FUNDRAISING
Sufficient to Finish
John the Baptist said, "Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance." — Luke 3:8.
Then why are so many people giving billions and billions of dollars to churches and other institutions that don't bring forth only the real fruit?
Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. — Matthew 21:43
Does this apply to every charity? What about charities such as Feed the Children, World Vision, or Catholic Relief Services?
Feed the Children, for instance, raises a great deal of money. You see them and another top fundraiser, World Vision, paying for TV time to show people how their donations are used in relief efforts. Relief is good and must not dry up. We must ask ourselves though if the method of Feed the Children is always the highest and best use of donated funds.
As we've mentioned elsewhere on the website and especially in the work, There Is No Such Thing as a Conservative-Republican Christian: Jesus is a small-c communist, a group such as Feed the Children obtains its funding from the capitalist system and turns around and obtains the food with the funds from that same system, thereby, perpetuating that system. It is that capitalist system that is largely responsible for creating the mess in which the world finds itself — actually put itself. That system thrives on maintaining a low class or caste (even of untouchables). That system is raping the planet and causing manifold environment and other problems.
Therefore, isn't it a better idea, a real liberal device by which we may all stand, to take funds not to turn around to obtain food with the funds from that same selfish, competitive system but rather to turn those funds into a fair and just system, an unselfish system, a cooperative system bringing forth the real abundance for body and soul, a system that will not thrive on a low class and will not rape the planet and add to the manifold sins but rather do exactly the opposite? Of course it's a better idea. It's exactly the direction in which God wants us headed.
We know that all relief cannot simply stop while the Real Christian Church ramps up farming communes. It won't happen. There are too many people with vested interests in the status quo. There is no fear that by giving to the RLCC that suddenly Feed the Children, World Vision, Catholic Relief Services, and the others, will have nothing.
We are simply saying that as the RLCC communes do grow and multiply, the myriad benefits of the small-c communist way of Jesus Christ and his original and closest disciples will prove the wisest choice forward.
What about other groups such as the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN), of "700 Club" fame, and CBN's Operation Blessing International, or the Trinity Broadcasting Network? Please read the applicable sections of There Is No Such Thing as a Conservative-Republican Christian: Jesus is a small-c communist concerning Pat Robertson and other such televangelists. They are leading people astray into greed and violence. They are not preaching the words Jesus spoke, because they don't like the implications. They don't want to give up their multimillionaire lives of pampered luxury. You know it's true.
As of 2004, CBN raises over four hundred fifty million dollars a year and Operation Blessing International raises another two hundred forty million-plus US dollars. The Trinity Broadcasting Network raises over one hundred eighty million dollars. (These figures can change rapidly.) Where's the good fruit? Where are the lambs and sheep being fed? Where are the Christian commons? They aren't bringing forth. It isn't where the treasure of their hearts is.
A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh. — Luke 6:45
Are we judging and condemning them? No. We are just speaking the truth and want the world to be consistent with it.
What about the Red Cross, United Way, UNICEF, Save The Children, Doctors Without Borders, CARE, Goodwill Industries, The Salvation Army, Oxfam International, and so many others? Their funding won't dry up just because the RLCC starts growing.
Eventually, all the disparate efforts won't be necessary and fundraising for them obviously won't be necessary either. People will just take care of their neighbors all over the world. Their hearts won't let them do anything else. That's the promise. That's the will of God. That's the message of Jesus. It is that toward which we are working.
The same things apply to these organizations that apply to Feed the Children and, more importantly, The Trinity Broadcasting Network. Are they bringing forth the real abundance leading to when people won't even have to toil? To understand what that means, if you don't already, you'll have to greatly soften your heart while you read the Gospels and cross-references to the Old Testament.
Ask yourself. Consult your conscience. Are they facilitating the old system, the old wineskin that cannot hold the new wine, the Holy Spirit?
Decide where you want to put your efforts. Then focus there with the single vision of light (truth) Jesus preached in his Sermon on the Mount.
Why even do any fundraising? Isn't it crass? Well, Jesus also said the following:
For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it? — Luke 14:28
He was speaking about more than fundraising. He was referring to everything that goes into carrying out the will of God on Earth. Fundraising is only part of it. The right people (disciples) are indispensable, of course. Nevertheless, in this day and age, how may we build Real Christian Communes, farming communes, to bring forth fruits worthy of repentance, fruits of the kingdom of God, without raising sufficient funds and taking other donations?
