When I moved out here to the desert, the first thing I learned was to have respect for storms. It would be great if we got nice/gentle rain a couple times a month, but here we tend to get all or nothing...and when I say all, I mean
all hell breaks loose. My sustainable situation is a good lesson for our modern society. Too many people rely on society and government to protect them when all they get is control, loss of freedom. and forced reliance. Unless you are truly prepared and have a solid foundation, everything can change (for the worse) in the blink of an eye and you are lost...helplessly waiting for aid from the control group. Christ is our foundation...following His Word prepares you for anything. Trusting in God through faith will save you from the perfect storm that will come.
Luke 6:
47 Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will shew you to whom he is like: 48 He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep , and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose , the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock. 49 But he that heareth , and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation built an house upon the earth; against which the stream did beat vehemently , and immediately it fell ; and the ruin of that house was great.
5 comments:
amen!
Oh come on. That's just ridiculous. God wanted us to do for ourselves and to choose for ourselves. He gave us the freedom through His son to live a different life with a new convenant. And last time I checked, it's YOUR arms that build and YOUR mind that researches, not His. This is just ridiculous hyperbole that isn't useful and holds Christianity back.
John's words are not ridiculous hyperbole. His words are taken from the Bible. They are the teachings of Jesus Christ.
Fenn's assertions about God wanting us to do for ourselves and choose for ourselves is true. God did grant us a new "covenant" (not to be confused with a "convenant.") However, none of those arguments detracts at all from Jesus Christ being our "foundation" as John called it.
Yes we need to do and choose for ourselves. The key is to do for ourselves AND DO FOR OTHERS. Just as Jesus taught us to do for ourselves and do for others, loving friends and enemies compassionately.
Jehovah God has given John a foundation. One portion of that foundation is the talents John has within himself to build what he has built in the desert. It has been and will be up to John to put those talents to proper use and not abuse or squander them.
Jesus teaches us not to hide our talents, or to bury our riches and horde them. Jesus teaches us to put our gifts to good use so that they can multiply.
This teaching was made very clear in Matthew Chapter 25 in the parable about the men with the talents.
(blogspot comment length limitations prohibit me from quoting the passage, but I encourage all to read or re-read the passage. It's always good to read the classics, even if you have read them before.)
Yes, John is working hard at the Fieldlab. He should work hard to multiply the gifts that God has given him.
This should not be for John to horde the benefits all to himself, but to share them with those who are less fortunate than himself.
Acts Chapter 20
32 And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified. 33 I coveted no one's silver or gold or apparel. 34 You yourselves know that these hands ministered to my necessities and to those who were with me. 35 In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”
It is not silver ingots, but helping the weak that place someone on the path to salvation.
Luke Chapter 3
10 And the crowds asked him, “What then shall we do?” 11 And he answered them, “Whoever has two tunics[b] is to share with him who has none, and whoever has food is to do likewise.”
Each of us has been instructed by our lord and saviour Jesus Christ to put our talents, which have been given to us by Jehovah God, to good use so that they can be multiplied, and then to share our abundance with those that have less.
A practical example is corporations (since they are "people", I reckon we can apply a moral code to them). The salaries paid to workers are part of how profits (talents) are earned by the corporation. The corporation ought to then share those talents with its workers by (for example) subsidizing healthcare. I consider it a moral outrage (and I think Jesus would too) that workers can lose everything due to catastrophic illness, if they are not “lucky” enough to have medical insurance. Self-sufficiency is all well and good, but didn’t you get to that point, John, with some help and luck, as well as hard work? Be careful not to imply that the less fortunate cogs in the capitalist machine are “dependent” and lazy because they are not self-sufficient like you. As Jay points out, Jesus wanted abundance to be shared. Less old testament, more new. (Disclaimer: I’m not a Christian, but I used to be.)
Beautiful, inspirational, and timely, John. Thank you.
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