prepping question
Is prepping a priority with your home groups? Christ removes the spirit of fear, I know.
We see warnings of shortages of food and energy, not to mention sabotage of infrastructure which was reported today in NC.
Do you save resources to later share with others?
-
I live in the Seattle area where we are subject to earthquakes. We are also the closest U.S. mainland target to North Korea as the crow (or missile) flies. We have food and water to last us for a little while. This includes our kids and grandkids.
I am not, however, a prepper. I have no fortified bunker. Neither do I have a large stockpile of ammo. I decided long ago that I could not kill another human in defense of my supplies. Stealth is my only option. And even then I am at a disadvantage. If I saw a mother roaming the streets in search of food for her child, would I really be capable of not feeding that child (and probably the mom too) at the expense of my own family? I can't say for sure because I've never had to make that decision, but it's likely that if things got that bad that we'd long have crossed the threshold where recovery was even possible so what's another day of this misery for my family?
There's an old joke that says, "My emergency plan is to know where my closest Mormon neighbor lives." All kidding aside, making long-term plans is really hard. I chuckle when I see people ordering pallets of supplies to last them for a year. In a real emergency, most of those people will be dead within a few weeks. It may be an easy button click on the Costco website to get food enough to last a long time, but what about potable water? And how long before that one-year food supply becomes a one-day supply for the entire neighborhood?
From a theological perspective, I see a huge difference between preparing for a local disaster versus preparing for the end of the world. You are correct about not living in a spirit of fear. I don't think that it's fearful to prepare for something that happens regularly in our world. Snowstorms, hurricanes, disease, and earthquakes are all natural occurrences and fit well within my planning. As for civil disruption, I just don't worry about it too much. 9/11 and COVID have proven that no matter how hard you try to change society that it's extremely difficult to do. If the word "zombie" appears in your planning considerations then I believe that you're way off base. :-)
If I could summarize this all into one sentence it would be "Give us this day our daily bread". I honestly think that the "forgive us our debts" part of the Lord's Prayer merits much more of our attention
-
Todd, thank you for weighing in on this subject. We are in total agreement. Worry is sinful. Trust is the answer we must keep coming back to.
It's a foregone conclusion that a new form of digital currency is on the way. It's already being tested in several countries. By the mercy of God we will press forward and not be discouraged about whatever might be out there.
Our hope is in him or we have no hope. We will share with others as much as we are able. Stewardship is our concern. How we use our resources for the Kingdom.
We found several sites about prepping. We will continue to seek the will of God into what our group can and should be doing.
-
Anyone who does not provide for their relatives, and especially for their own household, has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. 1 tim 5:8
-
Robert, that is such a pivotable text. And ne which we seldom hear. It takes the thoughtful reader into many directions at once. Thank you for having the courage to post it.
Why are there so few ‘sermons’ preached on this matter? Could it possibly be that some ’preachers’ might see this theme as translating into less funding for themselves?
I ask because many churches operate under very tight budgets. So tight that there is little or no support for missionaries or evangelists - much less a needs-based welfare assistance plan.
Can a person lose their salvation, now that they are worse than an infidel?
Is the ’New Testament God’ also one who speaks in stern warnings? I notice He is referred to as consuming fire in the book of Hebrews, I believe.
This text seems to be in the context of widows - how much more then our immediate families?
Is the family not under a ceaseless, ruthless attack today - even by the state? And not without the complicity of many churches, too?
We have often heard that the early church was an organism - not an organization. Hmmm. Really? It had regular meetings. Officers with defined roles. A special meal. Membership requirements. And here, a welfare system for those with no relatives.
Has not the church lost much of its relevance in view of it having relegated charity to the civil government?
Here again, the early church is exercising a filtering process with regards to who receives charity or honor. It is needs-based. Not a perpetual salary for all seniors. Paul spoke of honoring certain widows or female elders in the above chapter.
Naturally, his thoughts would also go to the senior men or appointed elders of the church. Those male elders were worthy of "double honor" if certain criteria were met. This is not the same as a regular salary for one man who is basically dominating a church's ministry, as others are silenced. No, we are talking about the conditional needs of the elderly. A term which, btw, had thousands of years of consistent meaning. I E, older man.
Many questions arise here as we view the modern landscape.
