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My Testimony to the Tithe

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My Testimony to the Tithe“Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.”  Malachi 3:10

God’s promises

Those are strong promises the Lord gives us if only we are obedient to His commandment to tithe to His church.  Please join me today in the sharing of my testimony to the faithfulness of God’s Word regarding these promises made.

In 1999 I bent the knee of my will to the Lord Jesus Christ and was born again!

“Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”  John 3:3 – Jesus to Nicodemus, a man of the Pharisees, and a ruler of the Jews.

Thanks be to God for His mercy, grace, long suffering and especially His death on the cross for my sin.  Since 1999 I have been walking this earth as an alien no longer feeling at home in this world, but longing to be home with my Lord in heaven.  My purpose on this earth is now solely to yield my body a vessel of honor to the Lord for the work of His church.

Part of my duty as a Christian is to give of my first fruits back to the Lord’s church in the form of a tithe. That is, I am to give 10% of my earnings to the church in obedience to God’s Word.  First fruits meaning we are to give 10% of our gross income, not net income.  This tithing by God’s people is one of the ways the Lord funds his ministry here on earth.  Does the Lord need our money?  No, He can do anything He wishes any time He wishes, however the tithing of His people is the system He chose to implement and work through, so as Christians we need to faithfully give in this manner.

Have I tithed faithfully since my salvation in 1999?  No, regrettably I have not.  At times I have been a faithful giver, and at other times have been disobedient to my Lord and withheld my tithe for one reason or another.  Today I want to give my readers a journal entry of my experience of both giving in obedience, and not giving in disobedience.

Looking back over the 9 years of my Christian life I can now see that the times of my greatest financially stability, regardless of how much money I was bringing in, were in direct correlation to when I was giving of my tithe to my local new testament church.  Likewise, the times when I seem to have struggled financially were always in the midst of a titheless period in my life.  Though I have always known I should tithe, the Lord has just recently revealed the utter and imminent importance of these things to me in all clarity of mind.  I began faithfully tithing again at the first of this year (January 2009) and intend to never go another month of my life without giving to the Lord in this respect.  Over these last two months I have been witness to Gods direct financial intervention in my life.  To me it is both a blessing and a miracle.  Before tithing I always seemed to be living paycheck to paycheck (sound familiar?), seemed to be slowly getting into more credit card debt, all while being unable to save much of anything. Why was this happening?  My wife & I don’t have any kids.  We don’t buy new cars.  We don’t buy expensive toys.  We don’t blow a lot of our money on frivolous purchases…so why was this happening to us?

In the Old Testament, when God’s people were not obedient in the giving of their tithe, one way or another He always seemed to part them with the money they were withholding from Him.  In my life, while disobedient, it always seemed like random things were happening that would consume any extra money I had left over leaving me wanting again until my next paycheck.  Now that the Lord has granted me repentance and has again turned me toward Him these things have changed drastically.  Before tithing I would pay my bills on the last possible day they were due, sometimes even having to pay late fees, simply because I had to wait for my next check to be deposited before I could pay the bill.  Now that I have been tithing, I am able to pay all my bills the day I get them in the mail.  To summarize, let me give you some of my financial drawbacks I experienced before tithing, and what I am realizing now that I’m giving faithfully.

Before I was giving my tithe:

  • I was living paycheck to paycheck
  • I waited until the due date of my bills before I paid them
  • Every single month I seemed to incur random expenses that consumed all my extra money and even pushed me more into debt
  • Always broke even on my tax return or owed money to the government
  • Bank fees: be they credit card over the limit, over-drawn checking account, late payments fees…you name it I paid it
  • A guilty conscience
  • A heavy heart

Now that I’m tithing, though no increase in salary this has been my experience:

  • I’m able to save at least $200 every month
  • I pay every bill the day it comes in the mail
  • Random expenses have not been a part of my life for the last few months
  • For the first time since we filed taxes Married Filing Jointly, my wife & I are receiving a sizable return of over $1,200
  • No more bank fees
  • A clear conscience and a happy countenance
  • A peace that passes all understanding – Philippians 4:7

Please believe that the things listed above are just the tip of the iceberg.  My obedience to God in my tithe opens the door to other areas of obedience and therefore more blessings of a peaceful spirit and fellowship with my God!

