Fifth Sunday of Lent (Cycle A)

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The Raising of Lazarus Lectionary:  34 Reading 1 -  Ezekiel 37:12-14 Responsorial Psalm -  Psalm 130:1-8 Reading 2 -  Romans 8:8-11 Verse - John 11:25a, 26 Gospel -  John 11:1-45 Lazarus, come out! LESSON: The Power of God Through Those Who Believe We’re a week away from the start of Holy Week. Our Lord now has his sights set on Jerusalem, and the pace is quickening. In these next two weeks, we’re living just one part of the Gospel passage from today: an encounter with the reality of suffering and death. Jesus is asking us to have faith in him. In today’s First Reading the prophet Ezekiel reminds us of the Lord’s promise to not only to bring us back to life but to bring us home. The background of this passage is the famous "Valley of Dry Bones." The people of Israel were in exile in Babylon. They weren't just sad; they were spiritually and nationally "dead." Their common saying was: "Our bones are dried up, our hope is lost, and we are cut off." They d...
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Review: The Trojan Horse of Tithing: How Tithe Traditions Have Undermined A Pure Gospel Message

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The Trojan Horse of Tithing: How Tithe Traditions Have Undermined A Pure Gospel Message The Trojan Horse of Tithing: How Tithe Traditions Have Undermined A Pure Gospel Message by Jonathan Paul Brenneman

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Book: ***
Performance: ***

Solid Foundation; Very Repetitive

This was an interesting treatment of the concept of tithing and how this idea for the foundation of doctrine within the charismatic/pentecostal wing of the Christian churches. While it appears to me that most of the scriptural interpretations are supportable, the author is mostly targeting fellow pentecostals … a community that I am not personally a part of. As such, there is a tremendous amount of virtue signaling and argumentation along with anecdotal characterization of current doctrine that didn’t really do much for me (you might say these are distracting segues or “rabbit holes’). In addition, that are several references to people/figures that are apparently well known to this community for which I have not exposure … so that does not really add much to the debate for me either. However, references to scripture always seemed appropriate for the topic and his interpretation appeared to be reasonable given what I know of the context (again … I already subscribe to spirit-led giving over tithing, so I don’t need to be convinced here). Then we get to the author’s own experiences within his community and the harm done by the teaching of a tithing doctrine and without any means to refute those specific examples was truly dismayed by them … which I think was the point … but makes the whole come across a lot more angry that I was comfortable with … which again … given the inclusion of the concept of the Trojan Horse … is probably the point … but which meant that I simply tuned out portions of the audible that seems repetitive and targeted for emotional manipulation. Over all this was an average book, but it was well researched and important enough of a topic that I am adding 1 to my overall rating.

The chapters and sections in this work are:

Ch. 1: Let’s Get Ready To Take On an Intense Topic! (36:34)
Ch. 2: My Tithe Story (41:36)
Ch. 3: Who’s Teaching Salvation by Tithing? (43:59)
Ch. 4: Subtle Deception Paves the Way for Blatant Error (39:02)
Ch. 5: Is the Tithe “Law?” (16:52)
Ch. 6: Dealing with bullying and teasing (60:43)
Ch. 7: The History of Tithing (41:33)
Ch. 8: You Break God’s Commandments for the Sake of Your Tithing Tradition (45:38)
Ch. 9. “But Tithing Works!” (31:33)
Ch. 10. Tithing Undermines Spirit-Led Giving (66:31)
Ch. 11. Spirit-Led Giving (34:00)
Ch. 12. Corrupted Wisdom and Jesus’ Temptation (34:00)
Ch. 13. What About Ministerial Support? (27:20)
Ch. 14. Good News for the Poor (22:52)
Ch. 15. When Not To Accept an Offering (17:54)
Ch. 16. Mothers Are Pleading for Someone To Tell Their Children the Truth (15:38)

I was given this free advance review/listener copy (ARC) audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

#TheTrojanHorseOfTithing #FreeAudiobookCodes #KindleUnlimited

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