I’m constantly struck by how many times the Bible mentions  helping the poor and needy!

What kills me is that I read that and think to myself, why is it that I’m not as concerned as I should be when it comes to helping the poor, weak and marginalized members of society?

If God has such a huge heart for them and cares deeply for their needs, what is it about me that needs to change?

My guess is that you and I are in the same boat.  Sure, we care about the poor, but if we were honest with ourselves and others - we’d have to admit that we aren’t as generous as we should be!

So, as usual, I take the areas that I’m convicted in and try to turn it into a post.

I started brainstorming some reasons why we, as Americans, are not as generous as we should be.  American Christians are the wealthiest Christians to have ever lived (does Solomon count?) and yet we, on average, give a measly 3% to church and I imagine much less to the poor and needy.

So here are five reasons why we are not as generous as we should be:

Pride

“I worked hard to get where I am today!  The poor need to get off their butts and get jobs!  If I did it, they can too!”

Ever think that? 

“You know what their problem is, they’re just too lazy!” 

“They milk the system”

“They want everything for free!”

Ever say those things?

That’s a sure sign you suffer from pride.  You are great and they are not.  Unfortunately, it’s not that simple.  Many poor folks are victims of circumstance.  Not all, but many of them.

Many of them would love to get jobs and work hard, but they lack opportunities - or they lack the education, the transportation, the network, the social skills, the marketing skills etc. etc.

Ask yourself this – if you were born into those same circumstances that many of our poor are born into, what would you be doing today?

Be careful with pride – God hates it, and it kills your generosity!

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Debt

Credit card debt, over-extended mortgages, home equity lines, auto loans – they all have a way of choking out generosity because our additional resources are going towards monthly payments!

So many Christians are paying ridiculous amounts of interest on stuff they thought they needed. Most of those trinkets will end up in a landfill in a few short years.

We are far to easily amused by gadgets and other items that we’ll plunge ourselves into crazy debt in search of joy.

What if we as Christians decided to simplify our lifestyles and live debt free?  Imagine how generous we could be without massive debt looming over our heads.

Greed

Jesus warns people way more often about greed than he does about sex and yet almost no one thinks they’re guilty of greed. 

I think we all need to begin with an attitude of “this could definitely be an issue for me”. 

Because greed hides so deeply, and is so pervasive in our westernized, American Dream culture , we need to take a serious look at our own hearts. 

Are we clamoring for more stuff and squeezing out generosity in the mean time?

Stinginess

Proverbs 23:6-7 says, “Do not eat the bread of a man who is stingy; do not desire his delicacies, for he is like one who is inwardly calculating. “Eat and drink!” he says to you, but his heart is not with you.”

Penny-pinchers do not have generous hearts – they calculate every last cent to ensure no one gets more than they should.  

Busyness

Busyness robs us of true wealth.  We miss opportunities to be generous when we’re overly busy.

We often numb ourselves with self-centered activities, hobbies, and endeavors and give little regard to our neighbors let alone the poor, weak and disenfranchised.

Are we too busy to give freely of our time and money?

What About You?

Any other reasons why you’re not as generous as you should be?

Yesterday we set the stage for the topic of tithing and Christian giving. 

Today we want to delve a little further into giving and try to answer this question, “How much should I give?”.

We are going to take a bit of a journey to get there, but that’s where we’ll end up.

This post might be a little controversial for some, and downright uncomfortable for others – but that’s exactly what I’m hoping for.

Ready?  Let’s go!

Why Tithing is Such a Polarizing Topic

 A reader yesterday commented that he never realized tithing was such a polarizing topic – and you know, he’s right.

Why is it that Christians get so worked up about the concept of giving and tithing. 

I think the answer lies in the reason why Jesus spoke so much about money and possessions – because money has a way of subtly blinding us to what’s really important!

The topic of giving is controversial because in our heart of hearts we want to clutch our possessions with tight grips and we don’t want anyone telling us we need to give things up!

