SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/15/2013
9:15 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Nothing Is
New
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Eccl. 1:8-11
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: There is an old
series that was on TV back in the 1980’s that I watched over the last few
months. It involved a private investigator
who would say at least once on most of the shows the following “I know what you
are thinking,” and as we begin to study this subject that nothing is new I can
probably say the same thing “I know what you’re thinking” for things are
different than in Solomon’s day for we have seen a man walk on the moon, we
have modern technology that is far advanced and yet you are saying that there
is nothing new under the sun.
Dr.
Wiersbe states the following “In this discussion, Solomon stopped being a scientist
and became a historian. Let’s follow the
steps in his reasoning.”
Man wants something new (v.8): “All things
are wearisome; Man is not able to tell it. The eye is not satisfied with
seeing, Nor is the ear filled with hearing.”
“Everything is wearisome beyond description. No matter how much we see,
we are never satisfied. No matter how much we hear, we are not content.” (NLT)
I
think what Solomon is saying is that people are not satisfied with “thing” no
matter what these things are, and in today’s world there are a lot of things
that are suppose to satisfy us, but in the end they do not. People in today’s world make a profit in
dealing with man’s un-satisfaction by making new “toys” to replace the older
ones. Apple came out with the Ipad three
and a month or so later came out with the Ipad four just for an example. And how about cars, they are new every year
hoping that people will replace a perfectly good car to buy a new one with
different “toys” on it.
This
is what Solomon is talking about when he says nothing is new under the sun, we
all are trying to be satisfied with things and not looking at the One who can
make us truly satisfied. I wrote on part
of my Spiritual Diary each day that I would learn contentment, and contentment
is the opposite of not being satisfied, and this can only come from the
Lord. St. Augustine said these very
famous words “Thou has made us for Thyself, and our hearts are restless until
they rest in Thee.” Dr. Wiersbe says “The
eye cannot be satisfied until it hears the voice of God, we must respond by
faith to our Lord’s invitation, ‘Come unto me…and I will give you rest (Matthew
11:28).”
The world provides nothing new (vv.
9-10): “9
¶ That which has been is that which will
be, And that which has been done is that which will be done. So there is
nothing new under the sun. 10 Is there
anything of which one might say, "See this, it is new"? Already it
has existed for ages Which were before us.”
“9 ¶ History merely repeats
itself. It has all been done before. Nothing under the sun is truly new. 10 Sometimes people say, “Here is something New!
‘but actually it is old; nothing is ever truly new (NLY).”
Thomas
Alva Edison said of his inventions that he was “bringing out the secrets of
nature and applying them for the happiness of mankind.” Dr. H. A. Ironside who was a long time Pastor
at Moody Church in Chicago said “If it’s new, it’s not true; and if it’s true,
it’s not new.”
It
is only God who can create new things “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is
a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come (2
Cor. 5:17). This verse states that He
begins with making sinners a new creation in Christ. What happens to the believer next “Therefore
we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was
raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life
(Rom. 6:4).” Psalm 40 says that
believers can sing a “new song.” Hebrews
10:19-20 says “19 Therefore, brethren,
since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the
veil, that is, His flesh.” Revelations
21:1 says that believers will live in a new heaven and earth. “Then I saw a new
heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away,
and there is no longer any sea.” Then we
look a bit further in chapter twenty and we read “And He who sits on the throne
said, "Behold, I am making
all things new." And He *said, "Write, for these words are
faithful and true.’”
Why we think things are new (vs.
11): 11 There is no remembrance of earlier things;
And also of the later things which will occur, There will be for them no
remembrance Among those who will come later still.” “11 We
don’t remember what happened in the past, and in future generations, no one
will remember what we are doing now (NLT).”
I
want to quote something from a sermon I listened to by John MacArthur on the
second chapter of Daniel that goes along with this verse in Ecclesiastes: “…the following was written by Professor
Alexander Tyler nearly 200 years ago while our 13 original colonies were still
a part of Great Britain. (This sermon was given in the 1980’s), Tyler was at
the time writing about the fall of the Athenian Republic over 2000 years
earlier. This is what he said:
‘A
democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover
that they can vote themselves money from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always
votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury
with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy always
followed by dictatorship.
“The
average age of the world’s greatest civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through the
following sequence: from bondage to spiritual faith, from spiritual faith to
great courage, from courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance, from
abundance to selfishness, from selfishness to complacency, from complacency to
apathy, form apathy to dependency and from dependency back to bondage.”
MacArthur
adds “Every nation follows the same cycle.
And democracy seems to follow it just as fast or in some cases faster
than any other form of government. By
the way, it might shock you to know that democracy is not God’s form of
government. God’s form of is theocracy
where one person rules and that person is God.”
Why
do we think that things are new? Well we
don’t seem to want to look back into history to see what has already been done,
and the quotes above are evidences of that, for we do not usually want to look
at bad things that happened in the past and will come around to happen to us in
the future.
Marcus
Aurelius a philosopher wrote “They that come after us will see nothing new, and
they who went before us saw nothing more than we have seen.”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: God is the
only One who can make something new in my life and He did that back in 1974
when He called me with a call that I could not ignore and gave me new life in
Jesus Christ my Lord. This of course is
something that happens above the sun and not under the sun for it is all of
God.
I
can see God’s love in this, and also God’s wisdom for making a way for me to be
saved, and God’s power in making a way to provide salvation for me and all
those who accept that special gift of His Son.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
Proverbs 3:5-6 “5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart And do
not lean on your own understanding. 6 In
all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight.”
Memory verses for the
week: Psalm 32:7-11
7 You are my hiding place; You preserve me from trouble;
You surround me with songs of deliverance.
Selah. 8 I will instruct you and
teach you in the way which your should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon
you. 9 Do not be as the horse or as the
mule which has no understanding, whose trappings include bit and bridle to hold
them in check, otherwise they would not come near you. 10 Many are the sorrows of the wicked, but he
who trusts in the LORD, lovingkindness shall surround you. 11 Be glade in the LORD and rejoice, you
righteous ones; and shout for joy, all you who are upright in heart.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
Question: “Ishmael” (Genesis 16:16)
Today’s Bible
Question: “What was the name of the
annual festival that commemorates of the deliverance of the Jews in Persia from
the destruction by Haman?”
Answer in tomorrow’s SD.
4/15/2013 10:44 AM
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