Read Ecclesiastes 8
So I've been reading through this book in The Message, and I really like it. Most people will disagree, but I really get the feel for what's being said as opposed to another translation. And yes, I use the word translation intentionally. All text except the original Greek and Hebrew are paraphrases, yet we call some translations and others paraphrases. So for me both are translations/paraphrases, and I like the word translation better.
"But Mike," you may be asking, "Which is the best Bible to read?" Well KJV of course! It's the only true translation and if you read anything else you're going to hell!
Just kidding.
In the words of the great Dr. Girdwood, "The best translation is the one that you will actually read."
So for this I read the Message. Deal with it.
The first verse tells us some things that wisdom does. I suggest you have a look see there.
The next good bit, and the rest of the chapter relates to this, is obedience. It's a good thing. We are told that we should obey our king. Well who is our king? Let me ask you this: What is the Kingdom of God?
If you can't connect the dots, I'll explain it! Jesus came and brought the Kingdom of God. The end of Matthew 4 Jesus sits down and says, "Repent for the Kingdom of God is near." And another time he tells us that it's already here.
Before Saul became king of Israel (Book of 1st Samuel), before David and Solomon (the 3rd king of Israel and writer of this book) God was king over Israel. But Israel whined and complained that they wanted to be like the other kids in the neighborhood and have another dad to tell them what to do. Well God wasn't too happy about that, but gave it to them anyway, if anything just to teach them how stupid they are. God was no longer their only king, they had another now. They were no longer ruled by God.
This is what it means to be in the Kingdom of God, to have God be ruler of your life, have him be your king.
And the King gives us some things that we're supposed to do. We are to obey those things. That is what this chapter is getting at. And one of the biggest things that he tells us to do is: BE WISE AND GOOD.
Now of course we can't really be good, because we're in a fallen world. And we can't really be wise, because we don't live long enough to do that. Yet we are to still strive for it.
Now the world will try and trick you into not doing these things. When you're following God life will get harder for you and it'll seem like karma is just crushing you because you're a horrible person. But you're not a horrible person. By no stretch of the imagination are you perfect, I mean you're a fallen human who has sinned in life. But those people who are sleeping around, dealing, drinking, murdering, breaking the laws of God and men, they're prospering like they're perfect. Man that looks appealing. I should do that. Yet...I'm in the Kingdom of God, and I'm supposed to obey my King.
So which do you choose?
Obey your King and have a harder life?
or...
Do as the world does and prosper now?
That's your call. But which would you rather prosper in? Now or eternity?
Thursday, July 10, 2014
Wednesday, July 9, 2014
Life Summed Up in a Sentence
Read Ecclesiastes 7
This will probably be a short one today, but that's alright.
Verses 1-14 are basically saying to live by. Study them, and follow them, I promise your life will be more fulfilling. Not easier, fulfilling.
The entirety of the chapter, book, and one of the major questions of life is all summed up at the end of the chapter.
This will probably be a short one today, but that's alright.
Verses 1-14 are basically saying to live by. Study them, and follow them, I promise your life will be more fulfilling. Not easier, fulfilling.
The entirety of the chapter, book, and one of the major questions of life is all summed up at the end of the chapter.
God made us all upright, and all of us screw it up.
Verse 20 tells us that no one is upright, everyone has sinned. Solomon has looked throughout the earth and has seen that everything bad that happens is a result of sin in the world. I'm no talking karma, I'm talking the effects of sin.
He searched throughout his life and saw these two things. God has made us all upright, we screwed it up, and we means everyone who has ever lived, is living, and will live.
He looked for the meaning of life and all he saw was we screw up. And because we all screw up there is no discrimination between the good and bad, the wise and the foolish. We all die the same. The question of "Why do the good die young?" is asked all the time. Look at the big red letters up top then read verse 20. It is because of sin that the good die young and the wicked prosper. Yet when it comes to death, it touches us all, and it distinguishes no one.
So why not live the life of the wicked? You'll get whatever you want, you'll live longer, life will just be better. Well the last two posts were about accepting your lot in life, with what you have and what you don't have. God has given it all to you, so why are you saying that what GOD has given you isn't good enough?
Instead of seeking more stuff, go after wisdom. One guy with wisdom is better than 10 guys with brawn. 10 strong guys will try to crush the wise man, yet if he can out think them, he has the advantage. So there is no point to do evil, no point to want more stuff, you gain absolutely nothing from it. Being wise is a reward in and of itself. So why live the YOLO lifestyle and recklessly and gaining nothing?
Instead seek wisdom, seek God himself. You'll never reach the end of it, so your journey and adventure will never end. It will be the most rewarding thing you will ever do, and you will understand more and more along the way.
