It’s no coincidence that the first issue we will look at in detail regarding food security is that of hunger. The ultimate aim of our food security strategy is that all would have access to an adequate and nutritious food supply.

The dictionary definition of hunger is a “strong desire for food; weakness, debilitation or pain caused by a prolonged lack of food – starvation”.  It’s easy to forget that behind all the clinical definitions and statistics on global hunger, that this is about real people. We see the image of a starving child on television yet as soon as the image on the screen disappears, so too does our memory of it.

Every one of us has been hungry at some time or another – the sensation of hunger means we have an appetite. The hunger experienced by billions of people each day, however, is not merely an appetite that comes and goes – it is an all-consuming, debilitating, minute-by-minute, day-after-day experience.

Hunger – it’s the persistent, chronic, relentless condition that keeps people from working productively and thinking clearly. It decreases resistance to disease and can cause intense painful if death is pro-longed. At first the body will burn up fat and muscle as the bodies calorie and nutritional intake is reduced. On a prolonged scale, a hungry person’s body will start to consume its own vital organs – the heart, the liver and kidneys. A malnourished, unborn child is likely to develop physical and mental developmental problems. Prolonged hunger can result in permanent damage to the body and mind – ultimately resulting in death.

It is not chronic hunger that causes death, but it is the start of the process. Chronic hunger increases the impact of other diseases. It is likely that a malnourished child will fall ill more easily due to the strain on the immune system and internal organs. Chronic hunger is the gradual process by which hunger-related diseases and overall organ failure eventually results in death.

Hunger is the feeling of total helplessness of the parent watching their children waste away. It is a child with shriveled limbs and a swollen body. It is the grief and vulnerability of a person gone blind from lack of Vitamin A. It is the frustration of families staring down the barrel of a future without hope.

In order to maintain health and hold on to life, the human body requires two fundamental things:

1) Material substances to be used in the growth and continual repair of the body
2) Energy to activate the body’s many functions

These two requirements of life are supplied by food. Inadequate supply of either of these vital ingredients will lead to impaired development, poor body functions, lethargy and ultimately death. The material substances required depends on what the body is building or repairing and includes a wide variety of the following dietary requirements:

• Proteins
• Fats
• Carbohydrates
• Minerals
• Vitamins

A good variety of these essential nutrients can only be obtained by a balanced diet. If the necessary nutrients are not provided in the diet proper growth, function and repair cannot be accomplished and the result is malnutrition. People suffering from malnutrition are more prone to disease. Malnourished children in their earlier years will suffer from deficient physical and mental development.

The second need beyond that of materials in the form of nutrients to promote growth and repair is energy. Energy is measured in units of calories. The human body requires approximately 2000-3000 calories per day to function adequately and efficiently. This basic need is one of which we are not often aware of in the developed world because of the tremendous abundance of food around us. This abundance tends to result in an increase of quantities that we consume which exceed our actual needs.

It’s a little ironic that many of us in developed nations are calorie conscious because we are consuming more food than is required to provide us with the daily energy we need. It is now at the point where chronic obesity is becoming a major 21st century health concern. In contrast, billions of people are not getting enough calories or nutrients and are staring down the barrel of a lifelong struggle with malnutrition and death. Not getting enough calories is similar to running out of fuel – except it doesn’t happen quite so suddenly.

The bodily functions slow down – the body becomes lethargic. When someone is starving and consuming less than the 2000 minimum calories per day, the body turns against itself in a desperate search for nutrients – it is at this point that starvation has begun. The body begins to consume the fat, muscles and tissue in search of fuel. The brain, kidneys, heart, liver and endocrine system cease to function properly. The body’s immunity and inbuilt defenses that attack and fight off ailments ceases to function – disease and inflammation overwhelms the body. The shortage of carbohydrates (carbohydrates play a vital role in brain chemistry) begins to affect the mind – lassitude and confusion set in. The mind is dominated by a desire for food – all other interests and emotions are dulled. Once this weight loss exceeds 40%, death is almost inevitable. It is a painful process to endure. For the most part, hunger is invisible. Relatively few victims have shriveled limbs or beg in the streets. Instead, they suffer day-in-day-out, year after year in quiet obscurity. Their bodies and minds function at half-pace; they get sick too often and die too soon. When death arrives, it seldom comes as a visible manifestation of hunger – if often takes a more merciful form of measles, diarrhea or some other ordinary disease.

About half the world’s population is surviving on a daily diet with less nutrients and calories than the average household pet. That’s certainly not to say we should not treat our pets well and look after them – our two pooches “Scruffy” and “Peppi” are loved dearly and are more than a little overweight! Considering this only gives us a greater insight as to how entrenched and insidious global hunger is today – a reminder to each of us all that people are just as deserving of an adequate diet as our pets and farm animals.

Facts on global hunger:

• 15 million people die each year of hunger
• 280,000 people die each month of hunger
• 40,000 people die each day of hunger
• 1 billion people suffer from severe malnutrition
• 2 billion people suffer from chronic under-nutrition
• More people have died from hunger in the last two years than in WWI and WWII (combined)
• 1 in every 4 children in the developing world will die of hunger before the age of 5

Hunger is the world’s deadliest killer. It’s a silent killer – one of which few people are aware of. It doesn’t make the news like terrorism, celebrity news, politics or severe climatic events, yet the amount of people it claims each year defies comprehension. Only rarely when famine reaches dramatic proportions will we see reports of the tragedy on television – the faces of the hungry in refugee camps or crowded city streets. For the most part, the hungry remain invisible.

TYPES OF HUNGER

 

• Malnutrition

 

Malnutrition may not cause immediate death, but it can leave the vulnerable crippled, maimed and deformed. This is a condition that occurs when an individual’s diet has a deficiency of the calories and nutrients that are vital to good health. A deficiency in iron will produce anemia and loss of energy. A deficiency of iodine will produce physical crippling and even mental retardation. A deficiency of Vitamin A may contribute to blindness or xerophthalmia. It is estimated that 250,000 children become blind every year as a result of this deficiency. A deficiency of Vitamin C may lead to scurvy, damage to teeth and an inability to fight infection. Studies indicate that malnutrition is the primary cause of or major contributing factor in 60% of deaths of children under the age of 5 years.

 

• Chronic Under Nutrition

 

This is the most basic and widespread manifestation of hunger today – as well as the least recognized. To suffer hunger in the form of chronic under nutrition means that over a long period of time, an individual consumes fewer calories and less protein than the body needs. Ultimately, the person is too weakened to resist disease, work productively or think clearly. Because the condition is chronic, it is often unobserved and continuous. The lethargy and ill health that results from chronic under nutrition often appears as the normal state of life in areas where hunger persists within communities. This type of hunger typically manifests itself in communities that have access to small variety of staple foods and little else to provide them with the nutrients required for a balanced and healthy diet.

 

 

• Malabsorptive Hunger

 

Malabsorptive hunger is a condition that often occurs along with under nutrition and malnutrition. It means the body becomes incapable of absorbing nutrients from the foods that have been eaten. This is often due to parasites in the intestinal tract or to a severe protein deficiency. Malabsorptive hunger is common in communities where water is contaminated and there is an absence of accessible medical care.

 

• Seasonal Hunger

 

In many parts of the world, seasonal hunger occurs annually before each harvest when the food from the last harvest runs out. Until the new crop comes in, people will experience hunger for weeks or even months at a time. As a result, people often enter into a harvest season too weak to cope with the intensive physical demand of harvesting the new season’s crops. Areas that rely on a small selection of staple foods such as rice or potatoes are the greatest sufferers of seasonal hunger. Where seasonal hunger is prevalent, it is viewed as a “natural” part of the annual cycle. In these regions, hunger is a part of the culture and words describing hunger have become part of the everyday language.

 

• Famine

 

Famine is a widespread lack of access to food often triggered by events such as drought, flooding or war, which disrupts the availability of food. Traditionally, famine has primarily occurred in countries that do not have the infrastructural capacity to compensate for bad weather or political disruption. Although developed nations such as Australia, UK or the USA may experience floods, heat waves or drought – these disasters have not resulted in famine up until this point in time because the prevailing social systems have been able to absorb events.  However, we are now seeing disturbing signs that famine can occur in nations that would have normally been seen as immune to such calamities. Take Venezuela for example – 2016/2017 has a seen a food crisis, forcing people to break into warehouses, supermarkets and shops, reports of people eating their own pets or breaking into zoos and eating the animal exhibits out of sheer desperation to feed their families. A news report last week showed people stopping garbage trucks in the streets, pulling out old garbage bags and eating old semi-decayed food – a terrible sight.

During a famine, food may often be present within the stricken area but large segments of the population may still not have access to it. Food can be so highly priced that it is only the wealthy that can afford to buy it. The delivery and distribution systems may break down, causing food to pile up on docks or in warehouses and thus not reaching the people who need it. In some cases, food from the stricken countries has actually been exported to other nations. Because famine is the most visible and dramatic manifestation of hunger, it is not surprising that it has received greater media attention than the other types of hunger. Famine makes the news because it is not the “normal” condition – yet famine accounts for only a small fraction of all hunger-related deaths each year across the globe. The majority of hunger-related deaths are caused by the first four types of hunger; malnutrition, chronic under nutrition, malabsorptive hunger and seasonal hunger.

WHO ARE THE HUNGRY?

Behind the grim statistics and clinical definitions of hunger are people. Men, women and children – people with hopes, dreams, loves, strengths and weaknesses. People suffering and perishing because they do not have access to what should be a basic human right – a nutritionally adequate diet – a right that too many of us take for granted.

If we were to combine the number of people who are suffering from chronic malnutrition (1 billion) and chronic under nutrition (2 billion) we can see that almost half of the current world’s population are affected by a lack of food security in some way or another. If we then turn our attention to the current system of food security that developed nations are embracing (which is actually a food production model not a food security model) then we can clearly see that the entire world is facing a food security crisis.

The issue of food security is vital to everyone on this planet – not just the hungry of today. Unless the issue of food security is addressed as a matter of urgency, the world will continually be fighting a losing battle to feed the hungry masses in developing countries and then keeping hunger at bay in developed nations which have traditionally been food secure.

Many years ago, I was watching a documentary on the negative impacts on the body when we consume too much junk food. The participant making the documentary chronicled the negative impacts on his body (both physically and mentally) each day as he continued his unhealthy diet. In the end, his doctor advised him to stop the experiment as his body was starting to show dangerous signs of irreversible damage. This experiment gave me an idea – what would it be like to go without food for an extended period of time? I started my own hunger experiment and did not consume food for five days of the week – only eating small quantities on weekends. I continued this for one month and the results were surprising.

Week one wasn’t too bad – I was hungry at the end of the first five days and enjoyed the weekend meals. During the second week, hunger pains began to kick in and I started to think about food a lot. During this second week, I started developing a mild headache, which progressively got worse. This headache became my constant companion for the rest of the experiment. I started to take pain relief for the headache which seemed to set off severe stomach cramping – perhaps a combination of the tablets and lack of food. By day nineteen, I was weak, lethargic and all I could think about was food. The urge to end this controlled fast had become overwhelming, but I was determined to get to the end of the month and complete the experiment. At the time of running this experiment on myself, I was running my own business and I would try to do as much of the heavy manual labour at the start of each week after the weekend meals because I found that by the latter part of each week I was too weak to work.

The final week was the worst. By the twenty-sixth day I had become extremely irritable, hungry, had a constant head and stomach ache and just generally felt ill all over. I could not work at all by this stage – a total lack of energy, mental impairment and a desire to conserve energy had gripped me.  My mental state had deteriorated to the point that all I could think about was food. By the time I got to the final weekend, I was desperate for food and all-consumed by the thought of food. In that final week to stay sane, I drank endless glasses of water and cups of tea to try and fool my body that it was not as hungry. Needless to say, I thoroughly enjoyed ending this experiment.

I was quite shocked and embarrassed at the speed at which I succumbed to the effects of hunger. Considering I still ate food on weekends, the effect it had on me both physically and mentally was quite profound. It was far harder than I could have ever imagined. The only positive to come out of this experiment was that I lost nearly 10 kilograms of weight and had the luxury of ending this experiment at a time that suited me. My fridge had food in it and the experiment was over – hopefully never to be repeated again.

It is the greatest tragedy that for billions of people across the globe, their hunger is no controlled experiment. There is no option to go to their pantry or open their fridge to source the food that they need to end the hunger. I walked in the shoes of the hungry for a month (only with the luxury of weekend meals to provide relief) and it has given me a profound insight into what billions of people are experiencing on a continual daily basis throughout the world today. Hunger is a terrible and indiscriminate enemy that needs to be fought aggressively and consistently by all of us.

Along with this practical insight, I have a personal desire to help the hungry of the world and to hopefully motivate and encourage others through the vision of Project Genesis.

Whilst the majority of acutely hungry people live in developing countries, we are now seeing a rise in hunger in developed nations. Rising unemployment and the shrinking middle class are contributing to this among other things. As discussed in the introduction section, our current global food system is one based on food production. We don’t have a current food security model in developed nations. If there ever were a major global crisis, most developed countries (Australia, USA, United Kingdom) would only have one month’s supply of food (at best). Once that’s gone – what then?

Too many people reading that last point that the developed world could actually face food shortages and even famine like conditions I would invite you to look at what is currently happening to countries such as Greece, Crete, Qatar and Venezuela. As I am writing this, supermarkets within the Gulf State of Qatar have experiences empty shelves for two consecutive days with Qatar on the brink of a food crisis. Qatar is accused of sponsoring terrorism (this was the official excuse anyway) by other Gulf neighbouring nations ceasing the importation of goods including food into the country. Some reports say that there were 800 trucks a day delivering food and goods into Qatar via Saudi Arabia; all of which have now been halted.

It’s interesting to note that Qatar is the wealthiest nation on earth, having a greater per capita income for its people than any other nation on earth because of the oil wealth. Being mostly desert, Qatar lacks agricultural land as well as a reliable water source. Qatar must now compensate for this problem by negotiating excellent trade deals with neighbouring nations and developing outstanding food supply chains that up until yesterday, have worked faultlessly. Qatar’s infallible food security model was a mirage. The wealthiest nation on earth has been brought to its knees in just two days. When the trade embargo was announced the people of Qatar did what we all would do in the same circumstances – they rushed to the plushest, well-stocked supermarkets in the world and emptied them out in two days.

As I write this today, the potential for a catastrophic humanitarian crisis to unfold in Qatar is so great that the US Secretary of State has called an emergency meeting and asked the nations that have led the embargo on Qatar to reconsider their actions and think about the humanitarian crisis that has been unleashed on the people of Qatar.

Money cannot buy food security. True food security has nothing to do with having stocked supermarket shelves. It is my hope for the people of Qatar that this imminent crisis can be solved diplomatically and the food distribution can be reinstated. One thing for certain – the people and government of Qatar are now looking at the issue of food security a lot differently than they were a week ago. They, like much of the rest of the world are today were deluded and lulled into a false sense of security in regards to their perception of food security.

The world as a whole is becoming more and more unstable. We are discovering that developed nations that function in a globalised environment are becoming increasingly vulnerable to financial, geopolitical and trade shocks. When one country sneezes – we all catch the flu. In my opinion, there is 100% certainty that hunger will strike developed countries – countries that would have never considered the thought of a food crisis in their worst nightmares. Again, the issue of food security is not just for the hungry – it’s also for the rest of us that currently have an abundance of food. One of the reasons I have a passion for promoting food security is that I have seen firsthand the terrible consequences that hunger has on people. To me, food security and water availability are not issues that we can afford to ignore anymore.

My first confrontation with hunger occurred in the Chinese city of Guangzhou in 1991. I was walking through the city after taking a wrong turn and ended up lost. I found myself in one of the poorer parts of the city. Our tour guide had arranged a train trip for later in the day and asked us to make sure we had enough food for the day in our backpacks – I had a couple of rolls and a drink. With my backpack secure and full of food I was walking around lost in the narrow back streets when I came across a young mother who was sheltering under a piece of old canvas connected to a run down fence. I could tell straight away this was no temporary set up – it was her permanent residence. She had a few pots, pans and boxes for storage next to her makeshift ramshackled tent.

