Does your entire tithe have to go to your church?
Is it wrong to give five percent to your church, and five percent to, lets say, an orginization like Samaritan’s Purse or Compassion International?
I would love your thoughts, along with the verses that helped you come to your conclusion. Would also like to know why you think tithing was not commanded in the New Testament, by either Jesus or Paul.
I finally read David Platt’s book Radical last month and it got me thinking, as I suppose it’s apt to do. Early on, Platt talks about reading a Christian publication where an article detailing a nameless First Baptist Church’s successful $23M building campaign was next to an article about Baptists raising $5,000 for Sudanese refugees. This disgusted Platt, as it would anyone not named Grinch, and later in the book he says, “…we also see no verse in the New Testament where God’s people are ever commanded to build a majestic place of worship (p. 117)”
Last year Gene Chizik caused a stir when, in a post-game interview, he called Auburn’s win over Clemson a ‘God thing’. Some took this to mean the game and the comeback were a lesson from God on perseverance, others took it to mean God made the poor Clemson kicker miss his short over-time field goal. My question for you today is, How much influence do you believe God has in the outcome of sporting events. Do you think every hit, run, and error is arranged by the Almighty? Do you think God sometimes intercedes, but sometimes doesn’t? Do you think God leaves us alone to play our games, but uses the outcomes for His purposes? I’d love to hear your thoughts.
I posted this yesterday on Facebook, but I imagine not all of you are on Facebook, so here you go. On Tuesday I got my royalty statement from Zondervan, and I was depressed because there were some book returns. Within three hours of my pity party I received emails from two people who’d bought my book. The first was a fifteen-year-old boy with Spina Bifida, the second from a pastor in Florida who unexpectedly lost his wife two months ago. Sometimes God whispers, sometimes He uses a bullhorn.
A lot of people thought Jesus was coming back on Saturday, cutting short His follower’s last weekend on Earth, but, as you may recall, He did not. When I think of Judgement Day, after the being called up in the twinkle of an eye part, I imagine this really, really long line of folks waiting to get into Heaven. At the front God is grilling the first person in line about everything they ever did in their life. Basically making them watch the movie of their life, and saying, “Why did you watch that movie? Why didn’t you give that man your lunch? Why did you wear white after Labor Day.” The person struggles to answer each query, but at the end Jesus intercedes and the person is let into Heaven. Next. Continue Reading…
Do you pray for your team? This was a question I asked people while working on God & Football, and the answers usually fell into one of four categories.
1. No, God has more important things to worry about.
2. Yes, but I only pray for protection from injuries.
3. Yes, but I only pray for them to play to the best of their ability.
4. Yes, I pray for them to win.
I’m not sure what to think about any of these answers. As for the first, sure there are more important things to pray about, but to me this is a small view of God. I mean, my grandfathers’s pacemaker surgery is pretty insignificant compared to genocide in Darfur, but I think God would hear prayers about both. I’m not saying you should pray about football, just that I don’t think God can only hear prayers about the big stuff. Praying for no injuries seems weird when you’ve got 300 pound men crashing into each other at full speed. Of course there are going to be injuries. Praying for your team to play to the best of their ability just seems like a sneaky way of praying for a win, and outright praying for a win just seems wrong, although I’ve certainly done it.
So what do you do, and what do you think is the right thing to do?
Tricia and I just got back from a few days at Panama City Beach. One night we drove down the strip and passed the Laguna Beach Christian Retreat. Every year from 7th grade until I was in college, my youth group came here for a week during the summer, and it was pretty much the most awesome thing ever. There were games, girls from other churches, getting closer to God, and did I mention girls from other churches. Living the Christian life was easy at Laguna Beach, and generally you would leave with for home with a new found dedication towards your faith, only to slip back into old ways once school started again. The process would then repeat itself the following summer, completing the Christian teenager’s circle of life. I’d love to hear what your summer church camps were like. Where’d you go and what’d you do.
I like Rachel Held Evans, in part because her name is a complete sentence, but also because she is talented writer who thoughtfully wrestles with some of the more difficult questions in Christianity. This week Rachel is holding a virtual rally on her blog. It’s just like a real rally, with signs and guest speakers, but without the porta potties. It’s being called The Rally to Restore Unity, and the goal is to, “lightheartedly combat some of the vitriol coming from the online Christian community by unabashedly ripping off Jon Stewart, working together to solve the water problem, and proving once and for all that we can have a sense of humor about non-essential theological differences.” I hope you’ll go visit Rachel’s blog and participate in the rally, and if you can donate to Charity:Water
I’ve always been fascinated by these questions, not because I believe they are important, but because I enjoy discussing things that probably can’t be answered. Luke says, “Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.”, and it was the ‘grew in wisdom’ part that always got me thinking.
We are taught that Jesus was fully God and fully man. In what sense do you think Jesus knew he was fully God, and when do you think he knew it? Obviously as a child Jesus said he was about his father’s business, but do you think at that moment he had all the wisdom of God? At the age of 8 do you think he could have aced a Calculus 3 quiz, or do you think he knew Auburn would win the 2010 National Championship? What about when he was 30? Continue Reading…
Last night we went to the Maundy Thursday service at our church, and sometime during the evening it dawned on me that I am 33-years-old, the same age Jesus was when he went to the cross, and to be honest, it freaked me out a bit. I thought back to the day I turned thirty, and remembered how I freaked out then too. Not because I had lived another decade, but because I was the same age Jesus was when he began his public ministry. Continue Reading…
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