A pace where people can share religious views for the betterment of self.
Digital Poet: Digital Poet - Where poetry has gone digital: Digital Poet -
posted by Ron B. @ 8:57 PM
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I thought I'd share something about me... my beliefnet results:
Labels: Religion, spirituality
posted by Ron B. @ 10:46 PM
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Christianity and the Tarot: Tarot as an Evangelism Tool?
Massive recent cultural changes have led many frontline workers in mission and evangelism to adopt new and sometimes startling methods. It may seem bizarre but Christians are using Tarot cards to share gospel truth with New Age seekers. John Drane explains how, why and addresses the big concern: Can Tarot with its strong occult links - really be used for good or is it not the proverbial wolf in sheep's clothing?
John Drane's defence of using Tarot among people attracted to the New Age scene is highly controversial. Christianity+Renewal asked him to defend this approach. Is this taking things too far? Is Drane enlightened or deceived? Is this culturally relevant evangelism or is it unwise and down-right dangerous for all concerned? This article seek to promote informed discussion on what Professor Drane regards as a legitimate attempt to share gospel truths to people who are exploring New Age ideas or dabbling with the occult. Huge numbers of unchurched people respond to adverts in national and local newspapers and magazines to get Tarot readings over the phone or in other ways. Their motives are similar to those who consult their horoscope or have their palms read. They seek guidance and information. These forms of divination are clearly doorways to danger. But John Drane and others have decided not to stand outside a psychic fair warning attenders of the dangers of dabbling with the occult. Instead they attempt to engage with pagan culture head-on. Like Paul who quoted pagan sources to explain the gospel to the Athenians Drane and his colleagues attempt to tread this difficult route.
It was in 1997 that I first met briefly with Ross Clifford, principal of Morling College, Sydney, the theological college of New South Wales Baptists. I knew nothing about Australian Baptists, though I had the impression that they were a pretty conservative bunch. Imagine my surprise, then, when Ross asked me if I'd ever thought of using Tarot cards to explore Christian faith. Through my own contacts among New Agers, I knew many people who used the Tarot, so I was absolutely fascinated as Ross told me how he, his friend Philip Johnson, and the students at Morling had been using Tarot to share the Gospel in psychic fairs and other unlikely-sounding places. When I then met people who had actually become Christians as a result, I knew this was something worth further investigation.
Discovering the Tarot
At the time, I was travelling on from Sydney to California, and when I got there I decided to take a closer look. My first surprise came when I tried to buy a set of cards. Three hours after entering Alexandria's bookstore in Pasadena, I finally emerged with my purchase. By then, the server had uncovered the reasons for my interest, enquired about the life issues I wanted to address, asked how I saw my spiritual side developing - and a whole lot of other questions of a similar nature that he insisted I answer before I could be allowed to buy what I had gone for. 'We must be sure you'll get a spiritual tool that will be really helpful for you', he said as he took my money - though he certainly wasn't in it for that, at $10 for an afternoon's work! The difference between this and going to a Christian store struck me right away: I could have bought a Bible in two minutes flat, but I doubt whether anyone would have dreamed of asking about the state of my soul!
The cards I bought were the Rider-Waite Tarot, invented around 1910 by Arthur Waite, an English aristocrat. This is to the Tarot what the Authorised Version is to the Bible: others subsequently designed different types, but the basic pattern of themes always follows that established by Waite. As I looked at the cards, I soon understood why my Australian friends were so excited, for the illustrations on the cards are mostly taken from Bible stories. Indeed, all the significant ideas of scripture are here, covering everything from Genesis to Revelation: Creation, the Fall, the Tower of Babel, the Temple, prophets, the crucifixion, judgment, after-life, and many more, all depicted in graphic detail. It was obvious to me right away that any Christian who knew their Bible well could easily share the Gospel using these cards.
Can it be that simple?
But - and for many, this is a big 'but' - this is the Tarot. Isn't this about fortune telling, if not even more dangerous occult concerns? How could something with that reputation be used to share the truths of Christian faith? Was it not the proverbial wolf in sheep's clothing? That was the big question - for my Australian collaborators as well as for me - and it is the major reason for this article. Our book doesn't address any of that: it simply uses the Tarot to invite readers to consider the claims of Christ. But we want other Christians to feel comfortable using it as a resource in their own witness, which is why we need to explain what we think we are doing, and why it is worth doing this way.
