Ecclesiastes 12 in the Amplified Bible http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ecclesiastes%2012;&version=45
Okay, I got the first line, “Remember your Creator in the days of your youth.” In other words, “Get to know God while you still have your wits about you.” But the rest of Ecclesiastes 12:1-8 made little sense to me until I read it in the Amplified Bible. This translation gives more definition to the words in Scripture by placing explanations in brackets. So it helped me to understand this particular Scripture passage by explaining that the “strong men” were the feet and knees, and the “windows” were the eyes, etc. These verses are describing what we will feel like when we are old. (I played basketball last night at youth group; so I am experiencing feeling old firsthand!)
Throughout the book of Ecclesiastes, the Teacher has continually discovered how meaningless life is. However, at the end of his life, he still encourages us to get to know God early in life. Don’t wait until it’s too late. Learn the ways of God while you still have life in you, while life is still rewarding. Don’t suffer through this difficult life on earth all by your lonesome. Find the blessing of God in your youth, and your life will be more meaningful than you could ever imagine.
This should certainly be our prayer for our children and grandchildren and any other youth we may have influence over. When Zach and Jacque were born, I began praying that they would come to know Jesus at the earliest possible age. I believe that the Christian walk is a process, and the earlier you get started, the further Jesus can take you on the journey. Coming to know Christ is not a one-time event. He unveils our eyes a little at a time. People who find Jesus as children have the opportunity to learn to trust Him completely, before their hearts are completely bruised by the world, in most cases. When we wait until later in life to trust Christ, we have to take a crash course. So, teach your children to love Jesus while you nurse them in the rocking chair.
Now that our children are becoming teenagers, our prayer is that God will make their faith their own. We don’t want our children to go to church just because we make them. We want them to fall in love with Jesus. We want them to be God-followers because He is drawing them unto Himself. If you or your children begin to doubt the existence of God, pray earnestly that He will prove Himself. He will honor that prayer because He wants us to be certain of our faith. He does not want us to have to continually guess whether He will show up when invited. Our God is dependable. Beg Him to show up to you!
Verses 9-14 summarize what we have read in all of Ecclesiastes. I like the description of the wise words—prodding goads, nails firmly fixed in our minds. Studying Scripture should help us nail down what we believe, don’t you think?
Verse 12 is certainly proving true in this the information age. The vast number of books available these days is absolutely overwhelming. You can find an author for every topic. In fact, you can even become an author yourself! Be careful what you read, and always compare it to Biblical truth.
Verse 13—1. Fear God, 2. Keep His commandments. That is our whole duty. Sounds simple enough. . . .
Daryl and I joke with eachother when we are doing something and we could use help we say, "I got it". This is so many times how it goes with life too, instead of seeking the guidance and help from God at an early age we throw our hand up in the air and say "I got it". Unfortunately wasting time that could have been used for God but hopefuly discovering at some point how fully we need Him.
ReplyDeleteVerse 5 ...the grasshopper drags himself along and desire no longer is stirred. Then man goes to his eternal home...
We have the capacity to Fear God and keep his commands but as we get older for whatever the reason sometimes we lose our capacity to serve in the same way, so we need to use our time wisely for the Lord. When the day comes and I am dragging myself like the grasshopper I don't want my family to have to be sorting through the "things" that were important to me in life but I want them to be praying with me, reading the Bible together, loving on me and eachother and continuing in full service to the Lord our God our Maker!
Coming to the conclusion of Esslesiatses made me feel like it could have been a great introduction to Proverbs.
Giggle! I like your "I got it!" example. Great word picture.
ReplyDeleteI don't want to lose my capacity to serve God until the last possible moment. Do you think we give up too soon sometimes? My parents drove to Madisonville, TX, last week to serve meals with the Oklahoma Baptist Relief group. It was hard work, but they received such a blessing. They enjoyed Christian fellowship, and they saw a man accept Jesus. A local foundation donated a sizeable sum to Oklahoma Baptists because of the willingness of a group of retired folks to come serve meals to the hurricane victims. Several of the volunteers were in their mid 80's! We should never fully retire from Christian service. In fact, the longer you serve, the longer God will allow you to enjoy life. When we quit serving others, what do we have to focus on besides our own aches and pains?
"Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man." Yes, it does sound easy enough to do and yet we still don't quite get it right all the time.
ReplyDeleteI received a distrubing email today about "strawberry quick." Does anyone know what this is? No, it's not a drink! It is a new kind of meth (drug) that is being given to kids. It looks like strawberry pop rocks and tastes like candy. It made me think again about when is the Lord going to finally have enough with us screwing His world up and come back and make things right. I know, I know, all in His timing!! But it's scarey to think about all the things that are happening in the world today. Oh, Father, please protect our children from this dangerous substance. Please, Lord, give them a desire to know you and want to follow close to you! I know that you win in the end and Thank you for that assurance that we can rest in. Amen!!