I remember hoping that she had not seen me and started walking a bit quicker to get out of there to avoid the possibility of having to help in any way. Up until this point, I had managed quite successfully to walk past and ignore perhaps fifty or more beggars on each street corner throughout the city. I was almost out of view when suddenly I heard a quiet voice calling out. The voice was somewhat strained – I pretended not to hear and proceeded to walk even faster. Just as I was almost out of her view (and relieved at the possible obligation of having to help her), I heard the voice call our once more. This time, it resonated with a sense of desperate urgency. The voice had a pathetic whine – typical of someone who is in terrible physical pain or emotional distress. I turned around – immediately this time – it was as if someone was drowning and calling out for help. I could not ignore her voice.

I walked back towards her and as I got closer I could see a sense of relief in her face that I was turning around, but also a sense of anguish and pain. She looked about 25 years of age and beckoned me to come closer as she remained lying down on her makeshift bed – a collection of newspapers. I noticed she was extremely malnourished and could not physically walk. She motioned to someone from within the tent and to my shock; two small children stumbled out into the street. A little boy and girl – both aged about five years old. They both were also suffering from severe malnutrition. The mother spoke to her children who obediently moved towards me. They both had difficulty walking – as they came closer I saw their sunken eyes, boney limbs and little bodies covered in sores.

At that moment in time, I froze. All I could do was just stare at them – transfixed, almost hypnotized at this appalling sight. The children were motioning with their hands to mimic eating movements in desperation that I would understand that they wanted food. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to work it out. Time stood still for a moment – I stared at this young Chinese family and thought of my own family back home in Australia. My wife at that time was about the same age as this mother. My two children were the same age as the two children in front of me. It hit me – “this could be my own family”. If the roles were reversed and my own family was in the plight – who would stop to help them?

Being able to give my food to this hungry family ended up being the highlight of my trip. I knew it was not much – just enough food for a day for this family – but at least some relief from the tyranny of hunger for that particular day. As the two young children slowly walked back to their mother rejoicing in their gift of food the young mother clasped her hands together in a prayerful motion, smiled and nodded at me in gratitude. I bowed my head and acknowledged the young mother’s thankfulness at the small gift of food, but with a rather painful sense of guilt on my part as I walked away never to see this family again.

A few days later, a group of us visited a pastor and his wife in the slums of outer Beijing. Mr. and Mrs. Yuan were both in their late seventies. Mr. Yuan had been a pastor most of his life and had been in and out of prison throughout that period of time because of his Christian beliefs. They had seven children and Mr. Yuan had not been able to see any of them grow up in their entirety because of his continual imprisonment. We visited them in the early hours of the morning under the cover of darkness for security reasons. Their home was a one roomed box constructed of rusty old sheets of iron roofing and canvas tarpaulins. They welcomed us with great warmth and excitement and Mrs. Yuan insisted that she prepare us something to eat. We were a bit surprised at their offer as they were both suffering the visible signs of malnutrition, were frail and weak and we realised they would not have had much food for themselves let alone share with the group of us. Reluctantly, we agreed to Mrs. Yuan’s insistency to provide us something to eat (it is often insulting in other cultures to refuse an offer of food).

Mrs. Yuan went to her food cupboard and rolled back the old towel that acted as the door. I was the only one in our group of seven people who could see what was in the cupboard because of my seating position. I could see one watermelon and a couple of jars of what looked like leftovers. Mrs. Yuan gleefully took out her only watermelon and proceeded to cut it up and serve it to us.

It was an act of generosity that I never will forget. They were struggling day to day with hunger, yet they were still prepared to share their last bit of food with complete strangers. For the first time in my life, I had encountered the very real and true faces of hunger and poverty. I had been able to easily turn my back on the hungry of the world up until that point, but now having my eyes truly opened, I knew there would be no turning back to those previous days of blindness. I was in the enviable position of being able to return to Australia and get back to all the luxuries that a wealthy country affords its citizens, but two nagging questions were going around in my mind. Firstly, what would become of that young family and Mr. and Mrs. Yuan? Would anyone be there to help them in the future? Secondly, could it be possible that myself and my own family and indeed my own country could suffer the same plight?

Looking back, the vision of Project Genesis was born on that China trip more than 25 years ago. These people were the inspiration that I need to awaken myself from a life-long slumber. Project Genesis – a vision to promote food security locally and globally; a vision to fight on behalf of the hungry of the world; and a vision to warn the world we all need food security regardless of how well fed we may be today.

My second confrontation with hunger was in the year 1993 in Northern Thailand and along Burmese border. This time, along with being confronted with the daunting effects of hunger, which can leave us feeling powerless to help in any way, I also met two wonderful families that proved to me that not only can we fight the scourge of global hunger, but also that together, there is the possibility of defeating it.

I visited the local indigenous people of Northern Burma called the Karen. A beautiful and peace loving race of people with a population of around 3 million people. The Karen had traditionally lived in the jungle areas of Burma on the banks of the Selwyn River. They, through no fault of their own, have found themselves being forced out of their homeland by the Burmese army who want to control the various money-making opportunities that their traditional lands occupy. Their lands are rich in teak timber, minerals and oil reserves.

Hundreds of thousands of Karen people have been forced across the border and into refugee camps in Northern Thailand. Those that remain in Burma have been forced to fight for their lives against a brutal military, ironically called the SLORC (State Law and Order Restoration Committee) that was deployed to over-power the Karen. Burma had deemed the Karen people as trespassers on the land that the Karen have lived on for generations because they want sovereignty over money-making potential – a story tragically we find all too familiar with indigenous peoples.

Whilst there, I met a wonderful family who had devoted their lives to helping the Karen people. Timothy and Rebecca Laklem and their young family. They were constantly carrying food and medicines to the various refugee camps along the Thai border and crossing over into war torn areas of the Karen state to help those in need. They constantly put their lives at risk – whether by the Burmese military, travelling on dangerous mountain tracks, crossing flooded rivers or just battling jungle diseases such as malaria. I had the privilege of being able to travel with them and their young family, Karenna (6 years) and Gabriel (5 years) into the Burmese jungle and across the Selwyn River to visit a small Karen town of about two thousand people.

Every person in the village was suffering to some extent from the effects of hunger and malnutrition which would have been a lot worse if not for the efforts of the Laklems. Many people had terrible scarring from chemical weapons that had been dropped on their homes by the SLORC. I remember one little boy who followed us around the village, Timothy asked me how old I thought the boy was. I took a guess and said about 7 or 8. He turned out to be 14 years old; such was the dramatic effect years of malnutrition had had on him. We visited the hospital where many sick Karen people went to spend their last days. A young mother and her gravely ill baby left a particular poignant effect on me, I knew just by looking at the baby he would not last the week.

The second family that I had the privilege of meeting was David and Paula Mahawon. David is a Shan man and Paula an American along with their two children Shan and Thai. The Shan state is located further North along the Thai, Burma and Chinese border and has a population of around 5 million people. It is in a similar position to that of the Karen nation in that the indigenous population is being displaced also by a brutal military deployment.

At the time of my visit in 1993, David and Paula had just adopted 40 young Shan boys aged between the ages of 5 and 12 years. The story of these boys was a tragic one – they had been forced to fight as child soldiers for one of the local warlords. This tyrant was also producing drugs from his vast crops and he used the boys to fight the Burmese army to protect his patch. Many of these boys had been forced to kill. One of the things they were forced to do was hide in small holes so that then when enemy soldiers came along, they could throw grenades into the group. It’s hard to comprehend that such young boys would be forced to do such terrible things.

As the Burmese military gained the upper hand in that part of Shan state the warlord fled and left the young boys to fend for themselves in the jungle without food or water. David and Paula got word that there were Shan boys left within enemy territory and decided to hike up into the jungle and find them. Eventually after a number of days searching for them they found their little rag-tag army of soldier boys and walked them out of the jungle to safety and a new life. Today, 25 years on, some of those boys are still working on the Project Genesis farm in Northern Thailand. The rest have started new lives and families of their own thanks to the magnificent efforts of the Mahawons.

When I see people doing work such as these two families, I am greatly encouraged and realise that it is possible to see a dream such as a world without hunger fulfilled. I decided after seeing the love and commitment that these families had to help the less fortunate than themselves, to do all that I could to help them and the people groups that they were serving, particularly in the area of agriculture.

My wife gave me the all clear to leave my permanent job in order to travel backwards and forwards to Thailand and Burma over the next few years helping the Karen and Shan with various agricultural projects related to teaching and promoting food security. On my first trip to the Karen, I met with the country’s president, General Bo Mya. He was a keen gardener and recognised the need to be self sufficient in food production. He set aside twenty hectares of the best farmland about ten minutes by long boat from the Karen capital city of Manerplaw. The land was flat, had beautiful deep loamy soil, perfect aspect for all day sun and fronted a small tributary that ran into the mighty Selwyn River to the North. All year round irrigation would not be a problem with this magnificent piece of land. I could tell that General Bo Mya was serious about food production just at one glance looking at this prize parcel of land he had chosen for this agricultural venture. It had taken us two days of travel by four wheel drive, walking and long boat from Northern Thailand but the trip was worth it just to gaze upon this magnificent sight.

In my conversation with General Bo Mya, we had talked about the types of crops that would be suitable for this climate and site. Along with Timothy Laklem, the president’s most trusted advisor, we set out an ambitious plan to grow a wide range of fruits in various orchards such as mango, paw paw, banana, lychee and about ten different types of vegetables such as cabbage, peppers, pumpkin, tomatoes and potatoes. There was also an area was set aside for grains such as rice and corn. Timothy and General Bo Mya’s plan was to be able to produce a wide range of nutritious foods that would end hunger and malnutrition in that area of Karen State.

At that point in the planning stage, I realised that out of all the people in the world trying to help the hungry, however good and well intentioned that is, it is the hungry themselves that are doing most of the work to alleviate the suffering of their own people. I know that may seem obvious, but in all my dealings with people such as the Laklems and Mahawons that were working tirelessly in trying to help their own people, all they requested was a hand up – not a hand out.

Back in Australia, I packed a suitcase full of assorted self-replicating seeds (35 kgs in fact) as well as grape cuttings and strawberry plants bound for the Karen agriculture venture. On my previous trip, I did some sleuthing of the various seed stores in Thailand and discovered that many of the seeds that were commercially available were hybrids. I could not find any non-hybrid corn, tomatoes, pepper, zucchini, or squash seeds anywhere.

One of the key principles in true food security is our ability to be self-sufficient in food production. The foundation of self- sufficient food production is the ability to be able to save our seeds from year to year. Commercial hybrids are an unsuitable to save seed from. If we cannot save our own seeds and store those saved seeds for next year’s harvest then we will never be food secure. I explained this to Timothy and General Bo Mya and we agreed that we would only plant crop varieties that were self-replicating so that we could make this venture a practical demonstration of true food security.

Along with a small team from Australia, we travelled into the Karen jungle to make a start on the agricultural venture that Timothy and the other Karen leaders had been planning for some years. To our surprise, the twenty hectares of land had been cleared prior to our arrival. The Karen had used machetes and hoes to dig out stumps and clear undergrowth – an amazing effort of hard work and determination on their part. My first job was to build a small propagation house to raise seeds and strike the grape cuttings that I had bought over from Australia. A team then set about building the grape trellises that would give the Karen people their first grape harvest. Another team began work on the construction of the farm buildings. We only had a few days in the jungles of Manerplaw working alongside the Karen people on this ambitious agricultural venture, but we did achieve a lot together in that short time. We started to make plans for our next trip to install the irrigation infrastructure and start to plant the orchards.

A highlight of this trip along with the commencement of the agricultural venture in Manerplaw was the distribution of self-replicating seeds and the planting of various jungle gardens on the Thai and Burmese border. The various varieties of self-replicating seeds that I had bought over from Australia in bulk such as corn, tomatoes, pumpkin, peppers, squash, egg plant, potatoes, zucchini, chili, cabbage, beets, beans etc. I decided to pack these bulk seeds into small envelopes for distribution. At that time, many of the Karen village leaders were in Northern Thailand and we were able to give each of them a magnificent collection of self-replicating seed varieties to take back to their individual village gardens in the jungle border areas for planting.

Whilst on this particular trip, we were able to buy a single wheeled rotary hoe – perfect for transporting around on the back of a ute. My good friend Bill Penny, who was a part time farmer and pastor at the time, had a real heart and interest for agriculture and was able to raise the funds through his church to purchase the rotary hoe and build a large propagation house in Doi Saket, Thailand. Bill later went back to Thailand and helped the Mahawons and the young men in their care (who by now had become excellent builders and farmers) to build a magnificent free-range chicken house.

This rotary hoe proved to be a tremendous blessing. Timothy loaded the rotary hoe on to the back of his ute and we drove up into the jungle areas of Karen State, stopping at various Karen villages to plow the land and distribute seeds. The Karen people are fantastic workers and their delight at seeing the rotary hoe and all the various different varieties of self-replicating seeds was a sight to behold.

I gave a quick talk at each stop on the vital importance of saving these new varieties of self-replicating seeds (Heritage Seeds). I explained that if people around the world are serious about true food security then we must continually save our seeds and store them from harvest to harvest. It is not a one off process – it’s a continual job that must be done without fail. I was greatly encouraged many years later to find out that all those jungle gardens had done exactly that and that they were still growing food from those original varieties of seed that I had taken over there from Australia.

As I was planning my next trip back to Thailand to help install the irrigation and planting of the orchards in Manerplaw, Timothy Laklem sent the tragic news that our jungle agricultural venture had been carpet bombed by SLOC as well as the capital of Manerplaw. Many Karen people tragically lost their lives including some of the people who had been helping in the project. Others were badly wounded and more suffered the effects of chemical weapons. The Karen people that had been living on their own land and had fought so valiantly to stay where forced to flee across the border into refugee camp. Thankfully, the Thai government have been generous in allowing the Karen people to live in the these camps in and they should be commended for their help of the Karen people, but ultimately the Karen yearn to return to their ancestral homeland.

On my next trip to Thailand, instead of working on the jungle agricultural venture which was lost in the bombing raids, I spent my time working with the Laklems at their home base in Thailand in a lovely town called Doi Saket. We built another propagation house and started a smaller scale farming venture. I focused much of my time in teaching the Karen various skills in regard to food security.

Back in Australia, I was invited to speak to a group on some of the food security work I was doing in Thailand and met up with one of my old school teachers from high school – Don Hanson. Don being a farmer in his younger days in South Dakhota immediately responded to the work of Project Genesis. Don and his late wife Mary were the driving force for the development of the Project Genesis farm in Thaton, Northern Thailand.

Don spent months at a time living on the farm in Thailand over the years, helping the Mahawons realise their dream of growing their own food and providing a hope and future for the young men in their care. When Don started on the farm project it was a bare block of land with no dwellings or food crops on it apart from a mango orchard. After more than ten years of hard work, Don, the Mahawons and all the Shan workers at the farm now grow more than a dozen different food crops and has more than twenty well-constructed buildings. An absolutely incredible effort by everyone involved.

Watching families such as the Mahawons, Laklems, Hansons, and Pennys, I have realised ordinary people can have a huge impact on this seemingly intransient problem of hunger. There just needs to be more people like them to rise up and take the issue of hunger and food security seriously. When someone throws their hands up in the air to proclaim “there’s nothing I can do the problem of hunger is too great”, I simply point to individuals and families like these and say, “you’re wrong, there’s plenty you can do and there’s the evidence”. The message is clear – let’s stop making pathetic excuses that we can’t help let’s and start embracing the reality that we can all play some role in global food security and in so doing help to feed the hungry.

 

THE FACE OF HUNGER

Here are a few other testimonies of other people who have found themselves in the grip of hunger or who have observed the shocking plight of the hungry first hand.

Romana’s family didn’t have money to buy vegetables. They mostly ate rice – sometimes nothing at all. Romana’s stomach hurt. Sometimes her head and eyes hurt too. It was hard to walk to school with nothing in her stomach. It was too hard to read her school books. More and more the world looked dark, the sun was dim, not bright. Eventually, Romana will be blind along with 250,000 other children this year alone – just through lack of proper nutrition.

One author writes about his experience as a Peace Corps volunteer in a remote village in Ecuador. He recounted that during a drought people were selling their children before they died of hunger. Autopsies on the ones who had died revealed stomachs full of roots and dirt. In the village, the birth of a stillborn child was occasion for jubilant celebration as it meant that someone had become an angelito without the suffering that hunger and malnutrition brings. This particular author paid a village family to let him eat his evening meal with them to get an up close and personal insight into the family’s daily struggle to survive. He describes the pathetic sight of their baby girl – malnourished and sickly, sleeping on the floor during meal times or eating bits of banana or rice off the floor.

