Posted on 09/23/2014 6:13:35 AM PDT by WXRGina
Asking equivalent questions. If you value total dependence on The Lord for every need - then why do you work? Very straight across the board comparison. If you can’t explain why then you need to reexamine your premise for your statement to begin with.
Exasperating thread ping
Y'all should see that differently. Natural disasters happen, no matter where you are. It only makes sense to have food stored up, as any of our forefathers' generations would confirm. They didn't have the choice, because the supermarket wasn't just down the road.
As to being poor, and not having space, A garden and canning (and hunting, smoking) don't hardly cost anything, especially if you are in a rural area, where such things (and knowledge, and supplies) are commonplace. Or freeze-dried goods which cost around $250/30days/person - Which is some money, I'll admit, but not too bad if you go at it a little at a time.
Shoot, I'm poor as a church mouse - If it weren't for the garden and hunting and fishing, I would not be anywhere near as well as I am. And I AM well, at least till the electricity goes off. Even if I lose my freezers, I know I can get by for 30-60 days. And I have winter to contend with. REAL winter.
To have 3 months stored up is pretty easy to do.
Do you live by those scriptures. Yes or no.
Do you have a refrigerator in your home/apt? Why or why not?
This is the set of scriptures that had my kin waiting in a long line for ‘free’ MRE’s that WERE put aside by someone who thought ahead. And paid for by all of us.
I was always under the impression that this set of scriptures were directed at his disciples and meant to assauge their fears of ‘going on the road’ with him.
I can’t imagine that every Christian farmer in the past 2000 years who has sown a crop has been an unbelieving heretic, can you?
Ain't that just neat? Right after my smoker, that's the next big project. Dunno if perch or tilapia though....
But God HAS clothed me. God HAS given me a full larder. God HAS given me a nice store of food, and the things I need to get through the winter.
God HAS given me good, honest work, and the use of my hands, and the appreciation for growing things, and the ability to hunt and fish... PRAISE GOD! And if it all burnt down tomorrow, it would all come back again, as I need it, and as I am willing to participate...
I often say that in perfect faith, I should be able to sit atop Mt. Aeneas buck nekkid in the middle of winter and be perfectly content - I am still working on that. But in the mean time, Winter is a reality, and if there ain't 4 cord in the shed, I can predict that I will get mighty cold a bit later on.
By the way. My kin took those exact scriptures to mean that they were to have NO food in their house. Zero.
They ditched their refrigerator, stove and microwave as well. And got rid of all eating and cooking utensils. Breakfast was a 9 mile drive into town to the drive thru somewhere.
He destroyed all the planted edibles so they wouldn’t be ‘tempted’ to hold it over till the next day. I’m sure the wildlife that had come to depend on those plants appreciated his newfound zeal.
Somehow when his wife tired of breastfeeding it became ‘ok’ to have cans of formula in the house. But only the individual serving ones (priced those lately?) because hey, no fridge.
The ‘upshot’ of all this is they have NO money set aside for anything. He was hurt on the job, his deductible (which they couldn’t pay) was paid for by his FIL, who did put aside stuff for a rainy day.
They have only gotten away with this level of ‘crazy’ on his working poor paycheck because his FIL *gave* them the house and 6 acres as a wedding present. The place very nearly came up at auction though for back taxes. Again, his FIL paid those. Roof needed fixing too. Guess who paid for that as well...
Their vehicles? Paid for by the FIL as well. Hard to pay a car note when you’re spending $25-$30+ a day at restaurants/drive thrus and on a working poor paycheck. The kids are on medicaid as well.
I don’t think very highly of his depending on the ‘providence of God’. Because it’s less the ‘providence of God’ than it is everyone else’s wallets...particularly his kin.
He’s had the gall to call MY dad and ask for handouts. My dad was a sharecropper’s son. And for genuinely poor kin my dad is a HUGE softy. Guess how far he got with that little line of panhandling...especially since my dad was aware that the whole family literally ate out every single meal...
You’ll do, Black Agnes. You surely will. : )
Tilapia grow faster but if your in colder climate it might be less heating. I’m in SC so heat is more an issue but I run lines underground to cool water. Tilapia also grow well on duck weed which I can grow in one tank so my feed bill is nil.
Oh the smoker! My old one was just a plywood box about 5’ high and 2’ wide. A hotplate under a false floor with holes in it. I only cold smoked in that. Lots of good bacon and ham out of it. The one I’m building now will be for both hot and cold.