Tuesday, July 8, 2014
Your Lot in Life
Read Ecclesiastes 6
While reading today and thinking about the scripture, I noticed Ecclesiastes is an incredibly dangerous book. It speaks a lot of how everything that we gain is pointless, we're all going to die anyway, so enjoy the time that you have. Some of you may take that to mean, "YOLO" and just live in sin because hey, we're just going to die anyway, so might as well live it up.
That's not the point that Solomon is getting at here. What he is getting at is that there is no value in things that the world says to value, and that's all that Solomon has talked about so far.
Just had to clear that up. And now on to Ecclesiastes 6.
God gives some everything and others nothing. Those who have everything a lot of times don't enjoy it. Maybe they're always wanting more and never satisfied with what they have, or it's taken away from them for whatever reason. For example, you work, you get paid, and you have taxes taken out. You earn this money, but you can't enjoy it all because someone takes it away from you. What we gain will, in the long run, be pointless. You get something newer, you have to sell it, you die, someone else will enjoy it, not you.
Some of us strive for more, constantly wanting more, yet a lot of times we won't get it, or we do, and we experience it, but then we die and the experience is lost and turned out to be pointless. Solomon tells us that it's better for a baby to be stillborn and not experience the tragedy that we do. And on the flip side of that, if someone lived for thousands of years and never enjoyed it, their life was wasted. While we experience loss, and life hands us lemons, we still need to find the joy in the life/lot that God has given us.
We, especially Americans, have a problem of constantly trying to find joy in the things that the world tells us to find joy in. Sex, drugs, money, reputation. This is the American dream. I've been there, and I've never been happy in that life. I haven't been rich by any standards, but I've tried to find happiness in so many different things, and never found it. I turned my back on that, and turned to Christ, and I have been filled with joy. I'm thankful and full of joy because of what God has given me, as opposed to what the world tells me to find joy in. There is no joy there. Only in Christ is there joy.
With all of this, no one has a true advantage over another. Maybe in this life you may have some materialistic advantage over others, but are they going to keep you from dying? No. Are they going to save you from your sin? Absolutely not. We all die, we all are judged, and nothing you can do can give you advantage over someone else. So live with what you have, be happy with what God has given you. Believe it or not but you can live without the newest iPhone or videogame system. I have a smart phone, I worked for the money to buy it, and I got it. I pay some for the bill for it. I could get by with a flip phone to communicate with people, but God has blessed me enough to be able to have a smart phone. It isn't the best, but it works, and I like it. I'm thankful for what God has given me, it works just as good as any other phone in communicating with people.
It doesn't matter what you have then. We all die anyway, and who's going to remember us for what phone we had or how much our pants cost? No one. We will be remembered for a bit by our actions, not our stuff. And would you rather be remembered as a follower of God or someone who always wanted more stuff?
All the things that we work for is crap. We don't need it. And when we do get it all we do is brag about it and talk about it, but all that talk is is just us blowing smoke. So is there any advantage to it? Absolutely not. And no matter what we say, no one will know our needs or future. No one will have an advantage over us by what we have and what we say. Only God knows all of these things. And only God will judge us. So why try to impress people by blowing smoke at them about our things?
Accept what God has given you, and find joy in that God has actually given you things. Accept your lot in life.
Monday, July 7, 2014
The Things You Find...
Well not that the long weekend is over, let's get back into with Ecclesiastes 5.
Go on. Get reading.
I've been trying different things with this series I guess you could call it, to see what works best. But feed back doesn't exist, and it really depends how I'm feeling that particular day. So let's do this.
The first 3 verses when I read them kind of stood out to me as instruction for prayer. I get this from the words, "nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God." Of course there's more to that, but that tells me that this is about talking to God.
-We are told to "guard your steps when you go to the house of God." Well back when this was written they had the temple, where sacrifices were made to atone for sin. (Other things went on as well, but this will suffice for now.) Yet with the idea of guarding your steps as you enter the house of God, well we are the new tabernacle, the new house of God. So how can we guard our steps while coming before God in ourselves? Have you ever prayed to God without mentally preparing for it? If you're asking what I mean by that, then yes, you have. You know that you have not mentally prepared for it by having yourself chase rabbits, random thoughts that come into your head. You were talking to God about asking to heal grandma Betty, and now you're thinking about how dream sequences are horrible in movies. Guard your thoughts which lead to steps when you come before God. Give him your undivided attention, because he's actually worthy of it.
