Yes, I was astonished years ago when I found that out about Zondervan publishing company. It's always been a pet peeve of mine that what God gives us for free, we shouldn't be charging others for. And, yes, it is definitely about the money. Of course, I've seen the same thing in the church, working for a couple different churches. "Give, give", they say, "If more people would just give, we could send out more missionaries!" But, that's not what would happen, because the money given is put into the general fund and squabbled over by the different departments, the heads of which know if they don't spend the money allotted to them, they'll lose it to another "more needy" department next year. A lot of stuff being done in the name of God, but not really by His leading. The religious establishment has been whacking everyone upside their heads with this whole tithing thing for centuries. Preachers tell us we're priests too when they want us to go out and drag more butts into the pews, but then they forget that concept when they say we need to give them our money to be right with God. If more believers would simply realize who they are in Messiah Yeshua, they wouldn't get duped by every preacher out there. We are a royal priesthood, sons and daughters of the living God, with the Holy Spirit of Yahweh living in us. When we read the bible, He reveals things to us. When we're working, He reveals things to us. When we're going about our day to day lives, He's with us and speaking to us. He tells us where He wants us to go, what He wants us to do, who He wants us to talk to, if that person is for real, or if they're lying to us. He tells us who to invest our time/energy/money into and to what extent, and He empowers us to fearlessly overcome every obstacle in our way. That's His Spirit living within us, and yes, it's sad to see so many other believers living sub-par lives, who can't really be witnesses of God doing amazing things in their lives, cause they're not open to His leading. They've tried to put Him in a box, but they've only succeeded in putting themselves in a box, and limiting themselves and what they'll allow themselves to receive from the Almighty, who can't be put in a box! Thanks for putting your thoughts out there!
