For His Purpose
The writer of Ecclesiastes wanted to help those who would live after him lead a fulfilling life. He taught lessons learned from his own life.
Without God, all of our work, pleasure, and wisdom are useless. Lasting fulfillment comes from honoring God in all we do.
It is as if we are on an ocean beach called Earth. We are frantic. We build castles - or at least we think we do. But what we are really doing is just throwing up sand piles as fast as we can before the next big wave comes in. And that wave is coming. We can't run form it; there's no escaping it. We will stay on the beach building our castles higher, bigger, more elaborate. We won't enjoy them. There will be no time for that. The wave is coming. . .
People have always built sand castles, and those castles have always crumbled. There have always been those who grabbed for things that break. But now it is like the beginning of the end, like the first moments of a stock market crash, and the scramble is on. . .
We have made Jesus to be our Jesus, and we are so accustomed to responding to "our" Jesus that we have forgotten how to respond to the Son of the living God.
His teachings have been taken with the pragmatic view of "helping me" not followed because we must obey and can do nothing else. His words have been diluted by so many diverse therapies that all we know to respond to is a "feel-good" deity, a piece of religious plastic which we label "God".
To reject God out of hand is one thing, but to acknowledge Him and then to live as if He is neither Lord nor God is a horrible existence. Then all we have left is sand.
God expects us to be disciplined. It is not the unnatural but rather the natural thing to be. We were created to be disciplined, put on this earth by God at this time and in this place not for personal gain or personal pleasure but for His purpose.
God is here in our world now. He has been all the time. He calls to scrambling, grasping people like us through the words of Jesus Christ. He says, "Come unto me."
It is time for us to do what He asks.
-From Enjoying the Closeness of God by Roger Palms; part of The Inspirational Study Bible: New Century Version by Max Lucado
How do you seek intellectual knowledge? What pleasures do you seek? Solomon warns that these activities will never bring fulfillment by themselves. Learn to live your life so every detail pleases God. Mow the lawn, clean up your house, or enjoy a hobby in order to please God.
Without God, all of our work, pleasure, and wisdom are useless. Lasting fulfillment comes from honoring God in all we do.
It is as if we are on an ocean beach called Earth. We are frantic. We build castles - or at least we think we do. But what we are really doing is just throwing up sand piles as fast as we can before the next big wave comes in. And that wave is coming. We can't run form it; there's no escaping it. We will stay on the beach building our castles higher, bigger, more elaborate. We won't enjoy them. There will be no time for that. The wave is coming. . .
People have always built sand castles, and those castles have always crumbled. There have always been those who grabbed for things that break. But now it is like the beginning of the end, like the first moments of a stock market crash, and the scramble is on. . .
We have made Jesus to be our Jesus, and we are so accustomed to responding to "our" Jesus that we have forgotten how to respond to the Son of the living God.
His teachings have been taken with the pragmatic view of "helping me" not followed because we must obey and can do nothing else. His words have been diluted by so many diverse therapies that all we know to respond to is a "feel-good" deity, a piece of religious plastic which we label "God".
To reject God out of hand is one thing, but to acknowledge Him and then to live as if He is neither Lord nor God is a horrible existence. Then all we have left is sand.
God expects us to be disciplined. It is not the unnatural but rather the natural thing to be. We were created to be disciplined, put on this earth by God at this time and in this place not for personal gain or personal pleasure but for His purpose.
God is here in our world now. He has been all the time. He calls to scrambling, grasping people like us through the words of Jesus Christ. He says, "Come unto me."
It is time for us to do what He asks.
-From Enjoying the Closeness of God by Roger Palms; part of The Inspirational Study Bible: New Century Version by Max Lucado
How do you seek intellectual knowledge? What pleasures do you seek? Solomon warns that these activities will never bring fulfillment by themselves. Learn to live your life so every detail pleases God. Mow the lawn, clean up your house, or enjoy a hobby in order to please God.
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