OUR ATTITUDES
This message will not be eagerly pursued by many church members because it will oppose a very popular current commentary. Therefore, I ask that you read Romans, Chapter 13 in its entirety. There are only 21 verses, and they explain God's direction for government, authority, wrath on evil doers, conscience, taxes, fear and honor. It will do you good to continue in Romans 13:8-10, where you should understand we all share a responsibility for each other.
"Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you." (Matt. 7:7) One of our major roadblocks is not understanding that this directive from Christ addresses both spiritual and secular life. Scripture can tell us much, most of us miss, because we think we are studying only the Christian guidelines for our belief--a religious study. If you reflect on His teaching, you will see much more than just a Christian religious manual.
This "quick" study in scripture will reveal things Christians need to know about God, Christ and the Holy Spirit, but, like the Parables, other instruction is lost when we fail to really think about what we are told. Don't miss the spiritual significance, but also look a bit deeper. For example, math is simple when you study the basics of addition and subtraction. Later, you learn about using minus numbers and solving problems with unknown numbers. For many, the basics are enough, and unless they go on to college, that is the end of the line. The same is true in other subjects. I taught school at one time, and a majority of students really didn't want to learn all they could. School
was a "pain" to get away from as soon as possible. Even students who go on to college frequently want only to spend time in their major areas. This is an attitude and mind set that continues in adult life. Students are not taught to ask questions and do research.
Before going on to end times and judgment, I want to make you aware of this lack of questions and research, and how it fits into our future. Every week I receive several emails, unsolicited, that make bogus charges and political claims. Frequently these messages are from supposed Christians and churches. I research every one, and almost none contain one grain of truth. These attacks on individuals and our government are pure politics, and the people who receive them and ask me about them usually believe every word. I have yet to find a pastor who refutes this information. Yet, almost all of these
messages are sins according to scripture. Now, if regular Christians are doing this, they are not following Christ's teaching, and not realizing they are drowning in sin.
Lest you think this is political tripe and has nothing to do with scripture, a glance at the subject shows many, many references beginning in the Old Testament. If we look at Matt. 15:1-20, this is a parable, and like most scripture readers, was not understood by the disciples. If you don't read this entire segment of Matt., you will continue not to get Christ's teaching. To make it easier for you, we'll only look at two of the twenty verses, but read them all. "Do you not yet understand that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and is eliminated? But those things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man." Repeating this internet and similar falsehoods is a serious breech of Christianity.
The environment we grow up in dictates much of our adult mind-set, and if we never learn the value of Matt. 7:7, we will continue to bring about God's judgment on our nation. You may rant about abortion or same sex marriage, but you ignore flat-out lies and character assassination in the name of politics and the Christian church. Truth is truth, no matter the faith or lack thereof. If you pass on statements or claims of others without seeking the truth, you are guilty of being a false witness. If you are that casual with your witness, why would a non-committed person believe anything you say? When I hear
these false messages passed along as truth, I wonder how straight the "Christian's" walk is with our Savior? Does it permit bending the truth or excuse the person from checking on the information or correcting false testimony? A real Christian's life can be explained in the oath a person takes before grand jury testimony--"Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth to this Grand Jury?" Don't you understand God watches all nations and peoples and judges everyone? Matt. 5:45, "that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust." He expects more from a Christian because a Christian has such an exceptional opportunity to hear and understand the Word of God. Are you listening?
Both God and Christ tell us all sins are equally bad except one. Denying the power of the Holy Spirit will get you a ride to Hell. Outside of that, if we ask forgiveness of sins, Christ paid the penalty of redemption. If you continue to repeat the same sins, you obviously aren't repentant. Your commitment is then questionable, not by me, but from God. The passing on of false charges and rumors is difficult to support in view of many scriptures, including the
one that tells us God is in full control and appoints His choice as leader. Why do so many church people and conservatives not heed this directive? Look closely at Romans 13:1,2, and read verses 3 through 8. Especially understand that there is no authority except from God. If you haven't already deleted this message, I now quote Romans 13:1-8. All this government bashing and taxes complaining indicate two things: a high regard for Mammon (money), and ignorance of verse 2 that warns judgment will be brought against disobedient
believers.
"Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. FOR THERE IS NO AUTHORITY EXCEPT FROM GOD, AND THE AUTHORITIES THAT EXIST ARE APPOINTED BY GOD." We have the leaders God chose. Is man more intelligent than God? Continue, "Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist WILL BRING JUDGMENT ON THEMSELVES". That, of course, means judgment on the nation. I turn to
the New King James Version of their study bible (1982) for their explanation because I'm pretty certain many disagree with what I explain. Don't believe me--believe scripture and verse 2 quoted above, "Every believer is to be subject to these various authorities, even if these authorities are evil as Nero, the emperor of Rome" when Paul wrote this letter. ( Nelson's NKJV, page 1903, bottom study notes.) More than 60 bible scholars contributed to this
study bible, so I'm in good company. Now I trust you understand that this government bashing against God's leaders is negative, ungodly and a sin. It will contribute to the judgment of our nation. Like it or not, it is what God put in place. Of course, it is not the only criteria for judgment.
We next go to the Old Testament book of Amos, because this prophet knew much about prophecy and judgment. You should note that most prophets were not priests or clergy, and this was for good reason. It was the religious leaders who not only permitted the people to stray, but played an active leadership role in misinformation and teaching. Amos began his
prophesies with a comprehensive summary. Amos 2:4, "Thus says the Lord: For three transgressions of Judah, and for four, I will not turn away its punishment, because they have despised the law of the Lord, And have not kept His commandments. Their lies lead them astray, Lies which their fathers followed." Amos did not list a long list of transgressions, but rather stressed a few important ones. He lists lies for Judah, and in verse six, warns Israel,
and stresses "selling righteous for silver, and the poor for a pair of sandals."
It is interesting that over a period of time and through experience, even the supposed godly (Christians) who don't bother following scripture, figure out ways to subvert their fellow man--for profit, of course. For this lesson, we go back almost 100 years, after our "we the people" Constitution was adopted. We are so proud, and boast our freedom to an admiring world. Oh, wait! For many people in America in the late 1770s and until the 1860s, there was no freedom for slaves! Oh, wait! Until 1920, women citizens of the
United States couldn't vote. Our founding fathers permitted southern politicians to draft a "freedom" Constitution that excluded all except white men. There were 11 Confederate States of America.
In 1820, President James Monroe, a former governor of Virginia, and a Republican, signed the Missouri Compromise, which admitted that new state to "enjoy" slavery, and added Maine to the nation as a "free" state. Much of the wealth accumulated in the now 12 slave states came from the servitude of slaves. Now we add to that a domestic basic servitude required of women, who couldn't even vote. God has great mercy, but after putting up with this nowadays trumpeting of freedom and "we the people" lies, He now watches as
a new generation of like-minded politicians and religious leaders imposes a "modern" method of slavery. We're not talking about prostitution or taking advantage of foreigners who don't speak English or are otherwise handicapped in a new environment. We're talking about a new method of creating slave conditions elsewhere, destroying the American economy, and creating unbelievable wealth for the "new plantation owners."
This new method of creating large profits comes on the backs of foreigners who are hired by American corporations who have built factories where governments have little or no safety or other regulations. Because these nations have huge populations of poor people and their is a scarcity of jobs, corporations can employ workers at cheap wages with no benefits. By
reducing the cost of production, the finished product can be sold for less without losing any profitability, and, in fact, by realizing even more profit. This is okay, the business leaders claim, because we are doing these poor foreign laborers a favor by providing jobs. Foreign leaders like this arrangement because it means more dollars in their pockets. Most are skimmers.
Meanwhile, back in the good, old U.S.A., we have a multitude of workers without jobs, and, if they're fortunate, collecting unemployment benefits. Some of our prominent business leaders tell us this money--paid for by employer and employee contribution--is free entitlement money for people who don't want to work. Now most goods on sale in our big, big stores that have replaced the smaller community businesses, can be sold for less, putting any remaining small American businesses in jeopardy. In effect, over a relatively short period of time, we will see America become a two tiered class of people, like most third world countries. Getting more education won't help, because a quantity of these jobs will also be outsourced even though quality and service will suffer. Meanwhile, only shareholders of corporations--where
huge blocks of stock are controlled by the wealthy--will gain wealth. Our corporations have been updated by politicians in our highest court to status as "a PERSON" so they can control money and attempt to take control of all elections. Only God can create a person. Robots or corporations are not people, and they are not created in God's image. Read your bible, in
the very first Book, Genesis 1:26, "Then God said, Let Us make man in our image, according to our likeness", and verse 27, "So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them."