He received favoured treatment as a paying guest, but even that skimpy fare became more meager. Instead of fish and rice, we were tucking into aba soup, and rice with abas; abas being a large, fat, tasteless bean about 200% blander than a lima bean. I staggered over to Alexandros house, ravenous with hunger and anticipation, to find that supper was one well centered and naked egg cowering on the plate. What made even this more or less tasteless was my knowledge that it was the only egg in the house and that the rest of the family was supping on cups of hot water and brown sugar and platano, an enormous, banana like monstrosity, about 99% starch, which was as tastless as paper. Eating the only egg in the house while the youngest child slowly wasted away from malnutrition didn’t help things either.

Another author quotes from a poor farmer in El Salvador. He said “This year the money made from my crop of coffee I will use to pay my mortgage. For one more year my farm cannot be taken from me. But if my children get sick I will have no money to take us to the clinic for treatment and medicine. But without my farm my children will die anyhow. With no farm I have no money, no food. But today my youngest child died from fever and diarrhea. Take my farm, take it! I don’t care.”

In a recent article in a local newspaper, a reporter describes her reaction to a drought in Niger in the late 2000’s in an article entitled –“Too tragic to ignore – Africans forced to eat leaves”. Almost one million children under five are starving in Niger in West Africa, one of the poorest countries in the world. The UN calls it a catastrophic famine. And the shame is it didn’t happen overnight. International aid agencies have warned of this looming human tragedy for almost a year. But too many rich nations- including Australia – have turned their backs and looked the other way. Niger’s government have declared an emergency and appealed for help. So why aren’t we listening? This time last year, an emotional Tim Costello (Head of World Vision Australia) begged Australians to open their hearts after he returned from war-ravaged Sudan. “The very mark of being human is that you don’t turn your head away, “he said at the time.

The head of World Vision begged us not to treat it as just another African crisis. That is a tough task. For so many years aid agencies have called on affluent nations to help Africa. And its plight has not been helped when we learn the aid at times does not make it to those most in need. That is a hurdle, not an excuse. There is no war in Niger, no rebels or despots to make us question the likelihood of aid reaching those who need it. Niger is suffering because of nature: drought and locust swarms have devastated crops. The risk now is that as the rainy season approaches it will become impossible to get food and medical supplies through to many of the remote areas. The UN told the world about the crisis in Niger last year and said it received almost no response. Today in Niger there are 3.6 million people in critical need of food, including 150,000 children who are severely malnourished. Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) said the landlocked West African country has been hit by its worst drought in years and asks why rich countries are ignoring its pleas.

I don’t know the answer to that. What I do know is that at a time when terrorists attacks dominate the news I would rather my children are reminded that people still care for each other, that we don’t turn away from those in need. How did we become so immune to images like this- a starving child who may die because we have been too slow to help? It breaks my heart, yet I am an offender. I mean to send money, but all too often I am sidetracked by another good cause or rely on others to pick up the slack. That time has passed.

This reporter’s reaction to the unfolding food crisis in Niger reminds me of a song by one of my favourite bands Pink Floyd. It’s called “on the turning away”. One of the lines said something like “no more turning away from the cold and down-trodden, no more turning away from the coldness inside, is it only a dream that there will be no more turning away”.

I love the honesty of that reporter’s article; she is honest enough to tell the truth and say “it breaks my heart, yet I am an offender.” She can see the urgent need to help the tragedy of hungry people, but at the same time recognise her inability to consistently give that help that she knows she should.                                 

We all should see ourselves in that Pink Floyd song if we are completely honest and recognise those two competing emotions, first the honest thought that we don’t do enough to help the poor and hungry of the world, but secondly the inspired vision of a world where we no longer turn our backs on those people that need our help. The dream of a world where we no longer turn away from the poor and hungry should be turned from idealism to reality.

Our daughter Danielle spent a year in Uganda helping the poor, sick, and hungry, here’s her quick reflection of that time spent there:

“Firstly, thank you for the prayers, emails and support over the last few weeks for my health. After some time out of the city I am feeling stronger and there are no further signs of infection or concern. Great news. As usual, the weeks have slipped by far too quickly and I am now approaching the end of my season in Uganda. It’s been an incredibly challenging, eye-opening, stretching, frustrating at times, but life changing experience and I’m always thinking about how incredibly lucky I have been to be able to spend a year here, serving with Operation Uganda. This update is more of a personal one. It touches on some thoughts and things I have learnt from my time here. As I’ve mentioned before, the time I’ve spent in Uganda has been life changing. By life changing, I mean that I’ve seen too much for life to be the way it was before.

We’ve all seen the World Vision ads on TV. We are touched by the images – moved somewhat, but can just as quickly move on with our lives as the next ad comes on. Reaching down to hold the hand of a toddler who is playing in the mud, next to the raw sewerage drain with flies buzzing around her face is another thing altogether. You see it and you can’t forget it – life cannot simply “go on“ in the same way.

Perhaps the best way to describe it is that I’ve been asleep. I needed to wake up, but I had to be someplace very far from my comfort zone to do so. Moving to the other side of the world to live in a developing country is outside most of our comfort zones. It’s confronting, it’s distressing, it’s frustrating, it’s lonely, it’s challenging. It can feel like a different world altogether. Here, people build their homes from just about anything they can find – tin, plastic and mud. Their kitchens consist of a pot over some hot coals on the dirt out the front of their house. When it rains, it pours. You can tell exactly what it is that you are walking in as the sewage streams overflow and the rains sweep the rubbish into and around the local homes.

The markets are full of fish, cows, goats and pigs cut up into sections that hang from hooks under the hot sun, surrounded by flies. Oh and the smells – you have to experience it to believe it! Imagine a mixture of mud, animals, and sweaty people, burning plastic and raw sewerage. It’s not rare to see men and women with missing limbs, dragging their body through the mud with shoes on their hands. There are shoeless children dressed in rags, begging for food and coins at every intersection. I’ve driven past people with walking sticks and bent legs – broken bones that were never treated. The neighborhood seems to have adjusted to them and people have learnt to simply walk around them.

At first I struggled a lot with this and found myself wondering why so many people were walking by without a second glance. Some time has passed and I’ve realised, that’s also me. For many years, I’ve become adjusted to injustice and I’ve learnt to walk around it. I’ve met some of my greatest life mentors here on the opposite side of the world to home. Time and time again I am reminded, it’s not about what you do have or don’t have – what matters is the attitude of our hearts.

Today, my personal challenge is this – what is the point of being wealthy if I am poor in spirit? Why am I so quick to accumulate but so slow to give away? Because here in Uganda, despite what little they have, they are quick to share. They have taught me it’s not about all the things I do or don’t have – it’s about the attitude of my heart. As much as I am looking forward to being home (also not having to deal with pit latrines, mosquito nets and boiling my drinking water), the last thing I want is to go back to sleep. I can’t forget all that I have seen and I don’t want that old life – cluttered with small, unimportant, time draining things. I want to leave room for the things that matter a lot – things that change lives, things that make a difference.”

Our daughter as you can see encountered the real face of hunger and it had a profound effect on her. The hungry exist as Danielle discovered in the sprawling slums of Kampala, and the wide open plains of rural Uganda, they are Peruvian peasants, beggars in the streets of Calcutta, barrio dwellers in Mexico City, subsistence farmers in Indonesia, women who tend herds of livestock in Kenya, refugees like the Karen and Shan in Thailand I have been working with. About 40%of the worlds hungry are children; most of the rest are women. The majority of hungry people live and work in rural areas. Many are landless labourers or tenant farmers who do not own their own land. If they do their land is a small plot and they lack access to the credit and technical support needed to make the land productive. There are also a large number of hungry people living in sprawling urban slums, ghettos and shanty towns, as I discovered in China.

The hungry have one thing in common – they all live in poverty. Few people in the developed world have any detailed conception of the extent of hunger and poverty that continues to plague many developing nations or the forms that it takes. Here’s yet another powerful eyewitness account of how hunger continually stalks its victims and inflicts such misery on people as to defy nearly all human comprehension. This is how Kari Costanza, a writer for World Vision describes her recent visit to the town of Turkana, Kenya in May 2017 in her blog entitled – 5 Signs of Hunger I’ve Never Seen Before.

“I started covering hunger stories for World Vision in 2005 in Niger and Angola, which were then ranked second and third among countries where children were most likely to die before the age of 5. The next year I travelled to Kenya to cover a drought that led to a severe food crisis. In 2009, to see what hunger felt like, I lived with a family that was surviving on emergency food rations. Two years after that I was back in Kenya to cover the Horn of Africa food crisis. I thought I’d seen it all.

But on my trip last month to Turkana, in Northwest Kenya, there were signs of hunger that I’ve never seen. When I heard that Stephen O’Brien – the United Nations under– secretary for humanitarian affairs – had declared this current crisis the worst humanitarian crisis since World War 2, I was not surprised. This hunger crisis is a monster. We began in a village called Nanaam, dry and dusty and strewn with the bones of dead livestock. Ironically, Nanaam means water, but the villagers had renamed their village Ngikwasinyen, or “dry sand”.

The villagers were despondent. With no food left to eat, men such as Nalet were hunting animals that thrive during a drought in a pastoralist area – scavengers like hyenas and vultures. The mothers had learned to cook hyena, roasting it on a spit. The children hated it and said it tasted vile. Naroo 9, told me; “ Hyena is bitter. When we eat it, it gives us diarrhea. But it’s the only food on the table.” Across the dusty path, a family was mourning the death of their last cow, sitting next to the giant animal, and preparing to skin and eat it. Nearby, with no milk, a mother and her children were trying to suck the marrow from the bones of donkey’s killed by the drought. I asked them why were they doing that.

“Hunger”, replied the mother.

Travelling south on a road more sand than pavement, we came upon a macabre memorial. Instead of a tree – lined pathway, the road was lined with bodies of dead animals. “See us,” they seemed to cry. The people of one village made their point crystal clear. Fifty women held high the animals that had died in their village, one woman boosting a donkey carcass over her head, to sing us a song of death. “We are dying. We are dying,” they sang, “Our animals are all dead and we are next.” And finally, after reporting stories in 35 countries, over two decades for World Vision, I met a baby with my name: Kari. I asked her mother what her name meant and she replied, “Someone who almost died”. Kari was born 6 months ago as the drought began to kill all the livestock and threaten human lives as well. “ I named her for the situation,” Kari’s mother told me.

Meeting Kari was the last straw. I had to do something about it. World Vision is trying to raise $ 110 million to help 2.7 million hungry people in East Africa with food, water and medicine, as well as through child sponsorship. They told me their stories. They put a name to this monster. My name. Kari. I saw Nalet the day after he went off to look for vultures and hyenas. He came back empty – handed and exhausted. “We have no water, food, or medicines”, he told me. “If you don’t take care of these, children they will die. And they will. So we must.”

As I mentioned in the introduction, I have been involved with issues relating to food security and feeding the hungry for more than 25 years now and have personally seen the pain and misery that hunger inflicts on people first hand. But I have to say that Kari’s report even shocked me. Kari’s story for World Vision reminded me of a similar story I read about years ago.

In 1993 South African photographer, Kevin Carter whilst covering the war in Sudan took one of the most famous, haunting and controversial pictures of all time. His horrific picture of an emancipated child collapsing on his way to a United Nations feeding station, as a plump vulture lurked in the background shocked the world. The picture was first published in the New York Times. Later it was displayed in many other publications and now of course readily visible on the internet. This shocking picture has really become a metaphor, at least in my eyes, as firstly, a world full of injustice, and secondly a world that’s happy to turn away from that injustice.  The reaction to this picture was so strong that the Times published an unusual editors note on the fate of the child. Mr. Carter said the child resumed his trek to the feeding centre. He chased the vulture away.

Afterward he told an interviewer, he sat under a tree for a long time, lit a cigarette talked to God and wept. Kevin always carried around the horror of the work he did, said a family member. The haunting image of the starving Sudanese toddler stalked by the vulture won Kevin the Pulitzer Prize for photography in 1994. Kevin said of his prize-winning picture “This is my most successful image after 10 years of taking pictures, but I do not hang it on my wall. I hate it.” Despite the accolades of the Pulitzer Prize winning photo the darkness of that bright day never lifted from him. In July 1994, just three months after receiving his award Kevin Carter took his own life, writing, “I am haunted by the vivid memories of killings and corpses and anger and pain.” It is too simplistic to suggest that Kevin took his own life as a direct result of his experience with this child, as Kevin said himself he had seen much pain and suffering during his 10 years as a war photographer.

Kevin was criticized for not doing more for this child. In my opinion before we start to criticize others we really need to ask ourselves this question, “What am I doing to help children and people facing such terrible and shocking living conditions?” Perhaps the trauma and guilt of Kevin’s experiences did play a role in his mental anguish, but let’s not us criticize others and pass the buck for our lack of action. In fact, in my opinion Kevin showed courage just by being there to take a photo like this. Perhaps Kevin’s legacy to the world will be for us to remind ourselves that compared too much of the world many of the rest of us have nothing to complain about. This profound and heart – wrenching entry was found in Kevin’s diary;

 

       Dear God,

            I promise I will never waste my food no matter how bad it can taste and how full I may be. I pray that You will protect this little child, guide and deliver him away from his misery. I pray that we will be more sensitive towards the world around us and not be blinded by our own selfish nature and interests. I hope this picture will always serve as a reminder to us that how fortunate we are and that we must never take things for granted.

Kevin’s tragic story leads us to take a very important look at another vital issue in regards to food security. We can feel overwhelmed by the scale of the problem of global hunger and our seemingly puny efforts to alleviate the suffering of the hungry. This sense of being overwhelmed can then lead us into a feeling of helplessness, both in terms of our personal ability to help in any way, and secondly, from our view that the hungry masses is an unsolvable problem. The next stage that inflicts us is a feeling of hopelessness. Hungry people themselves become a hopeless case in our view. It’s at that point the most tragic of all human conditions in my view comes to the fore, APATHY.  It’s at this point that we no longer even pretend to be interested in the plight of the hungry.

Apathy can be accompanied by other feelings such as guilt, annoyance, depression, blame, resentment or even anger. It’s not unusual for many people to become angry at having to watch a TV ads promoting child sponsorship or famine relief, especially if it’s aired at meal times.” How dare someone have the nerve to disturb my peace of mind,” we exclaim. I feel bad for those kids but I’ve got enough of my own problems and besides, isn’t that up to their own leaders to feed them. Does any of that sound familiar? If we were honest I’m sure we could all identify with those sorts of responses. We know at that point apathy has got us in its vice like grip. Apathy is sinister in its intent. We may even argue and defend the various reasons why we don’t help the hungry and those arguments can be very persuasive. But remember self-delusion is the worst form of delusion and the more we defend ourselves against the claim of being apathetic the more apathy will grip us.

Apathy; Lack of emotion, Indifference, (without feeling), Apathy may refer to a habitual lack of feeling, or it may be used in the sense of indifference to describe a temporary lack of interest caused by depression, sorrow, ignorance, despair, etc. Insensibility is a lack of feeling for other persons.

Apathetic; Lacking emotion. Indifferent; unconcerned.

Dictionary definitions (Funk and Wagnells)

Apathy is a sinister and incredibly dangerous condition for any of us to be gripped by. Not just for our own personnel well being, but also for the entire worlds well being in relation to food security issues. There’s absolutely no point in even beginning to discuss issues related to local and global food security, let alone start the hands-on practical application of solutions unless we first make a conscious decision to end apathy in our lives.

The good news is the dictionary described apathy as being a habitual or a temporary state. That’s fantastic news for all of us. We don’t need to accept apathy as being a permanent intransient part of our lives if we don’t want to. For those of us that struggle with apathy, (and let’s be honest we all can do) we can encourage one and another with the truth that habitual apathy one minute, can be replaced in the next minute by decisive action. We have already looked at examples of people and families that have shrugged off the tyranny of apathy in regards to food security, such as the Mahawons, Hansons, Pennys and Laklems so let’s be encouraged that it’s possible and learn from their example.

Storm clouds are rapidly gathering around the world in relation to food security to merge into what I refer to as mega-storm. The issues that are all converging at once will form the storm of the century. This mega-storm once it develops will be too late to stop and by it’s size and nature smash everything before it.