-When you come into the house of God, most come to talk, few come to listen. "To draw near to listen is better than to offer the sacrifice of the fools, for they do not know that they are doing evil." The idea behind sacrifice is to give up something worth a good bit for the sin you have committed. Jesus came and we don't need to do that anymore. Yet isn't prayer a sacrifice of our time if we do it by guarding our thoughts? By actually keeping track of what we say and do while spending time with God? And this includes sitting in silence listening to him, which is better than the sacrifice of fools, shot off half cocked and only with part of their mind on the task at hand.
-Watch what you say to him. Remember, he is the only God there is, and while he loves you and cares for you, he deserves, and demands, your respect. Act accordingly with what you say to him. We saw in chapter 3 that there is a time for everything. This includes different ways to talk to God. First off always be willing to listen. But there are times to be thankful, times to beg for mercy, times for seeking healing or peace, and there are times to rage. Some may not agree with this, that's fine, but I have had times where I've had not so polite conversations with God. But I also have no had polite conversations with my parents before. Remember that with God it is always a safe place, but show him respect, and think before you speak. (This also gives you time to cool off before you say something stupid.) Thinking before you speak is giving you time to mentally prepare before coming to God.
With all of that out of the way, we can move on.
Making a vow, or a promise, to God is a serious thing. This is seen in the gospels when Jesus says, "Let your yes be yes and your no be no." Say what you mean, and if you say you're going to do something, do it. And do it fast. Especially when making a promise to God because "He takes no pleasures in fools." Making promises to God is so serious that it's better to just not make one than it is to make one and not fulfill it.
The problem of making vows and not keeping them is a problem of dreaming too big and boasting too much. Now I'm not saying you can't do anything. But when you start saying you're going to be the owner of a Fortune 500 company and you're going to do it all on your own, God may come in and make you sit down. But we have these big dreams, and then big words to back the dreams up, boasting in our dreams, yet we don't see that those dreams and words are useless. I used to have the dream of starting a church plant in inner city New York for kids, starting the discipleship process to that they can impact the world. I was going to become famous, get rich, preach at huge conferences, and teach college. I had big dreams for me. God had other plans, and now I'm in campus ministry, the church's best kept secret. My dreams and words increased, and I saw that it was all pointless, because it was what I wanted and it all would fade away. When the realization came that God wanted me elsewhere doing other things for now, I was first off humbled. But then I realized I wasn't respecting God, I didn't fear him. I still had the mentality my family gave me of "you have to make money." I was fearful of failing my family, my parents, and just failure in general. I wasn't fearful of failing God. But now he's put me in my place so that we can impact the world.
Next up Solomon talks about civil order. Things are going to go wrong in our lives, and we will see a lot of injustice. Homeless, poverty, substance abuse, child abuse, sexual assaults, murder, and the list can go on. As of right now the people who run this country don't care about the "people below them." In the words of Cersei Lannister, their thought is, "They're so small I can't even see them." But something that would be great, would be absolutely perfect for a country, is if a king was committed to cultivated fields. Or, if a king was actually committed to making sure the poor and the hungry, and impoverished were taken care of.
There are those that have lots of money though. And verses 10-11 connect directly with Matthew 6.19-24 (go read it lazy). But verse 11 is something that needs explaining, because for me it took a few to get it. As goods increase in stock, they become more available. Then with them becoming available, the only advantage to getting them is to sit there and look at them, making it a non-advantage, because everyone has them.
Then the last 3 verses deal specifically with joy. What is fitting for us in life is to eat and drink and be happy, enjoying the life that God has given us with its work and hardships and struggles and good times and rewards and ease; for this is the lot that has been given to us, by God himself, picked especially for each and everyone of us. Those given power and possessions are also given by God, and are to be enjoyed. God has given us everything we need to be happy. The trick is to understand that and be thankful for what we have. I just recently moved into a house, and it was utterly empty. Absolutely nothing in it. Yet I had a twin mattress that I could throw on the floor, a chair to sit in, a toilet, shower, and microwave, I was set. I didn't have much, but I had enough to get by and I was happy with that. Then my parents came and gave me a bunch of stuff I was fine without, but I'm thankful for that as well, and enjoy those things just as much as what I had before. God had given us each life, and we are to enjoy what he has thrown our way.
Until tomorrow readers.
Go on. Get reading.
I've been trying different things with this series I guess you could call it, to see what works best. But feed back doesn't exist, and it really depends how I'm feeling that particular day. So let's do this.
The first 3 verses when I read them kind of stood out to me as instruction for prayer. I get this from the words, "nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God." Of course there's more to that, but that tells me that this is about talking to God.
