"Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?”
Jesus said to him, “ ‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself."
Jesus said to him, “ ‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself."
Matthew 22:36-39
I have chosen the title, "Demons of Greed," over, "The Spirit of Greed," simply because it is far more truthful. We live in a society where people feel they can steal others hard earned productivity. They create no wealth of their own, yet feel entitled to everyone else. People that produce nothing, feel they deserve everything. How does this measure up to what God says?
"You shall not steal, nor deal falsely, nor lie to one another. And you shall not swear by My name falsely, nor shall you profane the name of your God: I am the LORD."
Leviticus 19:11-12
Now, I know there will be some people who will read this and smile smugly thinking that Government laws will get them out of God's laws. Really? You may want to think twice about that. Greed does not only hurt the person from whom you are stealing, but it also hurts the community.
Welfare is a way to steal from other people. Yes, I have come out and said it. Welfare helps those that could help create wealth to sit back and be lazy, doing nothing to help their fellow man. Welfare helps to add to the ideology that we deserve everything and need to do nothing to gain everything.
"Like a cancer; it eats faster and faster every hour. The revenue creates pensioners, and the pensioners urge for more revenue. The people grow less steady, spirited and virtuous, the seekers more numerous and more corrupt, and every day increases the circles of their dependents and expectants, until virtue, integrity, public spirit, simplicity and frugality become the objects of ridicule and scorn, and vanity, luxury, foppery, selfishness, meanness, and downright venality swallow up the whole of society."
Welfare has been a curse on this nation since its conception. I know, there will be people screaming and crying about that statement, but lets see what God says...
"If one of your brethren becomes poor, and falls into poverty among you, then you shall help him, like a stranger or a sojourner, that he may live with you. Take no usury or interest from him; but fear your God, that your brother may live with you."
Leviticus 25:35-36
"For the poor will never cease from the land; therefore I command you, saying, ‘You shall open your hand wide to your brother, to your poor and your needy, in your land."
Deuteronomy 15:11
The Bible was written to the people, not to a government machine. The government is not to take care of the poor and needy, the people are! Now, I know there are going to be people that will throw a fit saying that people are NOT taking care of the poor and needy. Well, we once did. My Grandmother's remember the days of the train hoppers or hobos. The destitute would come for a meal and many of the American people, especially the farmers, would readily give of what they had. Back in the Great Depression, people who had very little shared what they had to give. There are still those today, but in many ways, severe taxation is bleeding the life out of people that truly want to help others.
I am now going to address women specifically. This is a tough economy. I understand that and am well aware of what is happening economically. There are things we can do that do not require stealing from other people. If someone else chooses to bless us of their own freewill, that is another story altogether. I am going to address wives first, then I will get to single mothers.
Wives, what does Proverbs 31 talk about? That virtuous and capable wife and it even asks the question, "Who can find her?" Does your husband find you to be virtuous and capable? For those of us that have chosen Biblical Womanhood as the path for life, we are stay at home mothers and wives and daughters. But, does this mean that we do nothing besides clean? Absolutely not! The Bible is clear that the Proverbs 31 Woman had lucrative enterprises besides taking care of her family. Verse 11 says that her husband finds her a great asset to him. How are you an asset to your husband, do you economize effectively? If you are blessed to be a mother, yes, you need to properly rear the children, but it does go beyond that. What are your skills and talents and how can you be enterprising on them? There are a half a dozen things that every woman is capable of doing well, what are your strengths?
Enterprise (n.): 1. An organization or venture, esp. for business purposes. 2. Under federal anti-racketeering law, an individual, partnership, corporation, association, union, other legal entity, or group of individuals associated in fact, although not a legal entity. 3. One or more persons or organizations that have related activities, unified operation or common control, and a common business purpose.
~Black's Law Dictionary, 9th Edition
Single mothers. For women who have suffered abuse or are victims of an adulterous relationship, I empathize with you. However, I do not appreciate women who have left their husbands for selfish pursuits. If you are a single mother, I know just as well as you do how hard it is to make ends meet. I was a single mother for seven years and it was not a bed of roses. My children did not have the best of everything, but they did have a dry roof and food to eat. This is more than I can say for some of the single mothers I met on my journey. To you, I would say...keep praying! I would also say, search your Bible and economize more and more. If your local church is NOT being the church the way the Bible says it should be, if they advocate welfare instead of helping the poor and needy themselves...I would recommend finding another church that does practice the Biblical principles where the poor and needy are concerned. If you receive child support or alimony, I would ask that you search the Bible on this matter. What does God say about that? This is between you and Him, not me and you.
"Men nurture children, too. In many ways, they care for them more than women do. A mother may bear children, nurse and rear them, feed and clothe them. But the homes, the food, the clothing and most of what makes life after birth possible usually come from their fathers."
"...they're stark examples of a clogged legal system turning relationships into lifelong ATM machines for women. They're also excellent examples of the failure of feminism. In the end, these women achieve "independence" by using courts to mooch off men and the rest of society."
So how do we identify greed in our own lives? Well, assuming that most of my readers have professed faith in Yeshua (Jesus Christ), I will again address the issue of God. What is prosperity and what is poverty according to His Word?
a state of "want", one way to prove we are not in "want" is to celebrate what we have in Y"There is so much wisdom in Torah that helps us to permanently avoid poverty, the first and obvious thing is "Six days shall you labour". We are free to choose by Torah standards what we are going to do, but He says we "shall labour". The second and obvious thing is, "you shall not do any work" on Shabbat. Some think if they work on Shabbat, they will gain even more riches, these souls are demonstrating their poverty. "Faith" demands action, Shabbat requires that we stop working, by Faith. Poverty is to be in HWH. When we celebrate Shabbat we celebrate Mashiyach in our lives, if we have Him we have EVERYTHING! It is not possible to want if one already has everything there is. The Shabbat is not a religious duty, but a state of being!"
"When the multitudes went to John the Baptist to repent and be baptized by him in the wilderness, he gave them specific instructions on how to repent. All of his instructions had to do with overcoming greed and covetousness:
"‘What should we do then?’ the crowd asked. John answered, ‘The man with two tunics should share with him who has none, and the one who has food should do the same.’ Tax collectors also came to be baptized. ‘Teacher,’ they asked, ‘what should we do?’ Don’t collect any more than you are required to,’ he told them. Then some soldiers asked him, ‘And what should we do?’ He replied, ‘Don’t exhort money and don’t accuse people falsely–be content with your pay’" (Luke 3:10-14 NIV)."
Taking a step back and looking at the big picture, we can see greed everywhere! It is in the lives of individuals, in the church, in the government. Everyone somehow believes they have the right to dictate how everyone else gets to spend their money, time, and talents. This is greed on a level that confirms we are living in the "days of Noah." Human Farming is not just done by the governments or elites, I have watched human farming even on the individual levels. It is sad and very disturbing.
So, we now understand that the demons of greed have penetrated every sphere. We know that corrupt legal systems have allowed people to steal others wealth instead of allowing them to give freely of themselves. We know that groups and organizations have formed to hide these truths. So now what? What are you going to do about the greed in your own life? How will you confront those demons of greed? Who in your life do you owe an apology and need to pay restitution for your own greed and selfishness? See article on restitution here.
***Due to private responses, I am adding this clause: This blog post in no way represents any one person, group, or government. I would ask that my readers have an open mind and are able to weigh this information with a logical and not an emotional manner.
