Staff of life

Bread has been called the staff of life. The Eucharist of Christ and the Daily bread of society do not belong to the Slothful but the diligent.

The Staff of life has always been a symbol of society's quest for freedom. Neither bread nor liberty is ever free. If to be forgiven you must forgive then to be free you must strive to set your neighbor free.

Someone listening to our broadcast from July of 2016 found fault with a statement I made about grain reserves. The program was actually about Tracking the spirit of the Beast of the Book of Revelation.

About 15 minutes into the broadcast the critic thought I said "the silos are empty and we are out of grain". He wanted proof of this and of course I had none because that is not what I said.

What I said was that we use to have years and years of grain supplies in this country referring to strategic reserves of grain set aside for a time when there could be major consecutive crop failures in this country or world-wide. Part of that surplus grain was what was called the "strategic grain supply".

He noted that "Today corn is being piled on the ground in huge mountains because there isn't enough storage space." Of course it is very common to pile grain on the ground until it can be shipped to some place.

I used to pile grain on the ground back in the 60's until it could be shipped to buyers but there was 6 to 7 years supply of grain in silos on the farm at the time. That meant you could have 7 years of crops failing and still have some wheat for annual consumption.

In crop year 2008/2009, a total of approximately 2.24 billion metric tons of grain were produced worldwide. That sounds lie a lot of grain. But what does that mean?

On-farm storage of wheat has dropped from 190 to 175 million bushels since 1996. In America much of this loss of storage capacity is due to the fact that there is no real support for a grain reserve so people have turned silos into vacation homes. Many silos are full but the private storage capacity has decreased in relationship to the increased demand. And in many countries the only new grain storage increase is government controlled.

Historically that has been a bad idea if the people want to remain free. Grain has played a greater role in the success and failure of major civilizations from Egypt to Rome and China and India. Our modern world is not immune to global famine. In fact we have never been more vulnerable.

The unrelenting rise of power in imperial Rome was directly related to the price and availability of grain. Grain distribution trough the public temples was used to dull the sense of independence of the people through the Bread and circuses freely given away as public welfare. Rome the Republic had at one time relied upon Freewill offerings of the people to support these temples and their charitable distribution. But now they were supported by men who called themselves Benefactors who exercised authority. These were the conscripted fathers of the earth in imperial Rome that planted the Roots of the Welfare State which brought in the decay of that society.

Polybius saw that the socialist path the Roman people took degenerated the people of that society into "perfect savages" until they found themselves fit for nothing but tyranny.

What is strategic grain reserve?

The individual who thought I said the silos were empty continued thinking that he was "very in tune with the amount of grains and to say the amount of grain reserves in the USA is 'burdensome' would be a huge understatement."

What is the truth and can we handle it?

The government's "strategic grain reserve" in America was proposed back in the 1930's by Benjamin Graham. It was meant to moderate the boom and bust cycle of grain prices that often caused bankruptcy when grain prices dropped in surplus years.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt created a grain reserve that supposedly helped American farms during the Depression. In the 1970s the government redesigned the Farmer-Owned Grain Reserve by offering low-cost and even no-interest loans for stored grain and subsidized the storage costs. But global markets over the following decades until the 1996 Freedom to Farm Act abolished the national system of effective grain reserve.

The reserve which had once been a 6 or 7 years supply of grain for the whole country has dwindled and what was left became part of the Bill Emerson Humanitarian Trust under the authority of the secretary of Agriculture, which is seriously depleted.

• "The stores were gradually depleted until 2008, when the USDA decided to convert all of what was left into its dollar equivalent. And so the grain that once stabilized prices for farmers, bakers and American consumers ended up as a number on a spreadsheet in the Department of Agriculture."

So what is the actual reserve today?

Estimates world-wide for Grains for 2015/2016 is 2453.35 Million Metric Tons with a total supply of 3030.58 Million Metric Tons and in the US those numbers would be 428.85 Million Metric Tons with a total supply of 505.47 Million Metric Tons. Of that we will trade away at least 81.33 Million Metric Tons which is good for our trade deficit and only use about 348.73 Million Metric Tons. That leaves us with an ending stock of 75.42 Million Metric Tons.

If there was any kind of a crop failure prices would go through the roof and there would be food riots. No one would want to see that would they?

