THE FIRST TIME I READ ECCLESIASTES
I WAS PERPLEXED BY THE REFRAIN:
MEANINGLESS, MEANINGLESS
LIFE IS MEANINGLESS!
I felt that way before I knew Christ.
Then I had so many Ecclesiastes-like thoughts.
Life seemed so repetitive.
Round and Round.
Not only was nature repetitive,
but my life was repetitive.
I felt the Ecclesiastes-like despair voiced in 1:9
“What has been done will be done again”
For before Christ I thought:
Is life going to be simply a series of trivial maintenance duties
punctuated by a dinner out or a new chair?
Are moments like these really going to be the HIGH points in my life?
But now that I knew Christ, my life was filled with meaning…
So why was a book of such haunting emptiness in the Bible?
It will be helpful for you to think of Ecclesiastes as being like a “one man play.” The lead character, the “professor” plays two main roles. Often he takes the “under the sun” perspective where he puts on blinders and limits his view of life only to the visible, to the things he can see under the sun. This is the secular world view — all that exists is the visible.
When he has the “under the sun” perspective, “he can’t get no satisfaction.” Oh — he tries — in the 2nd chapter he plunges himself into wine, women, and song. He builds an amazing home with gardens. Anything his eye desires he takes. And yet, at the end of the day, he asks “What is my life really accomplishing? Meaningless, meaningless.”
Other times, he removes his blinders, and takes the perspective he actually has. He looks up to God and eternity and then sees things very differently. You see all the haunting questions of Ecclesiastes are answered in Christ. Ecclesiastes is the drumbeat leading the way to the mystery that was hidden — the mystery of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
I think you will find this week’s Bible study fascinating, for Ecclesiastes is written, not just for unbelievers who try to find their meaning in life “under the sun,” apart from God and eternity, but also for believers who revert, when they face challenges, to their idols, to clinging to people or things “under the sun.” Then, the emptiness comes back. Their lives again, are filled with Ecclesiastes-like despair. And then, near the end of the study, I want you to look at a verse from Ecclesiastes that I find fascinating and I think it shows the way of the younger brother and the older brother — and tells us that the one who fears God “shall come out from both of them.” I can’t wait to get your take on it, so finish the study!
God gives us gifts like youth, friendship, food, children, sex, marriage…
all can bring joy to the heart.
But they are gifts, not gods.
If we make them gods,
we will feel Ecclesiastes-like despair,
for they will fail us.
But if we set our affections on things above,
and not on things under the sun
then we also might have some fleeting enjoyment
as we gratefully receive the things under the sun.
Enjoy life with the wife whom you love, all the days of your vain life that he has given you under the sun, because that is your portion in life and in your toil at which you toil under the sun.
(Ecclesiastes 9:9)
But do not forget:
This sweet gift is not your life.
Set your affections on things above
not on things on earth
for you have died
and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
When Christ who is your life appears,
then you also will appear with him in glory.
(Colossians 3:2-4)
I have come to love the book of Ecclesiastes — so this may be my favorite Bible study during Lent!
Sunday/Monday: Icebreaker
1. What stood out to you from the above and why?
2. During this Lent our quest is to set our affections on things above. What has been helpful to you and why? (This study, a book you are reading, something you are giving up to have time and energy for Him, a song you are learning…) Share the gold.
Monday-Thursday Bible Study and Midday Connection (Dee: “When the Earth Shakes”)
Sometimes this week listen to the last Midday Connection program on Idol Lies. It aired last week and is about suffering and is entitled, “When the Earth Shakes.” You can find it under past programs: Click Here
(Then share your thoughts under question 7.)
Diane asked me to elaborate on how the gospel is the solution to every problem. I’d love for you to find the answers for yourself. I am going to give you, first, a haunting question of Ecclesiastes. Then I’m going to give you the New Testament answer. Then I’m going to ask you: “What problem does the gospel address here and how could it help you?” Because this is challenging, go ahead and write your answers, and I, or one of your sisters can jump in if we think you need a little help. This is so important. I think about how easily we turn to our idols and feel discontented. I think of the grave injustices those of you like Chris and Krista have experienced. I think of the sorrow that comes when one we love, like Susan’s nephew or my husband, dies. Every problem has its solution in the gospel. I can only give you a few highlights here, but they are golden. You might want to take one or two a day.
3. The problem of meaninglessness: My life is meaningless!
A. This is the theme that permeates Ecclesiastes. Look at the following verses and then summarize (briefly please!) why the professor, when he has the “under the sun” view, finds life so frustratingly meaningless.
- Ecclesiastes 1:2-11
- Ecclesiastes 2:1-17
B. Read John 10:10-11 and explain how Jesus is the answer to meaninglessness. How is the gospel part of that answer?
C. Does your life ever feel meaningless? How might John 10:10-11 and Colossians 3:1-4 provide a solution?
4. The problem of discontentment: There is nothing new under the sun!
A. Another refrain in Ecclesiastes is “under the sun.”
- What famous quotation of discontentment can be found in Ecclesiastes 1:9?
- How do you see discontentment in Ecclesiastes 2:11?
B. God tells us that there is something new — but it is not “under the sun.”
- What is new in 2 Corinthians 5:17? Have you experienced this? Share some way you have been made new.
- What is coming according to Revelation 21:1-4? Do you believe this and hold it in your heart?
C. I LOVE THIS NEXT PART — DON’T MISS IT. Read Ecclesiastes 2:24-26 carefully.
- How, according to Ecclesiastes 2:24, are we to see the gifts under the sun? How thankful are you are throughout the day as you receive these fleeting gifts? Explain.
- In verse 24, there is a phrase: “This, also.” The also refers back to the preceding passage, where we see existential despair. How is existential despair (or a lack of satisfaction for things under the sun) a gift from God?
(Answer the above question before you read this from Eugene Peterson: “A person has to be thoroughly disgusted with the way things are to find the motivation to set out on the Christian way. As long as we think the next election might eliminate crime and establish justice…or another pay raise might push us over the edge of anxiety and into tranquility, we are not likely to risk the arduous uncertainties of the life of faith.” From A Long Obedience in the Same Direction)
- In verse 26, the professor talks about the one “who pleases God.” We know, from New Testament light, that the one who pleases Him is the one who is covered in the righteousness of Christ. When He made us His child, we are intertwined with Him. When He died, it is as if we died. When He was raised, it is as if we were raised. When our life is in Him, we will have “wisdom and knowledge and joy.” But if our life is not in Him, find our fate in verse 26.
- How is the gospel the solution to discontentment?
5. The problem of injustice: Moreover I saw under the sun that in the place of justice, there is wickedness.
My dear friend with whom I have the privilege to work in prison ministry tells me stories that make me weep. Racism is still rampant in Texas. Right now there is a mentally retarded black woman awaiting execution. Years ago, my friend nearly succeeded in stopping the execution of a young black woman that was unjustly accused of murdering her husband and little boys. (She came home after a Mafia murder and had her hands all over the bodies in a panic, trying to find signs of life. Her fingerprints were the only evidence Texas had.) The one who accosted Daniel, Chris’s late son, has not been brought to justice. My daughter lost an arm through abuse. There are smaller daily injustices too. People cheat us, unjustly accuse us — we did not get my husband’s life insurance as we should have, and I was too overcome with grief to fight it. But I can walk calmly, knowing God sees, cares, and will do all things right in His time. The professor is right — often there is not justice “under the sun.” Each of us has experienced injustice “under the sun.”
And each of us has committed acts of injustice to others. Last week at my retreat a missionary from Haiti talked about how she was asking a four-year-old if he knew why his blood pressure was so low. He said, “It’s just not my day.” At first she laughed — but then she realized, It wasn’t his day to eat. He only gets a meal every other day. When she said that I thought, I am God’s plan for bringing justice to those treated unjustly — and I fail because of my idol of comfort. I want to walk in repentance, but I am SO grateful for the mercy of the cross. If God gave us the justice we each deserve, there would be no one alive.
- In Ecclesiastes 3:16-17, the professor states both the “under the sun” problem and the eternal answer. Find them.
- What does Jesus tell us concerning injustice and suffering in John 16:33?
- How does the cross show us at once how terrible sin is, yet, how merciful God is?
- As you look at the injustice in your life “under the sun,” how is the gospel the solution? As you look at your own injustice to others, how is the gospel the solution?
6. The problem of death: Who knows whether the spirit of man goes upward and the spirit of the beast goes down into the earth?
Old Testament saints lived in a shadowy world, before the cross. Job, Solomon, and David all had these moments of wondering what lay ahead. If we look only to the visible, it seems man is like the animal when he dies.
- What despair and questions do you find the professor asking in Ecclesiastes 3:19-22?
- What glorious promise does Jesus give in John 11:25-26?
- When you face the problem of your own death or the deaths of those you love, how is the gospel the solution.
7. We’ve been talking, during this series, about two ways of life that miss the gospel-centered life. There is the way of the younger brother, who rebels. We see this very clearly in the professor’s portrait of himself in chapter 2 — trying everything under the sun to try to be happy. But do we see the way of the older brother, who has so many rules, who is outwardly serving God but is doing it to get things from God, but who doesn’t love God? Do we see a picture of someone trusting in his righteousness — his religious ways in Ecclesiastes? I think so! I always feel more confident, with obscure verses, to find someone I respect affirm my finding — and I haven’t found that. So I am keenly interested in your thoughts, you women of depth, on Ecclesiastes 7:16-18. Here it is in the ESV:
Be not overly righteous, and do not make yourself too wise. Why should you destroy yourself? 17 Be not overly wicked, neither be a fool. Why should you die before your time? 18 It is good that you should take hold of this, and from that withhold not your hand, for the one who fears God shall come out from both of them.
8. What thoughts do you have after listening to Midday Connection? (LINK)
Friday: Classic Keller. Christ Our Life: Link
This is a sermon many of you have already heard — but it is so classic that it won’t hurt you to listen again. I am summarizing it below, but have only caught the high points. Here is the link — and it’s free. I will also give you a second choice or additional option. The Professor’s Disillusionment. (It’s from Kellers Pointers to Christ series, a great series, and it is an overview of Ecclesiastes. Here is that link:
http://sermons.redeemer.com/
One of the many things I like about Tim Keller is his respect for women. He was led to the Lord by a woman, he has unusual respect for his wife, and he tells how it was a woman who helped him begin to understand that the gospel was not just the ABC’s of Christianity — but the A to Z. It happened in the 1970’s when he was twenty-five. He was making a pastoral visit to a woman in his congregation who had suffered much. She had been beaten many times, having been in a series of abusive relationships with men, and she bore the scars. She had become a Christian, had been seeing a counselor, and was coming to Keller’s church. Keller said, “I would visit her, like the good little pastor boy that I was, knowing almost nothing about the way that peoples’ hearts work.” He drove up the hill to her “trailer-like” house. What she told him that day penetrated his heart, and he went back and wrote down the “weird and amazing truths” that so mesmerized him.
Though this woman was a new Christian, she had a depth of understanding into the gospel that helped her sift her counselor’s advice, keeping the true, and letting the false fall to the ground. Keller transcribed her words into his own, but this is the gist of what she said:
My counselor says I have built my very significance and acceptability and identity on men. That’s why I’ve been defenseless with them. I simply have needed them too much… However my counselor doesn’t have a very good solution for me. She says what I should do instead is get myself an education and have a successful career. My counselor means well, and I absolutely need to do that, but…that would mean I would be switching from one kind of idol for another.
Keller said he’d never thought about this in his life, and asked, “What are you talking about?
For many years my heart has been looking at men and saying, “Unless I’m successful at love, I’m nothing.” But the therapist wants me to look at my career and say, “Unless I’m a successful independent businesswoman, in control of my own life, I’m nothing.” I don’t want to be enslaved to my work as I was to men. …I’m actually being asked to exchange a typical female idol for a typical male idol. I don’t want either.
When Keller asked her what she was now doing, she quoted Colossians 3:
“When Christ who is your life appears, you will appear with him in glory.” When I go to church and worship – when what Jesus did for me is so real and so wonderful, I think of the men in my life and I say in my heart, “I’m glad to know you and I certainly wouldn’t mind being married – but you are not my life. Christ is my life. I would love to have a man, but if I don’t, I’ve got Jesus and I set my mind on things above. You can’t give me any of the things that Jesus has given me.. …A career can’t die for me. If I fail in a career it will beat me up all my life for having been a failure. But if I fail Jesus, He died for me to forgive me.
