A reflection from today:
For as long as I can remember, my family has tithed.
When we were young, we had 'spend cans,' piggy banks, (savings,) and a "God money" can, and we divided our money between those three categories, (little as there was of it back then.)
As I prepared to tithe today, I tallied up my last couple of checks from work, and as I came up with the sum, the thought flitted almost, I may say, unbidden, across my brain, "I owe God [x amount of] dollars." No sooner did the idea hit me, though, than another hit me even harder.
How stupid to say that! How presumptuous - how blasphemous - to think to 'give God His cut.'
I 'owe' God everything, not a meager ten percent of what I earn. My money, my possessions, every single breath I take.
Have I been giving a tenth of my mint, dill and cummin while neglecting the more important matters of the law? (Matt. 23:23)
Perhaps I have been viewing the tithe as the end, rather than the means, as I should. Perhaps as often happens with symbols, it has become the destination, rather than the guidepost.
That ten percent, then, represents the vast debt which I could never hope to begin to repay, and every time I set aside my "God money," it should remind me, and I should fall on my knees and cry out "Thank you, Lord Jesus!"
For nothing good have I
Whereby Thy grace to claim
I'll wash my garments white
In the blood of Calvary's Lamb
Jesus paid it all
All to Him I owe
Sin had left a crimson stain
He washed it white as snow
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