What if you had global weather change and crops begin to fail several years in a row. In the case of world-wide crop failure the people will be starving within months of a major interruption.

If there was really global weather change on the horizon and the government loved the people or the people just loved each other there would be a massive push to grow, buy and store grain since very few food products can be stored for so long more economically than grain. But they are not doing that because people do not love one another and their governments are not governments of love but force.

In a world of self-centered people there is little vision of man through the course of history. Our personal vanity keeps us from seeing the truth or hearing it when it is told to us. Over the last 4000 years there have been many instances of world-wide famine due to weather changes which had nothing to do with fossil fuels or carbon taxes.

The Maunder Minimum, a "prolonged sunspot minimum" from 1645 through 1715, caused crop failures world-wide and a reduction in world population. There have been numerous "Little Ice Ages" over the last two millennia due to volcanic eruptions that also brought world-wide famine. In 1315, cold weather and torrential rains decimated crops across Europe which destabilized countries as millions of people starved. Volcanic eruptions in the years following 540 A.D. produced the coldest decade in more than 2300 years and caused world-wide famine and cannibalism from Europe to China.

This can all happen again. Our modern dependence on technology does not make us less vulnerable but more. And our reliance on central government to come to our aid makes us foolish from an historical point of view. Governments of strong centralized power do not draw to it's offices men of love and compassion but men who see power and control. Power corrupts and in hard times the people will not come first. In fact people who would take a bite out of their neighbor to obtain personal benefits in good times will literally devour their neighbor in hard times.

Global grain supplies were still low in 2013 after droughts in the US. While the crops have been good for the most part since then there has been no real attempt to go back to the strategic storage levels of the past.

In fact even though the crops in America have been so good that Loan Deficiency Payments are starting in some place. Without any change in the people there remains a looming threat to their life.

I am not suggesting another giant government boondoggle program to create a reserve but in a government of, for and by the people, they should be gathering to create their own private and community-controlled reserves.

There used to be hundreds of grain buyers in business out here in the west but that part of the grain economy is now controlled by a few large companies. The people have relinquished control in the public and private sector.

The modern debt economy requires that everyone sell what they produce as soon as possible to pay off loans since everyone including the government is operating on credit.

When I pointed out to my critic, who is a farmer, that I was talking about reserves not production he missed the point and followed with more rants on Facebook that "There is so much bad info in all of those articles you shared I'm not sure where to start." But all the information he was sharing was again about production and prices and not reserves.

My mentioning of reserves was motivated out of concerns of all the people while his focus on prices and production is about himself. Yes the 1932 national average of 38 cents a bushel would be equivalent in 2016 dollars of $6.67 a bushel. Even the USDA computes the parity price for wheat in 2016 should be $18.30 per bushel but will probably only be $3.45.

This is possible only because of the innovation of modern machinery which can produce crops more efficiently.

Yes, production is up. But, population is up, too.

In almost every private sector business people are working more and harder for less return. But then people want more for less. They want those "benefits and the habit of receiving them by way of a rule of force and violence" which Polybius spoke. John the Baptist and Christ and His Corban explained in the Gospel of Kingdom of God.

The plight of the farmer and cost of equipment is certainly squeezing out farmers around the world. But again all his comments are off the point I was making because he is more concerned about his own plight and difficulties than the whole truth we are trying to share.

We have already explained many of these issues and the insidious issue of inflation and debt which comes from people focusing on their problems more than the difficulties of others. Rome removed the silver from their denarii and suffered skyrocketing inflation that brought about chaos and tyrants until it collapsed altogether.

At the time of Christ a modius (a 30 pound sack) of wheat went from 6 denarii in price to more than 120,000 denarii in a little over a generation. People were economically devastated by the anti-God policy of their government and its violation of Biblical precepts.

With a waive of their hand the ruling elite established a lie as the truth. In the final analyses it is the "anti-God" policy of the people which is bringing the nation down. People are so focused on their own difficulty, discomfort and burdens they cannot see the real danger that faces everyone. Therefore they cannot hear nor see the solution.

So what do we do?

What can we do?

What should we do as a people?

We should seek the Kingdom of God and His righteousness.

If we only think of our difficulties and our hardships we will not hear nor shall we see what is coming for us all. The watchman may warn us but we must act not in our defense but in the defence of righteousness for others.

