written October 20, 2004

This week, something truly incredible happened to the Pond family.  Even when I think about it, sometimes it doesn’t seem real.  It’s seems like a dream.  In many ways, it is a dream–sadly, a dream that many Americans will never experience.

On Monday, our family reached an incredible financial goal–we paid off our last debt.  No car payments, no loans, no credit cards, not even a mortgage.  The final payment we paid on Monday was to Bank of America, and it was for our house.  Today, we owe no one.

You may say to yourself, “Well, they’ve probably got lots of money” or “They must be pretty well off.”  No, not really.  You see, that’s the miracle of it all.  I’m just a project manager for a local company, and I do some video work on the side.  We didn’t inherit anything.  We didn’t win the lottery.  With God’s help, we set our hearts to get out debt and we did.

It started in 1991.  That’s the year that I began searching for God.  At the time, I was struggling with a lot of problems–fear, alcohol, loneliness and debt.  My life was pretty messed up.  But, that year is very special year for me.  It’s when God became alive in me.  It’s when he revealed himself to me, and my life has never been the same since.

Shortly after that, in January of 1992, I met a beautiful young woman, Angela.  We became friends that summer.  She was such an angel to me.  I learned so much from her, and her friendship was precious to me.

One Sunday, I saw her writing out a check to give to the church, and I asked her what she was doing.  She told me that when she gets paid, the first check she writes is to God. It’s her tithe (or ten percent).  I didn’t really understand what she was doing.  Yes, it’s good for us to give and help these charitable organizations.  But, the first?  And ten percent?  What about bills?  How will you survive the rest of the month? Will you have enough left over for what you need?  I had lots of questions.

A year after we met, Angela and I were married.  A new season had come upon us, and we were excited about what the future held for us.  Right before we got married, I decided that I too would give the first of my paycheck to God, and like Angela, it would be ten percent.  I figured this was nothing compared to what God had done for me.  It was the least I could do.

I learned this principle of tithing.  A tithe is simply a tenth.  When a farmer had ten bushels or wheat, he would give a tenth or a tithe to the priests.  When a farmer had ten sheep, he would give one to the priests.  That was their offering.  They would give a tithe to the Lord.

The people would not only give ten percent, they would give their first ten percent.  It’s what they called their “firstfruits”.  When a shepherd’s animal would give birth, the shepherd would offer his firstborn to the Lord, trusting that God will provide more later.

Still, it didn’t make much financial sense to me.  After all, I had car payments, bills and now a new life with my wife.  How can we afford all of this?  The questions rattled around in my mind, but I was committed to my decision to give my “firstfruits” to God.

In 1995, our family grew.  Caleb was born that summer, and what a blessing he was.  During that time, Angela quit her teaching job.  Because she was now staying home, fulfilling her call to be a wife and mom, we had less money coming in.  But even then, we continued to tithe the first of our income.

A few months later, we started looking for homes.  In March of 1996, we found one that we liked.  After praying, we felt like God gave us a price to bid on this home.  We were so excited.  We had been looking for months, and we were ready to buy.  We were convinced that this was our new home.  We prayed and rejoiced when we placed the bid.  The next day we got a call from our realtor.  We missed the bid by $2,000.  We were quite shocked, actually.  We were sure this was it.

On a Thursday, a few days later, we drove by one more time to look at the house we thought was ours.  “Maybe the other bid will fall through,” we reasoned to ourselves.  We drove off in bewilderment, but as we turned the corner, we saw another house for sale just down the street, and it was for sale by owner.  “Hmm?” we thought.  “Let’s take a look.”

We wrote down the phone number and called that evening.  I asked the owner if we could come by and take a look at the house on Friday.  He said, “No, I’m going to hire a realtor on Monday.”  He sounded very frustrated.  We talked some more and convinced him to let us at least take a look.

When we met, we learned why he was frustrated.  He had been trying to sell his house for months but was tired of negotiating with everyone.  People interested in the house were offering him too little money.  We learned later that he had priced the house for exactly what he owed on it.  He had been making payments for 5 years, and just wanted out.

