Day 30 - still learning about grace.

Day 30 and I've spent the day reading (while catching up on Premier League football).
In particular I read the book Tithing: Test Me In This @ Douglas Leblanc. The key idea that spoke to me was the idea that the tithe (giving 10% of income to God) are the training wheels that get you going on the path of giving. If you can capture the spirit of what God is asking and it becomes a reality in your life, you can forget about tithing.

Becoming a generous person.

I still have the tendency to take biblical teaching and make it into a legal transaction. I've fought against this bias for many years with some degree of success (grace a huge reality in my life both towards others and living in it myself), but despite that progress, I still can lean to legalism. This afternoon I discovered that I've leaned too much towards legalism in my tithing.

We tithe - have done so since we attended seminary in Scotland. We learned to do so out of our poverty (relatively speaking). We had a mere $4000 per year to live off of and yet during this time we learned that giving 10% of our precious income to God was not only the right thing to do but the best thing to do. We placed our financial survival fully in God's hands.

But over the years our tithe has not moved much from the 10% principle. We give to our children's charity beyond our tithe, but the 10% tithe has remained our baseline.
This afternoon's reading has challenged me on seeing the baseline increase in 2010.

Jesus repeatedly said "you have heard that it was said, but I say unto you". Constantly Jesus took grace and says grace asks for more.

My follow of Jesus today was to learn from Him.
Tomorrow's must be to act on the learning ......especially when the offering basket passes me during the service.