Building a Hedge of Financial Protection

Ted and Linda are both retired and loving life. They’ve also been loyal 700 Club viewers for years. They were both watching the show when they gave their lives to Jesus Christ. Ted remembers that day very well.

“I looked into that TV and [Pat Robertson] says, ‘If you die right now, do you know where you are going?’ And, I just kind of turned and looked at Linda and said, ‘I don't know. I don't think so.’”

“We started watching it everday from that night on,” says Linda. “We knew that God was speaking to us through The 700 Club.”

A few weeks later, they saw Pat teaching on giving. Linda was excited to try it out.

“I had seen through the scriptures in Malachi and Isaiah and Psalms where the Lord wanted us to be obedient in giving, and not just the blessing of it, but the obedience of it.”

Ted, on the other hand, was reluctant.

“How I grew up, there was nothing like that, you know. So when she started mentioning that about taking some of our money, I thought, ‘Woah, now wait a minute.’”

But after studying about what the Bible said about giving, Ted jumped on board. They started tithing to their local church and giving $15 a month to CBN.  

“It started immediately, that whenever we gave, we got blessed. One way or another we got blessed,” says Linda. “And, it wasn't to ‘give to get’, but it just happened.”

“After we kept giving, it just got to be a natural thing. The Lord blessed us so good where we didn't owe money on the house, and I mean, we just started giving to all of it,” says Ted.

They say over the past 30 years, God has honored their giving. When Ted lost his job after his employer of 24 years shut down, the couple continued to give.

“I just said, ‘OK, Lord, you said, ‘Test me and prove me,’ and I'm going to continue to write these checks,’ and money would come in from people who owed us money that I had forgotten about. And he immediately got a new job. He always takes care of us.”

Ted and Linda have increased their giving to CBN to over $400 a month.   They say their reward isn’t financial gain, it’s the joy of helping others.

“Oh my, the Lord is the center of it all,” says Linda. “You are being a witness of love when you give to others. And what joy it is when you see on TV what your money is going for. For Operation Blessing, military, oprhans, just anything. And you know that you are a part of it.”

“I’d say, ‘Try it out, try it out!” exclaims Ted.  “We see Him bless us more and more. All kind of people say, ‘You can't outgive God’ and you can't.’”