9. What are your thoughts from the sermon? Can you see how idolatry is the opposite of living a gospel-centered life? Explain.
Saturday:
10. What is your take-a-way and why?
366 comments
1. What stood out to you from the above and why?
I have never studied this book (that’s why I LOVE this blog!). Dee, you stretch me so. I only know the verse about seasons, and that’s probably because the Mamas and the Papas sang that song in the 60’s about it and I went to the Bible to check it out! Can’t wait to get started 🙂
2. During this Lent our quest is to set our affections on things above. What has been helpful to you and why? (This study, a book you are reading, something you are giving up to have time and energy for Him, a song you are learning…) Share the gold.
I “gave up” dinner and have tried to read a book. It has been hard. What I found I was doing was yes, not eating, but not really going to the book to read. It hasn’t always been convenient. I am focused on God though. I think about Him, or pray, or even get on this blog because I always have my phone with me and can jump on and read. So, even though I am struggling with my “prescription” for Lent, I have honored Him in a way I don’t think I have ever honored Him during this season. I have never been so in tune as I have this year. Thanks Dee.
I so enjoy reading these opening comments, and you made me glad, Laura-dancer! I know that folk song! I heard Pete Seeger sing it. I love it too — so it was fascinating for me to hear Keller, in one of his sermons on Ecclesiastes, say, we think of that passage as being poetic and beautiful — but that is not how it is intended. It is intended, instead, to show the dreary repetition of life. You fight but then you make-up — you are born but then you die — you make peace but then you make war…
And I love what is happening in your heart and the insight God is giving you.
Dee, did you mean Krista…when you mentioned Kristin?
Guess I didn’t read close enough. I didn’t notice that, had to go back and read again. Now I’m curious.
1. What stood out to you from the above and why?
That the good things of life are gifts, not our life. Our identity is hidden with Christ in God.
Oh I want to saturate my soul with this until the goodness of the Giver and the promise of redemption makes me overflow with hope.
I have always wondered about this book, Solomon asked God for wisdom and discernment which pleased God. This book is a part of Gods answer to that wisdom request I suppose. It seems wisdom gave Solomon’s mind and heart a lot to contend with.
Love your last comment. Many have been so puzzled by that very thing, for Solomon then went on to disobey God and marry hundreds of women. But now he does us the favor of showing how he veered off the gospel path and the misery that came… This book is indeed, wisdom from God.
1-This is the key and what stood out to me…”But they are gifts, not gods.” We must always remember that!!!
2-This Lent is weird to me because it is not as much about restriction as focus…God is teaching me to be free in Him. His grace pours out on me like never before. It is an amazing thing!
This is a Lecrae video so it is Christian rap however I love this guys lyrics and if you listen to them they are all gospel!! So stirred by this song. http://youtu.be/Yc8x33lAnAk
Such good lyrics!!!
PRAYER REQUEST: WE ARE MEETING LITTLE MANS MOM TUES NIGHT FOR BOWLING. SHE HAS NOT SEEN THEM FOR 3 MOS. WE ARE TAKING MORE ADOPTION INFO FOR HER SO IN HOPE TO GET HER AGREEMENT IF NOT WE HAVE OTHER APPROACHES WE ARE ALMOST READY TO TAKE. OBVIOUSLY I WANT HER TO SEE CHRIST AND HIS SALVATION BUT ALSO WANT LITTLE MAN TO HAVE A SOLID AND SECURE HOME PERMANENTLY. HE WORRIES WHEN I LEAVE HIM BECAUSE HE FEARS ME NOT COMING BACK. I KEEP REASSURING HIM I WILL ALWAYS COME BACK AND WILL BE HIS FOREVER MOMMY. OH BY FAITH, I PRAY THIS IS TRUTH. IT HELPS HIM FEEL SECURE!
OH ALSO PRAYER FOR MY HEALTH…EXPERIENCING A SET BACK NOW NOT SURE WHAT IT IS BUT PRAYER IS APPRECIATED! ITS HARD HOMESCHOOLING 3 KIDS ALL 11 AND UNDER WHILE MANAGING A HOME WHEN YOU FEEL BAD. THANKS!
Love your comment on focus. Prayers for this coming Tuesday and for your health.
Angela, please know I will be praying also for tuesday to go well and for your health and for little man to have you for his “forever mommy”. You touched my heart so~
hard is an understatement! I remember those days! SO HARD. I am praying for you sweet Angela. and take if from me, cuddling and reading and magic school bus, cyber chase, adventures in oddysee. drive by history….they will learn and you can rest 🙂
Just now reading comments. Praying for your family.
Enjoyed the video, Angela. Sorry you are struggling physically again. Praying, girl.
oh Angela–hard to hold back tears on this one, but so praying for your mtg tuesday–so so love you heart and what God has done for this little one through you-
Praying Angela over the adoption and for your health, let us know how the meeting goes.
Will be praying Angela and I pray all goes well for bowling that Little Man’s mom’s heart will soften and see how The Lord is using you to raise her little guy in a well loved home.
Praying for you and the bowling time today with little man’s mom, Angela.
1&2. This stands out to me from the opening “Ecclesiastes is the drumbeat leading the way to the mystery that was hidden — the mystery of the gospel of Jesus Christ.” It goes along with what God is showing me this week. Jacob and Esau were 2 very different brothers and honestly I have always seen Jacob as the worst of the 2 because of his craftiness. But a closer look at his life shows that his heart was right. He wanted the blessing above all else but Esau despised it. Jacob did a lot of wrong things but God loved him and gave him the blessing anyway. He revealed to him the stairway to heaven and fellowship with Him which was Jesus and His gospel.
I have always wondered about the meaning of Jacob wrestling with God but I experienced some clarity about that this morning. It was a test, much like Abraham’s test at the altar with Isaac. Did he really want the blessing? He came through with flying colors on that most important point of his life.
I don’t know if I can make the point of connection here for me but will try. I mess up a lot but the main thing is:What do I really want? Do I really want the things that become idols or can I see that they are only shadows of what I can have in God? Are the moments when He comes down the stairway to stand beside me and speak to me the high points of my life? Absolutely!
Love this post.
Always insightful, Anne. I have thought of Esau as being the “younger brother” metaphorically if not literally and Jacob the older brother, scheming to get the blessing but not God. I think the wrestling broke his idol of control so that he wanted God, and not just the blessing. Fascinating to think about — you always help me think!
I see what you mean. He certainly was a schemer. There are so many facets to people and so often in scripture we have little more than their actions to go by.
I agree with Dee Anne, you always make me think too, I love to see that you have posted. I have been thinking of you every time I see a crooked tree since yo shared about the one outside your window. I have a soft spot for those pines that were blown down but grow afterward with a bent.
1. What stood out to you from the above and why?
When he has the “under the sun” perspective, “he can’t get no satisfaction.”
So many times I feel we can lose focus and try to fill our voids with “things” for satisfaction but only God can fill that void. I like Laura-dancer have never studied this book so look forward to this week.
2. During this Lent our quest is to set our affections on things above. What has been helpful to you and why? (This study, a book you are reading, something you are giving up to have time and energy for Him, a song you are learning…) Share the gold.
I gave up facebook (and twitter). I used to check facebook many times a day. I think it helped taking both the apps off my phone so the access was not so easy. Not to boast or be prideful, but I have not been on either since Fat Tuesday. I’ve replaced the time with this study and reading The Prodigal God and listening to Keller’s sermons. I’ve also started going back to school so that is taking up some time as well. I’ve also continued with my small group from church and reading other daily devotionals. I found that seeking God throughout the day not just in the mornings like I had initially planned has worked better for me. I was having trouble having enough time in the mornings so now I do a little reading in the morning, listening not just to my song but to other christian music while in the car, I just started listening to the sermons while I’m at work, and then more reading/studying in the evenings. Some of this I was already doing before the study, but besides filling up my facebook time I do realize I’m filling up more of my “doing” nothing time with God. I’ve also realized that I had a false sense that I needed facebook to keep in touch with my friends. I’ve also realized that if they were really my friends that I would still hear from them by email or text or calls during this time. I have to say that my feelings are a little hurt, because I have only heard from maybe 3 friends during this time. But what this tells me more.. that I learned from this study.. was that I was seeking friendship more than I was seeking God. And not that we don’t need fellowship with others or friends, I was placing more importance on being on Facebook then being in the Word.
Lori I love how you are digging into Keller!
Also how you are seeing the gift of friendship receding into a more proper place, important, but not Ultimate!
Ok.. not sure what is happening. I posted on both last week’s and this weeks and now they are both gone. Last weeks I was able to get re-posted (at least I hope it is still there). I will have to try later today after church I guess and redo this weeks. Is anyone else having a problem?
Hi Lori,
I’m not sure why it asked me to approve you again — sometimes that happens, but it is usually when someone has a link that the filter questions — I’m sorry. I hope it won’t keep happening to you.
I appreciated your thoughts.
Dee
Hi Dee, No need to apologize at all. You know I just noticed that I didn’t put “TX” on that post. I wonder if that’s why it did it? But I’m just glad I don’t have to try to re-type all that out again. LOL! Thank you so much and have a blessed Sunday!
1. What stood out to you from the above and why?
“God gives us gifts like youth, friendship, food, children, sex, marriage…
all can bring joy to the heart.
But they are gifts, not gods.
If we make them gods,
we will feel Ecclesiastes-like despair,
for they will fail us.”
Yesterday I was really feeling like this. We have had a couple of hard weeks both personally and many people around us are suffering. I was at a funeral for an elderly woman of God and feeling rather hopeless; like “what is the use? We go round and round and then we die. Life is bleak and mostly hopeless.”
I recognized, however, that my idols had failed me and Satan was whispering despair in my ears. I feel that I am close to God, though. That he is walking with me and sharing in my pain as I walk the steps through Gethsemane to His trial and beating; step by step toward the Cross. He knows my pain. He bore much more than I now bear. He went through being forsaken, ridiculed, condemned, tortured and killed for ME and because of MY guilt and sin. He loves me so much. “Though he slay me, yet will I trust Him.”
Diane–you have suffered so much and I know this trial continues–but oh how your steadfast faith ministers to us all–you still say “He loves me so much.” Yes–loves us enough to let our idols fail us and gently wean us from them, painful as it is.
Diane, thank you for your witness…such love in your heart…such empathy…such strength in the Lord.
1. What stood out to you from the above and why?
I usually read the blog before church, but today we went early—we heard an incredible gospel-centered sermon on grace and now reading this, the 2 are intertwining for me—sorry if I don’t make sense here! What stood out to me is how our perception obscures the truth. Dee said Ecclesiastes is like a “one man play” of 2 perspectives– “under the sun” /secular, and then, with blinders off, the eternal perspective. Our sermon discussed how we miss the “amazing-ness” of Grace because we do not have an accurate self-perception of how sinful we really are, how Holy God is, and that salvation is all about Him, not us. The message in Ecclesiastes is similar to me—when we are so focused on ourselves, our world–the gifts and not the Giver, we make idols of the gifts He’s given and squeeze them to death trying to find life in them—but they will never satisfy. All of life is meant to be lived through the lens of the Gospel. It is the only way I can stop asking (or ask it less often, at least) “why, God? Why me, why this…?” The Gospel is the only lens that helps me see my true heart, my futile attempts to be my own Savior—and then I see Him. I see His grace upon grace. So sorry—I’ll stop this rabit-trailish-ish spiel!
2. During this Lent our quest is to set our affections on things above. What has been helpful to you and why?
I already went way too long on the 1st one—but honestly, this study, being able to discuss it with my husband and the fellowship here, reading Yancy—all has helped me focus on drawing nearer to Him. My perspective on the everyday feels different lately.
Elizabeth, you are truly blessed- “Our sermon discussed how we miss the “amazing-ness” of Grace because we do not have an accurate self-perception of how sinful we really are, how Holy God is, and that salvation is all about Him, not us.” and this so simply and well said, “The Gospel is the only lens that helps me see my true heart, my futile attempts to be my own Savior—and then I see Him. I see His grace upon grace.”
Can I just ‘ditto’ you on #1? 🙂
Rebecca–your response made me tear up! You know why? After I posted that, I went away thinking-wow what a hodge-podgy-non-sensical mess that had noting to do with Dee’s point…and then you come along, as you have SO many times before, and you “get” my heart–you understand me. And I got teary because I thought how very thankful I am for you–and then, realized–HE “gets” me–all the quirky, foggy-thoughts–He knows and understands and loves me. Thank you for letting Him use you, so often–here, your church, with your boys–oh you are a vessel, such a humble, beautiful vessel of His grace.
