Do You Have Time to Tithe?

When we hear about "tithing" it is usually in the context of giving a portion of our income, our money, back to God. We often hear references to the the Old Testament verses that relate a full 10% is the minimum amount of our income to devote to tithing. Paul wrote in the New Testament that we are to set aside a portion of our income to support the church. Clearly, almost every Christian would agree that providing part of our financial blessings to ministry is Biblical and a blessing to us.

But what about our time? I would venture to state that God wants our time more than he has use for our money. 1 Corinthians 10:31 Paul tells us, "So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God." What was that Paul? How much time? The answer is that God wants ALL of our time.

Some may say that if God wants to be in on ALL of our time, that seems just too much. After all, God created us to perform tasks in our lives. Watch over the earth. Raise our families. So we can't just stand around "worshipping" all the time, right? I believe that God wants us to live full and happy lives doing meaningful things. Enjoy the outdoors. Enjoy your family and friends. Support yourself and family with your work. Even Paul was a tent maker.

I have a verse taped to the shelf at my desk which reads,"Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men,...It is the Lord Christ you are serving." (Col. 3:23-24). This tells us exactly what and how much time you should be giving to the Lord. "Whatever you do," it says. How much more plain can this be stated? God wants to be with us always! In the good and bad. He won't shy away. Whether we're performing boring yard work, or on an exciting fishing trip; or even playing a video game, we are told to do it as for the Lord.

Does this mean we are free to engage in sinful behavior so long as we fool ourselves it is done for the Lord? I don't think even the best doubters would believe that. I think what it means is that we all need to evaluate our daily lives, and make our plans and lives according to what brings glory to God and what doesn't. The Bible tells us exactly how to keep our lives on track by going to God in prayer on a regular basis. In John 14:13-14, Jesus states that we are to pray for "anything" in Jesus' name and He will do it. There is nothing too big for God.

Make time for God to be with you today and every day. He wants to be with you. He wants you to be with Him now and always. Give generously to God with your time.

Review: Lead and Gold: Gangs of the Wild West (PC)

I downloaded Lead and Gold: Gangs of the Wild West on my Steam account this past week to try out the new old west themed FPS game. Priced under $15, it provided an inexpensive opportunity to try out something fresh and different than COD4 or MW2.

The game is rated "Mature," apparently because of the amount of blood produced during the shoot-outs. I've so far noticed little or no text or dialogue at all, much less any profanity or vulgarity. However, I have not played the single player or "practice" mode yet. That could hold some language surprises I suppose.

The multiplayer mode allows players to band together via the steam interface. You can either join an established game by selecting from a short list of available games, or you can create a new game yourself. While no dedicated servers exist, you can select an "invite friends" option that takes you to your list of Steam friends to place invitations to play. This can be done while already in the game or before creating a game yourself.

The gameplay is very basic. The developer states, "The game is mainly about jumping in a play easy set-up games with and versus your friends online. Story and background is therefore mainly there to enhance the mood and setting of the game. There are no lengthy campaigns as such in the main game release." Your choice of players is limited to four: a gunslinger with a pistol, a "sniper," a deputy-type character with a levered rifle and a pistol, and a close combat minor-type character with a bit shotgun and who can throw a lit keg of gun powder that explodes. There is no way to change the player kits of the various characters that I've discerned.

The multiplayer teams are generally about five players. There are several different game types, Greed, Powder keg, Robbery, Conquest and Shootout, which include the standard straight combat and flag capture varieties. I've not noticed any voice chat options, but text chat is available for teams and all players. (I've already been told by team mates how terrible I am!)

One thing that takes some getting used to is that the view of your player is a hybrid of 3rd person and 1st person. You are in 3rd person view as you move through the maps, but are transferred to a 1st person(ish) view when shooting. This does take some patience. Aside from that the game offers some nice features such as healing of teammates and a "synergy" feature that increases player effectiveness as experience points are accumulated during gameplay.