As he shared with us his selling price, we told him we would call back the next day and let him know if we’re interested.  As we drove off, Angela and I looked at each other and asked, “Is this for real?”

That weekend, we offered him exactly what he was asking for the house.  In fact, we felt a bit guilty, because the house was worth more.  We had been looking for months, and amazingly, God literally opened the door in a matter of days.

As we moved into our new home with all of its new expenses, we continued to give our “firstfruits” to God.

1999 was an amazing year for us.  On Monday, March 1st, I went to work just like any other Monday.  I got to work a little before 9 and started working through my daily ritual of emails.  At 10 o’clock, my boss walks in with a big, yellow envelope.  His head hung down. He said, “Russ, we have to let you go.  In fact, you have to be out of here by 5 today.”

He went on to say some other things, but I wasn’t really listening at that point.  I had been with this company for ten years, so I was surprised at the announcement.  In a matter of hours, I was out of work.

As my boss left, I sat there looking at that big yellow envelope, wondering what my future held.  I began to weep.  Not out of fear, or concern, or mourning.  I wept for joy, knowing that my future was truly in God’s hands.  It was wonderful, and so exciting!

I got home about 10:30, and Angela wondered out loud, “What you are doing here?”  I told her the news, and we just laughed and prayed.  We were both very excited, because we knew God was not going to abandon us, and that a new season was upon us.

The nice thing about being with a company for ten years and being laid off is the huge severance package.  They paid me two weeks for every year of service.  That’s five months of pay in one check.  What a blessing!  We took that severance, and gave the first ten percent of it to God, and put the rest into savings.  Then, I started my new job of looking for my next job.

After the first couple of months, the joy and excitement of job hunting began to wear off.  I started wondering if finding a job would be as easy as I had thought.  During that time, I was offered a job at Sony in San Diego, but we didn’t feel it was the right move for us.  So, we turned it down and kept looking.

Months passed with no leads.  Amazingly, the severance money was still in savings.  We were still doing fine from the residual money of my last two paychecks.  Somehow, it just lasted.  Five months had passed, and we still didn’t have a lead.  I was starting to think we might actually have to use that severance money.

One Thursday morning, I got a call from a fellow worker who had moved on to another company.  I called her earlier about my situation.  She told me that there was an opening at her company.  So, I called the HR group, and an interview was setup that afternoon.  After the interview, the gentleman said, “We like you.  We’ll make an offer tomorrow.”  And like that, I had a job.  Not just any job, but a job that paid 25% more and required less work than I was doing previously.  It was a dream job for a dream company.  We celebrated by spending some of our severance.

2002 was the year of the dot.com bust and the post 9/11 economy.  Stocks plummeted.  Investments were sliding downwards.  Just prior to this, I had taken my 401K funds from my new job and moved them into a different investment.  Instead of losing money, I was actually making money.  But, my other 401K from my previous job wasn’t doing so well.  I was locked into this one investment, and in just a short time, that investment lost about two thirds of its value.

Here I had two 401K investments–one from my previous job and one from my new job.  My new 401K was making money.  The previous one was losing money–terribly.  Why was that?  Bad choices?  A victim of circumstance?  I began to think about this.

According to Leviticus 27:32, the tithe of the Lord is holy.  It’s special.  It belongs to the Lord.  Certain things were either holy or common.  You could do whatever you wanted with the common things, but the holy things had to be used for their designated purpose.  That’s why they were holy.

When I looked at the two 401K accounts, I realized that the one from my previous job was not completely tithed on.  I had invested first, not giving to the Lord what belonged to him.  I had taken what was holy and used it for my own common purposes–a retirement fund.

The new 401K, however, was all common.  Since we had tithed on all of our new income, then I know there was nothing holy being used for my own purposes.

When we watched the performance of these two accounts, we had to wonder: does God bless the holy things that belong to him and curse the holy things you treat as common?  It sure seemed like it.

When we reached the end of 2002, it was really sad to see how the old 401K was performing.  It sure seemed like it was cursed, especially when compared to the new 401K that was doing so well.  I told Angela, “Let’s just give it all to God.  It’s his to begin with.”

