Ecclesiastes
Solomon, the wisest person who ever lived, the wisest king who ever reigned, wrote this book at the end of his life. All his life he watched and observed and studied every field of science and the humanities, and he recorded his findings here.
The key phrase in this book is, "under the sun" (16x). This refers to our life here on this Earth. In this world, no matter how great we are, or how much we accomplish, we will have to leave it all when we die. So it's all "chasing after the wind," or "toil[ing] for the wind" (4x).
So the best we can hope for in this World is to be able to enjoy the fruits of our labors (2:24, 3:12-13, 5:18-20, 8:15). This is a gift from God. I knew a man who worked hard every moment of every day of his life and built a beautiful home for his family and filled it with all kinds of lovely and interesting things. But he could never just sit down and enjoy the work he had done. God had not granted him this gift.
Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the duty of all mankind. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Sunday, June 5, 2016
Saturday, June 4, 2016
Why God Can Do All Things
Job 42:2
I know that You can do all things, and that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted.
Jeremiah 32:17
Ah, Lord God, Behold, You have made the heavens and the Earth by Your great power and by Your outstretched arm! Nothing is too difficult for You!
Luke 1:37
The Angel told Mary: For nothing will be impossible with God.
Mark 10:27
Looking upon them, Jesus said, "With men it is impossible, but not with God; for all things are possible with God."
God is the Maker of everything that exists. He designed every atom and every molecule and assembled them in an orderly fashion into all the matter that is--animal, vegetable and mineral. And every element in the Periodic Table and every other element we don't know about yet.
As the Designer and Maker and Inventor of everything, He is the Owner, and can do whatever He wants with it. He is fully knowledgeable of all the inner workings of His Creation, and no part of it (like us or demons) can keep Him from fulfilling all He has planned for it--His purposes cannot be thwarted.
And because He is good and true and faithful, His order and beauty are evident everywhere.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
I know that You can do all things, and that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted.
Jeremiah 32:17
Ah, Lord God, Behold, You have made the heavens and the Earth by Your great power and by Your outstretched arm! Nothing is too difficult for You!
Luke 1:37
The Angel told Mary: For nothing will be impossible with God.
Mark 10:27
Looking upon them, Jesus said, "With men it is impossible, but not with God; for all things are possible with God."
God is the Maker of everything that exists. He designed every atom and every molecule and assembled them in an orderly fashion into all the matter that is--animal, vegetable and mineral. And every element in the Periodic Table and every other element we don't know about yet.
As the Designer and Maker and Inventor of everything, He is the Owner, and can do whatever He wants with it. He is fully knowledgeable of all the inner workings of His Creation, and no part of it (like us or demons) can keep Him from fulfilling all He has planned for it--His purposes cannot be thwarted.
And because He is good and true and faithful, His order and beauty are evident everywhere.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Friday, June 3, 2016
A Time For Every Purpose
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens.
God has provided us time: for times and seasons to do everything and to accomplish every purpose in this world. What purpose or activity is not included in:
A time to be born and a time to die,
A time to plant and a time to uproot,
A time to kill and a time to heal,
A time to tear down and a time to build,
A time to weep and a time to laugh,
A time to mourn and a time to dance,
A time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
A time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
A time to search and a time to give up searching,
A time to keep and a time to throw away,
A time to tear and a time to mend,
A time to be silent and a time to speak,
A time to love and a time to hate,
A time for war and a time for peace.
Anything not in this list is either to always be done (like to pray), or to never be done at all (like to lie and deceive one another). Life is a balance, and things in this world cycle: the generations of people, the sun, the wind, water, human knowledge (1:4-9).
I want to do what I can, when I can, to accomplish what I can, in the times God has given me.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens.
God has provided us time: for times and seasons to do everything and to accomplish every purpose in this world. What purpose or activity is not included in:
A time to be born and a time to die,
A time to plant and a time to uproot,
A time to kill and a time to heal,
A time to tear down and a time to build,
A time to weep and a time to laugh,
A time to mourn and a time to dance,
A time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
A time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
A time to search and a time to give up searching,
A time to keep and a time to throw away,
A time to tear and a time to mend,
A time to be silent and a time to speak,
A time to love and a time to hate,
A time for war and a time for peace.
