Testing God - Post One

Testing God

I realize that many of you will think that testing God isn’t the brightest idea. And far be it for me to put him to the test unless he specifically said that it was OK to do so. But he did; right there in Malachai 3: 6-11:

“I am God—yes, I AM. I haven’t changed. And because I haven’t changed, you, the descendants of Jacob, haven’t been destroyed. You have a long history of ignoring my commands. You haven’t done a thing I’ve told you. Return to me so I can return to you,” says God-of-the-Angel-Armies.

“You ask, ‘But how do we return?’
“Begin by being honest. Do honest people rob God? But you rob me day after day.
“You ask, ‘how have we robbed you?’
“The tithe and offering—that’s how! And now you’re under a curse—the whole lot of you—because you’re robbing me. Bring your full tithe to the Temple treasury so there will be ample provisions in my Temple. TEST ME IN THIS AND SEE IF I DON’T OPEN UP HEAVEN ITSELF TO YOU AND POUR OUT BLESSINGS BEYOND YOUR WILDEST DREAMS.” (Emphasis mine.) The Message

So here’s the deal. I owe God some money. I’ve had it sitting here since last summer. While I have tithed part of what I owe, for some reason I held some back. I really want to make this money count. Because, you see, I have been so blessed. And God has done some incredible things in my life over the past few years. To be honest, He’s been doing incredible things in my life for a long time now, but it’s taken me awhile to notice. I tend to be a little slow on the uptake.

So here’s the plan—starting today, we are tithing on every penny that comes our way. At least 10%, which after all, is what “tithe” means. And with that money, we’re going to let God prompt our giving. Church stuff and charitable giving, of course, with some “randoms acts of kindness” thrown in. My hunch is, that as this experiment unfolds, I’m going to be blessed indeed. And not necessarily just monetarily.

I will be reporting in this blog where the money goes when it leaves my hands, and the blessings that come back as a result.

And for myself, I’d like to take this experiment beyond the financial and strive to be a better person on a daily basis. I’ll report on that, too, even though I know that to do so will at times be difficult. My intent is to be brutally honest, revealing the bad with the good, and the failures with the triumphs. Because I call myself a Christian, and like all Christians everywhere (except the One that started the whole movement,) I pretty much fall short of the standard on a daily basis. I’ll do my best to be honest about this in my writings.

“So what does this have to do with me?” you may be asking. Simply put, I need accountability. If you choose to keep up, even occasionally, with my ramblings, it will give me an extra incentive to push on when I really don’t feel like it. When I would rather do something easier or more fun. When I would rather watch TV, read a book, or Facebook. Or when, as I know beyond a shadow of a doubt will happen, Satan tries his best to derail this project.

In addition, I am hoping for feedback, especially postings of ways that you have been inspired to make the world a better place. If many do just a little, think of the impact that this little experiment could have!

I intend to go about this prayerfully, asking God to work through me to accomplish his purpose, not mine. And I’m sure that I’ll screw up, probably more than once. But when that happens, I’ll apologize and push on.

You need to know that I am generally a bit irreverent and sometimes sarcastic. I love to laugh, and I think that God loves a good sense of humor. Heck, he invented it. I’ll try not to step over the line, but consider yourselves warned. And in future blogs, I’ll be briefer that I was here.

So if your interest in piqued, stay tuned. In fact, don’t just stay tuned, join in—for God’s sake!

To really get the picture, I’m going to have to give you some background. In the next posting.

Interesting aside: I was preparing an envelope in which to keep the tithe money, and pulled out a run-of-the-mill No. 10. God said, “You’ll need a larger container.”

You go, God!