Stories from Christ Community #4

At age 26, which was awhile ago, I joined my Christian wife at church to please her. At that age, I knew everything so I listened attentively so I
could critique at lunch. The first thing I remember hearing was following the offering. Everyone stood and said, “All things come of thee, O Lord, and of thine own have we given thee.” I asked about that afterward and learned that a guy wrote that in First Chronicles, 14b. My home town paper was The Courier. There were two papers where I then lived: The Times and The Tribune. I wanted to check out this guy who wrote for The First Chronicles, Section B, page 14. As may be apparent to you, I did not know everything!

The verse haunted me well past my embarrassment and I was challenged to read this ancient book so many people cared about. I chose to attend services, hungry for these new concepts. The sole clergyman at the small church had gone to the Air Force Academy and handed out business cards to men who attended. Wonder why? His card gave his name followed by his title: CHIEF DRAGON SLAYER. I wasn’t sure if this contemporary of mine was a brick short of a load or not, but we became friends based on that one verse.
Who is the rightful owner of stuff? My auto title may have my name on it and it may boldly say NONE where it asks for lien holder, but I learned that I didn’t own anything. Men don’t like information like that but I decided to play the new game and test the writing in the Book. I accepted the challenge of tithing before I knew Jesus and accepted His claim on my life. On the occasions of testifying to God’s faithfulness, I have often been told that I was the nut case.
Why would a non-Christian tithe? My answer was that I had been reading the Book and it said if I didn’t tithe I was robbing God and I didn’t want to take that risk, in case the things I was hearing were true. Besides, it also said I had the right to test Him in these matters and He would pour out so much I wouldn’t have room to store it. R-i-g-h-t, I thought. Let’s see how this turns out.
Well, here’s an overview. My one-industry sales territory dried up. I had to move and take an office job. Against my will, I changed my business direction but set some national records in things administrative, got a raise, was sent throughout the western US as an instructor, came home to another pay increase, was sent to some very fine training centers, came home, received a promotion and an increase and on it went. Homesick for Florida, I quit my job and came home, busied myself in a restart and was way too busy for God. If you don’t know what’s next, you aren’t paying attention. After awhile, I had an “AHA” moment, reintroduced myself to the the Lord and everyone seemed to notice how “lucky” I was. I had bounty in life again and lots to share, which I did. Along the way, I took another look at Leviticus 5:16. I find the Lord to be very patient with me but I wanted a fresh way to tell Him thank you. This verse is the formula for restitution. I saw myself as a more or less reformed robber. There were years that I had not tithed. I knew that I had worked since I was 14, and being anal retentive, or whatever that term is, I had all of my previous tax
returns. I asked my wife if she would be supportive as I wanted to make restitution for all the years before tithing and for the few more recent years that I was brain dead. She reminded me that it was not required but she would be supportive if I thought God was somehow in this idea. Wediscussed that restitution means paying what is owed and then adding a fifth part to it. Hey! That’s an additional twenty percent of the ten percent. As you can imagine, my earliest years were small numbers and 10% of those numbers plus 20% of the 10% were quick and easy. As the time closed in, the numbers got larger, and guess who was on my shoulder telling me it wasn’t required? No, it was not my wife! The enemy of my soul, a liar and the father of lies Jesus called him, was nagging me constantly … stuff like, “You need a set of tires … in fact you need a new car … why don’t you forget this stuff … legalism isn’t good for you … and on and on. After a few years, we were feeling free in a way we had never experienced. When things were short term tight, I would earn a bonus or something like that would occur. A former employer of mine awarded ESOTs ( a form of employee stock ownership) to his managers. Wonderful, but the company experienced crisis and I lost both job and my ESOT. My wife and I were both working but neither with a retirement package at work. There were two in college back-to-back. But God was watching. When the former employee sold his com- pany, a condition of the sale was that his former managers would receive the full value of their ESOTs.
What a surprise! My wife’s then current employer, and my then current employer, in the same year, announced that they had some time ago started funding a retirement program but would have to discontinue it. As we looked at each other and said, “Oh, well…” the two employers said that while the programs were being discontinued, the dollars in the programs rightfully belonged to us, and the checks arrived. Go God!
Despite those financial ups and downs in 41 years of marriage, we never failed to pay our bills timely, we were able to retire without pensions, I started and ran my own company in later years and owed nobody. As you hear these words, it is most important that you do not hear a man tooting his own horn. It is all about God’s faithfulness and this is a tiny summary of His richness as I experienced it. Thank you Heavenly Father. Amen