EVERYTHING IN DUE TIME

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens:

a time to be born and a time to die,

a time to plant and a time to uproot,

a time to kill and a time to heal,

a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

A friend is diagnosed with cancer. Surgery follows as does chemotherapy. He is in a season of affliction.

A former work acquaintance retired this last week. She is entering a season of rest and freedom from labor.

A Sunday School class member loses her mother, someone she has been very close to for many years. She has entered a season of loss.

My daughter and family are returning to the United States after around five years in Germany. They are in a season of transition.

Several people I know on Facebook have just had babies. They are entering into a season of parenthood while their newborns enter into the season of life, a life that will be full of seasons.

What season are you in right now? We all are in one season or another. And although these seasons seem to be random in nature, it’s important to remember that through the tapestry of our lives, God is weaving the threads. He has been, is, and will always be in control.

This is the overall message of this well known passage from the Book of Ecclesiastes, perhaps the best known of all the scripture within the book. Solomon certainly struck a chord through these eight verses, giving us words we can all relate to. For in them, we catch a glimpse of the human experience, a snapshot of the things we experience in life at one time or another.

Babies are born on any given day while other lives are ending.

There is a time when vegetables and fruits are planted and a later time when they need to be harvested.

There are times when we laugh and enjoy good times. There are other times when we go through hardship and find ourselves in tears.

There are times in life when we accumulate things and times when we clean up and get rid of things (spring cleaning anyone?).

And there are times when we should speak up and times we should be silent and listen.

Perhaps this passage today is one of those times we should be quiet and receive the wisdom of God as it pertains to our lives.

For as we take in these verses, we must keep in mind that these times and seasons in life are not random but rather dictated by the Master Orchestrator of all things, the One who created us, the One who loves us and wishes us all to experience an eternal season at this life’s end through His Son Jesus Christ.

Yes, as Solomon states, there is a time for everything and a season for every activity under the heavens but we can’t read these words and think that man has something to do with creating or causing these times and seasons. If there is a time and season for everything, then for things to work according to the will of God, they have to happen at His perfect time. Everything happens in its due time and God determines the due time.

Out another way, man doesn’t dictate to God. God dictates to man.

So how do we handle these seasons when they come upon us? How do we ensure we are responding to these seasons in the right fashion? How can we make it through the difficult seasons of life?

The answer is easy. We turn to the One who is in control. For just as God controls our seasons and brings everything into being in its due time, He is there to help us through those times and seasons. I think the saying goes, “God will never bring you to something that He isn’t going to bring you through.” I have come to believe in this saying because I have experienced its truth over and over and over again. Our walk in life is one of faith, an ever growing faith and trust in the God who created us, the God who makes all things possible, even bringing us to life from death through His Son Jesus out of His deep love (John 3:16).

While everything happens in due time, thanks be to God that He is always in control and ever with us to help us weather even the harshest seasons under the heavens. For it’s the truth that brings us to a place of comfort and peace and hope, no matter what we go through.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.

Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com

MEANINGLESS (PART 7)

Can I pray for you in any way? Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com.

In Christ, Mark

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Follow on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

Like posts and friend Mark Cummings on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

Become a Follower of The Christian Walk at http://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Whoever loves money never has enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with their income. This too is meaningless.

As goods increase, so do those who consume them. And what benefit are they to the owners except to feast their eyes on them?

The sleep of a laborer is sweet, whether they eat little or much, but as for the rich, their abundance permits them no sleep. I have seen a grievous evil under the sun: wealth hoarded to the harm of its owners, or wealth lost through some misfortune, so that when they have children there is nothing left for them to inherit.

Everyone comes naked from their mother’s womb, and as everyone comes, so they depart. They take nothing from their toil that they can carry in their hands. This too is a grievous evil: As everyone comes, so they depart, and what do they gain, since they toil for the wind? All their days they eat in darkness, with great frustration, affliction and anger.

I have seen another evil under the sun, and it weighs heavily on mankind: God gives some people wealth, possessions and honor, so that they lack nothing their hearts desire, but God does not grant them the ability to enjoy them, and strangers enjoy them instead. This is meaningless, a grievous evil.

A man may have a hundred children and live many years; yet no matter how long he lives, if he cannot enjoy his prosperity and does not receive proper burial, I say that a stillborn child is better off than he. It comes without meaning, it departs in darkness, and in darkness its name is shrouded. Though it never saw the sun or knew anything, it has more rest than does that man—even if he lives a thousand years twice over but fails to enjoy his prosperity. Do not all go to the same place?

Ecclesiastes 5:10-17, 6:1-6

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

There are plenty of topics that will spur debate among Christians but none perhaps will result in a more impassioned discussion than the matter of money and possessions. Look at our world and it is at the center of everyone’s life. Some have too much, some have too little, some are in between but everyone is connected to money and possessions in some way.

It’s not a new matter. For as we look at today’s final devotion in the “Meaningless” series, we find Solomon addressing the matter of wealth and possessions. Look at his words from the 5th and 6th chapters of Ecclesiastes:

Whoever loves money never has enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with their income. This too is meaningless.

As goods increase, so do those who consume them. And what benefit are they to the owners except to feast their eyes on them?

The sleep of a laborer is sweet, whether they eat little or much, but as for the rich, their abundance permits them no sleep. I have seen a grievous evil under the sun: wealth hoarded to the harm of its owners, or wealth lost through some misfortune, so that when they have children there is nothing left for them to inherit.

