notes from lisa...

 Let me start by saying, if that's the way you choose to give that's totally up to you. Tithing (or not tithing), isn't a Heaven or hell issue.  Tithing according to the Mosaic Law was always agricultural unless the giver had to travel a great distance. Then, money was acceptable. Money existed long before the Law was given. If God meant for money to be tithed, wouldn't He have required that rather than agriculture when He gave Moses laws regarding the tithe? Money was used as early as Genesis 23, by Abraham...so, well before Moses. Grace (or New Covenant) giving is sacrificial.  There's no mention of continued tithing after Jesus died, buried and rose. And, when Jesus talked about the tithe in Matthew 23:23, He wasn't speaking in positive terms. He was talking about the hypocrisy of the Pharisees who liked to make a show of everything they (supposedly) did for God. The Pharisees were over the top in everything-- just read that chapter as Jesus rebuked them. H...

 I'm not sure Jesus would approve of the way we treat our neighbors.  I think Fred Rogers was onto something with his little song, "Who are the people in your neighborhood...they're the people that you meet each day...". But, our neighborhood is global, and our neighbors include all of humanity --"even unto the ends of the earth". It's easy to lose track of that fact, when you can't see and may never know someone.  Still, if we recognized the world as a neighborhood and everyone in it as our neighbor--because we are ALL "made in the Image of God and after His Likeness ". Each person is the apple of God's eye. I love what Max Lucado wrote: "If God had a refrigerator, YOUR picture would be on it". We seem to have trouble making the connection between ourselves and others who may look, speak different than us--or have cultural differences that we may not share or understand. When we forget that those people who may be very dif...