Does Ed still come on this board from time to time? If so, this is directed to him:
Ed, so many times I completely forget to tell you what a great article that is about tithing. You leave no stone unturned and it is so thorough it's priceless. I just printed it out AGAIN to rock someone's world on Sunday. I get such a kick out of giving it to people. Even in my church where people are quite spirit-led and not legalistic, the tithing bug has hit people bad. If anyone still believes in the validity of tithing after reading your article, they don't want the truth. I've had people refuse to talk to me any more once I give them that. It shakes their world to its foundations. Because guess what? If you can't buy your way into heaven by tithing and giving and sowing and reaping, then you may just have to rely on God's goodness and accept his blessings by faith instead of working for them and earning them and telling God, "Look, I put this much in the plate so I really deserve a blessing here."
How I discovered the truth of this was last year, when someone said to me, "Why don't you try reading the book of Galatians back to back 5 times and see what you realize?" And what I realized was, WE ARE NOT UNDER THE LAW. There's nothing you can do or not do to be blessed by God. All our blessings are the result of the finished work on the cross, not anything we do. What an eye opener that was. Anyway, your article on tithing has caused an uproar in my town because I don't have to open my mouth. I just hand it to people and the article does the rest. Way to go. Thank you for all the work that went into it. That article will go a long way, you'll see. You may never know how far it reaches.