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God has a special plan for your life.
If you worship money and things, then you will never feel you have enough…Worship your own body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly, and when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally plant you … Worship power—you will feel weak and afraid, and you will need ever more power over others – David Foster Wallace
Now she says that one key verse in the Bible for her Is Nehemiah 8:10, which says, “This day is holy to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength”. Because, as she describes in her lyrics, she has walked through the darkness of depression but stands strong today, in the joy of the Lord.
Because Jesus has died and risen from the dead, and is seated at the right hand of God the Father; in His name we can approach the throne of grace and press our concerns there. The gates of heaven are open, the Lord is waiting to hear from you.
The opening of chapter one might come as a bit of a surprise to you, if you have never read Ecclesiastes before. “Everything is Meaningless!” is quite a statement! People who only like to dip into the Bible’s texts and live off great verses like “I came to give you life in all its fullness” or “I can do all things through Christ” can find this statement bewildering to say the least. So let’s dig into it and see what the writer, Solomon, (writing as Qoheleth the teacher of wisdom), can possibly mean.
I am so grateful to God for the book of James. Now may The Lord in His infinite grace and kindness help us to be do-ers, not just hearers of the word! Amen.
Anyone who thinks that God would treat someone differently because they own a million dollars simply has not begun to understand the sheer scale of Almighty God!
The question is, if we are in a mess to which we have contributed by our own sin and folly, what should we do? For many of us, our instinct is to hide from God, and to work frantically to fix the fractures in our lives and relationships.
I take a good sized box and fill it up with some small gifts that will bring a huge smile to the person who’s going to receive the it. So, I always start with some home baking. Chocolate-chip cookies are easy to make, and everyone loves them. Then I add a few things that are just for the person they are going to.
If you have been given wealth, power, status or authority by God, always remember that you are a steward of these things for Him. All these things ultimately come from Him, and He expects you to handle them well.
When Jesus is the at the very center of our lives, and we live closely with him, praying; learning from and leaning into him; there will be a peace and stability which radiates from us – even though the storm may rage around us. In 1834 the hymnwriter Edward Mote wrote: “On Christ the Solid Rock I stand – all other ground is sinking sand”