A man serves pie to all the expenses in his life. He is about to eat the last piece when he notices one more person at the table: the One who brought the pie.
Category Archives: Tithing
Ten Percent Meets All The Needs
A husband and wife team of researchers, the founders of Empty Tomb, Inc., in Champaign, Illinois, have tracked American and American Christian expenditures as well as global needs. John and Sylvia Ronsvalle have estimated that $70-$80 billion a year could meet the most essential human needs around the world. “Projects for clean water and sanitation, prenatal and infant/maternal care, basic education, immunizations, and long-term development efforts are among the activities that could help overcome the poverty conditions that now kill and maim so many children and adults.”
The Ronsvalles go on to write, “That figure of $70-$80 billion may sound like anything but good news. God may be generous, you may agree, but has he been that generous? Consider this: If church members in the United States would increase their giving to 10 percent of their income, there could be an additional $86 billion available for overseas missions.”
Craig L. Blomberg, Preaching the Parables (Baker Academic, 2004) p. 51. Updated statistics from www.emptytomb.com
What To Pray For?
Sometimes when we pray, as the Bible says, “We don’t know what to pray for.” That leads to some interesting dilemmas. That was the case for one pastor.
“I want to tithe,” a man told his pastor, “I want to give 10 percent of my income to my church. When my income was $50 a week, I gave $5 to the church every week. When I was successful in business and my weekly income rose to $500 a week, I gave $50 to my church every week. But now my income has gone to $5,000 a week, and I just can’t bring myself to give $500 to the church every week.”
The pastor said, “Why don’t we pray over this?” The pastor began to pray, “Dear God, please make this man’s weekly income $500 a week so that he can tithe again…”
Rev. John L. Mand, “Holy Humor” by way of wit and wisdom quoted from SermonFodder email list