Enjoy Yourself

Ecclesiastes 7, 8

7:14 On a good day, enjoy yourself;
On a bad day, examine your conscience.
God arranges for both kinds of days
So that we won't take anything for granted.

8:14 Here's something that happens all the time and makes no sense at all: Good people get what's coming to the wicked, and bad people get what's coming to the good. I tell you, this makes no sense. It's smoke.
15 So, I'm all for just going ahead and having a good time—the best possible. The only earthly good men and women can look forward to is to eat and drink well and have a good time—compensation for the struggle for survival these few years God gives us on earth.

Love God and do as you please. By loving God I will do what pleases Him. God, help me to love you more and to look up to you all the days of my life for direction and purpose of life.

Getting Along

Psalm 133 -

How wonderful, how beautiful, when brothers and sisters get along!
It's like costly anointing oil
flowing down head and beard,
Flowing down Aaron's beard,
flowing down the collar of his priestly
robes. It's like the dew on Mount Hermon
flowing down the slopes of Zion.
Yes, that's where God commands the blessing,
ordains eternal life.

God, help us to get along as brothers and sisters. Amen.

Repeated Law, Jealous & Generous God

Deuteronomy 13-15 The last book of Torah is Deuteronomy, which means "Repeated Law." God needed to remind us His law so that we will get it. I need lots of reminders to get something. This time, God repeats the entire book - He repeats His law given to us.

You are to follow only God, your God, hold him in deep reverence, keep his commandments, listen obediently to what he says, serve him—hold on to him for dear life!

In chapter 13 God talks very directly about worship of other gods. He hates it. He punishes it by death of the false prophets and the death of other god's worshipers. The Lord is a jealous God. He wants our worship exclusively. God, help me not to have and not to make other gods in my life. Help me to follow You only, Help me to hold You in deep reverence, Help me to keep Your commandments, Help me to obey You, and to hold on to Your for every!

God is also a generous God. He reminds his people to free cancel any debt every 7 years. He reminds his people to set the slaves free every 7th year. God reminds His people to be generous to the poor. In chapter 15:

10-11 Give freely and spontaneously. Don't have a stingy heart. The way you handle matters like this triggers God, your God's, blessing in everything you do, all your work and ventures. There are always going to be poor and needy people among you. So I command you: Always be generous, open purse and hands, give to your neighbors in trouble, your poor and hurting neighbors.

God, help me to five freely and spontaneously. Prevent my heart from growing stingy. Help me Lord to be always generous and to give to the needy. In Jesus name.

Learn To Think Like Him

1 Peter 4 -5 Jesus understand us 100%. We learn that He went through everything we are going through, and actually even more. He knows what you and I are going through. He understands and He is right here for us.

v.1-2 Since Jesus went through everything you're going through and more, learn to think like him. Think of your sufferings as a weaning from that old sinful habit of always expecting to get your own way. Then you'll be able to live out your days free to pursue what God wants instead of being tyrannized by what you want.

God help me to think like Jesus. Eradicate my old snful habits of expacting to get my own way. Freedom is to pursue what You want me to do.

Love each other, because love makes up for practically everything. God help me to love others more.

12-13 Friends, when life gets really difficult, don't jump to the conclusion that God isn't on the job. Instead, be glad that you are in the very thick of what Christ experienced. This is a spiritual refining process, with glory just around the corner.

Thank you Lord.

Trust Him. He knows what he's doing, and he'll keep on doing it.

We Don't Make God, He Makes Us!

God provided a Savior for Israel, Jesus - exactly as He promised. To Israel first, but also, and here is the good news to all of us, to the whole world.

Acts 13:29-31"After they had done everything the prophets said they would do, they took him down from the cross and buried him. And then God raised him from death. There is no disputing that—he appeared over and over again many times and places to those who had known him well in the Galilean years, and these same people continue to give witness that he is alive.

32-35"And we're here today bringing you good news: the Message that what God promised the fathers has come true for the children—for us! He raised Jesus, exactly as described in the second Psalm:

My Son! My very own Son!
Today I celebrate you!
"When he raised him from the dead, he did it for good—no going back to that rot and decay for him. That's why Isaiah said, 'I'll give to all of you David's guaranteed blessings.' So also the psalmist's prayer: 'You'll never let your Holy One see death's rot and decay.'

Thank you God for providing Jesus to die on the cross for me, to pay for my sins, and to give me the hope of eternal life. Thank you for doing this for good!

Those who are still seek Him, seek Him until you will be found.

"What do you think you're doing! We're not gods! We are men just like you, and we're here to bring you the Message, to persuade you to abandon these silly god-superstitions and embrace God himself, the living God. We don't make God; he makes us, and all of this—sky, earth, sea, and everything in them. 16-18"In the generations before us, God let all the different nations go their own way. But even then he didn't leave them without a clue, for he made a good creation, poured down rain and gave bumper crops. When your bellies were full and your hearts happy, there was evidence of good beyond your doing." Acts 14:15-18

All the nations are a part of God's plan for salvation. Thank you God! This is so great!

Think It Over

Haggai - A prophet brings a message from God to rebuild the temple. A challenge to think your life over. What is important in your life? What have you done to serve God?

"Take a good, hard look at your life.
Think it over.
You have spent a lot of money,
but you haven't much to show for it.
You keep filling your plates,
but you never get filled up.
You keep drinking and drinking and drinking,
but you're always thirsty.
You put on layer after layer of clothes,
but you can't get warm.
And the people who work for you,
what are they getting out of it?
Not much—
a leaky, rusted-out bucket, that's what.

7That's why God-of-the-Angel-Armies said:

"Take a good, hard look at your life.
Think it over."

8-9Then God said:

"Here's what I want you to do:
Climb into the hills and cut some timber.
Bring it down and rebuild the Temple.
Do it just for me. Honor me.
You've had great ambitions for yourselves,
but nothing has come of it.
The little you have brought to my Temple
I've blown away—there was nothing to it.

The message of God is to do work for God. Whatever little I did - did not last. There is always more to do. My life needs to be constant life for God. Constant work for God in whatever I do. Reflect on your life. What have I done for God? Not out of duty, or a way to earn anything - because I can't. Only as a way of my expression of my gratitude and love towards Him.

God's In Charge, Not You! Enjoy it!

King Solomon in Ecclesiastes discusses the meaning of life. He says:

After looking at the way things are on this earth, here's what I've decided is the best way to live: Take care of yourself, have a good time, and make the most of whatever job you have for as long as God gives you life. And that's about it. That's the human lot. Yes, we should make the most of what God gives, both the bounty and the capacity to enjoy it, accepting what's given and delighting in the work. It's God's gift! God deals out joy in the present, the now. It's useless to brood over how long we might live. Ecc 5:18-20

Basically what we are to do is to love God and do as we please. Because when we love God we will do what pleases Him as well.

Life is supposed to be fun! Enjoy it! It is a gift from God!

Love God and do as you please.

God, help me to love You and to please You!