Begin Again in 2010!

FROM AN ANONYMOUS BLOGGER: This insightful comment was posted a couple of days ago under the Happy New Year! acrostic (12/31/09), and it was worth re-posting:

I have to say what lies so heavy on my heart:

If CITN were to relocate, it would completely change the dynamic of what CITN has meant to the immediate community and those it has affected worldwide. We have not been an infinitesimal part of any life. All that encounter CITN are forever affected. I came to CITN ten years ago. Prior to that, I never attended church. I knew God, I spoke to him, and I went about my business. It wasn’t that I thought church was a waste of time. I just hadn’t found a spiritual home that fed me. The moment I walked into CITN and heard Bishop speak, I knew CITN would always be in my life. My spirit is in turmoil to even see Bishop speak of the word ‘foreclosure’. I dare to ask – How can this be? But I know the answer deep down inside because I am guilty of the very thing so many of us have been doing. We have said to ourselves when time came to tithe: the person sitting next to me will contribute and their contribution will be enough until I can give. But this is not the truth! We cannot say that the next person will give because we are that next person! CITN has given so much to each of us and I am personally resolved to CITN remaining in its current home.

I remember many years ago when the new sanctuary was proposed. I was so excited to pledge and do my part to make it a reality. I came to church every Sunday and even as a teenager working a minimum wage job, I gave my portion and imagined the day I would sit in the new sanctuary. A place fit for the Word that was spoken inside. CITN is an incredibly anointed ministry and we must do all that we can do as a congregation - a family - to ensure that the legacy of CITN is not overshadowed by matters other families would quickly confront together.

There was a time when the old sanctuary was packed to the point where people sat in chairs lining the wall. We have been distracted Dear Family. I know I have. I’ve left others to care for a ministry that needs me just as much as I need it. We have stopped celebrating together. We have turned on our computers to watch sermons and save a trip and forgot that service is so much more than Bishop giving us the Word. Service is a time for Many to become One. Now more than ever I realize the importance of that covenant and I am resolved. Resolved to attending Service every week. Resolved to tithing, giving every time I attend.

And I call upon the entire CITN family to make the same resolution: resume your weekly attendance and give.

Give to something that has always multiplied your gifts. If we continue to receive and allow the distractions of the world to affect our tithing, we will lose the very place we have called home. Yes, the economy is rough right now. Yes, people have lost their jobs. Yes, we are all making tough decisions when it comes to budgeting our money. But this too shall pass. And when it passes, are we going to be able to drive past the current CITN campus and not see our family in it? Please think about this. Although I know Bishop will always have a ministry wherever his pulpit resides, I LOVE the ministry he has created right here in Conyers, GA. We must do all that we can to keep our home. Not only will it resolve the current financial problem of the campus, it will do something far greater: it will reunite us as a family and bring us to a place we left some time ago. A place where the CITN covenant was so strong, Bishop would be in the middle of a sermon and stop, only to begin an entirely different sermon because our spirit was one and he knew we needed something and as our Bishop, he was more than willing to provide.

Let’s begin together by resolving to attend and give. Two simple things that will strengthen our ministry in so many different ways.

I love you all and hope for many more decades at CITN.

Tea or Coffee?

Hey bloggers,

I like these two cartoons, and wanted to post them because I think that they are relevant right now for several reasons...they may or may not speak to you...

Hope you're having a great day...today's AYITN is from the chapter I used for Sunday's sermon (even though the entry is in a different flow from the word that came forth)...but I think it's a good one...check it out...

Pastor Varner's wife, Joann, was at Apostle McCurry's funeral Saturday, passing out copies of the book (which is still my/our best seller) to some of the people who were there ...she and Kirk Talley both keep introducing it to new audiences, which is awesome...

I've been invited to Korea to speak for an ILC/GPF in a few days, and my dad has been invited to go with me...he can't find his passport (which is expired, anyway), so be in agreement that we can get one for him in time...

On second thought, just be in agreement for the right thing to happen, because if we can't get one for him, Debye will go with me, instead, and he'll stay and preach on the Sunday I'm gone...either way is cool with him (and us), but I think that he'd really like to go, and I think it would be good for him...he and I haven't gone on a trip anywhere together for over 25 years...

