“If God has endowed you with riches, then regard them with pleasure, for the means to good deeds is in your hands.

“It is not sufficient for a rich man to give to the poor or to alleviate the distress of the needy. He who, having received abundance from God, doles out a pittance to the poor, does but salve his conscience and is not truly walking with God.

“It is the duty of the rich man to cast the weight of his riches in the balances, that goodness may outweigh evil.

“It is the duty of the powerful man to range his might alongside the forces of good in the struggle against evil. He shall protect the poor against the exploiter and defend the weak against oppression of tyrants.

“It is not so important to give to the poor man as to remove the cause of his poverty. To help the weak is good but of lesser importance than to attack their oppressor.

“The Law decrees that the lot of no two men shall be alike. If it were otherwise, Earth could not fulfill its purpose. But he who has riches or is powerful or handsome, he who has intellect and skill, should bear in mind that he possesses these under the Law. According to the bounty bestowed, so must be the return to the general welfare of man, and a proper accounting will be demanded by the Assessors in the Hall of Terror.”

-The Kolbrin Bible (MPR:9:1-6)

Regard riches with Pleasure

We should regard riches with pleasure, though not in the manner of a greedy person. We should be happy to have riches so that we can help those less fortunate. We also must not seek public attention when we help others. That is just feeding our ego.

Duty of the Powerful

Yes, it is the duty of powerful people to use that power to aid the forces of good and avoid the forces of evil. Sadly, we are seeing a lot of powerful people today doing the opposite. That must happen, though, because when the forces of good are growing in strength, the same must happen with the forces of evil to maintain balance. Fortunately, that need will end soon when God’s Judgment falls on all of us.

Remove the Cause of Poverty

It would be nice if we could remove the cause of poverty, which is greed. Some greedy people don’t care about anyone else and simply accumulate as much wealth as possible. Others, however, have a fear of losing everything. In both cases, we should not, as the quote says, attack oppressors. That will only make matters worse.

Intellect and Skills

Yes, those who have intellect and skills must use them to help others. It is more important, however, that we develop our spiritual faculties and use them to help others develop spiritually. That is truly doing good deeds.

“Lend your arm to the aged, and open your purse at the cry of the poor. Guard well against the urge to plunder the unprotected and from treating the destitute with harshness.

“If you are lacking in compassion, it is well to remember that today, one man be rich and another poor; yet, ere a year has passed the rich man may be working in a stable, and the poor man may be clothed in fine linen. Such are the balances of life, and it is, therefore, wise to turn a like countenance towards all men.

“Help the man in unfortunate circumstances, for anyone can fall into the pit of misfortune. Commit no assault upon him by reason of his weakness, nor turn his predicament to your own advantage. Fill his stomach with bread and drink. Provide a place for him to lay his head. Let your countenance be cheerful towards him, and let words of encouragement fall from your lips.

“Assess honestly the boundaries of the widow’s estate. The land that is lost to the plow is the waste of a man’s lifetime.

“Do not deride the clumsy speech of a lowly man. The fine phrases of the rich man may be pretty things of no substance. Sincerity is rarely bedecked with finery. What a man has in his head and heart is more important than the fine words that fall from his lips.

…

“The Just God turns a ready ear towards the outcry of the lowly. Therefore, the prayer of the poor man is greater than the might of sharp weapons, even though he is of no account among the people of his own time and destitute of the power of fine speech.”

The Kolbrin Bible (MPR:8:1-5 & 7)

Lend Your Arm to the Aged

While this can be literal in some cases, such as helping an elderly person cross a street, it isn’t limited to that. There are many ways to lend a hand to the aged. You can give them a ride, help them with shopping, do yard work for them, or shovel snow from their sidewalk in the winter. But the most important way we can help any person is to help them awaken and develop their spiritual faculties.

Open Your Purse to the Poor

This line definitely should not be taken literally. You should help the poor when you can, but you shouldn’t let them help themselves to your money or goods.