Back to the Bible
It's important to me that whatever we do in evangelism today - especially something as radical as this - should have some obvious continuity with scripture. In the book of Acts, Luke records different ways in which the apostles preached the Gospel. They often visited synagogues, where people knew the Hebrew Bible, and where the most obvious question was whether Jesus might be the Messiah. But they also spoke with people who'd never heard of the Bible, as in Acts 17:16-34, Paul's visit to Athens. That situation had many similarities with today's supermarket of faiths. Luke actually says that Paul felt really uncomfortable with it all - yet he also insists that, even here, God was still present not just in a general way, but specifically in the 'altar to the unknown god' which Paul used (quoting from entirely 'pagan' sources) to share the story of Jesus.
This passage challenges the assumptions some Christians make about how God operates. Significantly, Paul took it for granted that God was already at work in Athens, though there were apparently no Christians there. Even in a place saturated with devotion to alien deities, it never occurred to him that this might be a no-go area for God. Could it be that by assuming that the New Age is a no-go area for God today, we are not only limiting our own evangelistic opportunities, but also adopting a very unorthodox theological stance - for if this is God's world (and that is on the very first page of the Bible!), how can there be places from which God is excluded? And if we think there are, what kind of small God are we worshipping? Could it be that the Tarot is one of today's altars to unknown gods?
As I reflected on all this, I also considered other stories. Take Philip, for example, sent by God to meet an African in a desert, and who asked the simple question, 'Do you understand what you are reading?' (Acts 8:26-40). As it happened, he was reading the Bible. Today's people are reading - among other things - the Tarot. Maybe we could ask the same question: do you understand what you are reading? If all these images come from the Bible, then there must be a deeper meaning than what lies on the surface. The interesting thing about this approach is that, though the Bible is the last place most people today would dream of looking for spiritual guidance, once they become interested to learn more about the Tarot's message, the Bible is the very place they need to go in order to uncover its secrets. I have repeatedly found that, whenever I have spoken with spiritual searchers along these lines: they start off wanting to know more about the Tarot, and end up reading the Bible.
But isn't it all evil?
There's still the matter of the Tarot's reputation for sorcery and divination, and in the book we describe Tarot history in some detail. It was invented by Italian nobles in the 14th century to be just a set of playing cards. It was French Protestant pastors in the early 18th century who first used them for fortune telling, believing they embodied some esoteric mystical lore from ancient civilizations. These speculations had no historical foundation whatever. What happened was that something that was originally morally and spiritually neutral was taken over and used for other purposes. That kind of thing happens all the time. Christians have abused the Bible in the same way, to justify everything from the Crusades to slavery, apartheid, and the spoiling of the environment. But we don't stop using the Bible because it can be corrupted: we pay more careful attention to focus on its 'real' message..
Actually, the occult use of the Tarot is not the dominant approach today. Many Tarot readers describe themselves as therapists and counsellors. The Bible stories featured on the cards do literally deal with all of life's big questions. I spoke on the Tarot at an evangelism conference in the USA, and a participant started jumping up and down, waving his own set of cards until I had to let him speak. He said that he had been a psychiatrist for 30 years,and regularly used the Tarot in diagnosis. "All I have to do," he said, "is ask a client which card depicts how they feel right now, and which one shows how they would like to be -a nd I have a pretty clear insight into what is going on in their lives." He was excited, as a believer, now also to have a Christian angle on it.
The Gospel in an unlikely place
So what is the 'Christian angle' that emerges here? I've already mentioned the many prominent Biblical themes that feature. But there is one other thing. The Tarot has more trumps than regular playing cards, and one card is the most powerful of all: the Fool. Arthur Waite himself described the fool as 'a prince of the other world on his travels through this one' and the card shows an individual who holds the key to life in the next world, bearing gifts for those he meets, and yet rejected and unrecognised by those on whose behalf he loses his life. As we comment in the book, 'The one who uniquely fits what has been foretold is Jesus of Nazareth: he brings eternal gifts, dies for others, and comes from above.' The uncompromising way in which the Tarot points to the all-powerful One who comes in foolishness and weakness - yet bringing salvation - was the thing that convinced me that this is indeed a key 'altar to an unknown god ' that, if appropriately used and understood, can be an effective evangelistic tool in relation to today's spiritual searchers. We wrote the book to help these people find Christ. We're not suggesting that every Christian should go out and get a set of Tarot cards. It's a specialist ministry, and definitely not for everyone. If you're not sure how to react, then the three of us could certainly use your prayers. Probably some of your friends and family could use the book.
