Tithing

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Robbing God Series on Youtube

Several years ago the Father prompted me to refresh this blog and co-publish it as a podcast. It was the tithe series that required the most labor to organize and re-publish in 10 minute episodes. The original 7 tithe articles were written in response to letters I received from readers between 2001 and 2005 and published through several Christian email based newsletters popular at the time. They worked well in a ‘letter and reply’ format but not so well as concise stand-alone articles. I’m still amazed at the way God caused them to be forwarded and cross posted all over the world. In fact, so many people cross-posted the tithe articles, my own website didn’t come up in a Google search until the 3rd or 4th page of results and that effectively buried my music ministry which was on the same site where the articles were hosted. Very few people knew I was a songwriter with CDs offered for free. It was greatly upsetting at first where in time I was forced to learn the same attitude as Paul when he encountered similar “which ever way, I rejoice that Christ Jesus is preached!” (Philippians 1:18)

Admittedly the tithe issue is difficult to parse into simple short lessons – Biblical precepts if you will. While Youtube shorts seemed like an influential medium, brevity is not my strong suit and personal issues discouraged me. Even so, I’ve been inspired here and there to write scripts for short videos. Father made me creative and in my minds eye I could envision some humorous sight gags to help get the point across. When recently I offered the scripts, 16 so far, to a friend who was building up his own Youtube channel, the Father impressed me that the tithe message has been given to me to deliver. I was also reminded what happened when Jonah ran from delivering the message God gave him for Nineveh. I guess I forgot that I can do ALL THINGS through Jesus who strengthens me.

Here is the new Youtube channel dedicated to Tithe shorts:

https://www.youtube.com/@TheTitheIsFood

What follows is the most recent episode of the Robbing God Series. I hope my goofy mug doesn’t give you a fright. (Grin!)

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School of the Holy Spirit

I’ve attended more than a dozen churches in my lifetime. Some of the ministers I met encouraged me to seek God for myself and obey Him without hesitation. Such were the men who led me to Jesus and who married me and my wife. Both remained genuine and loving brothers in Christ who would never come between me and the Lord, except perhaps to stop me from doing something that would harm my relationship with Him. The former was like a 2nd father to me during my teen years, the latter a sweet friend and counselor, who could always be found on Saturday evening standing in the pulpit delivering his Sunday sermon before God and an empty sanctuary. Sadly, some others questioned whether I could really hear God’s voice for myself and insisted I obey them instead. Through them God taught me to stand up for my freedom and to respond like Peter who said: “judge for yourself whether it is right to obey you, or God”.

Examining what it means to be a Free Son takes several forms: identifying ways in which we’re free, and the things that hold us back. Often that means coming to terms with falsehoods we’ve embraced and the people who taught and reinforced them. No one ever said rising from the dead was going to be easy (Luke 9:60, Ephesians 5:14). Imagine Lazarus, passing peacefully in his sleep, only to awaken days later on a cold slab in a dark tomb, tightly bound in linen cloth with 75 pounds of burial spices wrapped up with him (John 19:39-40). However did Lazarus manage to get to his feet and stagger out of the tomb? Likewise, when we awaken from our slumber, how do we come out from under the heavy burdens placed on our shoulders by false teachers and teachings (Matthew 23:4)?

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Exposing the Tithe Lie

The TITHE AUDIO SERIES tab at the top of the page is the most recent and complete treatment of the TITHE subject. Divided into 12 parts, it is intended for individual and group study. Included is the script in PDF format and a reading in MP3 format. – Jack

There are 7 articles in the original “Tithe” series, written between 2000-2002 and posted to my former web site Lord, You Are (dot) com, now defunct. This article consolidates the  7 articles in the order they were published. Exposing the falsehood of the modern tithe doctrine was one of the instruments God used to set me free from man’s dead Laodicean church system. As always, I pray the Lord will use them to set you free from false teaching and guilt-based giving.

To Tithe or not to Tithe: the $earch for Truth

Though I’ve always struggled with the tithe, I still shook my head in disgust when I heard about the preacher who’s congregation quietly left the church during the prayer following a long sermon on tithing. He said “Amen”, looked up and cried out “half my church is gone!” I laughed saying “they must have fled the conviction of the Holy Spirit”.

donottithe8What the Lord said took me completely by surprise: “They fled from error and guilt-based giving”. “What?!?” I’ve heard more sermons on the tithe than on any other topic except perhaps our need of Jesus for eternal life! After I picked up my jaw from the floor, the Lord prompted me to study tithing and giving.

Throughout the Bible study I prayed for His guidance and in the end I reached the inescapable conclusion that the “tithe” is to the modern church what the issue of “circumcision” was to the church in Paul’s time.

NOTE: Nothing in this article is intended as an excuse to stop giving as the Lord leads you to give.

The verse most often cited in support of the tithe is from the Old Testament, found in Malachi 3:8-10: Continue reading →