As a pastor, I occasionally have members leave notes or offerings on my desk for various reasons. A 12-year-old member of our church recently left a five-dollar bill on my desk with a note. It read, "I have my thieving money," along with her signature.

I could not figure out what she meant. Had she stolen the money she was returning? When I saw her father the next Sunday, I mentioned to him that his daughter had left the money and note on my desk, and I wondered if he could tell me what she meant. With no hesitation, he said that it was her tithe. She obviously had misspelled tithing.

As I thought about my young member's misspelling, I realized that for those who do not tithe, they really do have "thieving" money, for as the Bible suggests, the one who refuses to tithe is stealing from God.