Anything not in this list is either to always be done (like to pray), or to never be done at all (like to lie and deceive one another). Life is a balance, and things in this world cycle: the generations of people, the sun, the wind, water, human knowledge (1:4-9).
I want to do what I can, when I can, to accomplish what I can, in the times God has given me.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Thursday, June 2, 2016
The Innermost Being
Psalm 51:6
Behold, thou dost desire truth in the innermost being.
Our own hearts deceive us, and we lie to ourselves. There will always, in this life, be dark pockets in our hearts where we don't want to go, desires and attitudes that we don't want to face. David knew this, and he asked God to:
Create in me a clean heart, O God, (v. 10)
to dispose of all the dark places hiding there.
(Vs. 16-17) For Thou dost not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it; Thou art not pleased with burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise.
There is nothing we can do to turn God's favor toward us, even the most precious thing we have, the most expensive sacrifice, or the hardest thing for us to do.
In the New Testament we learn that:
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
This repeats what David said in the Old Testament, showing that God does not change.
For He is not willing that any should perish, but that all would come to repentance (II Peter 3:9)
When we confess, agree with God of the sinfulness of our sins, and turn around our attitudes about it because we regret the evil and unrest and turmoil that comes from our disobedience to the ways God made this world to operate; then God will be faithful to His promise to forgive our sins we've just admitted, and just because Jesus has already paid our debt; and He will also cleanse us of all the rest of the unrighteousness in our hearts we're not aware of yet.
I want God's Truth to saturate my life, even down to the inmost part of my being. Then I will be able to face myself, and to avoid temptation, and to resist the devil in the power of the Holy Spirit, and to show forth in my life God's love for others. And He will receive all the credit, all the glory, because it's all His plan, His program, His purposes and His power.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Behold, thou dost desire truth in the innermost being.
Our own hearts deceive us, and we lie to ourselves. There will always, in this life, be dark pockets in our hearts where we don't want to go, desires and attitudes that we don't want to face. David knew this, and he asked God to:
Create in me a clean heart, O God, (v. 10)
to dispose of all the dark places hiding there.
(Vs. 16-17) For Thou dost not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it; Thou art not pleased with burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise.
There is nothing we can do to turn God's favor toward us, even the most precious thing we have, the most expensive sacrifice, or the hardest thing for us to do.
In the New Testament we learn that:
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
This repeats what David said in the Old Testament, showing that God does not change.
For He is not willing that any should perish, but that all would come to repentance (II Peter 3:9)
When we confess, agree with God of the sinfulness of our sins, and turn around our attitudes about it because we regret the evil and unrest and turmoil that comes from our disobedience to the ways God made this world to operate; then God will be faithful to His promise to forgive our sins we've just admitted, and just because Jesus has already paid our debt; and He will also cleanse us of all the rest of the unrighteousness in our hearts we're not aware of yet.
I want God's Truth to saturate my life, even down to the inmost part of my being. Then I will be able to face myself, and to avoid temptation, and to resist the devil in the power of the Holy Spirit, and to show forth in my life God's love for others. And He will receive all the credit, all the glory, because it's all His plan, His program, His purposes and His power.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Wednesday, June 1, 2016
His Banner Over Me Is Love
The Song of Solomon 2:4, 2:16, 4:9, 6:3
His banner over me is love,
My Beloved is mine and I am His,
You have stolen My heart, My sister, My bride; you have stolen My heart with one glance of your eyes,
I am my Beloved's and my Beloved is mine.
This book tells us of the joys of marriage. It also illustrates how our God loves us. Israel is called God's wife, and the church is the Bride of Christ. He loves us passionately, as a bridegroom is enamored with his new bride.
God's heart goes out to us from that first repentant look toward Him to save us. Now we are His much loved wife and He has given us Himself, courting us into His love; and He belongs to us as we belong to Him: we are to be one with Him as He is one with the Father.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
His banner over me is love,
My Beloved is mine and I am His,
You have stolen My heart, My sister, My bride; you have stolen My heart with one glance of your eyes,
I am my Beloved's and my Beloved is mine.
