Talk:Ministers
Ministers of Orders are joint heirs because they own all things in common.
- Religious Orders are considered to be a special type of entity. Most are Roman Catholic but there are some well established Protestant order and eastern, Buddhist and even Jewish orders. Many of these Orders are made up of people who have devoted their entire lives to communal worship and service. The members of the order express their commitment by such things as vows of poverty, chastity and obedience.
The Sophistry of the world is rampant in our minds. That word Religion or Eucharist or terms like Bishop or Father and even Worship are all mixed up in our thinking so that talking about these things may be confusing untill we see where Christ was taking us.
Ministers have a job to do to help the people seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness. In order to own all things in common the ministers of His Church who are members of Orders can have no inheritance in the land like the Levites before them.
They need to have given up that natural right in order to claim to be bond servants of God or Christ Jesus.
If you still claim to have your natural rights intact the world governments you become a part of or dependent upon could claim a right to what you hold or a right to oversee what you hold. When they oversee those who have become "members" of their government they use their power to exercise authority one over the other.
But Christ's disciples had to pre-dedicate [consecrate] themselves to stay separate from the world. If the bond servant of Christ who has given up the right to all he owns to others like himself within Orders, including waiving right to the benefits of the world, then if he holds something he may claim he holds it under the overseership of God's Holy Spirit and his testimony will be again verified by two or more witnesses.
The world cannot see things of God but it may see the witness of the people. But God sees the heart so none of this should be done lightly.
This is why when Annanias lied to Peter he lied to the Holy Spirit. Peter said silver and gold have I none. He may have had access to silver and gold but it did not belong to him.
There is a metaphysical reason for all this but also a practical legal reason.
Lands confiscated by Rome during persecution were re-obtained because the next ministers and bishops chosen merely claimed a right to take it back. Roman Courts returned the land to the Church even before Constantine. Constantine legalized the Church but it was his own personal version of the church. Jesus had already given His Church a lawful status as his corpus or corporation. This is why we say the Church is a foreign situs trust.
To be foreign the minister trustees must remain foreign. This is explained in the footnotes of the Free Church Report.
If people think this out stepping back to get a bigger picture they will see the need to give up your private status as a minister of Altars... and members of orders in the days of Abraham, Moses and Christ. An order is an Altar and the minister is a Lively Stone
What is given to the living altars is only stuff and the rights to stuff.
The stuff belongs to a third party, God or Christ Jesus, not the stone of the altar who we may call a minister. He is the minister of the stuff but he has his position not because the people have given up any natural right except the right to choose what to do with the stuff freely given.
The status of the minister is established by two or more witnesses not by relinquishing rights or liberties like with the governments of the world.
Governments of the world can take everything from everyone in time of emergency. But they cannot rob the true Church without risking the intervention of God as we see when the Church in the wilderness was on the shores of the Red Sea. We are told that if we look to the kings of the earth like Saul that God will not hear us when we Cry out because we looked to those kings and conscripted Fathers of the earth.
We have to at least make an attempt to stop coveting our neighbor's goods through the agencies of these Fathers of the earth.
We know that most Churches will not receive God's protection because they are still workers of iniquity under a Strong Delusion often teaching False religion and even sometimes the Church of Satan.
Every congregation should be giving in charity regularly just like they were members of Health Share systems like good Samaritan but in hope.
Such giving in faith would begin the process back to the ways and understanding of Christ. It would begin to open our minds and our hearts to his grace and blessings.
Everyone can give more than they do. None of the ministers of His Church get a salary or wages. We build no cathedrals. We know that through repentance and sacrifice God builds His Church in the hearts and minds of the people.
We are looking for ministers with Proverbs 6 written on their hearts and minds.
We have been a "faithless and perverse generation," who ate at the table of rulers with an unchecked appetite till our bellies have nearly burst.
Luke 13:1 There were present at that season some that told him of the Galilaeans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. 2 And Jesus answering said unto them, Suppose ye that these Galilaeans were sinners above all the Galilaeans, because they suffered such things? 3 I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.
questions
- How would a man who has a calling to serve as an ordained minister of Christ, move forward if he has a mortgage to pay...?
There are all kind of ways to deal with mortgages and other debts.
First, there is usually a 7 year period of novitiate in which you may have all the responsibility of an ordained minister but are not fully under a vow of poverty.
Every case may be different.
Property could be put in a temporary trust and the mortgage paid much like a living trust or even put in a living trust for your family. Lots of variables and flexibility. What is not flexible is you have to build a real solid relationship of trust among your fellow ministers which is done in part by moving away from the "my" flock and "my" church mentality and to a His Church "kingdom" view.
Right out of the box early Christian communities were offering international assistance to a vast network of congregations. This could only be done because those congregation being connected by an unselfish network of ministers as concerned about the next congregation as they are about their own.
- Gather in a congregation.
- Form a congregation and become a licensed minister to a congregation.
- This will put you in a congregation of ministers.
- Take the time and energy to gather with those other ministers while serving a congregation.
- Get to know those other ministers and let them get to know you.
- Work with them serving your congregation of ministers and the congregation you minister to.
- Allow your congregants to get to know others in the network of congregations.
- Always remember Seeking the kingdom of God and His righteousness is a very personal process.