John Drane's co-authors of Beyond Prediction: the Tarot and your Spirituality are Ross Clifford and Philip Johnson.
Ross Clifford is Principal of Morling College (The Baptist Theological College of New South Wales, Australia). In 1991, he and Philip Johnson founded the Community of Hope, as an outreach to New Agers.
Philip Johnson is CEO of Global Apologetics & Mission, a Sydney-based organisation concerned for evangelism among devotees of new religions. He also teaches Philosophy, Cults & World Religions at the Presbyterian Theological Centre in Sydney, and is a visiting lecturer at Morling College.
In 1993 Philip and Ross Clifford began experimenting with the use of Tarot cards to present the Gospel to New Age seekers. Since then they have led many workshops in New Age festivals, and also have an extensive ministry among Wiccan and neo-pagan devotees.
Professor John Drane teaches practical theology in the Divinity School at the University of Aberdeen, and is a consulting editor of Christianity+Renewal. Beyond Prediction: the Tarot and your Spirituality (£8.99) Lion Publishing ISBN: 0 7459 5035 3 It's a specialist ministry, and definitely not for everyone.
Labels: christianity, occult, tarot
posted by Ron B. @ 4:02 PM
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The Rosary, Catholics, and Other Chistians
Labels: catholic, christianity, rosary
posted by Ron B. @ 3:52 PM
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Sexual Ethics in the Bible
Some time ago, I was part of a discussion on whether or not premarital sex was biblically forbidden. The discussion included me, a male friend of mine, and a girl I’d met just then. My friend said that he couldn’t recall an instance in the bible that supported her claim, which was that premarital sex was explicitly forbidden in the bible. I aided in supporting my friend’s counter claim, asking her to consider the biblical foundations, if any, supported her claim. She reached for a bible and stated it was in Genesis, but she couldn’t find it. We asked her to research it, and get back to us when she had found something. Today we will look at this topic from both sides.
I’m not typically one to dissect the bible verse by verse, but what I will do here is utilize some verses that the girl had found during her research and talk on them briefly. The citations will come from the NIV translation as with all subsequent posts, unless otherwise stated.
Jeremiah 29:6 Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. From a modern point of view this simply exhorts that marriage is a proper state for bearing children. Children are more likely to flourish in a stable family environment. Let’s look at another example.
Hebrews 13:4 Marriage should be honored by all and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral. Now note that it does not speak as to what is considered sexually immoral. It is my thinking that while adultery is a sexually impure act, since this was written to the Hebrew Christians, what was considered sexually immoral was common knowledge from the Judaic law. Let’s look at what that law says about the sexually immoral.
Let’s look at Exodus Chapter 22:1919 "Anyone who has sexual relations with an animal must be put to death.” Now some things in Leviticus.
Leviticus 18
Unlawful Sexual Relations
1 The LORD said to Moses, 2 "Speak to the Israelites and say to them: 'I am the LORD your God. 3 You must not do as they do in Egypt, where you used to live, and you must not do as they do in the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you. Do not follow their practices. 4 You must obey my laws and be careful to follow my decrees. I am the LORD your God. 5 Keep my decrees and laws, for the man who obeys them will live by them. I am the LORD.
6 No one is to approach any close relative to have sexual relations. I am the LORD.
7 Do not dishonor your father by having sexual relations with your mother. She is your mother; do not have relations with her.
8 Do not have sexual relations with your father's wife; that would dishonor your father.
9 Do not have sexual relations with your sister, either your father's daughter or your mother's daughter, whether she was born in the same home or elsewhere.
10 Do not have sexual relations with your son's daughter or your daughter's daughter; that would dishonor you.
11 Do not have sexual relations with the daughter of your father's wife, born to your father; she is your sister.
12 Do not have sexual relations with your father's sister; she is your father's close relative.
13 Do not have sexual relations with your mother's sister, because she is your mother's close relative.
14 Do not dishonor your father's brother by approaching his wife to have sexual relations; she is your aunt.
15 Do not have sexual relations with your daughter-in-law. She is your son's wife; do not have relations with her.
16 Do not have sexual relations with your brother's wife; that would dishonor your brother.
17 Do not have sexual relations with both a woman and her daughter. Do not have sexual relations with either her son's daughter or her daughter's daughter; they are her close relatives. That is wickedness.
18 Do not take your wife's sister as a rival wife and have sexual relations with her while your wife is living.
19 Do not approach a woman to have sexual relations during the uncleanness of her monthly period.
20 Do not have sexual relations with your neighbor's wife and defile yourself with her.
21 Do not give any of your children to be sacrificed [a] to Molech, for you must not profane the name of your God. I am the LORD.
