For Three Dollars More?

[King Butter Turtle]

The truth is, Barrett, everything we have is a gift from God and when we tithe, we're just giving a portion of it - the first fruits - back to him.

Am I the only one who thinks this is ludicrous? If everything we have is a gift from God, that means it's no longer Gods, that means we have ownership of it, that means the Biblical concept of stewardship... doesn't mean squat. As stewards, we're money-managers for God, correct? So, what would you do if you had a substantial amount of money and took it to a business manager and said "please manage my money for me" and he pocketed most of it and handed 10% back? I'd be like "wha?" First of all, that's not yours, you can't keep it, second of all, why are you giving me this back, I just gave it to you to manage for me, you idiot!

We give because we want to be good stewards of our money.

It drives me bonkers when people say this - you'd think Whit would know better. It's a fallacy to say that we're stewards of our money. A 'steward' is one who looks after something for it's owner, 'our' is an adjective that implies ownership. So, saying you're the steward of your money is like saying your the nanny for your son/daughter - one of the halves of this sentence doesn't line up with the other half.

[Doll]

The truth is, Barrett, everything we have is a gift from God and when we tithe, we're just giving a portion of it - the first fruits - back to him.

Am I the only one who thinks this is ludicrous? If everything we have is a gift from God, that means it's no longer Gods, that means we have ownership of it, that means the Biblical concept of stewardship... doesn't mean squat. As stewards, we're money-managers for God, correct? So, what would you do if you had a substantial amount of money and took it to a business manager and said "please manage my money for me" and he pocketed most of it and handed 10% back? I'd be like "wha?" First of all, that's not yours, you can't keep it, second of all, why are you giving me this back, I just gave it to you to manage for me, you idiot!

The difference between your example, and what we do is the fact that God gives us the money to take care of ourselves, but it is still his. Its almost like a father giving his child some money to buy some school clothing or something like that. The money is the child's, but it is still the father's as well.

[King Butter Turtle]

The truth is, Barrett, everything we have is a gift from God and when we tithe, we're just giving a portion of it - the first fruits - back to him.

Am I the only one who thinks this is ludicrous? If everything we have is a gift from God, that means it's no longer Gods, that means we have ownership of it, that means the Biblical concept of stewardship... doesn't mean squat. As stewards, we're money-managers for God, correct? So, what would you do if you had a substantial amount of money and took it to a business manager and said "please manage my money for me" and he pocketed most of it and handed 10% back? I'd be like "wha?" First of all, that's not yours, you can't keep it, second of all, why are you giving me this back, I just gave it to you to manage for me, you idiot!

The difference between your example, and what we do is the fact that God gives us the money to take care of ourselves, but it is still his.

Sorry... that doesn't work. He gives it to us but, it's still his???

Its almost like a father giving his child some money to buy some school clothing or something like that. The money is the child's, but it is still the father's as well.

So, two people have complete possession of the same thing? That's simply illogical.

[gabbygirl17]

Am I the only one who thinks this is ludicrous? If everything we have is a gift from God, that means it's no longer Gods, that means we have ownership of it, that means the Biblical concept of stewardship... doesn't mean squat. As stewards, we're money-managers for God, correct? So, what would you do if you had a substantial amount of money and took it to a business manager and said "please manage my money for me" and he pocketed most of it and handed 10% back? I'd be like "wha?" First of all, that's not yours, you can't keep it, second of all, why are you giving me this back, I just gave it to you to manage for me, you idiot!

The difference between your example, and what we do is the fact that God gives us the money to take care of ourselves, but it is still his.

Sorry... that doesn't work. He gives it to us but, it's still his???

Its almost like a father giving his child some money to buy some school clothing or something like that. The money is the child's, but it is still the father's as well.

So, two people have complete possession of the same thing? That's simply illogical.

At our revival the preacher talked about that. Okay so if u give a friend a book to keep for awhile its still urs right but they are keeping it for u. Just like the Lord. He gives u things to keep but they are still his. like its HIS car but we are keeping it. They are our blessings from him. He has entrusted them to us. Does that make sense?

[Doll]

At our revival the preacher talked about that. Okay so if u give a friend a book to keep for awhile its still urs right but they are keeping it for u. Just like the Lord. He gives u things to keep but they are still his. like its HIS car but we are keeping it. They are our blessings from him. He has entrusted them to us. Does that make sense?

That is a really good way of putting it, I agree.

[King Butter Turtle]

At our revival the preacher talked about that. Okay so if u give a friend a book to keep for awhile its still urs right but they are keeping it for u. Just like the Lord. He gives u things to keep but they are still his. like its HIS car but we are keeping it. They are our blessings from him. He has entrusted them to us. Does that make sense?

That I can agree with (well... apart from the misspelling of yours ) but, that doesn't answer the question of why we 'give it back'. We can't give it back if it's not really ours.

I believe that everything is completely and totally God's and we have no ownership of it, only responsibility for it. Since it's God's, we should spend 100% of it (not 10) on what God wants it spent on. Some of 'what-God-wants-it-spent-on' being our own needs and (assuming our income exceeds our needs as it does for almost all Americans) some of it being the needs of others. But, I don't think God gives us money and then we give some back - I think he entrusts money to us and we spend it on the needs of people (both ourselves and others) on God's behalf. Otherwise, you run into wishy-woshy issues like 'we're stewards of our money'.

[gabbygirl17]

At our revival the preacher talked about that. Okay so if u give a friend a book to keep for awhile its still urs right but they are keeping it for u. Just like the Lord. He gives u things to keep but they are still his. like its HIS car but we are keeping it. They are our blessings from him. He has entrusted them to us. Does that make sense?

That I can agree with (well... apart from the misspelling of yours ) but, that doesn't answer the question of why we 'give it back'. We can't give it back if it's not really ours.

I believe that everything is completely and totally God's and we have no ownership of it, only responsibility for it. Since it's God's, we should spend 100% of it (not 10) on what God wants it spent on. Some of 'what-God-wants-it-spent-on' being our own needs and (assuming our income exceeds our needs as it does for almost all Americans) some of it being the needs of others. But, I don't think God gives us money and then we give some back - I think he entrusts money to us and we spend it on the needs of people (both ourselves and others) on God's behalf. Otherwise, you run into wishy-woshy issues like 'we're stewards of our money'.

(sorry bought the spelling hehe) People don't always think of the things as GODS things so they have to surrender them to Him. Since there Gods He can do whatever he wants with them. If ur coffee pot breaks (example) It was Gods He had a reason it broke.

[godisawesomeness99]

sorry, but yes, yes you are. This makes sence to me. As I see it, god gave us everything we have to live, So when we tithe, we show our greatfulness by giving to his cause. To tell people about him, and so forth.

[Connie_Kendall]

God gives us the money to use wisely. We are blessed by it. We are blessed to be a blessing. It's still God's, but he gives it to us to use, to help, and to bless. I agree with Whit.
The money you give to the Church is so important! The money supplies the church staff, helps the community, and supports missionaries. A lot of missionaries rely on money from the church ( I should know ) When we give to others, it's like giving to Jesus.