Been there, done that, now I pass it on...

Some thoughts on Ecclesiastes 1:1-3...

*Solomon calls himself "the Preacher", as he writes Ecclesiastes.  He had, until now, been"the Gatherer" of life and experiences, but now it's time to "show and tell."  All of us, from the moment we are born, will begin our own "gathering of experiences" but for what purpose?  A student gathers facts and information regarding a subject.  He then looks for an outlet to "tell" others what he has found...so he writes a paper or gives a talk.  So it is with us...life experiences have a way of pressing us to "tell" and so Solomon does here.

*Solomon also calls himself:

         "son of David" - a godly heritage does not guarantee a godly walk and might even prove more "damning" to our own shameful souls.

         "king of Jerusalem" - position, wealth and power do not guarantee a fulfilled life either, but might add the shame of failure to be a good example.

We must beware of what we put our trust and reliance on, for  heritage, power, fame, etc...will become snares around our feet when devoid of a relationship with God Almighty.

*If, as Solomon states, "All is vanity," meaning the whole of it, the totality of it is a vapor...like a breath, then satisfaction and fulfillment must come from beyond this world.  He had tried everything, he knew more than anyone else and yet this world proved to be unsubstantial...empty fodder devoid of true nutrition...vapor...

*In earlier times Solomon had said, "In all labor there is profit..." Prov. 14:23.  As "profit" that will aid us in survival in this world, it is true.  Now, years later, as he writes Ecclesiastes, Solomon says, "What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun?" Ecc. 1:3.  Soul hunger cannot be satisfied with fleshly trifles.  This world is full of fleshly trifles...true soul food and substance must be beyond it.  

"If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world."  C.S.Lewis

But...nobody is going to see it!!!!

"At the king's command they quarried out great, costly stones in order to lay the foundation of the house with cut stones."  I Kings 5:17

Studying I Kings...  It is talking about Solomon's task of building the temple and how God not only granted him wisdom and wealth but also made a way for him to set about his task,  by giving Solomon and Israel, "rest on every side and no adversaries or misfortunes."

The verse above caught my attention, among others...

Solomon, himself, ordered that "big, costly and cut stones" be used for the foundation of the temple.

I thought about two lessons to learn from this:

     1.  These stones would be under the magnificence of the temple...nobody would see them.  Why not just use regular, uncut, cheaper stone?   To me, this is an indication that Solomon not only knew but also acknowledged in his life where his wealth had come from.  How then, could he give less than the best to the Giver, regardless of whether the stones would be seen or not?...God would see them!

     2.  "Cut" stones.  Not random, natural stone which might be uneven and affect the overall carefully planned building.  Solomon was purposeful and fastidious about his measurements and his materials.  He would not allow himself to be rail-roaded into "settling" for uncut stones that would influence and possibly detract from his product.  He was the master of the stone, NOT the other way around!

Oh LORD, how haphazardly I build!  Forgive me for my lack of discipline and careful discernment every day.  Each day I set about laying stones for the foundation of my temple (I Cor. 6:19), and by failing to be purposeful, I am allowing myself to be "sabotaged" by the enemy of my soul.  Show me where I am settling for less than the best for You, my Master.  Teach me to be, myself, the master of my circumstances and NOT the victim. Help me to find the best stones and cut them to size for your glory!!

"And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do."  Hebrews 4:13

Who and What to teach with my "degree"...

In Psalm 51, David pours out his heart before God in confession and repentance for his adulterous, murderous acts.  Then in v. 13, he says...     

                "then I will teach transgressors your ways,

                and sinners will return to you."

After his disobedience, confession, repentance, etc...what can David possibly teach?! What he knows best...he will teach others about God's merciful ways with sinners.  David has experienced God's mercy in the midst of his disobedience, this he could teach others.  God's mercy to repentant, confessing sinners would be his "curriculum".  But...who were to be his pupils?  Transgressors, of course! 

Those who deem themselves as non-transgressors don't feel a need or a longing for God's mercy.  But those who are weighed down with the enormity of their "transgressing ways" will embrace the merciful message taught by the experienced teacher, David S.S. (Saved Sinner).

David didn't teach a 3-step formula of how he came to God.  He didn't expound on his disobedient acts with gory detail.  He taught God's ways because he wanted sinners to turn to God, not to himself!

I am an experienced sinner...what could I possibly do with those awful credentials?  Teach others about God's merciful ways with repentant sinners!  I have experience with that... David and I have this in common...we both have our S.S. degrees!  (Saved Sinner).   

 

Escaped???!!!

Reading thru Revelation, WOW!  In Ch. 12 today a phrase caught my eye. "but her child was caught up to God and to his throne."  The context of this verse is the sign that John saw in the heavens of the pregnant woman clothed with the sun and with the moon at her feet, wearing a crown with 12 stars.  

The woman (Israel - Gen. 37:9-11) eventually gives birth to a male Child, who will rule with a rod of Iron ( Christ-Ps. 2:9).  This woman is closely guarded by the red dragon (Satan-Dan. 7:7-8) so that he can devour the Child as soon as he's born.  That's the context.

What caught my attention was the fact that the Bible says that "her Child was caught up to God and to his throne" meaning the Child escapes the vigilant dragon.  Wait a minute!!! but...what about the Cross, the suffering, etc...?  From a human perspective, The Child was "devoured" in death and suffering at least partially, wasn't He?  From the divine perspective, He escaped the dragon and was caught up to God!

Escaped the dragon??!! what about all the suffering, the humiliation, the ignominious death on a Roman cross?   Sure sounds to me like this suffering and dying stuff was all included in the plan, and that the plan was executed perfectly without seemingly any interruption by Satan, who unwittingly,  played his part in it!