C’mon, be honest – what’s in the very depths of your heart, the place that you don’t anyone to go?   I know what’s in mine - selfishness. 

We want things for ourselves - don’t leave me hangin’ here…

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Why We Want to Know Exactly How Much to Give

Alright, so we are selfish by nature.  We naturally want things for ourselves and our hearts are little idol factories - and money is one of our greatest idols we treasure!

So if we ask the reason why we want to know how much to give, what do you think our answers would be – so we can make a budget, it’s good planning, God tells us to purpose in our heart what to give might be a few answers?

Those are all good things and very accurate – but here’s my theory of why we want to know exactly how much to give:

Because you and I want to know the minimum requirement we can give to God and still make Him happy!

Too many of us are working on a To-Do List with God; so we give our 10% (although we know that it’s really much less than that on average), check it off our list and feel good about ourselves that we gave God his money.

We view tithing as some sort of tax that God is exacting from us and we think if I give Him this money then He’ll bless me because I did what I was supposed to do.

Why the New Testament is Eerily Silent About Percentages

Have you ever wondered why percentages are not mentioned in the New Testament?  I have. 

I mean, if it’s so important why didn’t Jesus say, “Give x%!” or the Apostle Paul when he was writing half the NT didn’t just once say, “Well you know Ephesians – you are to give x% so let’s keep it up!”

I believe that it’s silent because if it gave a percentage we would give exactly that percentage and no more.  We would satisfy the minimum requirement.

In Order to Excel at Giving You Must Do This First

There’s a great passage about giving in 2 Corinthians 8:1-9  that I will highlight later in this series, but I want to take a look at verses 3-5:

For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own accord, begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints— and this, not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us.

Ok, so here’s what’s going on – Paul is writing to the Corinthians urging to excel at giving (v.7) and he gives the Macedonian church as an example of excelling in giving.

But notice what he says about those Macedonian believers – they gave themselves first to the Lord.

What we need to do before we give anything is we need to surrender!

We need to surrender our hearts, our lives and our idols to God!  We surrender our finances to Him, we give up our conrol over our lives and we let go of all the stuff we want to clutch so tightly to.

That means, if you are a believer – you get down on your knees, repent of anything that you’ve placed above Him in your heart.

And it means if you are not a follower of Jesus, you carefully consider what He said and surrender your heart for the very first time to Him! 

God wants our surrender because He loves us and He knows what’s best for us - we’ve been created in His image to worship Him and He knows that He is the only thing that can truly bring peace and lasting joy to our lives!

Understanding This Truth Will Help Excel Us in Giving

 I like what Tim Keller says about giving:

The solution to stinginess is a reorientation to the generosity of Christ in the gospel, how he poured out his wealth for you!

Here’s what will help us answer the question of how much:  The Gospel!

2 Corinthians 8:9 says:

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.

Look to Jesus – by His sheer act of grace He gave up all the riches of heaven to come to earth, live the life that you never could and died the death that you should have.

He gave up everything for your sake, so that you might experience those same riches of heaven – not wealth, but true riches!

One of the reasons we don’t give more is because we don’t see the great grace by which God has saved us and we don’t trust that God is good and He’ll provide for our needs.

Thankfully Jesus didn’t “tithe” His blood or we’d all be in big trouble!

So how much should we give?  As much as we possibly can – it’s the least we can do.

Questions to consider

Readers, do you think we should always be looking to give more and more by increasing the percentages that we give?

Do you think we should set a percentage and as long as we give cheerfully then that’s good enough?

Will you change your giving habits, if so how?

Recently, Lakita from Personal Finance Journey had a great post asking the question if we should tithe off of our income tax refund.   

There were some great comments on this post and led to a good discussion of giving in general.

Another good post on giving in the last couple of weeks was from Free Money Finance who asked, “Where Did All the Givers Go?”

In that post he quotes Randy Alcorn who says that although American Christians control 70% of the world’s Christian wealth, they only give about 2.6%.