In light of all this, you are being asked to give your first fruits to God's cause. It requires you to put others first. Giving your first fruits means giving before you budget for anything else. Think about that. Think of a world where everyone does that. Then think about all the giving going into people helping people to help yet other people. The whole world will be helped as never before. That's God's plan — part of it.
Please go to our support page to set up your tithe (ten percent of your annual income to support this cause), or better if you can manage it. If you can't give much, give what you're able. It will still help.
The Real Liberal Christian Church is a United States Internal Revenue Code §501(c)(3) Nonprofit, Public Charity, Religious Organization (ministry), as defined by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, the principal purpose of which ministry is the advancement of religion, namely Christianity. Donations are fully Tax Deductible on U.S. Federal Income Tax Returns.
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- The views expressed by Authors, Contributors, Commentators, and the like, are their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of the Real Liberal Christian Church.
Tom Usher
Standing Comment, all posts and pages:
To all homosexuals and their supporters, condoners, promoters, accepters, confirmers, and the like:
Unless you have something completely new that hasn't already been refuted, don't bother. It won't show up.
Rehashing what has already been refuted is a waste of everyone's time.
I'm not interested in casting pearls before swine, giving the children's bread to the dogs, or rebuking a forever scorner.
Learn or go away: There is zero wisdom in homosexuality. Homosexuality is wrong. Nothing any homosexual or anyone else can say or do will alter it. No one needs the Bible to know it either. It's prima facie. There's no such thing as an unrepentant-homosexual Christian. There never has been and never will be. That's the way of it. If you don't like it, change.
Do site searches on the various topics concerning homosexuality to determine if your "point" has already been handled. Currently, I provide three different search methods. The "WordPress" search is still the most thorough.
The same can be done regarding militarism, capitalism, coercion, and many other main issues and themes.
TREATMENT, RUDENESS, POLITENESS, OFFENSE, TRUTH
Many times over the course of this website's existence, I've had commentators complain about how I've treated them and/or others. Much less frequently has anyone taken exception to those commentator's comments. I assume that's because for one, I appear to be holding my own.
Often, I have raised the fact that Jesus called certain people "serpents." I've often also mentioned how he cleaned the temple with whip in hand, not that he used it on anyone. It certainly doesn't say that he did, and neither was he charged with it in the kangaroo court of the serpents who ended up murdering him by proxy just for, among other wonderful things, speaking out and speaking truth.
If I say that those who are engaged in serpentine behavior are the New Testament "serpents," then why take offense at my saying it rather than standing with Jesus and me about it?
If others don't like it that I treat others or them the way I have in this regard, why don't they take it up with the serpents and/or their own consciences and God?
If I wanted to catch flies, I'd use honey. I don't want flies on this level. Human beings aren't to be on the level of flies. If the truth is bitter as vinegar, then ask yourself why and learn to taste it as sweet but not sickeningly so. Why attack the message and messenger, as the serpents did, and become a serpent by so doing?
The issue is not "name calling" on some bratty, childish level. When Jesus said "serpents," he was not being as a brat. His level was completely adult to adults and children. He dared say that the children understood the clear and plain truth before the adults who, afterall, had been abused and socialized by the serpents. He still calls adults back. Those who hear him and know his voice (truth) turn around and do the other required things together as well.
What is it for a human being to be more serpentine or reptilian than what God initially gave? What was and remains Jesus's point? What is the reptilian brain versus the vastly higher human brain with its cerebral cortex and frontal and temporal lobes and specific areas of altruistic sentiments and abilities? What are those higher areas before they are damaged, before the communication pathways to them and between them are diminished by evil that is always some form of abuse? How are those pathways reestablished or created where they never were in this fleshly life?
The snake lays its eggs. The eggs hatch. The snake parent doesn't nurture or raise the offspring. It's every snake for itself. Human parents and family are not designed to be that way. Humans hand down the learning of nurturing. Many people get better training than do others, and many people have a greater aptitude for learning and predisposition for the higher and highest virtues. Many are less abused. People can change for the better and best though, no matter where the starting point. They only can't if they don't — if they reject it.
Snakes, of course, also come in venomous varieties and in strangling varieties, etc., such that they have been attackers and even devourers of humans for eons, guilty and innocent alike.