If You Lack Compassion

Yes, we should remember, as the quote says, that those who are well off today may be destitute tomorrow, and those who are poor may become wealthy. But you really shouldn’t show compassion for that reason. You should always show compassion for your fellow man. It is what God wants us to do.

Do not Assault the Weak

Some people think that might makes right and the strong should lord over the weak, whether their strength is natural or because of advanced weapons. That is not what God wants. That is not the way of the Chosen of God.

What a Person has in Their Heart

As the quote indicates, what a person has in their heart is more important than fine clothing or public adoration. We are seeing today that some such people are rotten to the core.

Prayer is Better than Weapons

Yes, prayer is better than the might of weapons. Nothing is cured with weapons. Nothing is cured with hate. But prayer has been proven to help cure many illnesses, even when the person being prayed for is unaware of it. Never underestimate the power of prayer. Praying for others is proper behavior for spiritual people.

“Man has the powers of reason and decision. A wise father delegates responsibility to his children, and God does not unduly interfere in the affairs of men.

“Man is the lord of creation and the heir to godhood. He can soar to the greatest heights, but also fall to the lowest depths. No man is wholly good, and no man is wholly evil. The scales are never completely weighed down.

“No man can hold any desirable thing on Earth or attain it in the Regions of Light without the expenditure of effort. No man can foresee the future or know what test the Wise God has placed there for him.

“O man, mark this well. Never forget your goal of godhood, but vaunt not your godlikeness, for the beast dogs your footsteps, and an animal clothes your soul. You dwell beneath the dark shadow of the cloud of mortal ignorance. You live in a twilit dream state; you are deceived by your senses; you dream and say this is reality; you reason and are afraid. But know that all things real reside in God, and His wisdom stands beyond the bounds of reason. He has established the foundations of Truth and Reality for eternity.”

-the Kolbrin Bible (MPR:5:11-14)

Man Has Powers

Man has a variety of abilities (I like that word better than powers). Some abilities are physical in nature and come from the Demiurge who created all things physical. Others are spiritual and come from God. There is nothing wrong with using our physical abilities, as long as we use them in a way that benefits mankind and doesn’t violate the Laws of God. Some people think that we can only use physical abilities while on earth and must save the spiritual ones for the afterlife, but that isn’t true. Some spiritual abilities can and should be awakened, developed, and used while we are still physical.

A Wise Father Delegates

Some wonder why God doesn’t simply change the world back into the original spiritual form He always intended it to be. He doesn’t do that partly because He has given us some degree of free will and wants us to decide that is what we want. He also wants us to participate in the process just as fathers used to have their offspring participate in their business.

Heir to Godhood

It may be an exaggeration to say that man is heir to godhood, but good does want us to develop our spiritual faculties to their fullest until we reach that level of consciousness and spiritual knowledge that allows us to be in Heaven with God and the Angels of Light. The quote says none of us is wholly good or wholly evil. It is up to us to decide which side we want to nurture. As some Native Americans say, we have two wolves within us: one is good, and one is evil. It is up to us to decide which one we want to nurture.

We Must Make an Effort

As the quote says, we cannot hold anything desirable on earth or in the regions of Light without making an effort. In one of the prayers used in some Cosolargy services, it says that we must labor in this world as well as the next, and that is true. Nothing comes from simply sitting around and wishing for it.

The Beast Dogs Your Footsteps

It is true that the Beast and his minions are after us all the time. It is also true, in a certain sense, that our spirit is trapped in a mortal body. But, as the quote also says, God has established the foundations of truth and reality. So if we want to know right from wrong, good from evil, we must turn to God, not to human leaders.

Far beyond Pluto, where sunlight is faint and the planets are long behind, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft is moving through a region where the Sun’s outflow begins to lose its grip. There, a stream of charged particles called the solar wind is gradually slowing down. The new measurements help show why. The answer lies in a quiet, persistent encounter with material drifting in from interstellar space.