So, we did.  We pulled out all of the funds from this dying 401K, paid the taxes and our penalties, and then wrote one big check to our church’s new building fund.  Honestly, I was ready to get rid of it.  Plus, we enjoyed giving it for God’s work.  I know he could do a lot more with it than we could.

As the year progressed, we continued tithing and giving our firstfruits to the Lord.  At this time, the video side business really started to take off.  I never marketed or promoted my services.  It was just a hobby with an occasional paying customer.  But, through word of mouth and networking, we had an incredibly profitable year.  When we totaled our side-business earnings alone for that year, we had earned back the original value of that suffering 401K.  What took me ten years to build in my own strength, God restored in a year.

I was convinced that we are not to touch what is holy and what belongs to the Lord.  I am also convinced that God is so gracious even when we make mistakes.

In January of 2004, I spent some time praying and fasting for the year.  I wanted to take time to dedicate the year to the Lord and really listen to what he has planned for us.  During this time, I came up with some life goals.  The first goal was to be completely out of debt–mortgage and all–by the time I turned 40.

Thank you, Lord.  We achieved that goal this week.  And, I’m only 39 and half.

When God first got a hold of my heart in 1991, I asked him to help me with my finances.  I was not a good manager of money.  I didn’t spend it wisely.  I had to have the “latest and greatest” of everything, and I had the debt to prove it.

God answered my prayers, but not in the way or timing that I expected.  He didn’t just give me the money to pay off my debts.  He showed me that material things don’t bring happiness.  He taught me good money management principles.  He showed me how to live below my means.  The answer to my prayers took a decade to come, but it’s an answer that will last a lifetime.  God didn’t just answer my prayer–he changed my heart.

I share these stories to encourage you.  I am a true believer of this principle of tithing and firstfruits.  I have seen how God blesses the things we set apart as holy and give to him.  God enjoys it when we give him our “firsts”, whether it’s our money, our time, or our heart.  Whatever “first” you can give him, even if it’s a sacrifice, he’ll receive it and bless it and make it fruitful.

This principle of giving our financial firstfruits to God is a constant test.  Who is really first in our lives?  Is it God?  Is it Visa?  Is it your mortgage company?  Is it your car loan company?  Who gets the first of your income?  This will show you where you heart is because “where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:21).

Some people ask me, “Do I have to tithe?”  No, you don’t have to.  God still loves you whether or not you tithe.  But, through the laws that God has set in place, he can only bless obedience.  When we are obedient–whether it’s tithe or honesty or integrity–we open the doors for God’s blessing in our lives.  But, when we are disobedient, we close the doors of blessing.

“But we’re not under the Law.  We are under grace.  Tithe is not required.”  That’s right.  It’s not required for us to be right with God.  That’s what Jesus has done for us.  He fulfilled all of the Old Covenant requirements (Matthew 5:17).  We are made right in God’s eyes through Christ.  Our highest command is to obey Jesus.  But, listen carefully to what Jesus commands us to do.

Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment” (Matthew 5:21-22a).

A little later, Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:27-28).

The Law says “Don’t murder,” but Jesus says, “Don’t even hate.”  The Law says, “Don’t commit adultery,” but Jesus says, “Don’t even look at woman lustfully.”  The Law deals with our outward actions, but Jesus deals with our heart.

It’s obvious from these examples that the New Covenant under Jesus holds us to a higher standard than the Law.  We are commanded not to kill, but our heart is not to hate.  We are commanded not to commit adultery, but our heart is not to lust.

We are commanded to tithe and commit our firstfruits to God, but what should our heart do?

Answer that question correctly, and you’ll open the doors of God’s blessing in your life.

Prayer: Lord, thank you first and foremost for sending your Son, Jesus, to come to earth and invite us into this New Covenant with you.  Because of him, we can now have life and life more abundantly (John 10:10).  Lord, continue to change my heart to the heart of Christ.  Show me any area of my life that needs to be changed.  Show me any patterns of thinking that need to be corrected.  Most of all, show me more of you.  I ask these things in the name of Jesus.  Amen.