22 Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable.
23 Do not have sexual relations with an animal and defile yourself with it. A woman must not present herself to an animal to have sexual relations with it; that is a perversion.
24 Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways, because this is how the nations that I am going to drive out before you became defiled. 25 Even the land was defiled; so I punished it for its sin, and the land vomited out its inhabitants. 26 But you must keep my decrees and my laws. The native-born and the aliens living among you must not do any of these detestable things, 27 for all these things were done by the people who lived in the land before you, and the land became defiled. 28 And if you defile the land, it will vomit you out as it vomited out the nations that were before you.
29 Everyone who does any of these detestable things—such persons must be cut off from their people. 30 Keep my requirements and do not follow any of the detestable customs that were practiced before you came and do not defile yourselves with them. I am the LORD your God. There are a lot of laws, some of which we ignore and deem perfectly irrelevant, but notice there is nothing here about premarital sex. All of these references would have been understood when speaking about sexual morality, as well as sexual relations with some of the peoples which the Israelites were forbidden to consult with. This was due to the fact that women from such cultures would have served as tools for sexual sacrifices to love and/or fertility gods/goddesses. The following verses also speak to that point.
So with all these things that I have used to present a controversial view on a touchy subject within the Christian community, I have also presented references that are used against premarital sex. Some people have also said that when Jesus talked about lusting after someone being the same as adultery (Matt. 5:27-30), he also encompasses sex before marriage. What if he was saying that the biggest cause of cheating among spouses is lust, plainly and simply? Do I believe that’s the ONLY thing to it? No. I believe that Jesus knew of the corrupting power that lust can have over mankind. This notion is echoed here, and is probably the best reason to consider waiting for marriage, in 1 Peter 2:11 ”Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul.”
It has also come to my attention that the verses I used in some cases spoke about homosexuality. This another hot button issue that has to do with sexuality. While the Bible takes an unambiguous stance on this, when preaching to people about this, I implore you to remember the following:
The Greatest Commandment (Mark 12:28-34)
28One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?"
29"The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.[e] 30Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.'[f] 31The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'[g]There is no commandment greater than these."
32"Well said, teacher," the man replied. "You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. 33To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices."
34When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God." And from then on no one dared ask him any more questions.
We must be cautious that our love is more than what has become an all too generic “love and concern for the soul.” A message for my brothers sisters and contemporaries: If you find yourself filled with wild passion on these subject, it is best to bridle your tongue until they have been quenched, lest you lose sight of what you’re after. Remember Love above all. Until next time!
I encourage you to comment and discuss
--Rev
posted by Ron B. @ 7:38 PM
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Earlier today, I was on a bus when someone asked me if tithing was biblical. My quick reply was, "I never found it in there." Now I read the entirety of the OT over in a week, and I honestly never saw a thing saying saying tithing was a complete necessity nor an obligatory custom. I didn't have a bible, so I couldn't give her specifics. I found a writeup pertaining to this on another site I will include here.
What does God say?You cannot ‘give’ to God. As the Creator and Sustainer of the universe, He already owns everything. Your life — the very beating of your heart — is itself a gift from God. The earth is the Lord’s, and every thing in it, the world, and all who live in it… (Psalm 24:1). Hear, O my people, and I will speak, O Israel, and I will testify against you: I am God, your God, I do not rebuke you for your sacrifices or your burnt offerings, which are ever before me. ‘The silver is mine and the gold is mine,’ declares the Lord Almighty (Haggai 2:8). “Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him?” (Romans 11:35). This rhetorical question is given no answer, because the answer is obvious. You cannot give to God with any expectation that God will end up being in debt to you.
Favourite passagesThe tithing teachers try to prove that tithing was required by God long before He gave the Law to Moses. In the following section we will consider their favourite passages of Scripture.
Genesis 14 Then Melchizadek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God Most High, and he blessed Abram saying, “Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth. And blessed be God Most High, who delivered your enemies into your hand.” Then Abram gave him a tenth of everything (Genesis 14:18-20). “See,” they say, “tithing was a necessary practice way back in the days of Abraham.”
