Tithing and The Church

<p>Giving money to the church is often not a popular topic but this week we discuss tithing. God calls us to be joyful and sacrificial givers of our time, money and "first fruits", giving us opportunity to trust God in our dependance on Him. Yet sometimes we are guilty of critiquing God's bride and justifying why we don't need to give to His church that He loves so much, He came to die for her? We also get into what it means to follow Jesus's example as a Servant-Leader, as the head of our house and lead our family well in reading God's word, prayer and tithing... all things that God uses to transform our hearts, minds and lives.</p> <p><strong>NOTES:</strong></p> <ul> <li>This Weeks Whiskey: Eagle Rare by Buffalo Trace Disterery</li> <li>Christian B. shares a trick to be able to better smell the notes in the whiskey</li> <li>What does it mean to Tithe and are we still called to do it?</li> <li>What does it mean to give God our "first fruits"?<span class= "Apple-converted-space"> </span></li> <li>Tithing is just as much about our heart and motivation when giving, as it is about how much we give, just like we see with Cain and Able in Genesis, where Able's offering was the best of his best to God... not what was left over.</li> <li>Tithing is an exercise of obedience and reminder that we are to be fully-dependent on God, that all things come from Him, and that we are simply stewarding God's resources and money that he provides, in order to do His will on earth.</li> <li>The principles for tithing obediently is that our giving should be joyful and sacrificial, and through giving of our first fruits back to God, we are acknowledging our dependence on Him and remembering where all good things come from.</li> <li>Does our American outlook of individual consumerism and "exchange of goods" economics influence our attitude towards tithing to our local church if we feel like we (as attendees or members) aren't getting what we think we should be getting from our Church? Specifically if that church as attracted attendees by