by James S » Dec 6, 2002 @ 8:51pm
Jont, just a thought, maybe you didn't get anything out of it because you didn't put anything into it. Lots of Christians believe in the faith, but don't put anything into it, don't read the Bible, don't pray at all. They think that hey, Jesus saved them so they don't have to worry about anything or do anything. That's technically true, but as I and many others can say, the deeper you study Christianity the more you get out of it and the closer you get to God.
In Malachi, the last book of the Old Testament, it says that we should give 10% of our income to God as our tithe to him. Not many Christians do this. I'm not too great at it most of the time. But this is the ONLY place in the Bible that God tells us to test him. If we don't give him our tithes and offerings then He can't exactly do much for us. If we do give Him our tithes, then he will bless us 10 fold. He even asks us to test him. I personally am, and so far I've had nothing but easy living and wealth since I've put my faith in Him, a faith that everything I give to Him He will give back to me multiplied.
Just like the parable of the three servants. The landowner gave three tenants varying amounts of money before he left, but this was a massive amount, like 5 years worth of labors. Two of the servants went out and invested the money, giving the master back what he gave them with many times more on top of that. One of them burried the money "to keep it safe." This is an example of certain types of Christians. Some Christians take the gifts that God has given them and are active with it. They go out and try to help convert others to Christianity. But others just bury their gift. They don't put their gift, their faith, on the line so they never lose anything, but they also never gain.
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