Marc
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Posts: 21
No Saint, just a sinner saved by Grace.
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« on: August 26, 2003, 07:03:47 PM » |
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I wrote this some time ago, and my circumstances are no longer quite so dire, but I still have the same feelings I did then. I apologize if I am offending someone, but I feel I must speak this thing that is still on my mind. Marc __________________________________________________________________________ ___ Tithing And Giving Sacrificially When You're Too Broke To Do So.
by Marc
Dear *****:
my late Mother, God rest her soul, once said: “The church has priced itself out of my market.” I hope God won't hold that against her, but I find myself agreeing with that statement. Problem: how to tithe, let alone give sacrificially when you ain't got it to give!
“Sorry, *** Gas & Electric, can't pay the bill this month--had to send a tithe to my church so they could help save the heathen all over the world.” “Too bad--we're shutting off your gas and power tomorrow, then.”
See what I mean?
Now, here's my question? God owns it all anyway. Why should we, who aren't just out of money, but totally BROKE before the end of the month, get hung up on the rack of guilt because we JUST DON'T HAVE IT!? God can run off a few more tons of gold, or whatever. Just like the Bureau of Engraving does when the Fed needs more greenbacks to flood the economy with to keep a Depression at bay or something. “The cattle of a thousand hills.” and all that, right?
Now, here's another bone of mine to pick: the individual churches are often big on missions, right? As it should be. But why can't they outreach directly to us poor schmucks who are hard up and having to work far away from home?
My own example: I live in **** ***, where, thank God, I own outright my own home(I blew almost all the wad my folks left me on my house, almost all of what was left of that on my car, so they're paid for. A Ford Escort and a single-wide mobilmobile/modular/manufactured home aren't a mansion and Rolls Royce by any means of the imagination, nor am I fabulously wealthy). I had to return to *** to work and earn money.
Seven bucks an hour don't go far at all these days. In fact it hardly don't go at all. So, I am sleeping in my car and sneaking into gas station bathrooms to shave and change clothes when one of the people I work with can't let me use their bathroom to do so. The missions I keep getting referred to? Well, areas like ******* Street aren’t places you'd care to go unless you didn't mind running a high risk of getting your throat cut or your car vanishing mysteriously, never to be seen again except for the inside of a chop-shop.
It would be nice if the individual churches could establish a means of assisting poor dumb schmucks like me directly. I ain't asking for money; just for a place to shower, shave, and hey, even be able to stretch out and sleep without being referred to one of the missions that are in the war zones where you don't go unless you're properly tooled up.
Get a job in **** ***? Hey, let me cue you in on how things go here: when it's the Mormon bishop giving the invocation prayer at the opening of each city council meeting, you kinda get an idea of the power behind the secular throne; in other words, if you ain't got a skill that's in such great demand they overlook your religious beliefs, and if you ain't a Mormon, then the odds of finding work just aren't all that good.
Now, I got some other problems: my ******* state private rentacop card and gun permit are up for renewal soon. The former costs me $45 to renew for four years, the latter $50 for the ticket, and another $95 for the refresher course. Gotta come up with those so I can keep on working.
Oh yeah, and then there's my monthlies for up here in **** ***. I HAVE to keep those paid or the juice and gas get shut off and my water pipes freeze and bust(until that gets shut off too)and my VISA card payments(I lived on that until I found a job; getting that paid down is Priority #1 after the monthlies). So quite frankly, *****, I ain't got enough to tithe with, let alone give sacrificially.
If that means God's gonna hold that against me come the Judgment, so be it. If that means I won't get any crowns or rewards, or whatever, so be it. If I end up scrubbing toilets and sweeping and mopping floors in Heaven for Eternity doing all of the scut work, living with the rest of the grunts in the barracks instead of one of the mansions like the big shots & top brass, with tons of crowns, ect, so be it. Besides, brass and big shots and I never did get along down here anyway, so up there will probably be likewise.
sincerely, Marc
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