This book tells us of the joys of marriage. It also illustrates how our God loves us. Israel is called God's wife, and the church is the Bride of Christ. He loves us passionately, as a bridegroom is enamored with his new bride.
God's heart goes out to us from that first repentant look toward Him to save us. Now we are His much loved wife and He has given us Himself, courting us into His love; and He belongs to us as we belong to Him: we are to be one with Him as He is one with the Father.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Tuesday, May 31, 2016
Deceptive Food
Proverbs 23:3
...For that food is deceptive.
When this was written, the writer was probably thinking about the meal an unrighteous ruler would provide, to deceive you into promoting him or supporting his program.
Today we can also see this phrase, "deceptive food," in a completely different light. There is "food" today that is not nourishing, some that has no nutritional value at all, but will chemically induce the brain's pleasure and flavor areas to deceive you into thinking it's worth eating.
There are other "foods" being produced today that contain their own insecticides, as part of the plant, you can't wash it off, so you're eating the poison, too.
And by taking the genes from one kind of life and introducing them into a completely different kind of life, they're getting a "Frankenstein Monster" of a product, that has been shown to be fatal to the animals it's been tested on.
So these "foods" themselves are deceptive, masquerading as food.
God has given us everything we need in this Earth, and we only do harm to ourselves and to one another when we "play god" and mess with it. We just think we're so smart! So we end up with auto-immune diseases and allergies to healthy foods, and wonder why we feel so bad.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
...For that food is deceptive.
When this was written, the writer was probably thinking about the meal an unrighteous ruler would provide, to deceive you into promoting him or supporting his program.
Today we can also see this phrase, "deceptive food," in a completely different light. There is "food" today that is not nourishing, some that has no nutritional value at all, but will chemically induce the brain's pleasure and flavor areas to deceive you into thinking it's worth eating.
There are other "foods" being produced today that contain their own insecticides, as part of the plant, you can't wash it off, so you're eating the poison, too.
And by taking the genes from one kind of life and introducing them into a completely different kind of life, they're getting a "Frankenstein Monster" of a product, that has been shown to be fatal to the animals it's been tested on.
So these "foods" themselves are deceptive, masquerading as food.
God has given us everything we need in this Earth, and we only do harm to ourselves and to one another when we "play god" and mess with it. We just think we're so smart! So we end up with auto-immune diseases and allergies to healthy foods, and wonder why we feel so bad.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Monday, May 30, 2016
Persecution
John 16:1-4
These things I have spoken to you that you may be kept from stumbling. They will make you outcasts from the synagogue, but an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service to God. And these things they will do, because they have not known the Father, or Me. But these things I have spoken to you, that when their hour comes, you may remember that I told you of them.
The history of religious persecution clearly portrays the fulfillment of this prophesy. To be fore-warned is to be fore-armed, so Jesus is telling us that people who are not true Christians will think that killing will "cleanse" the society of those who don't agree with their beliefs, their morals, or their life philosophies. In every age this has been true, even when it was the "christian" church doing the persecuting (hence, the Reformation). There are more Christian martyrs today than at any other age in history.
Because we know these things, we need to make sure our salvation is secure, and to strengthen ourselves emotionally and spiritually to withstand the rejection and persecution, even when it comes from our own families and friends.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
These things I have spoken to you that you may be kept from stumbling. They will make you outcasts from the synagogue, but an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service to God. And these things they will do, because they have not known the Father, or Me. But these things I have spoken to you, that when their hour comes, you may remember that I told you of them.
The history of religious persecution clearly portrays the fulfillment of this prophesy. To be fore-warned is to be fore-armed, so Jesus is telling us that people who are not true Christians will think that killing will "cleanse" the society of those who don't agree with their beliefs, their morals, or their life philosophies. In every age this has been true, even when it was the "christian" church doing the persecuting (hence, the Reformation). There are more Christian martyrs today than at any other age in history.
Because we know these things, we need to make sure our salvation is secure, and to strengthen ourselves emotionally and spiritually to withstand the rejection and persecution, even when it comes from our own families and friends.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
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