Genesis 28 Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will watch over me on this journey I am taking and will give me food to eat and clothes to wear so that I return safely to my father’s house, then the Lord will be my God and this stone that I have set up as a pillar will be God’s house, and of all that you give me I will give you a tenth” (Genesis 28:20-22). “See,” they say, “tithing was a necessary practice way back in the days of Jacob, long before the Law was given.” But read exactly what Jacob said in Genesis 28:20-22. 1. He made a vow, a promise (and there is no record in the Bible that he ever kept that promise.) 2. It was a conditional promise. Notice the five conditions: If that is “tithing”, feel free to make a list of everything you want from God and — once you have received it all — start making your once-every-twenty-year payments.
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What was the purpose of tithing in the Old Testament?There were four tithes in the Old Testament.
1. The people paid a general tithe to the Levites “I give to the Levites all the tithes in Israel as their inheritance in return for the work they do while serving at the Tent of Meeting” (Numbers 18:21). All the tribes of Israel, except the Levites, had a designated geographical area as their “inheritance”. But the Levites — in return for their work within the nation — received income tax of 10% from the rest of the population.
2. The Levites paid a tithe of the general tithe to the priests The Lord said to Moses, “Speak to the Levites and say to them: ‘When you receive from the Israelites the tithe I give you as your inheritance, you must present a tenth of that tithe as the Lord’s offering…to Aaron the priest…’” (Numbers 18:25-31). All the priests were Levites, but not all Levites were priests. The priestly caste were descended from Aaron and they had specific responsibilities related to the Temple worship.
3. The people kept a tithe to pay for their annual pilgrimage to Jerusalem Be sure to set aside a tenth of all that your fields produce each year. Eat the tithe of your grain, new wine and oil, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks in the presence of the Lord your God at the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name, so that you may learn to revere the Lord your God always. The people of Israel were required to assemble three times a year at Jerusalem (as the place chosen by the Lord) for the major feasts.
4. The people paid a tithe for the poor, the orphans and the widows At the end of every third year you shall bring out all the tithe of your produce in that year, and shall deposit it in your town. And the Levite, because he has no portion or inheritance among you, and the alien, the orphan and the widow who are in your town, shall come and eat and be satisfied, in order that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hand which you do (Deuteronomy 14:28-29). This tithe went to the poor, the widows and the orphans. In Australia that is called “Social Security”. It was payable once every three years, which equals one-third of a tenth annually.
Tax to whom tax is due… Render to all what is due to them: tax to whom tax is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honour to whom honour (Romans 13:7). As we move into the New Testament, we find that nothing has changed. We still pay taxes to finance the Public Service and the Social Security system.
Bring the whole tithe… “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and test Me now in this,” says the Lord of hosts, “if I will not open for you the windows of heaven, and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows” (Malachi 3:10). Here we have the tithing teachers’ favourite verse in the whole Bible. On this verse they hang most of their doctrine. But if we take a close look at the verse, we will find something very interesting. And the priest, the son of Aaron, shall be with the Levites when the Levites receive tithes, and the Levites shall bring up the tenth of the tithes to the house of our God, to the chambers of the storehouse (Nehemiah 10:38). [ Note: The word ‘storehouse’ is translated as ‘treasure house’ in the KJV. The Hebrew is the same in both Nehemiah and Malachi, outsair, meaning a treasure or a store house. ] Which of the four tithes is in view in Malachi?
Under a curse… If you want to understand the book of Malachi, read Malachi 4:4, “Remember the Law of Moses…” That is the whole thrust of Malachi.
The first Church Council In the early church, there were those who tried to force the Gentile Christians to live under the Law. A dispute arose which quickly lead to the first ever church council. And some men came down from Judea and began teaching the brethren, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.” And when Paul and Barnabas had great dissension and debate with them, the brethren determined that Paul and Barnabas and certain others of them should go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and elders concerning this issue. The question being answered by this council (v.5) is: What was the answer? They were given four instructions: Where does tithing come on the list?
Did Jesus endorse tithing? “But woe to you Pharisees! For you pay tithe of mint and rue and every kind of garden herb, and yet disregard justice and the love of God; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others” (Luke 11:42). When Jesus said “these are the things you should have done…”, did He mean that we should tithe? Look at His comment in context. Who was Jesus speaking to? The Pharisees. What was significant about being a Pharisee? They considered themselves to be “separated unto the Law” — that’s what the word ‘Pharisee’ signifies.
Which one was justified? Jesus taught us about two men, one of whom tithed and one of whom did not. “Two men went up into the Temple to pray, one a Pharisee, and the other a tax-gatherer. The Pharisee stood and was praying thus to himself, ‘God, I thank Thee that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax-gatherer. I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all I get.’ Which one was justified before God, the tither or the non-tither?