-We are told to "guard your steps when you go to the house of God." Well back when this was written they had the temple, where sacrifices were made to atone for sin. (Other things went on as well, but this will suffice for now.) Yet with the idea of guarding your steps as you enter the house of God, well we are the new tabernacle, the new house of God. So how can we guard our steps while coming before God in ourselves? Have you ever prayed to God without mentally preparing for it? If you're asking what I mean by that, then yes, you have. You know that you have not mentally prepared for it by having yourself chase rabbits, random thoughts that come into your head. You were talking to God about asking to heal grandma Betty, and now you're thinking about how dream sequences are horrible in movies. Guard your thoughts which lead to steps when you come before God. Give him your undivided attention, because he's actually worthy of it.
-When you come into the house of God, most come to talk, few come to listen. "To draw near to listen is better than to offer the sacrifice of the fools, for they do not know that they are doing evil." The idea behind sacrifice is to give up something worth a good bit for the sin you have committed. Jesus came and we don't need to do that anymore. Yet isn't prayer a sacrifice of our time if we do it by guarding our thoughts? By actually keeping track of what we say and do while spending time with God? And this includes sitting in silence listening to him, which is better than the sacrifice of fools, shot off half cocked and only with part of their mind on the task at hand.
-Watch what you say to him. Remember, he is the only God there is, and while he loves you and cares for you, he deserves, and demands, your respect. Act accordingly with what you say to him. We saw in chapter 3 that there is a time for everything. This includes different ways to talk to God. First off always be willing to listen. But there are times to be thankful, times to beg for mercy, times for seeking healing or peace, and there are times to rage. Some may not agree with this, that's fine, but I have had times where I've had not so polite conversations with God. But I also have no had polite conversations with my parents before. Remember that with God it is always a safe place, but show him respect, and think before you speak. (This also gives you time to cool off before you say something stupid.) Thinking before you speak is giving you time to mentally prepare before coming to God.
With all of that out of the way, we can move on.
Making a vow, or a promise, to God is a serious thing. This is seen in the gospels when Jesus says, "Let your yes be yes and your no be no." Say what you mean, and if you say you're going to do something, do it. And do it fast. Especially when making a promise to God because "He takes no pleasures in fools." Making promises to God is so serious that it's better to just not make one than it is to make one and not fulfill it.
The problem of making vows and not keeping them is a problem of dreaming too big and boasting too much. Now I'm not saying you can't do anything. But when you start saying you're going to be the owner of a Fortune 500 company and you're going to do it all on your own, God may come in and make you sit down. But we have these big dreams, and then big words to back the dreams up, boasting in our dreams, yet we don't see that those dreams and words are useless. I used to have the dream of starting a church plant in inner city New York for kids, starting the discipleship process to that they can impact the world. I was going to become famous, get rich, preach at huge conferences, and teach college. I had big dreams for me. God had other plans, and now I'm in campus ministry, the church's best kept secret. My dreams and words increased, and I saw that it was all pointless, because it was what I wanted and it all would fade away. When the realization came that God wanted me elsewhere doing other things for now, I was first off humbled. But then I realized I wasn't respecting God, I didn't fear him. I still had the mentality my family gave me of "you have to make money." I was fearful of failing my family, my parents, and just failure in general. I wasn't fearful of failing God. But now he's put me in my place so that we can impact the world.
Next up Solomon talks about civil order. Things are going to go wrong in our lives, and we will see a lot of injustice. Homeless, poverty, substance abuse, child abuse, sexual assaults, murder, and the list can go on. As of right now the people who run this country don't care about the "people below them." In the words of Cersei Lannister, their thought is, "They're so small I can't even see them." But something that would be great, would be absolutely perfect for a country, is if a king was committed to cultivated fields. Or, if a king was actually committed to making sure the poor and the hungry, and impoverished were taken care of.
There are those that have lots of money though. And verses 10-11 connect directly with Matthew 6.19-24 (go read it lazy). But verse 11 is something that needs explaining, because for me it took a few to get it. As goods increase in stock, they become more available. Then with them becoming available, the only advantage to getting them is to sit there and look at them, making it a non-advantage, because everyone has them.
Then the last 3 verses deal specifically with joy. What is fitting for us in life is to eat and drink and be happy, enjoying the life that God has given us with its work and hardships and struggles and good times and rewards and ease; for this is the lot that has been given to us, by God himself, picked especially for each and everyone of us. Those given power and possessions are also given by God, and are to be enjoyed. God has given us everything we need to be happy. The trick is to understand that and be thankful for what we have. I just recently moved into a house, and it was utterly empty. Absolutely nothing in it. Yet I had a twin mattress that I could throw on the floor, a chair to sit in, a toilet, shower, and microwave, I was set. I didn't have much, but I had enough to get by and I was happy with that. Then my parents came and gave me a bunch of stuff I was fine without, but I'm thankful for that as well, and enjoy those things just as much as what I had before. God had given us each life, and we are to enjoy what he has thrown our way.
