The Kingdom of Heaven is at Hand

I've been attending a church lately in Reno and I enjoy it a lot. I'm constantly wanting to dig into relationship with the people at this church. It is the first time I've ever felt this way about an institutional church. It isn't just a feeling of obligation, but I'm excited to serve the people around me and to pray and grow with them. The one thing I have never really understood, though, was tithing. I mean, why should I give just to those people in leadership? If the church is the body of Christ, why can't I give to others around me who I think are more in need? Why should I give to these American pastors that are I think are doing well for themselves, when I could give an African family $30 so they can survive for a month? I just don't see how giving to A church makes sense when the bible says give to the THE church.

God didn't create a world where there isn't enough for people. I see it as He created the right amount, but we became selfish and have too much. You see, when Jesus fed the 4,000, all He had was 7 loaves of bread and a few small fish and they ended up with baskets of leftovers (Matthew 15:32-39). Crazy how God multiplied all of that food to provide for His children. God sets up laws in the Old Testament so the hungry and homeless would have food and that debts would be forgiven after a certain amount of years and land would be given back and slaves become free. What happened? How did we become Christians that lock our doors when we see someone in need on the street?

We should live like the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. We should be saying to each other "You don't have money for gas? We've got you covered". In Acts it says no one claimed anything as their own. They ended poverty there.

An economy rooted in love will have loaves of bread let over.