Worship for Today: Knowing God is the answer for everything.

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him in Ecclesiastes 10:19,

 

"A feast is made for laughter, and wine makes life merry, but money is the answer for everything."

 

In the midst of a series of proverbs, Solomon makes this observation which seems to me to be thematic with the message of Ecclesiastes. He observes the diversions we engage in to bring us enjoyment in life. For laughter a feast is made, for merriment in life we look to wine. He concludes this proverb noting that while people look to one thing or another to bring about what they want, "money is the answer for everything."

 

It sure seems like nothing has changed in three thousand years. We pursue diversions for ourselves and we think we know what is needed to bring what our hearts desire. Often we look in all the wrong places and we settle for far less than what will satisfy the deepest yearnings of our hearts. While there is nothing wrong with laughter and merriment (I am in great support of them), the feast comes to an end and the bottle runs empty. These are only temporary diversions in life under the sun and often mask the genuine yearnings of our hearts. Additionally, "the answer for everything" turns out to be not the answer we thought it might be.

 

How many times have we heard stories of those who have encountered wealth report back to the rest of us that it really doesn't bring happiness? It is often thought that money will resolve whatever it is we look for in life, but this really isn't the case.

 

What is the case is that having an encounter with our Creator through his Son, Jesus Christ, is the answer to everything. Not only is laughter and merriment found here, more than just a shallow diversion, an encounter with God brings the deepest satisfaction and pleasure. Peter speaks of being filled with an "inexpressible and glorious joy". In speaking to the Lord, David says, "You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand." Knowing God brings assurance of what lays beyond the grave. Knowing God brings us rescue from his coming wrath for sins we have committed. Knowing God eliminates the anxieties of life because we are assured of his great love for us and his wonderful intentions for us. Knowing God is the perfect satisfaction of the gaping hole left in our hearts since our estrangement from him in the garden of Eden.

 

Knowing God is the answer for everything.

 

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share your thoughts of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We'd love to hear from you!

Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com

Worship for Today: Jesus Christ - our perfect Savior.

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him in Ecclesiastes 10:10,

 

"If the ax is dull and its edge unsharpened, more strength is needed but skill will bring success."

 

Solomon's proverb here points to the reality in this life under the sun, that accomplishing a task increases in difficulty when the tools required are not prepared, not adequate, insufficient. Additional strength and skill will be required. It is an obvious point and I suspect we all can relate to this all to well.

 

What this verse brings to my mind this morning, for whatever reason, is the atonement Jesus Christ made for our sins, redeeming us that we might have a place at the table of God's family. Did he have a sharp axe? Did he have to struggle because of some unforeseen lack so that additional strength, additional skill was required?

 

I have two thoughts about this. The first is that I am convinced the sacrifice Jesus Christ made for us cost him dearly. He suffered the humility that only God could at assuming the role of man, a member of his own creation. In that role he died a miserable death, suffering horrifically. Compounding the physical, emotional and mental anguish that attended his sacrifice was the fact that he took on himself every rotten, stinking and filthy sin ever committed by every human being who ever existed or will exist. That which he abhors, that which is contrary to his own character and nature, that which he despises, he took on himself that we might have an opportunity to escape the wrath of God for sin. From this perspective, I believe Jesus Christ spared no effort in his desire to redeem us to make for himself a people.

 

The second thought I have is that our sinless Savior was fully equipped perfectly for the task he took on. Peter tells us, "For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect." 1 Peter 1:19. This ax had no need of sharpening. He was fully prepared, fully equipped, fully adequate in every way to secure our atonement for any and all sin for all time. What he wrought was perfection, as the writer of Hebrews says, "by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy." Hebrews 10:14.

 

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share your thoughts of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We'd love to hear from you!

Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com

Worship for Today: God will judge all.

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him in Ecclesiastes 12:14,

 

"God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil."

 

Really? Is this really true? Do I really believe this? If it is true, how important is it to me? Do I brush this off and put it out of my mind and distract myself with other things? If Solomon is right here, if he really is inspired by God and this is exactly the affair of things then this is stunning and sobering. Every deed, whether hidden or not, God will bring into judgment! Where does that leave me?

 

I am reminded of what the writer of Hebrews has to say, "Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account." Hebrews 4:13. Also Paul, in 1 Corinthians 4:5b, "He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men's hearts." Where does that leave me?

 

Fools talk of those who embrace Jesus Christ as needing a crutch for their lives, as though the faithful are weak persons, unable to cope with the trials and difficulties found in life. The reality is, Jesus Christ came to rescue us from the coming wrath of God for all sins. All sins ever committed by each and every individual who has ever lived will be taken into account and the sinner will be cast into a fiery lake of burning sulfur. "The cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death." Revelation 21:8.

