Is it OK to eat cake when other people on the planet are starving?

And why do they keep having kids when they can not feed the ones they have.

Because sex is ingrained in our flesh, which satan then plays with in our minds, and too few have it in them to resist. Despite the consequences.

But I do believe, current company no offense, that it is irresponsible to bring children into the world and expect others to feed them. One person's irresponsibility does not create a demand upon my generosity.

Eat and drink and be merry; for tomorrow you die.

The point wasn't really to do with starving children or cake.
It was to make us stop and realize our current condition so that we might be prompted to action by it.

Beer is my cake.
But I know I don't want that to be my epitaph.
I want it to say "Jesus was his only cake".

And so I know there is still purifying work to be done in me.
Sanctification is a process that occurs under the single condition of genuine and enduring faith in Jesus Christ, which is why He calls it the "Work of God".

Having tried a thousand times to purify myself under my own efforts with thinking and plans and schemes and strategies and will-power and determination, and failed miserably every time, I am at last able to give up my own strength and come to Jesus as a little child and say "please Jesus, please help me, I want to be good, I really do, but I just can't do it. Please help me, I can't go on like this anymore, I need you to save me and make a way home to the Father for me where I can truly belong."

And so, I am trying for everything I am worth to forget 'thinking' and instead concentrate all my efforts on believing so that His Spirit can come into me and, over time and with endurance, do the work for me that I could not do for myself.

I don't have to think about beer or 'not-drinking'.
As my spirit is renewed by His Spirit, beer will simply fall from my life, and I will wonder why I ever drank it.
And not just beer but all "the worries of this life,
the deceitfulness of wealth,
and the desire for other things" (Mark 4:19)

Feeding starving children is not the "Work of God", but, if you do the "Work of God" you will feed more starving children than you ever could have on your own.

That's what I think, anyway.

I understand that we see hungry people and want to feed them but what does that benefit in the long run? You have millions of people in an area that may support thousands. Anywhere else in nature, the ecosystem naturally adjusts to eliminate the population. Lack of food causes starvation, rebalancing the population to food source ratio. Even the effects of starvation on the body, makes it a poor reproductive vessel, another way to dial back population. When you put food in the mouths of sick, weak, lame individuals it tampers with the design God implemented to keep a species strong and thriving. Not to mention instead of allowing an infant to go be with the Lord you condemn them to a life of poverty, and suffering. My view may be harsh but it is an intelligent observation.

I understand your view, and also understand that many today would agree with what you are saying, and that it is impossible to help every person in need.

I also understand that according to your "intelligent observation", someone like me would not be allowed to live, because (as an orphan) it would have been better for me to have been sent to be with the Lord as an infant or child than to doomed to a lifetime of poverty and suffering.

I do understand why you are saying this. I often don't know why God puts some on one path and not another, but many people have faced adversity and managed to thrive. The entire Israelite population were starving slaves at the hands of the Egyptians, but God didn't say to kill off those who are poor or suffering.

I have someone in my family who was abandoned in the street as a toddler and left to die, but now their name is on the credits of a product you might very well have in your own household.

I have always wondered how many times God has sent us the cure for a major illness, such as cancer, but in the mind of someone who was deemed to be "part of the population that must be controlled", and was killed off before they could discover it.

I can't help but think of these passages:

* "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways are higher than your ways, and My thoughts are higher than your thoughts," declares the Lord. -- Isaiah 55:8,9.

* "But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and the weak things of the world to shame the strong." -- 1 Corinthians 1:25.

* "Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to care for widows and orphans in their affliction..." -- James 1:27.

Interesting that God doesn't say to just kill them off because they're the weakest chain of the population.

* And when Paul pleaded with God 3 times to remove the "thorn in his flesh", God didn't automatically decide just to kill him off. Rather, God told him, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness." -- 2 Corinthians 12:19.


Once we start to say that killing off the weak and the hungry is a merciful act of God and a means of population control in order to keep it strong, how do we then decide who is hungry enough to mercifully kill off, seeing as a 2016 statistic states that 1 in 5 children in the United States faces hunger, and a lack of access to nutritious food at some point in the year?

According to your statements above, I'm assuming you would then say that it is somehow right and Godly to not even bother trying to help them, because it's all part of God's plan for controlling the population, and ensuring that the strong survive?

I understand that it is impossible to help everyone, and Jesus even said, "The poor you will always have among you," (I see above that Joseph beat me to it,) but your post made it sound as if it's foolish, and somehow unworthy, to even make an effort at doing so.

I believe God will save who He chooses. Clearly in your circumstance He has detoured your path to the grave. My point is that in many cases by sparing some children from starving you have enabled others to use them and abuse them. Even prolonging their earthly existence you have given them choices to harm themselves and others and ultimately denying the One True God. In some instances a quick death as an infant is a mercy. Unless the bread comes with loving hands and instruction, it may be detrimental.

I understand your point.

However, you don't know which child, by "enabling" them to live, will still be abused, because it's not just children of poverty who are used or abused by others. Plenty of children in wealthy families are the victims of abuse as well.

And, as I had stated before, many, many people were not given loving instructions, but that has not held them back from obtaining their God-given callings. Who isn't in awe of a person God has allowed to overcome every obstacle that was placed in their path, despite all odds being against them? This is proof of the very power of God.

God didn't say that it's up to us to decide who is allowed to be "detoured on their path to the grave" and who is not.

Rather, He commands us to do as much good as we can, while we can, and He will take care of the rest.

I'm just a person who can't help but root for the underdog.

I’m not encouraging anybody to abstain from feeding the hungry. Nor do I believe that we should randomly, blindly throw food and money at impoverished areas thinking it will solve the problem. The solution is to extract, teach and empower select individuals then allow them to enact the change needed in those areas. We need change makers, not enablers.

I understand that we see hungry people and want to feed them but what does that benefit in the long run? You have millions of people in an area that may support thousands. Anywhere else in nature, the ecosystem naturally adjusts to eliminate the population. Lack of food causes starvation, rebalancing the population to food source ratio. Even the effects of starvation on the body, makes it a poor reproductive vessel, another way to dial back population. When you put food in the mouths of sick, weak, lame individuals it tampers with the design God implemented to keep a species strong and thriving. Not to mention instead of allowing an infant to go be with the Lord you condemn them to a life of poverty, and suffering. My view may be harsh but it is an intelligent observation.