Which Way Do I Go?

The other day I was pondering my work situation and whether or not I should be there. What direction should I go? Do I just chuck it all and wander about, and several other crazy things.  My job is not exactly the most Christian oriented.  Many of the values it promotes are anti-Christian and discussion about faith is suppressed.  It’s been something on my mind as to whether or not I should be working in such an environment.  Am I actually helping to promote an anti-Christian system by assisting in its functioning?


Those are some tough thoughts, and the implications that could arise from the answers would certainly be life altering.  I don’t have a great job, but in this day and age, I really do have a good job.  I get paid more than many and have benefits that many don’t get.  The job has let me live a pretty decent lifestyle.  But, we are not supposed to look at the carnal, are we?  We should not trade principles of God for earthly gain.


I sometimes feel the call like that of Abram.  Get thee up out of thy house and thy kindred and go to a place that I will show you.  I’ve always been kind of a wanderer and there is a bit of romantic appeal to this for me.  I’ve been homeless and broke though and I know what that is like and how unromantic it really is.  Still, if that is what God calls you to, He will provide.  This I know from experience too.  I’m just not quite sure about whether this is for me or not.


On the other hand, I look at Joseph.  Although he did not really have a choice in the matter, he found himself working in places that were extremely against God and His ways; first at the captain of the guards, then as a prisoner, and finally ruling over an ungodly nation.  All the while that he was doing his work, he never compromised his principles between he and God.  He worked hard, accurate, and honestly.  God blessed everything Joseph did because of his faithfulness.  In every situation he found himself in, he was promoted over time to a position of leadership as others saw his hard and honest work, and the blessing god bestowed upon that work.  It was not quick progression, but one that took years, all the while being faithful to God to carry out his duties as best he could so as to honor God.  I’m just not sure about whether this is for me or not.


I think back to my early days as a Christian and how I was prophesied as a minister of God and trained in that.  Is that the direction I am going?  I’m not even sure how to get there.  Am I to end up having a church?  Is this here kind of like my church?  What is God preparing me for?  Where is this blog even going?  Lol


Mainly I suppose it is that we need to be obedient in the small things.  If we tell the truth, help others, love, do our work as unto God, be obedient; eventually we will find out the answers we have about what is to occur.  We have to trust God that he has our futures in control and we need to just be obedient day by day.
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Proverbs 3:5 Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. 6 In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

Be Prepared

This blog is going to be rather short and to the point.  Folks, be prepared.  

I went to the store this week just before a potential snowstorm.  I went at the last minute, even as the first flakes began falling.  I got off work at midnight and went to my local wal-mart to be sure i had some cat food so I would not run out and have the cat mad at me.  This is what I found.














This was just a simple snow storm.  People ravaged the store of supplies.  What happens if it is a far more serious crises.  Are you prepared for empty store shelves that won't be stocked any time soon?  I was shocked to see this in the midwest, a place known for snow storms.  It is like everyone panicked.  In a REAL national or regional emergency, this is what will happen.  There is no more than a 3 day supply of food connected to grocery stores.  If transport is cut off, there will be problems.  Be prepared.  Learn how to garden, forage naturally, hunt, fish.  Learn how not to be dependent on what a society provides.  Learn to be self sufficient, and in the right ways.  There will be enough marauding bands of starving people willing to take from others.

Is This All There Is?

It is appointed unto man to die once, the Bible tells us in Hebrews 9:27.  No surprises there as it is an obvious fact even if you are not religious.  Many people believe that this life is all there is.  You get you 70+ years, if you're lucky, then your just gone.  

 

To me this is sad.  If this is all there is, what is the purpose?  Some would say it is to just enjoy the journey.  What does that mean?  It means to do what you want.  Do what makes you happy.  Eat drink and be merry for tomorrow we shall die.  

Ultimately this is selfish.  Is our only purpose here to just please ourselves?  Grab all the gold you can for he who dies with the most toys wins.  Seize as much power as you can to leave your imprint in this world as that is the only way we live eternally.  Satisfy all of your desires while you can for that is all there is.