If we act now, our own actions I believe will avoid disaster on an unprecedented scale, not only for the current generation but also for coming generations. If we fail to act today, then we, and the coming generations will reap the consequences of that in-action of seeing an increasingly hungry world. At present we can see those various storm fronts on the horizon gathering strength and momentum and moving towards us. We still have time to act, how much time I don’t know, but what I can say for sure is that every day that we delay to act is a day closer to a food security crisis. And I say when this mega-storm hits not if. At some point in time, and in some way shape or form the world is on an unavoidable collision course with this mega storm that is food insecurity. I believe we can definitely lessen the impact that this coming crisis will bring, but only to the degree that ordinary people take the issue of food security seriously.  

That means making a conscious individual choice to totally reject the debilitating APATHY that has ensnared us in regard to food security, and actually do something, not just talk about it. If you are currently one of the 2 billion chronically under-nourished people, or one of the 1 billion chronically malnourished people, or one of the 15 million people that will die this year of hunger then you don’t need reminding that the world has a food security crisis. You are currently in the midst of the beginning of the storm.

Few people in developed countries have any detailed conception of the extent of hunger and poverty in the Third World or the forms that it takes. Billions of people in poorer countries are preoccupied solely with survival and basic needs. For them work is frequently not available or when it is, pay is very low and conditions often barely tolerable. Homes are constructed of impermanent materials and have neither piped water nor sanitation. Electricity is a luxury. Health services are thinly spread and in rural areas only rarely within walking distance. Permanent insecurity in every area of basic life is the condition of the poor.

There are no public systems of social security in the event of unemployment, sickness or death of a wage-earner in the family. Floods, droughts or disease effecting people or livestock can destroy livelihoods without hope of compensation. It is a condition of life so difficult and limited as to be below any rational definition of human decency. Yet the poor and hungry, their circumstances notwithstanding, are far from helpless victims. The image of a hungry person holding out an empty rice bowl is not the normal situation. Hungry people are remarkably self – reliant, productive and skilled at surviving. And contrary to what many believe they themselves are doing the lion’s share of the work to end hunger.

Above all else, the 3 billion people globally that are effected by hunger today in some form, are those who most want hunger to end. If, say many observers, all the activities taking place in the world today to end hunger and poverty could be measured, the truth would be that it’s the poor and hungry themselves that are doing most of the work. The tragedy is that the poor are a productive asset that through circumstances mostly beyond their control have had a series of inequities piled upon them. Being born in a certain country with various social and religious beliefs has far more to do with ending up hungry than anyone’s lack of intelligence or work ethic. Those of us in developed nations need to recognise that they have been deprived of their productive capacity and the means of production.

Once this injustice that is constantly inflicted on the poor and hungry is lessened then we will see the poor themselves contribute more and more to production and the horrible spectacle of their poverty diminished. The poor are therefore a challenge to our social and economic ingenuity, to find ways to, if not end injustice, to at least see injustice greatly diminished in the 21st century. When discussing hunger it’s important to note that a person dying is a tragedy, but what’s even more disturbing and distressing is they are dying unnecessarily.

In study after study, meeting after meeting, decade after decade, prestigious international groups and commissions have all come to one conclusion- humanity now possesses the resources, financial means, technology and knowhow to end hunger. The Brandt Commission composed of leaders from seventeen rich and poor countries met in 1980 and conducted a two-year study on the possibility of ending global hunger by the year 2000. A major conclusion reflected wide consensus within the expert community;

“Mankind has never before had such ample technical and financial resources for coping with hunger and poverty. The immense task can be tackled once the necessary collective will is mobilized. What is necessary can be done and must be done.”

The world’s community of experts agreed that the persistence of hunger could be eradicated from every nation on earth. No one need die of hunger. The goal of ending hunger by the year 2000 can be done. Tragically, for the almost 300 million people that have perished since the year 2000 from hunger, their words, although undoubtedly well meaning, proved to be an illusion. That “collective will that needed to be mobilized” as the Brandt Commission suggested never quite seemed to happen. The Brandt commission goal of ending hunger was very similar to the late United States President, John F Kennedy’s. In the early 1960s he laid out two ambitious goals for his nation: one was to get a man on the moon before the end of the decade; the other was to help eliminate hunger “within our lifetime.” The first goal was achieved with much fanfare and relatively easily it turned out, but what of the far more important goal of eliminating hunger, that goal continues to be as elusive as ever. WHY?

Once again, people who shared Kennedy’s vision of a hunger free world failed to act; apathy yet again reared its ugly presence. Kennedy’s idealism didn’t translate into realism as it turned out. People simply left the work to someone else. Apathy is a master at passing the buck. Being involved with food security issues and feeding the world was obviously not as important, prestigious and exciting as getting that first man on the moon. The United Nations (UN) has now also picked up the Brandt Commission and Kennedy’s vision of a hunger free world. Their millennial goals are of a world without hunger and poverty by 2030. It’s great that people, governments and organisations like the UN continue to shine a light on the plight of the poor and hungry, this must be continually encouraged. But until everyday people like you and me can shake off this tyranny of apathy that continues to strangle us and the hungry of the world then no amount of goals and target dates will solve the problem of global food security.

I find it intriguing, challenging and disturbing that we are now well into the 21st century and are still talking about food security. Not only in terms of how developed nations can help other poorer nations where 95% of hungry people reside, but now increasingly about how rich nations of today can secure our own future food security so we don’t become the hungry of tomorrow. The world is currently entering the 4th Industrial Revolution. Terms such as Virtual Reality, The Global Brain, Complete Connectivity, 3D Printing, The Internet of Things, Augmented Reality, Global Networks, 5G Technologies, Robotics, Singularity, Global Inter-Connectedness, Expanded Reality, etc. are now common vocabulary. Society is being re-shaped right now whether we are aware of it or not. We as the human family have gone through the other 3 previous revolutions and yet none of those supposed advancements have solved the hunger issue.

It is true each revolution has contributed in helping the hungry in some way, (especially the advent of machinery during the first Industrial Revolution) but now with this 21st century technological revolution we face the very real and present danger of technology adding to the crisis of a hungry world. The way I see this happening is once again through apathy. It’s apathy that’s delivered a world of injustice and inequality that allows nearly half of its inhabitants to suffer daily with the scourge of hunger in some form. What we are going to see with this technological revolution is an entire generation of people who are totally addicted to technology. Like any addiction it becomes all consuming, there’s simply no desire or time for tech addicts to be involved with issues such as food security. The persuasive and alluring pull of this 4th Industrial Revolution will not help the hungry of today, and it will ignore the hungry of tomorrow.

Apathy has the potential to rule this generation like none before, an incredibly frightening thought when it comes to feeding the world. Who is going to stand up, fight and work hard for global food security. If you are reading this right now, the world is counting on you to be a fighter. It’s people, not technology that will feed the world and solve the world’s food security. Fighting hunger and poverty will always be a vital, noble and worthwhile journey. Just as few people in the developed world have any concept of the suffering of the hungry in the developing world, so to do those same people have any concept of the danger that we are facing ourselves in regards to food security.

Most of the groups, organisations and government committees, etc. that are discussing ways that so-called wealthy developed nations can help other poorer nations, (which is a good thing, I’m not at all critical of that), have little or no idea that they themselves are not food secure. The developed world has been lulled into a false sense of security. The belief is that advanced learning, wealth, technology, mechanization etc., equates to ongoing food security, this flawed belief; I believe will be the developed world’s un-doing. As the saying goes “pride comes before a fall”.

I don’t want to sensationalise the issue of food security, or try to scare anyone unnecessarily, that’s not my aim at all. But it would be a dereliction of duty on my behalf if knowing what I know, I then failed to warn people of the coming danger. Knowing human nature, the majority of people will not take any notice of the warnings that myself and others are giving in regards to local and global food security. They will not be the least bit interested and will dismiss such dire warnings as scare-mongering. Others will simply take the ostrich approach and bury their heads in the sand and hope the issue goes away. Still others will just hope that someone else will solve the problem.

I firmly believe the inevitability of the coming food crisis is evidenced based. As we look at the various issues that are looming on the horizon (look at ISSUES tab on web sits) then I think you will come to the same conclusion. We can choose not to believe that global food security is not a serious issue and turn away, but when the food crisis hits you personally I hope you will be humble enough to say “ I refused the evidence so I deserve to be in this situation I’m now in of not having food.”

I also have to put my optimistic hat on and say that many people around the world will, once they see the evidence that myself and others are presenting to them will become modern day pioneers of food security. They will cast of the shackles of apathy and become food security trail – blazers. And we should remind ourselves that in any given crisis situation there are two key principles at work.

I discovered something very interesting about the word CRISIS when I was in China. The word crisis written in Chinese uses two symbols to make up the word. One symbol represents danger, that would come as no surprise to us, but the second symbol represents opportunity.

So there are two opposite truths at work in a crisis situation. Danger, which can bring reactions like fear, sorrow, anxiety etc. Opportunity that can bring us reactions like hope, victory, joy etc. In any crisis situation and the issue of food security is no different there are these two truths at work that can present us with either positive or negative outcomes.

I’m of the view that as we start to act at a local and global level on food security issues we are going to see tremendous opportunities for many positive outcomes on many different fronts. I’ve already experienced many positives in my 25 years of being involved with food security.  I’m really looking forward to experiencing many more as the years go by that hopefully others that pick up the food security baton and take action we can share with each other.

 

What possible positives could really come out of a food security crisis? You may ask. Isn’t that just some sort of spin? We are all used to political spin, but food security spin is a new one. I could name dozens of positives such as the joy of helping someone in need, the accomplishment of growing your own food and saving your own seeds, getting off the treadmill of modern life and smelling the roses, becoming healthier mentally and physically by eating good food. That’s just a small sample of positive outcomes, theres dozens more that could be added to this list.

 

                                              THE MYTH OF THE SINGLE CAUSE OF HUNGER

 

The only simple statement we can make about the global hunger issue is this – people are hungry because they don’t have enough food to eat! When we start to dig a bit deeper as to the reasons why so many people are hungry, we start to discover that there can be many factors, often inter-related as to the causes of hunger and why so many people globally are continually affected by hunger in the 21st century.

Issues such as poverty, (no money to buy food), war and social unrest, food distribution, corruption, (individual, government and corporate greed), lack of a social security safety net, homelessness, poorly targeted aid programs, illiteracy, lack of social services, population growth, materialism, unemployment, no access to land, inequalities in social structures, trade priorities, modern day colonialism of countries by business, government policies, apathy on the part of the well-fed, cultural practices, religion, water shortages, effective food storage systems, injustice and inequality, lack of technical assistance, adoption of unsuitable farming practices, trade policies… the list goes on.

Suffice to say, the issue of global hunger can be a complex one and targeting one area of concern in regards to hunger may not have the overall effect of abolishing it. In saying that, if more and more people get involved with helping the hungry in whatever area of interest they deem necessary then we all start to play a powerful collective role in fighting global hunger.

                                                           YOU GIVE THEM SOMETHING TO EAT
                                                                         (Christian World View)

Jesus saw that the masses of people following Him were hungry, so what did He do?

He FED them.

But that’s not quite the full story. There’s one crucial detail that’s been left out that completely changes the entire narrative. If it were a simple case of Jesus demonstrating His Lordship over the physical realm by miraculously feeding the multitudes of hungry people, then that would let Christians off the hook to some extent. We could, as Christians, have cause to perhaps make excuses as to why we could not possibly replicate our Master and Lord, turning this miraculous event into a theological debate as we do today. Jesus caught His disciples off guard 2000 years ago and He’s still catching us off guard today.

At the end of a teaching session about the arrival of the Kingdom of God by Jesus on the shores of lake Galilee, the people were hungry and tired. The evening had arrived and it seemed it was time for their journey back to their respective hometowns and villages. But was it? After following Jesus around for days and listening to His words on the arrival of the Kingdom of God, Jesus was not about to send them home hungry and just as importantly, without a sign that His words teaching them about His Kingdoms arrival was in fact true.

First century Israel had and was suffering the same plight as we do today – words without action. The disciples were observant enough to at least recognise everyone was tired and hungry and they came up with a simple solution to the people’s needs. There suggestion to Jesus was to:

“Send the multitudes away, that they may go into the villages and buy food.”  
(Matthew 14:15)

A plan without a great deal of creativity, compassion or thought. To send them away hungry would have been bad enough, but then to tell the hungry masses (many of whom were very poor and had no money) to buy food – that being hungry was their problem, was really rubbing salt into the wounds. Does that sound familiar? Here we are 2000 years later and we are still trying to send the hungry away. We make excuses as to why we can’t help them when we all know we’ve never had more material, physical and spiritual resources in human history to tackle this problem.

Jesus had been teaching the poor and hungry that the Kingdom of God had arrived, it was a present reality. Not just something to be claimed as we pass from this world to the next. The disciples had also sat under the Kingdom teaching, but it seemed at that particular moment in time it was lost on them.

The Kingdom of God refers to God’s rule of grace in the world – a period foretold by the prophets of the Old Testament and identified by Jesus as beginning with His Ministry. A conquered and downtrodden Israel looked forward to the day when God the King would display His power and might to establish His Kingdom of peace and righteousness on the earth. His deliverance, most believed, would be associated with the coming of a Davidic type king – one that would conquer Israel’s enemies by force.

In many striking ways, Jesus proclaimed that He was the fulfillment of the Old Testament expectations of God’s deliverance. In fact to highlight that truth, He chose to officially launch the beginning of His ministry with a direct quote from the Old Testament prophet Isaiah, to the shock and bewilderment of His audience.

Then Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and news of Him went out through the entire surrounding region. And He taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all. So He came to Nazareth, where He had been bought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read. And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He opened the book, He found the place where it is written:

The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind. To set at liberty those who are oppressed, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.

Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were upon Him.

And He began to say to them, “today the scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

So all bore witness to Him, and marveled at the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth. And they said, “Is this not Joseph’s son?”

(Luke 4: 14-22)

Well, I think you could have heard a pin drop after that announcement, stunned silence. Their mumbling about Jesus being Joseph’s son gave it away. There was more than a little disbelief at the claims that Jesus put on His Kingship – total disbelief would be more accurate. This was not exactly the arrival of their all-conquering, all-powerful warrior king that would sovereignty deliver them from the yoke and bondage of Roman rule that they had pictured in their minds.

A servant king was unheard of. Aren’t kings meant to divide and conquer? What king in the history of humanity has ever been ordained to heal the brokenhearted, feed the hungry, preach deliverance to the oppressed – this was some very weird and strange stuff. Jesus at a later date expanded on this whole concept of servant hood to His disciples.

But Jesus called them to Himself and said to them, “You know that those who are considered rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant. And whoever of you desires to be first shall be slave of all.

For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and give His life a ransom for many.

(Mark 10:42-45)

 

So we see the ministry of the Son of God, Jesus Christ as being threefold. He is Saviour, High Priest and King. But the astonishing thing is that all those titles are wrapped up in one job description, SERVANT. The early disciples of Jesus seem to have been continually struggling with this concept of the Kingdom of God being a visible reality bought about through the ministry of Jesus and expressed through them as servants to a hurting world. They seem to have preferred the tried and tested option of taking up arms and violently bringing in God’s Kingdom by force.

Now it came to pass, when the time had come for Him to be received up, He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem, and sent messengers before His face. And as they went, they entered a village of the Samaritans, to prepare for Him. But they did not receive Him, because his face was set for the journey to Jerusalem.

And when His disciples James and John saw this, they said, “Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them, just as Elijah did?”

But he turned and rebuked them, and said, “you do not know what manner of spirit you are of.”

“For the son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives but to save them.”

(Luke: 9:51-56)

You can almost feel and sense the frustration in Jesus’ voice. Here He was about to lay His life down to redeem humanity and the disciples were still trying to bring in the Kingdom by violent and physical force. The notion of feeding people, healing the broken-hearted, helping widows and orphans was far from their minds.

