John Piper is so annoying :)

I'm should be used to it by now.  A few years ago, I heard my first full-length John Piper sermon on a Passion "One Day" DVD and realized I could never retire - at least not really, at least not in good conscience.  It became crystal clear that if I have any energy left in my body, it should be directed toward making God's glory known.  Retiring to a beachfront home and building the world's greatest shell collection wasn't going to cut it.  A couple of years later I got to listen to John Piper speak "live" at a conference - again - live-change sort of moment as he looked right at me (at least it seemed that way) and asked "Dad, what would you do if your son or daughter told you they wanted to go to Iraq on a mission trip?"... see the trouble was, my daughter had done just about exactly that only a week or so earlier, and I wasn't really completely okay with it.  Time to re-examine priorities...  So... as I said, I should be used to it by now...

Anyway.. this evening I was following a trail... I started looking for the history of pre-Christian baptism (wondering where John the Baptist got the idea in the first place) and ended up at the following Piper sermon on a website talking about how tithing wasn't really biblical:  http://www.tithing-russkelly.com/id133.html   The funny thing is that Piper actually agrees... sort of.  I'll just quote the summary at the end...

The best way that I know how to capture the spirit of the New Testament generosity is simply to say: the issue is not, How much must I give?, but How much dare I keep? Not: Shall I tithe? But: How much of the money that I hold in trust for Christ can I take for my private use? The financial issue in the church today is not tithing, but exorbitance of life-style. The question is not can I afford to tithe, but can I justify the life-style that consumes 90% of my income? And behind that is the question: Do I love to use God's money to spread justice and mercy and spiritual hope in the world, or do I prefer to embezzle his money to purchase more and more personal comfort?

Like I said, John Piper is so annoying...