By Vaughn Winslett

Leviticus 19:9 ” And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not wholly reap the corners of thy field, neither shalt thou gather the gleanings of thy harvest.
19:10 And thou shalt not glean thy vineyard, neither shalt thou gather every grape of the vineyard; thou shalt leave them for the poor and the stranger: I am the Lord your God.”

In the law of God which He gave He is commanding us to love each other. Of the Lord’s work of blessing the work of our hands, He is commanding us to share with our brethren. The poor, the less fortunate, those who cannot help themselves, those who are without.
The husbandman of the vineyard was to leave of his crops that the poor, the needy and the stranger would have food to eat and substance to live. The Bible teaches that we, God’s children are to feed and take care of the widows, the fatherless, our neighbor, his wife and children and even the stranger . If a man was hurt and could not work, his neighbor and his brethren are to help him. In this is the law of God fulfilled, love, charity, love in action.
When a brother or sister is in need we show our faith by giving of what we have that they not go away naked or hungry. Even a cup of water is a blessing to one of the little ones of God, and God is glorified therein. Of our faith, of our hope, of our charity, the greatest of these is charity.
After the recent hurricane on the gulf coast I was so humbled both by the destruction there and the need of those there, but more so by the love of God in which the brethren in the church were moved to help those in need. They did not wait on a government agency to help those poor people in need. Elder Lonnie Mazingo and Elder Tim McCool organized quickly and delivered thousands of dollars worth of donated items of food and water to those in need. I do not mean to leave anyone out, there were many people involved, I only know the names of these two men. All of the items were donated and all was not donated by the church brethren, nor was all given to only church brethren. It was delivered to those in need. We thank the good Lord for this for it is His work.
Charity, the love of God in us in action.
Let us now look at welfare. Brethren, if the church and the Lord’s children did as Scripture commands us to do welfare would not exist in government, it would not be needed.
Welfare is a part of our government which is designed to help the poor and needy. The blind zeal of man will make a way to feed all men, clothe all men, and give free medical care, giving to all that which they need. This is not the role God designed for government (read Romans 13 ). Welfare enslaves a people to a government which gives them just enough to live and depend on them. It is the downfall of a nation. Rome gave free entertainment and bread to its people. It kept them entertained and fed, dependent on government and always willing to follow ungodly men into ungodliness. Does that sound familiar today, as in our nation. The Bible teaches that a man who will not work will not eat. God told Adam that by the sweat of his face should he eat bread. He must work. Also, that it is good for a man to enjoy the fruit of his labor. Why do we then feed those who will not work. I saw able bodied men on that bridge in New Orleans just sitting. They would not help themselves, they would not help others, they showed the true depravity of man as they began to rape and loot stores stealing not food and water but things of the world by which their eyes are blinded. Those who cannot see the truth nor hear it yet claim religion will call this hard and hateful, but by scripture it is truth. There were many sickly, young babes, and elderly there which truly needed help and I commend our federal government for helping them. Hear me now, government cannot do what God has given unto us to do. It is our responsibility.
A man who will not work will not eat. When he gets hungry he will get to work. If he does not but begins to steal then the government is to be a terror to him and he is to be dealt with according to our law which is based on Gods law.
A man who will not take care of his own is worse than an infidel. We are to care for our own, our widows who are widows indeed, the fatherless, the poor, those who are truly in need.
Thank the Lord for those who do.
Welfare enslaves a nation to a government. Charity, God’s love in action, frees us from that bondage of government, bears fruit to Jesus who loves us and died for us, and He is glorified. Let us love one another.
In Christ love, please pray for me,
Elder Vaughn Winslett