Back to the disciple’s dilemma on the shores of Lake Galilee when confronted with thousands of hungry people and deciding the best cause of action was to send them away. Jesus, after hearing the disciples three-fold master plan on food security (Step 1 – Send them away Step 2 – Excuse themselves from helping Step 3 – Pass the problem to someone else) decided to put them to the test. Had they really been listening to His Kingdom teaching and were they ready to apply that teaching? Jesus gathered His disciples around Him, looked them all in the eye and said:

“They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.”  
(Mathew 14:16)

I would have loved to have seen the look on their faces at that moment. I think it would have been a look of shock, bewilderment and anxiety. I could imagine a long pause of silence as they tried to comprehend what their Lord had just told them to do. Their minds would have been racing with their Lord’s far-fetched demands. They looked out at the crowd of more than 5000 people and then down at the tiny amount of food they had. It simply didn’t make any sense. Our Lord has told us not to send the crowd away and then asked us personally to actually feed them ourselves. Impossible. Then one of them plucked up the courage and conveyed to Jesus their dilemma:

“ We have here only five loaves and two fish.”
(Mathew 14:17)

They made the mistake of seeing what they didn’t have (not enough food to feed everyone) rather than seeing what they did have (access to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords – Jesus Christ.) Through Jesus, there would be an abundance of food for everyone. Jesus then said to His disciples:

“Bring them here to Me.”
(Mathew 14:18)

The rest is history as they say. Jesus fed the multitudes; miraculously turning those five loaves and two fish into enough food to feed not only all the people there but actually have more left over than when He started. The scripture declared,

“So they all ate and were filled, and they took up twelve baskets full of the fragments that remained.” (Mathew 14:20)

We are still making the same mistake today as the early disciples did – not fully understanding what the Kingdom of God is. Looking down at what we don’t have instead of looking up and seeing what we do have. People being fed were in fact the evidence that what Jesus had been teaching was in fact true. The Kingdom of God is NOW. True, it’s also tomorrow and every other day that remains until Jesus returns – but the point of the feeding of the multitudes was to demonstrate the Kingdoms present reality.  

Without that miracle, the hungry masses obviously would have left the scene hungry, but more importantly realised that this Jesus, that many were calling the Son of God, was in fact a hoax – yet another charlatan in a long and inglorious line up of self-appointed Messiah’s. It’s in that context that the command of Jesus to his followers becomes clear.

“They do not need to go away, You give them something to eat.”
(Matthew 14:16)

The Lord Jesus was giving them an on the job crash course in the simplicity and practicality of Kingdom theology. If someone is hungry, feed them – it’s as simple as that.

No boring hour long sermon, no holy water or smoke, no two hour prayer meeting, no rosemary beads, no bible study, no annoying televangelist asking for more money, no creed recitals, no ridiculous robes and hats, no crazy recitals of the Hail Mary, no self-appointed you-tube prophets, no books, videos and worship music, no bible college or seminary, no chanting monks or any other totally meaningless religious duty needed for this lesson to be taught. Just a good old-fashioned practical demonstration of Almighty God’s power at work. It was a demonstration of God’s Kingdom on earth that took everyone by surprise.

Even John the Baptist who at first recognised Jesus as the promised Messiah at His Jordan river baptism, started to have doubts. John was wallowing in Herod’s dungeon over those couple of intervening years since that Jordan River encounter. He, no doubt was growing impatient that no visible sign (at least in his eyes) of God’s promised and much-anticipated Kingdom had eventuated. He, like most Jewish people were awaiting God’s sovereign destruction of the Roman empire and every other empire that would dare question Israel’s sole right as a nation to exclusive access to God.

But it was simply not happening. What the heck was going on? The Jewish nation was still under bondage. Or was it? In fact those doubts grew so strong that he thought perhaps he had got it wrong about Jesus being the anointed one, the promised Messiah. He sent some of his followers to check things out.

“And John, calling two of his disciples to him, sent them to Jesus, saying, “Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?” When the men had come to Him, they said, “ John the Baptist has sent us to You, saying, are You the Coming One, or do we look for another? “ And that very hour He cured many people of their infirmities, afflictions, and evil spirits; and to many who were blind He gave sight.

Then Jesus answered and said to them, “Go tell John the things you have seen and heard: that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the death hear, the dead are raised, the poor have the gospel preached to them. And blessed is he who is not offended because of Me.”

(Luke 7: 19-23)

If it wasn’t clear before, it was now. The Kingdom of God, His visible rule on earth was not going to be a demonstration of political or military might. It’s a practical demonstration of a changed life through faith in Jesus Christ. Just as Jesus is the visible expression of the invisible God, so to would the Gospel of the Kingdom of God is a visible expression of God’s rule on earth is visibly manifested in the hearts and lives of people.

Jesus exhorts His followers to listen to the things He said, but even more importantly replicate the things He does. If we do this then we find Kingdom truth and the invisible God of the universe and eternity miraculously appears right before our very eyes. God the Father is no longer a mystery.

One of Jesus disciples, Philip, having listened to Jesus and seen His miracles with his very own eyes was still a little confused. The revelation and unveiling of the Kingdom of God was being rolled out right before Philips very own eyes but he struggled to see it just as the other disciples did. Jesus, the Son of God was demonstrating His Fathers Kingdom and will to be carried out on earth in all its power and glory – yet Philip couldn’t quite grasp it.

Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going, and how can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. If you had know Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him.”

Philip said to Him, “Lord show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.” Jesus said to him, “ Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father, so how can you say, ‘ Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority, but the Father who dwells in Me does the works.

Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves.

(John 14: 5-11)

Are we a bit like our brother Philip today? Are we struggling to understand the true meaning and application of the Gospel of the Kingdom?  Has our Gospel been lost in a sea of mere words? It’s been said a picture is worth a thousand words and a practical demonstration is worth a thousand pictures. Jesus was effectively saying to Philip and the rest of his disciples; “Look guys, I’m feeding the hungry – if you’re struggling to comprehend what I’m saying, at least believe what you’re seeing.”

Saint Francis of Assisi has commonly had this quote attributed to him; “Preach the Gospel at all times, if necessary use words”. We shouldn’t diminish the use of truthful Gospel words whether in written or verbal form in any way. God calls evangelists, pastors, prophets, apostles and teachers, indeed all of us, to speak out fearlessly on behalf of the Gospel. Look at the influence Christian evangelists like Billy Graham and Reinard Bonke have had in bringing millions of people to a saving faith in Jesus. Not to mention all the millions of Christians throughout the world who just share their faith in a quiet way to family and friends but go unrecognized by everyone, but not God.

Even Francis of Assisi was reported by observers to be a fiery Spirit filled preacher in the mold of a Jonathan Edwards or Billy Sunday who would commonly go into towns and villages and preach the Gospel three or four times a day. So let’s not make the mistake of saying our words and our writings don’t have importance and significance for use in Kingdom work. They do.

To try and make the case we should speak and write less about The Gospel of the Kingdom is to argue against the truth itself. The Gospel, by its very nature will always have a verbal or written component.

How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written:

“How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things.”

(Romans 10:14-15)

 

For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two- edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

(Hebrews 4:12)

Where would we all be today without the bible itself for example, God’s written word to us? Where would we all be without fiery, uncompromising Gospel preaching? As we sit in our churches today, I really believe some good old-fashioned fiery Gospel preaching is desperately needed. The blood of Jesus, the cross, repentance, hell’s eternal reality, the Kingdom priority in our lives are all subjects to name a few that need to be proclaimed. How many times do we leave church on a Sunday morning and just say, “oh that was a nice sermon,” then to simply walk out the door and forget it one minute later.

I wonder how a Jonathon Edwards would go today preaching one of his sermons like “sinners in the hands of an angry God”. Apparently, as Jonathon preached this sermon the conviction of sin and it’s eternal consequences (if not dealt with) was so profound on its listeners that many found themselves grabbing hold of their seats to stop themselves literally falling into the lake of fire and suffering the eternal damnation of hell. The rush to the front of the church when the alter call came for people to receive Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour bears testimony to just how powerful our words can be if they are inspired by God. That’s what you call real Spirit filled preaching.

Yes indeed, our words, written and spoken, said or unsaid do have great significance.

I believe what Saint Francis of Assisi was really alluding to in his reference to “only using words if necessary” in our proclamation of the Gospel was to highlight not to neglect the other part of the Gospel. Saint Francis knew this to be the visible signs of God’s Kingdom’s presence on earth bought about through the physical actions of God’s people.                                                                                                                              

It’s all about balance; it’s not a case of “words versus actions,” or “body versus soul,” or “spiritual versus practical.” The true Gospel of the Kingdom embraces all facets of life – both on earth and eternally. They in effect are different sides of the same coin. There is an interwoven harmony between both. We see this perfect balance between words and action demonstrated by Gods own example.                                                                                                                                                                                 

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.

In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

(John 1:1-5,14)

So the word of God did not remain merely words, they became an action in the form of His Son, Jesus Christ. The early church as recorded in the book of Acts were able to get that balance right. Their words matched their deeds. That’s why they were so effective. The evidence as to the authenticity of the Gospel they were proclaiming was there for all to see. The hungry were fed, the homeless housed, the sick and lonely cared for. And if needs be they were quite prepared to die for the truth. And did.

Steven was so convinced of the Gospel’s reality that he was more than prepared to die for it. And not just to die for it, but die with a smile on his face and ask forgiveness for his attackers as the rocks rained down on him. He was accused of being a Christian by the religious rulers of the day. Instead of denying it and saving his own skin, he proceeded to give them an epic sermon on their sinful natures and how Jesus could heal and forgive them, if only they would turn to Him. (It’s still the best sermon ever preached, not just for it’s content but the fact Steven knew as he preached, it may well be his last. Check out Acts Chapter 7.) This infuriated them even more and the fate of the churches first martyr was sealed. The Gospel of the Kingdom to Steven was more than words, he was prepared to act with his very life if needs be.

So the accusation of being a Christian by the religious zealots against Steven was made. The evidence for his guilt was undeniable. The Christians had turned the world upside down (Acts 17:6). You can’t get any more conclusive evidence than that. The sentence was handed down- Steven must die. And he did – with a forgiving spirit and a smile on his face as he passed into God’s eternal Kingdom. Steven knew the reality of both God’s earthly Kingdom and His heavenly Kingdom.

And all who sat in the council, looking steadfastly at him, saw his face as the face of an angel.

And they stoned Steven as he was calling on God and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not charge them with this sin.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep.

(Acts 6:15, 7:59-60)

 

If the church today, the body of believers in Christ from every denomination were accused of being Christians and hauled before a judge and jury as Steven was, would there be enough evidence to convict us? Or would the prosecutor have the case thrown out of court through lack of evidence? The thought of our lives lacking any real Christian substance should send a shiver down our spines. A lack of evidence in our lives as to the authenticity of our faith should send us to the throne of God in prayer and repentance. Asking for the Lord’s grace, mercy and forgiveness in our lives and the empowerment to reignite our walk with Him. I know personally the only words I want to hear when I depart this world, or if I’m living in the generation of believers that will be “caught up” at Jesus return is;

“His lord said to him, well done, good and faithful servant, you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your Lord”.

(Matthew 25:21)

The Gospel of the Kingdom of God, His rule of grace in this world and identified by Jesus as beginning with His ministry is evidenced based. Through His words and deeds the Gospel was proclaimed. It’s almost as if for every word Jesus spoke there was an act of compassion that went with it. His life was a perfect demonstration of the harmony and balance between words and actions. John ends his Gospel with these thoughts;                                                                                                

This is the disciple who testifies of these things, and wrote these things, and we know that his testimony is true. And there are also many other things that Jesus did, which if they were written one by one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. Amen.

(John 21:25)

Wow, this is the sort of Christianity I could get used to. Visible action, not just a sea of words. I have no idea how Jesus fed so many people, that’s why it’s a miracle, but the shear exhilarating excitement to have been there to see it would have been quite something. But what’s even more amazing than that is we can spend the rest of our earthly lives replicating that very same miracle. You would think that miracles like the feeding of thousands of people with just a few fish and a couple of loaves of bread would be impossible to match, let alone surpass. But Jesus Himself told His disciples that they themselves would do even greater miracles. I’m sure after witnessing Jesus feed the multitudes His followers must have been astonished at that statement and it’s implications.

“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also, and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. And whatever you ask in My name that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.”

(John 14: 12-14)

How would this be possible? Greater works than our Master and Lord! Impossible, or is it? Jesus knew the real miracle was unlocking the human heart in order to allow the power of Almighty God to flow through us. Jesus was restricted in His earthly ministry by time and space, He was but one. But He knew the day was fast approaching when every believer would be baptized by His Spirit. On that day there would be an army of Christians to carry out His will. Instead of just Jesus Himself feeding the hungry, and fighting poverty, injustice and inequality, now we all can all be involved. That’s where the, “greater miracles will you do” becomes a reality. Jesus’ earthly body was just one, but now His body is represented by hundreds of millions of Christians around the world. Jesus fed a few thousand we can feed millions today if we want to.

I mentioned in the Project Genesis introduction about the miracle of the power of seeds (see graphic). One pumpkin seed if grown and then the seed collected and grown again, will in just four years feed the entire planet. When Jesus looked with His disciples on the shores of Lake Galilee and asked them, and us today to “feed the multitudes”, He knew exactly what He asked could be done if His followers obeyed.

It’s also important to note that God did not send Jesus into the world just to be a performer of miracles. If that’s all the Father wanted then He could have performed an infinite number of miracles Himself without sending His only begotten Son. The mission of Jesus was to redeem humanity and introduce the Kingdoms arrival, first through Himself, then through His followers. The miracles that Jesus performed were a sign to His disciples and the world at large that God’s Kingdom had broken through. As we perform greater miracles today, such as feeding millions of hungry people, and securing the global seed recourses of the world that God has blessed humanity with, that too is a sign the Kingdom is here and continually growing.

That’s why Christians should be the leading proponents of local and global food security today. As God’s representatives on earth it’s our role to proclaim through our God empowered actions that the Gospel of the Kingdom is here and now. God wants to use you and me to bring about His Kingdom on earth, now that’s real food for thought. Of course this was not the first mention to the disciples of the reality of Gods present Kingdom as He was talking with his disciples on the shores of lake Galilee. Jesus had been steadily plugging away with this teaching for a while now. This is the extended version:

First, the Kingdom can only be received and seen by faith. The term that Jesus used for this process to begin is being “Born–Again”  (John 3:3).

There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemas, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him”

Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

Second, the Kingdom of God is now. No need to wait for it to arrive with fanfare and bells and whistles. It’s within each and every “Born- Again,” Christ believing person (Luke 7: 20-21).

Now when he was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He answered them and said, “The kingdom of God does not come with observation, nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’ For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.”

 

Third, the Kingdom of God is free. No exorbitant university fees to pay here (Matthew 10:7-8).

“And as you go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, and cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.

Forth, the Kingdom of God doesn’t’ discriminate. No need to be well educated and rich to move in this Kingdoms power (sorry to burst you prosperity teacher’s bubbles). Brother Peter, a poor, uneducated fisherman can vouch for this (Acts 3:6).

Then Peter said, “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give to you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.”

Fifth, what the Kingdom of God looks like. There’s no haves and have not’s in God’s Kingdom. Inequality is consigned to the rubbish bin of history, justice rules supreme. If another Christian is hungry or lacks the daily necessities of life, the Kingdom kicks into action (Acts 4:34).

Nor was there anyone among them who lacked, for all who were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and bought the proceeds of the things that were sold, and laid them at the apostles feet, and they distributed to each as anyone had need.

Sixth, the Kingdom of God is mingled with this fallen world (Mathew 13: 24-25).

Another parable He put forth to them, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field, but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way.”

Seventh, the Kingdom of God will finally be completed at the Lords return. The glimpses we currently get of the Kingdom are but a tantalizing entrée to the main course. The Kingdom starts for us the instant we receive Christ as our Lord and Saviour, and finds its ultimate fulfillment at His return with the unveiling of His and our eternal home (Revelation 21: 1-4).

And I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God.

And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes, there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying; and there shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”

Eighth, the Kingdom of God is a treasure beyond measure (Matthew 13: 44).

“Again the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid, and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.”

 

Ninth, the Kingdom of God should be our priority in this earthly life (Matthew 6:33).

“But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble”.

You may notice Jesus uses the terms Kingdom of God and Kingdom of Heaven interchangeably. They both reference God’s rule on earth in the hearts and lives of Christians and His eternal rule at the end of the age. As if to reinforce the importance of the teaching of the Kingdom of God, Jesus, when asked by the disciples to teach them to pray, gave them what we now know as the Lord’s Prayer.

 

Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.                                                                                                                                          Your kingdom come.                                                                                                                                                          Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.                                                                                                            Give us this day our daily bread.                                                                                                                                     And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.                                                                                                   And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one.                                                                         For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

(Matthew 6: 9-13)

The part I specifically want to focus on is the Kingdom teaching. Your kingdom COME. Your will be done on EARTH as it is in HEAVEN. This expresses God’s desire and longing for a society on earth where His will is done on this earth just as perfectly as it is done in heaven.  Heaven in the Bible is described as a place of ultimate love, peace, beauty and worship. It is God’s abode. His very own glory is heavens light. A place where there is no more hunger, poverty, war, depression, cruelty, sickness or want of any kind. No more death, indeed God Himself will wipe all our tears away. It’s the ultimate reality. Our brother Paul found it difficult to describe heaven when God took him there:

It is doubtless not profitable for me to boast. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord.                           I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago – whether in the body I do not know, or whether out of the body I do not know, God knows – such a one was caught up to the third heaven.