Everyone comes naked from their mother’s womb, and as everyone comes, so they depart. They take nothing from their toil that they can carry in their hands. This too is a grievous evil: As everyone comes, so they depart, and what do they gain, since they toil for the wind? All their days they eat in darkness, with great frustration, affliction and anger.

I have seen another evil under the sun, and it weighs heavily on mankind: God gives some people wealth, possessions and honor, so that they lack nothing their hearts desire, but God does not grant them the ability to enjoy them, and strangers enjoy them instead. This is meaningless, a grievous evil.

A man may have a hundred children and live many years; yet no matter how long he lives, if he cannot enjoy his prosperity and does not receive proper burial, I say that a stillborn child is better off than he. It comes without meaning, it departs in darkness, and in darkness its name is shrouded. Though it never saw the sun or knew anything, it has more rest than does that man—even if he lives a thousand years twice over but fails to enjoy his prosperity. Do not all go to the same place?  Ecclesiastes 5:10-17, 6:1-6

The core message here comes in the opening verses. Anyone who directs their love toward money will never find themselves satisfied. They will never have enough and their life’s pursuit of more and more prosperity becomes a life that is meaningless in nature. Obsessed with getting more and more and more, they often have no time to enjoy what they have. The old saying goes like this: Be careful or your possessions might possess you.

And when life is over, where do accumulated riches get anyone? Does it allow them to purchase a ticket to eternal life? No, they went the way of everyone at death, into the ground with their possessions left behind for someone else.

It really is folly, is it not?

Now, before any of my readers get worked up in a lather over this, let me make an important point about the things we are able to have.

God does bless us with things He wants us to have, things that sustain us, things to enjoy, and things to give to others. He grants us money and possessions to use to His glory and as long as we seek His will and way in using the things He gives us, we can ensure we’re not living sinfully when it comes to the matter of possessions and money.

Given this truth, that God does provide us blessings to use to His glory, I hope you will see the key contrast in comparing how possessions and money could be handled. It all comes down to the object of our love and desire.

If we love money and possessions, then we are placing our focus in the wrong place and risk falling into the trap of serving money more than the God who granted it to us. This why Jesus warned us with these words:

“No one can serve two masters. You cannot serve both God and money.” Matthew 6:24

The bottom line is that we must make God the object of all our desire so much so that His desires become our own, so much so that His will and way become ours. When we do this, we will always be ensured that we will do right with everything that God provides us and will be led to a place where we live self-sacrificially and not self-centered just as God’s only son Jesus lived.

So where is your focus today? Is it on your money and possessions or on God, your Giver, Provider, and Sustainer?

Only God can give you a life full of meaning, not just in the here and now, but also for eternity through the salvation He grants through His Son Jesus. I pray that you will accept that offer of new life today if you have not yet done so, shifting the master you serve from meaningless money to a God who brings nothing but meaning and satisfaction and joy and love.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.

Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com

MEANINGLESS (PART 6)

Can I pray for you in any way? Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com.

In Christ, Mark

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Follow on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

Like posts and friend Mark Cummings on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

Become a Follower of The Christian Walk at http://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

I also said to myself, “As for humans, God tests them so that they may see that they are like the animals. Surely the fate of human beings is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both: As one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath; humans have no advantage over animals. Everything is meaningless. All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return. Who knows if the human spirit rises upward and if the spirit of the animal goes down into the earth?”

Ecclesiastes 3:18-21

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

We carry ourselves around in life as if we hold dominion over the animal kingdom. It’s true, right?

Isn’t our general belief that humans are far more advanced and favored within the kingdom of God than animals are? After all, God’s word tells us this about the sixth day of creation:

So God created mankind in His own image, in the image of God He created them; male and female He created them. God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” Genesis 1:27-28

“Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

Not a request but a command to rule and have dominion over creatures that are not human. This is why we carry ourselves as we do. We were told to by God Himself.

But this truth leads me to a follow on question:

Are we really any better off than the animals we are to rule over?

If we look at things from a worldly perspective, the answer is no.

This is the point Solomon is making in today’s scripture passage from Ecclesiastes and the focal point of today’s sixth devotion under the meaningless theme. Look again at these verses:

I also said to myself, “As for humans, God tests them so that they may see that they are like the animals. Surely the fate of human beings is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both: As one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath; humans have no advantage over animals. Everything is meaningless. All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return. Who knows if the human spirit rises upward and if the spirit of the animal goes down into the earth?” Ecclesiastes 3:18-21

God may have directed us to rule over the creatures He made but that alone didn’t make us better than them. We breathe the same air as the animals do and the same worldly fate awaits man and animals, that being death of course. We will all become dust when it all is over with whether you are a human or an animal. We strive to be better than the animals but in reality all we do in the world that is above them is for not in the end. For death is the great equalizer, the end of a life that becomes meaningless when it’s all over with. That is, unless you have something more than this world can offer, something that changes the game we call life and extends the amount of time we get to experience it, not just temporarily but eternally.

You see, we are no better off than the animals if we live without receiving Jesus as our Lord and Savior. He is the one who places a renewed meaning into a meaningless worldly existence. And He is the only way to God, period (John 14:6).

Want to live forever, living beyond the fate of the animals?

You had better turn to Jesus and receive His offer of salvation. For without Him, life is indeed meaningless, fleeting, and no better than the one the animals have.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.

Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com