JimBlogZ

Homeless or not, desperate or not, they all have their strategies, each one forged in the blast oven of the streets.

“Panhandling isn’t just a job. It’s an art,” said Cliff Stewart, 49, who has worked the I-275 22nd Avenue N exit in St. Petersburg since he got out of prison two years ago.

You have to know what moves people most: beer and God.

So goes the wisdom of the street as reported in the St. Petersburg Times by Lane DeGregory, Times staff writer, on July 6, 2009.

The article, Panhandlers Have Many Strategies for Getting People’s Sympathy in Order to Make Money, was online here as of the posting of this blog entry, but these links don’t last long. I hope you get to read it because it offers good insight into the “business” of being poor and “begging alms.”

Here’s some more insight gleaned from the article:

Though their signs say they’re homeless, few panhandlers seem to sleep outside….

Ogdee, outside the Bayshore Publix, sets his weekly quota at $800. His income has never fallen short in the four months he has held “Homeless. Anything helps. God bless!”

“I’m paid a week in advance on my rent,” he said. “I got a load of food in my motel fridge.”

He insists he’s not panhandling. “I’m not asking for nothing. I’m just holding a sign.”

So what does he call it? He laughs.

“Making money.”

Of course, that money often comes from those who experience hardship themselves and therefore can least afford to be conned:

People in BMWs and Lexuses won’t look at you, the panhandlers say. People in beaters give the most. When someone gives you money, that’s a hit. Or a lick. Try to look friendly but not too happy. Remember, you’re hurting.

Those of us who feel obligated to answer the cry of the poor according to our ability (and meager ability at that) have to wrestle with each request for help (for instance, see my blog post here). Even with all “due diligence” we are still more often than not being cheated. The quote above calls our charity a “lick” or a “hit.” I call it a “nick” as in “I just got nicked by that crook.” And getting nicked means there is less for us to give to those who really do need it.

Those who cry poor but don’t really have a need are thieves. They steal from the poor both directly and indirectly. These abusers of the good will of people take what little is available inappropriately. In the process, they make it harder for those with a real need to find help because everyone has been forced to become overly cynical and suspicious of requests for charity.It’s not a job, it’s not an art. It’s immoral.

May the Lord have mercy on the souls of those who, out of ignorance, ask for charity when they don’t need it. May the Merciful One deliver the real poor from the oppression of these crooks. And may the Giver of Wisdom give to His people wisdom and discernment to see where real need exists and who has those real needs.

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My family and I had a chance to watch “Fiddler on the Roof” again after having seen it once before a number of years ago. I noticed something this time around about the end of the movie that was interesting.

To make a long (and very entertaining) story short: The movie, an adaptation for screen by Joseph Stein of a book by Sholom Aleichem, takes place in tsarist Russia about 1905. It centers on a poor milkman named Tevye and the marriages of three of his daughter. Tevye attempts to hold on to his traditions of faith and family but they are encroached upon by social and political change that is swiftly laying the groundwork for the Russian Revolution that will take place in about a dozen years.

Tevye has to wrestle with the choice of husband made by his three eldest daughters: Tzeitel, Hodel, and Chava. Traditionally Tevye should have chosen the husbands. But in the changing times, each of the daughters ends up making her own choice. Each one chooses in a progressively more rebellious move away from the family and religious traditions that have held Tevye’s people together for generations. Tevye must respond as his faith is allowed to bend.

Tzeitel, the eldest, pleads with her father to allow her to marry her childhood friend rather than the man who has been arranged with the help of a matchmaker. For the sake of his daughter’s happiness, he accepts the social embarrassment of a broken deal with the arranged marriage and gives his permission and blessing to the wedding of his daughter’s wishes.

Hodel comes next. She becomes smitten by the charms of a revolutionary Russian Jew who is out to change the world for the benefit of the working man. He travels to the small town from university, and then after a short stay he is called away for revolutionary rallies in the big cities and asks Hodel to marry him. They approach Tevye who refuses. When informed that the couple was not seeking his permission but only his blessing, Tevye again considers his daughter’s happiness and gives his blessing. He also insists on giving his “permission” which is respectfully not rejected by the young couple.

The third daughter, Chava, meets a non-Jewish Russian boy working in a field and is drawn to him through their mutual love of reading books. The two eventually approach Tevye, who forbids Chava to see the young man ever again. Chava runs away and gets married to the boy in a Russian Orthodox Church. Tevye has reached the breaking point of his faith and will not go past it. He considers Chava to be dead though it obviously breaks his heart.

