriented Judaizing elements will always dog the Church of Jesus Christ, but this letter remains a clarion call to the singularity of Jesus Christ as the essence of the gospel. If, as we have conjectured, this is the earliest of the extant letters of the apostle Paul, then the revolutionary reinterpretations that Paul makes in this letter must be regarded as foundational to the interpretations of the remainder of the Pauline writings."

In defence of the gospel

Listen to Rob Rufus' latest message called "Defending the gospel of grace"...It is brilliant!!!!

http://ccihk.com/en/media/online-audio?view=studydetails&id=186&templatemenuid=1

Want "more" faith ?

If i want the be fearful, i don't have to try and work it up inside of me, i just have to listen to stuff that is fearfully bad news...now...if i want to be faith-filled, i don't have to try and work it up inside of me, i just have to listen to the faith-filling Good News of Gods Grace!!

herein lies the reason...

"Also, whenever we emphasize grace, there is a potential problem of others misunderstanding that we are making light of (having insufficient emphasis of) sin. Actually, when we emphasize grace, not only are we not making light of sin, but we are doing exactly the opposite; we are saying:Sin is devastating—serious—pervasive. And herein lies the reason we emphasize grace— Grace Is The Only Remedy For Sin."

Johnny Tatum

We believe that...

We believe that...

Check out Ryan and Kylie Rufus's new site...

DON"T BE MOVED, STAND, ITS WORTH IT IN THE END !

"There is an apostolic thing Paul speaks about where he says; “We die daily that you may experience life”. We are experiencing life here in abundance but there is a price in our stand that is causing thousands of people around the world to take hope and come out from guilt, condemnation, law and bondage into freedom of grace in Christ Jesus. People are moving from a mixture of Old and New Covenant through the finished work of the Cross into the liberty of the blessing of the New Covenant. So they are getting revelation – a theological revolution. Churches and regions are being changed!"

Rob Rufus

...to know nothing except...

1 Cor 2:2

New International Version (©1984)
For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

New Living Translation (©2007)
For I decided that while I was with you I would forget everything except Jesus Christ, the one who was crucified.

English Standard Version (©2001)
For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

New American Standard Bible (©1995)
For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.

International Standard Version (©2008)
For while I was with you I resolved to know nothing except Jesus the Messiah, and him crucified.

QUESTION IS...WHAT DO YOU WANT TO DO?

The gospel is...

“The Gospel is not a call to (constant confession), or to amendment of our ways, to make restitution for past sins, or to promise to do better in the future. These things are proper in their place, but they do not constitute the Gospel; for the Gospel is not good advice to be obeyed, it is good news to be believed".

Freedom from the urge to control

There is a key to freedom, freedom from anxiety, freedom from fear and freedom from insecurity which ultimately means freedom from the urge to control...that key IS the understanding of the gospel of Gods amazing grace.

Hows my heart?

1 Cor 5:4

"Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait till the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men's hearts. At that time each will receive his praise from God."

Wait for the lord to come...to do what?

1. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness
2. will expose the motives of mens hearts

Paul says lets not judge other mens hearts...

Our hearts are new, our hearts are hearts of flesh...the only "hard" flesh i have seen is dead flesh...

You see its our thinking might be a little off, but that's easy...he says renew your mind with grace...


Grace...