Well sweet Elizabeth-I love your so called quirky, foggy thoughts for they are from HIM. What is wonderful about you is that you don’t see the insight He is giving you to share with us-a sweet tender heart of humility you have. You have a gift sister from Him. satan will come at you-but as you so truthfully stated GOD ‘gets you’. And yes, I love you too. 🙂
Elizabeth,
I think this is a “nugget” – “…our perception obscures the truth.” Kind of like, what you “see” is what you get. I like how you put the two together – Dee’s post and your pastor’s sermon!
Yes — reminds me of the passage — Remember He is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few… Not rabbit trailing…
Elizabeth, I don’t think you fully recognize/realize what God is allowing you to share for the benefits of others through your “rabbit-trailish”…:)
What nuggets of GOLD…
“how our perception obscures the truth”
“we do not have an accurate self-perception of how sinful we really are, how Holy God is, and that salvation is all about Him, not us.”
“when we are so focused on ourselves, our world–the gifts and not the Giver, we make idols of the gifts He’s given and squeeze them to death trying to find life in them–but they will never satisfy.”
“All of life is meant to be lived through the lens of the Gospel”
1. What stood out to you from the above and why?
To set my heart on things above. I am an eternal being b/c God redeemed me. I am just passing through. I am part of a Holy Nation -like Peter says – but my joy comes from the Lord. It has now been 4 sundays in a row that we have gone to Church. I am not bragging just stating that this is part of my committment to God. Part of my walk here on earth. God has plans for me, for my husband, for us. I do not know what they are but I am sure that God will reveal them. I am constantly letting go of anger, jealously, bitterness, wrath, control and God is continually filling me up with His peace, His joy. Today we sang at church, we had Holy Communion and one day we all will sit at His table in Heaven. His Righteousness is my peace. I know longer have to strive, to prove things, to apologize, to hate myself, to blame, I can simply worship the King of Kings, dance sing and shout. That is perfect freedom to me.
2. During this Lent our quest is to set our affections on things above. What has been helpful to you and why? (This study, a book you are reading, something you are giving up to have time and energy for Him, a song you are learning…) Share the gold.
Food, coke cola, junk food, I have been comforting myself with food and drink. Hiding behind all this food. I was daily consuming and I have not been since the beginning of lent. I am not bragging but today I feel a lightness of being and a sense of Hope. When I focus on things above, like the song says, Things of this earth grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace. I am not trying to change my husband, circumstances, my daughters, siblings, churches etc. I am asking God to change me. Make me a better Christian. To be intentional, authentic, and Christ Like. My song has been
It is no longer I that liveth but Christ that Liveth in me
He lives, He lives,
Christ Jesus lives today.
We walks with me and He talks with me along life’s narrow way.
He lives, He lives,
Salvation to impart.
You ask me how He lives, He lives within my heart.
This might one or two hymns mixed together. I do not know but I do enjoy singing it.
With much love and thankfulness for this study.
Celebrating Lent for the first time.
An awareness of God and lessening of my problems, my circumstances, my issues.
Just more of Jesus and less of me.
Blessings to all
In Christ
Mellany
ps on the History Channel tonight and every sunday night there is going to be a presentation of the gospel of Christ.
It is done by Roma Downey (Touched by an Angel) and her producer husband (Survivor etc.)
They are Christians and they have produced this series.
Soon and very soon we are going to see the King
Soon and very soon we are going to see the King
Hallejah, Hallejah
We are going to see the King
No more crying there
We are going to see the King
No more crying there
We are going to see the King
Hallejah, Hallejah
We are going to see the King
Mellany–what an encouraging testimony–giving up the food and drink you mentioned–and receiving His blessing!
Mellany, I love to hear the joy in your heart!
Me too, Mellany…
“I am asking God to change me. Make me a better Christian. To be intentional, authentic, and Christ Like.
I started reading the blog before I went to church, but didn’t finish it…will do so in a bit. I have a PRAYER REQUEST THAT I WILL TRY TO KEEP SHORT.
MY YOUNGER BROTHER LOST HIS JOB SEVERAL MONTHS AGO AND A COUPLE OF WEEKS AGO HAD TO GIVE UP HIS PLACE AND HAS NOW MOVED INTO MY HOME, HIS SONS THEN HAD TO MOVE IN WITH THEIR MOTHER AND HER BOYFRIEND (THEY ARE YOUNG ADULTS). ONE RECRUITER TOLD HIM HE ISN’T GETTING ANY OFFERS BECAUSE HE IS OVER 50. HE IS TRYING TO FIGURE OUT WHAT GOD IS UP TO AND THEN HIS NEW GIRLFRIEND BROKE UP WITH HIM, BECAUSE HE IS NOT WORKING. THIS BREAKUP HIT HIM HARDER THAN HIS DIVORCE (HIS WORDS) AND THE COMBINATION IS SENDING HIM IN A DOWNWARD DIRECTION. HE IS NOW DRIVING A SCHOOL BUS JUST TO PAY HIS BILLS. HE WALKS ALMOST EVERY DAY FOR 2-2 1/2 HOURS JUST TO TRY TO WORK THINGS THROUGH. HE CAME TO CHURCH WITH MY SON AND I THIS MORNING AND AT THE END OF THE SERVICE THE PASTOR ALWAYS SAYS THERE ARE PEOPLE TO PRAY WITH ANYONE WHO NEEDS IT, I TOLD HIM WE WOULD WAIT FOR HIM IF HE WANTED TO GO DOWN, BUT HE SAID NO. ON THE WAY HOME HE SAID THAT HE IS ABOUT TO GIVE UP ON PRAYER, IT ISN’T WORKING FOR HIM AND TO HIM IT IS LIKE BEATING A DEAD HORSE. MY BROTHER IS VERY, VERY DISCOURAGED AND I REALLY CAN’T SEEM TO SAY OR DO MUCH TO BE TRULY ENCOURAGING HIM. I AM CONCERNED FOR HIM AND I KNOW THERE ARE PRAYER WARRIORS AMONG THE GROUP AND I WOULD REALLY, REALLY APPRECIATE YOUR PRAYERS FOR MY BOTHER, HIS NAME IS GLENN. HE MAY BE ON THE VERGE OF GIVING UP ON PRAYER, BUT I AM NOT AND I KNOW THAT PRAYER CAN CHANGE EVERYTHING. THANKS SO MUCH.
Mary-Canada–I am so sorry for your brother’s trial. Lord we pray that You will come and be Glenn’s Comforter in this very difficult time. We ask for Your provision for him financially, but more Lord, we ask that You draw him to Yourself, let Him see Your grace poured out on him. Thank You for his sister Mary and her compassion towards her brother. In Your Name we pray-
What a lovely prayer, Elizabeth…I’ll be lifting Glenn up in my prayers, Mary.
I will be praying for him.
Lord I pray that You would reveal Yourself to Glenn right now. May He know You now in this moment, all that You are. Shatter his disillusionment with prayer that he may know that of all the things in this universe You are the One who will never fail him. I am so sorry for all that he is going through but I know in Your economy nothing will be wasted. Please draw him with the cords of Your love. Protect him and his loved ones as he walks this lonely road into Your arms.
Mary, I’m so sorry for Glenn’s downhill spiral…I will be praying for him…I know God has a plan for him. Praying!
I will keep your brother, Glenn, in my prayers. I think it is a hard thing for a man to be out of work; it affects so much how they see their self-worth; and then, the rejection he suffered from his girlfriend. Thankful he has you in his life.
Amen to Elizabeth and Anne’s prayers, may something beautiful come from this difficult season
Lord I lift up Glenn to you today and I ask you Lord to help him see where you want him to be. Help him Lord to feel your presence and to not lose faith in the plan you have for his life. Help Mary Lord to know what you want her to say or maybe to just do so she can be an encouragement to Glenn and not feel like she may be pushing him farther away from focusing on you. Lord you know what needs Glenn has and I ask you Lord to please meet those needs and to help him to stay focused on you as you work thru his life’s “stuff”. In Jesus name I pray. AMEN!
I really wish to thank everyone for praying for my brother, he did raise his eyebrows when I told him I had a group of women praying for him, but not to worry, they were prayer warriors. He did grill me for a bit, but then chilled when I told him I was worried about him. On one of his walks, he came back and said that he thought that maybe God was telling him that he should look at what he has not what he doesn’t have and that he really should be more thankful for those, they all came from God. He is making some progress as he is not so down today. He is still very discouraged and I do agree with Susan that it is a very hard thing for a man to be out of work. Although he is still struggling, he is a bit more positive. Thank you for your prayers for him, it really means a lot.
1. What stood out to you from the above and why?
Seeing that this week is on Ecclesiastes made me smile. 🙂 This was where I was “introduced” to you, Dee. A friend of mine bought me your Ecclesiastes Bible Study the fall of 2007, just after my 2nd miscarriage and I was having a very hard time emotionally and spiritually. I did it on my own and it truly helped me. I wish I knew where that book was now! I would go look over what I wrote then. May try to search around to find it.
Anyway, what stood out the most to me was this: “Ecclesiastes is written, not just for unbelievers who try to find their meaning in life “under the sun,” apart from God and eternity, but also for believers who revert, when they face challenges, to their idols, to clinging to people or things “under the sun.” Then, the emptiness comes back. Their lives again, are filled with Ecclesiastes-like despair.” This is me. I need this. I’m struggling. But yet I know I NEED Him so desperately! When my husband insults me and makes me feel like dirt constantly, I need Him, the lover of my Soul. When my heart and arms are aching so badly to hold my children, I need Him, my Abba Father, to wrap His arms around me, to give me the peace I need.
I came across a beautiful picture this afternoon on Facebook that caught my attention. It said “The only one who can truly satisfy the human heart is the one who made it. Jesus.” So beautiful and soo true! I made that picture my cover picture, and also the picture for my desktop background. 🙂
2. During this Lent our quest is to set our affections on things above. What has been helpful to you and why? (This study, a book you are reading, something you are giving up to have time and energy for Him, a song you are learning…) Share the gold.
Like I mentioned, I’ve been struggling. And honestly feeling frustrated with God that He would allow my husband to continue treating me so awful and keeping my children away from me. But yet I truly know it’s Jeff’s choices. He has truly hardened his heart and is not listening to God. He is listening to his fears. He will not let go of the past. He refuses to forgive me. He won’t let himself see the truth of what God is doing in my life now. It’s not God’s fault. It’s Jeff’s choices.
Yet, in all of this I long so much for God. I long to be close to Him. To feel Him near. To be wrapped safe, peacefully in His arms. This study, Dee’s book, and now Ann Voskamp’s book have/are helping. Just reading His Word more and listening to uplifting music truly help. Prayer. Honest, open, prayer time with my Heavenly Father truly help. If I’m willing. I have to be willing. I admit, part of my struggle right now is my anger at my husband for what he is doing to me, to our children. I know I have unforgiveness in my heart towards him. I am asking God to help me with it, though. I want to be free. I don’t want bitterness and anger to rule my life, as it does for my husband. I want to be free, truly free in Christ and have His peace. I truly want those things in my life!
Sorry, if I’m rambling. Just needed to get that all out.
KRISTA — SO PROUD OF YOU ARE PRESSING INTO HIM. SUCH A VERY HARD TIME FOR YOU.
Thank you Dee. In in all of this, I know I’d be lost without Him.
Oh Krista, I do pray that He will be ever so near. As a mother I cannot imagine anything more painful.
Can you focus on God as the God who sees you? When the pain of missing your children comes, when he lashes out at you or speaks ill of you in front of your children can you think about how He sees all of this. Sometimes that helps me to let it go and give it to God in the moment.
Lord please help this man to see what he is doing, the destruction he is sowing. Bring him to his knees before You that he may be cleansed in the blood of Christ. Until that time please protect Krista’s and her children’s hearts. Help Krista to see how poor, blind and naked he is and to forgive him every time. I know that I am one who struggles with forgiveness and that knowledge makes me want to be quiet. But I think I should not. I come to You who is perfect in forgiveness and I ask. Amen. All glory and honor and praise be to Your name!
Thank you Anne. I will truly try to do that, see myself how God see me. And your prayer…just what I needed! Thank You. God truly spoke through that prayer to me!