In the end, the tsar forces the local authorities to expel all Jews from their small hometown. The movie ends up with the various characters saying goodbye to Tevye as they pass him on the street. Each discusses where they are going as they go their own separate ways.

The direction Tevye and his remaining family,Tzeitel, Hodel, and Chava go in is interesting and I wonder if it was intentional, coincidental, or an act of the author’s subconscious. It seems that each ends up in a direction that potentially might lead to bigger blessings to those keeping the fifth commandment, and more heartbreak and hardship for those who depart from honoring their parents.

So here is the set-up for potential sequels for each of their lives after Russia: Tevye, who throughout the movie maintained a casual, sometimes irreverent, but always respectful and faithful relationship with the Lord, ends up going to stay with family in New York. His days of drudgery pulling his milk wagon along his delivery route with his lame horse dragging behind seem to be coming to an end. He is also being brought to a place in which he will be protected from the coming political upheaval already forming.

Tzeitel, and her husband and newborn child, are saving up enough money to join Tevye and family in New York. Tzeitel’s husband is a tailor. Presumably in New York he has the potential for a more lucrative business than in the small peasant/working class town he grew up in. They, and their child, would also be removed from the political windstorm looming on the horizon.

Hodel and her revolutionary husband have scored a somewhat harder life. Her husband, having been arrested for his political activities, ended up in prison in Siberia. Hodel had earlier taken the train there to be with him. The last report in a letter that Tevye got was that Hodel spent her days working in Siberia and her husband sat in prison. Certainly a disappointing and difficult outcome. On a brighter side, there was the potential that after the revolution to come in twelve years, he might be freed and they could begin their family in the new Russia, perhaps with some political or social standing as early fighters for the revolutionary cause.

Chava, the third daughter and the one who made the most rebellious choice of husband potentially fared the worst. Chava and her non-Jewish husband attempt to talk with Tevye and his family before departing. They inform Tevye that they are going to Krakow, Poland because they refuse to live under the rule of people who would do such things as persecute the Jews. Ironically, Chava and her by-then grown family would be forced to live under people who would do even worse things to Jews than were done under tsarist Russia. At about 17 years old in the setting of the movie, she would be around 50 years old in Poland to witness Hitler’s devastation to the country, and about mid-to-late 50’s to see Stalin’s rule. After having survived by living as Gentiles, she, her children, and even her grandchildren could conceivably find themselves under Stalinist Russian rule locked behind an iron curtain that would not be lifted again in her natural lifetime.

These potential scenarios arising from the conclusion of the movie were not played out so we don’t have any idea where the author would have taken the stories. But it’s interesting that the stage that was set for the characters at the end of the movie would have naturally, barring any intervention on the author’s part, allowed these scenarios to be sequels to the Fiddler on the Roof.

I don’t think the intended message of the author in this ending is to illustrate that progressively moving away from obeying the fifth commandment leads to progressively harder living down the road. But it is interesting to see that is the way things happened to have been written. Coincidence? Or was it the subconscious of someone steeped in Jewish moral thought from an early age speaking up to put a few finishing touches on this story to make it something of a modern morality play?

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“Jesus, save us from your followers.” So read a bumper sticker I saw as I walked down the street a number of years ago. Rather than take offense, I thought it voiced perfectly the problem with Christianity: Christians.

It has been said that Gandhi was impressed with the person and teaching of Jesus, but rejected Christianity because of the way His followers acted. (phony-followers I would say, but to non-believers we are all lumped together.)

But it’s not just non-believers who have a problem with Christians. We all have problems with Christians if we have been around in the church any length of time at all. They can be an extremely petty, nasty, self-absorbed and vicious lot. Don’t even get me started telling you what I really think.

Perhaps it has something to do with a supposed “Get Out of Hell Free” card, printed up and delivered by the thousands, from their local Monopoly church. Maybe they figure we’re obligated to forgive them. Maybe they think the Lord died for them because they are so special. Who knows? Who cares? Why waste precious time figuring it out?

Anyway, it’s your own fault if you lose your faith in the Messiah after getting burned by so called followers of His. Don’t go blaming it on Him or His church as many do.

You would have done well if you had asked WDJD (What Did Jesus Do) rather than acting on WITJWD (What I Think Jesus Would Do) when it comes to those with whom you fellowship.

Are you placing too much trust in other believers? If so, you aren’t following the way of the Master:

Now when he was in Jerusalem at the passover, in the feast day, many believed in his name, when they saw the miracles which he did. But Jesus did not commit [entrust] himself unto them, because he knew all men, And needed not that any should testify of man: for he knew what was in man. (John 2:23-25)

Jesus didn’t misplace his trust by putting it in men, even those who for the moment appeared to be behind him. So, since we have the example of our Lord, why would we be fooled into doing so?

