SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/16/2013
8:28 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Question without
Answers
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Eccl.
6:10-12
Message of the
verses: When I began looking at this
section I did not believe that it would have taken me three days to go over it,
but the one thing I do when I get thoughts in my head about how long a certain
passage will take I stop and then I realize that it is not up to me as to how
long it will take, but up to the Lord in the person of the Holy Spirit to teach
me from His Word, and thus to take as long as need be to better understand the
passage and to get out of it what the Spirit of God has for me.
“10 Whatever
exists has already been named, and it is known what man is; for he cannot
dispute with him who is stronger than he is.
11 For there are many words which increase futility. What then is the
advantage to a man? 12 For who knows
what is good for a man during his lifetime, during the few years of his futile
life? He will spend them like a shadow. For who can tell a man what will be
after him under the sun?” (NASB)
“10 Whatever exists was given its name long ago, and who
man is, is known. But he is not able to contend with the One stronger than he. 11
For when there are many words, they increase futility. What is the advantage
for man? 12 For who knows what is good for man in life, in the few days of his
futile life that he spends like a shadow? Who can tell man what will happen
after him under the sun?” (HCSB)
Question # 3 “What do we accomplish with all these words?” This question comes from verse eleven: “For when there are many words, they increase
futility.” We have to remember that our
topic in this section is questions without answers, and so talking about
questions that do not have any answers will not shed any more light on the
subject, but perhaps it will even make them darker, not bringing light which is
what we are looking for. There are some
questions that God has not given us any answers to and so we have to leave them
with the Lord, and trust Him by faith to one day explain all to us when we get
to heaven. I have mentioned several
times a verse that has meant a lot to me when I am trying to answer one of
these questions that don’t seem to have an answer to. The verse is Deuteronomy 29:29 “The hidden
things belong to the LORD our God, but the revealed things belong to us and our
children forever, so that we may follow all the words of this law.” (HCSB)
“GOD, our God, will take care of the hidden things but the revealed
things are our business. It’s up to us and our children to attend to all the
terms in this Revelation.” (The Message)
Question # 4: “Who
knows what is good for us?” “For who
knows what is good for man in life, in the few days of his futile life that he
spends like a shadow? (Eccl. 6:12a) I think that this is a question that many
people have asked and many people have spent much money in trying to predict the
future, but mostly to no avail. Of
course the answer to this question is that God knows the answer, for God is all
knowing, which is one of His attributes.
I believe to some extent we have to look at life the way the Lord Jesus
did when He came to earth. The first
words we hear from the Lord come when He was twelve years old and presumably
lost in the city of Jerusalem that is His parents did not know what happened to
Him. They found Him in the temple where
He said to His parents “did not you realize that I would be about my Father’s
business?” That is the reason that He
came to earth, to be about His Father’s business, to fulfill the plan that His
Father had for Him while here on planet earth.
The last words that He said was “It is finished,” showing that He had
accomplished the work that His Father had given to Him to do. The apostle Paul in writing to Timothy, the
second letter to him, which would be the last letter that Paul would write that
we see in the Scriptures says the following “2Ti 4:7 I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course,
I have kept the faith.” Believers in
Jesus Christ have work to accomplish that the Father has prepared for us to do,
“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God
prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them (Eph. 2:10).” Just as Jesus said that He had to be about
His Father’s business and Paul wrote that he had finished the course, we too as
believers are to accomplish the work that God has for us to do. One may ask “How do we know what the work is?” Stay in the Word of God each and every day,
go to church and listen to the preaching of the Word. Meditate upon the Word of God after you have
memorized a passage. Then there are
times when we have to look at circumstances, but remember these circumstances
must go along with the written Word of God.
These are some ways that we can understand what it is that God wants us
to accomplish for the cause of Christ.
Question # 5: “Does
anybody know what’s coming next?” “? Who
can tell man what will happen after him under the sun?”(Eccl. 12b)
We have already mentioned that God does know what is
going to happen to us and to the entire world, including the entire universe
that He created. If we are only looking
at life under the sun then we will believe that life is not worth living at
times, for life can be monotonous at times and it can also be even get futile
with wealth, both of these subjects Solomon has already discussed.
As far as what will happen to this earth God has given us
things in His Word that tells us what will happen in the future. Unless the Lord comes to take us home to be
with Him in the rapture of the Church we all are going to die someday, and for
that we must be ready. How do we get
ready for that? The first and most
important thing to do is to admit to the Lord that we are sinners and that Christ
took our place on the cross to pay for our sins, and then to accept that free
gift of salvation. Begin to read and
study the Bible and attend a church that preaches the Word of God.
I believe that God has shown us at least part of His plan
as to how the world will end. We are now
living in what is called the “Church Age,” and this began on the day of
Pentecost which is recorded in the second chapter of Acts. This age will continue until the Church is
taken out of the world at the Rapture of the Church as seen in 1Thes. 4:13-18,
and other passages like 1 Cor. 15:51-58.
After that there will arise what the Bible calls the Antichrist who will
rule the world for seven years. What
goes on at this time is found in Revelations chapters six through
nineteen. In chapter nineteen of
Revelations we read of the second coming of Jesus Christ to the earth where He
will then judge those who are alive on this earth after this tribulation period
and those who are not believers will go into the lake of fire while those who
are believers will go into the 1000 year kingdom that will be headed up by Jesus
Christ here on planet earth. After the
1000 years is up there will be a small battle in which will be won by the Lord
Jesus Christ and then according to 2 Peter 3:10 the earth along with all the
universe will be burned up with fire. A
new heaven and a new earth will be created by the Lord and also a New
Jerusalem. The Lord will judge those who
have rejected Him at the “Great White Throne Judgment.” All people who are not
believers will be judged there and sent to their final place of judgment. Those who are believers will reign with
Christ from the newly created earth and New Jerusalem. There are many more details that I have left
out, but this is the short version or as we say the “Readers Digest Version.” The point in all of this is that God does
have a plan and nothing will ever come in the way of His plan.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: If we only look
at “life under the sun” we will miss what God has planned for our lives, and we
don’t want to do that.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Trust the Lord to show me the works that He
has for me to do for the cause of Christ and the strength to accomplish them so
the He will receive the glory.
Memory verses for the
week: 2 Cor. 5:17-19
17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new
creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. 18 Now all these things are from God, who
reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation,
19 namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not
counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of
reconciliation.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
Question: “Jupiter and Mercurius or
gods)
Today’s Bible
Question: “Complete Philippians 2:11 ‘And
every tongue should confess that…’”
Answer in Tomorrow’s SD.
5/16/2013 9:28 AM
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