Samurai Jack is a cartoon character.  He has been sent to the future by an evil wizard who seeks to destroy him.  Jack's quest is to return to the past and destroy the evil wizard.   In episode 14 "Jack Learns to Jump Good".    Jack befriends a peaceful tribe of tree dwellers who are constantly on the move to keep away from predatory Gorillas who steal their food.  Jack agrees to teach the tribe to defend themselves in exchange for them teaching him how to fly.  The peaceful tribe informs him that they cannot fly, "they just jump good."  Jack says "teach me to jump good."

The peaceful tribe lashes heavy weights on Jack.   Jack is then expected to keep up with their daily activities.  As Jack progresses the tribe lashes heavier and heavier weights on Jack.  Jack adapts to the heavy weights and is able to run and jump and train with the extra weight.  Then the weights are lifted from Jack.  He is able, because of his increased strength to jump to extraordinary heights.  It is almost as if he is able to fly.

God talks about giving our first fruits in the Bible.  Abel brought his best to God.  Abraham brought his tithe to Melchizedek.   God tells the prophet Malachi to tell the people to test Him with their tithes.  The reference is Malachi chapter 3.  When I talk about a tithe people ask: Is this before or after taxes?  Is this on my gross or my net?  The concern is how can we give ten percent to God and still maintain the lifestyle we have chosen.

God desires we bring our first fruits as worship to him.  When you think about your income and then figure the tithe this seems like a staggering amount.   This is not for those of you who tithe.  Tithing for you it is what you do.  You have always taken a minimum of ten percent off the top and given it to your church.   Dave Ramsey says that if you cannot live on 100% you will not be able to live on 90%.  Those who tithe recognize that all they have is a gift from God.  It is amazing that God lets us keep the majority of his gifts for our own use.      

Learning to tithe is like learning to jump "good".  If you have never tithed it seems like an insurmountable obstacle.  Jack learned to jump by starting with heavier and heavier weights.  He went about his daily tasks and kept adding more and more weight.  When we learn to tithe we start with our first fruits giving.  The first thing we take out of our paycheck is what we give to God.  Each pay period we increase this gift a little at a time.  As we increase the giving the percentage goes up.  Pretty soon we end up at ten percent and we do not even notice the increase.  As Malachi says put God to the test.

We live in world where it seems like we have pockets with holes in them.  (See Haggai 1:6)  The more we make the more we spend.  We never have enough. God tells us, in his Word, that this is because we have forgotten to worship Him.  It helps us to put things in perspective when we practice first fruits giving.  It might be a process to get to the tithe as the minimum of your giving.  It is a good process to start. 

Jack wanted to be free to fly.  He learned to jump, good.   We desire to have proper perspective on money.  We want to enjoy the gifts God gives us.  A good place to start is to learn to tithe.  "Seek first he kingdom of God and all these things shall be added to you as well."  (Matthew 6:33)