Christ shapes us through the lives of others

C.S. Lewis – “Christ works on us in all sorts of ways…but above all, He works on us through each other.”

These words from C.S. Lewis reminds us of the great importance of being together in fellowship with others that belong to the body of Christ. We may not always get along or agree on everything, but we are created to be in community.

Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 – Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labour:
¹⁰ If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up.

"And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching." - Hebrews 10:24-25

Living in grace

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Generations come and go

"Generations come, generations go, but the earth remains forever.
The sun rises, the sun sets;
then it speeds to its place and rises there.
The wind blows south,
then it turns north;
the wind blows all around
and keeps returning to its rounds.
All the rivers flow to the sea,
yet the sea is not full;
to the place where the rivers flow,
there they keep on flowing." - Ecclesiastes 1:4-7 (Complete Jewish Bible)

As we take a few moments to ponder these words from Ecclesiastes we are reminded of some wonderful truths:

People come and go, but God remains forever.

God directs the winds, and we have no control of the weather.

The balance of the sea, land and rivers, is so precise that it shouts to us: "God is a genius!"

The older I get, the more I admit that I actually comprehend so very little. This is indeed humbling. It reminds me that I am not in control, but that I can surrender my life to the One who is in control.

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Beware of the leaks

As the winter rains start in the Western Cape, so we also begin to notice the places in our buildings where leaks have started to show. This can be a devasting time for people, as many don't know how they will contain their fragile coverings and homes. 

It struck me again this week, as I was trying to deal with a leaking washing machine, that unless we deal with these leaks when we first notice them, they will only get bigger and more destructive. 

I guess, the same would apply in our spiritual lives too - unless we take note of the places where we feel we are weak or cracks are beginning to show, then we could be in for some very difficult times.

"Laziness lets the roof leak, and soon the rafters begin to rot." - Ecclesiastes 10:18

Thoughts: Do you have some cracks beginning to show in your faith? What can you do to mend the problem areas? 

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Learning to live in silence.

The Desert Fathers (and Mothers) believed that Silence was one of the safest ways to God. They believed that our words often got us into more trouble than we bargained for, and so remaining silent was a discipline worth pursuing. One of these Desert Father, Arsenius remarked:

"I have often repented of having spoken, but never of having remained silent."

Wow, how true are those words!? Remember that time that you blurted out those words and immediately started to regret them? 

The writer of Ecclesiastes also knew that there was an appropriate time to be silent and a time to speak (Ecclesiastes 3).

Lent is one of those seasons, where we are trying to pay attention to the voice of God. In tuning into the words of the Spirit, we will need to practice holding our tongues at times.

Thought: How easy/hard is this for you to do?

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What would a happy life look like?

What would a happy life look like for you?

Many people would choose to have a life free from troubles and hardships, but this is very unrealistic. In fact, I would suggest that this kind of life doesn't exist at all - well, maybe in fairy tales, but not in real life. 

"A happy life consists not in the absence, but in the mastery of hardships." - Helen Keller

Helen Keller's insight helps us to see beyond the difficulties and to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus. Striving to find contentment and 'peace' in the midst of troubles has to be one of the hardest exercises we will ever undertake. 

If the quote (above) hadn't come from someone like Helen Keller, I would have struggled to believe it, but because she has discovered the 'truth' in this regard, I have to sit up and pay attention. How do you feel?

Ecclesiastes 7:14 - When times are good, be happy; but when times are bad, consider this: God has made the one as well as the other.

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Don't take it for granted

On the 4th of October 1537 the world got to read the first Bible printed in the English language, and this was thanks to the tireless work of people like William Tyndale and Miles Coverdale. It is a sad reality that many English speakers now take this gift for granted and we forget the true joy of listening to the sacred scriptures (or reading them) in our mother tongue. 

The quote in the picture above strikes a chord with me, where it reminds me that "the things I take for granted, someone else is praying for."

What other things do I take for granted?

Enjoy reading these words from the Bible and say a prayer of thanks for all those involved in translating the Bible into the languages of the world.

Ecclesiastes 7:14 (The Message) - On a good day, enjoy yourself; On a bad day, examine your conscience. God arranges for both kinds of days So that we won’t take anything for granted.

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Quest for happiness

Is happiness something that we will always find elusive ... or are we looking in the wrong places? Here are some interesting thoughts on happiness. 