Thank you so much for your prayer, Anne, and for all of you who are praying. And yes, please pray that Wednesday will be a good time with the boys, for Jeff to come in repentance to the Lord, and for protection for Krista and the little boys. This is so hard for Krista and we do not know how deeply this is affecting the boys but please plead for them before the Throne. Jeff is refusing to agree to the interim agreement to see the boys regularly, but we pray that he will change his mind.
Not to sound mean, Diane, but I’m glad Jeff is refusing to agree with the agreement for now, because when the judge see’s what he was doing, it will not set pretty with the judge…at all. If there is one thing the judge and the child support officer hates to see, is when one of the parents is saying bad things about the other parent and withholding the kids from seeing that parent. Jeff will be sorry he ever played that game. I’m praying Krista will get custody, if this divorce takes place and Jeff’s actions will go agianst him, for sure.
Praying also for Jeff to turn his life towards God….I didn’t mean to sound so uncaring for him. Divorce is so painful for all concerned…your grieving like a death, because it is the end of a life you had lived with someone and things will never be the same again.
Krista–so faithful and steadfast like your mom–we continue to lift you up, so thankful you are here.
Thank you Elizabeth. I don’t always feel so faithful, but I’m holding tight to Him.
Dear, sweet Krista…you are first on my prayer list every week. God is doing a mighty work in you through your trials and you have such a open, tender heart for him.
Isn’t a lawyer helping you get visitation rights yet? Jeff has to give you time to see your children…that is not his right to controll that. I’m praying for you so much!
Oh Joyce, that so encourages me! Thank you!
As for my lawyer, she is trying! Even sent Jeff a letter for intern (not sure that is the right word) custody agreement until we go to court. Jeff won’t agree to it. More excuses. I’ve barely seen my boys for weeks…he says he’s going to bring them to my apartment on Wednesday so they can see their cousins who are in town this week and I truly hope and pray he will stick with that and that it is for several hours, not just a tiny visit! I fear he will change his mind and not bring them on Wednesday. Please pray they will be able to come! Thank you.
Praying Krista
Oh Krista,
I ache for you, that you have to endure this. I see you struggling, as you wrote, yet you are clinging to God…you are turning to Him, again and again. And I echo Anne’s prayer…praying for you, Krista.
Praying too Krista for protection of the boys hearts and minds, repentance for all involved, for a freedom from bitterness for you dear girl.
Dear Krista, I continue to pray…especially for your precious boys and your heart…may the Lord of love and comfort wrap His mighty arms of strength around you and your boys to endure these difficult days.
When I climb into bed on Saturday night I have this thought “tomorrow a new post from Dee” what will God teach me through Dee and all of the rest of you ladies. Ecclesiastes is very thought provoking. We had Ecclesiastes 3:2-8 read at our son’s memorial service at that time it comforted me that life and death were part of normal life. I suppose I needed to feel that I wasn’t singled out to suffer, that there is rhythm and a mixture of good and bad in life. That was thirty years ago, I am looking forward to what will be revealed now.
The gold??? I find my discipline is not as good as I planned. But with that said, I have been in several situations/sharing times where I am hearing clearly from God….”listen, Sarah, let go of those idols, I love you and will not let you fall, relax, I’ ve got you..my precious beloved child.” I feel His movement in my spirit which brings overwhelming love and gratitude for Jesus and my salvation.
I WOULD REQUEST PRAYER FOR TRAVELING MERCIES AND WISDOM AS WE DRIVE FROM IL TO TX TO SEE OUR SON & FAMILY. FIRST TIME TO STAY WITH THEM.
Sarahsal–will pray for safe travel and good fellowship time with your son and his family! Sounds like quite a road trip! 🙂
I will be praying Sarah! Have a safe trip and don’t spoil that new baby too much!! Also praying for your daughter and her kids
Praying for safe travel, and for your time with your son!
Prayers for safe travel and a wonderful visit…blessings to you and yours, Sarah!
We are safely at our son’s enjoying the kids. Although Grandma and Grandpa are at Starbucks right now for some grown-up time. Thanks for the prayers. I never dreamed that this relationship would be healed to this extent. My heart is overflowing.
So glad to hear that, Sarahsal. Praise the Lord!
1. What stood out to you from the above and why?
In all honestly there wasn’t something that jumped out at me and that made me wonder if all the stuff going on around me that I am not seeing it. Maybe I am not focused enough, then I started beating myself up, but then the thought did cross my mind that last week I came to recognize that I could do nothing, say nothing, be nothing, pray nothing, and then I thought that I apparently know nothing either…and oddly I suspect that is progress.
2. During this Lent our quest is to set our affections on things above. What has been helpful to you and why? (This study, a book you are reading, something you are giving up to have time and energy for Him, a song you are learning…) Share the gold.
The study has been more helpful to me than any other one thing. Each week someone will say something that will cause me to think or ponder on something specific and I will spend time asking God about what ever it was that I am pondering. Some He has whapped me upside the head with, others I felt the gentle sigh with “My child” after. I have done okay with my giving up, not perfect, so I guess I arrogantly assumed I would be able to do it without any issues, but didn’t happen, but I also haven’t beaten myself up about it(which is an improvement) and just apologized to the Lord. The giving up has given me more time in the evening to spend time with Him, I am reading the gospel more this week than previously…if the answer to everything is in the gospel, then I don’t know it well enough, as I am rather dumb in some areas. I do read the bible, but I will admit to reading more books than bible(that was the thing He whapped me upside the head about).
I am not sure what this week will bring, I can’t seem to see it yet, but I do trust that over the course of the week, the Lord will bring someone or something that will be help turn the light on.
And thank you everyone for praying for my brother, I knew I could count on this group to lift him up in prayer.
Mary, I loved this…” but then the thought did cross my mind that last week I came to recognize that I could do nothing, say nothing, be nothing, pray nothing, and then I thought that I apparently know nothing either…and oddly I suspect that is progress.”…it made me smile…I suspect I’m there with you…:)
Thanks Nanci, your response brightened my day and I am happy to have a companion on the nothing road:)
2. During this Lent our quest is to set our affections on things above. What has been helpful to you and why? (This study, a book you are reading, something you are giving up to have time and energy for Him, a song you are learning…) Share the gold.
I think this time God came to me in so many ways-most often unexpectedly. Through the comments here on the blog-through Dee in a personal note-His Faithfulness shown through my husband and his humility, and this morning He so ministered to me sweetly through His word and worshiping him in Music-there were two songs in particular. I went into the Library at the church to spend some time with Him before church started.
He came to me in Psalm 17:13-15
Arise, O Lord, confront him, bring him low;
Deliver my soul from the wicked with Your sword,
From men with Your hand, O Lord,
From men of the world, whose portion is in this life,
And whose belly You fill with Your treasure;
They are satisfied with children,
And leave their abundance to their babes.
15 As for me, I shall behold Your face in righteousness;
I will be satisfied with Your likeness when I awake.
v. 15 “As for me, I shall behold Your face in righteousness;I will be satisfied with Your likeness when I awake.” Thank you for this Rebecca, so powerful
Elizabeth, I was catching my thought life before, during and after worship practice before church started and wow..a critical thought flashes, a jealous thought flashes, another critical thought and it was just a battle-The desires of the things of the world-approval and comfort crept in. I hate my natural bend-I just said to Him-“Help!”.
When God led me to Psalm 17-the verse started to become radioactive when I got to-‘from men whose portion is this life’..it reminded me of Ecclesiastes..I started to see that even though I am His I bend to try to satisfy myself with the here and now of this world. I looked up what ‘awake’ meant and He is the only one who can satisfy our souls here on Earth, and in the future at the resurrection of our body this satisfaction will be perfect! So I started meditating on that truth and while the arrows still were being shot at me-the thoughts became less and less and He became more.
He is helping me see more and more daily how Holy He is and how wretched I am-and oh how I need to cling to Him in His word-He is the Word, but the thought He gave me through YOU swept through me- I am broken but beloved..That is the Gospel truth.
What stood out?
It seems to me that I am making life harder than it needs to be. God meant for us to enjoy the simple things in life, enjoy the gifts. Like God reminded Job we had nothing to do with the creating of this world – it is His world. I have often wondered what my purpose here on earth is and this reminds me that I am here to give him praise and glory and enjoy what He has created.
Ecclesiastes 1:2-11
The writer seems agitated. He mentions different cycles in nature. He relates to these cycles as being boring. Same song second verse as they say.
Ecclesiastes 2:1-17
In this chapter the writer is trying desperately to find something to do with his hands to keep busy so as to not be bored. He finds that it all seems meaningless. He then tries to reason wise men and foolish men and finds they have the same fate. In the end, they die. Once again, meaningless. He is discouraged by the sense of it all.
1. What stood out? The concept of the “one man play” stands out to me as being wonderfully transparent, authentic, and honest. The Bible does not hide the hard stuff. It doesn’t throw around the sweetness of the Gospel and try to hide the bitter taste that earthly life sometimes brings. Could we trust a book that promised something easy and scoffed at the hardships that feel very real and often cruel in the here and now? I couldn’t! When I read the darker parts of Ecclesiastes or of Job, I know that my Lord knows that the world is a hard place. He know that I will sometimes get caught up in the physical and emotional hardships of this fallen place, but he offers hope and shelter.
2. How to keep my heart pointed toward Heaven? Hmmm…I fail too often, but I do find that seeing people as God would see them helps me to realize what is really important. Over the last decade or so, I have trained myself (probably been trained by the Holy Spirit if I am honest) to assume the best of people. When I am hurt by a friend or relative or even an acquaintance in daily business, I immediately look at them through empathetic eyes. I try to imagine what God sees in their hearts. I try to see them as children struggling to learn and grow. This “habit” has erased bitterness and replaced it with peace. I have many sins, but being quick to find fault in others is no longer one of them.
Erica I am also comforted that our Lord knows that the world is a hard place.
Your seeing your own sin and that leading you into humility is lovely.
Hours after posting this, it hit me that we can never be 100% sure that we have completely won against a particular sin. It was silly of me to say so. Yes, ultimately the victory is ours through Christ, but those pesky sins still creep up. I will be particularly aware of how I slip up today. 😉 ~Thanks for your comments, Chris.
Hi Erica!
Yes — this earth can be hard — so glad it will be so changed one day! Good thoughts from you.
Erica, this gives me much hope…
“When I am hurt by a friend or relative or even an acquaintance in daily business, I immediately look at them through empathetic eyes. I try to imagine what God sees in their hearts. I try to see them as children struggling to learn and grow. This “habit” has erased bitterness and replaced it with peace. I have many sins, but being quick to find fault in others is no longer one of them.”
I will make use of your “habit”…all too often I take things (social slights, a terse word, etc.) far too personally or make snap judgments…
3. The problem of meaninglessness: My life is meaningless!
A. This is the theme that permeates Ecclesiastes. Look at the following verses and then summarize (briefly please!) why the professor, when he has the “under the sun” view, finds life so frustratingly meaningless.
Ecclesiastes 1:2-11
Nothing under the Sun is meaningful-we toil for so many things including recognition and so we can see more of the world yet we never see enough and then we pass and generation after generation will forget us. This life can’t satisfy our souls either here or in full in eternity.
Ecclesiastes 2:1-17
Attaining pleasure is like chasing after the wind-nothing truly satisfies. Being wise and being a fool are the same-they both must die and they both will be forgotten-even a lifetime of hard work is worthless toil for you don’t know if whomever you leave it to will be wise or a fool with it.
B. Read John 10:10-11 and explain how Jesus is the answer to meaninglessness. How is the gospel part of that answer?
He laid down His life so that He can be our satisfaction-He is the meaning of life and He truly satisfy our souls.
C. Does your life ever feel meaningless? How might John 10:10-11 and Colossians 3:1-4 provide a solution?
Sometimes when I am cleaning the house, or when I haven’t sang in a while-my mind can get set in the moment or the day-but this truth in John and Colossians are a balm. I have been raised with Christ-I need to set my mind not on the moment or the day but on Him-on things above. My life is hidden with Him now-not hidden in a housewife or singer identity or any other identity-I mean, I am going to appear with Him in Glory-He satisfies me here but it will be in full eternally-and it is sweet that I can walk in and live in that surety NOW.
Wow..I am amazed at how He came to me yesterday morning at church before I got to question #3 this morning! 🙂 🙂 He is pounding it deeper in this morning. 🙂
I see that too, Rebecca…I read your post above on Psalm 17 and can see how those verses would remind you of Ecclesiastes. I like how you used those verses to get control of your thoughts.
