Oh, and here's the second completely unrelated thread that @GRULSTMRNN decided to dump on as some kind of juvenile "retaliation". Again, what are you, a twelve year old? Very Christian behavior though, I'm sure your god is very proud of you. Certainly tells the rest of us what your religion is made of. WWJD.
I suppose it's also easier to be a cheerful giver if one recognizes a third truth, which is that one cannot out give God. Proverbs 3:9-10 says to "Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your produce; then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine." Malachi 3:10 says, "'Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test,' says the Lord of hosts, 'if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.'" In Luke 6:38 one reads "give, and it will be given to you—good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you." Matthew 19:29 states that "everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name's sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life." So there seems to be a principle that says God rewards cheerful givers by giving them exorbitant interest on what they give to Him, and He pays those dividends, not just in heaven, but also down here on Earth. Now, when believers understand and really embrace this, becoming a cheerful giver ought not be that difficult. It doesn't matter what we give him. His promise is that he will take it, multiply it, and give it back to us, and God is always true to His promises. However, God fulfills this promise in lots of ways other than sending an envelope with a check inside—and He also sends enough trials into everyone's life that we always have to trust Him for something. Nonetheless, this does not invalidate or negate His generosity, something the Messiah's followers should understand, believe, and live in the light of.
It was you who hijacked this thread and started talking about gays and homosexuality. You did this in multiple threads now. You insist to be a straight white guy but are absolutely fascinated with the whole gay topic which only you but nobody else brings up.
Actually it is my money, my time, my talent, my energy that I'm giving. You can't give what you don't own. God gets none of the credit for our giving, we do. It's called free will to do with as we please. That's the gift.
True, it is something we received and has become ours. But how did we obtain it in the first place? Most settled adults with life experience have the humility to admit that a huge portion of what we receive in life came about by luck. Christians call that a bestowing of resources by God in order for the believer to "invest it in kingdom building". But I am pretty sure you knew already what @expiated tried to mean with that...
Miscellaneous thoughts… Government leaders, businesses, families, even churches get trapped into thinking money is the answer to every problem. But 1 Timothy 6:8-10 teaches us that those who hunger after money possess a desire that often leads to regret and self-destruction. In Mark 10:23 Jesus told his disciples that it is very difficult for rich people to be saved. That's because they trust their money in place of God. Money is dangerous because it deceives us into thinking that wealth is the easiest way to get everything we want. The love of money is sinful because we trust money, rather than God, to solve our problems. Moreover, it can be a source of false pride and cause one to trust in his or her own accomplishments and self-effort, unable to turn one's whole heart and life over to God. The rich, with most of their basic physical needs met, often become self-reliant. When they feel empty, they can buy something new to dull the pain that was meant to drive them toward God. Their abundance and self-sufficiency become there deficiency. The person that has everything on earth can very easily lack what is most important of all—eternal life. Those that pursue the empty promises of wealth will one day discover that they have nothing because they are spiritually bankrupt. There is nothing wrong with money in and of itself as long as the desire to have it does not keep one from following Yeshua fully. The question is, is money your servant or your master? Many Christians make the mistake of taking money as a confirmation of living a life that pleases God, a reward or blessing for being good. But wealth is not necessarily a sign of God's favor, and while those who are godly may enjoy material prosperity, they can also live in hardship, yet still be devout and faithful servants of the most-high God. The bottom line is that wealth is not a sign of faith or of partiality on God's part. While we are responsible to care for our own needs and the needs of our family so as not to be a burden on others, we should not use our God-given wealth selfishly, and we should be willing to give it up if God asks us to do so. We cannot love God with all our heart and yet keep our money to ourselves. Loving him totally means using our money in ways that please Him. The 16th chapter of Luke tells us that we cannot serve both God and money, that we will be devoted to one and despise the other. There are a number of truths the Bible teaches us about money: We should use our resources wisely because they belong to God and not to us. Money can be used for good or evil, but we should use it for good. Money has a lot of power, so we must use it carefully and thoughtfully. We must use our material goods in a way that will foster faith and obedience. Our integrity is often tested in money matters. The Bible teaches us to use our possessions to serve others. We are to make wise use of our finances, spending our money to help those in need and to spread the gospel. In this way, our earthly investment will bring eternal benefit. When we obey God's will, the unselfish use of possessions will follow. God calls us to be honest, even in small details we might think unimportant. Heaven’s riches are far more valuable than earthly wealth. But if we are not trustworthy with our money here (no matter how much or how little we have), we will be unfit to handle the vast riches of God's kingdom. Guard your integrity in small matters, and it will not fail you in crucial decisions. You must manage your money, or it will manage you. It has the power to take God's place in your life. It can become your master. To tell if you are a slave to money, ask yourself these questions: Do you think and worry about money a lot? Do you give up doing what you should do, or would like to do, in order to make more money? Do you spend a great deal of your time caring for your possessions? Is it hard for you to give money away? Are you in debt? Money is a hard master and a deceptive one. It will promise power and control, but often cannot deliver. Great fortunes can be made and lost overnight, and no amount of money can guaranty health, happiness, or eternal life. How much better it is to let God be your master. His sermons result in peace of mind and security, both now and forever. When Puff Daddy was asked what life was all about, he replied, "It's all about the Benjamins, baby." That pretty-well sums up the mindset of many Americans. Every year millions play the lottery hoping to hit the jackpot, go to Las Vegas hoping to strike it big, register for the Publishers’ Clearing House sweepstakes, and recently a USA Today survey found that when talking to children in America, aged seven to 12, more than 80% of them daydream about being rich. The point is that money is a central issue with Americans. Of course, money is also a central issue with God Himself. In fact, God talks about money in the Bible more than any other single subject. The reason is that God knows money is kind of like a chainsaw: If you use it right, it can be a blessing and a help, but if you use it wrong, you can get yourself in a heap of trouble real quick. If you don't believe that, just ask Michael Avenatti, Paul Manafort, Jussie Smollett, Michael Cohen, Kenneth Lay, Bernie Evers, Bernie Madoff, Lot’s wife, Ananias and his wife, the rich young ruler, and on and on the list goes. And that's why throughout the Bible God tries so hard to talk to us about how to use money correctly—how to handle money so that money doesn't handle us.
Deuteronomy 8:17-18 If you start thinking to yourselves, "I did all this. And all by myself. I’m rich. It’s all mine!”—well, think again. Remember that God, your God, gave you the strength to produce all this wealth..." Without God we would have nothing—not even our existence.
Dumb luck and random selection are the foundation of all things. Put in a little work and one may find themselves successful, or not. God doesn't care either way. I'm not saying that there is not some Creator of all things, but it seems unlikely to me that this creator would care about something as petty as money. Don't make your God so small as to limit it with human characteristics. And don't pretend to understand it all, or even at all. A God small enough to understand isn't big enough to hold in awe.
God very much cares about how His believers handle money or else the bible would not be full of references to money and the dangers of it when being lured and motivated by money above all else. Also something that can't be measured in power to begin with is certainly powerful enough to be capabable to handle the big and the small. I always believe that atheists are actually the dumbest folks on the planet (agnostics are still seeking) because they get very confused by the question "where did matter originally come from?" , the dumbness comes into play in that the question it's answer does not prompt them to adjust their view