June 10, 2025
Judges: Sin Cycles and Deliverance
When reading the book of Judges in its entirety, we can see a clear pattern that the Isrealites follow. The Israelites follow the same cycle over and over seven times through the course of this book and rather than defeating and overcoming this vicious cycle, the book ends with utter chaos.
The Isrealites begin their pattern with forgetting about and abandoning their faith in God. In Judges 2:11, 3:7, 4:1, and 10:6, we see the repeated phrase that “The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord.” God becomes angry because of their wickedness and He gives them over to their sin and punishes them. The people then cry out to God for His help and redemption and each time, He is faithful to provide them with a judge or deliverer. The people are grateful for his provision so they repent and turn back to God. It isn’t long though before the people forget about God’s mercy and deliverance and they fall back into their sinful behaviors and rejection of God.
Reading about the Isrealites going through this cycle so many times over several years and generations feels a bit frustrating from the outside looking in. We shake our heads and wonder how they could forget about all God has done for their ancestors and his faithfulness over time. How could they so easily head right back into destruction? One thing to look at here is generational forgetfulness. Many years passed between each cycle and so the people were not always experiencing God’s great deliverance firsthand. The generations before had not held strong to their faith and did not instill a strong foundational faith in the future generations. Judges 2:10 says “After that whole generation had been gathered to their ancestors, another generation grew up who knew neither the Lord nor what He had done for Israel.”
Another reason for their repeated rejection of God was the allure of their culture and the promises they thought idols could offer them. Not only were they worshipping their own created idols, but they began to worship idols of other cultures. After the death of Joshua, there was not a strong, unifying leader over Israel to point people toward God. The judges, whom God placed as leaders in times of crisis, were temporary and were flawed humans themselves. They acted more as military leaders than they did spiritual leaders. A final piece that contributed to the Israelites’ cycle was their complacency during times of peace. It was at these times when the cycle began over again.
As frustrating as it is to read about the Israelites following the same cycle so many times, I couldn’t help but notice the same cycle in my own life at times and for many of the same reasons too. I think many of us struggle with pursuing God whole-heartedly when things are good and life is simple. We can easily forget about our need for God and we can become distracted by the things of this world. When that happens, we open ourselves up to our sinful desires and instead of God being our main focus, we drift away from Him and create idols and fall prey to our sin. It is only when we hit rock bottom and realize how far we have strayed from Him that we cry out to God for deliverance from our situation. And guess what? He promises in Hebrews 13:5 that He will “never leave us or forsake us.” God desires what is best for us. He does not want us to follow a path of destruction or to stay stuck in our patterns of sin. He wants to free us from our bondage to sin. And because of that, he doesn’t send us temporary flawed human leaders to be our deliverers. He has done so much greater. He sent the ultimate deliverer, Jesus Christ, who in living on the earth gave us the perfect example of how to live a Godly life, and in dying on the cross, set us free from our sin. To break free from our sinful cycle, we need to “fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith” (Hebrews 2:12).
May 30, 2025
Tithing When It Hurts: Learning to Trust God with My Finances
I grew up believing that money was one of the most important things in life. Do I want to live comfortably? Get a high paying job. Do I want to travel? Make a certain amount. Do I want my kids to have everything they want? Money.
It wasn’t until after I became a christian in college and got married to my beautiful wife that I realized how high on a pedestal I placed money. I always considered myself a generous person, but tithing was a foreign concept. Up until marriage, I didn’t even know what tithing was. Anna grew up tithing, and it was a priority for her; therefore, it became a priority for our family.
We budgeted tithing into our plans, giving 10% of our income to the church every month. It was HARD for me, especially being in charge of our family’s finances. It made it easier to give less one month or skip a month or two if our bank account felt uncomfortable to me. I would justify it to myself, thinking things like, “We’re young, recently out of college with entry level jobs and large loans. We need this money right now.” Anna always called me out. Most of our fights in our early years of marriage were about our disagreements on money. Someone we know, an executive in finance, tried to help us with our budget once and told us to stop giving money to the church because that money could be used elsewhere. When we told him we wouldn’t do that, he flat out said “well then I can’t help you.” It was so hard to hear because, at the time, that’s exactly what I wanted to do. Ultimately, I was forgetting to trust God and instead putting my trust into our bank account.