Many-a-person’s faith has been shipwrecked because of a misplaced trust in fellow believers (who are actually, more often than not, the proverbial wolf in sheep’s clothing). I write from personal experience.

So how can a true Christian fellowship be built without trust? It can’t. Trust is a necessary ingredient in building a fellowship with other believers that is both nurturing to us and is also effective in kingdom building in the name of the Messiah. The key is in where we place our trust:

Trust in the LORD, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass. And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday. (Psalms 37:3-6)

See? We aren’t to place our trust in others. We aren’t even to place our trust in ourselves to get the job done. It is Messiah who builds His church, not us. We must place our trust in Him when dealing with other believers.

We must trust Him to protect us from unscrupulous pseudo-believers. We must trust Him to give us wisdom and patience when working with immature believers. We must trust God to continue His work in us, conforming us to the image of Yeshua, so that we are trustworthy in our dealings with others. We must trust Him in all cases for the fruit of the Spirit.

It is the Spirit that provides us with the quality of character vitally necessary to work in a godly way among a people who, though in the process of sanctification, still reflect the sin-warped world from which they emerge. And we must never forget that we, also, are in that same lot.

Don’t entrust yourself to mankind. Whatever you do, don’t entrust yourself to other Christians. Don’t even trust yourself to get the job done. Entrust yourself to the Lord and then conduct yourself faithfully to Him in your dealings with all mankind, believer or not. Just like Yeshua did.

Like many followers of Yeshua who pray the Amidah, we drop the 12th prayer. That prayer, against heretics and adversaries, was not a part of the original 18 that was prayed in the Temple since the time of Ezra. It was added over a century after the Messiah’s ascension and the start of the Church.

According to my understanding, the inclusion of the 12th prayer was a part of a comprehensive movement by which Rabbinic Jewish leaders cleansed, codified, packaged, and prepared Judaism for survival among a people dispersed and banished from the land and Temple that had been its unifying bond and focal point for centuries.

A part of this cleansing of Judaism included forcing Jewish believers of Yeshua HaMashiach out of the synagogues. While the prayer was not specifically aimed at Jewish believers, the effect was still to exclude them from the religious culture of Judaism and force a divide.

The prayer goes like this, according to the translation we use:

Frustrate the hope of slanderers, and let evil perish speedily. May those who resist thee be speedily vanquished. Mayest thou uproot, crush, and subdue the dominion of arrogance speedily, in our time. Praised be Thou, O Lord, who dost break the adversary and humble the arrogant.

Not pretty, but neither are adversaries. And the fact is, the sentiments of that prayer are in line with a number of prayers of David in the Psalms. It’s a biblical prayer and it demonstrates one’s faith in the God who protects His people. I don’t have a problem with the theology of the prayer, nor do I take anything in the prayer personally, so I could pray it wholeheartedly.

But, still, I don’t because it was not part of the original Amidah Yeshua likely participated in (in a pre-codified oral form anyway) and I pray the Amidah in following my Lord. However, the prayer does resonate with me.

There is a small but pernicious group of adversaries focused on my ministry that are of the most vicious variety: “Religious” Folk With An Axe To Grind. The Lord has protected us from their wiles and ways for a number of years now. He has even dealt them a heavy hand from time-to-time. But still they persist.

The Lord is patient and long-suffering and so we continue to pray for both their repentance and also for them to be blessed with a Spirit-filled walk with the Lord. So far they seem to have only hardened their hearts. We’ll keep praying for them anyway.

And we’ll also keep trusting the Lord for His deliverance from them. Indeed it is solely He who has caused us to stand so far. We definitely want more of the same–so we started asking for it regularly during our prayers. But not with the twelfth Amidah prayer.

You may be interested in the form we have developed if you think including a prayer for deliverance from oppression to your prayer time is necessary. Here’s what has evolved for us:

Between the Shema and the Amidah we pray a number of prayers in affirmation of God’s sovereignty and our allegiance to Him as our only king, redeemer, and helper. Right after that affirmation, and right before the Amidah, we pray as follows:

Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, king of the universe who has sanctified us by Thy commandments and has commanded us to love our enemies, to do good to those who abuse us, to bless those who curse us, and to pray for those who despitefully use us.