Finally, let us remember our dying Savior's unselfish words from the Cross - "Behold your Mother". And from that hour that disciple took her to his own home.
-
I think David’s second paragraph speaks to the center of the issue. As we are now reaping the whirlwind of centuries of self-centered religious constructs. The reformation did a good job of getting people pointed in the right direction, but Luther did little for connecting people to the Father’s heart. In reality, it only gave the people another “system” to attach to. We simply exchanged one system for another.
Right now the bulk of the Body of Christ is still interconnected with the church system. Pastors & denominational heads will do whatever they feel justified in doing to protect their market share of believers. Yes, we are a market commodity and each week we return for our weekly religious dose of either entertainment or condemning preaching. This endless cycle produces little spiritual fruit but produces an undercurrent of unrest all around us. Not only within the body but some pastors as well as they feel “stuck” in a system that bares little resemblance to the things Jesus promised.
How can the Body move forward in the things of God if we are interlocked in a pointless system? These are some of the hard questions I have asked myself and written about in my book, “My Fathers House.”
Right now… the quest is to divorce from our minds the lifeless institutional forms and rediscover the Well of his Presence that He has been offering to us down through the ages.
I know in some ways what I am saying is taking the conversation away from the topic of prepping. But in some ways, this is the center of the issue. Because, if Christ truly lives in us will we need rules to follow? I think not, for the law (rules) is for the unbelievers and served its purpose until Christ came. Now, Grace has come and we are to be governed by the Spirit within. That is one of the reasons for the biblical qualifications of Eldership. They are to be examined to see if mature biblical fruit lives in them.
Let's take a look at James 2,
“What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.” 14-17
James draws out a great example here. Basically, if one of your own family is naked and starving and all you do is spiritually bless them with words and walk away, then what good is your faith? Did they not just prove by their own actions that what is within them is dead?
And is this not what the powerless church does today? They pray for the people, but do nothing physical for them in the end.
So, should a righteous person prep?
Let me ask this question, Noah was considered righteous, what kind of long-term planning and storing up did he do? Would he be considered faithless in the 21st. Century because he was not “trusting God?”
How does the system prevent the Kingdom from moving forward?
Let me ask this question. How many of you have served for long periods of time in the church system as a leader? Day after day, year after year growing more and more tired? You're worn out and the concept of taking on just one more thing just makes your whole body freeze up in a panic. Now compare that to Jesus’ words to the woman at the well about the wellspring of life. Did leadership lose its wellspring? Or did they ever have it to begin with?
The reality is the church is a purse full of holes and it's getting drier and drier inside for a lot of people. In Charismatic circles, biblical social responsibilities are often pushed to the side as you seek more “showy” demonstrations (healing, deliverance, ect) so that people will stay, give more and keep the system running longer.
As a result, by our own actions, we have taken faith out of the fellowship and replaced it with a religious Idol that we call “the system.”
What happens to Idols?
Consider this biblical principle from Psalms 115. God through the psalmist declares, “Those who make them will be like them, and so will all who trust in them. V8” Those who make the system will become like the system they worship, and so is the danger to any who put their trust in it.
To sum up.
Why do Christians in this age have such a problem with acting on issues that were not an issue in days past? In my view, it's because we have taken scripture and stuffed it into the box, and redefined its basic core from an institutional viewpoint. This was never meant to be. Jesus did not die for the church, he died to set his people free from sin and to proclaim the coming Kingdom. He did not die for “the form,” he died to bring life.
Some people see the church as “everything,” let me say something that might offend some people who think that - “that thinking is simply the evidence of how you were programmed.” You see the church is not the Kingdom. The church is a by-product of the Kingdom.
Jesus came to give us a relationship with the Father. This is all relationship-based, the Jewish Christians understood this, and for a time so did the ancient forms of Celtic Christianity. It is through the Son, by his blood, that he has pulled us into a family. Now we need to learn to act like a family and care for each other.
This is why some modern people don’t understand Jesus’ words to John concerning his mother. In our modern day, she would be shipped off to old folks’ homes to “make way for the deeds of the Apostles!” But in a biblical mindset built on a foundation of a relationship, Mary had a home, she was to be carried for. And doesn’t that help fulfill John 13:35 that the world will know us by our Love?