Verdict: Barring any language issues yet unknown, the game's M-rating appears to be due to its use of blood during the game. The blood is cartoonish and over-exaggerated, but is present nonetheless. With no way to turn off the blood graphics, it could be a bar to some players. Aside from that, this game provides a refreshingly different setting of FPS gameplay that will provide an opportunity for players to get a dose of old time wild west shootouts. A big plus is the ease of includings friends in the multiplayer gameplay despite the lack of dedicated servers. Lastly, the cost of this game coming in at under $15 makes Lead and Gold: Gangs of the Wild West a safe investment to have on hand when you need a break from COD4, MW2 and BFBC2 for a while.

For more information from the developer's interview see this link: http://worthplaying.com/article/2010/3/5/interviews/72835/

LifeWerx!

Welcome to a new type of study here at +CGO+,

Starting Thursday April 8th at 9PM EST(Tonight!)on +CGO+'s Ventrilo server. The new study is called LifeWerx:

The vision of LifeWerx is a place where CGO and its faithful can come together and have orchestrated fruitful discussion about common issues of life in matters in and out of Church and as they have pertained to past and present generations. These open discussions would not only incorporate the Biblical aspects of any given subject, but also bring in the perceptions of the world of those individual topics. We may also see many misconceptions the world might have of the Christian viewpoint and search for ways to rectify those.

LifeWerx will replace our Tuesday Bible studies, and as part of this change we will be moving this topical study to Thursdays for the meantime. We look forward to seeing you all there. God Bless...

Pray for Non-Believers

There's a Facebook page group urging Christians to pray for atheists during the month of April. "We want you to select an atheist friend or relative and pray for them by name each day during the month of April, 2010 (and beyond!). It’s easy and could make an eternal difference for someone you love," they state. It's a great idea, and I would encourage all Christians to keep nonbelievers in our prayers all the time.

The Easter time brings Christianity to the forefront of our media, and with that extra attention may come opportunities to discuss God, and especially the salvation offered by Christ's sacrifice, with those who have not accepted Christ. If you don't have that direct opportunity, it would be good time spent to offer prayer for those still not accepting God in their lives.

"Lord, we are humbled and thankful for Your love. The sacrifice of Your Son Jesus Christ is the ultimate gift - one we can never repay, but we can honor with our praise and commitment of our lives to Your will. We pray for the Holy Spirit to continue to strengthen and energize our faith. We pray that the Holy Spirit fills the lives of those who have not yet found You in faith; that they may be afforded the eternal reward of salvation through Your Son Jesus Christ! Amen."

Have a blessed Easter celebration.

Foolish for God?

I read a blog article of an "ex"-Christian that called into question Paul's comment of being a "fool" for Christ (1 Cor. 4:10). The author makes a strained attempt to illustrate that Christians really don't follow Paul's instruction to be fools for Christ, since, and I can't really make this up, Christians are actually quite sensible folks. (The evidence was that Christians put locks on their doors, are "rich" and aren't working 24/7 to clothe and feed the needy; and are therefore not really foolish).

First off, why would it be foolish to help and feed the needy? But it's an impossible argument when it comes to this type of faux-reasoning. The argument is, at its core, that Christians don't follow the letter of the Bible and don't perfectly lead the lives Christ and the Bible would tell us to. NEWS FLASH: That's absolutely true! We Christians are failures when it comes to living perfect lives and perfectly honoring the Bible and God. It would be foolish to believe otherwise.

So what did Paul say about being a fool? I'm not a Biblical Scholar, but I think Paul was telling us that when men see Christians as fools for believing in their faith of God, we have truly won. For we have shown our faith openly, and have no care as to what other men think. For it is Christ whom we serve.

The great thing is that God knows we are imperfect, but has offered us the gifts of love and Salvation through Jesus Christ nonetheless. Christ once stated, "Let the one who is without sin cast the first stone." Of course, nobody could, because we've all fallen short. God knows this, and loves us anyway. That is all that matters.