If you are a Christian, I strongly urge you to consider my experience and use it to transform your view upon Christ, His Church, and your tithe.  Please give joyfully and liberally and experience the blessings of the Lord!  He is challenging you today to prove Him now, how will you respond?  If you are not born again, please consider Christ and His death on the cross for your sin.  Look to Him and live.

“For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.  For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.  But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.  For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.  And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.”  Romans 5:6-11

What is your giving testimony?

Share your experience with giving in the comments below. God bless.

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Jeff at Sustainable Life Blog Shares His Debt Free Adventure

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This article is the first in a series intended to feature the Debt Free Adventures of other Personal Finance writers.

Today’s featured PF writer is Jeff from Sustainable Life Blog.  Jeff created his website to share his journey to sustainability with his readers.  His blog includes posts on personal finance, personal and mental health, and the environment.   It has tips and hints to help stay green, stay in the green, and stay healthy during your life.

Debt. It’s an ugly thing to say, and it’s an uglier thing to be in the clutches of. Believe me, I know. I couldn’t take anyone else’s word for it though, I had to find out myself why it was so bad. I’ll tell you how I got in it, what I’ve sacrificed to get out of debt, how much debt I’ve freed myself from, and a projected date when my Debt Free Adventure will end. Hint: It’s not as soon as I’d like it to be!

Where I Started

Like everyone else in my day, I got a credit card to “build credit” (read: get used to servitude) when I was in high school. People said having a card would be good for building credit for things that I’d need in the future, like a car or a house. I used it responsibly for about 2 years, never really running up too large of a balance and paying it off regularly. I wasn’t big on saving money at this point, because I didn’t need to be. I had a credit card for emergencies. As they tend to, emergencies came up. Then a new type of emergency started to happen: one where I didn’t have the money to do something fun that I wanted to, like go on a trip. Before long, I was in the cycle of making a bit more than the minimum payments on the 2 cards that I had (thankfully I wasn’t stupid enough to sign up for more).

Every year for about 3 years, I would make it a New Years Resolution to pay off my credit cards. I failed every time for 3 years in a row. I told myself that I was failing because I was in school and didn’t have a “real” job or income, and that’s why it was so difficult. I believed that at first, and that belief led to a bit of contentment with my situation. All I would need to do was to wait until I got out of school and got a job, then I’d be able to pay them off in no time. Student loans were not even on my radar at this point. In 2008 (after once again failing at paying off my credit card resolution) I found the personal finance blogs and immediately I was hooked on sites like The Simple Dollar, Get Rich Slowly and Debt Free Adventure.

Gaining Traction

From these blogs, I learned that my previous thought on why I wasn’t able to pay off my credit cards was completely inaccurate. I was making plenty of money, I was just unable to tell myself “no, don’t buy that.” Ever so slowly, I started to get it. I was making money, and spending less than I earned, and it seemed like I had far fewer “emergencies” than I used to when I had less money. My mindset towards money had finally changed, and I started to want out of debt even more.

I took some advice I found on one of the PF Blogs and added up my total debt before I finished grad school. Even though I didn’t want to count it, I logged on to all my student loan websites and added those in too. After the mild heart attack I had when I realized I was over $30,000 in debt. At that point, I realized how dire my circumstances truly were: I owed people $30,000 and I had no way to pay them. To top all that off, the economy was tanking. The foolish visions I had of as an undergraduate came into mind. I figured I’d get a job making like $45-50k a year and I’d be fine. Tip for students: don’t assume things like that. At once, I realized my problem, and started saving some money for the first time in basically ever. I knew I was most likely going to move someplace once I found a job, and I’d need cash to do it. No more credit for this guy. After about 4 months, I had $3,000 in cash. I’d never had that much before. Even though I still had credit cards, it was a great feeling.

