"decent" for one is overwhelming for another

I agree that for most people a tenth of their income is a fair amount to give unto the Lord's work. However, I have known persons, particularly senior citizens, who receive less than four thousand dollars a year in fixed income. These folks have to pay their household taxes, insurance and food bills in order to survive, but there's usually not enough to make it stretch. And yet, I have seen these individulas struggle as they give their tenth faithfully before anything else. Usually, these folks, like many of the rest of us, have heard countless pastors say that it is disobedience and lack of faith to not give the tenth and beyond. Many churches go so far as to say that if you don't pay your tithe then you fall under a curse because you have robbed God. I have always sort of agreed with this statement, not because I think that the Lord would ever be the author of a curse on our lives, but because the people saying this from the pulpits are putting those under them in bondage. Especially when the income is so low to begin with that the person is way below the poverty level, but they are giving out of mislead compulsion. We often forget that in the U.S. there are indeed some very poor people. I refuse to believe that God would hold these people accountable for not wanting to go without necessities of life. Tweet