Daniel from Texas:
You have an extraordinarily good heart, and Jesus Himself loves the way you have overcome the world, but yet He has some ot with you.
I didn't quite understand the full sentence (i.e. "but yet He has some ot with you?" -- not sure what that means), but I do not have a "good heart." There is none good but God, and no goodness apart from His Spirit, where righteousness is imputed to us who are born again through the blood of Christ.
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
-Jer 17:9
As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
-Rom 3:10-12
Many people tithe knowing it is not required in the new testament, but as every man gives according to his heart, many of us by faith have committed to supernatural provision from God that starts with our desire to tithe.
Where did that come from? You started out claiming in opposition to Scripture that I have a "good heart," and now you've switched to talking about random people who tithe? Did you have something particular you wanted to talk about, or are you going to keep bouncing around different topics?
In your example of the man who makes a $1,000.00 a month and has $950.00 in bills and gives $50.00 is living in the flesh and in a spirit of lack.
First of all, it would have been best to start your letter off by telling me that you read the teaching I did on tithe. Is that correct? That would be giving the person your writing a subject of context, so the other person can follow the words you're saying. That's something you may want to practice in the future so that others can understand your speech, especially for me, because I don't like trying to guess what someone wants to talk about.
Secondly, I don't know what you mean by "living in the flesh and in a spirit of lack." You didn't bother to explain what you meant.
Third, because you're bouncing around topics, making unbiblical claims, and not defining what you're talking about, I'm only going to give you a little bit more time. If your letter doesn't start making some sense soon, or if you start making false accusations at me, then I won't read your letter any further because I've got work to do.
When i make $1,000.00 a month and only have $50 left after bills, i still give the $100.00 and then i have the right to claim God's promise that He will rebuke the devourer, He will make sure the vine always produces fruit, He will see the ground of my work increase.
No, that means you're getting in unbiblical debt, and not paying what you owe. Your refusal to pay that which you owe is not a Biblical claim, nor is it faith; that's wickedness in your heart.
Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.
-Romans 13:8The more I read in your letter, the more I see a man who loves tradition and has no understanding of Biblical doctrine.
Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye.
-Mark 7:13
But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
-1Co 2:14
Don't forget about faith Chris. God loves us to put our trust in Him and the Tithe causes me each week to start with Him, by giving Him my sweat and energy that produced funds, and now i can rely on Him to provide, by faith.
And that's where I'll stop reading your letter. I don't appreciate the back-handed slap in your claim that I have "forgotten about faith." Your letter indicates a man who hides behind vain, flattering words of deception, trying to say on the one hand that I have a "good heart" at the start of your letter, but then on the other hand, you claim that I have "forgotten faith," which would indicate I have a bad heart, not a good one. Your vain and flattering lips come from a wicked tongue and a double heart/mind:
They speak vanity every one with his neighbour: with flattering lips and with a double heart do they speak.
-Psalm 12:2
A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.
-James 1:8If you want to make an accusation, then stop murmuring, be direct, make your accusation clear, and then go to the Word of God, that which you should put your faith in, and show me the New Testament ordinance that commands us to practice the Old Testament ordinance of tithe. I don't care about your personal opinions and feelings, and neither does the Lord God; it is only the truth that matters. I'll wait for your response on that, but if you can't show that, then perhaps you need to judge yourself in your unrighteousness, meaning that you love the traditions men more than the truth of God's Word.
Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.
-Col 2:8If you were truly giving in the faith, then you wouldn't need tithe in the first place.
The Biblical Understanding of Charity
This man did have more to his letter, but I didn't bother reading it because he was contradicting himself, and promoting false doctrine with his personal feelings and opinions. I often get letters like this where there is a facade of "kindness" or pretense of "humility," but the contradictory nature and the unbiblical excuses in their words show the wickedness in their hearts, that it's all for show, and they get angry and depart when I rebuke their deception.
