Are You Wicked?

Before the end of this year, I had a very interesting conversation in one of my dreams. I was talking to 

someone, I don't remember who it was, or the person's name because it wasn't that important. But I do clearly remember the conversation as this was what i was supposed to remember.

We were talking about Christians and debt, and how according to the Bible we should approach it. "Well," I said,"  borrowing money in itself is not a sin, but not repaying it is as the Bible teaches us that it is the wicked who borrow and do not pay back."

"Then, the large portion of Christians in the Western church are wicked." The other person answered. I woke up the next morning thinking about this conversation and its implications. Personally, me and my husband were convicted many years ago to pay of all our debts, even the ones that have been "forgiven" us by the credit card companies, which we were not really required by the human law to do, but which we felt we had to do to obey the Lord.

I believe that this act restored blessing of God on our finances, which improved dramatically since then. We continue to live by this principle. Before we were always struggling, never having enough sometimes even for our needs, and unable to help those in real need. Now, not only we don't worry about our finances, but we are better able to help those who really need our help too, which is exactly what the verse displayed here says, that the righteous give. They give because they can give, because they do not suffer  constant lack like the wicked do.

Even apart from spiritual side of this principle, the common sense and logic shows why not paying your debts back is in fact wicked. The economy works well only when debts are being repaid because if too many people borrow and do not pay it back into the system, that system will eventually collapse, so not paying your debts back is in a way a form of stealing because it forces someone else to pay from the money they work hard for for your  financial recklessness.

Imagine how great it would feel, if you did not owe anyone anything, if you did not had credit card and other bills with interest eating away all your resources. It is possible. Take the debt you have with the highest interest and begin paying it back with the highest amount you can. Look at what you spend your money on that you really do not need to spend on and use it to pay your debt, until eventually it is all paid off. Remember that after you do that, the money you used to have to pay for your debts will be yours to keep, for your needs and for helping others in need.

In the next few years, it is likely the that interest rates on debts will rise, and borrowing will become more and more expensive. If you put your financial house in order now, you will not be affected by it later, but if you will not, you might lose everything you have that you did not  fully pay for. I believe that the Lord wants us to be blessed and be a blessing to others, and not suffer lack with the wicked.

A Car in Niagara Draws Attention of Residents And Provokes Online Discussion

A car shown in the photo above was sighted at Costco parking lot in St. Catharines, Ontario recently. Someone just laughed and shared it online as something funny, but the discussions I saw below the post also revealed some negative attitudes that many people have towards religion and Christianity in particular and made me think a lot.

One person stated that the messages on the car are an example of very poor taste and an example unwelcome religious zeal, accusing the owner of hypocrisy for spending money on the car and those messages that would be spent better on helping the poor by donating them to the food bank.

I remarked in reply to that person that we don't even know who the owner is and suggested the possibility that this person might be spending a lot more money on helping the poor than they spent on this car, and pointed out the fact that before we begin criticizing someone else for something we should first check if we ourselves are not guilty of the very same thing.

And it is true that often people who judge others for spending money on unnecessary things instead of giving are the ones who are not very giving themselves, though it might not have been the case as I do not know the person who left that comment either.

But what I see in Canadian society in particular is a big entitlement attitude among "the poor", who think  of themselves as victims and that everyone owes them while they are poor because they refuse to take any responsibility for themselves while looking down on those who did and who experience financial success as a result of working hard and taking advantage of the opportunities that they are given.

Those people often spend many years studying or working on their business before they can even have an opportunity to have higher incomes and when they have them as much as 50% of that income is automatically taken by the government to help the "poor," but they still donate to charitable causes even on top of that while so many of the so called poor live on assistance in order to feed their destructive habits.

But there is also some legitimate resentment and criticism towards people who are well off, especially those of Christian faith because of  the financial abuse that some of the Christian leaders  engage in by living in luxury off of the donations often given by the poor members of their churches.