Until tomorrow readers.
Thursday, July 3, 2014
Life is a Team Activity
Read Ecclesiastes 4
There's a song called Bullet with Butterfly Wings by The Smashing Pumpkins. The very first line of this song is "The world is a vampire." The meaning behind those lyrics is that the world sucks the life out of us, some slow, some fast. There is a law of thermodynamics related to this. Everything is in a state of entropy, or everything is dying. Side note, I believe this one law shows how evolution cannot work, but maybe that's for another time.
Here in Ecclesiastes 4 we see that the foolish or the sloths are slowly killing themselves, but not doing a thing. Those who work hard though hold a double edged sword. Either you work yourself to death, or you build up your body to last longer. Recently my dad had a mild heart attack because he was so over worked. Luckily it was as un-serious as a heart attack can be, but his job still could have put him in the ground. I think God every day that it didn't. But no matter how you are, lazy as all get out or working your hands to the bone, the reality is you're going to die.
I'm glad Solomon made that painfully clear for us. Negative Nancy.
But while on the subject of working ourselves to death, we are told of a man that Solomon sees who in one translation he describes as, "another wisp of smoke on its way to nothingness." This just reaffirms that we all are just passing breaths, just waiting to move on from this life. But this wisp of smoke, this man that Solomon sees, he is alone. No friends. No family. No co-workers. Alone. And this man is constantly working into the wee hours of the morning, always wanting more than what he has, and never stopping to ask himself, "Why don't I get help with this?" We then see some proverbs or sayings that tell of the importance of teamwork and community. I suggest you read those and see what God has to say about "going it alone." We came into this giant community which spans the globe. They're there to support us just as we're there to support them. Take advantage of it.
Finally we see a poor young kid with some wisdom is better than and old man who is full of foolishness. Yet this young man who had nothing ended up gaining everything, and was marveled at by the people. Yet he still died, and was soon forgotten.
Remember that there is only one important thing in life: Christ. What you've done, what you've gained, it's all meaningless, it doesn't go with you. Instead look to help those around you, use the community of believers you are a part of, and focus on Christ in all you do.
There's a song called Bullet with Butterfly Wings by The Smashing Pumpkins. The very first line of this song is "The world is a vampire." The meaning behind those lyrics is that the world sucks the life out of us, some slow, some fast. There is a law of thermodynamics related to this. Everything is in a state of entropy, or everything is dying. Side note, I believe this one law shows how evolution cannot work, but maybe that's for another time.
Here in Ecclesiastes 4 we see that the foolish or the sloths are slowly killing themselves, but not doing a thing. Those who work hard though hold a double edged sword. Either you work yourself to death, or you build up your body to last longer. Recently my dad had a mild heart attack because he was so over worked. Luckily it was as un-serious as a heart attack can be, but his job still could have put him in the ground. I think God every day that it didn't. But no matter how you are, lazy as all get out or working your hands to the bone, the reality is you're going to die.
I'm glad Solomon made that painfully clear for us. Negative Nancy.
But while on the subject of working ourselves to death, we are told of a man that Solomon sees who in one translation he describes as, "another wisp of smoke on its way to nothingness." This just reaffirms that we all are just passing breaths, just waiting to move on from this life. But this wisp of smoke, this man that Solomon sees, he is alone. No friends. No family. No co-workers. Alone. And this man is constantly working into the wee hours of the morning, always wanting more than what he has, and never stopping to ask himself, "Why don't I get help with this?" We then see some proverbs or sayings that tell of the importance of teamwork and community. I suggest you read those and see what God has to say about "going it alone." We came into this giant community which spans the globe. They're there to support us just as we're there to support them. Take advantage of it.
Finally we see a poor young kid with some wisdom is better than and old man who is full of foolishness. Yet this young man who had nothing ended up gaining everything, and was marveled at by the people. Yet he still died, and was soon forgotten.
Remember that there is only one important thing in life: Christ. What you've done, what you've gained, it's all meaningless, it doesn't go with you. Instead look to help those around you, use the community of believers you are a part of, and focus on Christ in all you do.
Wednesday, July 2, 2014
There is a Time for All Things
Read Ecclesiastes 3
When I had my youth ministry I had a few guys that were a bit...hyper. Nothing against that, I was that way when I was a kid, a lot younger than them and before circumstances in my life made me closed off, but believe it or not I used to be super hyper. But one thing I always told those kids was this: There is a time for everything. When I had a bunch of kids move up into my group, I started that first Sunday off with this little speech.