And I know such a man – whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows – how he was caught up into Paradise and heard inexpressible words which is not lawful for a man to utter. Of such a one I will boast; yet of myself I will not boast, except in my infirmities. For though I might desire to boast, I will not be a fool; for I will speak the truth. But I forbear, lest anyone should think of me above what he sees me to be or hears from me.

(2 Corinthians 12: 1-6)

 

Our beloved brother in Christ, the Apostle Paul, was lost for words trying to describe his heavenly encounter. It had such a profound effect on him that he was desperate to get back there.

For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. But if I live on in the flesh, this will mean fruit from my labour; yet what I shall choose I cannot tell. For I am hard pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ which is far better.

(Philippians 1: 21-23)

 

But as it is written: “ Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” But God has revealed them to us through his Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes the deep things of God.

(1 Corinthians 2: 9-10)

Paul’s account of his heavenly trip and his subsequent desire to get back there as quickly as possible bears testimony to the shear and utter magnificence of God’s eternal home. If you hear the testimonies of other people whom the Lord has allowed to visit heaven and return to this present world, they all share Paul’s experience.

They all tell, like our brother Paul’s testimony of a far heightened sense of consciousness, the reality of heaven when they are there is far more real than the consciousness they experience back here on earth of this temporal reality (check out you-tube testimonies). It’s also interesting to note that they also share Paul’s thoughts of not wanting to come back to this earthly realm once they have experienced the heavenly realm. I only know one person personally that has been to heaven and their testimony is identical, they didn’t want to depart and return to earth again. The presence of God and the perfect bliss of heaven is just too good to leave.

Conversely, it should also be noted of the absolute terror and fear of people whom God has allowed to visit hell. These testimonies are beyond terrifying, they are just too horrific in the extreme. No human being I believe can possibly comprehend just how shocking the eternal damnation of hell is. Hell was created by God as punishment for the devil and his demons, not people. God the Father sent Jesus to pay the penalty for our individual and collective sin. Tragically, so many people use their God given free will to choose death (eternal separation from God) instead of life. To choose darkness instead of light. To choose lies instead of truth.

I hope and pray with all my heart if your reading this and don’t know Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Saviour, to repent and ask God’s forgiveness for the remission of your sin. Once you do that you will have a future just like brother Paul and millions of other past saints that are enjoying heaven today. You will also join the rest of us living today in sharing a foretaste of Gods eternal kingdom now, and also looking forward to our shared heavenly future together. Don’t let pride and unbelief stop you from making the greatest and most exciting decision of your life. Perhaps it could be said that when our desire for heaven is greater than our desire for the riches and comforts of this world, it’s at that point that we become genuine Kingdom Christians.

Back to my point of the Lord’s Prayer. God desires His will to be done on this earth just as it is in heaven. Every Christian should be working towards an earthly utopia here and now. A world without hunger and thirst, poverty and injustice, war and strife. A world where the worship of Almighty God is paramount. Not waiting idly by for an apocalyptic, end of days vision to take place.

Does that mean we will achieve our utopian dream world in this life? No, we won’t. We live in a fallen world with perhaps the majority of people continuing to use their God given free will to reject the truth and therefore the Lordship of Christ in their lives. The world will continue to show the signs of its fallen nature but we are still urged by God to go to the ends of the earth and be Kingdom seekers and builders as a witness to all the world of the impending reality of God’s eternal kingdom.

For all those Christians that are comfortably waiting for the pre–tribulation rapture and frantically studying every sign from Daniel to Mathew 24 through to the book of Revelation to prove their point, I’ve got some good news and some bad news for you. The good news first; you may well be right in your interpretation of end time events. I’m not 100% convinced you are – I certainly hope you are, but I’m just not as convinced as some.

Now to the bad news – it doesn’t matter! Don’t get me wrong, I find bible prophecy absolutely fascinating and exciting. The second coming of Christ, the end of the age and God’s eternal rule is the most talked about doctrine in the New Testament. So we know it’s important to God that we as Christians are aware of the signs of the times. But the whole point of being aware of the times in which we live is not to waste precious time in pin-pointing and debating the exact time of Jesus return. It’s actually to focus and motivate us to greater service for the Gospel of the Kingdom.

Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” And He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority”.

(Acts 1: 6-7)

Let’s ask ourselves a hypothetical question. If we knew 100% that the Lord Jesus was returning next week would we change our lives? I know I would. I reckon ALL my money, talents, energy and time would be totally devoted to Kingdom work in that final week, knowing in seven days time I would be meeting the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, Jesus Christ (please don’t take my personal answer to this hypothetical question as some form of doctrinal statement; it’s just more of a thought bubble).

If you answered no then in my opinion you are one of two things. First, totally deluded. Second, truly blessed. God desires we live in a state of continual readiness abounding in the work of the Gospel. Every main stream Christian denomination from the Catholic church to all the dozens of Protestant churches believe the same thing, namely; THE LORD JESUS CHRIST IS COMING BACK to judge the living and the dead and to establish His eternal reign on earth.

At some point in time, Jesus will eventually return to this fallen world and establish His eternal kingdom on this earth. He Himself will totally regenerate it and return it to the pre-fall Eden paradise. No one knows the day or the hour that this will happen, only God.

“Now learn this parable from the fig tree; When it’s branch has already become tender and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near. So you also, when you see all these things, know that it is near, at the very doors.

Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things are fulfilled. Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.

But of that day and hour no one knows, no, not even the angels of heaven, but my Father only.”

(Matthew 24: 36)

God does not expect us, nor want us to waste countless hours, days, weeks, months, years, decades, generations and millennia over pointless speculations and calculations as to the precise events and timing of His second advent. It can easily divert us from our primary role: being Kingdom seekers and builders. How many hungry children are fed by us knowing any of this? NONE. That’s the tragedy of it. If that’s the case why does the bible focus so much on the Lord Jesus second advent? I think we could probably site two main reasons.

Firstly, to remind believers God’s plan for humanity is eternal, not temporal. To constantly be reminded of that truth as the scriptures do through the second advent teaching serves to guard our hearts, minds and souls. It’s a dangerous thing indeed to be to earthly minded. God wants us to be spiritually minded, looking up to Him where we find true life and purpose. Not down at the world and ourselves where we can become confused, manipulated, led astray, despondent and discouraged. God has glorious plans for each one of us, and they are eternal, not temporal.

Second, as I already have mentioned which in turn is linked closely to the first reason, this knowledge should then provide us with a sense of urgency and expectancy to be busy about the Lords work. Our priority in our earthly life, in the light of the imminent return of the Lord should be the work of the “Gospel of the Kingdom of God.” But there is one vital question that Jesus does ask all His followers to be able to answer in regards to His second coming, namely; When He returns will he find faith on the earth? Will we be found as faithful servants proclaiming and building His Kingdom on earth? Or heaven forbid, we all get caught with our spiritual pants down.

“ And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them? I tell you the truth he will avenge them speedily, nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?”

(Luke 18: 7-8)

 

“Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his household, to give them food in due season? Blessed is that servant whom his master, when he comes will find so doing.”

(Matthew 24: 45-46)

Are we being faithful and wise servants? Are we involved in food security issues? Are we helping to “provide food in due season?” to our own families and fellow believers?  Will we be actively involved in feeding people when our Master returns? If we are then we will be blessed. We may throw our hands in the air and declare, “The problem of hunger is so complex, so enormous – what reason do we have for hope?” The answer is that we Christians do not place our hope and trust  in the latest hunger study or UN projections, or some social scientist’s analysis of how things may turn out in five, ten or twenty years. Christians ground their faith and hope in God, and believe the future is with His Kingdom, however and whenever it comes.

No efforts in regards to food security, whether small or large consistent with this hope are wasted. They are signs of the Kingdom and through them God does His work. The Christian understanding of sinful human nature should spare us from the illusions that can quickly turn today’s food security crusaders into tomorrow’s skeptics.

And that Christian faith, trust and hope in our God should give us staying power long after many others have become discouraged or moved on to the next cause.

One of my hero’s in the faith is a man named Hudson Taylor. He took the Gospel to China in the mid 1800’s. He started the China Inland Mission. Against seemingly impossible odds he endured hardships and heartbreaks but continued on anyway to proclaim the arrival of the Kingdom of God in China. Today China, supposedly a godless communist nation is the quickest growing Christian nation on earth. Who said there’s no hope?

Hudson Taylor gave us in my opinion one of the most memorable and incite full Christian quotes ever penned; “God doesn’t need men and women of great faith, He simply needs men and women who have a simple trust in His great faithfulness”. When Jesus commanded His followers to feed the multitudes, (Matthew 14) they definitely at first were stunned and overawed just as we are today. But within a few short years they had achieved their Lords request (Acts 4).

When we look at the hungry of the world and the work involved with local and global food security to fight it, let’s not get discouraged, but take Hudson Taylors advice and example as our guide. Let’s put our little bit of simple trust in God’s great faithfulness. God will provide all we need to get the job done.       It’s His will to see people set free of the misery of hunger and protect our own food security future. Let’s not suffer paralysis by analysis. God wants the job done, let’s just go for it.

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             But we may ask; didn’t Jesus Himself at times show a certain amount of resignation as to the fallen and futile state of the world, and perhaps He even questioned His own follower’s ability to make a difference? After all, as many Christians seem to be increasingly fond of pointing out, Jesus Himself declared; “For you have the poor with you always.”

Those Christians that use that pitiful excuse to do nothing are also guilty of only using a verse out of that particular passage we are becoming so fond of quoting. And then to rub salt into the wounds of our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ that are hungry and poor, we decline very conveniently to cast a discerning eye over the context and application of that entire scriptural passage. Just to set the record straight, here’s what the Lord Jesus actually said:

And being in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper, as He sat at the table, a woman came having an alabaster flask of very costly oil of spikenard. And she broke the flask and poured it on His head. But there were some who were indignant among themselves, and said, “why was this fragrant oil wasted? For it might have been sold for more than three hundred denarii and given to the poor.” And they criticized her sharply.

But Jesus said, “let her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a good work for Me.

For you have the poor with you always, and whenever you wish you may do them good, but Me you do not have always.

She has done what she could. She has come beforehand to anoint My body for burial. Assuredly, I say to you wherever this gospel is preached throughout the whole world, what this woman did will also be spoken of as a memorial to her.”

(Mark 14: 3-9)

The whole point of this passage of scripture when taken in its full context is actually the opposite of our thinking that Jesus is trying to somehow let us off the hook by implying poverty and hunger are too intransient to fix. Jesus actually tells us we can, and should help the poor “whenever we wish”. He then praises the woman’s extravagance at her gift for Him. The fragrant oil was worth 300 denarii. To get that in perspective 1 denarii was an average days wage. So the woman effectively spent one year’s salary on her gift to Jesus.

He declares that she had “done a good work for Him” and also “had done what she could.” Jesus was so amazed by her generosity that He even declared that what she had done would be “a memorial to her.” High praise indeed. So let’s now look at this scripture from the right perspective and apply it to ourselves. Do we have our Lord’s glowing praise for our generosity in fighting hunger and poverty? Can we say that we’ve done all we can to alleviate the plight of the poor and needy? Will we have a memorial left to us because of our love and generosity in helping our brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus.

If the answer to those questions is no then that’s the point of this whole scriptural passage. It’s to convict and motivate us to greater service, not to make excuses why we shouldn’t bother.

The early disciple’s blindness in regards to themselves being Kingdom seekers and builders and feeding the hungry masses was fortunately only temporary. They eventually got the picture and started the world’s first official true brand of communism. Their brand made what passes for communism today look positively weak, pathetic and insipid. The redistribution of wealth was actually practiced amongst the early church, if anyone was in need of food, clothing or shelter then that need was immediately met, no questions asked.

And talk about zealots, they were so committed to the literal interpretation of what Jesus their Lord and Master had told them to do, that they actually did it. Marx, Lennon, Mao Setung would have been totally shocked by the zeal and audacity of the early disciples in carrying out their mission of equality for all. No man, woman or child should go hungry in Gods Kingdom, and they didn’t.

Nor was there anyone among them who lacked, for all who were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the proceeds of the things that were sold, and laid them at the apostles feet, and they distributed to each as anyone had need.

(Acts 3: 34)

If only the communist despots of the world along with every other despot that has inflicted so much misery on the world over the centuries, and still are today, had taken the time to read their bible properly. Of course history proves that in reality those despots of yesterday and today were never really interested in equality for all. As for the redistribution of wealth, that was something that they definitely were very interested in, only their version of wealth redistribution was taking from everyone and giving it to themselves. They couldn’t even match Robin Hood’s version of wealth redistribution in taking from the rich and giving it to the poor. They just take from everyone.

To be fare to the modern day socialists and communists they are at a distinct disadvantage to Gods brand of communism on a number of fronts. First, God is the creator of the world and He owns this world and everything in it already.  

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

(Genesis 1: 1)

Second, God is empowering His people to fulfill His purposes

“But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

(Acts 1: 8)

 

Third, God has written Himself into the script. Not out of it as many have. Jesus Christ is alive and well.     

“Now is the judgment of this world, now the ruler of this world will be cast out. And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself.

The former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, until the day in which He was taken up, after He through the Holy Spirit had given commandments to the apostles whom He had chosen, to Whom He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during fourty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.

(John 12:32, Acts 1: 1-3)

All our modern day ISMS, whether they be Communism, Socialism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Zionism, Terrorism etc., and every other cult and false religion attract followers by the billions, even today, are a total lie. How do I know that?  Look at their woeful track record of delivering only misery, conflict and injustice. The very things they supposedly proclaim they will solve. They are all simply man’s vain attempt to ultimately try to replicate God’s plan for a world with a society free of injustice, inequality and misery.

But what of today’s church? Are we delivering on God’s plans to bring about His Kingdom’s reality on this earth (thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven)? An absolutely amazing statement was made about the early church, we’ve already looked at it a couple of times but it’s so astounding I’ll repeat it.

Now the multitude of those who believed were of one heart and one soul, neither did anyone say that any of the things he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common.

And with great power the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And great grace was upon them all.

Nor was there anyone among them who LACKED, for all who were possessors of lands of houses sold them, and brought the proceeds of the things that were sold, and laid them at the apostles feet, and they distributed to each as anyone had need.

(Acts 4: 32-35)

 

The early book of Acts church had managed to put in place the ultimate social security safety net for all believers, not just the privileged few. The scripture declares that everyone had the necessities of life – food, water, clothing and shelter. Not a few, not some, not many, but ALL. What an incredible feat on the part of the early church. No government plan, no aid program, no political movement, no NGO schemes, just themselves obeying the call of God. They had indeed learnt their lesson well.

From that early challenge of their Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ on the shores of Lake Galilee to feed the hungry masses themselves, which at the time would have been as likely as flying to the moon for them, they miraculously discovered that that seemingly impossible demand could be achieved. When Jesus first confronted them with feeding the hungry His command fell on confused minds and hard hearts. But a few months later those same confused minds and hard hearts had been changed, transformed by God Himself into minds of single-minded clarity and hearts of compassion. The task to feed the hungry was no longer the dream of an idealist, but the action of a realist.

The disciples witnessed Calvary with their own eyes. They had seen Jesus die on the cross and then they talked and walked with the same Jesus a few days later. True, they had walked and talked with their Lord for three years previous but somehow all those miracles and words about the arrival of the Gospel of the Kingdom of God had somehow not quite registered with them. Jesus Christ was indeed the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Suddenly they realised the possibilities of resurrection life. Nothing they set their minds and hearts to according to Gods will would be impossible for them.

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

(Philippians 4: 13)

Even such an outrageous command to feed the hungry is now possible – “We get it now”, they proclaimed. Almighty God has revealed Himself to us; His promise that we would receive power from on high has been delivered in abundance.

“But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

(Acts 1: 8)

But this was no ordinary power, the type that money and fame by. This was REAL POWER. For generations they and their nation of Israel had been on the receiving end of the might and power of Rome. They longed for the day when God would set them free. They dreamed of the day when God Himself would crush their political and military might, would crush the Tyranny of Rome. The disciples wanted power, they knew they needed power, and that’s exactly what God gave them. But this God given power was far greater than even the most optimistic disciple could ever have dreamed of. It was also far different than the power they expected. All the worlds atomic weapons combined could not muster a fraction of the force that the disciples were given.