I remember one prosperity preaching pastor who saw an old clunker car on the road one day with "Jesus is coming soon," sticker on it. That pastor started making fun of the owner of the car whom he did not even know, saying that he should buy a fancier car and then put such sticker on it so, he/she would be a "better testimony". I could not help, but think that perhaps this person does not have a fancy car because they donate the money they could have spent on a better car to such people as that pastor! In fact I was one of such people at the time. I thought, "Here we sacrifice and drive an old beaten up car, so that we could donate to this man's ministry thinking it is for a good cause and he is making fun of me and others like me right into our faces while he himself drives a fancy car bought with those very donations. Needless to say we left that church, as did many others and it does not exist anymore.

So, I acknowledge that there is a hypocrisy in the church, but that does not mean that  all Christians are hypocrites. In our Western society we are very quick to scream at people who legitimately criticize us, "Don't judge me!" While we are all too eager to judge people whom we even don't know at all for the very things we are guilty of ourselves.

I guess it is best that we all first take the plank out of our own eyes before we try to take out the specks from the eyes of others. Whatever the motivation of the person who owns that car. He or She succeeded in making people think. God bless them.

Why Early Churches Did Not Practice Tithing, but Joyful Giving

If you grew up in, or are part of the church who teaches tithing, it might come as a shock to you to find out that early Christian gentile church did not tithe.  For those of you who do not know, tithing was an Old Testament practice of honouring God with the first 10% of one's increase, so the rest would be blessed as well. It was to be given to the priests and used for their sustenance and for helping the poor. The earliest biblical example we have of it was when Abraham gave the tithe of the spoils of war to a priest called Melchizedek, and later it became part of the  temple system law.


It is interesting to note that Jesus never talked about tithing, but  He talked a lot about giving generously to those around us who are in need. As a matter of fact, the only time Jesus even mentioned the tithe was when he rebuked the Pharisees for paying so much attention to tithing and so little attention to more important tenets of the Law.


Perhaps many churches today are committing the same error. The leadership of way too many churches today is not bothered when their church members engage in sinful lifestyle, when they commit sins such as adultery, idolatry, fornication, or when they take financial advantage of the poor or refuse to pay back what they borrowed, as long as they tithe...


Early Christian church, on the other hand, especially the gentile one does not seem to have practiced it at all. There is not a single mention of tithing in Acts of the Apostles or in the letters of the Apostles to the churches, even in passages about giving and supporting financially the ministers of the gospel. Also the counsel of Jerusalem, when they were asked about what gentile churches should observe did not mention it either.  Have you ever wondered why?


I did wonder about that ever since a pastor in Poland whose church did not practice that either, pointed it out to me. And now I think,  I understand why.


You see, when Jesus died on the cross and rose again from the dead, he fulfilled the Law and restored those who accepted His gift of Salvation to the free fellowship with God. Before people get saved, they try to earn God's favour by doing as  many "good deeds" as they can in hopes of earning it, but when they get saved they do them because they are right things to do. They don't do what is right to get saved, but because they already are saved.


In the same way people in the time of Old Testament  gave tithes,  so they could get blessed, now in Jesus we are already blessed, so we give because we ARE blessed, not to get blessed. Though it is true that when we give, we get blessed even more, but it should not be the reason for giving. And the amount such as 10% is not specified in New Testament like it was in the old because we are expected to go way beyond it in our giving.


If you have conviction to give tithe, by all means give it, but understand that you are free to give any amount you like to give, according to your ability. Ten percent is a good place to start, but don't limit yourself just to that, and know that giving is not just about giving your money or things (originally tithe was never money but things), it is also about giving of your time, love, and care to others in the name of Jesus. Giving is about sharing joyfully with others what God has already blessed us with. So, don't allow people to manipulate you into giving by saying that if you will not ( give to them or their church), then God will Curse you( quoting Scriptures taken out of context of the entire Bible), or that you should give in order to receive as a some sort of get rich quick scheme. Don't give to such people, especially if you see that they are living a lavish lifestyle out of offerings. But listen to the Holy Spirit and give generously to the churches, ministries, or people in need that He wants you to give to and do it freely knowing that you are already richly blessed.


"H who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?" (Romans 8:32 )