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willingly participate, and those who claim to know the difference do little, if
anything, to make a difference. It seems that theory has been proclaimed for
so long, that it has lost its luster. People talk the talk, but seldom walk the
walk! It seems like a self-fulfilling prophecy, or insanity, that leads to a
predictable negative conclusion.
Mankind is always unprepared, even when instructions are given. For
example, Jesus gave us these instructions “‘Watch out! Be on your guard
against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of
his possessions. And he told them this parable: ‘The ground of a certain
rich man produced a good crop. He thought to himself, What shall I do? I
have no place to store my crops.” Then he said, “This is what I’ll do. I will
tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain
and my goods. And I’ll say to myself, ‘You have plenty of good things laid
up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.” But God said to
him, “You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then
who will get what you have prepared for yourself?” This is how it will be
with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God.’
(Luke 12:15-21)
. And again Jesus said, ‘“How hard it is for the rich to enter
the kingdom of God! Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye
of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.’” Those who
heard this asked, ‘Who then can be saved?’ Jesus replied, ‘What is
impossible with men is possible with God.’”
(Luke 18: 25-27)
The richness of worldly possessions is of little value, especially when used
to build a worldly kingdom. Most rich people, even churches, find it
difficult to deal with these words. They do speak of social justice, and do
speak of a socialist as an approach to distribution of wealth. However,
before one can feed the poor one needs to know who is poor and why.
Clearly they address a solution for all who know or seek the solution.
Worldly wealth and monetary donations keep the poor in poverty. Jesus’
words are not political. He did not preach social justice or the distribution
of wealth, except that He instructed us to feed the poor. The carrot, a gift
from the rich’s excess, is dangled before the poor to satisfy the self-interests
of those who donate. The wealthy need the poor, to remain poor, so they
can prove their goodness by their donation. Such is the world’s way.
However, the poor always remain poor and are given what they don’t need
to rise above poverty. Give a man a fish and he’ll always be waiting, but
teach a man to fish, and he will become independent, and always fed.
Individuals and churches focus on worldly wealth their treasury is all too