He says it’s a sad indictment that people following a religion that teaches so much about giving actually give so little!

At the same time these posts were being written, I had just finished teaching a series at our Young Adults group at church on money, giving and missional living so the topics were fresh in my mind.

So I thought it’d be good to have a discussion on R2 regarding  Christian giving, generosity and tithing.

Over the course of this next week, I want to answer three main questions:

• How much should a Christian give?
• Who should a Christian give to?
• Should we give even if we don’t have the money?

So today we want to look at how much should a Christian give? 

Tithing in the Old Testament

Tithing, or “tenth”, is a Hebrew word that described giving a tenth of your crops, herds etc.

It was actually first mentioned in Genesis 14 regarding Abraham bringing a “tenth” to Melchizidek, but was more defined in the law -

God had some very specific commands in the Old Testament as to how much and when people of God should give.

In fact, the tithe only represented one part of the sacrificial giving system in that day – most Israelites were giving upwards of 20-30% of their goods and “income” at that time if you factored in all the giving requirements.

But things aren’t so clear in the New Testament – or are they?

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Tithing in the New Testament

The word “tithe” in the New Testament is only mentioned in regards to statements of what somebody did – for example, Jesus says in Luke 11:42:

But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and every herb, and neglect justice and the love of God. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.

So Jesus is stating a fact that the Pharisees were tithing.

Nowhere does the New Testament define how much a Christian should give in terms of percentages, tithes etc. 

Does that mean we should throw out the Old Testament tithing idea?

What Jesus Does With the Law

Jesus says He did not come to abolish the law, but rather fulfill it.

What I love about Jesus is that He is so radical, so counter-cultural, yet he reaches and penetrates the hearts of the people around him.

But one of the main things He does is He pokes holes in the organized religion of the day by bringing matters back to the heart.

He always takes the law, magnifies it and brings it right back to a heart issue. 

For example, he talks about how we shouldn’t commit adultery, but says that if you even look at a person with lust you’ve committed adultery in your heart.

It’s doubtful many of us have murdered anyone, but Jesus says if you get ticked off at your brother and call him some not-so-nice names that you’ve murdered him in your heart!

And of course with giving, He isn’t concerned with the size of the gift as much as He’s concerned with the heart motive and the sacrifice behind it.  Take a look at Luke 21:1-4:

Jesus looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the offering box, and he saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins. And he said, “Truly, I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.”

And so by doing this, Jesus ironically makes it easier for us so we don’t have a list of rules to live by – and yet – it is also harder because dealing with heart issues is never easy.

Setting the Stage

In this post, I’m really just setting the stage for some deeper discussion in tomorrow’s post about how much we should give - so come back for some further thoughts on tithing and Christian giving.

Question to Consider

Should we throw out the concept of the Old Testament tithing because the New Testament doesn’t mention it? I’d love to hear your thoughts below!

It’s been a crazy couple of weeks around the R2 household and office!  There seems to be just a lot of stuff going on.

I’m really looking forward to some rest this weekend!

But, it’s another week in the books and it’s time for a quick tour.  

This Week in Personal Finance takes a look at interesting articles, posts and news from the past week in the personal finance arena.

So give these articles from a few Yakezie Challenge Members a click!

• Free Money Finance has a great and convicting post on giving that exposes our lack of it!
• Peak Personal Finance offers up a look at the new Credit Card Act and the resulting increase in bank fees to be on the look out for!
• Personal Finance by the Book takes a look at the Fair Tax and whether it’s too good to be true!  Great overview by Joe!
• Jacob from Early Retirement Extreme talks about his Extreme Retirement Method over at Monevator – he’s got an interesting story so be sure to check it out!
• Not Made of Money cautions against store credit cards - but it’s so tempting to get an additional 10% off!
• Cool to Be Frugal asks about your family’s money dynamic and if you’re able to talk freely about money or if it’s a taboo subject!?
• Free From Broke takes a look at the different Bank Cards and Their Uses
• Daniel from Sweating the Big Stuff writes about the correlation between debt and credit – an interesting look at debt’s affect on credit scores!
• Jeff at Deliver Away Debt is talking about Christmas in April – but he’s talking about a debt-free Christmas, which is GREAT!
• Canadian Finance Blog asks, “Which Car is Right for You?” and takes a look at how to answer that question as well!