God’s power was such that it changed their HEARTS and illuminated their MINDS, this turned their very fallen natures from self to service, from darkness to light, from temporal to eternal. There’s no greater power on earth or heaven than that which can change a human heart. The early church received God’s power as a thirsty desert wanderer receives water, or a hungry person receives food. But they did more than just receive this promised power- they used it. Nobody lacked. That was the testimony of the 1st century book of Acts church. They used their collective minds to come up with a food security model that would work for them, and then used their hearts to make sure it happened. Combined with the power of God it could not fail.

I asked this question before but it’s imperative that we keep on asking it – how do we, as Christians that make up the modern day 21st century church, stack up against the early book of Acts church? That question applies not just to feeding the hungry but also fighting injustice, poverty and inequality.

In my opinion, the modern day churches actions in regards to local and global food security issues as well as tackling general injustice issues in comparison with our early Christian brothers and sisters is nothing short of scandalous. We should hang our heads in collective embarrassment and shame at our lack of empathy for the hungry and our utter indifference at helping those in need. Many rich Christians today believe throwing a couple of dollars into the yearly Christmas bowl appeal is more than sufficient to meet our Christian obligations in relation to the hungry. And let’s be clear about how we define rich. If we own our own car we are in the top 2% of wealthy people in the world today. If we own our own house we are in the top 1% of wealthy people in the world today. I know that says more about poverty in today’s world than wealth, but it does however give us a glimpse of the magnitude of the problem we are dealing with.

We have First World problems such as saving enough money for the next model i-phone or getting the deposit together for our next investment property. The problems facing the Third World are things like “Can I get clean drinking water today? Will my children go to bed hungry tonight? Will my family have a roof over our heads tomorrow?”  Much of the Third World is literally in a daily life and death struggle.

The parable of the good Samaritan that Jesus taught His followers, encourages all Christians to be neighbours to all in need, to be good global citizens whenever and wherever there is a need. And even more important than our Christian relationship to the world in general, is our specific relationship with our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. If one suffers and goes hungry in the body of Christ we all should be suffering with them. We must be summoned to action and respond according to the central events of our shared faith, namely the life, death and resurrection of our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ. We need to identify our baptism as a rising with Christ to a new life, as having buried the old selfish worldly life and one that now embraces the Gospel of the Kingdom. A kingdom and new life that has no less place for other Christians than we do for Jesus. We need to affirm through the feeding of the multitudes that to break bread at the Lord’s table demands a commitment to enable hungry brothers and sisters to break bread.

And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith.

(Galatians 6: 9-10)

Christianity today is under severe attack. More Christians died of persecution last century than in the previous 19 centuries combined. It’s no different today in the 21st century; Christians are by far the most persecuted group of people in the world today. Many of our Christian brothers and sisters like the ones I   mentioned earlier like Pastor Yuan and his wife, the Karen and Shan nations are suffering hunger and persecution on a daily basis. They, along with many other Christians need help and encouragement urgently.                                                      

Most Christians living in the developed world generally have little or no conception of how desperate the plight of much of the worlds Christian population is. Most of us probably don’t want to know either.  It’s far more comfortable for us that we don’t know, the good old; “ostrich with its head in the sand” trick works a treat. Out of sight, out of mind!                      

That’s a generalized statement of course, I’ve already mentioned by name a few Christians I know personally that are taking the food security issue seriously enough that they are doing something about it. There are many other Christians out there that are working quietly away helping the poor and hungry without fanfare or recognition. I also know of individual churches here in Hobart, who’s Pastors and leaders have taken exceptional steps to stand alongside their poverty stricken brothers and sisters in Christ.

One small church has sponsored thirty children in a Christian village in Indonesia transforming the entire village and lives for generations to come. Another sets aside a huge proportion of their yearly income specifically for missions work.  We need to thank God for all the Christians and churches around the world who understand the Gospel of the Kingdom is more than just sitting in church and singing songs. Let’s pray the Lord of the harvest will send more out into the harvest field.  

But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, “the harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few.

Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.

(Matthew 9: 36-38)

Pope Francis has been raising the alarm at the increasing persecution of Christians throughout the world.  He has recently been talking about our collective need to help them. To share our Christian faith in practical ways to alleviate their suffering.

To those that think my critical outlook on today’s Christian response to food security issues is harsh and judgmental, I would make two comments. Firstly, the first person I would criticize for not doing more to help the hungry of the world is myself. I seem to be constantly fighting the enemy of apathy in my own life, and as a member of the Body of Christ I share in our collective guilt. Secondly, if being critical of our present efforts in regards to local and global food security can save one life, and also secure our own food security in future years, then I’m happy to cop some flack for being critical.

It’s my intention, and more importantly God’s, that this Project Genesis web site is motivating, encouraging and inspiring. God is not in the business of condemning us.

There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

(Romans 8: 1)

He is also in the business of loving us, but remember that same love extends to the hungry. Our input in the area of food security is absolutely vital to alleviate suffering in the world today and tomorrow. Our investment in time, money, energy, talents etc. in our efforts to help the poor and hungry will be blessed by God.

He who has pity on the poor lends to the Lord, and He will pay back what he has given.

(Proverbs 19:17)

A church that allows the spectre of darkness, hunger and poverty to exist without so much as a punch thrown is a church that lacks fight and both light and love.

“You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt looses it’s flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden.

Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lamp stand, and it gives light to all who are in the house.

Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.

(Matthew 5: 16)

Let’s remind ourselves that God calls His people to be honest with ourselves, others and most importantly with Him. To be self-critical, without condemning ourselves either, is simply to be honest.

Global food insecurity is a massive problem in the 21st century, let’s just admit that. If we first admit the problem exists, then secondly also admit our efforts to solve the problem could vastly be improved then God has now got something to work with – us.

Let’s also remind ourselves of the sobering news that it was the Lord Jesus Himself who equated feeding the hungry of the world with actually feeding Him. And likewise, our failure to feed the hungry was our failure to feed Him also.                                                                                                                                      

“When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of his glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from his goats. And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on His left.

Then the King will say to those on His right hand, come you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.

Then the righteous will answer Him, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you a drink? When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and cloth You? And the King will answer and say to them, assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.

Then He will also say to those on the left hand, depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave me no drink’ I was a stranger and you did not take Me in; naked and you did not cloth Me; sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.

Then they will also answer Him, saying Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You? Then he will answer them, saying assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.

And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.

(Matthew 25: 31-46)

One of the key aspects of this teaching of Jesus, and usually overlooked by most Christians, is His use of the term, “My brethren.” The Lord Jesus equates feeding the hungry, providing safe water, helping the sick, and generally fighting poverty and injustice by Christians, as not just as having done it unto Him, BUT also to the least of these MY BRETHREN.

We then need to ask this incredibly important question; Who are, “the least of these My brethren”, that Jesus is referring to? For this is precisely the very question that Jesus asked His followers to answer. Fortunately, Jesus answered this question Himself clearly and concisely;

While he was still talking to the multitudes, behold, His mother and brothers stood outside, seeking to speak with Him. Then one said to Him, look, Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside seeking to speak with You.

But He answered and said to the one who told Him, Who is My mother and who are My brothers?

And He stretched out His hand towards His disciples and said, here are My are my mother and My brothers. For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother.

(Mathew 12: 46-50)

If we are still in any doubt as to what is “the will of My Father”, that Jesus refers to, then once again God comes to our rescue and makes that clear as well;

“For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me, that I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise Him up at the last day.”

John (38: 38-40)

Whoever believes, and has received the Lord Jesus Christ, as their personal Lord and Saviour are the “brethren” that Jesus refers to in Mathew 25, they are Christians. They are not Jews or Gentiles or any type of religious group, but the Body of Christ, the Church.

It may seem a little “politically incorrect”, to make our priority helping fellow believers in Christ, some may even accuse God of being discriminating, but we Christians are called to obey God not man. God loves the world and every person in it. For God so loved the world (John 3:16). He gives all of mankind a choice, whether to either accept the truth, or believe a lie. But our main focus should be on helping our fellow believers.

Hypothetically, if Jesus knocked on our door today and asked for food how many of us would respond generously. I would suggest that 100% of Christians would invite Him in to our homes and cook the biggest and best meal we have ever prepared. Then we would offer Him permanent lodging with us, and food as long as He needed. That hypothetical, if we take the words of Jesus seriously is starring us in the face every day in the faces of hungry and persecuted Christians throughout the world. It’s now no longer a hypothetical question but an everyday reality.

The choice is stark and simple, we either reject helping the hungry in the Body of Christ, and in so doing reject Christ, or we take up our cross and help to feed the hungry in the Body of Christ and in so doing find life and the true heart beat of God. We looked at the shocking statistics of global hunger earlier. Nearly half the world suffers from food insecurity today in some form, 3 billion people if you add the chronically malnourished together with the chronically undernourished. Each year 15 million people die of hunger.

It would be easy for us to be dismissive of the comparison between poverty and hunger in the 1st and 21st centuries. Perhaps make a comment such as, “that’s like comparing apples with oranges“. We, no doubt could come up with a multitude of arguments in defense of our lack of action such as the global population is now 7.1 billion, rising to 9.1 billion by 2050, there’s simply too many people to feed now compared to the 1st centuries population. Or perhaps we could argue that with terrorism and general global insecurity today it’s simply become too risky to help the hungry. Or maybe we could argue that’s not my job or calling from the Lord, surely the job of feeding the hungry is for trained professionals.

The problem with making constant excuses as to why we can’t be involved in food security issues as 21st century Christians is we eventually become self-deluded. We convince ourselves we know God’s will on this vital subject but in reality we are in complete and utter disobedience. Just like those shocked super-spiritualists who the Lord Jesus warned us about that thought they were doing a wonderful job serving Him when in fact God had rejected them.

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.

Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord,’ have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?

And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you, depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!”

(Matthew 7: 21-23)

Peak bodies and groups that specialize in studying global hunger such as the Brandt Commission that we looked at earlier keep on telling us that humanity have never been better equipped, financially resourced or technically skilled to end global hunger than we do today. Report after report, meeting after meeting keep on coming up with the same conclusion on global huger- we have the resources to end hunger today.

That same positive comment could also be made of the modern day church. We as Christians have also never had greater resources to tackle the issue of food security. There are dozens of mainstream Christian denominations and thousands of independent churches, not to mention house churches and unaffiliated Christian groups scattered in every corner of the world today. And within those walls is the greatest resource of all – PEOPLE.

People like you and me; in fact about 2 billion of the world identify as Christian, what a resource. We have the resources, but do we have the WILL as Christians to fight hunger and poverty? That’s a question the 21st Century church needs to answer individually and collectively as a matter of the upmost urgency. Lives are at stake, 40,000 a day in fact. As Mother Theresa wrote:

When a poor person dies of hunger, it has not happened because God did not take care of him or her. It has happened because neither you nor I wanted to give that person what he or she needed. We have refused to be instruments of love in the hands of God to give the poor a piece of bread, to offer them a dress with which to ward off the cold.

I would make another observation to Mother Teresa’s quote, from a purely Christian perspective we could re- word it and say, when a poor person dies of hunger – it has not happened because God did not take care of him or her. It has happened because Christians have chosen apathy over action, and have failed to understand what the Kingdom of God is, and also failed to appropriate its power.                   

The 1st century church took the command of Jesus to feed the hungry seriously; their testimony was as we previously noted that nobody lacked the essentials of life (Acts 4:34). They fully understood what Gods Kingdom looked like and allowed the Holy Spirit to empower them to fulfill it. One of the last teaching sessions that the Lord Jesus gave to His disciples after His resurrection and just before His ascension to the Father was one of a global vision, it has subsequently been entitled, “The Great Commission.”  

Then Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “all authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the name of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

(Matthew 28: 18-20)

That mission of the early followers of Christ was very specific, to proclaim the Gospel of the Kingdom. Gospel means, GOOD NEWS. Good news is a way of describing what God the Father had just accomplished through His son Jesus Christ has to be the greatest under statement ever recorded in human history. The total and complete reconciliation of humanity to God had just been accomplished, the Kingdom of God had arrived to all those who choose to accept God’s incredible gift to us through His son Jesus

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, old things have passed away, behold, all things have become new. Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation.

That is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us, we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.

(2 Corinthians 5:18-19)

The longed for, and much anticipated arrival of God’s presence on this earth through Jesus Christ, and then manifest through the church, the body of believers, empowered by the Holy Spirit was complete. The moment we receive Christ, we automatically receive His new Kingdom in our hearts. We become a new creation. The good news of the bible is that God has broken in to this world to bring His Kingdom. In a hostile, broken world God has made a new beginning. He is constantly now forming a new humanity and reconciles it to Himself by love and grace. In this supernatural saving encounter with God, people are now beginning to see that they must be neighbors to their fellowmen, and particularly neighbors to the hungry and sick, to the widow and orphan.

With the implantation by Christians of this Great Commission, and remember our mission does not end until the Lord Jesus returns, comes a wondrous promise from God that He will be with us to guide, encourage, bless and empower us. It’s no coincidence that the last thing Jesus said before his ascension into heaven and to the Father was to remind all His followers that He would indeed be with us and empower all of us to carry out His perfect will (Acts 1: 8).

Our collective priority as Christians is to take the Great Commission seriously, not just pay it lip service. We are all called to be salt and light in a dark world full of injustice and poverty.  Obviously we are not all called to minister in the area of food security, but I also believe there are tens of millions of Christians that presently are not involved with food security that God will call in the coming years to this vital mission (I will look at this topic later in more detail.)

The early Christian church took the Great Commission seriously. The rapid spread of Christianity in the 1st century as the book of Acts records was amazing. But they also had a far greater understanding of just what the proclamation of the Gospel of the Kingdom really looked like. The Gospel was not merely words, but the demonstration of Gods power.

And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

(1 Corinthians 2:4)

If the Gospel of the Kingdom was merely empty words then it would have quickly been assigned to the scrap heap of philosophies and ideologies, along with all the other so called great writers and thinkers. But the 1st century church knew better than that. That little rag tag band of followers of Jesus had just had their lives transformed by the power of Almighty God and there was nothing that would hold them back. Their presence amongst the surrounding populations was so influential that they got paid the ultimate compliment of actually turning the world upside down.

But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some brethren to the rulers of the city, crying out, “ These who have turned the world upside down have come here too.”

(Acts 7: 6)

The depressed now were joyful, the hungry were now fed, the hopeless were now hopeful, the homeless now had shelter, the anxious were now calm, those without cloths now had cloths, the drunks were now sober, the unloved were now loved, the sick were now cared for, the lonely now had friends. This Gospel message was unlike anything ever seen or heard before. There were no shortages of strange doctrines and snake oil salesmen in the 1st century, just as there are today peddling their own foolproof ideas and products. But this Gospel, this so called good news came with the power if accepted by its hearers to totally and radically transform their lives.

What sort of power was this? Certainly a type of power the world had never seen before. The Gospel of the Kingdom had arrived in all its power, majesty and glory. The disciples of Jesus spent three years under His teaching. They learnt well. They were eye witnesses to all that He said and did. He fed the hungry, preached the Gospel of the Kingdom, healed the sick, and proclaimed liberty to the captives of sin.  

It should be no surprise to us that the early church should be founded on those very truths. There would be no preaching of the Gospel unless the total needs of people were met, both body and soul. To proclaim the good news of the reality of God’s present Kingdom of truth and love that does not meet both needs would be to preach a false Gospel. This care for both the body and soul was especially encouraged amongst brothers and sisters in Christ. It’s poignant that today in the world we have never seen such wealth in the First World church and at the same time so much poverty in the Third World church. Many of our brothers and sisters in Christ are numbered among the 40,000 people that die every day of hunger.  

 

By this we know love, because He has laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? My little children let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.

(1 John 3:16-18)

Have we as Christians in developed nations become guilty of preaching a false Gospel? Is that why we are seeing so little response to our pleas for people to receive Jesus Christ nowadays? Are we spending too much money, time and effort in our own Christian back yard feathering our own nests instead of being global citizens and helping our hungry and persecuted brothers and sisters in Christ around the world? Is our faith a DEAD faith?

What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, “depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit?

Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is DEAD.

But someone will say, “you have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.

You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe-and tremble.

But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is DEAD.