And be in agreement for the direction of the United Rockdale Summit meeting today...I was going to go hear B. Tommy speak at Beulah Heights University this morning, but I think I'll go to the meeting today, instead...lot's of important things to discuss...

Thanks to those of you who tithed for the first time (or for the first time in a long time) last Sunday...I command a blessing on you...

Anyway...be strong today...keep a good attitude...see the big picture...count your blessings...seek first the Kingdom...walk in love...and blog something...

Bye

Possessing Plenty!

Honor the Lord with your capital and sufficiency [from righteous labors], and with the first fruits of all your income; so shall your storage places be filled with PLENTY, and your vats be overflowing with new wine.
(Proverb 3:9, 10 AMP)

Today I will live in the now! I will live in the now because I recognize the preeminence of God’s supernatural supply in my life and circumstances.


Today I will not be afraid to face the fact that God is requiring me to do more than I can actually do, as He did with all the heroes of the Bible. Along with that, He is requiring me to give more than I have to give, as He did with the widow of Zarephath, so that He can take me into a higher level of provision and prosperity. Today I will seek to understand the purpose in His requirements (I know that He is neither unreasonable nor unfair), and I will recognize the treasure hidden in my own earthen vessel, that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of me!


Today I will honor the Lord with my capital because it, ultimately, represents my life. My money and substance are the product of my labor—how I spend my time—so, in giving the Lord what I have, I am able to give Him what (and who) I really am!


Today I will not be afraid of any evil tiding or negative report concerning the economy, the stock market, the government, inflation or taxes. I have laid up treasure in heaven (investing in the Kingdom of God), and He supplies all of my need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus! I am not of this world (system) and neither is my money or my success or my future! God is my source!


Today I will not be cheap, or stingy or tight with my money. I will guide my affairs with discretion through the Spirit-fruit of self-control, but I will walk in liberty concerning my finances because I have a perception of the purpose of prevailing over poverty and possessing plenty by proving the power of God!


Today I will repent of any mental, emotional or spiritual stronghold that limits the work of the Holy One of Israel in my life (Psalm 78:41) and will allow Him to do more than I can ask or think, in direct proportion to the power that works in me (Ephesians 3:20)!


Today my storage places (my home, checking and savings accounts, my income and investments, etc.) will be filled with plenty, and today I will live in the now!

Father, help me to honor You today with my first fruits. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Talk About Tithing

Hey bloggers,

Hope you had a great Labor Day, and thanks for all the cool comments from Sunday. I hope to hear from more of you about it, especially because so many of our people were out of town for the holiday weekend, and because it was such an important day for the future of CITN. Here's a partial repost of something I ran in the early days of this blog that I think is pertinent to where we are right now...

As I have already alluded to on this blog, when you visit the websites of some of the experts on ultimate reconciliation or “Christian Universalism”, you’ll see that they nearly all have articles posted about how tithing is not required of New Testament Christians. Now, I not only agree with most of all they say on the subject, I have said the same things at CITN…and yet I, personally, am a tither, and always will be. I started tithing on my first little paycheck when I was fifteen, and I believe that that is the reason that I am prosperous today. I don’t believe that I would be under a curse if I didn’t (and I don’t tell anyone else that they are cursed if they don’t), but I do believe that I am blessed because I do.

I don’t beat people up with Malachi 3:8-12 any more, and I don’t accuse non-tithers of being “God-robbers”. I understand why these webmasters/ministers that I have mentioned want to liberate people from the letter that kills. But I want people to give to the church because they love God and want to worship him completely, because they understand the concept of sowing seed for their futures, and because they believe in the vision of the CITN community and want to be investors in it.

I refuse to argue about what the Scriptures say or don’t say about prosperity through tithing, because I think it’s a bigger concept and idea than what the Bible says about it. Please listen carefully, and understand this with your heart…I love and follow Jesus, but “Christ” is a bigger concept and idea than “Jesus”. I worship and honor God, but the “I AM” is a bigger concept and idea than “God”. I trust and believe the Bible, but “truth” is a bigger concept and idea than “the Bible”. I trust that my readers can grasp what I mean by that.

When you google “tithing”, you find access to hundreds and hundreds of articles, both pro and con, on the subject. There are all the old school preacher sites telling you that you are under a curse if you rob God, and there are just as many sites supposedly “exposing” those preachers for taking the Scriptures out of context and manipulating people with them for their own selfish agendas.

