Tithes & Offerings: God's Economic Plan

Malachi 3:10 (King James Version)

10Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.

Despite what you see happening on the stock markets and in the financial world at large, God has a painfully simple economic system. Tithing is where you give a tenth of your income, usually to a church or religious organization.

More and more often people have substituted charities and non-religious organizations as the place they choose to tithe or donate to. I'll hold my personal views on this for the time being and get right to my point.

If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, or claim yourself to be a part of God's kingdom, you are expected to tithe. (even in times as tight as these)

I know, I know, you can't afford it during these rough times. But I encourage you to read Malachi 3:10. See, while the presidential candidates need pages and pages to lay out their plans for economic growth and taxation, God amazingly needs only ONE verse to explain His.

Tithing is about faithfulness, or more specifically stewardship to the Lord.

Again, I know you say you cant afford it... but without God what COULD you afford at all? Times like the ones we face now are EXACTLY the right moment to remain faithful in your giving! You can clearly see that our government cant pay it's own bills, how do you expect them to help you pay yours?

And I dont want to hear about how you dont give to the Lord because your pastor drives a Bentley... that will be between him and the Lord. lol

Stewardship is all about how we manage and account for the things God has placed in our care. It encompasses how we spend our time, our money, how we maintain our bodies, and even the decisions we make.

So if you are'nt already tithing, I strongly encourage you to do so. I can only speak for my wife and I in saying that we count it as a gift and a priviledge to give back to the Lord a portion of what He's given unto us!

Be faithful,

@W







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An exciting new partnership: Gasbuddy comes to @Risk Blog

Hi there gazelle-intense guys and gals,

I just wanted to give a quick update on a new addition to our site that I'm pretty excited about! In honor of the much needed decline we've seen at the pumps recently, I've joined forces with Gasbuddy.com and they've allowed me to place 2 info boxes over on the right side of the blog. The first is a search box where you can quickly find the lowest gas prices in your area by simply typing in your city, state, or zip code. The second is an info box that lists the lowest and highest gas price listed in your state in realtime!

In the futue I look forward to bringing more handy tools like this to the site that will only help in your efforts to dump that debt in the easiest and smartest ways possible.

I hope you enjoy this neat addition. It's my pleasure to make these types of tools available!

Thanks for being a part of the site,

@W

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R.I.P American Dream

*Today I really urge you to ponder the photo above and what this all really means.

Yesterday was a game changer for our nation. Congress and the Senate showed just how willing they are to flub it up when we need them most. And while it's nice that they are busy bailing out (or rather, not bailing out) Corporate America, still nothing is being done to help you and me directly. What about at least giving deferments for the millions who are behind on mortgage payments? Or maybe adding more duty-free days to the calendar like they do for back-to-school shopping? It would boost the economy, and lighten the load on families nationwide. Or how about a complete moratorium on all taxes for 2009, state, federal, and sales?

I'm not saying that the things I just suggested would work, but at least I hear myself making suggestions. I hear nothing from our elected leaders on how to fix OUR collective messes. Nada. Instead we always get "help" in ways we DON'T need. We don't need another "stimulus package" for us all to blow on DVDs and The Cheesecake Factory, but then that just brings to light the real problem, doesn't it?

Government never told us what to spend the stimulus checks on... but then they already KNEW what we would blow/waste/spend them on. Not on our student loan(s), not on the utility bill(s) that we get cutoff notices for each month because it's already 2 months behind. Nope, instead this summer we spent it on IPhones and The Dark Knight, which is now the 3rd highest grossing movie of ALL-TIME. And which also debuted in theatres the same week that we saw gas prices peak with a national average of $4.09/gallon! The movie has grossed nearly $600 million of your hard earned dollars. And sales for the IPhone have been about half of that or $300 million.

Don't get me wrong, you will never hear @W tell you not to enjoy the fruits of your labor... but many of us are enjoying the fruits of things we haven't even labored for yet! We're selling out our futures for STUFF! Living check-to-check and further entrenching ourselves in the rat-race we claim to hate so much.

Sure, I want you to enjoy the things this life has to offer... just not with a bill collector on your back, and while the credit company earns 20% interest off of you!

So let's have a moment of silence for the Great American Dream. The ride was fun while it lasted, but that doesn't mean that YOUR dreams have to be over because of it. If we learn our lesson this time and dump this mentality of debt, this could actually be the birth of what makes our nation great again.

@W

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