Chrsitianity says that this life is not all that there is.  It says that there is an eternal afterlife awaiting after we leave this body.  Accepting this truth changes everything.  It turns the outlook on life from a flash in the pan to one with a never ending view.

This outlook makes all that can be attained in this life unimportant.  Money is not hoarded, but used as a tool to help others.  Power is not sought after, but placed on one to oversee the betterment of others.  Earthly pleasures are seen for what they are, temporal distractions often fraught with unwanted baggage.

This view is ultimately selfless.   It is easy to put your own desires aside in favor of helping others needs be met when one knows that there is an eternity ahead and plenty of time for rest and enjoyment.  It is easy to give up earthly things now to share this good news with others that there is more than just this life.  It is no problem to give of yourself in assistance to others when time becomes timeless.

I know it is a lot to ask of someone to give up their own life, their own hopes and dreams, their own desires, to serve others instead of serving themselves.  It flies right in the face of the logic of those who believe that this life is all there is.  It seems foolish, even, to not to seek to better the self and serve the self when one believes there is nothing else besides the one life you have.

Jesus though was willing to sacrifice his life, not just at the cross, but his whole life, for us; so that we may be able to enjoy that eternal life.  He put away all of the selfish desires and sacrificed all he could have had in this world.  He allowed himself to be put to death even, giving up freely this only life.  He did that to redeem us; to make us able to have fellowship with our creator, Yahweh.  He shed His blood so that we might be washed clean of our sins, making us able to be in the presence of a Holy God.  Jesus arose from the dead to show His power over death, so that through Him, we too might have victory over death and eternal life.

Are you willing to believe in that afterlife and accept that sacrifice Jesus made for us that will allow us to enjoy our stay in eternity?

We Are The Evil Empire

There was a time where the United States of America stood for freedom, justice, Godly morals, love thy neighbor, and that which was good in man.  It really was not that long ago.  It was in my lifetime.  When I look at the country now, I don’t know who we have become.  We are unrecognizable now from the moral super power we once were.  Not only are we unrecognizable; but we are living a delusion, thinking we still are the moral super power.

IN my lifetime, we used to believe that every child had the right to live.  That changed in 1971 and now we have slaughtered over 50,000,000 people on the alters of liberalism.  How can we speak to others of human rights when we do not even value the lives of our own humans?  The souls of the murdered scream for vengeance.

In my lifetime, we used to value ourselves and our bodies.  Sex was viewed as a sacred thing given only in love to a partner of the opposite sex in a lifelong bond.  Now we live in a society of sexual deviants that only cares about self-gratification in the moment.  We have devalued the bond between two people of the opposite sex that we feel it is ok to have intercourse with anyone, without consequence or responsibility.  Entire industries have sprung up to serve the self-serving instant gratification seeking spoiled brats, including the murder factories mentioned above. 

In my lifetime, you could not even show a belly button on the screen.  Today it is almost impossible to find a movie without a pornographic sex scene between unmarried people.  The themes of movies were once good vs evil where the good triumphed in the end compared to today’s films of special effects and gore where you can’t tell the good guys from the bad guys and you are never quite sure which one won.  How can we speak of being a moral people when our pop icons are barely more than porn stars who have flashed their private areas to millions to gawk at?

In my lifetime, sex between two people of the same sex was considered a perversion and a mental illness.  Today, not only is it considered normal, but we are redefining our social institutions to accommodate this perversion of nature.  Now that this is normalized, we have people who want to have sex with little children wanting to be recognized and accepted into society as normal as well.

In my lifetime, Foods could be mostly trusted to be what they were naturally.  The beef, chicken, fruits and vegetables were closely related to the exact same things we had eaten naturally since our beginnings.  Today we have these scientifically produced monster foods that are destroying the very environment we need to survive in and may even be killing us off slowly.  In a sick need for greed we are putting our entire existence on this planet in jeopardy just to create a few more bucks into a corporations coffers.

