Is there Charity in times of trouble?

by TRex2 Fri Sep 27, 2019 4:30 am

Randomness brought me across a couple articles on a topic I (and most others) struggle with, from time to time. That doorstep problem. What to do with those who are in need after things go wrong.

I ran across a couple articles that explore this, from a Christian perspective. (Both by the same author, but years apart. But that shouldn't matter for a Biblical Perspective, and it doesn't)

First, one that examines what happens when Charity goes wrong:
https://lowervalleyassembly.us/2019/09/07/paratus-familia-charity-gone-wrong/

San Francisco. Seattle. Denver. Cities littered with drug needles, human waste, used condoms and the detritus associated with the hopelessness of third-world countries. And yet this is the United States of America. Or was…….

Over the years, as our country has been increasingly influenced by progressive elite idealists, we have been forced into a kind of Situational Justice. Right and wrong, good and bad, has been replaced by a politically driven narrative that preaches “charity” and “compassion”, but in fact leaves a post-apocalyptic waste land in its wake.

Now, how does the leader of your group deal with this, after things go wrong.
http://www.paratusfamilia.com/2012/01/reluctant-leader.html

As preppers, we not only have to prepare our stores in abundance, we have to prepare ourselves for what the future holds. Part of that preparation must be readying for the role of leadership.

One of the most difficult tasks the leaders of our families will face is conducting charity. Who do they help? How do they choose? Do they run everyone off or take anyone in who is in need? If you have been a prepper for any length of time, these are questions that you have grappled with. So have Sir Knight and I. Finally, we decided to go to the Bible to seek the answers.
...
First, we searched for who we do need to help. We came up with a number of people that we would be responsible for.
...
We do have to help people, but we are also called to turn some away. We have to turn away the wicked man (Proverbs 10:3, Proverbs 13:25) and the foolish man (Proverbs 21:20). There will come a time when you have to judge a man to be either poor (and feed him) or foolish (and turn him away). There are many admonitions dealing with the lazy man (Proverbs 10:4)

by rick1 Fri Sep 27, 2019 4:11 pm

Help somebody when the SHTF, well, it all depends what they have to trade for it. And what I give them, if I give them anything, won't be much.

You know what happens when you feed a stray cat.

FEMA used to tell you to have 3 days worth of water and food, I read somewhere, I think here, they want you to have at least two weeks now.

People are lazy, they don't want to do anything for themselves, they want to depend on the government or somebody else and to be honest here, I'm neither.

Heck, people won't even evacuate an area when they are told to and then they call for help because they're stuck on the roof of their house because of the water level. No I don't feel sorry for people like that and no, I won't help them.

The old saying goes, "Your lack of preparedness does not constitute an emergency for me."

There's another old saying, "God helps those who help themselves."

by TRex2 Tue Jul 09, 2024 2:24 pm

Just a reminder of what we were discussing, about five years ago.

Enola Gay wrote:We do have to help people, but we are also called to turn some away. We have to turn away the wicked man (Proverbs 10:3, Proverbs 13:25) and the foolish man (Proverbs 21:20). There will come a time when you have to judge a man to be either poor (and feed him) or foolish (and turn him away). There are many admonitions dealing with the lazy man (Proverbs 10:4)

It has been impressed upon me, in the past few years: not everyone is poor due to a lack of planning.

One of the members of my church was fairly well off, until a few years ago, when his kidneys stopped working. In the recent years, he has struggled against kidney disease, dialysis, and impending heart failure. His wife lost her job, due to helping him with his medical difficulties.

He may not be with us, much longer, but in the next few years, it will be a requirement that the Church help take care of him, and his wife. After he is gone, it will be a requirement to take care of his widow. (Unless his children suddenly step up. I am not sure where they are, or what shape they are in.)

Quotes are from the English Standard Version

Gospel of John 13:34 wrote:"A new commandment I give you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Note that Jesus never told us to love the world, but He told us to love other Christians.

1 Tim 5:3 wrote: Honor widows who are truly widows. But if a widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to show godliness to their own household and to make some return to their parents, for this is pleasing in the sight of God. She who is truly a widow, left all alone, has set her hope on God and continues in supplications and prayers night and day,

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