November 13, 2005

I took a friend with me to church again today. I think they enjoyed it a good bit, and the message that was presented. I feel that God is working on their heart as well as my other friends, and I keep praying that He gets to them, and they are ready and willing.

Funny as it seems, tithing came up in the sermon today at church. An interesting idea was brought before me, that tithing is preparation. God doesn't need our money, in particular 10 percent of it. He just wants to prepare us to give our 100 percent of US for Him. This almost knocked me out of the seat I was in, because I had simply never thought of it. God can prepare us for other things with something that seems mundane and charitable? Incredible.

I received a phone call twice this week from a friend who attends a Bible College in Atlanta, and we had very long talks about religion, girls, and life. We are both independently in the situation of no dating for the year, by different circumstances. We figured that there must be a reason for this and decided that being accountability partners would probably be a good idea. I bring this up because of the fact that this is furthering my belief that God doesn't make things happen by coincidence, whether we realize it immediately or three months later.

If God is the most intelligent, wisest being imaginable, why do we turn to our friends' opinions before we ask for His? Why do alot of our spiritual beliefs hinge more on heresay about the faith than asking God directly? Do believers have a harder time asking God for guidance than those that are realizing Him for the first time?