We pray for those who oppress us and who would harm Your servants. We pray that You would bless them with a heart that is turned to You in repentance to receive Your forgiveness and mercy. We also pray they would experience the grace of a Spirit-filled walk with You as they seek first Your kingdom and righteousness. We ask these things in the Name of Jesus our Messiah. Amen.

O Lord, as for those who will not turn from their wickedness and oppression of Your servants, hear the words of Your servant David in Psalm 94 as our words. As he cried out for Your deliverance and vindication, so we cry out now to You for the same:

(Read Psalm 94 with feeling, leading the congregation as in heartfelt prayer, not as a recitation.)

O LORD God, to whom vengeance belongeth; O God, to whom vengeance belongeth, shew Thyself. Lift up Thyself, Thou judge of the earth: render a reward to the proud. LORD, how long shall the wicked, how long shall the wicked triumph? How long shall they utter and speak hard things? and all the workers of iniquity boast themselves? They break in pieces Thy people, O LORD, and afflict Thine heritage. They slay the widow and the stranger, and murder the fatherless. Yet they say, The LORD shall not see, neither shall the God of Jacob regard it.

Understand, ye brutish among the people: and ye fools, when will ye be wise? He that planted the ear, shall He not hear? He that formed the eye, shall He not see? He that chastiseth the heathen, shall not He correct? He that teacheth man knowledge, shall not He know? The LORD knoweth the thoughts of man, that they are vanity.

Blessed is the man whom Thou chastenest, O LORD, and teachest him out of Thy law; That Thou mayest give him rest from the days of adversity, until the pit be digged for the wicked. For the LORD will not cast off His people, neither will he forsake His inheritance. But judgment shall return unto righteousness: and all the upright in heart shall follow it.

Who will rise up for me against the evildoers? or who will stand up for me against the workers of iniquity? Unless the LORD had been my help, my soul had almost dwelt in silence. When I said, My foot slippeth; Thy mercy, O LORD, held me up. In the multitude of my thoughts within me Thy comforts delight my soul.

Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with Thee, which frameth mischief by a law? They gather themselves together against the soul of the righteous, and condemn the innocent blood. But the LORD is my defence; and my God is the rock of my refuge. And He shall bring upon them their own iniquity, and shall cut them off in their own wickedness; yea, the LORD our God shall cut them off.

In the Name of Jesus our Messiah, Amen.

Adding a prayer beseeching the Lord to make us stand in the midst of enemies has brought an additional dimension of comfort to our prayer times. It also feels right in that it is biblically in line with God as He has revealed Himself in the Bible from beginning to end.

I hope you are blessed with no adversaries. Well, no, wait, actually, didn’t Jesus say we are blessed when we DO have adversaries?

Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. (Matthew 5:10-12)

Okay. Let me try again.

I hope you are laying hold of the Lord’s kingdom and righteousness in a way that attracts the Devil’s attention. I hope our prayer helps bring you peace and comfort as you also lay hold of the blessing of seeing the Lord work in your behalf, dealing with all the Devil throws your way.

God bless, and Shalom.

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Copyright 2009 Jim Zboran. All rights reserved.
Permission to reproduce and distribute hereby granted if the following four conditions are met: 1) The article must be reproduced in its entirety and the content may not be modified in any way. 2) Author’s name and copyright information, including these permission conditions must appear with article. 3) Author’s contact information (jim@jimzboran.com | www.jimzboran.com) must appear with article. 4) Article must be freely distributed without charge or financial gain.

Sometimes it’s just amazing to see the Lord work in the minor details of everyday life. Though these apparent “chance” circumstance are usually minor they often subtly bear His “signature” none the less.

What a blessing it is to see Our Father “winking” at us from the warp-and-woof of the fabric of everyday life. A living experience, albeit on a small scale, of an important truth in the book of Esther. As you remember, His Name appears nowhere in the entire book and yet His providential work in behalf of His people is evident throughout.

Okay, what I saw today isn’t Haman-hangin’-high caliber by any means. It’s one of those everyday little “tweaks” of circumstance. But perhaps more importantly than the “biggies,” these little God-At-Work signs we see along the road of life carry the message that God is indeed involved in each footstep of each of our insignificant little journeys.

Today’s story actually began last night. As I was walking out the church doors late yesterday afternoon I was met by a woman and her teen daughter coming up the stairs. I knew the woman from early on in serving the church. I had not seen her in many years until only recently, and then only from a distance, around town. Now here she was at my doorstep. And I knew why.

Five years or so ago this woman realized I was not an easy mark for a handout to those who make their living at being “poor.” She dropped out of my sight for years. Now here she was again to sell me a new “crisis.” Or maybe not.