Lets have some balance. There is more that the bible says about preparedness
Proverbs 6:6 –11 (NLT)
“6:6 Take a lesson from the ants, you lazybones. Learn from their ways and become wise! 6:7 Though they have no prince or governor or ruler to make them work, 6:8 they labor hard all summer, gathering food for the winter. 6:9 But you, lazybones, how long will you sleep? When will you wake up? 6:10 A little extra sleep, a little more slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest—6:11 then poverty will pounce on you like a bandit; scarcity will attack you like an armed robber.”
Proverbs 21:20
“The wise store up choice food and olive oil, but fools gulp theirs down.”
1 Timothy 5:8 (NIV)
“If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his immediate family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.”
Proverbs 27:12
“A prudent person foresees the danger ahead and takes precautions. The simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences.”
Prolly gonna start with perch till I figure out what I am doing - My buddy in CO uses passive solar to heat the water tanks in order to help heat the greenhouse - and I am going to try something similar... I will probably still need a coal/wood stove in it for the bitter cold, but I am not going to get year-round anyhoo. Most likely going to have to shut it down in January, which is fine, as I can get my starts going in late feb that way... Production is pretty grim late winter around here anyway.
First of all the comment was a post in a reply to anonsquared not to anyone else.
But to tell the truth when you sling mud you shouldn’t be upset when you get some on you.
Heh... Burned down my last teepee smoker about a year ago - This one is going to be all masonry hot/cold, w/ honest steel racks, and with an attached barbeque grill too... Messing with rocket-stove stuff right now, and will probably incorporate that idea into it some - I like fresh bread, and it is too hot to bake in the summer, so I will wind up with pretty much a whole exterior kitchen - oven and all... It is going to be a humdinger of a project. Hoping to get it done before snow. Once it is in, I doubt I will cook inside much at all.
That’s a passage addressing anxiety. It’s in response to the “OMG what am I gonna do?” panic. Don’t _worry_ about things, don’t fret. In context of other pro-preparedness passages, the point is: just do what needs to be done, God will provide the means & resources well within your abilities & needs.
When Christ began His ministry and gathered the disciples, He told them to forego all things in a manner you’re referring to. That was fine: He was there and actively providing for them in a very direct fashion. When He prepared to leave (crucifixion), He told them to take such things up again (purse, scrip, sword).
Obviously, if you don’t get a job and acquire food/clothing/shelter, you won’t last long. Some of the remarkably devout may get by on providence thru others, but most of us won’t.
God told Joseph to store up 7 years’ grain. He didn’t say “a bad time is coming, but don’t worry about it.”
God provided Moses et al with manna. Was pretty clear that was for a limited, albeit long, time.
The passage you quote is not anti-prepper. You acquire what you sensibly can, in preparation for reasonable (even catastrophic) contingencies, as God provides such for you.
Costco sells 50lb bags of flour and rice for $15. That’s enough calories to keep an adult going for a month (further nuances of nutrition left as an exercise for the reader). You have a job, savings, or some other income. Seems God has indeed provided for you - all you need do is drive to the local “shopper’s club / bulk” store, wheel out more food than you’ll know what to do with, and pay for it with remarkably little money! A month’s calories for less than 2 hours of minimum-wage work? a decent nutritious 30-day menu for a day’s effort? Indeed, God provides!
Well, good for you!
Meanwhile, back on EARTH, millions of people who have lived since Christ - including many who have had Faith in Christ - haven't been clothed. They've worn rags, gone hungry, couldn't find work, etc.
My question is: How can this be reconciled with the passage in the Gospel according to Matthew?
Regards,
Okay, so it was a rhetorical question - and a good one!
Indeed, I find it nigh impossible to reconcile what I consider to be sensible behavior (prepping, etc.) with the "Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we may die" attitude towards life which Christ espoused.
Regards,
Your numerous quotations demonstrate just how self-contradictory the Bible is.
Regards,
What do you mean, 'back on earth'?? Shall I sell all I have and join them in the ditch? Shall I poison my body to join them in the hospital? Shall I maim myself and join them at the gate? That's ultimately just one more hand held out for alms, and the negation of all that I could do with what YHWH has given me. What good does that do me or them? That isn't Christianity, it's communism. The rising tide sinks all boats, eh?
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