"If the ruler's temper (spirit) rises against you, do not abandon your position because composure allays great offenses." (Ecclesiastes 10:4, NASB)
The idea here seems to be that we must be willing to "yield" to authority, but not to the point of yielding our convictions, principles. This is why we have The United States of America. This is why we can joyfully celebrate this year the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation.
I'm reading a short book by Bob Mumford and he quoted a pundit who once said, "I have lost reality and I do not miss it at all." This describes too much of historic and modern Christendom. It just amazes me how we humans can rework "reality" to fit our desires. Perhaps the verse before our text gives us some insight. "Even when the fool walks along the road, his [common] sense and good judgment fail him and and he demonstrates to everyone that he is a fool." Or, "I have lost reality."
I remember in my university and grad school years that there were many attacks on "Christianity." Once, in a sneering attack on "Christianity," the "forced baptism" by the Church of the Jews in 15th century Portugal was brought up. My response was short and to the point, "That was not the Church of Jesus Christ." I did not, "abandon [my] position", though I had just indicted the Roman "Church." Nor was it the Church, "the Body of Christ," that murdered Black People in the Southern United States, even though many of those murders were committed by "church members" of prominent denominations. Most in the Ku Klux Klan were (are?) "church members," as are many who advocate "a woman's right to choose" to murder the child in her womb, blatant anti-Semites, etc.
"Reality" is, "The Word of God," Jesus Christ, and His Words, not you, not me, and not some, as the Bible says, "private interpretation." I pray, as our text says, to be of a right, "composure," or right attitude without the, "abandon your position." I'm sure upon further study we could find more clarity in today's text. But personally, I have found this study through Ecclesiastes most challenging to me. I need these Words.
Father, in Jesus' Name, I do so want Your "Reality" to be mine. May I never lose it/You. Amen.
***********************
$1600.00 towards the Fall Mission
The idea here seems to be that we must be willing to "yield" to authority, but not to the point of yielding our convictions, principles. This is why we have The United States of America. This is why we can joyfully celebrate this year the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation.
I'm reading a short book by Bob Mumford and he quoted a pundit who once said, "I have lost reality and I do not miss it at all." This describes too much of historic and modern Christendom. It just amazes me how we humans can rework "reality" to fit our desires. Perhaps the verse before our text gives us some insight. "Even when the fool walks along the road, his [common] sense and good judgment fail him and and he demonstrates to everyone that he is a fool." Or, "I have lost reality."
I remember in my university and grad school years that there were many attacks on "Christianity." Once, in a sneering attack on "Christianity," the "forced baptism" by the Church of the Jews in 15th century Portugal was brought up. My response was short and to the point, "That was not the Church of Jesus Christ." I did not, "abandon [my] position", though I had just indicted the Roman "Church." Nor was it the Church, "the Body of Christ," that murdered Black People in the Southern United States, even though many of those murders were committed by "church members" of prominent denominations. Most in the Ku Klux Klan were (are?) "church members," as are many who advocate "a woman's right to choose" to murder the child in her womb, blatant anti-Semites, etc.
"Reality" is, "The Word of God," Jesus Christ, and His Words, not you, not me, and not some, as the Bible says, "private interpretation." I pray, as our text says, to be of a right, "composure," or right attitude without the, "abandon your position." I'm sure upon further study we could find more clarity in today's text. But personally, I have found this study through Ecclesiastes most challenging to me. I need these Words.
Father, in Jesus' Name, I do so want Your "Reality" to be mine. May I never lose it/You. Amen.
***********************
$1600.00 towards the Fall Mission
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.'"
Hebrews 12:2
Hebrews 12:2
