SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/14/2013
9:46 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Life is a School: Learn Your Lessons
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Eccl.
12:9-12
Message
of the verses: “9 In addition to
being a wise man, the Preacher also taught the people knowledge; and he
pondered, searched out and arranged many proverbs. 10 The Preacher sought to
find delightful words and to write words of truth correctly. 11 The words of
wise men are like goads, and masters of these collections are like well-driven
nails; they are given by one Shepherd. 12 But beyond this, my son, be warned:
the writing of many books is endless, and excessive devotion to books is
wearying to the body.”
As Solomon nears the end of his
writing he gets down to the things that we as believers need to know, and as
Dr. Wiersbe puts it “life is a school,” which is what Solomon is driving home
to his students in this small section of Ecclesiastes. Verse nine shows us that Solomon was wise and
indeed he was the wisest man as we see from 1 Kings 3:3-28. Being wise Solomon teaches wisdom as we can
see from this book along with the book of Proverbs, the book he wrote the
majority of. Solomon’s teachings were
not only wise but verse nine goes on to tell us that his teachings were
orderly. We can see from verse nine that
Solomon taught the people things that he had pondered and searched out and we
will later see that his teachings came from the Lord.
Solomon used delightful words which
are words that brought delight to those who read them. By using these types of words he will win the
attention of those who are reading them.
Let’s look at Proverbs 8:6-11 “6 “Listen, for I will speak noble things;
And the opening of my lips will reveal right things. 7 “For my mouth will utter
truth; And wickedness is an abomination to my lips. 8 “All the utterances of my
mouth are in righteousness; There is nothing crooked or perverted in them. 9 “They
are all straightforward to him who understands, And right to those who find
knowledge. 10 “Take my instruction and not silver, And knowledge rather than
choicest gold. 11 “For wisdom is better than jewels; And all desirable things
cannot compare with her.”
I mentioned that the words that
Solomon wrote were inspired by God and this is seen in verse eleven. Both Peter and Paul wrote about the process
that God the Holy Spirit used to write His Word. “2Pe 1:21
for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by
the Holy Spirit spoke from God.” “All
Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for
correction, for training in righteousness, (2 Timothy 3:16).” “And I heard a voice from heaven, saying,
"Write, ’Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on!’"
"Yes," says the Spirit, "so that they may rest from their
labors, for their deeds follow with them,’ (Rev. 14:13).” This is one of the miracles of God, that is
using men to write down exactly what He wanted them to write, and in doing this
He did actually used their own personality in the writing of His Holy Word. Let’s look at verse eleven in the Message: “The words of the wise prod us to live well.
They’re like nails hammered home, holding life together. They are given by God,
the one Shepherd.” The word goad is used
in the NASB. Both the goad and the nail
are necessary for people to learn God’s truth.
Goads can bring about pain, but that is at times necessary in the school
of life. We can use nails to hang the
truth of what we are learning, as our Instructor uses them to “nail things
down.”
We will finish this SD with a rather
long quote from “Be Satisfied:” “On the
surface, verse 12 seems to be a negative view of learning; but such is not the
case. The statement is a warning to the
student not to go beyond what God has written in His Word. Indeed, there are many books, and studying
them can be a wearisome chore. But don’t
permit man’s books to rob you of God’s wisdom.
‘Be warned, my son, of anything in addition to them [the words of the
wise]’ (vs. 12, NIV). These ‘nails’ are
sure and you can depend on them. Don’t
test God’s truth by the ‘many books’ written by men; test men’s books by the
truth of God’s Word.
“Yes, life is a school, and we must
humble ourselves and learn all we can.
Our textbook is the Bible, and the Holy Spirit is our Teacher (John
14:26; 15:26; 16:12-15). The Spirit can
use gifted human teachers to instruct us, but He longs to teach us personally
from His Word (Ps. 119:97-104). There are
always new lessons to learn and new examinations to face as we seek to grow in
grace and in the knowledge of our Savior (2Peter 3:18).”
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: The first
Pastor that I had after being saved use to say when he was talking about
different books that he read was “Books are life eating fish, when you come to
a bone you through it out and keep on eating fish.” I have always tried to follow this when
reading different commentaries and other Bible aids in order to help me better
understand the Bible. The books that I
read seem to me to be mostly fish and I am thankful for that.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Trust the
Lord to guide my steps this day so that I can bring honor and glory to the Lord
in what I do today.
Memory
verse for the week: Psalm 46:1
1 God is our refuge and strength; a
very present help in trouble.
Answer
to yesterday’s Bible Question: “Wonderful,
Counselor, Might God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”
Today’s
Bible Question: “Who said ‘What manner
of man is this! For He commands even the
winds and water, and they obey Him?”
Answer
in tomorrow’s SD.
6/14/2013
10:34 AM
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