R2 Around the Web

This week I had a post called Can You Afford Retirement up at Christian PF.

My post called What’s the Best Way to Help the Poor is up today over at Christian Personal Finance.  I wanted to provide a link to it from here because I had a lot of fun writing that post and wanted to also start a good discussion over there as well.

Sometimes the very things we think will help the poor end up hurting them and the very things they really need – we don’t give to them.

Too often we only want to help the people who “deserve it”, but is that the right way of thinking about helping the poor?  Remember, Jesus said to love our neighbors as ourselves – well what does that mean when it comes to the poor, the marginalized, the weak and infirmed?

So what are the best ways to help the poor?  I’d love to hear your thoughts – so check out the post over at Christian PF!

Most people I know have an innate sense for helping others. We may argue over how much we should help each other or even what the the best way is to help others.

We may discuss the government’s role in helping others versus our local church. But, we often dismiss how our economy is set up to allow us to help others in almost everything we do.

The Three Easy Ways to Support Others

Charity - giving with nothing expected in return.
Buy a Good – buying something with high value for a low fee.
Sell a Good – selling something with a low cost at a high price.

How These Three Support Others

Charity

The first thing that comes to mind when supporting each other is charity. I define charity as any time I give something to someone else and expect nothing in return.  For example, you may want to give to the homeless through a local shelter, or you may want to donate to help Haiti earthquake victims. 

Even the great capitalist Andrew Carnegie supported charity, but he understood the importance of giving wisely.

“Those who would administer wisely must, indeed, be wise, for one of the serious obstacles to the improvement of our race is indiscriminate charity” – Andrew Carnegie

When giving money away you are investing in others and your community. Although you receive nothing directly in return, the act of charity may help someone survive another day or get past a road block that is keeping them from living out their God given potential.

Buy a Good

A less understood way of actually giving is buying a good. Every time you buy something from someone you are helping them out. They used their creative talents and abilities to manufacture a product or service for you at some cost and by paying them you are giving them in opportunity to buy something with more value in their eyes in exchange. You still have to be wise when buying something, though. If you buy something that you really don’t want then you are essentially giving away money as charity and should evaluate the decision from the perspective of a charity gift instead of a purchase.

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Sell a Good

The flip side of buying a good is selling one. Just as a buyer helps a seller, the seller is also helping the buyer. When you work hard and create a good that has value to others you are supporting them by giving them an object of great value at a cost that is cheap to them. This is why they buy it. Again, though, you must be wise and only sell things that can be made at a cost lower than the selling price otherwise this is also a charity.

What This Means for You

Remember the joy you get every time you give to someone in need. Now that you know buying and selling also help others you can be happy every you reward a hard worker when making a purchase or provide value to someone when selling a good. Of course, never stop giving. Your investments to those in need will pay off now and forever, but be happy every time you make a wise buy or sell.

Verses to Consider

• Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. 1 Timothy 6:18
• All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty. Proverbs 14:23

This has been a guest post by Ryan.  He is the creator of ObsessedAnalytic.com, a blog for young adults helping them Find Time, Save Money, and Have Fun

Lately I’ve been reflecting on giving and our heart motivation behind it. 

I’ve had the great opportunity to teach a money class the last couple weeks to a Young Marrieds group at church and It’s been a great experienc for me, because I’ve had to spend some time digging in to Scripture to get me prepared to talk about money and theology.

In general, most people know we should give, but what is our motivation behind our giving – in other words, why give?

Here’s a look at a few reasons to the question of:

Why Do People Give Their Money?

We’ll talke a look at a few not-so-good reasons and then a couple really good reasons.