Anna reminded me of a verse in Malachi, where God challenges us to test Him by tithing and promises to pour out His blessings upon us. So we started regularly and faithfully tithing every month. And one by one, slowly but surely, we’ve seen God provide in ways we never thought possible. We need a new car? Money from a savings account we didn’t know existed appeared. We’re expecting a baby and now money is tight?
An unexpected promotion presents itself and helps cover the additional expenses. And God doesn’t always provide with just financial means. We need to add extra space in our house to accommodate our growing family? Friends graciously offer support in finishing our attic and we end up saving more during those months than we spent. Only God could have done it. Now, 10 years into marriage, we live much more comfortably than we ever have. Not comfortably surrounded by things or money in our bank account, but comfortably surrounded by the Holy Spirit, trusting God’s provision in our lives.
I still struggle with tithing sometimes. It is still a choice every month to actively remind myself to obey. God meets me with His peace. I’ve seen provision in my personal life, friends’ lives, and most recently, this church. I served as the treasurer of City Alliance for the past 2 years and I firmly believe God placed me in this role to experience the burden of managing its finances, constantly worrying, BUT THEN later seeing God provide for the church more than I could have ever imagined.
If you’re reading this, I encourage you to tithe. Just do it. Even if it feels hard. ESPECIALLY when it feels hard. “...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)
May 23, 2025
Finances: A Matter of the Heart
Finances. It’s something that affects us all, yet it’s not something many of us are accustomed to talking about. In fact, I think most of us would feel quite uncomfortable if someone casually shared their income, monthly payments, or spending habits in conversation. However, the Bible has a lot to say about our finances and what God desires from us with what He has given us.
In Matthew 6:24, it says, “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”
Serving money might look like careless spending on material possessions that we expect to satisfy us. It could mean saving money and only feeling secure in life once our bank account has reached a certain amount. Some of us might even fall into a third camp—where we know that God desires for us to tithe, which the Bible says is to “set aside a tenth of all that your fields produce each year” (Deuteronomy 14:22). In today’s terms, that means giving 10% of our income to God. But maybe we do so reluctantly, or we give God what—if anything—is left over at the end of the month after everything else we need or want has been paid for.
Whatever your relationship with money, the way we approach our finances says a lot about the state of our heart. Matthew 6:21 tells us, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
God wants us to find all of our satisfaction, joy, and security in Him alone—not in our financial state or our possessions. In fact, He calls us to give of our firstfruits, and to do so joyfully. In Genesis 4, brothers Cain and Abel both brought offerings to God, but they were not equal. Cain brought some of the fruits from his field, whereas Abel brought “fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock” (v. 4). It goes on to say that “The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering He did not look with favor” (vv. 4–5). Cain’s response to this is especially telling of the state of his heart. Rather than repenting or offering something different, he becomes angry and kills his brother. Cain’s motive in giving his offering was clearly not joyfully sacrificial—it was done out of obligation.
Another example of God asking for firstfruits is in Exodus 23:19, where He tells the Israelites to “Bring the best of the firstfruits of your soil to the house of the Lord your God.” This idea is mentioned again in Proverbs 3:9, where we are told to “Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops.”
This idea of offering our firstfruits to God shows where our treasure is. If we are willing to offer our very best to God, it shows that our hearts are reverent to Him and how He will use our contribution to further His kingdom, rather than furthering the desires of our own hearts. When we hold back our firstfruits, we may need to evaluate the things we are yearning for, as well as how much we trust God to provide for us. When we give our firstfruits, God promises that our “barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine” (Proverbs 3:10). When we place our finances—along with our trust, security, and joy—in the Lord, He is faithful to provide for us and to bless us. This may not always be in material riches, but He promises to provide for our needs, and He blesses us with His presence, His peace, His joy, and a deeper relationship with Him. He honors the commitment of our hearts.