I remember when I used to flip through the channels on the TV with the remote. I'd see a preacher preaching or talking to the camera; it was usually a telethon.
I had no concept of tithing or sewing and reaping back then. My family had a belief that "oh, they're just asking for money again." But my family didn't bash it over my head; it was just an idea overhead or caught.
So when I did land on the channel that broadcasted the 700 Club or PTL, I would cringe; I would be ashamed. I didn't feel animosity towards people on the show as sometimes others do, but rather, I guess, because of my unrenewed, unsaved mind and heart, I was embarrassed; I didn't see the value in what they were doing. These preachers might as well have been nerds discussing the latest formula or invention, with concepts above what most people were able to understand.
I was embarrassed by their unashamedly asking for money. Why DO they ask for money? What sort of life do they lead to ask for money on TV, where millions of people are watching? Was the rest of the public as embarrassed as I was?
Then there were those TV commercials of weak, emaciated children in Africa. A missionary would be holding a toddler with a distended belly in his or her arms, pleading with people on the other side of the camera for donations. I didn't cringe when I saw those people asking for money. All I wanted to do was make the lives of those babies better.
Tithing is a tenth or ten percent of what your income is. The bible says to give your first fruits or ten percent of your "crop." Banks have not been around for a very long time; so ten percent of what you earned was, more often, food or goods and not currency. If you were a farmer, your tithe to the local church would probably be the first batch of blueberries and/or strawberries that had no blemishes or missing parts. Mind you, it wouldn't be fuel for your car, but it would be turned into pies and tarts at the church to feed many people in the community.
What the 700 Club was asking for, was donations or offerings; a money beyond the ten percent; a money that comes out of the compassion of your heart to meet a need.
After getting saved, I had a clean-slate mentality about money. Getting saved by Jesus can renew your mind even before diving into the written Word of God because Jesus Himself IS the Word of God. So, in my renewed mind and heart, as though, I regressed to a young child, giving to church and ministries was a wonderment. But at the same time, it was a struggle, because I didn't have a lot to give and I didn't know how to get a lot to give. I guess, working get a job, side errands. Back then, I didn't know enough in my 10 year old brain to think, "Why don't I get a job to earn enough to give?" nowadays there's plenty of underage entrepreneurs.
Then, I found out about this concept of sewing and reaping. This concept is a cousin to The Golden Rule, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." The world calls it karma. Another phrase that mimics this concept is, "What goes around comes around." Or "What goes up must come down."
Sewing and reaping is a law. It's based out of the scripture Luke 6: 38 - "Give and it shall be given unto you, pressed down, shaken together, running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again."
It's not a law like in the legislative branch where stuff is made up and you don't know if it is valid. It's a law like gravity; a physical law, a physics law. It's an absolute. It's unchangeable on earth; it is established. You can only change it by going into outer space.
You don't actually have to believe the bible to have it function in your life, but believing the bible actually makes it work better for you.
If you give $20 to feed children, you might get $40 or $200 back, so you can feed more children. If you give $20 to a gambling venue, you will reap some sort of corruption and you lost your money.
Goodness feeds the masses. Corruption reaps destruction. A house divided against itself cannot stand.
So this is what I learned about money and giving to the Lord. Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Ten percent of your heart is not that much, but it can go a long way.