Now, Jesus knew that most people could relate to what were, and still are, largely considered "good" parenting skills and "good" "family" relations. He regularly used those concepts to get people to consider the wider implications for the whole of humanity. He did know that many would refuse. He let them go. He didn't demand secular or false-religion legislation to rein them in with threats of violence and imprisonment. He was not and is not coercive. Even his Church is a voluntary place to be.
What he still teaches (through the written words in the New Testament and as those connect with the Old and also teaches through the Holy Spirit he definitely sent as he said he would) is, among many other things, that "good" is vastly better than has been commonly accepted and that real "family" is everyone left after all the rest have rejected the higher and highest good. He raised the standards far above the Old Testament and far above the "modern" standard.
The American Empire and the American people in general aren't even touching the hem of his garment, let alone even attempting to stand upright and side-by-side with him.
I point out that Jesus was, and is, a Real Liberal Christian. He is the one who brought back this censored truth that is the light. After he had spoken it and lived it and was murdered for doing so, the censors set about to re-censor it and did. They couldn't put it out though — couldn't completely extinguish the truth. I wouldn't be saying it now again with all credit to God, just as Jesus, if they had been able to completely block it.
I point out that each of those terms ("real," "liberal," and "Christian," along with "Church") are actually redundant terms — synonyms that are so close that they become one. The term "liberal" here is not the common usage, which common usage is a deliberate corruption of the term. There is no harm in real liberalism. There is no vileness in it. There is only beneficence. "Real" may be understood as the opposite of false-hearted, dark side, and dead of the Holy Spirit. Christian is both real and liberal in those senses. To arrive at living, doing, being those full senses requires what Jesus lives, does, and is in the highest. Finally, the Church is the whole.
Who are they who want to drag it down, censor it, work against it, lessen it, ignore it, etc.? Well, who sides with Jesus and who sides against him? Did the serpents side with him then? Do they now?
We call war-mongers "hawks." We call "peacemakers" blessed and "doves." Why do the hawks not take offense at "hawks" but do take offense at "serpents"? "Hawks" is not yet as telling to the general public, but I must tell you that all hawks are serpents. Why do some say, "Greed is good" but take offense at "serpents"? I tell you there is no difference between the selfish and the serpents. Why do people take offense at serpents when they do not take offense at homosexuality? I tell you the homosexual spirit also comes out from the dark side. It is a choice. It is harmful. Many are abused with it. Many never overcome it. Their very brain matter is transformed by it. Then they claim it is good when it remains confusion and definitely wrong and harmful.
Many arguments were put forth in support of tolerance. I understood that Jesus "tolerated," as in he did not execute wrath but rather told the truth and let the blind follow the blind (blind to the truth) into the ditch of their own making. I have watched while the movement has been corrupted into condoning what was once only to be tolerated. I have watched further while it has moved from condoning to promoting even to the youngest children to get to them before the truth does. I have seen evil at work, and I sound the alarm. I face censorship and other negative reactions for it.
As the American Empire claims to be a light to the world, it murders innocent babies by Hellfire missiles fired from predator drones controlled by armchair, video-gaming serpents in uniform. It tortures those who are not even suspects. It spies on its own without even probable cause or reasonable suspicion. It lies its way into wars for spoils and control. It neglects its poor, whom it treads down for the sakes of the superrich — for the sake of the massive flow of mammon from the bottom up (no trickledown — trickledown is a farce and always has been). All is claimed to be okay in America though — that America is headed in the right direction — because soon, even "don't tell, don't ask" will be a thing of the quaint past and homosexuals may be able to sleep together and have sex in the barracks with the "blessing" of the Empire while they practice murdering the innocent for the sake of homosexual, greedy plutocrats who own them and who, in turn, are owned by the dark-side spirit named by God and Jesus as Satan.
Whose side are you on? I speak truth to warn. I don't tell the secular government what to do other than occasionally to say what at least would be less hypocritical within their fallen, unenlightened system. I do so for spiritual reasons. What I want is the Christian Commons.
Now, if you submit a comment:
What you write here against the Real Liberal Christian Church founded by Jesus Christ will mark you in the Biblical sense unless you show that you have turned and are repenting in time to escape the damnation of your own choosing. That's the way of it. Don't be tempted by the devil to stand opposed to the call of righteousness. Overcome such evil temptation. Help others to help yet others to come to righteous behavior through-and-through.
Check out how even after reading this, people will still take it out of context and twist it to an evil end.