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Tithe Story 1 — I would like to let you know what wonderful things God has done for me...
Tithe Story 2 — I'm still in the learning stages of what God actually does in our lives...
Tithe Story 3 — When the challenge was put forward during the service...
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would like to let you know what wonderful things God has done for me over the past three months, as a direct result of being faithful in giving 10% of my income back to Him.
I used to think that giving 10% was only meant for families and individuals who were fairly well off and who would not really miss the 10% in any way. In my opinion, this didn’t include me...
However, I wanted to “test it out” since God actually said, “test me in this” (Malachi 3:10).
The first thing that happened was that after my “at fault” accident on December 17, I was so broke that I feared the traffic ticket that I had to pay. However, when I went to pay it, I was told that it would have to wait several months to be processed in local traffic court. That was my first “financial break”.
The second thing that happened relates to my business. I had experienced a couple of years in a row of lower that usual income. This has already changed considerably since the beginning of this year, without having done anything to search out new business.
I have a home-based business providing translation services. In late December, I was approached out of the blue by two individuals who wanted to work for me as translation contractors, one works from English to French and the other from French to English. At the time, I actually did not require any help at all, because there wasn’t even enough work to keep me busy. I did, however, keep contact with them.
Then in January, a brand new customer contacted me with work from French to English, which is actually very rare (most of the work I get is the other way around).
I did not know any of these people and I had made no effort to contact anyone about more work. Obviously God sent them – the customers and the workers!
Then God sent the work...
My regular customers were suddenly sending me more work than they had in a long time and I was “swamped”. Fortunately, with the two new competent translators, I was able to distribute the workload.
I was so surprised when, during the last week of the tithing challenge, I had so much work that I had 3 subcontractors plus myself working full time on jobs all at the same time. That means I actually had 4 times the amount of work that I can possibly handle on my own! But God had also sent “workers”, so that was a real blessing. The verse “Give and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over” (Luke 6:38) certainly was true in this case. My desk was literally “running over” with work!
As I wait for the payments for all these jobs to come in, I look forward to willingly and gladly giving 10% back to God, who gave it to me in the first place. I pray that I will be a good steward of the rest of my income as well.
One more thing: In January, I started to read a book that I had ordered from a Christian TV program that I watch. The book is called “The Storehouse Principle” and it really helped me to believe what the Bible says about God being the provider and that “the Lord commands a blessing on all that is in your storehouse and all that you put forth your hands to do.” (Deut. 28:8). If there’s nothing in my “storehouse”, there’s nothing for God to bless. As a result of the tithing challenge, and as a result of reading this book, I have finally started a strict savings program – in other words, a “storehouse account” so that God has something to bless and I will have something to fall back on in case another period of lack arrives.
Thank you for encouraging us to try tithing. God’s promise in Malachi came true!
Take the 3-Month Tithe Challenge — Online Form
I'm still in the learning stages of what God actually does in our lives. I guess if I think about it we are all in that stage. Well, like a lot of us human beings, I expected to gain personally somehow by entering the tithe challenge.
We have been running our own business and developed a huge debt load. Since we entered the tithe challenge we had hoped that things might change, they did. We had a lender demand full payment on a loan. I thought to myself, so much for the tithe thing! How can God let this happen?
Then we had an offer to buy the machine from the manufacturer that sold us the machine. We did not want to sell it back to them, especially at the price they offered. They had been ruthless in their dealings with us and I did not want to deal with them. The night before they were to pick up the machine, a man came to us to see if he could buy it and offered almost double the money. THAT WAS AN ELEVENTH HOUR BLESSING.
We are still having HUGE financial burdens that we may never recoup from. The thing is, when we talk about rewards for being faithful in tithing, we tend to look at monetary gain. I missed the mark until recently. I thought we were being overlooked. Then I realized something. I am calm about all this and have been for some time, guess since how long!!! Ohh, say since about the beginning of January. My wife started crying when she saw me packing my machinery up to be sold. She has seen me put blood, sweat and tears into this business and she has watched it fail, mostly due to untrustworthy people. I calmed her and told her everything would be alright. She was amazed at how calm I was. She also said she has seen quite a change in me in the past few months. It took a few days for me to realize why I was able to be so calm. I believe it is a gift from God. He has opened my eyes and my heart to the fact that He is in charge and whatever happens, happens. He knows my heart, there's nothing I can hide. He knows I'm not happy about this situation, in fact I've been quite angry about it until recently.
I guess in summary, if you are faithful to God, even if you mess up, He is loving and kind and will show grace if you ask Him to.
We have a great deal of undesirable stuff to face yet. We are in a nasty financial situation. But, I can face it with a grin because the SON is shining in. Sooooo, let the SON shine in, you'll enjoy it.
Thanks for the challenge.
God bless the ministry at trinity....He is doing a great work through you all.
Take the 3-Month Tithe Challenge — Online Form
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When the challenge was put forward during the service, I was sitting there with my two teenage daughters. We had talked as a family in the past about the concept of tithing and giving sacrificially. I had begun to increase my offerings over the past year and my girls were aware of this change. When Carey put the idea forward to sign a contract and take the challenge, both my girls looked at me, with wonder, questioning in their eyes, "are you going to do this mom?" I knew right then God was asking me to set an example and be a leader to my children. Being on my own with the children has been financially challenging but a prolonged illness in 2005 had required that I be off work for 6 months and my income had dropped significantly during that time and I had accumulated debt to stay afloat with expenses.
Considering the challenge started before Christmas, I swallowed hard, and signed the contract, saying to God, "okay Lord, here goes, I know you will take care of us".
The very first sign of God's blessing came a couple days later through a phone call from my bank, asking me about the renewal of my mortgage in January, and if I wanted to also renew the life insurance and sick benefits again. I asked "what are the sick benefits for?' "Oh, that is coverage for your mortgage if you are sick for more than 60 days and unable to work". I explained to my banker, about being off the year prior, for 6 months and how I hadn't realized I even had this type of insurance on my mortgage. She gave me a number to contact, which I did and found out I was a year past the deadline for submitting the application. I submitted it any way, asking God to open the person's heart who read my application. Amazingly, three weeks later, I received a letter stating that I was accepted to collect on the insurance and the money was already deposited in my account. Wow! The girls and I were so thankful and expressed this to God in our prayers.
A few weeks after this news a second blessing arrived in the form of an invitation to travel with a friend overseas, on a reduced fare ticket and shared accommodation costs. I had not even considered taking a holiday, since the past summer, even though I needed one. Again, the Lord knew just what I needed.
Other blessings came such as having to get something repaired on my car, and having the service charge waived, having my child support payments increased without having to inquire about it. And then, having been referred to a financial advisor by sister, figured out a way to pay off debts at half the interest rate I was paying, and reduce my rate on my mortgage. This way I was able to keep some ofthe insurance money to have "in store".
The three months have gone by, and I continue to tithe, with the assurance thatmy God is aware of even "the smallest details" in my life and showing me how to teach my children about his abundance and love. The biggest blessing of all is that both my girls talk about their need to put some of their earnings back to God's work without any prompting from me.
Thank you Carey for teaching us about what God calls us to do and giving us a challenge to put words into action and stretch us in our faith walk.
Thank you each day for your gift of ministry which has blessed our family immensely.
