to tithe or not to tithe?

Most pastors will have a problem with this but I am more convinced than ever that tithing is Old Covenant....as is not committing adultery or not bearing false witness etc. etc.

Old isn't wrong. It is just Old and the New has come. The old is the school master whose ultimate purpose is to bring us to the New.

Today in the church I visited the message was on tithing. Church budgets require it at least yearly. It was as good as it gets...lots of reasons why it is good for us, lots of illustrations on how we will be blessed or cursed by what we do with our tithe.

At one point three volunteers came up on stage as an object lesson. All three were hypothetically given $10,000. The first person gave 10% of the 10 thousand dollars they had been given (a very reasonable and blessed transaction)....the next person gave above and beyond the 10%, ( opening themselves for even greater blessing),...the third was stingy and kept it for himself and thus the object of much shame.

Then heads were bowed and hands were raised by those who were ready to begin to test God with their tithing.

As this was all going down I was just buzzing inside with excitement about the freedom I have come into as a result of the cross. The freedom that I am discovering in my identity as his son; no longer in bondage to the demands of the law; not just the tithing part but all of it.

A freedom that allows me to live outside of the law, no longer as a slave. I now get to live as the son of a very generous Father.

Do I give? Yes, my dad is a giver and giving is part of my new DNA. But it is no longer a performance that is motivated by obligation and shame. I have been set free from that. Everything changed since Calvary. The law was turned on it's head there. Most of my life I have endeavored to live in the New Covenant with the Old wrapped around my neck as a task master.

But now at the ripe age of 60 I'm beginning to get that my ONE vocation as the son of a wonderful father is to abide in His love. It is there that I become a true refection of Him. I don't even have to deal with sin any more. (I draw near to Him and He draws near to me). Sin and Shame have no power over me. I am the son of a very wonderful father who loves me just like I am and then transforms little by little until I begin to look like him.

As a result: My giving might look like someone else's tithing....but in all truth there is no longer any similarity. It is sometimes planned but often spontaneous. Giving now happens as my heart is touched and where my Father leads.

Whom the Son sets free is free indeed!