The Rented Veil The High Cost of Worship

By Darryl Odom

The Rented Veil The High Cost of Worship is a personal finance manual. It cites scriptures that gives the people of faith clear answers on giving, gaining prosperity, and sacraficial giving. With the same scriptures, the reader finds relief from misleading doctrinal teaching which require all to give sacrificially all the time. The Rented Veil is a critic of the prosperity movement of this current era. It places the idea of giving an offering or tithe back in the control of the giver. The Rented Veil introduces a paradigm shift in giving to saving. Finally, it offer nine steps for financial success.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Darryl Odom
• Release date: Mar 23, 2011
• ISBN: 9781607250999

Darryl Odom

I am the native son of a small town 30 miles south of Atlanta: Griffin, Georgia. There, my mother, Evelyn Odom, and a host of aunts, uncles, cousins and family friends in a loving neighborhood known as Riley Heights, raised me. Before there were cell phones and text messaging, this simple network of care was all it took to get a message to me from my mom to get home.It was in this humble setting that my values were laid. My earliest recollections of childhood include memorizing Holy Scripture for Sunday school at my aunt’s church. My aunt Lizzie Turnipseed was a pioneer. She was among the few women who were willing to risk ridicule and rejection for organizing ministries in the late 60s and early 70s. It was under her tutorage that I learned God’s Word and that my longing to understand God’s Word was laid.I earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in liberal and fine arts from the University of DC. I’ve read and studied the classics, particularly enjoying The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire, The Gathering Storm and Their Finest Hour. I’ve also studied Shakespeare’s MacBeth, Hamlet and Othello. I’ve read the Bible five times and studied the Holy Word exhaustively for over 15 years.It was never my intention to be in the ministry. During my undergrad years, I said to my classmates that the pulpit was too narrow for my aspirations in life. However, somehow God changed that perspective.After living in California and returning to my home state of Georgia, I professed my calling in ministry. From that, I embarked on 15 years of ministry as an associate minister,teacher, and acting interim pastor.My other passion in life is my career in education. I have been an educator as long as I have been in ministry.

Book preview

The Rented Veil—

The High Cost of Worship:

God's Plan for Building Wealth

by

Darryl Odom

Smashwords Edition

PUBLISHED BY

Darryl Odom on Smashword

The Rented Veil

The High Cost of Worship

God’s Plan for Building Wealth

Copyright 2008 by Darryl Odom

ISBN 978-1-60725-099-9

Smashwords Edition License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author's work.

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Table of Contents

About the Title

Preface

Introduction

Chapter 1 Giving

The Incomplete Area of Our Relationship with God

What is the Tithe?

Purpose of the Tithe

A New Paradigm in Tithing

Saving is as Holy as Tithing

The Scriptures on Tithes Raise These Questions

So What Does the Tithe Mean for Christians Today?

Building Wealth

Are You Missing Out on the Institution of Tithing?

Chapter 2 The Commercial Age

Be Careful About Creating Your Own MyGospel.com

What Happens to the Increase?

Allocation Chart

The Gospel Fine Print

Removing Intermediaries

Chapter 3 The Parable of the Talents

How Many Talents Do You Have?

Wicked Indebtedness

Spending Habits

Having More

Chapter 4 The Law of Giving

Sacrificial Giving Methods

Those Who Have More

Chapter 5 The Nay Sayers Who Come Between You and God

Doctrinal Thinking

Chapter 6 Nine Steps to Financial Success

Nine Steps to Success in Your Financial Planning and Financial Success

Where Do You Start?

About Darryl

Acknowledgement

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About the Title

And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent.

Matthew 27:51, Mark 15:38, Luke 23:45.

The title of this book is based on descriptions of the crucifixion of Christ. It is said that, when he died while hanging on the cross, the veil that separated the priest and the congregation from the holiest of holy place in the temple ripped open from top to bottom. Behind the veil were the sacraments and purification vessels that only the priest could handle. This area was so holy and so set apart that, in case the priest had sinned and had not repented or did something unpleasing to God while behind the veil, a rope was tied around the priest in order to pull him out in case he dropped dead as punishment from God.

Christ’s death on the cross and resurrection, in effect, ended the intermediary of the past. No longer did the faithful need the priest; Christ had opened the door for direct access to God.

Regrettably, a veil has been hanged again across the divide. But in this modern Christian era, the separation occurs in an area that many find very uncomfortable and that is in the subject of money. Why?

Most people, if not all, have aspirations of acquiring wealth—even great fortunes. If not striking parvenu, certainly the majority of people, if not all, would enjoy living comfortably—having enough to take care of their needs without struggles. Countless books have been written on just such a theme and many more movies have been produced to illustrate such fantasy. No doubt the people of faith are not excluded from this sentiment. It is here that the problem occurs.

Sadly, many ministers in this modern Christian era are exploiting this basic human instinct and now hold the scripture ransom to their designs. Sunday after Sunday, and on many weekdays, people fill up sanctuaries, convention centers and hotel ballrooms to hear very charismatic men and women of God pour their hearts out about the mysteries in the scriptures. And they believe and reason that only if the believer would have a little more faith, reach a little deeper, and give sacrificially, they too can have an abundant life. They too can reach the next level that God is trying to get them to by proving that they are equipped, demonstrating that they are ready, and most importantly, to commit to the tutelage presented by the minister. Then and only then, they believe, will God grant them their financial blessing. The only way to cash in on the celestial windfall is for the faithful to commit to following the prose bellowing from the lips of this new authority on scripture.

No one should be beholden or held captive to a spellbinding overture that offers never-ending promises of eternal winnings. We need no intermediary between God, or money and what and how God intends to bless us in our finances. He set in motion His intentions from the beginning, where the first gifts were presented: one from Cain and the other from Able. Both had to work the land and both had to bring in the harvest; both had to save and give an offering.

God did not hide His will from His people, and he is not hiding it now. The veil has been rented; it is open.

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Preface

Beloved:

During this age of Christianity, people of faith have seen an explosion in Christian center/assemblies to worship and study God’s Word. Along with the many worship centers, an expansion in television and radio ministries has filled the airways to declare the Good News to millions of viewers and listeners. Added to this surge are the countless self-help, self-analysis, and self-empowering analytical writings with an emphasis on Biblical principles designed to direct modern-day Christians in obtaining a more abundant life (an all-abundant life, in fact). Many of those writings are endowed with power-revealing strengths from on high for those who dare to examine their prose. These writings are instructing the household of faith in new dimensions of understanding God’s Word. Many are indispensable, and are bringing millions of converts into the Christian way of life.

I also relish, with a thirst for more and a newer understanding of God’s Word, the liberating discoveries contained in the Holy Bible. Many of the liberating words of God are in plain view and, quite frankly, have always been in plain view. Others require some explanation and/or meditation, and others are God-revealed. Yet when God reveals His Word through an interpreter, meditation, or revelation to us that we should gain a new understanding, instantly or over time, we are empowered to conquer, complete, and contribute to any endeavor set before us.

This book seeks to explore one such rich, in-plain-view, nugget. At times, the statements in this book will be at odds with the conventional or dogmatic teachings you may have received, which could shake your understanding of God’s Word as it now exists. If that occurs, I challenge you not to put the book down but to keep reading. We learn from those things that touch our emotions, challenge our belief systems, or are simply unknown to us. I’d like you to discover a more personal relationship with God.

Too many Christians are content with a religious relationship, which relies