Susan, those thoughts still pound at me-like being in a boat with waves fiercely pounding it too and fro-but only when I gaze at Him who is in my boat with me can I rest and not allow the waves to get in..cruddy analogy but that is what it is like.
So I just had this thought-probably silly and too simple, but why strive to attain the approval of men when they will forget me especially after I die-it is vain-why strive to attain comfort when death is sure-why strive to attain control-merely striving is evidence I’m not and never will be in control. 🙂
The Gospel truth-God’s approval is infinite, 100% sure and unearned-no striving at all to obtain it. He took on my disapproval on the cross so I could be approved by Him. He took on deeply the meaningless of life for me-separation from God on the cross, and then shook the Earth and ripped the veil in half so He could be my meaning.
He took on the ultimate discomfort before the Cross and on the Cross for me so that He could be my comfort. He gave up control on the cross-He became a vulnerable, slaughtered Lamb so that He could be my control. I want to cling to Him. When I do I see more my frailty, compared to Him-yet at the same time I get a glimpse of the breadth and width of His love for me- which is a beautiful place to be-I am so needy for Him.
Reminds me Rebecca of the TK example he uses of the teen age girl reminded of all that is hers in Christ and she says ‘yes but what good is that if no one wants to date me’.
The image he uses of Jesus Christ as her bridegroom set up against a pimply faced boy, how utterly ridiculous to place more value on the approval of the human.
Read John 10:10-11 and explain how Jesus is the answer to meaninglessness. How is the gospel part of that answer?
He came that we might have life, living water that we can share with other, in order that that our hope would overflow onto one another. The Ecclesiastes verses portray a consumer, trying to fill up the emptiness apart from God.
Jesus came to fill up that emptiness, that we might “know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”
1. What stood out to you from the above and why?
I’ve read the opening through several times now, and honestly, the whole thing impacts me.
I know, all too well, the feeling of “Is life going to be simply a series of trivial maintenance duties punctuated by a dinner out or a new chair?” I’ve struggled with that for a long time – how to bring Jesus in to the mundane-ness of everyday life, because everyday life is, for the most part, a series of tasks that I must do: cleaning, laundry, cooking, driving my daughter to school, helping her with homework, etc… Daily life is repetetive. Honestly, I do look forward especially to family get-togethers, because I find more meaning in relationships with my family. However, there have been those times, though they seem few and far in-between, where I’ve felt that God used me in someone’s life, and that gives me a feeling like no other.
I am hoping to discover this week how having meaning in life through my relationship with Christ dovetails into the routine of my everyday life, where it is so hard, with all that needs to be done, and the hectic pace of some days, to focus on the eternal, instead of the hear and now. It’s hard, for example, when a person in my life will criticize me for the time I spend on this Bible study, saying that there are more important things to be done.
Secondly, that “God gives us gifts like youth, friendship, food, children, sex, marriage…all can bring joy to the heart. But they are gifts, not gods. If we make them gods, we will feel Ecclesiasties-like despair, for they will fail us…” My daughter and I just finished watching a BBC miniseries of Jane Eyre on DVD. We talked about the theme of idolatry running through it. It was so evident in Mr.Rochester’s character, when Jane and his wedding came to naught when it was discovered that he already had a wife, and Jane felt she had no choice but to leave him. His despair, as he cried out that she was his love, his hope, his life…she was resolute, telling him he must look to God, and to himself. I also loved that she was not willing to marry a man who did not love her-not putting her hope in him to help her escape her troubles.
I know I am falling into that trap of making something or someone a god, when I feel that Ecclesiasties-like despair when they let me down or make me feel unloved.
2. During this Lent our quest is to set our affections on things above. What has been helpful to you and why?
I’d have to say it is this study. I’m not doing so well in keeping up with reading in supplemental books. But, on Sunday, I had a really strong temptation to fall into an old sin habit that involves fantasizing. I was beginning to let my mind go, but then, I thought about Him, and that by choosing to do this, it would block my intimacy with Him. I thought of Dee’s saying that the gospel is the solution to every problem, and I thought of one of Keller’s sermons where he said that Jesus died to make you holy, so that you wouldn’t have to do this. I thought about how Dee very practically, a couple of weeks ago, posted how she wrote out a prayer, using Scripture, to help her when tempted to eat between meals. I thought of the Scripture I had chosen, where Jesus said, “The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak…so pray..” With His help, I chose to stop. I knew my idol of comfort was crying out to be fulfilled, but I said no to fulfilling it the wrong way.
This is teaching me how to apply gospel truths to these kinds of everyday battles – especially the battles that go on in the mind; they can be the fiercest.
Oh Susan I love your answer to 2!
Such a good clear picture of applying the gospel to your heart! Praise God!
Jane Eyre was Midday Connection Book Club selection some time ago. They have study questions to go with the book and the discussion of it was very good as I recall, perhaps you could glean something there to spark further discussion with your daughter?
I am thinking about how you are growing, and how that must be spilling over onto your daughter, during the mundane tasks of life.
Thanks Chris…you know the hardest part of fighting temptation is that for a moment, I wanted to do it; I hate to say that, but sometimes I want to meet my needs in the wrong ways. I think the key is for the gospel to melt my heart so that I want Him more.
And yes…I remember the Midday program discussing Jane Eyre – I’ll have to listen to it again!
We can all relate to ‘wanting to do it’ your walking out this verse in front of all of us I think:
1 John 5:4
“For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.”
Susan–your honesty humbles me, it is your beauty. I LOVE that what stopped you in the tracks of your temptation was that it would block your intimacy with Him–you love Him too much to do that. Such a great illustration for me. I am tempted daily to pull apart a particular struggle, to criticize…but to remind myself that I am choosing to block my intimacy with Him every time I do it–that was really powerful. Thank you for your transparent heart.
Susan I’m so proud of you! When I’m tempted to go to Facebook, too much (I still do but, only once a day or night now), I catch myself and pray to take that temptation away, Lord and he does. He fills me with good things from above! Praying for strength for you to resist temptation
Does your life ever feel meaningless? How might John 10:10-11 and Colossians 3:1-4 provide a solution?
My significance comes from my identity in Christ. I don’t need to seek to establish my worth apart from that. The approval of other humans can be such a strong enticement, but the approval of my Father is already mine, it is real and eternal and the only thing really worth having.
The enemy comes and whispers that I am not loved, that I can’t trust God, that I am too fat, my thinking is too muddled, look at my lack of love, when I listen to him I feel meaningless and hopeless.
Resisting him and abiding in Christ is my fight, speaking truth to my soul and resisting the lies.
Chris, the enemy taunts me with the same mantra. You think that he’d come up with something new 🙂
What stood out to you and why? “Life seemed so repetitive. Round and Round” This circular idea made me think of a piece I wrote back in 2007. It has an ecclesiastical feel to it but seems to say what I want to say a little better than I can at this moment…it references many of the verses that you have brought up in this study, especially the John 10 passage…
Real Life
It’s 6:15AM my resting mind is awakened by and to a day of digital carnage. The course is set, I just have to put my oars in the water, push and pull, engaging in a thoughtless task to what sometimes feels like a cloudy destination. The soft edges of cloth rub gently against my skin as the water cools my sleepy eyes. I watch the droplets fall one by one onto their porcelain slide, washing away the residue of the night. The mirror tells no lies, yet another wrinkle; I try to remind myself that those are earned a badge of courage or stupidity, maybe both but either way they are mine to wear. Morning is earth’s way of giving birth; every day has its own newness. Although it may be true that there is nothing new under the sun, each day holds its own rhythmic pattern. The sights, the sounds, the fragrance on the breeze, each day is an original, yet somehow that fact has been over shadowed by routine. Routine can leave one feeling a bit like the spirited stallion bolted to the carousel floor. Hearing the music box tunes, and the momentary laughter but knowing it’s all just a circular illusion of an adventurous life. What would it feel like to awaken to a day absent of the illusion? To hear the gears grind to a screeching halt, listening as the music box slowly clinks out its final note mid-song. To watch as the statuesque stallion snorts and proudly tosses his mane to and fro…boldly, stepping out into life, real life.
Real Life
John 10:10
Real life goes deeper, much deeper than wide
Real life is when your heart aches and words cannot define why
Real life is what exists behind tear-filled eyes
Real life has no formulas, or boundaries defined
Its twists and turns are like the gnarled wood of an old oak tree
A refuge, a tower, a dark mystery
It can be adventurous, bold, and treacherous as broken glass
Real life is death defying, real life lasts
So who this great gift can thus obtain?
Is it one of rank or class or with a popular name?
It is to the ones who have learned how to see
opposing the visible
for what they know to be
Believing, hoping beyond earthly walls
scaling the heights to what lies beyond
head tilted upward, movement steady and sure
real life cries out, “you must endure”
There is more, more than the eye can see
If you but REACH FOR IT! and ASK FOR IT! down on your knees
Wow Rhonda…this is beautiful, amazing. The metaphor you use of the spirited stallion bolted to the carousel floor…a circular illusion of an adventurous life. And then, “real life”. Thank you for sharing this with us…it’s a keeper!
Thank you Susan…To me is just says God offers “real life” and helps me to remember that sometimes in that process we lose the familiarity of that “round and round” life…a great thought in one regard…but a bit scary in another! :)At least we know where the carousel will take us! HA!
Rhonda, you should a an author…you have a way with words! Very good!!
Joyce,
Thank you very much for the sweet encouragement! 🙂
Very good, Rhonda — it really does have an Ecclesiastes like feel. Perfect time to share. Thank you.
Thank you for pointing us to Ecclesiastes, I always forget how “earthy” that book can be! It definitely dives into the most raw parts of life!
“Morning is earth’s way of giving birth; every day has its own newness.”
What an excellent thought, Rhonda. You definitely have a knack for writing…
1. What stood out to you from above?
That if we let the gifts become our life we return to ecclesiastes-like despair…I admit, that’s where I’ve been for the past week written increasing intensity every day. The world feels empty, but only because I’ve turned my eyes from my ultimate purpose: to love and be loved by the Creator of everything. I’ve let the things become my life and set the father aside.
Great gold.
1. What stood out…?
This: God gives us gifts like youth, friendship, food, children, sex, marriage…
all can bring joy to the heart.
But they are gifts, not gods.
If we make them gods,
we will feel Ecclesiastes-like despair,
for they will fail us.
But if we set our affections on things above,
and not on things under the sun
then we also might have some fleeting enjoyment
as we gratefully receive the things under the sun.
This…because I am being changed by Holy Spirit through this study, through Lent. Changed by where I “set my affections” by coming into the truth that my heart idols lead me to despair – to over-eat, to self-deprecation, to working harder so God and others will love me more, to never being ‘good enough’ under this sun. It is amazing to me – and very freeing, to be honest – to uncover these heart idols…and then to be covered by the hope and peace and real life only the Lord gives.
I am discovering anew, as Dee writes, that when this heart-change happnes, the gifts of God I am blessed with here are so much more precoius, enjoyable, tender and delightful. Because they are gifts to bless, and not false gods (idols) to burden.
2. This study has been -and is, and by His grace, will be – such an important, soul-shaping
experience for me during Lent. I am seeing myself differently and honestly in new ways. Some of them are not pretty – but with what I am learning, I trust that the Lord will reveal and renew the true beauty He has placed within me. I find myself checking Facebook less, staying off the phone, and learning to turn to my Redeemer first and last when I need comfort and affirmation. I am far more conscious of my eating habits. I am taking more time to exercise. I am letting go of finding approval in what others say or how I perform, and instead am looking into my Saviour’s face, and resting in His embrace.
On another note – as a pastor –yesterday’s sermon about ‘Our Cheating Hearts” was thoughtfully received. I used Hosea 14 as the main text – telling the story that comes before, and then sharing from Romans 7 and 5…and then inviting us all to come as we are, for our Saviour call us and covers us and invites us “Be Mine.” and I will heal your cheating heart. He is our all. We break His heart by refusing what He offers, desires to give us and be for us. Thank You, Holy Spirit, for working through Dee and working in me and working in the hearts and lives of others. You are amazing….I am so humbled and thankful.
I mentioned a while back that my daughter and I are going to meet for breakfast once a week and read Unglued (LIsa Terkurst) together…our story is a long and painful one, but I love my prodigal daughter with all my heart. Well- tomorrow is our first breakfast and book time. Please, would you pray for us? Pray that the Holy Spirit will powerfully preside over us and with us. Thank you…..
Sorry I’m too late to pray. but how did it go Christine?
