What Else is Important ...

When a baby is born to new parent the first question that usually comes to mind is … now what? For nine months the eager couple has waited in anticipation, undergoing changes in their bodies and minds. They have dealt with strange food cravings, disciplined breathing exercises, weight gain, and uncertainty about how a wife’s body morph’s over time to accommodate the new family member. But now, it is finally born. The baby has entered the world; so again, now what?

Christians who are born again go through a very similar process. We are introduced to the gospel of Christ, the idea that an all-powerful omniscient creator God has an interest in freeing us from the pain of evil we have been slaves to. He dies in our place, and is resurrected to conquer our death. His life of perfection is traded for our life of failure. And we are given the reward He is entitled to while He takes on our punishment. We marvel at this picture definition of love showered on us as individuals. We are drawn to the foot of the cross and in humility accept His strength for our weakness, and in so doing, find all things truly are possible because of God. It is liberating. It is exhilarating. It is freedom. And like the new born baby who enters the world … now what?

Are there other truths that are important in our lives past the submission of our will to Christ? Do these teachings or truths lead us to a better understanding of the character of our God? Do they affect our salvation, or influence it in some way or another? Or have we learned all that is truly important, and none of the rest of it really matters? Yes ,,, and no. We have indeed learned all the is TRULY important in that the process of saving us from evil and redeeming us to our loving Father God is by far the most important thing we need to know. Through our submission to Christ, He leads us to His truth, in His time, in His way – so no, we are not done learning yet, there is more for us to know, just nothing more important than the basis of what we learn in “how” to be saved. For if we do not submit our will to Christ first; He is unable to lead us. When we lead, we do a lousy job, so it is most important to submit first in order that we can be taught.

So what are some of the truths that Christ will lead you to His time and in His way? There is no one right answer. There are many. And some will be more important to you for your personal growth in your relationship with Christ than would matter to me in mine. Salvation is highly individualized. For instance, there are some who desperately need to learn the lesson of tithing. This practice God setup from as far back as man can remember. The patriarch Abraham gave ten percent of his increase to a priest of the Lord whose name was Melchizedek. Keep in mind that the children of Israel did not exist when this took place, so Melchizedek was not an Israelite let alone a Levite. He was likely a Canaanite who still chose to serve the living God in ministry. And Abraham did not record exactly how he was given the instructions for tithing. Malachi was the most prolific writer on the subject and he would not enter the scene for almost 2000 years. Our best guess then, is that God directed the practice from Adam by word of mouth to Noah, and then to the succeeding generations, until Moses formally recorded it on scrolls.

So we know tithing is a very old practice, but this does not address “why” it was setup. Obviously it was NOT just to support the priesthood as a formal Levite tribe dedicated to the service of God in His temple did not exist during the first instance of the gift. While the funds did support priests, God did not set it up to make His servants rich. Nor did He set it up to make His obedient followers poor. You see it just does not make sense to pay tithe from a financial perspective. Often if a person truly gives God ten percent of their earnings (whether before or after tax), on paper they become insolvent. They are budgetarily unable to pay required bills and still pay tithe. One could argue that this is due to Americans over extending themselves in debts they should not acquire, but even the frugal can face hard choices when it comes to paying tithe. God does not need the money, for the scripture says … “the cattle on a thousand hills are mine.” So since He owns everything anyway what is the point of us “suffering” in order to follow His directives?

The answer and the lesson is faith. It takes faith, or trust, to value the directions or word of God more than logic or common sense. It does not make financial sense to pay tithe. But those that do ALWAYS seem to meet their bills and find a way to manage their money. They never quite know how. For it is not a logical practice, yet it does not cause the hardships one would expect to endure over it. Faith over what appear to be facts teaches us that our God is greater than our imaginations, greater than our logic, greater than our reality. For us to give what He asks teaches us to prioritize money properly. Yes we need it to survive, but no it is NOT our god. We freely return to God what is already His and we are liberated in the process. We are set free from the bondage of the pursuit of wealth that can never be achieved. We find rest in His assurances that everything will be OK, it will all work out, even though it does not seem clear right now. When we see the effects of our faithful giving result in a ministry that brings another soul to Christ, another repentant sinner who now stands under the foot of the cross as our new brother in the faith; we can hardly restrain ourselves from wanting to give even more to the cause. We become like Oscar Schindler at the end of the war who now finds no value in his jewelry and wealth, only in how many Jews he might have saved through the sale of them.

You see just a simple practice like tithing can take on deep and profound meaning in our lives if we let Him lead, and examine truth for more than just a mere physical obedience. While all of us need these truths, some of us need them now, more than others do. The naturally charitable who give of themselves all the time still need this truth, but perhaps not as critically as the one who has never spent a dime on anyone but himself. The truth may apply to both, but may be needed by the latter more than the former.

Does tithing then affect our salvation? No. Does it influence it? Perhaps. The truths of tithing are revealed to us to begin the process of changing our character from the self-absorbed to the service obsessed. While we rebel against the idea of changing who we are, we prevent God from freeing us from the pain our selfishness inevitably brings to our lives. While we selfishly cling to the illusion of control of our funds, we remain in bondage to the pursuit of acquiring them. We are never made free from the stress of survival. We worry incessantly over having enough, and never know the freedom of giving what we cannot afford to give. Can God still save the person who cannot bring themselves to pay tithe? Yes. But that person lives a life of pain and forgiveness, rather than one of freedom and joy. The end result may be the same; that God forgives his erring servants their greed, but the journey is RADICALLY different here on earth. Those that embrace the truths of tithing become deeply blessed, and freed from much self-inflicted pain. There is no substitute for this, only choices that lead to freedom or misery along the way.

We are not saved or lost based on our tithe and offerings. We are not condemned by our theft of them from God any more than we are condemned by the remainder of our character deficiencies. We can still claim forgiveness even for the sins we know we commit. But clinging to sin is like clinging to cancer. We poison ourselves with our selfishness instead of freeing ourselves through submission of our will to Christ. Change is not a natural phenomenon, but is a reality when we submit to Christ. Christ can take our heart of stone and break it on His rock, the Cornerstone of our faith. He can shatter our heart of stone into a million pieces, and then make for us a heart of flesh once again. He can restore our ability to feel each other’s burdens and delights. He can help us take care of each other. He can free us from selfishness and liberate us into His service to others. And in so doing, our journey home to heaven becomes one filled with joy instead of sorrow. Our lives become something wonderful as we embrace the kingdom of God in the here and now.

I cannot possibly tell you all the truths that Christ so desperately wants to reveal to you in your life, and in your journey back to Him. I do not know them all. No one could. But I know your process is meant for you, your journey is real, and we will spend all of our lives – not just in this world, but in the world to come – learning at the feet of Jesus that which He would have us to know. Learning is an infinite process that begins now. No matter how far we get, we have miles to go. And no matter where we are, we are richly blessed for being led to this point. For our part then, we must remain open, humble and willing to be led. We must focus on the message not the messenger. We must embrace truth, even the kind that causes us to change our thinking, motives, and behaviors by submitting our will to Christ. And in this everything will matter, and our lives will carry meaning we have not even dreamed of to date.