Money and Faith.

[White Knight]

Hello all, I have a question about Tithing. the Second Most talked about topic Jesus spoke about other than the Love of God, it was about Money and such. I also read that your suspost to give God 10 precent and then you include your offering with however your desiring to give.

10 percent of a dollar is 10 cents
10 percent of 10 dollars is a $1.00
10 percent of 100 dollars is $10.00
10 percent of 1000 dollars is $100.00

Thats the easiest way I can put it.. then you also include your offering with however much you desire to give to God. After all it is His money, He owns it.

[b]I guess what I'm trying to say is.. Ive heard many Protestants say Tithing is always good, poverity is a curse not a blessing, and that you sould always tith, you souldn't be poor.

On the other hand Ive heard Catholics say Poverity is not a Curse but rather a state of choice and living at times, you can choose to tith or you sould tith, but you sould also know how to be wiser with the money God has given you. [/b]

So according to the Catholic Church what does it say more elaberately about Faith and Finiances? issues?

[cappie]

I'm not sure this answers your question but I think it sums up how I see money and stewardship from my perspective as a priest

Money is round to keep it rolling, a wise man once told me. No doubt the unscrupulous manager in Jesus’ parable understood this principle. We may presume he employed accountants, builders, and other specialists. When the crops were ready, he must have hired day laborers to bring in the harvest.

Is it good stewardship to pay someone to do what you are capable of doing yourself? In some cases, yes. Deeply rooted in Jewish law were God’s provisions for the poor. In the book of Leviticus, Moses instructed the Israelites to provide paid work for their fellow countrymen, lest they become so impoverished they would sell themselves as slaves (Lev. 25:39–40). To provide a just wage for an honest job is a righteous use of wealth

The pursuit of profit in handling our financial assets is neither immoral nor an occasion for thanks. "Master," said the faithful servant, "you delivered to me five talents; here I have made five talents more" (Matt. 25:20). If we, as stewards of what belongs to God, see some wise way to invest his money, we will prove ourselves honest and faithful servants. He has asked us to administer these funds for his glory.

The biblical understanding of stewardship teaches that everything we have, everything we receive, and everything we are belongs to God. Many people who have worked hard for their net worth resist this concept. They worry that if they start to live as stewards there will be nothing left to enjoy. They could not be more mistaken.

Ecclesiastes 5:18 says, "Behold, what I have seen to be good and to be fitting is to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with which one toils under the sun." It doesn’t sound like God is a killjoy here. Read on: "Every man also to whom God has given wealth and possessions and power to enjoy them, and to accept his lot and find enjoyment in his toil—this is the gift of God" (5:19).

The paradox of following Christ is that "He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for my sake will find it" (Matt.10:39). I have observed another paradox: Those who most enjoy their prosperity are quite often the ones who have surrendered it for the sake of the Kingdom.

Chistians are right to reject the idol of materialism, an idol that has no power to give but only to consume. But we must take care to pursue spiritual treasure and not substitute another idol in its place.

Simplicity as an end in itself—like consumption as an end in itself—is an idol that will demand more and more. When it fails to produce its promised results, we’ll conclude that it is our fault: We haven’t tried hard enough to live simply.

Simplicity is a constantly moving target. The only way to measure our success will be to compare ourselves to others, a practice Jesus condemned. "You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect," Jesus instructed his disciples (Matt. 5:48). Our only standard by which we are to measure ourselves is God himself.

Today discussions of stewardship too frequently become entangled in percentages, focusing only on what we give and what we keep. We would do well to remember it’s all or nothing with Jesus. While he instructed one young man to sell everything he owned, he seemed at ease with the affluence of others. Martha of Bethany had a home large enough to hold a banquet for Jesus and his disciples (Luke 10:38–40). Mary Magdalene supported Jesus out of her own funds (Luke 8:1–3).

For those who have been given the privilege of managing even moderate sums of wealth, a simple lifestyle may be counterproductive to the purposes of God. Jesus chastised repeatedly the servants who hid their money in a cloth or buried it in the ground. Commentators regularly apply these teachings to the use of our spiritual gifts and abilities. Should they not instruct us also about the use of our finances?

If we care about what matters to God, we will want to have something to show for the resources he has entrusted to us. [b]Your choices will be different from mine. Each of us will have to wrestle as individuals with our decisions.[/b]