To Earn God’s Favor

One group might settle in on this side of the room.  These folks think that by giving money to the church or giving money to a homeless person that somehow God will smile on them and be pleased. 

On the flip side, they may also think that if they don’t give, then God will be mad at them!  So, to appease a cranky and crotchety old god they need to just give!

To Get a Blessing

They give because they want to get an abundance.  This seems to be prevalent.  I recently received a direct message on Twitter from someone talking about God’s abundance being poured out on me!

I think there is some confusion in this camp and hopefully I can clear it up:

We don’t give to GET a blessing – we give to BE a blessing!

To Get Rid of Guilt

Others give because they want to rid themselves of guilt.  Maybe they feel guilty for being “blessed” while others suffer in need; or they feel guilty because they think that in order to be a “good person” they need to give.  The thought of not being a “good person” kills them.

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To Garner the Praise of Men

Some of us like to give because we want others to know and think that we are very generous!  Remember the pharisees in the New Testament that would throw their coins in to the offering to make a loud clang so everyone could hear?  That’s some of us.  We give to get noticed or to “be somebody”.

To Get a Good Feeling

There is a good feeling we all get when we give.  We feel like we were part of something bigger or that we made a difference in someone’s life when we give. 

Those are great feelings!  I love feeling that way after I give, but is it our sole motivation in giving?  Is it just to make us feel good?

To Get a Tax Deduction

As a finance guy, I love tax deductions!  Who doesn’t – am I right?  But, there are plenty of folks out there who only give because they can write it off on their taxes. 

Are you one of the one scrambling on December 31st to find a charity and donate money so you can write that off?

To Glean Meaning or Purpose from Life

Oh, meaning and purpose – everyone’s quest in life.  Some say there is none – other’s know exactly why we are here.  Those trying to find meaning and purpose, trying to be a part of something beyond themselves may give just to feel like they are accomplishing a mission.

Again, nothing wrong with finding meaning – but are we grasping at finding purpose through our giving or do we find our purpose in Christ himself?

What Should Our Motivation Be?

Notice that each of those motivations above are self-focused – We get something in return.  It really becomes all about us! 

So why should we give?

Because We Want to Help

I think many of us have a really sincere desire to help people.  That’s great!  We should desire to come alongside others, meet needs and to defend social justice because we value others and truly want to help them!

For some reason, it seems like in America we’ve lost a sense of “being a neighbor” to others.  On the block I grew up on there was always someone watching out for us, conversations between neighbors going on and a willingness to go and help each other.

I think we need (myself included) to get back to being a good neighbor.

Because Jesus Demonstrated It Best

Take a look at 2 Corinthians 8:9:

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.

Jesus had everything in heaven – He was rich.  Yet He gave all that up to come to a lowly stable, to be the son of a poor Jewish couple – why?  So that we who embrace Him as Savior might become rich (all the glorious riches and benefits of spending eternity with God in heaven!)

He did it for you!  He gave up everything, to the point of a scandalous and shamed death on a Roman cross so we might have life!

even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.  Matthew 20:28

Let’s reorient ourselves back to the great Gospel and realize that because Christ gave up everything for us we are freed to go and serve others for His sake!

Confession time!

I’m not as generous as I should or could be!

Here’s another thing: I like to receive more than I like to give.

Why?  Well, because it’s inherent and I’m selfish.

I know what you’re thinking -

“Wait a minute – but you write about generosity and giving and doing good things with your money”

That’s true.  And I believe strongly in everything I write.

But, there’s a disconnect.  Part of me loves to hold on to my stuff, hoard it and use it for me.

It’s like I’m addicted to my own selfish desires.

I don’t want to be selfish, but I find myself slipping into selfish mode so easily.

How?  Well, it shows in various ways including marriage, other relationships, my money, my time etc.  And if we were all brutally honest – we’d probably come to the same conclusion. 

