Spiritual disciplines: spending time with God vs. performing
Continuing a weeks-long conversation, the hosts discuss how Christians try to 'fill in the gap' when they feel God isn't showing up — one pictures God as the night manager who steps out for a smoke while he plays 'assistant manager Mike' (self-named on-air). A host says he and Ben have been going back and forth on spiritual disciplines for two or three weeks. They argue that studying scripture to lead a Bible study is not the same as spending time with God, suggest reading a book like Numbers devotionally just to be with Him, and note that real time with Jesus clarifies daily decisions — like whether to give money to a homeless man — better than rigid ground rules.
More on Giving
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Complaint-line follow-up: tithing, blessing, and the prosperity gospel
- Does faithfulness in giving guarantee material blessing, and does suffering imply unfaithfulness?
Ben reads his own complaint-line text challenging the prior show's tithe conversation: if giving brings blessing (Malachi's 'test me in this'), how should blessing be understood when faithful givers still lack basic needs, and does suffering imply unfaithfulness?
From No. 530 · Know Self Control
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Dear LFTP: the $8 spaghetti sauce in the grocery line
- Should I feel guilty for not covering the stranger's grocery bill when I could barely afford my own?
Boova (speaker-2, who reads the letter on-air) reads a Dear LFTP letter: at a grocery store, a young woman with an $8 jar of spaghetti sauce used the last of her food-stamp card,…
From No. 522 · Biking with Billy Shatner
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Only thirteen percent of evangelicals tithe
- What percentage of evangelicals actually tithe?
- Does a day set apart as holy still matter beyond legalism?
A giving study ("The Generosity Factor" finds only 13% of evangelicals tithe, half give less than 1% of income, and the median church giver gives about $800 a year.
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Practical kingdom actions: check-ins, restraint, and giving
- Should churches keep meeting in person during the pandemic?
Asked what the kingdom of Christ should be doing, a host gives three recommendations: make phone calls to isolated and immunocompromised people (even just dropping things on the…
From No. 398 · Thus It Begins…COVID