After a few initial setbacks, I started working full time. Boy was the money nice, but I was still having trouble getting as far ahead as I wanted. After some smooth balance transfers on my credit cards (one that netted me a free ticket). I had moved my 1 card to two and started to pay it off. I paid off a very small balance on 1 of my cards and closed it. Boy did that feel great. I wanted more of that success, but I wasn’t really getting it. It seemed like my car was always having issues. Finally, it gave up the ghost. I was really in no position to deal with, as I had been focusing on credit cards and had very little saved up for a new one. I went against the grain and took out a loan for a brand new car. It was a huge setback, but looking back on it, it has added a huge amount of stability to my situation (and dollars to my debt).

Once I saw my new debt number ($55,400) I decided it was time for some drastic action. I started using every small tip I could find. If it looked at least possible for me to do, I’d give it a try no matter what. People said get a second job. I did that. People said stop spending money. Unless it was something that was going to keep me or my truck on the road, it stayed on the shelf. I cut spending to the bone (and probably chipped a fragment off as well). I’ve started to do many of the routine maintainance tasks on my truck, stopped eating out, stopped going out on the weekends, and found free and fun entertainment in my area. I had to give up spending time with my girlfriend and dog at home to work my other job, and that’s a huge deal to me. It was something that needed to happen for me to get out of debt though. I don’t get to spend much time at home or do many fun things, but when I’m debt free, I’ll be able to spend lots of time at home, and do plenty of fun things!

How far I’ve come

I think I’ve gotten pretty far. The 1 most important thing that has happened is the change of mindset that changed the spending patterns. I realized how much money I was wasting and just had to stop. Once that happened, life seemed much easier, and my debt started dropping instead of staying at a constant pleatu.

Right now, I’ve got $40,541 in debt, and have a $1,000 emergency fund. I’ve paid off all my credit cards, and have moved on to my student loans. Once I pay off my 3 student loans (hopefully 1 by mid-october!!) I’ll begin my assault on the truck. According to my calculations, my Debt Free Adventure will end in around 1 year from now. It started in September 2009, and will have taken approximately 2 years. Debt freedom will be awesome, and I’m doing everything I can to move that date up.

If you’re stuck in debt and tired of making monthly payments to someone for something, get a budget, get a strategy and kick that debt out of your life. As you can see from my story, it has not been easy, fun or pretty, but I don’t think you can find many things that are worth doing that are not hard in some way. Good luck on your Debt Free Adventure!

Hopeful Debt Story of Angie and Raymon

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Debt slavery realized

The other day I received an awesome email from DFA reader Angie.  I asked if I could publish it – in an effort to encourage others – which she happily agreed to.  Here is her story – it’s a great one that will hopefully be a blessing to many.

Thanks Angie and Raymon.

Debt testimonial of Angie and Raymon

I came across your website when I posted a search for “saving for retirement while in debt.”  I found my answer and a whole lot more.  I truly appreciate what you are doing with this site.  It’s important to show the world that God is the true deliverer of debt bondage.

I had not approached my debt as a type of bondage in the past. We were generous with our debt using it to give to family members, thinking we were doing good.  We thought it was no big deal as long as you can pay and manage it. The recent changes by credit card companies gave me a rude awakening to the trap that debt is.  My husband and I recently dedicated our lives to Christ and we want to give as much as we can to God’s work not our own as we did with the credit cards.  Never looked at how bound we were to debt until we realized how it hinders us from freely giving.  What a waste and how much could we be helping the ministry and others if we weren’t paying sky high interest charges.  Herein lies the bondage of debt. Anything that keeps you from God’s plan for your life is bondage.

Not trusting that God would provide for us and being content with that led us to depend on credit to meet needs (and a lot of time, wants).  We’ve turned all our dependencies over to God and He is doing miraculous things in our lives.  We used to feel like there was a leak that money just ran out of (every kind of random money eating problem you can think of).  Now that we let God take over our finances the leak is being plugged.  Debt is on its way out and needless expenses are disappearing.  God is disciplining us about money and opening our eyes so we can become good stewards of God’s money – this is not an easy process and we need constant prayer to stay focused so please add us to your prayer list. We are on our quest to “owe no man but to love him.” (Reference to Romans 13:8)

Thanks for sharing your journey!!!!

God Bless
Angie & Raymon