Giving

It’s always easier to give when you have a lot but it’s so much more difficult to be generous when you have little. Our friend shares how she allowed her financial circumstances dictate her giving and caused her to have a “shortfall” in her relationship with God.  

I remembered letting the offering bowl pass by without putting anything into it.  It was the first time in years I had done so.  I had recently lost my job and was living off of unemployment so it didn’t make sense for me to tithe when I barely had enough to cover my living expenses.  I felt justified.  Why give when it will cause you to not have enough to pay your bills.  Isn’t paying your bills godly since it’s showing love to those who owe you money?  I reasoned that if God had wanted me to give He would have given me the resources to do.  Although all these reasons made sense me, I couldn’t help but feel uneasy by what I had done. 

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You Will Not Have Enough Room For It

Our friend, Micheal, recently learned the joy of giving with a generous heart and witnessed God’s riches that poured in because of his obedience.  Micheal’s message is one that many of us, in this economy, can relate to: If you don’t have much material wealth in this world and are struggling to stay afloat, give generously. You will be amazed by God’s ability and willingness to multiply our limited resources into something magnificent!

“Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.” - Malachi 3:10

This is a testimony to this verse. These past 2 months God has been teaching me about money. I remember being in a car with my small group leader and he was rebuking me saying, “It’s not that God doesn’t want to give you money, it’s just that you’re not ready for it yet. If you get money, God knows you will spend it on things you probably shouldn’t.”

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That night we went to a workshop on money. There, I learned about generosity. We should give in 3 ways: One, tithe. Two, give until you ‘see the whites of their eyes’, which means give so generously until you can see their eyes open wide in surprise. Three, royalty giving. In the same way there was this queen in the Old Testament who brought gifts to King Solomon, we should bring gifts to those we visit, even if they are rich. It’s not so much the gift, but more about knowing that you thought about them and went out and took the time to bring them something. We are royalty. We are sons of the King, princes and princesses. Giving should be a part of who we are.

That night, I went home and immediately tithed for all my projects. I later also attended a GBS prayer meeting, where they prayed for those who needed financial help.  A week later, I received 8 projects within about 3 days. (I’m a motion graphics freelancer and normally I only get like 2 projects in one month). A week later, I tithed again, donated some money to the organization “Food for the Poor,” and also gave my roommate, who found out that the new job he got was for a scam artist and ran away with his money, $100.  That same day, I received a call and got asked to do a video for KOLLABORATION. Simultaneously, my church amazingly also started a 2 week series on money and giving. At our small groups, our leader challenged us to give to whoever asked of us this month.  That week, I received mail from 2 organizations, Food for the Poor and Holtz International, asking for donations. I gave to them and tithed again. A couple days later, I received 3 more projects: One for the KPOP MASTERS concert at MGM in Vegas, and another to make background graphics for the new KIA cars when they are showcased at the national auto shows around the US. These are some of the biggest projects I’ve ever received.

This is NOT a prosperity gospel testimony. It is not about seeking after money. What it is about is the following: If you seek after God, He will take care of you. If you delight yourself in the Lord, He will give you the desires of your hearts. (Psalm 37:4). I’ve received a lot of projects. But these projects don’t give me the same kind of joy as when I’m praying or when I’m in the presence of God. That is TRUE JOY and no amount of amazing projects, fame, or money can compare! Aren’t you thankful that there is someone out there who doesn’t care about how much money you make, or what you look like, or how many relationships you’ve been in, but cares for what matters most: our character? He cares for our soul. It is not that He doesn’t want to fix your financial life, but rather that He wants to first fix your heart. My pastor from my home church in Illinois would always say: God is always looking for ANY excuse to bless you! It’s not that He doesn’t have enough blessings for us, it’s that we don’t have enough room in our hearts to receive the blessings. Father, increase the bowls of our hearts so that we may take more of you in!

Lastly, for those who are in need of financial help, I wrote this for myself. Maybe it can help you. Open up your bank account and look at how much money you have. This number could be $50 or it could be $50 million. But let me tell you some truth. That number you are staring at is NOT a measure of how much God loves you and it is NOT a measure of how much God will take care of you. You already KNOW how much God loves you. You know how much God will provide for you and how many resources He has. That number, whether it be $50 or $50 million, is problematic. It’s far too small compared to how much God loves you and how much you ALREADY have in Jesus.

Seek the Lord first and He will give you what you need. And for those who are rich, which I argue is anyone living in America, let’s learn to be generous. God doesn’t give you more money to increase your standard of living, but to increase your standard of giving. And how could we not give!? The more we give, the more God has promised to give back to us!

My $150 Investment

Our brother SMC recently discovered how deep a relationship with God can be.  It is more than just going to church regularly and being a “good citizen”. Read about how God has revealed Himself to him, and how his personal relationship with Christ has flourished. 

A few weeks ago, our pastor asked for an offering to help out with buying sound equipment for our praise and worship team. I felt led to contribute a certain amount even before I attended the prayer meeting. It was an amount that hurt my wallet, as I often have more money going out than in to pay for debts and living costs. The next day, I made the biggest sale in our company. The profits doubled what I gave in 20 minutes. This incident reminded me of my first meaningful offering, when I learned that our God is a God of miracles and He is always faithful to us.

