Tithing

[Strefanash]

IT is amazing how quickly a free gift becomes something that is paid for every week by forced paying of a tenth of your income; or how a free gift becomes something paid for by any kind of forced action done any day of the week.

MOTIVE IS EVERYTHING.

IF you do it only because you have to it is in fact a dead work of law, not a living work of faith, and is in fact sin.

Do we seriously think that God ALmighty is some petty little pagan godling who needs to be fed (pagan gods needed to be fed) by our offerings, our praises, our "obedience"?

The moment our motives become legally forced we make of God this kind of pathetic being, moreover we make him out to be a complete fool who cannot tell the difference between something coughed up under extortion from some priest or pastor - the essence of human religion - and on the other hand, something joyfully cheerfully and easily given.

The gospel is not a fire inurance policy, therefore it has no premiums

To "give until it hurts" (heard that one? I have. Many times!!) means to give beyond your faith or your willingness. That is why it hurts. And God does not want it. Moreover those pastors who demanded it of you were practising the sin of simony and demanding you or I partook of it also