The American media’s “echo chamber” persists in its drone about how Barack Obama is in a much stronger position that was George W. Bush following his divisive election to his first term. The “ship of state” has been tacked in an entirely new direction, say the pundits, and a long laundry list of Executive Orders is being bantered to prove the new President’s political and even moral moxy. The ship of state turns slowly, of course, and the stories line up in the aggregate to describe nonetheless how that ship is slicing fiercely through very rough waters, fighting against the massive inertia that is the momentum of what is nearly the last decade at least, difficult tides and currents, and so forth. The import, of course, is hang on, things are going to get better, new leadership is in town.
Yesterday a veritable river of layoffs were announced by the world of greedy profits and surely the American Social Security payments are insufficient for most any dog to survive, even if exceedingly frugal.
Marvin E. Shur, a 93 year old man who used to live in Bay city, Michigan, could not afford to pay his electric bill at Bay City Electric Light & Power. He owed them about $1,000.00. So they coldly cut it off. That’s it, Marvin. Go home and congeal. That was the value of this senior citizen to the world around him. The report of what Mr. Shur went through is horrific to contemplate: AP National Briefing/ Midwest, New York Times.com, “Michigan: Man Dies After Power Is Cut.”
“ 93-year-old Bay City man froze to death inside his home just days after the municipal power company restricted his electricity use because of unpaid bills, officials said. The man, Marvin E. Schur, died “a slow, painful death,” said Kanu Virani, Oakland County’s deputy chief medical examiner, who performed the autopsy.”
Last night the snow came down in a swift blizzard and temperatures on the Colorado Plateau did a rapid a nosedive, leading immediately to frozen streets. I came down a hill like a group of kids on a toboggan, blew through a stop sign sideways, and managed to be stopped by the curb before plunging into a section of the surrounding forest. I could not ever remember streets being so impossibly treacherous to navigate, driving in snow is not something I am either nervous or troubled by usually.
Throughout the Northeast, a massive blizzard has lined up to do its business, it looks like very cold and icy conditions, from Washington, D.C. all the way to Boston. “Snowfall Threat Closes Schools: Snowfall Could Be Biggest In Years,” Washington Post.com,
“While it’s going to be mainly snow farther inland, it will be a mix … from Washington north to Boston.”
I wonder how many elderly people, disabled people, people layed off from their employment, will find themselves in the impossible dilemma of either spending money on staying warm or freezing so that maybe they might be able to make the car payment and buy their prescriptions next month? People are hurting out there and as the American echo chamber of propaganda spin does its works one must wonder aloud what happened to the admonitions about what to do with unrighteous riches, what happened to the admonitions about how to treat the elderly and the infirm in our midst. Here is what Bay City, Michigan does, in the middle of the so-called “Bible Belt–it raises the rates even higher! “Bay City Raises Electric Rates As Marvin Shur’s Death Sparks Anger,” Michigan Live.com, Bay City News.
“Phil Newton, electric department director, said there are about 60 to 70 limiters in use across the city, about three times as many as a year ago. He blames the bad economy, which has left residents struggling to pay their bills. He said the city issues about 50 shut-off notices each week.
“It’s been terrible. We’ve seen it for over a year now,” he said. “We actually have almost two full-time people just dedicated to going around and turning people on and off and putting on limiters. It’s just really bad.”
As things continue to fail on the economic front, what are we to do? Let us first recall the admonition by Jesus, if we are to remain his friends.
(Luke 16:9-10) “Also, I say to YOU, Make friends for yourselves by means of the unrighteous riches, so that, when such fail, they may receive you into the everlasting dwelling places.”
The economic system typified by “unrighteous riches” was always such that it would by necessity fail. That such would fail has always been a foregone conclusion, it was only a matter of time. Well, that “time” appears to be approaching rapidly over the horizon. More Marvin Shur’s are coming–many more. And what happens to them is testimony about the governments that preside over the jurisdictions where these things happen. Did they “make friends with unrighteous riches” or did they send out a full time staff to shut off and limit necessary power to aged men and women who simply could not afford to pay the bills charged and due to their age and infirmity have no alternatives available to them, as to going out and earning money at 93 years of age. Those who know the Majestic Jehovah, the glorious Father of all Light and Love know how He is about such matters as these. There is no getting around it, people. We are being inspected and the results will not be something most will be pleased to receive:
(Exodus 22:22-24) “YOU people must not afflict any widow or fatherless boy. If you should afflict him at all, then if he cries out to me at all, I shall unfailingly hear his outcry; and my anger will indeed blaze, and I shall certainly kill YOU with the sword, and YOUR wives must become widows and YOUR sons fatherless boys.”