Stormie Omartian – “We will never be happy until we make God the source of our fulfilment, and the answer to our longings. He is only one who should have power over our souls.”

Ecclesiastes 2:26 - To the person who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness."

“His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’ - Matthew 25:23

“I must learn to be content with being happier than I deserve.”
― Jane Austen

What will it take for us to be happy today?

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Stronger together

Times are tough for everyone at the moment and this is when we need to stick together, especially with those we love and those in the body of Christ.

"Separate reeds are weak easily broken, but bound together are strong and hard to part." - Unknown

The writer of Ecclesiastes would give his approval of this sentiment as he once wrote:

"By yourself you’re unprotected.
With a friend you can face the worst.
Can you round up a third?
A three-stranded rope isn’t easily snapped." - Ecclesiastes 4:12 (Message)

What do you feel about this?

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Last words

Coming to the end of his thoughts on life, wisdom and choices, Solomon gives us these profound words. Having read through the previous 12 chapters of Ecclesiastes they certainly sum up his sentiments neatly. 

"That’s the whole story. Here now is my final conclusion: Fear God and obey his commands, for this is everyone’s duty. God will judge us for everything we do, including every secret thing, whether good or bad." - Ecclesiastes 12:13-14

This is the best advice we could pass onto the younger generation, and those who still need to hear this advice: 

Let us have a reverence for God (a holy fear) and be willing to follow God's ways. In the end, we will all be judged according to our actions and I am grateful that my life will be judged by one person only - The Lord.

"The remarkable thing about God is that when you fear God, you fear nothing else, whereas if you do not fear God, you fear everything else." - Oswald Chambers

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Enjoy God

The final chapter of Ecclesiastes will help us to complete the circle of Solomon's rantings and advice given to the younger generation (and also to those of us older folk willing to listen) . He urges the youth to remember and honour God, even when they are young. Often people live their lives without any thought of God and then only turn to him later on in life - almost as a last resort. Solomon is impressing upon us all NOT to fall into that trap.

"Remember your Creator in the days of your youth,
before the days of trouble come
and the years approach when you will say,
“I find no pleasure in them”—
2 before the sun and the light
and the moon and the stars grow dark,
and the clouds return after the rain;" - Ecclesiastes 12:1-2 (NIV)

I love the way that The Message invites us to also 'enjoy' the Lord, as well as honour him. Many Christians understand the need to honour God and maybe even to fear him, but how often do we hear sermons where we are called to ENJOY the grace of God?

"Honour and enjoy your Creator while you’re still young,
Before the years take their toll and your vigor wanes,
Before your vision dims and the world blurs
And the winter years keep you close to the fire." - Eugene Peterson 

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Refuse to worry

"So refuse to worry, and keep your body healthy. But remember that youth, with a whole life before you, is meaningless." - Ecclesiastes 11:10

Here he goes again! Solomon comes to the staggering conclusion that even 'youth' is meaningless. I really feel sorry for him sometimes - it seems as if his depression was moving him deeper and deeper into a dark corner. 

When we read this last statement in the words of Eugene Peterson, it does make a lot more sense. The Message paraphrase states:

"You won’t be young forever.
Youth lasts about as long as smoke."

This now makes a lot more sense to me. All of us can remember our younger days as if they were just yesterday and we wonder where have the years gone. Solomon's message is very important for us to hold onto - life is short, so we should try not to WORRY and also to keep ourselves as HEALTHY as possible.

Remember the words of Jesus in Matthew 6:27

Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? ...

What do you think?

Is it possible to quit worrying?

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Striking a balance

This verse has always been an intriguing verse for me - I have used it at many youth talks and confirmation services in the past. One of the things that Solomon manages to hold in balance is the notion to 'enjoy your youth', but also remember that you will give an account for everything you do. Read what he says: 

"You who are young, be happy while you are young,

 and let your heart give you joy in the days of your youth.
Follow the ways of your heart
and whatever your eyes see,
but know that for all these things
God will bring you into judgment." - Ecclesiastes 11:9

There is a quote from Augustine that ties in with this scripture in some way, although it can be quoted out of context on occasion. Augustine wrote:

"Once for all, then, a short precept is given thee: Love, and do what thou wilt: whether thou hold thy peace, through love hold thy peace; whether thou cry out, through love cry out; whether thou correct, through love correct; whether thou spare, through love do thou spare: let the root of love be within, of this root can nothing spring but what is good."