We should come together in a living network of people who care about one another as much as we care about ourselves.

People followed Abraham, Moses, John the Baptist and Jesus. The altars of clay and stone was a way to create the social bonds of free people. The levites led the Israelites. And the early Church followed Christ and His Way, which was The Way, and advocated a Daily ministration that was dependent on Pure Religion through Fervent charity only. This was the Corban of Christ which was not like the system of Corban of the Pharisees nor of Rome or the systems of FDR and LBJ.
The church lost "the way" when it abandoned the practice of "pure Religion" while claiming to be the Church established by Christ. The people developed an appetite for the "wages of unrighteousness" from "public religion" in the days of Constantine. Those new Christians that often failed to fully repent degenerated the moral character of society with the masses of "instant christians".
That new religion of the emperor introduced a new faith with his apostate church replacing the doctrine of Jesus with the "doctrines of men", the Holy Spirit with emotion, the truth with the speaking of "great swelling words, having men's persons in admiration because of advantage."
They had a form of godliness but denied the power thereof.

Where is your religion

• Where do you find the Daily ministration of the early Church, the Pure Religion of James and the Corban of Jesus?

• Are you following The Blessed Strategy of Christ like the Early Christians?

• Are you following The Way through Love of one another or the way of the world and the Fathers of the earth?

• Do you seek the benefits of bankrupt nations, or do you forgive and seek the benefits of Christ's appointed Kingdom?

• Do you only gather for the comfort it gives you, or do you gather to benefit others?

• Christ came to serve, not be served. Do you desire to be served, or are you coming in His name and according to His character to serve others?

If we desire His Grace but we only love those who love us, then there is no Grace because it is clear we do not really believe in Him.

If we do not Repent of our Covetous Practices and are not diligently gathering together in Free Assemblies of Love for all to provide for one another in Charity according to the Perfect law of liberty then we have nothing according to Paul. According to Luke 6:32 if we only love those who love us there is no "Grace". Christ also said if you do not Forgive neither will the Father forgive you.

It is not enough to hate the deeds of the workers of iniquity, but we must return to Thy first love and thy first work. To break the yoke, we need to return to the ways of righteousness spoken of in Isaiah 58 which are the ways of Christ and the early Church. And His yoke is light for it is carried by our love of one another.

Abraham, Moses, John the Baptist and Christ all created Networks of charity to care for the true needy of society without force which is how they were able to help set people free. Do you gather with His Church to attend to the Weightier matters as Christ said?

• Are you gathering in a Network of righteousness?

• Do you come to love others or just be loved?

• Are your Congregations' gatherings fruitful enough so that no one has to pray to Benefactors who exercise authority one over the other?

• Does anyone in your Free Assemblies have to apply to the Fathers of the earth, or seek their many benefits?

Early Christians found themselves in conflict with these systems of social welfare because they made the word of God to none effect. Christians had repented of their covetous nature when they received the Baptism of Christ. They heard and became Doers of the word not hearers only.

Remember Proverbs 12:24, "The hand of the diligent shall bear rule: but the Slothful shall be under Tribute."

We know that liberty under God is not for the covetous who are Biting one another but it is also not for the slothful. If we are not congregating together in free assemblies bound together in a broad network by faith, hope, and charity alone according to the perfect law of liberty then we are not truly seeking the Kingdom of God nor His righteousness.

Some Reserve Reports

U.S. Food Supply More Vulnerable Than Ever
After Government Sold Off Emergency Grain Reserves
http://www.collapse.news/2016-01-29-u-s-food-supply-more-vulnerable-than-ever-after-government-sold-off-emergency-grain-reserves.html

World Whatch Institute
Grain Harvest Sets Record, But Supplies Still Tight
http://www.worldwatch.org/node/5539

USA Today
Surplus U.S. food supplies dry up
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/money/industries/food/2008-05-01-usda-food-supply_N.htm

International grain supplies are the tightest in three decades, and prices of ... The nation for years has maintained a strategic petroleum reserve as a form of ...

Striking with thy Staff
Wheat and War
http://www.hisholychurch.org/news/articles/wheat.php

No Bread in the Land
Your Daily Bread and
Your Faith Emergency Management Auxiliary!
http://www.hisholychurch.org/news/articles/nobread.php

Bread and circuses
... idiom for a superficial means of appeasement.

Daily bread

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