When I had my youth ministry I had a few guys that were a bit...hyper. Nothing against that, I was that way when I was a kid, a lot younger than them and before circumstances in my life made me closed off, but believe it or not I used to be super hyper. But one thing I always told those kids was this: There is a time for everything. When I had a bunch of kids move up into my group, I started that first Sunday off with this little speech.
There is a time for everything.
There's a time to have fun, a time to get crazy.
A time to worship, a time to be still.
A time to listen, and a time to be heard.
We will have fun, we will get wild, but we will also pay attention, because what is said here is important.
So begins chapter 3 of Ecclesiastes. There is a time for all things, you just need to know the proper time and respect that.
Verses 9-15 tells us a lot about God and what he has done for us.
He has given all of us a task, and there will be a time to work on that task.
He makes everything beautiful in it's time. This is a great sentence. God will make everything beautiful in it's own time, and with God making it beautiful, it is he who determines when the time is right. If he sent Jesus to us at the perfect time, then he will make everything beautiful at the perfect time. Take comfort in that. While your life may seem horrible and ugly, know that God will make it beautiful at the absolute perfect time.
Not only that, but God has put eternity in our hearts. A great movie that comes to mind for this is Troy, and how Achilles is more worried about being remembered throughout the ages as opposed to being loved by a family (scene where he speaks to his mother). We all want our fifteen minutes, we all want to be remembered and memorialized. We all want to know what lies behind death. God has put this in our hearts. So much that we want to know the beginning as well. I remember hearing about how telescopes were getting so advanced that soon we would be able to see the big bang by looking further and further into space, then suddenly that talk stopped. As of right now we can see about 700 million years after the big bang. (There's a lot of views here which still work with scripture, i.e. young earth and old earth Christians. Take your view on it and enjoy, it doesn't bother me.) But man has eternity in our hearts, and God has done that so that we can never see the beginning or end of what he has done/will be doing.
With all of that, God has given us a great gift. While all that we do is meaningless, we can still enjoy ourselves. I'm currently playing the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. I pour a lot of time into that because it's such an intensive game. All that time and effort I put into it though, is pointless. But I enjoy it, and it is because of this gift from God that I can enjoy it. So we much find joy in the things that we do, because God has given us the opportunity and gift to enjoy them.
Everything that God does lasts forever. The grace that he made available to us, the salvation that we may receive will endure forever (not eternal salvation, but it will always be there.) Whatever God has done we cannot undo. And he has done these things so that people can recognize and respect (fear) him.
Then there's the last few words of verse 15: God seeks what has been driven away. How is this not the story of the Gospel? Sin has driven us away from God, so he came to seek us out and make it easy for us to come back to him.
Today we have a challenge. God has given each of us a task, and that task is to help him seek out those who have been driven away. Find someone who has been driven away by their sin, and lead them back to God.
Tuesday, July 1, 2014
Ecclesiastes 2- Book Status
Read Ecclesiastes 2
In 1 Corinthians 10 Paul writes something so profound for a Jew that I'm sure that he was shocked when he came to this revelation: Everything is permissible, but not everything is good. What this means is that we're allowed to do anything we want, that is from the freedom we have in Christ, but not everything that we can do is good for us, for our relationship with Christ, and a lot of what we want to do is still sin. Paul counters this with Romans 6 by saying that we died to sin, and are made alive in Christ. We call ourselves Christians, yet if we go with the idea of "everything is permissible" and we take advantage of that sinning without thought of the consequences then we are still slaves to sin and are still dead in our transgressions. A part of becoming a Christian is maturing, and realizing that while we have freedom to do things, we know what is good for us and what is bad for us, and we choose the good, because God our perfect father has told us what is good and we do our best to follow his directions.
Why am I talking about all of this? Well first off I have to make sure I'm not going to give anyone permission to sin without a care in the world. If we have died to sin and came alive in Christ then we are to live like it. Second, this is what the first 11 verses of Ecclesiastes 2 talks about.
Solomon writes how he has tried everything: he lived with the motto of "enjoy yourself" and saw how laughter is nothing but madness and pleasure has no purpose in the grand scheme of things. He tried to cheer his body with wine and looked for anything worthwhile to do on the earth. He had everything anyone could ever ask for, he was the greatest king who had ever ruled Israel, there was none like him. He took whatever he wanted and squeezed as much happiness and pleasure out of everything.
Then verse 11 we see he says that throughout it all he was guided by wisdom, and everything he did, everything he had, all the happiness and pleasure that he had in his life, it was all pointless.
He looked at how he could do anything, yet saw that not everything was good for him. He saw that it was all pointless.
After Solomon saw all of this he looked at the actions that were wise and the actions that were folly in his life, and he tells of how wisdom is more beneficial for us than folly (and most of his actions were folly). We should stick with the things that are good and beneficial for us, just as we should stick with the light as opposed to the dark because in the light we benefit more.
