Audacity of Hope
The audacity of hope often requires the audacity of nope. Like the anti drug commercials we must learn to "Just say no." The need for benefits and care can become an addiction which breeds avarice and apathy in a society. This is why Abraham, Moses, and Jesus the Christ created an alternative system of self government to sustain the people through charity, hope, and faith, that allowed them to live in the world but not of it.
Hard times and a daily walk in faith and hope is often the only cure. There are always bad things coming, but there are good things too. A seed may not be born unless it dies. We must began to let go of one world to become a part of Christ's world, His Kingdom. Birth does not come without sacrifice, suffering, and striving. We are told to "strive" by Christ in our search for the Kingdom of God and His righteousness.
No pain, no gain
The truth hurts sometimes, but the pain is not to great for those who will love the truth. The truth is people who often believe they have faith in Christ, pray to men who call themselves benefactors but exercise authority one over the other. They sometimes have to do so to survive because they do not love one another. In truth they covet their neighbor's goods and the security promised by their rulers, those false benefactors, of social systems of compelled offerings. They believe in, have faith in, those systems of force more than they have in living by faith and hope alone. [1]
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There is a price to pay for praying and eating at the table of rulers who exercise authority.
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There are a list of warnings are found throughout the Bible but men have removed the "Kingdom" from the "Gospel of the Kingdom". They again have left off "the weightier matters" to tickle the ears and bring the people back into bondage.
To live by faith, hope, and charity means that you are willing to contribute to the needs of others in "hope" that they will be there for you when you have a need. You must love your neighbor, near or far, as much as you love yourself. You must live by the perfect law of liberty, setting your neighbor free so that you may be free. You must be willing to cast your bread upon the waters in hope that it may come back to you when you have need.[2]
We cannot pay the price for we are deep in debt to the world and the Father, but we can repent and like the prodigal son began to return to our Father's house and the pattern of His love and forgiveness. There is no home in the Kingdom of Heaven for us if there is no home in our hearts for the ways of Christ, which are service and sacrifice, forgiveness and giving, diligence and dedication, charity and love.
Not Gloom and Doom
We are sharing some of the information here, not to frighten anyone, but only to prepare them.
At the time of Christ a modius, or sack, of wheat went from 6 denarii in price to over 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. They said you did not need substance in your money but could rely on the promises of men. By removing silver from the denarii until they were nothing but diverse weights, iron coin the entire nation robbed each other with every purchase until there was nothing left to sustain the people.
Many people lost everything and starved during the economic depressions and social upheaval that resulted. Christ through the apostles offered another plan which required seven men.[3]
The idea and plan the presented was not new but very old.
"Give a portion to seven, and also to eight;
for thou knowest not what evil shall be upon the earth."
Ecclesiastes 11:2
We see it again in Micah 5:5 as we see in Acts 6:5 the apostles set up something to help attend to the daily ministration of the needs of their society that called for others to wait on tables. That word for tables was the word for bank and was translated bank in Luke 19:23.
Today, there is a similar institution called a Credit Union in most place. They are not really banks, but non profit organizations that can be useful to assist the people in a period of transition as we seek the kingdom of God and those more righteous habitation. In hard times artificial and fiat money systems will fail as they have in the past. But there have been systems that allowed and even encouraged local responsibility for the security of communities.
Today this could include cooperatives, credit Unions, buying clubs, Church retreat grounds, Faith Emergency Management Auxiliaries and a Host of Social systems locally controlled and based on voluntary participation through the perfect law of liberty empowered buy and through the power of the Holy Spirit.
If people really understood the fullness of the Gospel of the Kingdom and knew who Jesus was and what His words meant they could have continued in the perfect law of liberty creating a social system based on love and charity, hope, and faith. They did not pray to Rome for free bread and benefits at the expense of their neighbor and neither should we. That would make the word of God to none effect. That would be praying to the gods of the world. That would be having another Father to pray to.
The Corban of Rome and the Pharisees and the "world" makes the word of God to none effect. Is our Corban making the word of God to none effect today?
Christians once depended on their own system of social welfare and we should too. We should have our own FEMA, Faith Emergency Ministry Auxiliary, which is part of the duties of man as a brotherhood under God the Father and the mission of the Church. The truth of His Kingdom at hand and the nature of His righteousness saved the Christians because they did not just say Lord, Lord but actually did the will of the Father. They Loved one another in faith hope and charity and did not covet their neighbor's goods through the agency of the governments they created for themselves.
Early Christians did not pray to "the men who call themselves benefactors but who exercise authority one over the other" because Christ said we were "not to be so". Modern Christians give Christ lip service, but they are often workers of iniquity.
Today, we are more vulnerable in this global and technological based economy than ever before because we have failed to be true Christians. At the time of Christ men began to prepare for the decline and fall of the Roman Empire by coming together in the Spirit of Christ. The apostles did many things that aided and bound their society together with the unbreakable cords of love and sacrifice. This prepared their society for the complete collapse that was coming in the new world order that the despots of Rome sought to establish. There is hope within our reach... It is the Kingdom of God. We can turn our lives around... by going in another direction and forming that society of faith, hope and charity under that illusive but perfect law of liberty.
Some believe it is impossible to gather in the world without being a part of the world. That people will never actually live and sustain a society based on freedom and love, faith and hope, or be a government functioning and succeeding in the world supported entirely by charity and voluntary participation.
For some I would say that is true but for those who have faith in Christ's way, Moses, Abraham and the prophets who sought to make us free souls under the God of Heaven I say, "Yes we can..." with God's Grace and Christ's Love written in our hearts and minds, if we will repent and seek the Kingdom and righteousness of God. We can realize the audacity of hope if we say yes to Christ and His Gospel of His Kingdom at hand, if we will come together in His Name and for His purposes and just say no to the ways and workers of iniquity.
- ↑ "And he said unto them, The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and they that exercise authority upon them are called benefactors. But it shall not be so among you..."Luke 22:25, Matthew 20:25, Mark 10:42
- ↑ Ecclesiastes 11:1 "Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days."
- ↑ Acts 6:5 "And the saying pleased the whole multitude: and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolas a proselyte of Antioch:"