The part I have underlined is the part that is quoted as "Love God and do what you like!" Obviously, this is a dangerous thought if not tethered to some core foundation. I think that both Solomon and Augustine understood that if a believer loved God with heart, soul, mind and strength, that their actions would seek to please God in any case - therefore we should be at peace about our actions. 

How do you feel about these quotes today? Worth a little reflection I think.

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Don't be idle

I have a confession to make: I struggle to sit around and do nothing!

I realise that this can be both good and bad, but it is something that I have had to understand about myself. Of course, there are times when I need to rest and sabbath, but I also struggle to allow time to be wasted. Maybe it is because I realise how precious time (life) is for each one of us. Today's reading really resonates with me, as it speaks about not being idle:

"Plant your seed in the morning and keep busy all afternoon, for you don’t know if profit will come from one activity or another—or maybe both." - Ecclesiastes 11:6

I don't see this as Solomon glorifying busyness, but rather that we don't know how our 'planting' will turn out and if we depend only on that ONE activity, we may end up hungry. I guess this point is another way of reminding us not to put all our eggs in one basket.

We live with the tension of working for the Lord and trusting all our efforts to him.

"Being forced to work, and forced to do your best, will breed in you temperance and self-control, diligence and strength of will, cheerfulness and content, and a hundred virtues which the idle will never know." - Charles Kingsley

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Trying to figure God out

I had a stranger pop past the church today asking a few deep questions. One of their genuine struggles was trying to figure out why God would allow certain things to happen in our lives. I didn't really have a neat, short answer for them, but tried my best to help them figure out where God was in the mystery of life. As 'God-incidence' would have it, our key verse from Ecclesiastes 11 alludes to something along similar lines:

"Just as you cannot understand the path of the wind or the mystery of a tiny baby growing in its mother’s womb, so you cannot understand the activity of God, who does all things." - Ecclesiastes 11:5

The part of the reading that says 'the mystery of the tiny baby in a mother's womb' also relates to the miracle of how breath enters into the body of a baby inside a mothers womb. Some translations actually say as much. 

In truth, we just have to realise that there are too many things that we can't understand and may never figure out. Such is life! As we head further into 2021, I know that I will not figure God out, but I can get to know God more and more. 

Knowing who God is helps me to trust in the uncertainty of the events that unfold all around me.

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No perfect conditions

There is wisdom in sometimes watching how things pan out and being cautious about the future. However, this can also be something that prevents us from taking risks and stepping out in faith. Taking a look at this passage from Ecclesiastes 11 one notices how Solomon understands this reality. The person who watches for too long, will miss the opportunity to plant seeds and ultimately reap any rewards.

"If clouds are full of water,
    they pour rain on the earth.
Whether a tree falls to the south or to the north,
    in the place where it falls, there it will lie.
4 Whoever watches the wind will not plant;
    whoever looks at the clouds will not reap."- Ecclesiastes 11:3-4

The Amplified Bible puts it like this:

"He who watches the wind [waiting for all conditions to be perfect] will not sow [seed], and he who looks at the clouds will not reap [a harvest]."

There are no perfect conditions for anything in life - we need to be able to seek wisdom, balance and faith, trusting that God will lead us onto the right path. 

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Many eggs in one basket

Last year taught us many valuable and harsh lessons. One of them could have been not to put our hope in only one thing, because that could be snatched from us at any time. The old saying goes something like this: "Don't put all your eggs in one basket." This usually applies to financial decisions, but it can apply to a lot of other things too.

Coming back to the wisdom of Solomon in Ecclesiastes, we note a similar sentiment from him. 

"Send your grain across the seas, and in time, profits will flow back to you.
2 But divide your investments among many places, for you do not know what risks might lie ahead." - Ecclesiastes 11:1

For me, these words of wisdom speak about a few key things:

1. We need to work hard and in time we will hopefully be rewarded.

2. Dividing your "investments" in a few options is very wise

3. Risks and uncertainty lie in the future

4. Security for the future relies of wise decisions in the present and the trust in God's provision for the present.

May God bless you with the wisdom of Solomon as you begin this new year.

Challenges lies ahead, but God is with us.

