For advertising purposes and other reasons I now only have one form of contact. If you have a previous email of mine I will be checking it from time to time but the one below is now the only one I will use:
houghtonic[at]gmail[dot]com
I generally answer all enquires throught this email. The main reason being is that Gmail is an excellent archiving tool and the spam filter is brilliant. If you have emailed me and you haven’t got a response it’s simply because I am too busy. Please try again and I will respond as soon as humanly possible. If you wish to advertise on this site let me know and we can work something out.
Thanks for dropping by my website I look forward to hearing from you.
Luke Houghton.
Hi,
Thanks for sharing your struggle while doing your PhD. I am in exactly that spot! I have no intention of quitting. I am going to stand my ground as you did!
Thanks:)
Hi Aliya,
Please stick with it. Even though it may seem difficult getting there is a really REALLY REALLY good feeling.
Thank you
Luke
Regarding your article on why you don’t do to Church anymore I’m sad about this. However, you were deceived by your Pastor who obviously does not understand Grace or the New Covenant. Also read how the Apostle Paul established the early Gentile churches but forfeited his right to a salary so he would not hinder the gospel, even though he felt a worker was worthy of their wages:
1st Corinthians 9:12 “If others share the right over you, do we not more? Nevertheless, we did not use this right, but we endure all things so that we will cause no hindrance to the gospel of Christ”.
A great book to read is by Dr. Russell Kelly “Should the Church Teach Tithing.”
Tithing ten percent as your decision based on your personal principles is fine but it is not a law that was ever given to the Gentile churches and they twist the bible if they tell you so. There is not one mandate by God or Jesus to pay tithes in the New Testament After Jesus died on the cross.
Tithing was Old Covenant based on keeping a total of 613 Commandments which were ceremonial laws, civic laws and religious laws they did not have a Covenant like we do now based on Grace. Grace means un-deserved & un-merited favor.
You can goggle Judaism 101-613 Commandments, or do a search on 613 Old Covenant Commandments if you don’t have time to read all the Old Covenant laws in Leviticus. You can even call an traditional Jewish Synagogue and ask them to email you the 613 Old Covenant law. Tithing was only one of hundreds yet how many Christians know what the others are? How many Christians keep Jewish High Holy Days like the Pass Over that God told the Jews to observe forever?
Many Pastors fail to teach their members who God was speaking to and under which covenant. All of those Old Covenant laws were a binding contract for a specific nation the descendants of Jacob, and it was before Jesus died on the cross.
The Malachi 3:9 curse never applied to redeemed from the curse Christians. Tithe Legalit fail at understanding that Gentiles were Not in Covenant with God in Malachi 3. We were grafted into the New Covenant of Grace, Unmerited favor based on the payment Jesus made.
God was not in Covenant with Gentiles in Malachi or under the Old Covenant. God told the nation of Israel to wipe out the pagan Gentiles and possess their land. They even called Gentiles dogs in Jesus day. Until we were grafted in by Grace not by keeping Jewish laws and High Holy Days. Ask any Christians did they keep Yom Kipper which is “The Day of Atonement and was observed October 8, 2011. Ask any Christian did they observe The Feast of Tabernacles Oct.12 thru 19 of 2011? God mandated these celebrations forever for JEWS ONLY!
Galatians 3:13 “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.”
Galatians 3:14 “so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith”.
There is no logical way you can be cursed for not keeping the tithing law if you are redeemed from the curse of the law, no matter what men who lie tell you, read & understand God’s word for yourself.
In the New Testament the book of Hebrews calls Jesus the better covenant 13 times. Jesus is better than Old Covenant types and symbols.
Understand Hebrews 8:6 “But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, by as much as He is also the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted on better promises.
Hebrews 8:7 If the first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no need for a second covenant to replace it.
Read that last part of the verse indicating that the Old Covenant was replaced with a New Covenant!
Galatians 5:4 You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.
Galatians 2:21 I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.
Roman 6:14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
Jesus did not tell one Gentile to pay tithes or keep the law. In Matthew 23:23 Jesus was talking to Jews not Gentiles about their tithe paying. Tithes were paid in food not silver or gold!
If tithe teachers want to say tithing was practiced before the Old Covenant law was given by God to Moses then they should keep the Sabbath and circumcision because these two major laws also predates the Levitical Law given to Moses by God.
Tithe teachers shame on you for driving away the Lord’s poor sheep who cannot afford to tithe or who you have failed to teach of New Covenant of daily Grace and the tender mercies of God.