Interesting Article

In the Dallas News Religion Section there was a question and answer session with author Ron Sider who wrote The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience. In his book he addresses the problem of Christians living just like the rest of the world. Statistics show that Christians and non Christians live almost identically as far as divorce, sexual promiscuity, and greed. Here is an interesting fact: the average evangelical Christian gives 2.66 percent of their income to their local church body, and only 9% of Evangelicals tithe (give away 10% of their income.) You can read the entire article here. So let's talk about materialism for a minute. I think one of the most revealing questions about where a person is in their level of faith and commitment to God is "How much of your income/time do you give to God?" I don't think Christians have to give all of their tithe to the church, but they do need to give it to SOME kind of outlet that furthers God's Kingdom. Some might think that tithing is part of the "old law" and doesn't apply anymore. Actually, Jesus took the old law and turned it into a heart attitude that actually demands even more from us than just checking off a list of rules. I would say tithing is just a STARTING point, and that we'd all do well to give even more than that. So what prevents people from tithing? After all, 10% is really such a small amount, right? Well, it would be if we didn't: A. Overextend ourselves by living above our means in an effort to gain happiness through status and possesions B.Tightly grasp our wealth as our security blanket C. Fail to realize that the money we have does not even belong to us in the first place because it has been provided by God and He expects us to use it wisely for his purposes. I include time as something to be "tithed" because we are just as selfish (maybe more so) with our personal time as we are with our money. So how does this relate to our level of faith and commitment to God? Well, here are a couple of sayings. One Biblical, one worldly, and both applicable. "No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money." and..."Put your money where your mouth is."