Tithes are ‘Corban’ He was also saying to them, “You nicely set aside the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition. For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘He who speaks evil of father or mother, let him be put to death’; but you say, ‘If a man says to his father, anything of mine you might have been helped by is Corban (that is to say, given to God),’ you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or his mother; thus invalidating the word of God by your tradition which you have handed down; and you do many such things as that” (Mark 7:9-13). If you have money your family needs, but you withhold it from them in order to pay it to the church as ‘tithes’, you are doing exactly what the Pharisees did. You are saying your money is “Corban” and Jesus taught that by doing so you were invalidating the Word of God.
What does the New Testament teach about giving? We are to agree with God that He owns us, and in keeping with that belief we are to present ourselves to Him. I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship (Romans 12:1). Now brethren, we wish to make known to you the grace of God which has been given in the churches of Macedonia, that in a great ordeal of affliction their abundance of joy overflowed in the wealth of their liberality. For I testify that according to their ability, and beyond their ability they gave of their own accord, begging us with much entreaty for the favour of participation in the support of the saints, and this, not as we had expected, but they first gave themselves to the Lord (2 Corinthians 8:1-5). Your giving must stem from your relationship with the Living God.
Motivation is everything For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life (John 3:16). Most people ignore this verse in the context of giving, but God’s giving has to be the very foundation of our giving. Notice three things about God’s giving: There is a form of sacrificial giving that God despises:
In response to need We are to give in response to need, not in response to greed. For there was not a needy person among them, for all who were owners of land or houses would sell them and bring the proceeds of the sales, and lay them at the apostles’ feet; and they would be distributed to each, as any had need (Acts 4:34-35). Now at this time some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. And one of them named Agabus stood up and began to indicate by the Spirit that there would certainly be a great famine all over the world. They responded to need.
Secretly and humbly Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven. We are to give in a secret and humble way.
According to what we have We are to give according to what we have. For if the readiness [to give] is present, it is acceptable according to what a man has, not according to what he does not have (2 Corinthians 8:12). If you have $10 and owe $10 to someone, but rather than pay your debt you give the money to a religious organisation, God does not accept your offering. It is “unacceptable” to Him.
Cheerfully Let each one do just as he has purposed in his heart; not grudgingly or under compulsion; for God loves a cheerful giver (2 Corinthians 9:7). What the Bible is saying here is: Give what you are genuinely happy to give.
…from every man whose heart moves him… “Tell the sons of Israel to raise a contribution for Me; from every man whose heart moves him you shall raise My contribution (Exodus 25:2). This offering was for the construction of the tabernacle, the most important thing in the Old Testament. God only wanted contributions from those who were genuinely happy to give them. And in the New Testament, nothing has changed.
Tithing — the curse of the ‘kings’ And (Samuel) said, “This will be the procedure of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons and place them for himself in his chariots and among his horsemen and they will run before his chariots… The original site this comes from is located at: http://www.geocities.com/hotsprings/3658/tithing.html |
Labels: Religion
posted by Ron B. @ 5:07 PM
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Judging
5One man considers one day more sacred than another; another man considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. 6He who regards one day as special, does so to the Lord. He who eats meat, eats to the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who abstains, does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God. 7For none of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone. 8If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.
9For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living. 10You, then, why do you judge your brother? Or why do you look down on your brother? For we will all stand before God's judgment seat. 11It is written:
" 'As surely as I live,' says the Lord,
'every knee will bow before me;
every tongue will confess to God.' "[a] 12So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God.
13Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in your brother's way. 14As one who is in the Lord Jesus, I am fully convinced that no food[b] is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for him it is unclean. 15If your brother is distressed because of what you eat, you are no longer acting in love. Do not by your eating destroy your brother for whom Christ died. 16Do not allow what you consider good to be spoken of as evil. 17For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, 18because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and approved by men.
19Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification. 20Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a man to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble. 21It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother to fall.
22So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the man who does not condemn himself by what he approves. 23But the man who has doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin.
--Rev
One final thought, I do realize that Paul is primarily talking about food but it is up to us to remember this teaching can be applied to most anything. In all that we do, we must remember that Jesus tells us to love our neighbors as ourselves. Remember, try very hard to get your message across without offending, because offending someone doesn't necessarily spell conviction of sin. In order to get the true message out, communication needs to stay open.
If a person isn't feeling loved, we might not be loving.
posted by Ron B. @ 1:10 PM
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I'm a guy on the net who wants a place all his own... A place in the great equalizer.