But what I see and say is that when Abram/Abraham initiated the whole thing by tithing to Melchizedek in Genesis 14, he was not instructed by God to do it, and he never made it a rule for anyone else to follow. Abraham, the visionary “star-counter” somehow tapped into a law of the universe that we now call tithing, 450 years before the law, because what he did that day transcended law...it was a spiritual revelation! If you study it out, you’ll see that there were people like him in every ancient culture who practiced tithing, and got results from it, and they knew nothing of the Hebrew Scriptures.

In their best-selling book, The One Minute Millionaire, Mark Victor Hansen and Robert G. Allen discuss proven techniques and provide useful tools, which they refer to as “Ahas”, for becoming an Enlightened Millionaire (TM). One of these “Ahas” is about tithing, or “sharing the wealth” in layman terms. They define the act of tithing as when a monetary donation (typically a tenth of one’s income or tithe) is made to a charity and/or church. Enlightened Millionaires follow two rules of thought regarding tithing. First, that abundance comes from making others better off. Second, the primary reason for obtaining wealth is to be able to give more of it away. In fact, Enlightened Millionaires DO commit to tithe the first 10% of their income.

Here are some quotes from Hansen and some other success-oriented authors who are not coming from a solely biblical paradigm...



“Every individual’s purpose in tithing is to open up his/her awareness of universal laws. Tithing opens you, to you. You are an unlimited individual, deprived of a fuller, richer life partly because of lack of the tithing experience and expression in life.”


"Why is tithing something that so many already successful people believe in? It could be because they recognize the cycle of the universe that says that in order to make room for more, we have to let go of some of what we have. It’s a classic Win/Win for everyone involved. Many children practice this, and here's an example. Let’s say Sue and Jane are playing. They both come inside for a drink. Jane runs outside, trips and spills her fruit punch. Sue takes the remainder of her punch and pours it into her friends' cup. Her mom sees this act of kindness and brings her a full glass of punch. Sue has just been rewarded for her selflessness and in fact received more than she gave. Tithing is based on the same principle, substituting money for fruit punch, of course!"

“As a tither you automatically become solution-oriented rather than problem-oriented.”

- Mark Victor Hansen





“If you as parents cut corners, your children will too. If you lie, they will too. If you spend all your money on yourselves and tithe no portion of it for charities, colleges, churches, synagogues, and civic causes, your children won't either. And if parents snicker at racial and gender jokes, another generation will pass on the poison adults still have not had the courage to snuff out.”

- Marian Wright Edelman, American Children’s Rights Activist





“I never would have been able to tithe the first million dollars I ever made if I had not tithed my first salary, which was $1.50 per week.”

- John D. Rockefeller, Sr. (1839-1937), American industrialist and philanthropist




“You hear a lot of strange things about tithing. Some say it is a church tax, and they expect me to pay it and that is the end of it. Others say that when I give God one-tenth of my income, He blesses the nine-tenths that is left to the extent that the nine-tenths now goes as far as the whole thing used to go. This isn’t really true, is it? Suppose a farmer had 100 bushels of corn in the barn and he decides to plant 10 bushel in the ground. What multiplies? Is it the 90 bushels that he has left in the barn? Oh, no. All of us ‘farmers’ know it is the 10 bushels you put in the ground that multiplies. Similarly, it is the 10 percent you give to God that multiplies.”

- Stanley Tam (1915-), American businessman and philanthropist and author




"Over the years I have found that many of the richest people in the world began their lives with the habit of tithing."

- Robert Kiyosaki, motivational speaker, author Rich Dad, Poor Dad




"I absolutely believe in the power of tithing and giving back. My own experience about all the blessings I've had in my life is that the more I give away, the more that comes back. That is the way life works, and that is the way energy works."

- Ken Blanchard, author The One-Minute Manager




"I have observed 100,000 families over my years of investment counseling. I always saw greater prosperity and happiness among those families who tithed than among those who didn't."

- Sir John Templeton, Chairman of Templeton Funds

__________________


That's what I posted before, and I stand by all of it...but I also want to reiterate something I said Sunday, and this only comes by revelation, and it transcends theology... THE TITHE IS HOLY.

Selah.