(Deuteronomy 10:16-18) “YOU must circumcise the foreskin of YOUR hearts and not harden YOUR necks any longer. For Jehovah YOUR God is the God of gods and the Lord of lords, the God great, mighty and fear-inspiring, who treats none with partiality nor accepts a bribe, executing judgment for the fatherless boy and the widow and loving the alien resident so as to give him bread and a mantle.”
When the Great Day arrives in its fury in Bay City, Michigan, as elsewhere, will it be a defense to an adverse Divine Judgement to say?
“I had no choice, I had to turn Marvin Shur’s power off. I was commanded to do it by another with authority over me.”
I think the employee who did turn that man’s power off is liable in blood for Marvin Shur’s death. I believe that Bay City is liable for Marvin Shur’s death. And as we progress and things get very much worse for most everyone, we will increasingly face very difficult choices such as these. And the reason why they are difficult has less to do with understanding what is either “right” or “wrong” but, rather, it is because we wish to be comfortable and warm and safe and we are willing to do far and away more than what we should be willing to do in order to stay that way. We all will get our chance to stand up for the Ways of Jehovah and when we do stand up for Him, for Who and What the Majestic One is, we will be punished for it–perhaps severely. Jesus was. Nobody yet has suffered as he did, for doing absolutely nothing wrong, but for standing up for Jehovah’s Rightful Sovereignty, for God’s Kingdom.
We do have a standard by which to act in such matters, come what may. We ought not to focus on remaining safe and secure while we injure and hurt another for the means to stay that way. You see, harlotry is any action done by any individual which sacrifices integrity for personal benefit–money. That is something that is being tested and examined closely worldwide. We have a model going all the way back to the beginning of God’s working with His people as to how to avoid being that harlot.
(Hebrews 11:24-26) “By faith Moses, when grown up, refused to be called the son of the daughter of Pharaoh, choosing to be ill-treated with the people of God rather than to have the temporary enjoyment of sin, because he esteemed the reproach of the Christ as riches greater than the treasures of Egypt; for he looked intently toward the payment of the reward.”
The “someone told me to do it” defense is no defense and accepting money to do this work is to accept with it bloodguilt. So what am I saying to those who are in the position of doings things like shutting power off to the likes of Marvin Shur? I am saying they had better quit their jobs and join him in the cold before they turn his power off and kill him. That action of turning his power off was as lethal as shooting him with a gun. He had no ability to turn it back on again. He had no money with which to pay the bill is the information I have. People, we must stop making judgments under false standards and make them instead by real standards. Let us recall the Messiah’s Commandment:
(Matthew 19:19) . . .You must love your neighbor as yourself. . .
Does that mean I cannot turn Marvin Shur’s power off, even though he owes the money by contract? Yes, it means at least that, for a certainty. You may not turn his power off! You work with him. You take what he can truly afford to pay. You arrange a bake sale to pay his bill if you have to. You pay his bill for him if you can. But you do not turn his power off! And if you do and you kill him, you are bloodguilty. And that bloodguilt can lead to the sword on the Great Day! You see, the standard does not say it is a good idea to treat one’s neighbor as he would like to be treated, the standard is you “must”–obedience is not optional, people. It is inspection time. This is our opportunity to let the glorious Father’s light shine in real life. Let us not miss our chance to do that for Him and we do it for Him by taking up the cause of the widow (or widower) and the fatherless boy. We do that for Him by taking up the cause of the elderly man in our midst. We honor Jehovah with our valuable things and when we do it is as if you have lent it to Jehovah. Jehovah has never and will never fail to pay any debt He obligates Himself to pay. Ever. That is to truly gain riches in heaven.
I pity the poor souls who pulled the plug on Marvin Shur.
And as we watch the new government in Washington, striving to become what reinvigorates a dead fish ideal—the American ‘Way of Life’ is that dead and stinking fish ideal—one thing will remain obvious: Social Security beneficiaries will not receive what they need to properly live, the disabled will continue to be shut out and crushed, and others whom Jehovah cares deeply for and is watching over closely will continue to be stepped on, as the harlots throughout the American social landscape continue to “get theirs.” They never saw it coming, why the whole stock and store is going to be taken away from everyone. They never understood what, if anything, they could do to protect themselves, in truth: stand up for the likes of Marvin Shur and pay his bill out of your own pockets.
That is making friends with unrighteous riches, that is what the glorious Lion of Judah meant!
If we are his friends we shall be quick to obey all that he has commanded us. The American media echo chamber does not know how to tell you that. So I did it. I hope you heard it clearly. Your life may very well depend upon it.
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