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Project LACE (Loving Abandoned Children Everywhere)

Our good friends DK, Stephen and Sung Mo are on the board for a wonderful charity called Project LACE.  They are doing amazing things in the world out of God’s love and need your support.  Please spread the word!

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New Year’s Resolution? Help Support Our Ministry With Just 5 Dollars a Month!

Has a story on our blog ever touched you?  Have you been blessed by the testimonies, stories and videos on this site? 

If so, this New Year’s we’re asking you to make the resolution of helping to support us at WitnessLA.org and our mission of using social media to preach the Gospel of love and redemption through Jesus Christ.  These funds also support WitnessHK.com and our team spreading the gospel in Asia (as well as future blog plants in other cities).

How can you help?  There are two ways:

1) Buy a t-shirt, hat or coffee mug from our Official Store here.  We get a portion of every sale, and it helps to pay for all of the ministry expenses.  We are a fully volunteer run organization.

2) Become a monthly subscriber by using our PayPal Subscribe Button on the right side of this page.  It looks like this:

Paypal makes subscribing easy and it takes less than 5 minutes to sign up.  For as little as $5 a month (one less trip to In-N-Out), you can be a part of what we’re doing in this ministry and ensure that we can continue to share real testimonies of real people in our city to those who have never heard the Gospel before. Thus far, we’ve reached over 26,000 different people around the world through our blogs, and the number continues to grow every day.

We are not yet officially a 501(c)(3), so your subscription may not be tax deductible at this time, but we hope to incorporate as a non-profit organization soon.

We need your support!  Any amount helps!

God bless you,

-WitnessLA.org

(Photo Credit: Melly Lee)

Just in Time for Christmas: Gifts for a Cause!

Just in time for Christmas, we’ve launched our WitnessLA.org Official Online Store to help raise money to support all the volunteers in this ministry.  The proceeds from these gifts go to support all that we do here at WitnessLA.org, help us continue our mission to spread stories of hope and redemption in social media, and also support our sister blog in Hong Kong in spreading the Gospel to Hong Kong and all of Asia. 

In less than a year, we’ve reached nearly 25,000 different people from countries around the world with a message of God’s love.  But we can’t continue to do what we do without your support!  Any support helps.  Please buy a few shirts or sweatshirts for your friends or family this holiday season - they make incredible gifts, and you can tell them that the purchase supports a worthy cause.  God bless you and Merry Christmas to you and all your families!

-WitnessLA.org

A Personal Miracle in Tithing

I was thinking of including this story in my longer one about tithing below, but since the story still blows me away, I thought it deserved its own post.

Since I started fully tithing, God has not only brought financial stability and blessings into the heart of my family, but God has answered prayer in a really profound and undeniable way in my giving life.

Ever since I took God to the test, my weekly tithe has been $200.  I remember distinctly in September there were two weeks where I was on vacation and away from church.  I was so tempted to take that tithing money and keep it for myself.  “Imagine what I could use that $400 for,” I remember thinking to myself.  I could use it to buy the bike I’ve been saving up for, I could buy the recording equipment I’ve always wanted, I could get the newest coolest clothes, I could pay down my student loans quicker.  The enemy was tempting me, and I started even thinking about the $800 a month I had committed to God, as first fruits.  My 10 year old VW Jetta had been having a ton of issues recently, and had recently cost me over $2000 to fix all the things that had been failing.  And even after all that money, there was still a leaking oil smell burning into the cabin and the engine would constantly die whenever it was cold outside.  The temptation was there - with that $800 I could go and lease a new car - any kind of luxury car I wanted for the most part.  I could have that car I always wanted.

So as I was on vacation, these temptations were on my mind, but God, ever so gently, started convicting me about my faith in Him, and what He was doing in my life.  I kept getting this feeling, this prodding, that I should just continue to trust Him, and that he would be doing amazing things in my life through continued faith financially.  So after about a week of this convicting, I decided that I was going to give that $400 in a tithe as soon as I got back from vacation.

But it wasn’t that I was some superhero of the faith - not by any means.  I was letting go of that money, but with teeth gnashed, almost unwilling to let that go.  But I put God to the test.  I remember praying “Okay God, I hear your voice and your leading for me to be faithful in giving you this tithe.  But God, I’m still not in a good financial position.  I just pray God that you will use this money for your will, but that you will also continue to bless me and improve me in my finances.  Lord, I just pray for stability and for a sign that what I’m doing is pleasing to you.”  So with that prayer, I gave that extra $400 that next Sunday.

A few days after I made that tithe, we received our usual bi-weekly paychecks at the office.  I couldn’t believe my eyes when I opened my pay statement.  It was more than normal.  And more by exactly $400! 

I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.  God truly answered my prayer in a real and direct way.  And not only answering it, but answering it as if to say “there, do you believe me now?  How clear of an answer do you really need from me?”

And ever since that moment, I have no room to wiggle out when it comes to my tithing.  God has answered that prayer for me, spoken a clear Word to me, and all I can do is obey and accept all the continued blessings He’s pouring out for me.