The Daniel Fast

The Rainbow Pen!

 

Fighting Poverty of Soul

 

 

God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. So make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out. (Genesis 6:13-14 niv). As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. (Matthew 24:37-39 niv).

 

Among the many urgent problems facing humanity today, His Holiness Pope Francis has decided to champion the fight against POVERTY. Why are people poor? Being overwhelmed doesn't do anybody any good. Jesus invited us into a life lived with a sense of abundance. God has made a World that is very good, where there can and should be enough - and more than enough - for every living creature to receive his or her daily bread. How can we give up on that? Some engaged observers of the American society have stated that the problem of hunger in America is different than it is in other countries, particularly in developing nations. In the USA the issue is not about a lack of food. It is estimated that 40% of food produced in America is thrown away. That equates to 20 pounds per person per month. No, lack of food is not the issue behind hunger, it is poverty. What are the characteristics of poverty? The signs of poverty include, among others, faith and beliefs, family and marriage, health and wellness, life and lifestyle, economy and finances, education and technology, work and retirement.

 

FAITH AND BELIEFS. We have been led to examine the causes of poverty due to wrong beliefs. The Lord Jesus Christ said it will be like in the days of Noah, for His Second Coming. The causes of the first and second World Wars have resurfaced in our time. And the prophetic players in a possible WW3 are already very visible on the World stage. In fact the conditions to usher  in the Antichrist are set and need only a last straw to spark off the predicted events. Even the sun, moon and stars are lining up to confirm the time is ripe. The Lord wants us to build an ARK and get ready to jump in at the appropriate time. The storms will include hunger and disease. So what ARK are you building for the storms? We understand this is eternal life: that we may know our Father God Almighty, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, His only beloved Son whom He  sent to rescue us from darkness into light. Our thoughts and declarations, actions and attitudes are our greatest power. The better they are, the more they bring better conditions to us. There are simple attitudes of mind that can help us choose our thoughts and thereby our results. For our words, actions and attitudes have consequences. If we think poverty, we live poverty. If we think dependence and handouts help us, we continue in poverty. We prosper when we have abundance and health, peace and happiness.

 

FAMILY AND MARRIAGE. We desire success and happiness as a universal desire divinely implanted within us to advance human civilization. The fight to eliminate inequality, because "the rich are getting richer and the poor get poorer," has always captured the people's imagination. It has even brought revolutions that promised prosperity and success. Families and marriages are greatly affected by poverty or prosperity. The children and their school performance are affected. The revolutionary ideas for good, not weapons and bloodshed, are in the Holy Bible. They can bring all the blessings that families and marriages desire to be stabilized. They are success attitudes to get Bible-reading people out of economic slavery mentally and socially. Yesterday, slave masters owned the physical person and their time. Today, the employers own employee time. The employee can't go to the child's game readily or attend to a sick spouse lying home sick! When God's people wake up, they will create companies and jobs that respect employee time, like working from home! You can't be much good to yourself or to anyone else unless you are prosperous. You want to be prosperous mainly because it is a right that you should be. Let wanting to be prosperous for the good you can do be secondary!

 

HEALTH AND WELLNESS. We are divine beings blessed with sublime power for making our lives what we want them to be. A lost soul is merely a soul that has lost sight of its divinity. We can have everything. You can't be happy if you are poor; and you need not to be poor. Poverty is a sin, a form of hell caused by people's blindness to God's unlimited good for humanity. Poverty is a dirty and uncomfortable and degrading experience. Poverty is actually a form of disease and in its acute phases, it seems to be a form of insanity. Poverty fills prisons with thieves and murderers. It drives people to drinking and prostitution, drug addiction and suicide. Poverty drives potentially fine and talented and intelligent children to delinquency and crime. Poverty makes people do things they otherwise would never dream of doing. The sinful results of poverty know no bounds. Let us help people learn how to eradicate poverty from their lives. Financial problems cause worry and stress, strain and tension, and lead to ill health. Mental hospitals are filled with people who have found that financial strain over a long period impaired their minds and bodies to the point of incapacity. Poverty is basically financial lack and limitation. It is a common vice and not a virtue. Universal health, with a focus on prevention, will help the poor greatly! Good health makes a healthy work force.

 

LIFE AND LIFESTYLE. What does a poor person look like? When you picture someone who lives in poverty, do you see someone with white skin or black, someone who lives in the city or the country, a native English speaker or someone who struggles with the language? Do you see yourself among those suffering in poverty? If recent reports are to be believed, very few of us are immune from economic insecurity or financial dependence. More specifically, most American adults struggle with joblessness, near-poverty or reliance on welfare for at least parts of their lives, a sign of deteriorating economic security and an elusive American dream.

 

ECONOMY AND FINANCES. Is charity the answer to poverty? What can any one of us do to get at the systemic issues that create economic inequalities? How do we live with the knowledge of that terrible, terrible gap? There is no true economic security for most of us. Only when poverty is thought of as a mainstream event, rather than a fringe experience that just affects some people, can we really begin to build broader support for programs that lift people in need. We need to educate ourselves about the issues. We may pray and pray, but we literally cannot make it through life without the help of family and friends.  The struggle is to make sense of the huge disparities in our world. We frequently wonder what we did to deserve such amazing abundance. A family and an education, a home and friends, time to study and write, books and a little money for travel... It is simply too painful to contemplate the enormous gap between our own simple pleasures and the desperation of so many who live in poverty, hounded by disease, infant mortality, and violence. In many places, control over resources and income is based on military, political or economic power. Many times, that control results in an unequal distribution of resources: some prosper as others struggle to survive.

 

EDUCATION  AND TECHNOLOGY. Technology, the application of science, is both knowledge and tools. Technology is being used to transform the lives and lifestyles of the poor and the rich. Human development goes hand-in-hand with technical changes. It is said that technology enables people achieve well-being with less effort and drudgery, or at lower cost and with fewer resources. They are able to make more effective use of the resources available to them and to respond to social and economic changes. Technology is increasingly being woven into the fabric of our daily lives. Notice how dependent our education has become on the Internet. And mobile phone communication has greatly reduced the size of the World. Free and compulsory education will greatly help the poor.

 

WORK AND RETIREMENT makes sense for government services, especially to make room for the younger generation. But when it comes to our private business and family life, there is no such thing as retirement. You keep on rendering services for ever, to earn a life. The more idle you become, the quicker to wear out. But for the poor, they work to earn a living. Therefore they work on jobs they do not like or jobs too tedious for them, just to earn a paycheck. The poor have not saved up for retirement. So they continue to work for the wrong reasons. To fight poverty, provide jobs for all in society. Functional seniors still have a lot to offer humanity. The children are already providing free services in every home. Grand parents are constant guides to their grand children.

 

In conclusion, it is all about CHRIST JESUS. He came to give us an abundant life. After you become born again, there is much to be done to become like Christ. We were sinners that Jesus Christ came to die for us. He could have easily gotten off the cross, but He chose to die as a sacrifice for us. And through faith in Him we can have eternal life. The Messiah came not to start a new religion, but to bring salvation to the world through His Blood. He was the Passover Lamb, not the Easter meal. At the end of the day, we know who killed Jesus, and it was us, me and you. He died because we sinned. If it wasn't for our sin, He would not have had to die. He has made us kings and priests unto God the Father. With our royal DNA, we have the full potential to provide material needs to our family and community. And with our priestly DNA, we can provide spiritual needs. Jesus ascended as High Priest and He will soon return as the King of kings. Get plugged into the Kingdom of God and the supernatural will be natural to you.