Good morning,
I was reading the Thought for the Morning for January 12* about tithes and offerings. I was thinking about the Moral law verses Ceremonial law, and that tithing is a moral law. In the Lutheran Church, I attended, there was a set time in the service to take up the offering. Four ushers would march to the front, and the pastor would present them with the two collection plates. Then they would start at the front pews and passed the plates down the pews, and the one on the end would hand the plate to the next row until everyone had been passed the plates. Then the two head ushers would take the plates back up to the pastor, who would turn and present them to the altar and make some statement (I can’t remember the exact words).
When thinking about that, it dawned on me that they even made Tithes and Offerings into a ceremony. And even with that, they were still stealing from God because no one was truly tithing (the tenth); they were just putting in whatever they felt they could afford or wanted to do.
I was just thinking on these things and feeling very thankful this morning that Jesus called me out of Christianity!
Doris Wms