Just A Remider - As Christians We Are To See Life As It Affects The Poor

[mark46]

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As we get into the deluge of primaries and fights over power, I saw this in my email today, a reminder that Scripture is all about the poor and the weak, and how we might serve them.

 

[timewerx]

There's actually real tangible, hard proof that serving the poor leads to abundant living.

Take for example, in some countries in Europe. Their tax and welfare system is designed to favor the poor and the result is having the lowest crime rate, lowest income gap between the rich and poor, lack of poverty in some, and the highest quality of life ratings anywhere else.

High crime rates have been strongly linked to large income gap between the rich and poor. The most violent places in the world have the highest income gaps between the rich and poor.

Serving the rich instead of the poor leads to very high income gap and the eventual corruption and breakdown of a society.

Illegal drug trafficking only speeds up the problem would happen regardless if everyone is serving the rich instead of the poor and worshipping money.

You serve the rich if you use most of your money to buy their products and services, invest in them, instead of using money for the poor.

If you want to destroy a nation without firing a single bullet, make them addicted to money and that is all!

 

[Thomas White]

Christ welcomes the poor. As Christians, we have the responsibility to emulate his love so that others can see his truth within us. If we have the ability to help the poor, then we should. If we have the ability to fight for the poor to have better lives, then we should. If we have the ability to stop people from taking advantage of the poor, then we should. But most of all, we should love and welcome the poor. Everyone can do that.

 

[Peter J Barban]

I recommend Micah 6:8 as a guide for how God expects us to treat the poor:

"He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God."

By this, I identify 3 ways we can please God in relation to the poor.

1. Treat the poor justly.
2. Give mercy to the poor.
3. Don't act superior to the poor.

 

[public hermit]

There are two kinds of "poor."

1. The poor = those who lack material goods that are needed.
2. The poor in spirit = those who think being poor is a moral failure undeserving of help from the rich.

 

[98cwitr]

There are two kinds of "poor."

1. The poor = those who lack material goods that are needed.
2. The poor in spirit = those who think being poor is a moral failure undeserving of help from the rich.

Matthew 5:3
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

I'm not quite sure your definition lines up with what Christ says here, using that term.

 

[public hermit]

Matthew 5:3
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

I'm not quite sure your definition lines up with what Christ says here, using that term.

Who said I was quoting Jesus? Besides, is there some biblical command against equivocation? I don't think so.

 

[98cwitr]

Who said I was quoting Jesus? Besides, is there some biblical command against equivocation? I don't think so.

No one said you were, but as Christ used that phrase in Matthew 5:3, I thought it pertinent to note in the context we Christians hear that phrase.

 

[MorkandMindy]

Mark46 Thank you for mentioning the poor who are mostly ignored in real life.

I saw a concern on CF of what would we do for the health insurance administrators who would lose their jobs if the system was streamlined?

What did people do for the car workers who were terminated in the thousands? Who lost their incomes and because so many in the same area were terminated, lost the capital in their houses as well. The average price of a Detroit home went down from 98,000 dollars to 11,600 dollars from 2003 to 2009.

And the numbers were huge and the suffering was also severe.

 

[MorkandMindy]

Bill Clinton implemented NAFTA to remove taxes on cars assembled in Mexico and imported to the US to allow companies to move their assembly plants out of the US. At the end of the Obama Administration TPP was being organized to allow cheap imports from Asia to flood the US market and shut down US manufacturing. And yes, Ronald Reagan started it, both parties did what they could to impoverish the working class.

But Donald Trump does what he can to stop destroying manufacturing and with it the working class, and that's how he got our votes.

 

[MorkandMindy]

Another part of impoverishment is to protect middle class pay so they can rip us off.

My pay was 11 dollars an hour when I needed to see a doctor for a sick note as I had the flu. I couldn't get a price over the phone but I asked around at work and it was going to be something like 80 dollars for a 5 minute visit, and I'd need a second to prove when I was well again to go back to work.

Because the government protects doctors against foreign competition but does not protect working class people the pay gap is 100:1

And even if I got a Mexican doctor's prescription for my blood pressure pills it would not be accepted in the US, and I can only bring 60 days supply of pills into the country.

Yes, our government rips poor people off, the Democratics protect US jobs but only if they are middle class, and that helps them rip us off even more.

 

[public hermit]

No one said you were, but as Christ used that phrase in Matthew 5:3, I thought it pertinent to note in the context we Christians hear that phrase.

That's fair.

 

[JackRT]

Our culture has a long history of blaming the victims, and siding with the perpetrators. We are so used to blaming the victims, that when we are confronted with a Bible story which unmasks the power of oppression, we turn it into a condemnation of the poor.