This idea brings us to a passage in John 3.19-21. Light has come into the world, and our actions are seen by all, both good and bad, wise and foolish, spiritual and fleshly. When we accept the light and come into it for the world to see us, we are made clean. We can see what we are doing (Ecc. 2.14) as can the world, seeing that we glorify God through our actions. Those who cling to the dark think they can hide their actions, but God sees all. The fool clings to the darkness, and can't see what he's doing, he doesn't fully understand the effects of sin in his life.
But in the end, the same thing happens to the wise and the foolish, those in the light and those in the dark.
Both will die.
We move on to verse 15, and are presented with the question, "What is the point of being wise then, if we die just like the foolish?"
There is none. But this brings up Pascal's Wager. Quick summary of what this is, a guy named Pascal said that if a man lives his life for Christ: Loving God, serving others, doing everything he can to glorify God, and then dies and find out there is no God, no heaven, no hell, then all he lost was finite things, earthly things, but he still lived a good life. So what benefit do we have for living a life of wisdom? Well we can at least say that we lived a good life, but we have faith that a life of wisdom is what God wants us to live, and if we live that kind of life, with the knowledge of Christ and faith in his blood, we can be called sons of God.
**Side Note: There's a lot more to this stuff, but it will take far to long to actually get into with everything else that needs to be addressed. After I get done with Ecclesiastes I will go more in depth with some of these issue.**
So there is no difference between the wise man and the foolish man, both will die and both will be forgotten, so all we do is pointless. This realization that Solomon has pushes him to hate life. He hates everything that he has done because after he dies it's just going to get passed on to whoever comes after him, someone who hasn't worked for it or earned it.
He gives up trying to be happy with the things that he has done, he knows that everything that he has worked so hard for is pointless for him because he can't take it with him when he dies. This brings up more ideas from Jesus, Matthew 6.19-24, which I think should be after 25-34. Matthew 6.25-34 has Jesus telling us to not worry about how we're going to eat, or where we're going to live, or how we will survive, if we seek first God, we'll be taken care of. Then 19-24 tells us not to store things up here on earth because they will be destroyed here. Instead we should keep our treasures in heaven, where they can't be destroyed.
Two final things to talk about for this chapter.
Verses 24-25: There is nothing better than a man enjoying life. C.S. Lewis writes, "God cannot give us happiness and peace a part from himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing." (I want to say that's from Mere Christianity, but I can't remember where I read it, I just have it written down.) We can see throughout scripture that joy comes from God, a simple example being the Fruit of the Spirit. When we receive the Spirit, when we receive God, we gain a multitude of things, one of which is joy. It is only in God that we may find this joy and truly enjoy life. And our life is work, walking, talking, breathing, serving, careers, school, all of this is work, and everything we do should glorify God. Everything should be worship, and when we worship God in all we do, we enjoy all that we do.
Verse 26: Those that please God (worship God) are given wisdom, knowledge, and joy. But in chapter 1 we see that wisdom and knowledge bring sadness, how can they bring joy then? Only with god do we gain joy. By putting God in our work from 1.13, understanding the works of men, we find that all that we do for ourselves is pointless, but all we do for God is worthwhile, and we begin storing treasures for ourselves up in heaven, and we please God. Then we we please God we gain more wisdom, knowledge, and joy.
So what does all of this mean? Everything that we do for ourselves is pointless. We gain money, buy houses, cars, tv's, game systems, and whatever else we want, but they all fade away. They're all pushed aside as soon as the newest thing comes out (prime example is Apple products). So instead of working for yourself, gaining things that will just fade away, work for God. Store for yourself treasures in heaven, making God happy with your actions. These are wise actions. Live a wise life.
In 1 Corinthians 10 Paul writes something so profound for a Jew that I'm sure that he was shocked when he came to this revelation: Everything is permissible, but not everything is good. What this means is that we're allowed to do anything we want, that is from the freedom we have in Christ, but not everything that we can do is good for us, for our relationship with Christ, and a lot of what we want to do is still sin. Paul counters this with Romans 6 by saying that we died to sin, and are made alive in Christ. We call ourselves Christians, yet if we go with the idea of "everything is permissible" and we take advantage of that sinning without thought of the consequences then we are still slaves to sin and are still dead in our transgressions. A part of becoming a Christian is maturing, and realizing that while we have freedom to do things, we know what is good for us and what is bad for us, and we choose the good, because God our perfect father has told us what is good and we do our best to follow his directions.
Why am I talking about all of this? Well first off I have to make sure I'm not going to give anyone permission to sin without a care in the world. If we have died to sin and came alive in Christ then we are to live like it. Second, this is what the first 11 verses of Ecclesiastes 2 talks about.
