The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him today and what came to my heart and mind in Ecclesiastes 9:3b,
"The hearts of people, moreover, are full of evil and there is madness in their hearts while they live, and afterward they join the dead."
What a perspective! Evil and madness in our hearts, and then we die. We might try to fool ourselves, but I have to think from heaven's perspective this is readily obvious. We read in Jeremiah 17:9, "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?" Paul's observation, as he quotes Psalms and Isaiah, is:
"There is no one righteous, not even one;
there is no one who understands;
there is no one who seeks God.
All have turned away,
they have together become worthless;
there is no one who does good,
not even one."
"Their throats are open graves;
their tongues practice deceit."
"The poison of vipers is on their lips."
"Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness."
"Their feet are swift to shed blood;
ruin and misery mark their ways,
and the way of peace they do not know."
"There is no fear of God before their eyes."
Furthermore, Paul points out that all we all have been enslaved to this evil and madness. but that through Jesus Christ we can be freed from it! "But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness." Romans 6:17-18. We are told the way in John 1:12, "Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God..."
We all have evil within our hearts, a state Solomon points out in the verse above. However, the Son of God has come to free us from this condition and provide us another perspective! Not one that is limited to life under the sun as observed in Ecclesiastes, but a heavenly one. One that is marked by Psalm 16:11, "You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand."
All the Son of God asks is that we embrace him in faith! He has been proven by being raised from the dead, now it is up to us!
Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!
If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just reply and let me know.
"The hearts of people, moreover, are full of evil and there is madness in their hearts while they live, and afterward they join the dead."
What a perspective! Evil and madness in our hearts, and then we die. We might try to fool ourselves, but I have to think from heaven's perspective this is readily obvious. We read in Jeremiah 17:9, "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?" Paul's observation, as he quotes Psalms and Isaiah, is:
"There is no one righteous, not even one;
there is no one who understands;
there is no one who seeks God.
All have turned away,
they have together become worthless;
there is no one who does good,
not even one."
"Their throats are open graves;
their tongues practice deceit."
"The poison of vipers is on their lips."
"Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness."
"Their feet are swift to shed blood;
ruin and misery mark their ways,
and the way of peace they do not know."
"There is no fear of God before their eyes."
Furthermore, Paul points out that all we all have been enslaved to this evil and madness. but that through Jesus Christ we can be freed from it! "But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness." Romans 6:17-18. We are told the way in John 1:12, "Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God..."
We all have evil within our hearts, a state Solomon points out in the verse above. However, the Son of God has come to free us from this condition and provide us another perspective! Not one that is limited to life under the sun as observed in Ecclesiastes, but a heavenly one. One that is marked by Psalm 16:11, "You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand."
All the Son of God asks is that we embrace him in faith! He has been proven by being raised from the dead, now it is up to us!
Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!
If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just reply and let me know.
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