Giving

Let me start by saying how greatly God has blessed our family. First I could have never imagined that I could be so sure of heaven not because of what I have done but because of what God gave, His only begotten son Jesus Christ. Then he gave me a husband almost 5 years ago. If that weren't enough he has given us 3 children all healthy and perfect to me. He has blessed us beyond all measure but he still gives more. Right before Chris' first deployment in May 2007 I remember adding up all of our debt right after getting our minivan. It totalled around 65,000.00!!!! Credit cards, car payments, student loans, more student loans, and more loans!!! It was amazing we had only been married 2 years and had only been a one income household for 1 year. How did this happen......not following Gods economy. God says debt is bad....didn't ever dawn on us that debt was unbiblical. God says to tithe....we had stopped tithing because of a misunderstanding of the new testament commands. God says to give and it shall be given unto you with good measure....we could not honestly say we were giving anything after we stopped tithing about 10 months of our marriage as God does not recognize anything under your tithe as giving. Tithing is not giving.....it is giving God out of our bank account what already belongs to him soley for the purpose of spreading the gospel not to be used on our personal needs. I know all of our money belongs to him when we pay for food, car, clothes we need to honor him too because since we belong to him everything we have belongs to him too. Well once we got back on track and realized that the tithe is for new testament believer our finances have been blessed exceedingly. We have payed off 3 student loans 2 credit cards, 3 loans, and Lord willing at the end of this month our minivan!!! All the while paying tithes and giving over the tithe as the Lord lays on our hearts. Well recently the Lord has laid on our hearts to give even more not to get more out of God but because we look around and realize how blessed we are there are those without jobs, those with sick children (maybe from vaccines but thats another blog for another day) Some forcing their wives to leave the training and nurturing of their children up to a babysitter or heathen public school system because of their finances. I am not boasting as i know God has truly given us everything we have and it is because of him that my husband has the health and strength to go to work everyday and bring home a reward of his labor. I am not claiming health and wealth if you pay tithes and give offerings as it is satans world and some of us will not reap what we have sown until we get to heaven. I am just saying it feels wonderful to honor God with our finances and reap alot of his blessings right now in this present world.