Doesn’t it seem a little odd that today, in the country we once considered the evil empire just 30 years ago, Russia, Bibles are allowed and taught in their schools, and sex is at least recognized as only normal between a man and woman?  And that this evil empire considers what we are doing to our food supply so dangerous to the existence of people on this planet that they are saying war may result from our tampering with the food chain?  Maybe Russia is not the evil empire any more.  I think we have taken up that role, and most don’t even see it.

Plan for the Poor

The other day I was driving around and I happened upon a couple sitting just off the roadside.  They were both older, and the lady was in a wheel chair.  She was holding a sign that said, homeless couple, God bless.  I did have an instinct to throw them a buck or two, but then realized, silver and gold had I none.  What I did have was…  well…  not much physically.  I said a prayer for them as I moved on.


I felt guilty a little bit, but what could I do?  I did not really feel pressed to do much of anything, honestly.  Would I not just be enabling them to continue on as they were for rewarding their begging?  Surely there was something they could do besides giving everyone a forlorn stare all day holding a sign.  I also know from experience, what they were doing could be quite lucrative.


I recall one day in the same town being approached by a man looking for a couple dollars so he could get some food.  I was in the same boat really, but willing to share my small amount I scrounged to help a fellow out.  Several hours later my friend and I stumbled across the same man again. He remembered us.  He didn’t need any more money though.  He had over $300 in his pocket just from panhandling.  If he hadn’t been a crackhead, he would have been living on a $100,000 a year gig just begging for money.  All of his money went to crack though and he would be broke again by morning.


Back in Biblical days, there were methods in place to deal with the poor.  The first line of defense was family.  Family was to take care of their own.  I Timothy 5:8 “But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.”  So where was this couples family and why were they not being of any help?  Kids?  Nephews?  Cousins?  It is rare to be devoid of any family, but it is not uncommon that family does not or is not able to take care of its own. 


The second line of defense against poverty, biblically, was the community.  As a rule, folks were to give to the needy.  Proverbs 19: ¹⁷ He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the Lord; and that which he hath given will he pay him again.  The community at large had some responsibility in caring for the poor as well as the family.  2 Corinthians 9:7 Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.


A third line of defense in helping those in poverty lies with the poor person themselves.  A poor person could go gleen in the agricultural fields for what was left over.  Farmers were by rule not allowed to pick up all of the crop, but to leave that which had fallen.  It would then be the responsibility of the poor person to go out and collect what they could to feed themselves.  Leviticus 19: ⁹ And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not wholly reap the corners of thy field, neither shalt thou gather the gleanings of thy harvest.¹⁰ And thou shalt not glean thy vineyard, neither shalt thou gather every grape of thy vineyard; thou shalt leave them for the poor and stranger: I am the Lord your God.



Our society is not set up in such a way as to really be of help to the poor.  Our families have been split apart by self desires, divorces, changed roles, forced public education, etc. etc… Now-a-days, you might not even know who your family members are.  I was in youth group with someone for two years before I even knew they were my cousin.  Also, our society as a whole has a more selfish spirit.  Take care of number one and survival of the fittest has become our motto.  Let the poor clean up their act, get some education and get a job.  Lastly, where is any of our gleaning in our society?  We don’t set aside anything specifically for the poor.  Our first priority is the dollar and squeezing out every penny.  We have a responsibility to the shareholders.


While I do feel bad that I was not able to help the homeless couple in any meaningful way, I feel even worse for our society that has set itself up, not to be unable, but to be staunchly unwilling to do anything to assist the poor.  Yes, there are some that help, but not enough.  As our economy grows weaker even those few who can and do help are becoming fewer and fewer.  We have handed over the responsibility we should hold to government programs that are woefully inadequate, and inefficient in truly helping anyone, to the point where everyone is becoming equally poor.


We need to have a revival in this nation that brings us back to biblical principles.  Why should it be old fashioned and passé to do good by ones family, community, and country as individuals?  It isn’t just for ancient goat-herders to be kind to the poor and needy.  It isn’t a backwards people that takes care of its family, and I mean extended family, and their needs.  It isn’t just for primitive peoples to expect people to also take a little responsibility for themselves and do something besides being dependent. If we can return to these three biblical principles, we can beat poverty and won’t need any government programs to do it.