Tell me how these Christian businessmen and church leaders interpret these very plain words to enable them to do whatever they desire to use people like toilet paper. Why do those who boast they are followers of the Son of God ignore the very words Christ gave them as a guideline to obey the Father and Son? I hear our President compared to Hitler. Want to hear
a real story about Hitler's "final solution"? Some years ago I was privileged to attend a dinner with several wealthy southern businessmen. They didn't know I was just a poor jerk commoner, and they discussed politics and economics freely. They had formulated America's "final solution", and it didn't concern Jews. No siree, it concerned what to do with blacks. Their plan was to set blacks up on their own farms to give them ownership and work. Much of the work blacks were doing at the time was agricultural field work. They harvested vegetables and fruit in work gangs at poor pay. These were jobs many white people wouldn't do, and it was long hours and hot hand labor. They agreed this plan probably wouldn't fly with northerners, so they were considering a second stand for "states rights", the cause of the Civil War. These southern states' leaders were mostly Democrats, and they walked out of a national
convention and briefly closed public schools in protest. They then, over time, did a strange thing, and became Republicans. It was a Republican (Unionist) president--Lincoln--who signed the law freeing slaves. Those who trumpet freedom and "we the people" boast about our democracy, yet at the same time talk secession from the union because they didn't get the leader they wanted. They apparently don't understand a majority vote determines leadership in a democracy. Without knowing it, they want to have a dictatorship. One can only wonder what America would be like today if the South had won. Think about it.
The mind set by business and economic leaders has become, to reduce costs and increase profits. The easiest way is to offer an inferior product of slightly less volume, increase the sale price, and trim the cost of labor. Every American with enough IQ to walk and talk knows this is true when they go shopping. All gripe about costs, but only the workers--many at minimum
wage-- gripe about trying to live on below poverty level income. These are some of the 47 percenters who don't pay taxes and live on entitlement (food stamps, etc.). The politicians who continue to make this claim apparently don't know and don't want to know that these minimum wage workers DO pay taxes, and they are deducted from every pay check. It's quite nice when you have so much wealth you don't even know about how the majority of Americans live. The union bashers are fine with this arrangement because they aren't the people who must try to stretch small weekly paychecks or social security, or veteran's benefits. While all this very unChristian activity goes on, where are the church leaders? It took men who died for their cause to begin some changes the wealthy leaders and their shill supporters are
still trying to suppress.
By convincing ultra conservatives the 47 percenters are moochers, the conservative leaders have a segment of the former middle class working against their own people. Meanwhile, not a whimper about the million dollar bonuses paid to failed corporate leaders, the continuing drain of dollars for a duped series of wars, or the secret arrangement for energy supply and
cost between a sitting vice president and energy icons. The union bashers need to look at history to understand why we have unions. I read comments almost daily from people in central Pennsylvania and the coal region, who want to eliminate unions for the "right to work'. If it wasn't so tragic, this would be beyond humorous. These people live where the Molly Maguires
became historical examples of servitude imposed on coal workers by unprincipled wealthy mine owners. Where was the church? Didn't these people see the movie? Didn't they study this in Pennsylvania History class? Some of these people say they're educated? I'm still laughing.
People's memories and lack of history knowledge lead to pure ignorance. At the turn of the 19th-20th century, working conditions in New York City's garment industry were deplorable. Most of the employees were women and children. They worked long hours at slave wages with no benefits and in deplorable working conditions. The good ole boys were at it again here,
because the victims were women and children. When the women rebelled and attempted to organize to improve their working conditions and pay, the corporate boys hired goons to attack the women on picket lines. Goons got to to grab women by the breast, pinch and twist, and assault them. Of course the corporate story said the protesters were violent. The same was
true with the Molly Maguires, when coal barons made a murder case out of the confrontation. You need to understand that reporting of events depends largely on the "official" report of action by officials.
The plight of mill workers in the South was similar. Long hours, poor pay, no benefits, and the worker was basically a slave. Jobs were scarce, so you had to take what you could get. The history of this situation was available first in a book, and then in a movie. Same circumstances as the others, same reaction by the industry barons. The only ridiculous unions are the professional sports unions, where athletes make millions. This, too, was caused by the team owners making huge profits while players were locked into contracts that kept their salaries low and prevented them from signing with any other team for a higher salary. The mill workers eventually won, but the corporate owners did exactly what is being done today. They moved the work overseas, and now clothing comes from India, Mexico and third world nations
across the world. Clothing is cheap, profits are high, and American jobs are gone. A living wage in most of these nations is below the American poverty level. Our corporations are certainly "helping" these foreign workers who toil without government safety, health, or reasonable pay.