Joyce, we meet Tuesday March 5…and praying is never really late! Appreciate the prayers…God will be at work…..thank you so much!
Sorry Christine…praying you and your daughter will have a wonderful breakfast and book time together this morning…with the holy spirit presiding over you!
yes, indeed…”praying for Christine and her daughter to have a wonderful breakfast and book time together…with the Holy Spirit presiding”…enjoy, Christine!
turning to my Redeemer more, approval less — May He fill us each up. Thanks for good sharing. Let us know how it goes with your daughter.
See my post from March 5 below – aboutthe time with my daughter…prayers were answered!
Did I earlier predict that this Bible Study would get easier as time goes on? Hmmmm — could I have been wrong about that?! I have spent time yesterday and today, reading all the comments on the blog. (I am definitely praying for Mary-Canada, Krista, and Sarahsal!) I listened to Dee’s Midday Connection which was wonderful! I really, really was impressed with her daughter’s testimony about her suffering and grief when her dad died, and her advice “don’t back away from God.” I have been continuing to read Keller’s King’s Cross and have been thrilled with innumerable insights. I’m actually beginning to worry because I can tell I am going to finish the book before Lent is over 🙂
I want it to go on forever!
Ecclesiastes is a hard study, I think. It is probably one of the lesser-read books of the Bible. I think I have sort of filed it along with Hebrews and Revelation. I remember when I have read it before, I felt sorry for Solomon. He had to wait until he was an old man before he had these reflective thoughts and took stock of his purpose in life. He found a sense of worthlessness and emptiness. He had learned the hard way that wealth and possessions didn’t fulfill him. He should know — he had it all! Here was a man who had prayed in his early years for wisdom, and God granted him wisdom. People traveled from far and wide to hear this “wise man” and learn from him. However, Solomon must have not been able to use his wisdom for himself. He had to literally suffer it out! I look forward to this week of study in Ecclesiastes. Perhaps this older woman (me) can identify more areas of my life that need the gospel’s answer to Ecclesiastes.
Love your reflections on Ecclesiastes. And I’ll tell Annie you liked what she shared. She has called me or texted me so many times today because she and her husband are trying to buy their first house…. 🙂
Oh that’s exciting for Annie and David, Dee! I live in the same town and don’t even know them, altho I feel like I do! Blessings to them! Nita’s house is for sale…in the same neighboorhood you and Steve started out in Kearney! (And it’s a very nice kept house and great, quite neighborhood).
I got in the car this morning and my husband had the CD cued to this song–it’s been in my head ever since and I couldn’t help but post it–it’s encouraging me:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaeM6a8Iks4
Whate’er My God Ordains Is Right
1. Whate’er my God ordains is right,
Holy His will abideth.
I will be still whate’er He does,
And follow where He guideth.
He is my God,
Though dark my road.
He holds me that I shall not fall
Wherefore to Him I leave it all
2. Whate’er my God ordains is right,
He never will deceive me
He leads me by the proper path,
I know He will not leave me
I take, content,
What He hath sent
His hand can turn my griefs away
And patiently I wait His day
3. Whate’er my God ordains is right,
Though now this cup in drinking
May bitter seem to my faint heart,
I take it all unshrinking
My God is true,
Each morn anew
Sweet comfort yet shall fill my heart
And pain and sorrow shall depart
4. Whate’er my God ordains is right,
Here shall my stand be taken
Though sorrow, need, or death be mine,
Yet I am not forsaken
My Father’s care
Is round me there
He holds me that I shall not fall
And so to Him I leave it all
So beautiful, Elizabeth!
Love it. Such a good drumbeat of God’s sovereignty. Have you heard the new Sandra McCracken song?
3. The problem of meaninglessness: My life is meaningless!
A. This is the theme that permeates Ecclesiastes. Look at the following verses and then summarize (briefly please!) why the professor, when he has the “under the sun” view, finds life so frustratingly meaningless.
•Ecclesiastes 1:2-11
•Ecclesiastes 2:1-17
There was no joy and no delight in anything. When he did find joy in creating things he worried that no one would take care of the things he had created. He discovered that wisdom and being foolish did not matter. They both ended up the same way. I guess that is why God has mercy on us b/c God remembers we are dust. The passages sound to me like someone who is very secular and trying to be His own God. There is no satisfication in that at all.
B. Read John 10:10-11 and explain how Jesus is the answer to meaninglessness. How is the gospel part of that answer?
In Him we move and have our being. W/o Christ I have nothing. w/o Him I would die.
C. Does your life ever feel meaningless? How might John 10:10-11 and Colossians 3:1-4 provide a solution?
The things on earth look strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace. When I praise and worship God I am free.
4. The problem of discontentment: There is nothing new under the sun!
A. Another refrain in Ecclesiastes is “under the sun.”
•What famous quotation of discontentment can be found in Ecclesiastes 1:9?
I am not sure of this answer
•How do you see discontentment in Ecclesiastes 2:11?
He thought that everything that he had created was worthless.
B. God tells us that there is something new — but it is not “under the sun.”
•What is new in 2 Corinthians 5:17? Have you experienced this? Share some way you have been made new.
Throughout this study God has been giving me scripture, song, pictures etc. They are on my mirror in my room where I do my daily devotions. I purchased a vanity set. I never use it. I always wanted one but I hate my self so much at times that I never used it. It was just there tucked away in the corner of the room. For some reason I started taping the pieces of paper up on the mirror. The things God was giving me. I touch them and I read them and I declare them. It is not longer I that liveth but Christ that liveth in me. He hides me in the cleft of the rock. That is all I know.
One thing God has shown me is how beautiful my hair is. It is silver in it and I quite like looking at my hair.
This is childlike I know but God does not seem to mind. I trust Him and Him alone.
Sometimes I feel quite inadequate with myself when I read this blog. Like I haved shared too much and should only have talked to God about it.
•What is coming according to Revelation 21:1-4? Do you believe this and hold it in your heart?
It is what I live for. Long for and cannot wait for. That the dwelling place of God is with man and He will personally wipe away all our tears. Incredible that line. That He will personally wipe away the tears of our eyes. Hallejah! I simply cannot wait. Only the presence of God will bring healing, wholeness into our lives.
C. I LOVE THIS NEXT PART — DON’T MISS IT. Read Ecclesiastes 2:24-26 carefully.
•How, according to Ecclesiastes 2:24, are we to see the gifts under the sun? How thankful are you are throughout the day as you receive these fleeting gifts? Explain.
The gifts are from the hand of God. Sometimes I am thankful sometimes not. But as I am typing this I see all the clouds in the sky and I am grateful. Years ago I worked night shift and I craved the light. I started to take curtains and blinds off my windows. At Home Depot u can purchase coverings for windows that look like stained glass but u actually put them on with water. The point that I am trying to make is my windows are covered half way up and the other half is open. So I can watch the clouds go by. See the birds in the sky. Watch lightening storms. I love storms. See the stars and moon at night. During the summertime at least twice during the summer I sleep out under the stars. I love all that God has created. Right now the clouds and huge, white, puffy and bathed in sunlight.
•In verse 24, there is a phrase: “This, also.” The also refers back to the preceding passage, where we see existential despair. How is existential despair (or a lack of satisfaction for things under the sun) a gift from God?
B/c then u realize how much u need God. If u were never dissatisfied u would never crave God and that is why He created us.
Mellany, I want to reassure you that you are loved here, loved and not judged.
I know most of us can relate to what you said here:
“Sometimes I feel quite inadequate with myself when I read this blog. Like I haved shared too much and should only have talked to God about it.”
I encourage you to keep sharing, the enemy would like you to stop, to feel like you have said too much.
We help encourage one another to stay in the light, we take the window coverings off for one another if you will.
You are meeting with God in a deliberate way by participting here!
Mellany–beautiful example in your answer to C. I imagine you watching the clouds in your windows–love how purposeful you were in wanting to see His beauty in creation–really cool
•In verse 26, the professor talks about the one “who pleases God.” We know, from New Testament light, that the one who pleases Him is the one who is covered in the righteousness of Christ. When He made us His child, we are intertwined with Him. When He died, it is as if we died. When He was raised, it is as if we were raised. When our life is in Him, we will have “wisdom and knowledge and joy.” But if our life is not in Him, find our fate in verse 26.
•How is the gospel the solution to discontentment?
We are created to love God and to please God not ourselves.
5. The problem of injustice: Moreover I saw under the sun that in the place of justice, there is wickedness.
Only God knows the heart. Only God can judge. All my abusers are dead. Sometimes the abuse rings in my heart and my head but now I only hear God’s words and if I don’t I apply scripture to my heart wounds.
I accept the breastplate or righteousness that God gives me. I wear it over my heart wounds. I think that most injustices in this world are b/c of man not God. God allows pain and suffering but in the end God triumphs b/c He makes beauty out of ashes and gives us the oil of joy for mourning. I have struggled and I don’t deny this but I have always experienced God’s love and healing when I cry out to Him.
God is simple teaching me and showing me that He will never leave me nor forsake me. Ever. Period. And I believe Him. I am choosing committment over fear.
My heart aches but mostly for children. I pray all the time that Father God will bring His presence into the systems that so do not protect children. So many churches could help. In Canada if everyone church (believers in Christ) adopted one child there would be no more Foster Kids. Just one family called out by God to adopt in each church. Nothing is impossible with God.
When I worked as a child protection worker the stories would break your heart. People so desparately need Christ. Christ alone can save, heal and deliver. Secular people now refer to “garbage children” Children they have labelled b/c they believe they are not to be helped. My heart aches. I pray all the time for the couple that was called out by God to minister to the children of murderers, pimps etc.
They were missionaires overseas and God called them home to minister. They minister in the Toronto area. How wonderful it would be to have a Canadian, North American ministy to children sponsored and not attacked by government policy.
Love your heart Mellany 🙂
2. During this Lent our quest is to set our affections on things above. What has been helpful to you and why?
His unconditional love. When I fail He just keeps showing me His great love. He helps me and loves me and helps me again despite the fact that I am unlovable. Grace – all of life is His grace.
B. Read John 10:10-11 and explain how Jesus is the answer to meaninglessness. How is the gospel part of that answer?
I am so glad the verse doesn’t say, “I came that they may have life.” While that is a wonderful thing – to have my life in Christ – I am thankful He makes life abundant and worth living.
The thief would never lay down his life for me. He longs for me to be miserable like he is. Jesus longs for me to be fulfilled and made that possible by His sacrifice. The gospel is this, that He lay His life down so that I could LIVE!
C. Does your life ever feel meaningless? How might John 10:10-11 and Colossians 3:1-4 provide a solution?
My life feels meaningless when I look downward and get my eyes off of Him. When I set my affections on the temporal.
In verse 24, there is a phrase: “This, also.” The also refers back to the preceding passage, where we see existential despair. How is existential despair (or a lack of satisfaction for things under the sun) a gift from God?
It is a gift because we then unable to find answers, search for Him. My pain has certainly caused me to run to Him with all my heart.
7. We’ve been talking, during this series, about two ways of life that miss the gospel-centered life. There is the way of the younger brother, who rebels. We see this very clearly in the professor’s portrait of himself in chapter 2 — trying everything under the sun to try to be happy. But do we see the way of the older brother, who has so many rules, who is outwardly serving God but is doing it to get things from God, but who doesn’t love God? Do we see a picture of someone trusting in his righteousness — his religious ways in Ecclesiastes?
Yes! I wouldn’t have seen it without your guidance, Dee. I believe the professor is talking of extremes. Excessive living (younger brother)and excessive wisdom (elder brother), both to fill the void/dissatisfaction of soul.
I find the younger brother scary and the elder brother boring.
Good gold, Kim.
Scary and boring.
Yes.
and both so sad — yet I can be both!
3. The problem of meaninglessness: My life is meaningless!
A. This is the theme that permeates Ecclesiastes. Look at the following verses and then summarize (briefly please!) why the professor, when he has the “under the sun” view, finds life so frustratingly meaningless.
• Ecclesiastes 1:2-11:
He is looking at life through the lens that this is all there is—that this life is the best we’re ever going to get. His perspective is that he expects surface-level gratification here and now. He has zero eternal perspective.
• Ecclesiastes 2:1-17:
He admits his deep longing, craving to love something. He has tried many idols that do not satisfy.
The last time I looked at Ecclesiastes, it was before any teaching on idols of the heart. Reading it now—I am loving that this book is here. I love the honesty—and how it addresses the truth that we are made to crave something—we are made with a vacuum-and either we will fill it with the Lord, or pursue the futility of trying to be satisfied by the fleeting pleasure of this world.