“Expect the best. Prepare for the worst. Capitalize on what comes.” - Zig Ziglar

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What kind of King?

Our passage from Ecclesiastes today fits in very well with our overall theme as a Christian Church. Today is known as Christ the King Sunday and we obviously celebrate the Lordship of Jesus, as well as the end of the liturgical calendar. With the benefit of hindsight and thousands of years of history we slowly comprehend that Jesus came as a different kind of King. The world has a picture of what lordship looks like, which is why many people took a while before they understood that Jesus was the King of Kings.

"I also saw under the sun this example of wisdom that greatly impressed me: There was once a small city with only a few people in it. And a powerful king came against it, surrounded it and built huge siege works against it. Now there lived in that city a man poor but wise, and he saved the city by his wisdom. But nobody remembered that poor man. So I said, “Wisdom is better than strength.” But the poor man’s wisdom is despised, and his words are no longer heeded.

The quiet words of the wise are more to be heeded
than the shouts of a ruler of fools.
Wisdom is better than weapons of war,
but one sinner destroys much good." - Ecclesiastes 9:13-18

Let us not miss our king of Kings this year. Of all the years, 2020 is the time we need to get on bended knee and admit we are in need of a Saviour-King.

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Unexpected times

"Moreover, no one knows when their hour will come:

As fish are caught in a cruel net,
or birds are taken in a snare,
so people are trapped by evil times
that fall unexpectedly upon them." - Ecclesiastes 9:11

Perhaps we could all agree that this year has been a very tough year for most of us and in some ways 2020 could be the 'evil times' that Solomon refers to in today's scripture. If I stop and take note of the fallout and the stress of this year, it certainly seems as if many people have been tripped up by the unexpected nature of Covid. These 'evil' and 'weird' times have trapped many good and godly people - we have become ensnared in issues we never dreamed would occur. 

In order to offer us hope, despite these circumstances, I want to remind us of the words of Jesus. He lived with the poise and balance that we all seek to have in our inner worlds. Jesus knew what his destiny and purpose was and he trusted his Father to guide him through the uncertainty of our world.

John 1:5 - The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

Matthew 6:13 - And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’

C.S.Lewis wrote - We must stop regarding unpleasant or unexpected things as interruptions of real life. The truth is that interruptions are real life.

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Time and chance

What do you make of these words from Ecclesiastes? Is Solomon suggesting that it is just a matter of 'fate' when things happen to us or can we believe that God is still in control of how things turn out?

"I have seen something else under the sun:

The race is not to the swift
or the battle to the strong,
nor does food come to the wise
or wealth to the brilliant
or favor to the learned;
but time and chance happen to them all." - Ecclesiastes 9:11

I would agree with the following:

Anyone can run the race of life...

Anyone can fight in this battle...

You don't have to have academic degrees to put food on the table...

It is not only pupils in the A class who make lots of money...

People with little education have won public office and positions of leadership...

BUT, I am not sure of the word 'chance' - The Living Bible says it like this:

"but it is all by chance, by happening to be at the right place at the right time."

Of course, TIME catches up with all of us, but I would feel comfortable using the word 'God's will' instead of Chance. It just makes me feel that God is more in control of things, compared to Chance.

What do you feel? 

"Thy fate is the common fate of all; Into each life some rain must fall." - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

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The forgotten name

Anyone who is among the living has hope - even a live dog is better off than a dead lion!

"For the living know that they will die,
but the dead know nothing;
they have no further reward,
and even their name is forgotten.

Their love, their hate
and their jealousy have long since vanished;
never again will they have a part
in anything that happens under the sun." - Ecclesiastes 9:5-7

Solomon uses very strong imagery in these 3 verses for today. The image of a live dog and a dead lion is fascinating. I guess he assumes that a live lion would defeat a dog in battle every time, but there would be no fear in a dog if the lion was lying dead. What do you make of this point?

The other image that struck me was that the person who lives for themselves will receive their reward in this life only -  and when they are dead, their name will be forgotten. What a strong reminder to live for God and for others? The name of a person is such an important thing and when someone is willing to win at all costs they will inevitably end up crossing other people to get what they want. This will tarnish their name and make others think less of them.

"A good character is the best tombstone. Those who loved you and were helped by you will remember you when forget-me-nots have withered. Carve your name on hearts, not on marble." - Charles Spurgeon

Living in Grace

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