Who “May” Help
And let our people learn to devote themselves to good works, so as to help cases of urgent need, and not be unfruitful. Titus 3:14
It’s worse than I thought!
On Tuesday I put up a post about how we (Christian Americans) have been willing to sit back, enjoy our own wealth and indulgences, while we allow the government to provide for the needy.
But, today God showed me that it isn’t just that we don’t care or aren’t in some respect trying to fulfill our responsibilities.
The government is so out of hand that it is forbidding individuals to help and – even worse – they have taken advantage of bad situations.
In separate reports today I heard two stories about the aftermath of Irma in Florida that made my skin crawl.
The first was about the codes enforcement officer in one county (or town) that gave out over 600 citations (no fines but warnings) for damages to property, mostly downed fences around pools, that created a safety hazard. This was 6 hours after the hurricane hit. One man who was interviewed said that there wasn’t even a store open that he could buy something to it fix it with.
There would be a fine if the fence was not fixed in a given amount of time. I wondered why that codes enforcement officer wasn’t home helping himself, his family, or his neighbors.
The second was tweeted on Twitter today: https://fee.org/articles/food-truck-kicked-out-of-town-for-serving-hurricane-victims-without-a-permit/
Here’s the short version from the article: “But instead of serving lunch, the police ordered Roundtree to shut down Triple J and leave town. His crime? Operating without a permit.”
A man, in kindness and compassion, takes his food truck to a place where people are out of power, thinking he would offer lunch to utility workers – and he may not – according to our over protective government.
The kicker on this one is that the city offices were closed – he couldn’t have gotten a permit if he had tried.
Certainly, our government is not maintaining its original commitment to protect the people. Neither of these considered the people.
God is just. Under His law the civil government has limited areas of authority. A man’s property and money are his own, a gift from God, not the government. As noted in Tuesday’s post. God expects His people to use their resources to help the poor and needy.
In the aftermath of Hurricane Irma, many were needy, even if they weren’t poor.
Sadly, the solution to this problem is not immediate. The nation has to be taught what the Word of God says about our personal and Church responsibilities where the government has stepped in and taken what is not theirs to do.
Taxation on God’s property, the poor and needy, the murder of babies in the womb, how we have violated God’s Laws about marriage and sexuality, the open attacks against the institution of the family – all need to be openly discussed from a biblical perspective to educate people – especially our own families and those in positions to initiate change.
Bold, courageous, Christians with sound doctrine needed! Who’s willing?
So true. But where to start?
As always, Pat, Start by making sure your own children know the scriptural truths that they may be able to speak about these issues when they come up (Psalm 78:4-8). Second, if we would all engage our neighbors in these kind of conversations. I don’t know about you but our little town is rife with regulations and permits. We feel a responsibility to talk about how none of them are biblical and that God does care about our property and our taxes and what we have left to leave as an inheritance to our children. In some cases people agree and the conversations are easy, in others, American citizens have become so convinced that socialism works that they will argue against us with a lot of anger and accusations. These are the ones that we require courage to stay in the battle with.