I don’t know where I read it — I’ve thought of it so much, I often say it, but cannot give credit. But someone wrote: Solomon has done us the favor of rushing headlong into the pursuits under the sun that we think might satisfy us and has come up empty.
Such a good quote, Dee, wow. I remember reading these chapters of Ecclesiastes years ago as so depressing–but now in light of the realization of my own futile pursuits of idols–I see it so differently. Love how you listen for His leading o where to take us–amazing how it blesses each of us where we are.
B. Read John 10:10-11 and explain how Jesus is the answer to meaninglessness. How is the gospel part of that answer?
Jesus did not come to steal, to kill, or destroy—He came to give me what I could not attain; to bring new life; to heal, restore. He gives—abundantly.
He is my Shepherd—this is striking me differently for some reason. But as because He is my Shepherd, my Owner—then as His sheep, I should reside with Him, follow His lead, care about the things HE cares about…
C. Does your life ever feel meaningless? How might John 10:10-11 and Colossians 3:1-4 provide a solution?
Some, I answered above—to be His lamb, means that I listen to Him, I follow what He’s doing, I care for what He cares for. And I trust He will make all things new, He brings meaning to life because the goal, the purpose, life itself, infused with Him, is meaningful.
I have made other things bigger than Him, I have magnified the mundane—but “Christ, who is your LIFE” oh, that verse jumps off the page for me—it’s mega-phoned at me right now. HE IS LIFE. How can I elevate all these petty little cares above Him, He IS life.
It IS all meaningless if we we do it for ourselves….and is all gold if we are doing it for HIM. dishes and laundry turn into pure gold in the hands of our loving God if given to HIM as an offering…but if done with an “tude” they burn up like so much chaf.
As I have watched my kids grow I have been so blessed to find joy in the process. I could not figure out how to do that for so many years and made everyone miserable….not the least of whom was ME.
I can spin straw into gold with Gods help. those mundane moments, that 10th load of laundry, that phone call at 2am, THE 44th cup put in the dishwasher….its all straw UNLESS I let HIM turn it into GOLD. As I hand my sad little peaces of straw to HIM and let HIM do HIS work He has given me eyes to see the joy, the beauty, in the mundane!
FEELING REALLY EXHAUSTED TODAY, I TRUST I WILL FEEL BETTER TOMORROW BUT JUST PUTTING A CLEAR THOUGHT TOGETHER AND PICKING UP THE HOUSE AND GRADING PAPERS AND SITTING AT THE DESK TONIGHT AT WORK HAS BEEN REALLY HARD AND IT SCARES ME. I HAVE BEEN FEELING SO MUCH BETTER THEN I USED TO AND I AM FEELING LIKE THE OLD CYNDI AND IT SCARES ME. PLEASE PRAY THAT I WILL NOT LET SATAN PUT THAT FEAR IN MY HEART AND THAT I WILL TRUST HIM TO USE ME, SICK OR WELL.
Praying for you now, Cyndi
Amazing how he can transform the mundane. Loved Ann Voskamp’s description of washing dishes…
May God restore you, dear Cyndi. There was a wonderful article in Christianity Today comparing Sabbath to teaching children to float in the water. Unless they surrender their bodies, they can’t do it. They kick and sputter. I pray for little Sabbath rests for you.
Cindi, your thoughts here are golden, how to spin the straw of the mundane into the gold of God’s work in your family. Praying for you as you hand the reins over to Him.
1). One of the things that stood out to me was the photo you used of the older couple arm in arm. Jim’s mom just passed away this past fall, Jim’s folks enjoyed 62 years of marriage and they toiled together. The picture struck a chord because it reminded me of them. If we stick close to each other and to the Lord, we can also enjoy that type of intimacy that comes with much time spent together.
2). My nugget of gold… I am like the woman at the well. I want this special water that Jesus talks about so I won’t have to walk to the well and draw up water for myself each day. She’s so confused thinking only about her earthly needs when Christ wants to satisfy her deepest need for a Savior. This weeks lesson reminds me of all this because I so easily settle for the things of this earth and then quickly find myself wanting more because it doesn’t truly satisfy. I have been studying the Made to Crave material and seeing how I substitute temporary pleasures for intimacy with Jesus so often. I run to food when I should be finding my help in Christ.
I do that too, Jean and then feel terrible about it. I’m trying to fill those needs with him first…then I forget about the idol momentarily!
Dee, did you mean Krista or Kristin…in “when the earth shakes”?
Thank you JOyce — I meant Krista. I’ll go back and fix it.
I love that photo too — so sweet. What a gift — that long sweet marriage of companionship.
Jean K-love this truth “so easily settle for the things of this earth and then quickly find myself wanting more”
B. Read John 10:10-11 and explain how Jesus is the answer to meaninglessness. How is the gospel part of that answer?
Well, I suppose I could be considered a “thief” in that I take and take from this world to satisfy my hunger. These things are meaningless. It is never enough; I am never satisfied. Jesus gives to us. The Gospel gives us life and meaning; our lives are an extension of Him. He is peace, He is grace. He is the reason we live and thrive. If he didn’t come to Earth we would be doomed.
1. What stood out to you from the above and why?
“God gives us gifts… (gifts) can bring joy to the heart. But they are gifts, not gods.”
This reminds me of Keller’s sermon from last week where he emphasizes that the gospel is “Jesus + NOTHING” and making “gifts” into anything other than gifts will ultimately bring despair…as Dee mentioned, “If we make them (gifts) gods, we will feel Ecclesiastes-like despair, for they will fail us.”
Oh such a needed reminder to keep in the forefront of my mind and heart…
2. During this Lent our quest is to set our affections on things above. What has been helpful to you and why? Share the gold.
Tim Keller’s sermons, especially those from last week, really have been helpful…I appreciate his ability to bring points home not only to my mind but heart as well. Sometimes (frequently?) I get too comfortable thinking that I am on the right track, that I am really “getting it” but then I realize how really far I have yet to go…convicted of my deviation from “Jesus + Nothing” and the subtle draw of idols. This bible study blog additionally has been an immense help…I find that the studies are usually so ironically (God-incidence?) fitting for what I need at the time…reading and pondering questions of faith and other studiers’ responses/comments has truly been “gold”. “Renovation of the Heart in Daily Practice” by Dallas Willard & Jan Johnson has also been pretty incredible in a similar manner to the bible study, with chapters seemingly to be perfectly cast for what is needed at the time.
Nanci–always love your wisdom–I fully relate to this: ” I get too comfortable thinking that I am on the right track, that I am really “getting it” but then I realize how really far I have yet to go”. I’m always amazed how many times I can listen to the same Keller sermon over and over and each time something strikes anew that I have “missed” seeing in myself.
Nanci — you remind me of that portrait I’ll post sometime of how as we grow in our understanding of the holiness of God and our own sinfulness that the cross keeps getting bigger and bigger. You may have seen that.
from 3 and 4: I loved looking at the vain pursuit in Ecclesiastes, then looking at how the gospel speaks to the vanity of life.
I thought about my idols, what I so often value and pursue, and see how Jesus turned it all upside down.
Beauty? “He had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire Him.” (Is 53:2) this so that I might be clothed in the beauty of His righteousness.
Approval? “He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows…” (Isaiah 53:3) this so that I might be completely accepted by the Father, the only approval that will ever really matter.
Food (and other tangible gifts that I distort into idols)? Jesus said, “I am the Bread of Life; whoever comes to Me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.” this so that I can find soul satisfaction in Jesus, not in food.
I want to find true life in Him. I want those worldly hunger pangs, those feelings of emptiness to be redeemed as catalysts to press me into Jesus.
Laurie–this is all golden–great insights on Christ’s humility and the vain pursuits of this world
Wonderful answers in Jesus, Laurie. Thank you!
You state this point so beautifully and efficiently!
3.
B. Read John 10:10-11 and explain how Jesus is the answer to meaninglessness. How is the gospel part of that answer?
C. Does your life ever feel meaningless? How might John 10:10-11 and Colossians 3:1-4 provide a solution?trust in GOd. He came to give us all good things those things above are what we are to focus on , that we are Hidden in Christ here and now…Everything else truly is meaningless.
B. God tells us that there is something new — but it is not “under the sun.”
What is new in 2 Corinthians 5:17? Have you experienced this? Share some way you have been made new. Yes! We are a new creating whether we feel it or not! Believing and pressing into to this. Letting the Spirit change us in His time as we believe and trust this…
What is coming according to Revelation 21:1-4? Do you believe this and hold it in your heart? Yes! All wrong will be made right! Being with God forever and seeing Him will be wonderful!!!
Angela, how did the meeting with “little man’s” mom go? How have you been feeling?
How do you see discontentment in Ecclesiastes 2:11?
The meaninglessness of it all.
I thought of the curse pronounced to Adam by God after the fall:
17 To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’
“Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life.
18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field.
19 By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.
B. God tells us that there is something new — but it is not “under the sun.”
What is new in 2 Corinthians 5:17? Have you experienced this? I am, I am a new creation
Share some way you have been made new.
I have a hope, a gift of hope that nothing, not the worst things that can happen here on earth can steal. God supplies the hope, He supplies the change, He sustains me.
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith–more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire–may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, 9 obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”
This hope, when I hold fast to it, has power of God to overcome my greed and self pity, power to be that new creation, to be salt and light in the world that is groaning under the weight of sin.
What is coming according to Revelation 21:1-4?
A new Heaven & earth, where we can dwell with God, free from shame and pain and fear. These former temporal things shall pass away
Do you believe this and hold it in your heart?
I have to hold it in my heart…I must or I will go under, this hope is my lifeline.
At the end of last year I was grieved by my apathy I asked for God to soften my heart, to make it weep for what grieves Him.
I am feeling overwhelmed with sadness, the story in the news of the boy who was bullied and is now dead, mothers I know who are seeking pleasure without regard for their children, stories of those enslaved in the sex trade, a soldier with a brain injury similar to Daniels, people blinded by greed, I saw a man dragging a dog by its neck yesterday, I feel crushed by the weight of it all.
I have to cling to the hope of these verses
Yes — a request that is full of love — a request many of us are afraid to make!
Chris, this morning when I was with The Lord I saw the analogy of our hearts being like a rosebud blooming into a beautiful (pink) rose, alive with the fragrance of Christ. I see this happening in you. It is painful but so like Him.
This is an encouragement to me.
Thank you Anne
I just came across this from G.K. Chesterton, and it seemed to fit so with Ecclesiastes:
“The modern philosopher had told me again and again that I was in the right place, and I still felt depressed even in acquiescence. But I had heard that I was in the wrong place, and my soul sang for joy like a bird in spring.”
― G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy
Love it. Like Lewis’s “made for another world.’
Sunday/Monday: Icebreaker
1. What stood out to you from the above and why? – Knowing that my life can be so much richer with Christ in the center and that he will never leave me or fail me is insight for me. Even though my family, my husband, my kids love me they can never give me what God alone can give me. To know that it’s ok to love them but to remember they are not gods, or idols as far as that goes. Being on vacation in Florida this week I was watching TV with my sister and a program called Million Dollar Rooms was on. We sat there watching and how one man said money was no object and there was no budget limit on what he could spend. Oh what a waste that was too me. All these rooms that you don’t even use all the time so extravagant. It really hurt my heart to see that. Not because he had money to waste but because of what I imagine my self doing with that money. Oh the places I could send that money. WOW! When I see that kind of stuff I wonder if they even know God and the blessings he could give them that would make them feel richer than the money in their pockets.
2. During this Lent our quest is to set our affections on things above. What has been helpful to you and why? (This study, a book you are reading, something you are giving up to have time and energy for Him, a song you are learning…) Share the gold. – I’m reading thru the bible with our church and Pastor and we are just finishing up Numbers and I watched The Bible on TV Sunday. I think what is really making an impact to me right now is how ungrateful the Israelites were. God was being so gracious to them even though they were being disobedient and yet they were still not happy with the life they had. He could have wiped them all out in an instant but because of Moses you kept pleading with God on their behalf they were spared. I am trying to keep that in my mind to be satisfied with what or where I’m at right now in my life. I was remembered of that again when my husband was complaining about how bad he was golfing yesterday instead of remembering how blessed he was to be playing golf in early March while back home in NW Indiana they are preparing for another snow storm. Oh how easy it is for us to not be satisfied like the Israelites. Lord help me to be happy with where you have me and to not complain. To trust you with my life and the path you have me on. Amen!
