The Sunday News
Itai Chipunza
LAST week we discussed what a tithe is. Just to consolidate on it and because it is clearly understood what a tithe is we will look further into it. We established it is not a request from God, this is an order. You must tithe if you are a Christian or you will become increasingly poor. It is the Law of the Lord and thus it stands. We cannot only limit it to money you earn. In the Bible tithing is referred to as a tenth of all your increase. All increase, not only your salary or what your hands have worked for but also the increase of your investments. Any increase in your life should be tithed.
Leviticus 27: 30
And all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the tree, is the Lord’s. It is holy to the Lord.
As expressed in Leviticus 27 verse 30, one may have the ability to produce all sorts of things and they increase in different ways. The produce of your fields, fruit trees, investments and business interests. These too need to be tithed. This means one has to calculate ten percent of the quantity produced by their land and all their business interest, take it to the house of the Lord as tithe. One may wonder how they will tithe maize or wheat in modern times. The church would not have anywhere to store bulky goods. Furthermore it may be an impossible and costly task to transport it. The Lord Himself has given us a solution. You simply turn it into money.
Deuteronomy 14: 24-26
24 But if the journey is too long for you, so that you are not able to carry the tithe, or if the place where the Lord your God chooses to put His name is too far from you, when the Lord your God has blessed you, then you shall exchange it for money, take the money in your hand, and go to the place which the Lord your God chooses.
The place which is referred to as the place where the Lord has chosen to put his name is your local church. In the olden days it may have been an altar on which sacrifices of burnt offering where taken to, but today it is taken to the church. It is not biblical to send your to someone or a church that is not your local church. One can send a free will offering but it is not biblical to send your tithe. The Bible says the tithe is regarded as holy by the Lord and should not be spent, no matter how much you think it would help the situation if you spent it. Do not use that money. If you interfere with things the Lord has clearly instructed us not to, you will open doors for curses in your life.
Seed planting
Galatians 6 verse 7
“Be not deceived; God is not mocked, for whatsoever a man soweth, he shall also reap.”
2 Corinthians 9 verse 7
“Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”
I first learnt about seed planting from Bishop C Nyathi during a Joshua generation class 2013. He said we plant all sorts of seeds every day and we are sure to reap them in the future. He said when we plant seeds of kindness, love, blessing other people with money or even our time, whether we pay attention to it or not, we will reap these exact same things. This is why we are encouraged to perpetually do good works in our society. Try hard to be good all the time to everyone. It will come back to you. The church generally takes this very lightly. I say so because we sometimes carelessly and unconsciously mistreat people. We forget that the negative is also true , if you plant seeds of back stabbing, stealing, gossip, bad mouthing other people you are sure to reap those exact same fruits even in times when you have forgotten. Some Saints are always victims of people creating stories and all sorts of things about them and they say it’s the devil’s work. Yes, sometimes it is the devil, but sometimes it is just you reaping a hundred fold of what you did and said in the past.
The idea here is to perpetually plant good seeds. All the time and every time, make an effort to bless other people Christians or non-Christians. You can plant seeds of time, money, effort and comfort. You can be sure to reap a hundred fold.
You cannot be a Christian and not interact with other people in sharing with them, Christianity is for the people. Once you are a Christian it is your responsibility to make others Christians as well. This means interacting with people and positively impacting the society by the word of God. To invite them to share in the love and blessing of God. People are attracted more to those that will share with them than those that don’t. it is not rocket science, it is a simple fact of life, people love a giver. Thus God blesses a giver in order to allow more people into his kingdom through the giver.
The good thing about it is, the more of your possessions you share with people, the more God will add to you, you begin to give in order to reduce the quantity you have and the Lord adds even more. So your life becomes that of giving. I am amazed at how much non-Christians understand this principle that is written in the book of Christians. The richest people in the world the likes of Bill Gates open foundations to give away large sums of their wealth every year and yet remain on top of the rich list. The poorest do not give away a thing and remain increasingly poor.
Proverbs 11: 24
One man gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty.
Learn to share, you will become very wealthy through this very simple principle.
