Give
WHY WE GIVE
Throughout its history the Church has received some justified criticism for how it has handled giving. It is therefore important to look at both why and how we give our tithes and offerings. We give because Christ first gave. According to Psalm 50:10 everything already belongs to the Lord and therefore He has no need for us to provide for Him. John 3:27 lets us know that everything we have has come as a gift from God. Therefore when we give our tithes and offerings to the Lord what we are really doing is giving back a portion of what He has given us.
In giving we acknowledge that what we have has not been earned through our strength or ingenuity but has come as a gift from God. We give because He has instructed us to do so. Proverbs 3:9 and Deuteronomy 26 remind us to honor the Lord with our first fruits. Meaning we should decide in advance what we will commit to the Lord instead of giving out of our surplus. It's not about how much we give as we see in Mark 12:42-44. Here Jesus honors a woman who gave out of her poverty and love for God and criticizes the one who gave out of his abundance and self-centeredness.
The New Testament helps us see that our giving is to be an act of joyful worship and not out of a sense of legalistic obligation (2 Corinthians 9:7). Believers are therefore free to decide as individuals and families how they will worship God through their tithes and offerings.
ONLINE GIVING
Online giving has a number of unique advantages including regularity and consistency in offering up the first fruits of what has been entrusted to us.
For these reasons, along with the ease and security of giving through Tithely we encourage you to give online.
However, we also want you to be aware of a pitfall to online giving. The New Testament urges us toward good spirited sacrifices in our generosity. To sustain good spirited sacrificial giving requires frequent contemplative reflection upon important questions such as:
1) What has the Lord entrusted to me to financially steward?
2) What would sacrificial generosity look like in light of what the Lord has entrusted to me?
3) Is my giving a joyful expression of my participation in the ministries God has entrusted to Fairview Bible?
The main pitfall with online giving is that questions like these are often forgotten and seldom revisited. We want to encourage you to give online, but more importantly we want you to reflect often and regularly upon how your giving is a participation in the advancement of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Thank you for your generosity and participation in the ministries of Fairview Bible. The link below will take you directly to the Fairview Bible Tithlely secure online giving link.
Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver
2 Corinthians 9:7