Amen to your prayer for me too!
First, a big thanks to all who prayed for my daughter and I at our first “breakfast book club” day! And yes, prayers were answered – the Holy Spirit did preside! We had a great time; my daughter was really excited about this, and had told her friends we were doing it. One of her friends (non–believer, as most of them are) even started flipping through the book and asked if she could read it after we were done. My daughter had done her reading, and we had a great chat sharing different lines from the first chapter, and what they meant to us. We each drew out one thing to work on this coming week. It all went really well – felt very natural and positive. We walked back to her apartment and I left her saying I would pray specifically for the one thing she has set for herself (to think before she says things), and asked her to pray for the one thing I’d said for me – a line which fits beautifully with this study: “We won’t bend from the weight of our past, but we will bow to the One who holds out hope for a better future.” L. Terkurst, Unglued p. 17 We both left each other with a hug and “I love you” – my heart rejoiced all the way home! Thank you for praying – certainly God heard and answered. I remembered that people in this community were praying, and stood on your shoulders today, by grace!
For today here in Ecclesiastes:
When I read these words, I kept hearing Jesus’ words lifting me – “I have come that you might have life and have it abundantly!” There is such futility in chasing after fleeting things here on earth; there is such true peace and joy in seeking after Jesus Christ. In Him, our lives DO have meaning. In Him, life has peace…and passion (that zest for living kind of passion) and purpose (the four imoprtant words: LOVE GOD, LOVE OTHERS). Even in the very act of the incarnation- God becoming a human being in Jesus Christ, living as a baby, a toddler,a child, a teenager, a man – that truth gives us the truth that human life DOES matter “For God in all His fullness was pleased to live in Christ..” Col. 1:19.
In a world filled with despair, chasing after the wind, how mazaingthe truth that our lives do have meaning…that we are created by God on purpose, for a purpose.
In the John 10:1-11 and Col. 3:1-4, I am so blessed and encouraged that when I place my life, focus my life, receive my life from God through Christ, in Christ, held and empowered by Holy Spirit and seek God’s glory – there is so much more to this life than meets the eye, than can be evaluated from a earthly standpoint. I am praising God even as I type this.
Two songs that come to mind are Steven Curtis Chapman’s “More to this Life” (an oldie but a goodie) and Jason Gray’s new song “Nothing is Wasted”.
I will try to post links here….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGemjDMLijA Steven Curtis Chapman and his sons in 2010 doing “More to This Life”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvnBhtbATag Jason Gray “Nothing is Wasted”
Just want to say thanks so much for the songs,Christine. I love everything by Steven Curtis Chapman, but I had not heard this one. Loved the words. And Jason Gray… I had never heard of before and the words are Wow! Powerful. I am so hoping that nothing is wasted because Krista is going through a very, very hard time right now. The hope that God will heal the pain and turn it to joy is all we have to cling to right now.
Praying for Krista and for you, Diane. Sisters in Christ. Blessings and peace to you all this night.
Praying for Krista & Diane, for the visit today, and the legal issues on the horizon, and always for Jeff’s heart to be broken.
Christine, I’m so happy things went so well!!!
3. The problem of meaninglessness: My life is meaningless!
A. This is the theme that permeates Ecclesiastes. Look at the following verses and then summarize (briefly please!) why the professor, when he has the “under the sun” view, finds life so frustratingly meaningless.
Ecclesiastes 1:2-11 – He’s relying on the approval and recognition of man and not of God. Of man who the minute they don’t see him any longer will forget about him but God never forgets us.
Ecclesiastes 2:1-17 – In this section he is relying on ALL the stuff he acquired to make him happy. It all eventually accumulates dust and is more troublesome to have around. “Stuff” cannot love you back like God can. You can’t feel it’s presence keeping you company, but having God in your heart you will feel his presence always.
B. Read John 10:10-11 and explain how Jesus is the answer to meaninglessness. How is the gospel part of that answer? – Jesus will not abandon us He laid down his life for our sinful lives. He took our beating that was meant for us because he loves us unconditionally. Because Jesus is the Word, the Gospel, his word if we read and live it is the answer to every phase of our life.
C. Does your life ever feel meaningless? How might John 10:10-11 and Colossians 3:1-4 provide a solution? – I would say when I take my eyes off The Lord and his goodness than yes, my life feels meaningless. I will wonder why I even bother, but if I focus on The Lord and His Word I can do all things thru Christ who strengthens me. I can do things as I’m doing them for The Lord and no one else matters. When I stay focused on him he is ALWAYS there with me no matter what I’m doing in life and especially when I’m struggling he is there always till the end of my days.
#3A – Comparing Ecclesiastes 1:2-11 and 2:1-17 with John 10:10-11 – How Jesus is the answer to meaninglessness.
First, I was reading Ecclesiastses 1 again this morning, and I had this sort of sideways thought: The items of redundancy that were listed are not all bad, in my opinion. Don’t we depend on the sun rising and setting in a routine way? It helps mark time of day and seasons, does it not? Would we want the sea to ever fill up? No, that would cause a flood. I think God’s plan for evaporation and rain is one of the great miracles of His creation. We would really be depressed if we got tired of hearing and seeing! I think it is just when we view these things as monotonous and meaningless that we feel so badly.
In Chapter 2 verse 3, Solomon says “I tried to cheer myself with wine , and embracing folly–my mind still guiding me with wisdom.” Is that really possible?!! Do wine, folly and wisdom come together in the same package? Then in verse 4, “I undertook great projects….” I can certainly relate to that — I believe I have undertaken what I believed were great projects, except they ended up being more like “chasing the wind!”
My Life Application Bible commentary states, “Some of the pleasures Solomon sought were wrong and some were worthy, but even the worthy pursuits were futile when he pursued them as an end in themselves. We must look beyond our activities to the reasons we do them and the purpose they fulfill. Is your goal in life to search for meaning or to search for God who gives meaning?”
In John, the thief takes life, but Jesus not only gives life, but makes it full. A hired hand tends the sheep for money, but the shepherd does it for love. Jesus not only loves us, but is willing to lay down his life for us.
Really liked the part of the Life Application Bible commentary states, “…Is your goal in life to search for meaning or to search for God who gives meaning?” I found myself thinking about my motives to make sure that my answer to that one would be the right one in my heart and although I know that much progress still needs to be made, that it is truly God who will give the meaning.
Love that quote from the Life Application Bible…so very fitting. Thank you for sharing it!
I’m learning so much from you ladies! Love your comments here. Many times, I find joy in knowing that others have felt the same as me. I love it when someone says something about the way they feel or something they enjoyed from the past, and I think, I know exactly what they mean. I felt the same way, nothing new under the sun. But that’s ok with me. It is these common pleasures and even stresses that bind me to the people from my past. I love knowing that my great-great-great, etc grandma struggled with some of the very same things I do and she got thru it. Every time I had a baby, I reminded myself of that. Anyway, I am running on. It just gives me some peace knowing that the ways of the world aren’t really changing so much, and that God still moves in exactly the same way He did before. I just need to trust Him and His promises of that new earth, heaven and that marriage relationship He promises to all of us who please Him by placing our faith in His Son.
What is new in 2 Corinthians 5:17? (“Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”) Have you experienced this? Share some way you have been made new.
I think I have changed in several ways, and it didn’t all happen at one time (like at the moment of baptism). It may sound humorous, but I would sort of liken it to a “molting process.” I believe I have grown and “shed my skin” numerous times. One of the most recent ways I have changed is probably more akin to the verse immediately before (vs.16).
“So from now on we regard no one from a worldy point of view.” I think I am able to see the Christ in others more frequently. This came in handy last night when about 17 of my husband’s family got together to have a triple-birthday celebration (for my husband, his sister, and a great-great nephew). I had a large cake decorated beautifully which I took to the restaurant for all to enjoy after dinner. However, before dinner even began, 2-year-old Daisy (who could barely tickle the cake box while standing on her tip-toes) managed to pull the cake off onto the floor upside down!! Thankfully it was still in the box, so the cake was still clean — however jumbled. I will confess that my very first thought was “Oh, no — that $26 cake is ruined!” However, I was quickly able to see Daisy’s innocence –a child of God, loved by Jesus. What might have been anger went poof out the door!
Wonder what would happen if all of the people in the church greeted its newly-baptized members with congratulations on “becoming a new person in Christ”? That would be in stark contrast to thinking something like, “Oh yeah, that’s the kid who started a fire in a trash can in the fellowship hall last year.” Sometimes we don’t act as if we believe a change has taken place.
Do I believe the passage in Revelation about the New Jerusalem — yes, very definitely and I do hold it in my heart!
Deanna I can appreciate your change feeling analogous with molting, layers at a time.
Also the reluctance to believe that change has taken place in others, instead of putting others in a labeled box we might pray for the power of God to be at work in them, because the work He is doing doesn’t look like what we would imagine does not mean God is idle in that life.
B. God tells us that there is something new — but it is not “under the sun.”
What is new in 2 Corinthians 5:17? Have you experienced this? Share some way you have been made new.- Any one that has a relationship with Jesus has been made new. I’ve been made new in the way that I think. The way that I want to do things. I try to lead a life where God will be glorified, but I know that I need to constantly work on it and the only way to do that is to stay in his word all the time.
4. The problem of discontentment: There is nothing new under the sun!
A. Another refrain in Ecclesiastes is “under the sun.”
What famous quotation of discontentment can be found in Ecclesiastes 1:9?
“there is nothing new under the sun”
How do you see discontentment in Ecclesiastes 2:11?
In the preceding verses, 9 & 10, he talks about how great he became by the world’s standards, all the pleasure he enjoyed…but in verse 11 he says it was all vain pursuits– none of it satisfied him, he was still left empty
B. God tells us that there is something new — but it is not “under the sun.”
• What is new in 2 Corinthians 5:17? Have you experienced this? Share some way you have been made new.
I am NEW through Christ. I am no longer a slave to the sin nature. I think one way He has been making me new is in my mind—things that used to seem SO important, have lost their luster. My perspective is shifting to more eternal concerns.
• What is coming according to Revelation 21:1-4? Do you believe this and hold it in your heart?
This is something else He has made new to me in the last few years—my view of Heaven. It changes how I live today.
Oh, I can’t resist posting this here, it is one of my VERY favorite hymns—though I only know the contemporary version from Red Mountain:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ukej-X-ssIo
Come, Lord, and tarry not;
Bring the long looked for day;
O why these years of waiting here,
These ages of decay?
Come, for Thy saints still wait;
Daily ascends their sigh;
The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come”;
Does Thou not hear the cry?
O come and make all things new!
Come and make all things new!
Build up this ruined earth
Come and make all things new.
Come, for creation groans,
Impatient of Thy stay,
Worn out with these long years of ill,
These ages of delay.
Come, for love waxes cold,
Its steps are faint and slow;
Faith now is lost in unbelief,
Hope’s lamp burns dim and low.
Come and make all things new;
Build up this ruined earth;
Restore our faded Paradise,
Creation’s second birth.
Come, and begin Thy reign
Of everlasting peace;
Come, take the kingdom to Thyself,
Great King of Righteousness.
– Horatius Bonar, adapted by Red Mountain Music
Beautiful Elizabeth
Elizabeth, these lyrics are so good, they echo my heart the past few days. These words from It Came Upon a Midnight Clear have been with me lately, pointing us to hope:
O ye beneath life’s crushing load,
Whose forms are bending low,
Who toil along the climbing way
With painful steps and slow;
Look now, for glad and golden hours
Come swiftly on the wing;
Oh rest beside the weary road
And hear the angels sing.
For lo! the days are hastening on,
By prophets seen of old,
When with the ever-circling years
Shall come the time foretold,
When the new heaven and earth shall own
The Prince of Peace, their King,
And the whole world send back the song
Which now the angels sing.
Wow! I never knew these verses to this common Christmas Carol. Such depth and wisdom. Thanks for posting.
Elizabeth, I tried to cut and paste-but couldn’t-I loved all of it-because of the cross this is in our heart! When ‘faith is lost in unbelief’ it gets cloudy-but oh there is a day that the clouds will never appear! I think of this in Revelations 21:5 “He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”
Rebecca–I think you’d sound AMAZING singing this one 🙂 It’s one of my favorites–the words get me every time, but I was amazed how well it fit with the Revelation passage this week
Beautiful words…a prayer in song! Thank you for posting this…