I always tell people that I never realized how selfish I was until I got married and had to start putting my wife’s needs above my own.  After that I never realized how much selfishness there still was in my heart until I had kids and I had to put their needs above my own.

In terms of money, I like to hold on to my money for comfort and security.  I like to put my trust in my savings accounts rather than God himself.  I like to view the money I have as mine rather than God’s.  I don’t like to think of myself as a steward, I like to think of myself as owner.

But here’s the thing – I want to be totally unselfish, completely generous and not care an ounce about my status or my wealth, but it’s hard not to – especially in this culture.

But – as one of my favorite songs says:

To give unselfishly, to love the least of these
Jesus I’m learning how to live with open hands
All of these treasures that I hold will never satisfy my soul
Jesus I lay it at your throne with open hands

How to overcome your self

So how do we overcome our selfish desires for money, fame, status, power or even the praise of men?

Well the first thing we need to realize is the fact that we are selfish and come to terms with that fact.

The second thing we need to realize is that it’s a process and there is a big learning curve.  It takes time. 

The third thing is to recognize how GREAT our heavenly treasure and that our earthly treasures pale in comparison. 

The treasure of Christ far outweighs our earthly goods.  But so often we have blinders on.  Ask God to help you see the greatness of Christ displayed in the gospel.

I’m learning, baby-step by baby-step – but the process is a good one.

Agree or disagree?

I’d love to hear your thoughts on whether this is a struggle for you or if you think I’m off my rocker!

Another week “in the books”.  I can’t believe it’s almost February already. 

This was a fun week on R2 – if you didn’t check out my mom’s guest post on marriage you should!

Anyways, This Week in Personal Finance takes a look at interesting articles, posts and news from the past week in the personal finance arena.  Give these articles a click!

Rich Christian Poor Christian gives some insights into the 7 Investments he tackles on his blog.

Craig Ford – a missionary to Papau New Guinea and writer for Money Help for Christians sits down with the poor of PNG and asks them some very direct questions about the differences and perceptions among the rich and poor.  This was an awesome post and worth checking out for some valuable insights into their responses.

Do you like getting a big tax refund?  Bible Money Matters tells us why getting a big tax refund is a horrible idea!

Interesting thoughts from Free Money Finance on how different age groups view their careers.

It’s stinkin’ cold in the Chicago area right now and it’s tempting to blast the heat, but we don’t want the big bill that comes with it – so grab your Snuggie cuz Matt Jabs at Debt Free Adventure looks at a few ways to save money on heat and electricity this winter.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Today’s the big day! We are finally closing on our new house.

We started the building process back in August of ’09, moved into the inlaws basement and recently have been frantically trying to get a bunch of little things done so we can keep our closing date.

We locked in our rate back in November with a 45-day lock and today’s the last day!

But the house is ready, we’re ready and we’re so excited to get back to our normal routine!

Enough about us – let’s talk about some of the interesting discussions going on in the Personal Finance world this week!

This Week in Personal Finance takes a look at interesting articles, posts and news from the past week in the personal finance arena.  Give these articles a click!

• Joe Taxpayer is confused why so many Christians seem to look at all debt with such disdain and asks an interesting question, “Is Debt Anti-God?”
• Free Money Finance is a very popular and simple blog  that offers some very thought-provoking posts.  I like that.  This week he says that Those Who Give More Become Rich Faster.  I don’t think that should be our motivation to give, but he does offer a good look at the relationship between wealth and giving.
• Paul over at Fiscal Geek asks a questions we’ve all asked at some point in our lives, “Should You Save For Retirement While in Debt?”
• Kevin at Out of Your Rut asks another popular question, “Will A Million Dollars Be Enough to Retire On?”
• Free From Broke delves into the dark world of credit card reform to find some answers on how the CARD Act affects us.

R2 On The Web

My post about the 4 Questions You Should Ask Before You Buy Life Insurance was included in:

• Cavalcade of Risk from the Colorado Health Insurance Insider
• Canadian Finance Blog’s Friday Links