When we become aware of this bias, it enables us to look at our basic beliefs in a whole new way. One of the biggest changes facing the world of Biblical studies is the realization that the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, was written from the perspective of a persecuted people who were in the minority. The Bible was not written by powerful people who were in control of their destiny.

The Bible writers saw the world differently from most people. Most world religions describe the greatness and strength of the hero when he first finds God. Moses was a prince of Egypt who was wanted for murder. He was on the run from the law when he met God for the first time. Moses ends up leading his people out of slavery.

His story is written from the runaway slave’s perspective, and not the perspective of their powerful Egyptian masters. The first time the stories of the Bible were collected into one book happened while the people were enslaved again, this time during their exile in Babylon. They collected these stories, so they could remember who they were, so they could survive their captivity. By the time Jesus was born, the nation of Israel had not existed for over 150 years. They were a conquered people. The Greeks and later the Romans had occupied the land and ran it for their own benefit. All of Jesus’ stories were told from the perspective of the underdog, and not the master.

But this is not how you and I were taught to read the Bible. Since the Protestant Reformation in Europe, we’ve been taught to read it from the point of view that we are the Empire. We are the powerful ones. We are the colonizers. We are culturally superior. We are the economic elite, destined to rule the world.

Source: William Herzog “Parables as Subversive Speech” Westminster-John Knox Press 1994

 

[TLK Valentine]

Matthew 5:3
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

I'm not quite sure your definition lines up with what Christ says here, using that term.

Too many people forget that Jesus was, among other things, a social revolutionary who prophecised that those who are rich and powerful here are in for a major pratfall on a cosmic banana peel when the Kingdom of Heaven comes.

Revelation speaks of the streets of Heaven being paved with gold... those who are impressed by that are missing the point. What were the streets paved with back in Jesus' time?

 

[JackRT]

Too many people forget that Jesus was, among other things, a social revolutionary who prophecised that those who are rich and powerful here are in for a major pratfall on a cosmic banana peel when the Kingdom of Heaven comes.

Revelation speaks of the streets of Heaven being paved with gold... those who are impressed by that are missing the point. What were the streets paved with back in Jesus' time?

A man passed away and appeared at the Pearly Gates carrying a heavy suitcase. Saint Peter asked him to open it. He did. It was full of gold bricks. Peter looked at him in astonishment "You come up here carrying pavement????"

 

[TLK Valentine]

A man passed away and appeared at the Pearly Gates carrying a suitcase. Saint Peter asked him to open it. He did. Peter looked at him in astonishment "You come up here carrying pavement????"

Pretty much... Gold is valuable here because of its scarcity. Jesus spoke of a world where it's more common than dirt.

 

[hislegacy]

I’m with Paul on the subject:

2Thess 3:10 For even when we were with you, we commanded you this: If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat.

 

[Hazelelponi]

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As we get into the deluge of primaries and fights over power, I saw this in my email today, a reminder that Scripture is all about the poor and the weak, and how we might serve them.

When it comes to your personal life yes, your to be giving to the poor and needy out of your excess.

I see nothing in the Bible about spending money you don't personally have, and bankrupting an entire country by printing and /or borrowing money the country doesn't have, making an entire nation enslaved to the lenders when it defaults, in order to "give" to the poor.

I am poor, actual need (as I'm disabled) and I benefit from some of the national programs we have instituted. But I'm not willing to vote for what this nation doesn't have to give, and what could potentially destroy us, just so I can have a little extra security right now. We need as a nation to have security for our children and grandchildren tommorow and I feel so strongly about it I'm willing to die for it.

So care about the poor from YOUR excess, as I do mine from whatever excess I may have, but please don't enslave this nation to global foreign powers so you can feel better about yourself. That's not charitable giving, that's destroying others you haven't even met..

 

[Speedwell]

I am poor, actual need and I benefit from some of the national programs we have instituted. But I'm not willing to vote for what this nation doesn't have to give, and what could potentially destroy us, just so I can have a little extra security right now. We need as a nation to have security for our children and grandchildren tommorow and I feel so strongly about it I'm willing to die for it.

How do you rationalize that? You can accept government assistance because even though you're poor you're virtuous and deserving but those other poor people are not?

 

[Hazelelponi]

How do you rationalize that? You can accept government assistance because even though you're poor you're virtuous and deserving but those other poor people are not?

If my disability was gone tommorow I would trust in Christ, or die if he didn't provide.

It's not a matter of who is more deserving, or who is less deserving.

It's a matter of what can this country afford to do, and who needs the most help with those funds we do have.

Putting this nation in hock isn't an answer to anything... charity is to be given out of your excess, not out of what doesn't exist.