 

How about me, then?  In God's view, will I "escape" Satan because my soul is secure with Go in Christ?  How about my suffering, trials, etc..?  Are they pre-planned for the purpose of teaching me obedience and conforming me to the image of Christ?  In the end, in the book of heaven, will it say, "Alba has escaped the minions of the dragon and was caught up to be with her LORD forever"?  

Yes, it will!!!  My sufferings and trials are not inconsequential.  They are essential to my obedience and conformity to Christ on this earth.  However, in the grand scheme of things, they are obscured by the fact that I "escaped" the second death and will live forever in the presence of my LORD and Savior!

"Death is swallowed up in victory."

O death where is your victory?

O death, where is your sting?

...But thanks be to God who gives us the victory 

through our Lord Jesus Christ."  I Cor. 15:54-55, 57

The "down-side" is a blessing?!

Our family has just received a wonderful answer to a 2-month (or more) prayer request.  How absolutely wonderful the LORD is!!! Never ceases to amaze me!!  As I pondered on this graceful gesture from my heavenly Daddy to my family, I realized that soon, sooner than you might think, we will probably move on to other prayer requests, etc...

Don't get me wrong, God is absolutely marvelous in everything that He does... yet there is a down-side to joys on this side of heaven.  We have a child, wonderful!...soon we are embroiled in the ins and outs of child raising ...then they leave...ouch!  We bought a house, great!...soon we are doing our best with upkeep and decorating and fixing, etc...We bought our first new car! exciting!...soon we will be rotating tires, changing transmissions, etc...I felt great last week!...marvelous!... haven't felt so good this week

All these blessings bring with them a "down-side" of decay and aging.  Oh, if it would just be all good and no down-side!! we lament.  But wait...perhaps this is what draws my heart towards heaven...the down-side.  There is no downside there and that is exactly what I long for.

To us who are children of God, we look upward, where He is.  To those who are not, they look around for more...how sad.

Thank you LORD for the downside.  It draws my heart to You and your promise of an eternity with You with absolutely NO DOWNSIDE!!!

Hallelujah!

An Old "new" Message

There truly is "nothing new under the sun"!  As I have been looking into Revelation and studying it carefully, it shocks me how germane (to use one of our new vocabulary words!) the messages to the seven churches are today!

To the church of Ephesus:  As always Jesus Christ starts with a commendation: You have persevered against false doctrine, you are doing all the good works.  The rebuke:  You have left your first love!  As I studied on, I remembered wrestling with a question in my own soul about church-planting, etc..  I remember asking myself, "What ever happened to the churches that Paul planted?  Did they remain faithful? Would it be a reflection on Paul's ministry if they weren't?"  As usual the LORD is faithful in answering the questions...actually sometimes I wonder if He gives me the questions, so that later on He can answer them, and get all the glory, and I get to know Him better as my faithful God! He's always doing that kind of stuff, ya know, increasing our faith and stuff!

But I digress...Paul had planted Ephesus and commended for their love for one another, about 40 years earlier!  However, here is God rebuking them because they had left their first love!!  What happened?  I guess, we can do all the right things, and fool ourselves into thinking that we are doing them for God when in reality there is no relationship with Him!

This is apparently the church at Ephesus' plight. Oh, they were doing all the right things alright... enduring a wicked culture, confronting heresy, even hating what God hated, but they had no relationship of love with the God they were doing all this for!  So what was the Exhortation?:  Remember how it was before you lost your first love for God, Repent of your straying, and Renew your devotion to God by doing the things that kept your first love burning!

So...how about me?  am I busy doing and not being?  What was God's promise to the church at Ephesus?  The promise is only for those who have ears to hear!  For us believers!  " To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the tree of life which is in the Paradise of God."  In other words, eternity in the presence of the God whom they love!!!!  But wait, if we don't have a relationship with Him here, why in the world would we want to spend such a loooong time with Him there?  

Oh LORD, hit me upside the head when I start doing things FOR You rather than spending time WITH You!  Teach me to look to You for satisfaction instead of looking to works, action, busyness, etc... for importance.  That would be going back to the "elementary principles of this world", wouldn't it?  Wow! the church at Ephesus wasn't that different than the church today!!

The Tarnished Image

Simple thoughts this morning...but deep application!  Satan's grand desire, within the knowledge of his limited capabilities, is to effectually tarnish and degrade the image of God everywhere.  In spite of his inability to totally destroy this world, he finds pleasure in "tarnishing" God's image by "submitting creation" to sin and death, etc...  In spite of his inability to "pluck out of God's hands" those who are His, he finds pleasure in "tarnishing" God's image in them.     

To the extent that I allow Satan to use me for his ends, is to the extent that I will be used by him to "tarnish" God's image in me.  Well, how does he go about "tarnishing" God's image in me?  This would be an important question to those who are "zealous for good deeds."  One of the many answers possible...he uses our interactions with others and our reactions/responses to them!  As long as I am preoccupied with how I'm being treated by others, I am unable to focus on bearing God's image in that particular situation.  The true image-bearer is more intent on bringing forth a true image of Christ in every situation, than in making sure self is understood, complemented, patted on the back, etc...

This morning has been such a great example of this in my own life!  I have allowed my body, my "instrument", to be used to distort the image of how Jesus Christ would deal with a particular person in a particular situation!!  

In other words, I "tarnished" God's image of Christ in me.  The words coming out of my mouth were right, but my attitude, plastered all over my face, was wrong.  What a terrible picture of my Savior's compassion and kindness. 

I am so awed at the grace of my LORD as He deals with me...and yet I fail to show that same grace to others..."oh wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death?...Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!."  Rom. 7:25

"There is , therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."  Rom. 8:1

Unbelievable grace....