Fruit Inspection

Before I dive too far into the Budget Counseling information, I thought I better explain a basic principle used in our home called Tithing. Generally speaking, a tithe is a tenth. Biblically speaking, to give a tithe is to give 10 percent of your gross income. God gets it right off the top, before Uncle Sam and before all those pesky bill collectors. (“Honor the Lord from your wealth and from the first of all you produce”. Proverbs 3:9).

Not all Christians believe in the tithe. As a matter of fact, I grew up in a church and never even heard the word “tithe” until I moved to the Bible Belt! As a young girl, I received an allowance and learned that some of the money I earned was to be given in the Sunday offering. When I became an adult, I budgeted all my expenses first and what I had left over (if any) could be given.

Only a few short months into my marriage I found out that Jeremy was in trouble with the IRS. There were some filings he had left undone and they were after him for just over $100,000. I was angry with him and thought, “what a great way to start out a new life together!” We had a new home, 2 new vehicles, and a fishing boat.

Many, many questions went through my head. Would they take our stuff? Is our credit going to be ruined? How will we ever pay this off? Should we wait to start a family until it’s paid in full? What are we going to do?????

Jeremy grew up in a tithing home. We had just recently found a church to call home and he asked me to start giving 10 percent of our income each week. I thought he must be insane! We had our regular bills to pay and then, on top of that, this IRS debt whose interest and penalties each month ALONE were mind boggling!!! I didn’t know where the money was going to come from.

I still remember the night I gave our finances over to the Lord. I was sitting in front of my computer making out a new budget. One that included the weekly tithe. It wasn’t possible. Something had to give. You can’t get blood from a turnip after all. The money just was NOT there. I started to cry out to God. I asked Him to take the burden from me and help us. It was completely out of our hands.

So I did as Jeremy had asked and soon we found a bank that agreed to loan us the balance of what we owed to the Internal Revenue. This cut back a lot of the penalties and interest that were adding up every time we turned around. I thanked God for that blessing and knew His hand was upon us.

Not long after that Jeremy’s dad asked if he’d like to partner with him in a subdivision building houses. The split would be 50/50. We agreed and this particular development turned out to be one of the fastest selling neighborhoods my father in law had ever seen. We actually had to hire our first employee during that time just to keep up!!!

With the revenue produced from the house sales we were able to pay off the bank loan for the IRS in LESS THAN ONE YEAR. It was ablsolutely astounding! I never ever imagined it would be possible. But I learned an important lesson. Anything is possible with God if you truly believe and obey His commands.

And again, the command I am talking about here is give 10% of everything you earn back to God first thing, above all else. Leviticus 27:30 says “A tithe of everything from the land, whether grain from the soil or fruit from the trees, belongs to the Lord; it is holy to the Lord.” If I had the time I could tell you many more stories of how we’ve been blessed by God through our tithes and offerings. My mom and my sister have great testimonies about it too. If you have never tried it, I challenge you today. Give God 6 months, or even ONE month, to show you what He’s capable of. Are you skeptical? Go ahead and test Him. It’s okay. I can’t wait to hear what happens!!! :)

**find more information at Crown Financial Ministries!**