Solomon writes how he has tried everything: he lived with the motto of "enjoy yourself" and saw how laughter is nothing but madness and pleasure has no purpose in the grand scheme of things. He tried to cheer his body with wine and looked for anything worthwhile to do on the earth. He had everything anyone could ever ask for, he was the greatest king who had ever ruled Israel, there was none like him. He took whatever he wanted and squeezed as much happiness and pleasure out of everything.
Then verse 11 we see he says that throughout it all he was guided by wisdom, and everything he did, everything he had, all the happiness and pleasure that he had in his life, it was all pointless.
He looked at how he could do anything, yet saw that not everything was good for him. He saw that it was all pointless.
After Solomon saw all of this he looked at the actions that were wise and the actions that were folly in his life, and he tells of how wisdom is more beneficial for us than folly (and most of his actions were folly). We should stick with the things that are good and beneficial for us, just as we should stick with the light as opposed to the dark because in the light we benefit more.
This idea brings us to a passage in John 3.19-21. Light has come into the world, and our actions are seen by all, both good and bad, wise and foolish, spiritual and fleshly. When we accept the light and come into it for the world to see us, we are made clean. We can see what we are doing (Ecc. 2.14) as can the world, seeing that we glorify God through our actions. Those who cling to the dark think they can hide their actions, but God sees all. The fool clings to the darkness, and can't see what he's doing, he doesn't fully understand the effects of sin in his life.
But in the end, the same thing happens to the wise and the foolish, those in the light and those in the dark.
Both will die.
We move on to verse 15, and are presented with the question, "What is the point of being wise then, if we die just like the foolish?"
There is none. But this brings up Pascal's Wager. Quick summary of what this is, a guy named Pascal said that if a man lives his life for Christ: Loving God, serving others, doing everything he can to glorify God, and then dies and find out there is no God, no heaven, no hell, then all he lost was finite things, earthly things, but he still lived a good life. So what benefit do we have for living a life of wisdom? Well we can at least say that we lived a good life, but we have faith that a life of wisdom is what God wants us to live, and if we live that kind of life, with the knowledge of Christ and faith in his blood, we can be called sons of God.
**Side Note: There's a lot more to this stuff, but it will take far to long to actually get into with everything else that needs to be addressed. After I get done with Ecclesiastes I will go more in depth with some of these issue.**
So there is no difference between the wise man and the foolish man, both will die and both will be forgotten, so all we do is pointless. This realization that Solomon has pushes him to hate life. He hates everything that he has done because after he dies it's just going to get passed on to whoever comes after him, someone who hasn't worked for it or earned it.
He gives up trying to be happy with the things that he has done, he knows that everything that he has worked so hard for is pointless for him because he can't take it with him when he dies. This brings up more ideas from Jesus, Matthew 6.19-24, which I think should be after 25-34. Matthew 6.25-34 has Jesus telling us to not worry about how we're going to eat, or where we're going to live, or how we will survive, if we seek first God, we'll be taken care of. Then 19-24 tells us not to store things up here on earth because they will be destroyed here. Instead we should keep our treasures in heaven, where they can't be destroyed.
Two final things to talk about for this chapter.
Verses 24-25: There is nothing better than a man enjoying life. C.S. Lewis writes, "God cannot give us happiness and peace a part from himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing." (I want to say that's from Mere Christianity, but I can't remember where I read it, I just have it written down.) We can see throughout scripture that joy comes from God, a simple example being the Fruit of the Spirit. When we receive the Spirit, when we receive God, we gain a multitude of things, one of which is joy. It is only in God that we may find this joy and truly enjoy life. And our life is work, walking, talking, breathing, serving, careers, school, all of this is work, and everything we do should glorify God. Everything should be worship, and when we worship God in all we do, we enjoy all that we do.
Verse 26: Those that please God (worship God) are given wisdom, knowledge, and joy. But in chapter 1 we see that wisdom and knowledge bring sadness, how can they bring joy then? Only with god do we gain joy. By putting God in our work from 1.13, understanding the works of men, we find that all that we do for ourselves is pointless, but all we do for God is worthwhile, and we begin storing treasures for ourselves up in heaven, and we please God. Then we we please God we gain more wisdom, knowledge, and joy.
So what does all of this mean? Everything that we do for ourselves is pointless. We gain money, buy houses, cars, tv's, game systems, and whatever else we want, but they all fade away. They're all pushed aside as soon as the newest thing comes out (prime example is Apple products). So instead of working for yourself, gaining things that will just fade away, work for God. Store for yourself treasures in heaven, making God happy with your actions. These are wise actions. Live a wise life.
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