I couldn’t say for a fact that this woman is one of those “professional poor” who make a living from being “poor.” In fact she is more likely one of the “foolish poor” who do really require help, but not in the enabling form of a handout. Either way, though, she has conducted herself in the past in ways that suggest to me that she is stealing from the “real” poor by abusing the charity system, both governmental and private.

So that’s what I assume with her from the beginning. But even so, charity thieves sometimes have actual crisis type needs, even if typically self-made. That’s why I consider myself obligated to hear their story and to respond appropriately. So I listened to her story.

She told me the type of story that I’ve heard literally hundreds of times and have proven over and over to be false. But it could be true in this case. So I began “applying pressure” to the story to see what kind of cracks or response would result. She didn’t do too bad, but I wasn’t entirely convinced. As I listened for the Lord’s direction I kept remembering the words in Proverbs I had just read the Sabbath past:

Whoso stoppeth his ears at the cry of the poor, he also shall cry himself, but shall not be heard.
(Proverbs 21:13)

I knew I was in for it. The exchange in my head went something like this: “But Lord, she’s probably lying and I don’t have the extra money to allow it to be stolen from me.” (But I haven’t shown you she is lying. You don’t know.) “But Lord, I just don’t have it to give.” (But you just got a generous gift yourself this morning.) “But Lord, you know that doesn’t cover all I’ll be needing over the week and I’m still trusting you to provide more even now.” (But you have what you need for today. You’re trusting Me for what you’ll need tomorrow.) “OK, Lord, she may not be lying and I know what your Word says. I refuse to stop my ears to the poor.”

She got the $20 she asked for. But I felt terrible about giving it. That’s probably what Rambam meant by “giving in sadness” (see 6/17/09 post). Not that I was sad to give, but I was sad to give in this situation because I was not sure it was really needed. I could not afford to have it stolen from me, and I felt it was a strong possibility that very thing had happened.

Great. On top of feeling I’d been had, now the gift ranked lowest in quality according to Rambam (again, see 6/17/09 post on the subject). I decided not to dwell on it.

Though I didn’t dwell on the giving, my mind was apparently at work to lessen the “loss.” This morning, as I went about my business, various “work-arounds” popped into my head in order to regain the $20. The inner maneuvering went something like this: “It was a gift to the poor, so I can take it from the family Sabbath tzedekah jar.” (No, that was designated to a group that helps the poor already. I gave the $20 from my own pocket, not theirs.) “It was really the work of the church, so I’ll deduct it from my tithe.” (No, that is designated for the work of the church. I gave the money, not the church.) “All right, the gift comes out of my pocket.”

That was the end of the story and I no longer thought about it, consciously or subconsciously. I went about my business, poorer but content anyway with things such as they are.

A short while later I was desperately trying to find a scrap of paper with a phone number on it that I call only a few times a year. I usually call the number when away from home so I’ve carried it all along in my portable filing cabinet– my wallet. Today the number was gone. I probably forgot to “refile” it the last time I used it.

I went through every scrap of phone-number-bearing paper in my wallet a few times and could not find it. Time for drastic action (no, not get the phone book out, that’s a desperation move that would come later). I began removing each piece of paper and inspecting them as I went. Nope, not there. Maybe it got jammed in a folded store receipt. So I began unfolding each receipt in search of one little scrap corner of paper.

As I unfolded one particular receipt I saw peeking out at me the edge of a $20 bill! It was so crisp and brand new and perfectly fitted to the dimensions of the store receipt that the money was not apparent when folded inside. How long had it been riding around in my wallet unknown to me? The receipt was dated April 16 of this year. I could have used that $20 many times over since then. And yet the Lord always provided in each of those times with a different $20. This $20 bill was reserved for today’s appearance, when the Lord would provide for me today what He had given someone else, by me, yesterday.

This money was lost to me already. I would have eventually thrown the receipt out with out looking at it. I only opened it in search of a scrap of paper that might have slipped inside. But now, instead of losing the money to the garbage dump, I was able to use it in Jesus’ name to help the poor–even though I couldn’t afford too!

There it was. God’s providence. Signed, sealed, and delivered–right to my wallet.

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Copyright 2009 Jim Zboran. All rights reserved.
Permission to reproduce and distribute hereby granted if the following four conditions are met: 1) The article must be reproduced in its entirety and the content may not be modified in any way. 2) Author’s name and copyright information, including these permission conditions must appear with article. 3) Author’s contact information (jim@jimzboran.com | www.jimzboran.com) must appear with article. 4) Article must be freely distributed without charge or financial gain.