My pastor, Carl Turner from http://www.theway.ws, is now a millionaire but many years ago use to work at Mcdonalds flipping burgers married with children, but truly believed in God’s goodness. So, he always claimed he gave his way out of poverty, meaning he tithed and bless others without thinking twice b/c it came from the heart even though he really didn’t have them money himself.

Also, please visit this article on how a Christian should give: http://theprospermagazine.com/2009/06/how-should-a-christian-give/ – the writer made some points you may or may not agree with. Post your thoughts please.

‘well-balanced’. I think that’s important here, and one reason why I like this site so much. If you’ve ever watched (some) of those TV evangelicals, you’ll see what I mean. “Give us $200, pray and believe, and God will… (cancel all your debt) (give you a beautiful new car) (start a business for you) (make you a millionaire).” God can bless us with those things, and its obvious to me that does happen sometimes. Oh, but some people just have it so, so wrong. That’s just not what it’s about, not at all.

@ Agnostic,

Since you’re on a Christian-oriented site, you should expect someone to say something like the following, please don’t let it offend you. You seem quite intelligent, and so must understand that Christians are called to spread the Gospel and love those that we encounter (including you!) I’m so glad that God has brought you here, and I hope you’ll continue to monitor our discussions on various topics. I’ll caution you, because I once believed as you do about God. That other 2% of you believes that God *might* be real. The other 98% of you just can’t make sense of any of this rambling on about scripture, the Holy Spirit, how God had a Son (and he died for me???), how God lets bad things happen to good people, and so on. If that 2% believes that God is your creator, just think about that for a while. Do you really think you are meant to understand your Creator? I don’t think so. Don’t get hung up on what you don’t understand, focus on what you do understand. And frankly, we all understand so little about God, that at times I think it’s absurd to even discuss some of the things we do. But since God created you, he gave you the ability to have a relationship with him. That’s what’s really important; the rest, all just fluff, and don’t worry about it. I’m not going to try to persuade you, that’s not my responsibility; so thanks for listening to y rambling.

I hope you’ll continue share your views here.

Note that animals don’t live that way; left to themselves, there’s a balance to their existence. Only man can engineer “progress” and corosion simultaneously. Why is self-destruction wired into us even as we profess a deep desire to move forward?

And yet inspite of our falleness, we have an inate desire to give back. Animals don’t have this ability. How is it that we know to strive for what’s right, yet we’re bound to do wrong?

I’ve read the answer to this in the Bible over and over, but have yet to find anything in science or philosophy that comes close.

We won’t “fix” the world no matter our best efforts or even our best intentions. It isn’t meant to happen. That doesn’t mean we give up, but it does mean that we do our best and trust God for the outcome.

BTW, surveys indicate that Christians are more generous givers than non-believers by a wide margin. Perhaps it’s because we accept the biblical directive to give more freely than the secular world does because we accept the reason why we feel compelled to do it. God speaks to the entire world, hence people are capable of doing good things, but to the believer who listens willingly, generosity and service come more easily.

I hope this clarifies one or two things…

I like reading these posts. You can classify me largely as an agnostic, though I want to develop some christian virtues. Personally since I feel that there is a 98% chance that God does not exist(though I pray sometimes when I am in some form of crisis), I just find this sowing and reaping thing very strange.

Well personally I feel it is our duty to give irrespective of the bible or GOD. I feel we as human beings must be ashamed of ourselves. With all our technological advancements it is really a sad truth that 1 billion live at a dollar a day and another 2 billion at $2 a day. I hence feel it is a duty that if we belong to the brother hood of man, we must give to eradicate such social evils, not because God or the bible says so it must be based on this notion of human empathy.

Do n’t you guys agree that we must be ashamed that with all our progress, still so many children starve to death and they do not get to enjoy the fruits of humanity’s innovation.
I personally feel very ashamed of that and I feel I definitely should do the best in my power to try to do something about it.

In short I feel the notion that in spite of all the progress (by us humans) , still many people are so unfortunate alone is enough motivating factor to give and not becoz the promise of reaping what we sow.

Just wanted to get this point across from an agnostic perspective. Please feel free to comment on my views. I respect all of your discussions and I like the conversations!

Regards,
Anonymous

God does bless us with all kinds of gifts (though financial prosperity is not promised), but the best gift of all is the Holy Spirit!

Of course! I’d submit that we, as humans, are pretty poor at recognizing blessings. After all God has given us, we always want more, and when we can’t see it, we complain. But I also believe that we are always blessed, 100% as you say, I agree.

I listen to this radio station (a national broadcast Christian station), and I get a kick out of all these people that call in and say what has happened to them (which is great), but they say that God will provide everything you WANT, if you just ask; and that He will bless you will so much that you’ll never WANT anything more. On the same note, that God didn’t bless such and such circumstance because you just didn’t pray hard enough, or just didn’t have enough faith. Oh no, so not true, and in no way is that biblical. It’s true that we are blessed, but not with what we want (sure, maybe on occasion). And again, God’s way, is not our way. Who am I to think I should understand my Creator’s plan for me?

I get the same feeling out of the turnkey give and receive thing. It’s just not true. God has already done his giving, so where is ours? And who are we to say what we will or will not do with HIS money (or time, talents, food, etc, which is a good point Jason).

Great discussion, stimulating my mind today; thanks!