Comments on: Dare to Beat the System http://ceruleansanctum.com/2009/04/dare-beat-system.html Looking for the 1st century Church in 21st century America Sun, 12 Feb 2012 12:37:15 +0000 hourly 1 By: Dan Edelenhttp://ceruleansanctum.com/2009/04/dare-beat-system.html#comment-44504 Dan Edelen Wed, 15 Apr 2009 16:49:31 +0000 http://ceruleansanctum.com/?p=1194#comment-44504 Tokah, No more basic needs exist than food and clothing. Thank you for working so hard, despite your condition, to help those in need. May God richly bless you! Tokah,

No more basic needs exist than food and clothing. Thank you for working so hard, despite your condition, to help those in need. May God richly bless you!

]]> By: Tokahhttp://ceruleansanctum.com/2009/04/dare-beat-system.html#comment-44503 Tokah Wed, 15 Apr 2009 16:18:39 +0000 http://ceruleansanctum.com/?p=1194#comment-44503 I am a disabled christian woman married to an atheist. Even if my marriage didn't hold me back, my physical condition prevents me from just transplanting to a street corner in Brooklyn. My husband is able to work, I am not, so in a very real way all of "our" money is his. He's only interested in being charitable to those we know and like already. These problems have forced me to be creative in engaging salt and light activities. The first thing I did, and this really worked, was start harvesting my presents for God's work. For those who will take me seriously, I have impressed on them I would much rather have donations to a fund I can use to help others than a present for myself. This includes gifts from my husband, though it drives him nuts (and I think convicts him, too). For those who think that's silly and still insist on giving my a Christmas or birthday gift, more often than not I find someone who needs it more than I do and give it to them. My church has a strange idea of what poor is (it isn't their fault, they are very kind folk for middle class) and occasionally donates grocery gift certificates to my family. I use those to buy groceries for others, or use it to replace cash in our grocery budget and buy them other things the need. (Underwear and socks come to mind. If you don't have enough, they wear out more quickly from both extended wash and no "resting" and you end up with none!) Finally, when someone with a need comes into contact with our family, I try to fix it from our own stores. Sometimes this just means packing someone grocery bags of food out of the cabinets, or for those with food needs and less cooking skill, taking the cheapest healthful foods we have and cooking them into a gigantic, tasty, and nutritious dish they can take home and eat for a week. I take Jesus' exhortation that "you don't need 2 coats more than someone else needs 1" very seriously, and have somewhat suceeded at infecting others with this plan. =) It isn't much, and it is a shadow of what I yearn to be doing, but it's as close as I have managed to achieve. I hope this helps. I am a disabled christian woman married to an atheist. Even if my marriage didn’t hold me back, my physical condition prevents me from just transplanting to a street corner in Brooklyn. My husband is able to work, I am not, so in a very real way all of “our” money is his. He’s only interested in being charitable to those we know and like already. These problems have forced me to be creative in engaging salt and light activities.

The first thing I did, and this really worked, was start harvesting my presents for God’s work. For those who will take me seriously, I have impressed on them I would much rather have donations to a fund I can use to help others than a present for myself. This includes gifts from my husband, though it drives him nuts (and I think convicts him, too). For those who think that’s silly and still insist on giving my a Christmas or birthday gift, more often than not I find someone who needs it more than I do and give it to them. My church has a strange idea of what poor is (it isn’t their fault, they are very kind folk for middle class) and occasionally donates grocery gift certificates to my family. I use those to buy groceries for others, or use it to replace cash in our grocery budget and buy them other things the need. (Underwear and socks come to mind. If you don’t have enough, they wear out more quickly from both extended wash and no “resting” and you end up with none!)

Finally, when someone with a need comes into contact with our family, I try to fix it from our own stores. Sometimes this just means packing someone grocery bags of food out of the cabinets, or for those with food needs and less cooking skill, taking the cheapest healthful foods we have and cooking them into a gigantic, tasty, and nutritious dish they can take home and eat for a week. I take Jesus’ exhortation that “you don’t need 2 coats more than someone else needs 1″ very seriously, and have somewhat suceeded at infecting others with this plan. =)

It isn’t much, and it is a shadow of what I yearn to be doing, but it’s as close as I have managed to achieve. I hope this helps.

]]> By: SJLChttp://ceruleansanctum.com/2009/04/dare-beat-system.html#comment-44356 SJLC Mon, 06 Apr 2009 06:02:59 +0000 http://ceruleansanctum.com/?p=1194#comment-44356 Whatever my own roadblocks are, feeling superior to other people because they are not yet saved is not one of them. However, do feel free to be sad for me because I have not yet learned to hear the Spirit's promptings, which I do believe is a common problem in this era of the Laodician, I mean American, Church. I wish I had something to testify about that really belonged in this thread... I feel sort of bad about posting even a short reply after suggesting we leave the thread for talking about relevant experiences :( Hm, at least this won't be much of a distraction, since it will be hidden due to the nesting level... Whatever my own roadblocks are, feeling superior to other people because they are not yet saved is not one of them. However, do feel free to be sad for me because I have not yet learned to hear the Spirit’s promptings, which I do believe is a common problem in this era of the Laodician, I mean American, Church.

I wish I had something to testify about that really belonged in this thread… I feel sort of bad about posting even a short reply after suggesting we leave the thread for talking about relevant experiences :(

Hm, at least this won’t be much of a distraction, since it will be hidden due to the nesting level…

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