"And I set my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also is grasping for the wind." (Ecclesiastes 1:17)
How much of man's pursuits are, "grasping for the wind."
I read some horrible, horrible, news today. A thirteen year old girl took a bite of a snack which had some sort of peanut topping on it. In twenty minutes she was dead. I just prayed, "My dear Lord and God, please help them;" that's all I could say.
Why is it at times that life seems so random? We pray, submit ourselves to, "the words of God," go to church, do good, serve, as we should, and must continue to do. But the reality of life is that try as we may, and preachers try as they may to "explain" life, so much is "grasping for wind." Now I am not advocating C'est la vie. I am not talking of, "well, we might as well, 'eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.'" No. But to the "spiritual giants" in Christendom who give the air of understanding so much, able to explain so much, have an answer for everything, I say, What? "For the wise can see where they are going, but fools walk in the dark. Yet I saw that the wise and the foolish share the same fate" (Ecc2:14, NLT)
You and I do not know (nor does anyone else) what the next second will bring, let alone the next hour, day, month, year. I wonder how many people are exactly where they expected to be 50 years ago?!? Now, this is not despair; this is reality. When we surrendered our lives to Jesus Christ (50 years ago or 50 days ago) we entered into Him and He into us. We did not know where the journey would/will take us. All we knew is that we needed Jesus, wanted Jesus, the forgiveness of our sins and, "I go to prepare a place for you," as the hymn says, "blessings all mine with ten thousand beside." Sadly, we too often do not prepare converts for the unanswerable in life. When you listen to some "christians," you would think that "bad things" never happen to "good people." There's is a formula religion.
Unless the Lord Jesus Christ appears the second time while we are in this flesh, we all will die, "go to be with the Lord," or however you want to express it. But in Jesus Christ we do not fear nor despair. We rejoice in Jesus, because the "best" Jesus has for His People is yet to come. "Let not your heart be troubled," Jesus says this to us and to all who will hear and obey, because He knows life will attempt to "trouble[]," us. I hope this helps us a little: Strong's says that the word for, "troubled," means "to agitate, to trouble a thing by the movement of its parts to and fro, to cause one inward commotion, take away his calmness of mind, disturb his equanimity, disquiet, make restless, to render anxious or distressed, to perplex the mind of one." This Greek word, "troubled," describes the aloneness of humanity without our Lord Jesus Christ. Yet Jesus says to you and me today, "'Let not,' this be you."
Father, in Jesus' Name, I pray for the family of this young girl. May they find in You what can only be found in You. Amen.
How much of man's pursuits are, "grasping for the wind."
I read some horrible, horrible, news today. A thirteen year old girl took a bite of a snack which had some sort of peanut topping on it. In twenty minutes she was dead. I just prayed, "My dear Lord and God, please help them;" that's all I could say.
Why is it at times that life seems so random? We pray, submit ourselves to, "the words of God," go to church, do good, serve, as we should, and must continue to do. But the reality of life is that try as we may, and preachers try as they may to "explain" life, so much is "grasping for wind." Now I am not advocating C'est la vie. I am not talking of, "well, we might as well, 'eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.'" No. But to the "spiritual giants" in Christendom who give the air of understanding so much, able to explain so much, have an answer for everything, I say, What? "For the wise can see where they are going, but fools walk in the dark. Yet I saw that the wise and the foolish share the same fate" (Ecc2:14, NLT)
You and I do not know (nor does anyone else) what the next second will bring, let alone the next hour, day, month, year. I wonder how many people are exactly where they expected to be 50 years ago?!? Now, this is not despair; this is reality. When we surrendered our lives to Jesus Christ (50 years ago or 50 days ago) we entered into Him and He into us. We did not know where the journey would/will take us. All we knew is that we needed Jesus, wanted Jesus, the forgiveness of our sins and, "I go to prepare a place for you," as the hymn says, "blessings all mine with ten thousand beside." Sadly, we too often do not prepare converts for the unanswerable in life. When you listen to some "christians," you would think that "bad things" never happen to "good people." There's is a formula religion.
Unless the Lord Jesus Christ appears the second time while we are in this flesh, we all will die, "go to be with the Lord," or however you want to express it. But in Jesus Christ we do not fear nor despair. We rejoice in Jesus, because the "best" Jesus has for His People is yet to come. "Let not your heart be troubled," Jesus says this to us and to all who will hear and obey, because He knows life will attempt to "trouble[]," us. I hope this helps us a little: Strong's says that the word for, "troubled," means "to agitate, to trouble a thing by the movement of its parts to and fro, to cause one inward commotion, take away his calmness of mind, disturb his equanimity, disquiet, make restless, to render anxious or distressed, to perplex the mind of one." This Greek word, "troubled," describes the aloneness of humanity without our Lord Jesus Christ. Yet Jesus says to you and me today, "'Let not,' this be you."
Father, in Jesus' Name, I pray for the family of this young girl. May they find in You what can only be found in You. Amen.
When Peter, an 18 year old Norwegian, "heard the call to evangelize China, on that day he not only emptied his wallet into the collection plate, but included a small note with the words, 'and my life.'"
"Looking unto Jesus"
Hebrews 12:2
"Looking unto Jesus"
Hebrews 12:2
