The Law of Tithting

by Rev. Rick L. Patterson, Th.D.
President
Miami Christian University
Miami, FL

This paper will address itself to the issue of tithing, and more specifically, " The Law of Tithing." It is my hope and desire that this brief look into the Christian principles of tithing will stimulate your interest in studying and ultimately becoming obedient to the Word of God - the Bible!

I am not going to give you 1,001 reasons why you should tithe on your income. I am not going to try and "sell" you on tithing. Rather, I am going to present the Word of God to you and believe that by the power of the Holy Spirit you will be obedient to God's commandment to tithe!

The way in which you handle your finances will mark your spiritual commitment to God! It has often been said that more could be learned about a person's commitment to Christ by looking at his checkbook rather than his prayer book. We are no farther along in our walk with God than the point to which we have learned to trust Him with our tithes and offerings.

There are so many books, tracts, tapes, and teachings today attempting to convince the Christian to tithe that it is amazing. Many of them are excellent, but many are nothing more than weak compromises trying to gloss over the issue.

For example, I visited a church where the pastor had written a tract entitled, "Moving Towards the Tithe." The tract encouraged people to move in a positive direction to give 10% to God. It later emphasized, however, that the believer need not concern h imself with the consequences of not tithing, which was an obvious contradiction of the subject of his tract. My question is not whether or not you are moving towards the tithe, but rather, WHY A REN'T YOU TITHING?

I realize that many people do not tithe simply because they have not had the proper teachings about tithing. Then there are others who know they should, but willfully don't. My main concern is with the latter group - those who are w illfully rebellious a nd disobedient to God's commands. Jesus clearly taught us that if we love him we will keep his commandments. Clearly that includes tithing and giving!

We have all seen the bumper stickers that say,

"HONK IF YOU LOVE JESUS!"

Recently, I saw another bumper sticker that said,

"TITHE, IF YOU LOVE JESUS...ANYONE CAN HONK!"

PRINCIPLE OF DIVINE OWNERSHIP VERSUS THE PRINCIPLE OF DOMINION

Many Christians have not learned the concept of Divine Ownership nor that of Dominion. As a result, they have a distorted view of the purpose of their finances. Here is an explanation of these two important principles.

THE PRINCIPLE OF DOMINION

GENESIS 1:26
Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all th e earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." (NKJ)

GENESIS 1:27
So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

GENESIS 1:28
Then God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living t hing that moves on the earth." (NKJ)

Steven Covey - The 8 habits of Highly Effective People

“One word expresses the pathway to greatness: voice. Those on this path find their voice and inspire others to find theirs. The rest never do.”

Stephen R. CoveyKey Message

The power to discover your voice lies in the potential that was bequeathed you at birth. Latent and undeveloped, the seeds of greatness were planted. You were given magnificent “birth-gifts”-talents, capacities, privileges, intelligences, opportunities-that would remain largely unopened except through your own decision and effort. Open these gifts. Learn what taps your talents and fuels your passion-that rises out of a great need in the world that you feel drawn by conscience to meet-therein lies your voice, your calling, your soul’s code.

Q: How do you define “voice”?

A: Voice is the overlapping of the four parts of our nature: our body, our mind, our heart, and our spirit. These also represent the four intelligences: our IQ for the mind, our EQ for the heart, our SQ for the spirit, and our PQ for the body.

To help you find this, answer these 4 question.

1. What are you good at? That’s your mind.


2. What do you love doing? That’s your heart.


3. What need can you serve? That’s the body.


4. And finally, what is life asking of you? What gives your life meaning and purpose? What do you feel like you should be doing? In short, what is your conscience directing you to do?

That is your spirit.

People are internally motivated by their own four needs: to live, to love, to learn, to leave a legacy. When they overlap, you have voice-your calling, your soul’s code.

Q: Is finding your voice an evolving process, or can it happen all at once like a light bulb going on in your head?

A: I think that it can happen all at once, but more so, I think it is an evolving process. As people grow up, they are exposed to different fields of knowledge and different experiences. They don’t yet know what they’re good at or even what they will like doing. Once they have this exposure and education and they start getting involved, they start to find satisfaction, and that leads to success as it begins to give them a sense of their voice or what they really love doing that they do well. For some people, it does comes like a flash of light, but it is usually preceded by someone who really deeply believes in them-sees their strengths and affirms them when they don’t see their own potential themselves. This creates an opportunity for that voice to be developed and expressed. This happened with me.

Q: Is the process of finding your voice the same for an individual as it is for an organization that is trying to find its voice?

A: That’s a very interesting question and I think in a very real sense, it is the same. But because an organization is made up of many different individuals who have different voices and a different sense of what gives them meaning and their life purpose, it takes communication processes where people are genuine and authentic with each other in expressing what they really care about. However, people gradually get a sense of what the organization stands for, what it loves doing and does well, and what it feels like it should be doing. So, there is kind of a collective form of the four intelligences that overlaps and develops in an evolutionary way.