(James 2: 14-20)

If we, as the 21st century church are really serious about being as effective as our 1st century brothers and sisters in Christ and share those same testimonies that they “turned the world upside down” and “nobody lacked,” then we are going to need to shake off our individual and collective a apathy. But having said that we definitely can take encouragement from the early church in that they were people just like us with the same faults and weakness. Also the same Holy Spirit that empowered them is the same Holy Spirit that will empower us today if we desire that.

We looked at the issue of apathy earlier from a general humanity view. But us Christians can just as easily be overcome by this terrible affliction. We may start out full of zeal for the work of the Gospel but not far into our journey with God we all will hit the apathy road-block. Here are a few quotes that give us some insight into the monster that apathy is:

• I have a strong feeling that the opposite of love is not hate- it’s apathy. It’s not giving a dam (L Buscaglia)
• We may have found a cure for most evils; but it has found no remedy for the worst of them all – the apathy of human beings (Helen Keller)
• Apathy is the greatest disease of the twentieth century (Mother Teresa)
• The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don’t do anything about it (Albert Einstein)

As a Christian, I personally find these quotes chilling. I can so easily see myself in all of them. Just to stop for a minute and think about all the suffering of the world yesterday, the suffering of the world today and the suffering of the world tomorrow. The thought that my personal apathy is not just allowing suffering to happen but actually actively promoting suffering is a scenario to horrible to imagine.

But it’s TRUE.

Apathy creeps up on us by stealth, one day we seem to be on fire for God and the Kingdom, honouring the Lord Jesus in all that we do. Then without any visible sign we find ourselves watching a great movie, shopping for the next great tech toy, organising our next holiday, going to the next festival, etc. Oh how easily apathy casts its enchanting spell on us, who needs the devil or demons or to render a Christian’s life useless when we have apathy as our faithful friend.

Apathy is such a respectable companion as well; who will ever see my life is gripped by sin. I’m doing no more or no less than any of my other brothers and sisters in Christ. Who will see my sin? Even if I don’t, GOD DOES. Then, if by the grace of God, He taps us on the shoulder and we are awake long enough to finally turn around, we suddenly realise that one, five, ten, twenty years have passed by, perhaps even a lifetime. Fortunately for all of us, God is love. He is gracious and long suffering to all and He gives us some very straight forth advice. This advice seems rather shocking and we may even get angry with God for having the nerve to pronounce such a difficult remedy for our apathetic natures. But at least His advice is simple. God knows the sin of apathy is going to take some shifting in our lives. Just because something is simple doesn’t mean it’s easy or palatable, but none the less we must take our medicine if we are serious about being cured. Here’s our Lords advice:

“And to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write, these things says the Amen, the Faithfull and True Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God: I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew you out of My mouth. Because you say, I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing – and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked –

I council you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent.

Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me. To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”

(Revelation 3: 14-22)

Wow! Talk about not pulling any punches, God doesn’t mess around does He. I told you we would struggle with Gods answer to our apathetic natures. So simple, yet so confronting. We can’t accuse God of not being fair however; He’s offering us a 50/50 partnership with Him in order that we may be healed. It’s our job to open the door to God, repent and be zealous. It’s God’s job to heal us of our apathy.

Apathy is sin. It steals our time and also steals our desire for God and the Kingdom work, and helping others. We need to repent of it and open the door of our hearts to God so He can heal us and empower us to go forward with zeal. Just as with any physical ailment that needs to be diagnosed before a treatment plan can commence, so too is it with apathy. Fortunately, God has given us His treatment plan.

But please also note a wonderful promise, almost hidden away in that passage of confronting scripture was given to us by our Master and Lord. God declares, ”He will personally dine with us.” Yes, personally. Not a feast of thousands, but an intimate dinner for two. Jesus is with us as we step out in true faith and tackle food security issues locally and globally. As far as being spewed or vomited out of Gods mouth if I continue in my apathy, that’s a thought and image that’s too graphic and vile to even begin to comprehend or contemplate – but there it is in all its ugliness. I’m not judging myself or anyone else, God is.

In New Testament times, Laodicea was the most important city in the Roman province of Phrygia in central Asia Minor. It served as an important commercial centre at a major crossroads in that part of the Roman Empire. It was populated by a number of wealthy and socially prominent citizens. Although it had many natural advantages, Laodicea had one serious problem – lack of good drinking water. Nearly all the streams in the area come from hot springs, which are filled with impurities. This water problem eventually led to the downfall of the city. All that remains of this once grand city today is ruins.

The Laodicean church is commonly referred to as the lukewarm church. If you’ve ever tried to drink a glass of lukewarm water you will know it’s definitely not the most pleasant way to quench your thirst. It’s hard to stomach and your first inclination is to spit it out again. Also, the Laodicean church, is a picture or type of the last days church, it symbolizes the state of much of Christianity just prior to the second coming of Christ.

It’s the visible expression of apathy in the church at its zenith. There has been no time in human and church history where we, as Christians have had such wealth and resources and yet been so apathetic. The end result of that lethal combination of wealth and apathy, as God Himself describes in Revelation chapter three, is a group of Christians that are wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked. What an indictment on us.

We are still going to church, singing worship songs, taking communion, chucking a couple of bucks in the collection plate, perhaps even going to the local home group and prayer meeting, how can we possibly be lukewarm and apathetic. God must have it wrong. He can’t possibly be speaking to me. You sort of wonder as you read such a passage whatever happened to the God of love. That sobering verdict stands in stark contrast to the most quoted passage of scripture in the bible;

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved”.  

(John 3:16-17)

That’s the whole point. God gave us His very best. God the Father gave us no less than His only begotten Son. God the Son, Jesus Christ then gave us His very best in accordance to His Father’s will. He laid down His own life to redeem humanity and set us free from the bondage of sin. And just think about that cruel death at Calvary, no lethal injection here. Just hours of agonizing torture for Jesus as His blood poured out and His life slowly ebbed away. Then finally looking up from the cross and declaring, “It is finished.” Jesus bowed His head and breathed His last breath on that cruel cross. God indeed gave us His very BEST.

The question we need to ask ourselves is – Are we giving God our BEST?

Are we sowing into the Gospel of the Kingdom the best of our money, the best of our time, the best of our talents, the best of our physical and mental energy, the fulfillment of our God given calling? Or are we giving God the dregs, the leftovers.

The Lord Jesus declared, “For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required.”    

           (Luke 12: 41-48)

One of the practices in the Old Testament was the regular sacrifice of a lamb as a reminder to the Nation of Israel that without the shedding of blood there could be no remission for sin.

And according to the law almost all things are purged with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no remission.

And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation.

(Hebrews 9:22,27-28)

 

The innocent lamb and its blood that was shed was offered up to God by the priest as a substitute for the sins of the people. This ceremony, which I have to admit, seems a bit macabre and cruel was actually preparing the world for the day when God would sacrifice His only Son. In effect, the ceremony was a type or picture of the day when God Himself would shed His own blood and lay His own life down in the form of the Son, Jesus Christ. They weren’t just killing innocent lambs for kicks, the ceremony had real context and meaning.

One of the common titles we see in the New Testament given to Jesus is the “Lamb of God”. That was the title that John the Baptist gave Jesus when he first recognised that Jesus was indeed the Son of God. He declared “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1: 29)

But one of the strict requirements of this Old Testament sacrifice was that the lamb chosen had to be faultless with no defects or blemishes. This sacrificial lamb represented Christ, in that it was both innocent and perfect. The lamb also was a picture of God giving us His best and likewise it was a picture of God’s people giving God their best. No inferior merchandise or cheap substitutes were allowed. God wanted the best they had or nothing at all. You would think that request would not have been that difficult to obey. But guess what started to happen? The best lambs that were healthy and free of blemishes were also the most valuable to the priests and traders. What to do! After a little thought the answer was easy, why didn’t we think of this earlier? Let’s just substitute the required perfect lambs with older, lame, blind, and diseased ones. No one will really care, will they! It’s the smart thing to do. Perhaps the Lord has stopped watching us, or maybe if He is still casting His eye on us occasionally He will compliment us on our shrewdness and business acumen. Here’s what God thought of that idea.  

I hate, I despise your feast days, and I do not savor your sacred assemblies. Though you offer Me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them. Nor will I regard your fattened peace offerings.

Take away from Me the noise of your songs, for I will not hear the melody of your stringed instruments.

But let justice run down like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream.

(Amos 5:21-24)

That didn’t go so well did it! So much for thinking they had out-smarted Almighty God.

So back to the question – are we giving God our best? Or are we fiddling the books, using a bit of the old creative accounting when it comes to our part of the bargain with God. Have we sneakily substituted the work of the Gospel with good old-fashioned worthless religion? Just like the slight of hand trick carried out by the Old Testaments priests and traders with their sneaky little scam of substituting the lambs. Do we honestly think we will be any more successful at pulling the wool over God’s eyes in the 21st century than the religious buffoons were in 1000 BC?

No one will see, we still all look respectable in our Sunday best, we’re not placing unfair demands on any new converts and even God comes out looking half decent with all our religious paraphernalia. It’s a win, win, situation for everyone involved. We have to be pragmatic on these things don’t we! Granted, our brand of religion is a lot different than the Lord’s, but I’m sure even He’s impressed with what we have come up with. We can be as apathetic as we like and then cover that apathy over with our fake religious costumes. With this plan we actually look like we really do care. Perfect plan.    

Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.

(James 1:27)

It’s been said; “The more things change, the more they stay the same”. That may be the case for many people, but Praise God it doesn’t have to be that way with all of us. There are always exceptions to any rules – let’s be the exceptions.

The 1st century church proved that they could function without cheap imitations and substitutions. Nobody lacked. That was their testimony (Acts 4). They cast off the shackles of apathy that could so easily have ensnared them in their day as well but they stood firm. Let’s take their example to heart and apply that to our 21st century church.

Mother Teresa was partially right when she said – “Apathy was the greatest disease of the 20th century.” To be even more accurate we could say – “Apathy has been the greatest disease of human history.”  From creation, and the fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, until the Lord Jesus returns to establish His eternal Kingdom, apathy will continue to stalk it’s unsuspecting prey. Who wants to look back on their lives and reflect on all those wasted years, when all we can see is the tyranny of our own apathy mocking us, and the faces of all those people we could have helped.

I remember watching a movie based on Charles Dickens novel, “A Christmas Carol” when I was a boy. The story revolves around the central character called Ebenezer Scrooge. He was a man that was totally obsessed with his own self gratification, and totally apathetic to the needs and feelings of others. Throughout his life every decision he ever made was about himself. How he could prosper, avoid helping others, get ahead etc. His character was the most obnoxious, self-centered individual you could possibly imagine.

I recall as I watched the film as a young boy getting really angry with this Ebenezer Scrooge as he constantly refused to help anyone he came in contact with throughout his life. He was a wealthy man in a position of authority and power and had the means to help many, but apathy and self-centeredness ruled his life. He point blank refused to help anyone.  Another thing that struck me about Scrooge was that he was such a miserable and wretched individual. His self centeredness and apathy had sucked any sort of joy, life and love out of his existence. He truly was a horrid character.

Towards the end of the film and with Scrooge now well advanced in years, Scrooge is asleep one night when he has an alarming and disturbing vision. He is visited by a spirit sent to haunt him with the title, “the ghost of Christmas past.” The spirit actually takes Scrooge back over his entire miserable life to all the times he could have helped others, but chose instead his own self interests. Sort of like an out of body experience replaying all that had gone before. Scrooge in his dream can finally see the awful, wretched and utter miserableness of the way he had lived his entire life. He finally could see the pain, misery and nothingness that a self centered and apathetic life had not only inflicted on him, but also on all those people he came across that he could have helped. After the vision, Scrooge pleads with the spirit of the “Ghost of Christmas Past” to show him no more. The pain and anguish the vision had caused Scrooge was simply too much, to which the spirit replies “these are the shadows of things that have been. That they are what they are, do not blame me”. Scrooge then realised it was not the spirit that had haunted him, but the agony of his own self centered, apathetic life. He is overcome with remorse and guilt. Guilt at his own wasted life and guilt at not helping the people he came across throughout his life.                                                               

Dickens ends his story on a positive note. Scrooge awakening from the vision in a cold sweat and seeing the folly of his ways, then decides to make good. Over the next days he visits as many people as he can that have suffered over the years at his hands. He apologizes for his behaviour and then does all he can to help those very people he had treated so shamefully. Scrooge is a changed man. The old self seeking apathetic Scrooge is replaced by the serving and loving Scrooge. What a transformation. Scrooge finally discovers what true life is. He realizes it was not the wealth and power that he had acquired over his lifetime that bought fulfillment and joy, on the contrary, this had bought nothing but misery. But true life he discovered was in giving it all away and helping others. He had to lose his old life to find his new life. Now to many this story of Ebenezer Scrooge is just that, a story. Or some might even be a little harsher in their assessment and call it a fairy story. But in reality it reveals a truth that comes from God Himself.

Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.

For what is a man profited if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what would will a man give in exchange for his soul?

For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works.

Assuredly, I say to you, there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.

(Matthew 16: 24-28)

I wonder how many of us on our death beds, starring down the barrel of ETERNITY will be rejoicing about all the money we have made, and all power we have accumulated. Or will we feel like Scrooge during his “night of the dark soul” when the “Ghost of Christmas Past” replayed the folly of his deluded, apathetic, self centered life.

Surely its better when the time comes to depart this life and prepare to be with Almighty God for all eternity to have a lifetime of memories that have blessed and helped others. It’s been said that; “people are waiting on the other side of our obedience”.

We live in a hurting world full of pain and suffering, let’s do all we can in these short allotted years that God has given us to be obedient to the His call and be proclaimers of the Gospel of the Kingdom of God in word and deed.

Now godliness with contentment is of great gain. For we bought nothing into this world, and it is certain we carry nothing out. And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content.

But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition.

For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

But you, O man of God, flee these things and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness.

Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

(1 Timothy 6: 6-12)

Oh regrets, regrets in a sea of regrets. There’s no person on earth that does not have regrets about something. Whether it’s something we’ve done wrong, a missed opportunity, something we have failed to do, or a myriad of any other embarrassing failures and misadventures. That’s the nature of life. But the Christian, as long as we are still breathing have HOPE. Today we can make a decision to say goodbye to past regrets and failures, and live for God, His Kingdom, and a world with a brighter future.

Even the great Apostle Paul, formerly murderous Saul of Tarsus before his conversion to Christianity had to fight the enemy of apathy and regrets Who can possibly save me from this body of death? He asked, then just as quickly he answered his own question.

O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?

I thank God-through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.

There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

(Romans 7: 24)

Are we truly walking according to the Spirit of God? Do we have the mind of Christ? Do our actions bear witness to what we say we believe? Or is it the case that our apathy has deceived us?  With 40,000 people dying every day of hunger, and many of those belonging to the Body of Christ, is that not actually mocking God.

Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself.

But let each one examine his own work, and then he will have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another. For each one shall bear his own load. Let him who is taught the word share in all good things with him who teaches.

Do not be deceived, God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.

For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life.

(Galatians 2: 6-8)

Over the years I’ve heard some great sermons from a theological point of view on the feeding of the multitudes. Preachers and teachers over the centuries have delved into depth as to the hidden truths and meanings of this miraculous event. But have we missed or even turned our backs as Christians on the obvious truth of what Jesus said and did? Have we fallen victim to the classic saying, “They can’t see the forest for the trees.”

The Lord Jesus simply FED the hungry, and then asked His followers to do the same.

It’s true, He didn’t give us a detailed plan as to how to go about doing that, He did however give us guiding principles to lead the way such as compassion, justice, stewardship, love, brotherhood etc. He also didn’t say it would be easy or cheap but what He did give us is the promise that if we obeyed His word the He personally would bless and empower us to carry out His will.

“But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

(Acts 1: 8)

So come on my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, lets with the Lords help cast off the shackles of apathy and embrace our collective destiny of proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom of God in word and deed. Join me and others in this great global mission of food security. It’s God’s will. You will be blessed.

Let’s get to work and with the Lords blessing do exactly what He told us to do – FEED THE MULTITUDES.

 

IMPORTANT NOTE: As time permits I will complete this section on the Christian world view of food security issues from a biblical perspective. And also what our response to global poverty and hunger should be in more detail.

This will include:

• • Teaching from the Old and New Testament

 

• Barriers that prevent Gods will in this area being carried out A) Structural and B) Doctrinal