"This too is a very serious problem: People leave the world no better off than when they came. All their hard work is for nothing--like working for the wind! Throughout their lives, they live under a cloud--frustrated, discouraged, and angry.
Even so, I have noticed one thing, at least, that is good: it is good for people to eat, drink, and enjoy their work under the sun during the short life God has given them, and to accept their lot in life."
-Ecclesiastes 5:16-18
Happy Thanksgiving, dear ones. I am so very thankful for you!
May you have a nice couple of days here, eating and drinking and reconnecting with what is good, with joy.
Unrelated Extra Links:
For those hanging with The Conversation (our book club;), our next book in Lewis's space trilogy is Perelandra. Here is a fantastic conversation by three Lewis-scholars/fanboys that revolves around Lewis's imagination, Narnia, and the space trilogy. I really enjoyed it! Podcast: The Narnian / Alan Jacobs, Douglas Wilson, N.D. Wilson
And while there're things in this article that aren't fantastic, I love the idea of our older-cohort modeling curiosity: Youth Spies and Curious Elders. I sometimes wonder whether curiosity isn't the unsung trait beneath many of the other virtues, like patience, mercy, faithfulness--curiosity is the posture towards life that says, There's something more here than I know, and I'd like to see it. As the article says, "revel in your mystification"; and doesn't that sound a lot like humility? Being humble toward life, because we are fundamentally humble before our mysterious and marvelous Lord?
Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash
Psalm 101 is mostly affirmations, self-talk taken right off the best of the web’s “best practices for great mornings” articles.
What has Paul been doing in Galatia? He’s been engaged in the spiritually exhausting, emotionally demanding, mentally taxing work of introducing sinners to Jesus and trying his best to make sure they understand who Jesus is and what He did and what that now means for them. It’s labor, he says, toil, struggle; it’s hard work.
I’ve been reflecting on the Bible’s historicity. That is the question of whether the story of the Bible is meant to be read as existing within the same universe, the same timeline, on the same planet, having the same sorts of people, as our lives. The answer, of course, is yes: The Bible is clearly, thickly, meant to be read as historical. All measures of historicity verify this.
Psalm 112 describes a man whose "righteousness endures forever." In ten verses there are three references to how "his righteousness endures forever... he will never be shaken; the righteous will be remembered forever." (3, 6, 9)
Last week’s devotional (“Good is Perfect”) captured was has been such a helpful truth for me through the years. And it’s one that puts us on a much more biblical, practical, realistic, foundation for life with God. See, God didn’t design us to be perfect, He designed us to be useful, “good” for His purposes. The question isn’t, “How can I be a better me this year?” It’s, “How can I be of more use to my Lord?”
When the Bible uses the word “perfect” it means “good.” And this is a more useful standard for us to employ.
As a Bible Church, we believe it is important for us to read God's Word.
It is one of those simple, non-spectacular, habits--along with prayer and church attendance--that accounts for so much of our spiritual health or unhealth. No one who neglects these habits will be spiritually healthy. Anyone who invests in them will get healthier.
Now I would remind you, brothers and sisters, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. (1Co 15:1-2)
"I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch... that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit....4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. (Joh 15:1-5)
Few places in Scripture give such close attention to the nature of God's relationship with us. We are often admonished to consider the love of the Lord, but here we see what that looks like. And so we encounter God's thoughts toward us, His knowledge and love for us, in detail. And this carries significant implications for how we think about God and how we live as His people.