nobody searches, nobody cares somehow

To all those Christian pastor/leaders types who advocate giving a tithe of 10% of your gross income to your local church :

If I'm a UK taxpayer, and I helpfully fill in the Gift Aid declaration and standing order form, can I give 10% of the net and Gift Aid it? Or do you want 10% of my gross PLUS Gift Aid?

So much legalism, so little time.

I just don't understand, if their message is : - "Oh yes, of course we are all under grace now, so we can give what we like, but if we gave 10% under law just think how MUCH MORE grace will give, so that is why we say give at the very minimum a tithe of 10% of your gross income to your local church, but of course, you should give more, give cheerfully, God loves a cheerful giver, did you know that the original Greek meaning for the word translated here as "cheerful" means hilarious? Anyway, you don't HAVE to give. But, you know, really, ... givety give give!!!" - why do they have to continue using the language of the law?

Why is my financial gift a "tithe" when it isn't a tenth of the increase in number of my livestock, or a tenth of my harvested crops? Why is it a "tithe" when I'm not giving it to the tribe of Levi to allow them to continue the temple system of sacrifices and offerings?

Why do they tell me to "tithe" by quoting a prophecy that said to the Israelites "Follow my decrees, including the full payment of tithes, honour me, and I will give you the Messiah" ? I thought we already had Him.

Why do I even think I've interpretted this better than them? What right do I have to say anything, to them, to anyone else? Why does it have to be so complicated?

Why can't we just give? Give intelligently. Give unintelligently. Give in proportion. Give in excess. Give money. Think about it first. Don't think about it. Give time. Give food. Give things. Give to God. Give to church. Give to charity. Give to others. Give to help. Give to serve. Give to worship. Give to love.

everything looks perfect from far away

I just read this in the Telegraph. I would do a great big Graham-esque comment on my response to this article, but I don't have one. I just thought it was funny. And interesting, perhaps.

it really is no mystery

I just did a google-whack! Woop.

After the last post I decided to go over in my head all the bands/artists I've quoted in my titles, and couldn't remember a couple so I stuck them in quotation marks and then into google, and let me tell you, if you google "you found a word to explain it", the only result is the post with that name, here, on my lovely blog.

But if anyone knows, let me know. Also, "Haven't you noticed I've been hanging around?", I can't remember or find that either. I think it could be The Shins. Who are playing at Reading/Leeds this year btw, weeeeee!

get your money back at the door

Today is the day of the London Marathon. I'm not running. I'm not watching, either on television or in person. I'm in my room writing in Russian in order to be able to speak for five minutes about something I doubt I could talk about in English for that long.

Right now, in a blast from the past, I'm listening to Those in Favour; they have a 4-point link to the song lyric above. A little while ago I was getting a bit frustrated with that particular titular restriction I'd placed on myself. If I stopped however, I would have most probably had to go back and re-name all my posts in retrospect, or alternately become suddenly as a cool as all of the songwriters I used. The trouble with that is, even if I were able to, I'd also be piling pretension and cringe on my head.

Poetry is indecipherable so no one can scorn or laugh

anything at all to break the silence

I was going to post but I got distracted by facebook and am now going to Hannah's for tea. So, I'll do it later.