Ecclesiastes

So...I was reading in Ecclesiastes today and came across an AWESOME scripture....

Ecclesiastes 9:10-12 "Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might; for there is no activity or planning or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol where you are going. I again saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift and the battle is not to the warriors, and neither is bread to the wise nor wealth to the discerning nor favor to men of ability; for time and chance overtake them all. Moreover, man does not know his time: like fish caught in a treacherous net and birds trapped in a snare, so the sons of men are ensnared at an evil time when it suddenly falls on them."

I've found myself, especially lately, getting caught up in going and doing and learning and planning my schedule, that I've totally missed the whole reason why I'm here, why God planted me in right here, right now....

I'm not here to go to school...I'm not here to do what I WANT to do...I'm not here to be the most active in church...I'm not here to sit on my rear in church every single Sunday and still not have told anyone Monday-Saturday about Jesus....What I'm here for is to quit worrying about myself and my plans, and instead spread the Gospel...

Jesus didn't come to Earth to sit and build houses, or go to the temple and learn....He came here to save people....Before he ascended he told us to GO therefore and make disciples of all the nations....Why then are there thousands of people around us are still lost and headed for hell?

Maybe if for just one moment we would take our focus off of ourselves and put it on God....people might get saved...after all who are we to think that we have the right to do something other than God's will?

Time's a wastin'.....tell someone about Jesus today.
Peace out!

We owe it to Him to think about it

"Among the many acts of gratitude we owe to God, it may be accounted one to study and contemplate the perfections and beauties of His work of creation. Every new discovery must necessarily raise in us a fresh sense of the greatness, wisdom, and power of God." Jonathan Edwards

We are studying creation is sunday school throughout the month of January. Last week we were looking at some of the hubble images of the cosmos. It simply blows your mind when you stop to consider the vastness, the beauty, and agelessness of this single aspect of His creation. You cannot truly attempt to wrap your brain around these things, without feeling incredibly small and finite. It also stirs another feeling; that of being nothing less than blown away by the vastness of Him who created it all.

Edwards said that our contemplation of these things is something that we owe God and serves as one way of expressing our gratitude to Him. No doubt He hung every bit of it out there for His glory and for our contemplation. (Isaiah 40:25-28) Are you feeling awestruck by God lately? No! Well maybe you should take some time to stop and really consider what He has made. Our consideration of such things always produces wonder and worship of His greatness, His wisdom and His power. What is it in God's creation that makes you stand in awe of Him?

He should be enough!

In my christian journey I have come to realize that the chief end of my existence is to bring glory to God. That is to say, I understand that I am here for Him and it is not the other way around. I know that sounds silly, yet I must embarrassingly admit that while I have known this truth in theory since my conversion, it is not something I truly realized in practice. For many years I, like many of the Christians I attempt to lead in worship every Sunday, saw myself at the center of God's universe. I was told that Christ loved ME; that He died for ME; the Bible was His word to ME; that He was in heaven preparing a place for ME, and so on. That is not to say that these are not clear truth's that are certainly revealed in scripture. The problem is that I somehow let myself twist the message in my mind to a point that I became duped into believing that God's work was all about me. Though I didn't even realize it at the time, I came to view Him merely as a means to an end. I didn't treasure Him, but rather treasured what He had to offer.

Worship is the method that we use to ascribe God's value to us, back to Him. Therefore, it is impossible to worship Him if at our core He is not really what we value. How precious is He to you really? Is God (Christ) alone your treasure or do you see Him, as I did for many years, as merely a means to an end? If heaven were a place that contained all of the richness of what God has promised, but He was not there, would you still want to go?