GOOD FRIDAY – SENIOR ALIEN – BURDEN OF SLAVERY vs BURDEN OF CROSS:
I dedicate this article to observation of Good Friday on April 14, 2017. By withholding Social Security Monthly Retirement Benefit payments claimed by Senior Alien, USA imposed Burden of Slavery giving him option of Laboring Until Death.
Senior Alien arrived in the United States to search for his purpose in Life. Senior Alien needs ‘REDEEMER’ or ‘The Discoverer’ who can provide guidance to reach the Final Destination of Life. But, following ‘REDEEMER’ can impose challenging burden of its own. Senior Alien has to weigh his options between Burden of Slavery vs Burden of Cross. If a life of #WholeLabor is unavoidable, #SeniorAlien needs the blessings of Christ Jesus who died as a ransom to set man free.
IN GOD WE TRUST – INVOLUNTARY SERVITUDE – THE FALL OF MAN:
The Old Testament, The First Book of Moses, GENESIS, Chapter 3, verses 17-19, 22, and 23 narrate story about the Fall of Man:
To Adam He said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat of it’,
“Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat of it
all the days of your life.
It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.
By the sweat of your brow
You will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
since from it you were taken,
for dust you are
and to dust you will return.”
And the LORD God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.”
So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken.
It is not surprising to read in the Book of Psalms, Chapter 104:23: “Then man goes out to his work, to his labor until evening.”
The Book of Ecclesiastes records man’s grief and sense of disappointment that involves leading a life of Servitude and then die without claiming any benefit from all his labor. Chapter 1, verse 2 states the pain:
Everything is Meaningless
“Meaningless ! Meaningless ! ” says the Teacher.
“Utterly meaningless !
Everything is meaningless.”
What does man gain from all his labor
at which he toils under the sun?
The Book of Ecclesiastes further confirms man’s agony in Chapter 2, verse 17:
“So I hated life because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me.”
Man is condemned to lead a life of bitter Servitude; Hard Work, Toil, Labor is the common lot of Man and is the result of God’s Curse. In practical terms, Labor refers to work performed to earn a wage. A characteristic of all kinds of Labor is that it consumes some part of the short days and short years of human life. Apart from making a living through Labor, man has to face the penalty called ‘Death’ which wipes out all the benefits earned or saved by living a Life of Servitude.
THE CONCEPT OF SABBATH YEAR – THE DIVINE LAWS OF MERCY AND GRACE:
The word ‘SABBATH'( Hebrew. Shabbath, Greek. Sabbaton ) describes the demand to desist, cease from all kinds of work and to observe rest as a Moral Principle or Duty. It is the weekly day of rest and worship of the Jews. The Fourth Commandment(The Book of EXODUS, Chapter 20:1-17; Chapter 34:1-5) enjoined Israel to observe the Seventh Day as a Holy Day on which no work should be done by man or beast. Everyone, including even the stranger within the gates, is required to desist from all work. It is intended to be a day of Blessing to man both physically and spiritually. However, it may be noted that this concept of rest as a Divine Rule of Law was instituted at Creation. God rested from his creative labors on the Sabbath Day. “And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it He rested from all the work of creating that He had done.” (The Book of Genesis, Chapter 2, verse 3) The Third Book of Moses called LEVITICUS, Chapter 23, verse 3 gives clear instructions about observance of Sabbath Day as a Holy Day of Obligation: “There are six days when you may work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of rest, a day of sacred assembly. You are not to do any work; wherever you live, it is Sabbath to the LORD.”
THE SABBATH YEAR AND THE YEAR OF JUBILEE:
The Third Book of Moses called LEVITICUS, Chapter 25, verses 3 and 4 describe the Sabbath Year: “For six years sow your fields, and for six years prune your vineyards and gather their crops. But in the Seventh Year the land is to have a Sabbath of rest, a Sabbath to the LORD. Do not sow your fields or prune your vineyards. Do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the grapes of your untended vines. The land is to have a year of rest.” Verse 6 describes the rules about sharing food during the Sabbath Year without any sense of discrimination: “Whatever the land yields during the Sabbath Year will be food for you – for yourself, your manservant and maid-servant, and the hired worker and temporary resident who live among you, as well as for your livestock and the wild animals in your land, whatever the land produces may be eaten.” Verse 10 further stipulates observance of the Jubilee Year: “Consecrate the fiftieth Year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants.”
THE SON OF MAN IS THE LORD OF SABBATH:
In the Gospel According to Saint Matthew, Chapter 12, verse 8 Jesus categorically affirms: “For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.” Similarly, in the Gospel According to Saint Mark, Chapter 2, verses 27-28 it is mentioned: Then He said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.” Jesus refused to let rules interfere with Compassion for needy people and insisted upon the correct interpretation of the Laws of the Sabbath to meet the needs of Man for food and healing. It is in this context, I would like to study the US Labor Laws and the practices of its executive Department of Health and Human Services that impose Involuntary Servitude, Slavery, and Forced Labor upon temporary residents of foreign origin who labor on the US soil all their lives beyond the age of full retirement which currently stands at the age of 66-years.
I am sharing this blog post in response to the Notice of Award, Date. August 16, 2014 sent by Social Security Administration(SSA), Great Lakes Program Service Centre, 600 West Madison Street, Chicago, Illinois 60661-2474 which approved Senior Alien’s Claim for Retirement Benefits at monthly rate of $1347.80. At the same time, the Department informed that the Benefits would not be paid because of the Applicant’s Alien Status. In other words, the Senior Alien has to simply exist as a Slave with no lawful right to his own wages and earnings. The direct consequence of this Notice of Award is that of a condition called ‘Forced Labor’, or ‘Involuntary Servitude’.
For Senior Alien has not yet arrived at his Final Destination in his Life, he still needs guidance of ‘REDEEMER’ or The Discoverer to live Life without forfeiting his Soul.
To accept Jesus Christ as ‘REDEEMER’ or The Discoverer may impose a burden of its own. The first ‘DEMAND’ of being a Disciple of Christ is that of SELF-DENIAL or embracing Burden of Cross.
If ‘Self-Denial’ is the precondition to get guidance from ‘REDEEMER’, or The Discoverer, Senior Alien has to simply deny the problem posed by ‘Notice of Slavery Award’ sent by Social Security Administration.
For it is written, “No servant can serve two Masters….” (LUKE 16:13), Senior Alien has to choose between two Masters who control or govern his Life. In choosing ‘REDEEMER’, The Discoverer, Senior Alien may lose his Life living as Slave and yet find true or real purpose of Life if it holds the Promise of Everlasting Life.
This Good Friday, April 14, 2017, Senior Alien has chosen his Master who governs or controls his Life. Its better to live as Servant losing Life through Slavery, Forced Labor, and Involuntary Servitude imposed by the US Government described as Mammon.
The Rudi-Grant Connection 