Now, return for a bit to the Molly Maguires and the coal industry. This little disagreement did not get settled at that time because the coal barons won. We advance well into the 1900s, and the formation of the coal miners' union under John L. Lewis, who finally got the miners some decent pay and working conditions. You should know that Lewis's success gained him a sort
of fame, because he "disappeared". Yep, he caused a lot of trouble and money for some people, and he vanished without a trace. The Karen Silkwood case had similar conditions, but I don't suppose most of you know who she was, anyhow.
The Godly way to pay workers is given in both Testaments, and is located in 1 Cor. 9:9, which tells us, "For it is written in the law of Moses, "You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain."' The ox was used as an example, but the law was for the benefit of priests and others whodid the work of God. Scripture goes on to explain that workers are "entitled" to some of the benefits of their work. It is not something for free, but part of the wage. The major complaint against unions is that the pay scale is too high, which is true in some instances. The other complaint is really based on jealousy, envy and greed. Union dues never cost any member money--it brought them money. The pay scale of some teachers and government workers is undoubtedly too high, but so is the pay scale for corporate leaders. Why take away from the lowest paid workers, not the highest? It's easier to pick on the little guys, right? The big ones will make you tuck your tails and run. By the way, you teacher bashers know nothing about the work of a teacher, at least by your statements of hours, days and responsibility are concerned. Ignorance reigns supreme.
The snap judgment about the work of teachers reminds me of that serious failing that besets me sometimes. We only see with our eyes and permit the mind to take a vacation. There was a city man who purchased some woodland nearby and had a cabin there. He spent time at the cabin frequently, and occasionally stopped at our farm to buy eggs. In talking to him, he remarked my wife and I were getting older and running the farm and ministry without help must be pretty tough sometimes. He offered to help out if we would give him a call when he was staying at the cabin. I thanked him, but thought it must be pretty nice to have all the time he had to stay at the cabin. I was envious, because we didn't even have time or money for a vacation. I knew he hunted, and enjoyed his time on his property. Within a few months I learned he had died. He looked the picture of health on the outside, but that obviously was not the case on the inside. I felt remorse that I had so wrongly judged him. When you see someone on disability who is doing something like fishing, hunting or mowing the lawn, don't shout out that the person is a welfare cheater. Look at Matt.7:1-2, "Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you."
The wealthy don't want to pay taxes. They hire people to find all the loopholes. They put their money in banks and investments outside America. More and more are actually renouncing citizenship to escape paying taxes. They have enjoyed freedom because of our soldiers, none of whom became wealthy on military pay. In fact, many military families suffer because our
wealthy congresspeople don't want to take care of them properly. The wealthy were educated by teachers who are not wealthy. The wealthy travel on roads in vehicles, on airplanes and on railroads built by people who aren't wealthy. We can't throw all wealthy under the bus, but we should recognize the wealthy who don't want to work, but consider living off investments
work. Even then, they employ people as advisers, and that is where the work is done. Christ tells us in scripture that Christians have a social responsibility. That does not mean everyone shares everything equally, as many conservatives claim. There are religious denominations in the United States that are socialist, and they are very successful. They could teach our leaders something about social responsibility and money.
I would pray that you, as a professing Christian, would take very seriously the scripture I have quoted throughout this message to determine IF you really follow the teaching of the One you say you committed to. Is Jesus Christ the image of God and mankind, or is any corporation the image of Jesus Christ and God? You can't have it both ways. Are you already bearing the logo of secular mankind, an invisible 666? The prophets have always been sent by God to warn erring people. Usually people follow human leaders, including church people, and all the people of the nation pay the price one way or another. Do you understand judgement will come, and it may not be the end time? We could be judged and punished, and the end of the world could still be quite distant. Many nations and civilizations have been punished, and yet it was not the end time. We are so prideful about "we the people" that we think God will determine the end time based on our performance. Israel was taken captive and punished, and the captives included such Godly people as Daniel and his three friends. Do we have any Christians to compare with those captives? We are a money driven people, and the church does nothing to change that. The previous election demonstrated that money, like corporations, is more important than people. Sooner or later, we each must recognize and choose which is our purpose on earth--God or money. This IS our purpose driven life. You can have wealth, but you must use it wisely and understand the very words of Christ in Matt. 5:24. "No man can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other. or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon."
Rev. Walbear
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