Bill and Donna
The Situation: Bill and Dona are in their mid-thirties. Bill has steady work as a salesman, but there always seems to be too much month left at the end of their money. Bill and Donna sincerely intend to put in the offering box whatever’s left at the end of the month. But, between house payments and bills and occasionally socking a little money into savings, there’s just never anything left. They fell bad, but what can you to when you are out of money?
The Problem: Bill and Donna don’t understand “first fruits.” They should give to the Lord off the top, not out of “what’s left” of no left. They don’t realize that the tithe belongs to God, and that there’s a word for taking money and that doesn’t belong to you – stealing.
Bob and Elaine
The Situation: Bob is in his early fifties. His wife Elaine says, “for years we frittered away our income on all kinds of luxuries. Now we’re twelve years from retirement and we don’t have anything saved. On top of that, we’ve still got two kids in college that need our help. “we’d like to give to the church,” Bob explains. “But Scripture says we’ve got to provide for our family first. After we get our kids through school and maybe get a nest egg started, then we’ll start giving.
The Problem: Bob and Elaine are keeping what belongs to God in order to compensate for their poor planning and lack of discipline in the past. Their first debt is not to their children’s college education. Their first debt is to God. If it wasn’t tuition cost, it would be something else. Since they have no true conviction about giving and no standard of giving to start wit, they’ll always find a reason not to give.
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