I’m a Baptist. Baptist born and Baptist bred, and when I die I’ll be Baptist dead!
When I was saved at 17 years old, I worked at the local gas station – and my pastor began to teach me about tithing. I was just a high school guy – I think I was being paid about $2 dollars an hour. Pastor Parker told me that if God gave me two dollars, I should honor and worship Him by returning twenty cents. So as a high school student – before I became a pastor and preached sermons on tithing – I became a church member who practiced tithing.
Tithing is a wonderful blessing and a magnificent act of worship. It is God’s ordained method of financing his church and his work in the world. Tithing shows due respect to the God who created us and who is the source of anything we have. You may say, “But I made that money myself!” Yes – and your heart beats because God wants it to beat. If we have anything, it is because God has allowed it. We are simply the managers; the stewards of our possessions. A person’s checkbook will say as much about his or her spirituality as any other area of life.
Consider this a challenge – Let God be God, not only of your heart, but of your wallet!