Q: How can we help someone find his or her voice?

A: I think if you care about people genuinely, you listen to them and observe them; because this is more than just hearing them speak, it is observing them-observing where their excitement is, where their enthusiasm is; observing where you sense they have potential. Sometimes it is very powerful just to say to them in sincerity, “I believe you have great potential in this area. I see real strengths in you that you may not see in yourself, and I would like to create an opportunity for you to use those strengths and to develop this potential. Would you be interested in that?”

Most people are so flattered by someone who sincerely cares for them and affirms their work and potential that they are moved and inspired by that kind of input. It’s very powerful and it can make all of the difference, particularly with people who grow up with a confused lifestyle, bad modeling, and basic education. Often they have no clue as to what life is about or what they are about until someone becomes a teacher to them-a mentor, a confirmer, and a coach. This kind of mentoring is becoming increasingly important in education, in relationships, and in work environments. It can make all of the difference as to whether a person takes a higher road to his or her own voice or a lower road to where he or she is swallowed up by the priorities and voices of others.

I highly recommend for you to visit there blog and also there site!

http://www.stephencovey.com/community/

I also like to hear from you if you like this recomendation or know of any other one!

UOTB and Facebook

Over the last few months I have been somewhat distracted by Facebook, and unlike almost all the other social networking sites I have tried, I have found non-techie friends are using it.

Facebook difference

Many people are raving about it, and I can understand why as I have caught up with people I haven’t spoken to for many years. Unlike email, there is a instantness of communication with people and no spam. Which means that short conversations can happen quickly, but without the intensity of instant messaging. Also, unlike other social community websites, the privacy settings allow for close control of profile and information.

I had been using on-line photo sharing websites, but these don’t come close to Facebook in the social aspect of being able to tag friends and share photos with restricted groups of people.

But what about the church?

A few months back, I was speaking to Diana Perez our Director of Operations here at Unity on the Bay. We got into the discusion of Facebook and My space and how we can put Unity on the Bay to benefit from this new, trendy networking tool. I have to say that at first I had somewhat of a resistance since I had tried, unsuccessfully to coax staff and church leaders and also members onto UOTB blog World page (one member plus me to date) had even made a comment onto the blog.

I thought the reason for this failure was because people didn’t want to sign up for another on-line service that they might not use, and they couldn’t see a use for it.

However, after setting up a church group on Facebook, we already have 24 members. This is because church members were already users of Facebook, so joining a group was easy.

Using Facebook for your church

The other benefit is that non-Christian friends on Facebook can see what groups you join and so can see easily your affiliations. So rather than a closed Christian networking site, Facebook is a social networking site that better reflects your friendships and not just your Christian clique. It is obviously no substitute for sharing your faith in person, but allows you to create a profile that reflects your faith and to share this with your other friends.

With group events pages, we can better manage what is happening rather than a storm of emails and phone calls trying to arrange event.

How are other churches using Facebook?
Let me know in the comments how your church is using Facebook or other social networking sites.

UOTB Blog World

The UOTB staff and leadership are excited to share with you a new benefit of membership at Unity on the Bay. The church has launched a Blog page innovation that gives our congregation the ability to read and participate with activities, events and comments they might have of there spiritual community.The key to launching this program is for you to participate by reading and making comments.

Please keep in mind that your comments will be monitored to ensure a safe environment. When doing the research of blogging I came across this quote, which I liked and plan to use as a reminder to all. A Note to Visitors:Please share your comments! Note, however, that civility is considered a higher good than First Amendment rights here. Incivility will be uncivilly suppressed. Welcome to Our Kingdom! Enjoy your stay.To get started, just click on the link above.

If you wish to contact me personally email me at mailto:uotbadmin@bellosuth.net Your assistance will be greatly appreciated! Frequently asked questions: What is Blog? Church Blog(Filed under: Technology) Blogging isn't just a hip new trend for techies and information junkies. Businesses are jumping on the blog bandwagon. Blog software itself enables a non-technical person to post uniform content on a web site and have it be easily categorized and archived, all without calling in the web expert.

A blog doesn't have to simply comment on the latest news. Weekly announcements, sermons, prayer requests, and daily scripture are all uniform content that would be ideal for a blog. A blog is really just a technical tool that makes updating a web site simple. Maybe your church should jump on the blog bandwagonBLOG (Web Log) A BLOG is a publication of personal thoughts, experiences, and web links. It is updated frequently and is usually a mixture of what is happening in a person's life and what is happening on the web or in the media.

This medium is gaining popularity and thousands of people use blogging services such as Blogger (blogger.com). Alternatively, some web hosting providers include easy to use blogging software that can be customized and integrated within your own website.