 

Solomon has written twelve chapters demonstrating the folly of being distracted by what is found in this life under the sun. Our deepest yearnings will never be satisfied with the things found in this life. Women, fortune and fame cannot provide it. And the stunning conclusion to the matter of what satisfies in this life is that God is going to bring everything ever done by every individual into judgment! Where does Solomon leave us? We have a desperate need to be rescued from the coming wrath, and the things of this life under the sun best not distract us from pursuing that which brings rescue as well as purposeful meaning and fulfillment in this life as well as the next.

 

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share your thoughts of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We'd love to hear from you!

Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com

Worship for Today: God brings enlightenment.

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him in Ecclesiastes 10:2,

"The heart of the wise inclines to the right, but the heart of the fool to the left."

 

There really are two ways to go in life. The way of the fool and the way of the wise. Solomon's father, David, tells us in Psalm 14:1, "The fool says in his heart, 'There is no God.'" He goes on to say that they are corrupt and do no good. It is the passage that Paul quotes in Romans 3:10-12. John also speaks of fools. He says they stumble around in darkness and can't even see what it is they stumble over. They don't know where they are going because the darkness has blinded them. 1 John 2:9-11.

 

In another place John becomes even more pointed. In 1 John 3:7-10 we read, "Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. He who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work. No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God. This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother."

 

Here John points to the two ways a man's heart might be inclined, "The heart of the wise inclines to the right, but the heart of the fool to the left." The truth of the matter is that we all start off in life inclined to the left, the fool. We are all born in sin and stumble around in a spiritual darkness and so stumble over things we cannot see from the vantage point of the spiritual realm. Paul tells us in Ephesians 2:1-5, "As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved."

 

How wonderful is that?! As our hearts were inclined toward sin, as we stumbled around in a spiritual blindness and darkness, God sent his Son for us, to take our punishment on himself. Having done that, for those of us who have embraced him in faith, he sent his Spirit to live within us, to enlighten us, to incline our hearts "to the right."

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share your thoughts of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We'd love to hear from you!

Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com

Worship for Today: No flies in the ointment!

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him in Ecclesiastes 10:1,

 

"As dead flies give perfume a bad smell, so a little folly outweighs wisdom and honor."

 

A jar of perfume gives off an abundance of pleasing fragrance. But just one fly in the ointment can spoil it all. It brings to my mind the proverb, "Like a muddied spring or a polluted well is a righteous man who gives way to the wicked." Proverbs 25:26. The man in that proverb is a righteous man. But just one infraction, one sin, has the effect of spoiling it all. It seems as though one can live his life in an upright way, but one slip up, one sin and that pleasing fragrance becomes a stench. The disturbing thing about it is that, were we all to be honest about it, we would all have to admit to those things that might result in us not being highly thought of by others. Never mind all the good things done, it only takes a little sin to outweigh the good.

 

As I think of these things, it brings a fresh appreciation for what the Lord has done for those of us who have embrace him in faith. In addition to being forgiven our sins, the Lord has done something wonderful beyond that. In Ephesians 1:4, we read, "he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight." Yes, we are redeemed. Yes, we have been adopted as his sons and daughters. Yes we have been given eternal and abundant life. In addition to these wonderful things, although we have done those things that are displeasing and even detestable to him, as his children, he will hold us in his arms as holy and blameless. He will not allow any odor of our own folly to interrupt a full relationship of intimacy with him. He holds nothing against us and never will. Our sins will be forgotten. The extent of the propitiation of our sins wrought by Jesus Christ reaches to this level!

 

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share your thoughts of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We'd love to hear from you!

Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com

Worship for Today: God satisfies our deepest yearnings.

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him in Ecclesiastes 11:9,

"Be happy, young man, while you are young, and let your heart give you joy in the days of your youth. Follow the ways of your heart and whatever your eyes see, but know that for all these things God will bring you to judgment."

 

Be happy. Indulge yourself. "Follow the ways of your heart and whatever your eyes see." The reality is this is exactly what most of us do. We don't need to be told to indulge ourselves. Even the ascetics of old and the religious do-gooders of today do the same thing. They deny themselves and those around them in an effort to indulge themselves in a sense of accomplishment they have wrought at establishing their own righteousness. The ultimate problem with indulging the ways of our hearts is that our hearts are deceitful. "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?" Jeremiah 17:9. As far as what our eyes see, John warns us, "Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever." 1 John 2:15-17.

 

My feeling is we live our lives often in desperation in the absence of God's presence. We have a deep lingering need for something that can't quite be filled by the things of this world, what there is in "life under the sun." Even those of us who have enormous wealth, beautiful wives, accomplishments and accolades struggle in indulging ourselves. Just read the news. We have an emptiness that, like a vacuum in the creation, seeks to be filled with something.

 

"But know that for all these things God will bring you to judgment." Go ahead and indulge yourself, but know that you will have to give account of yourself before him to whom we must give account. God is our judge.

 

The need is real. The vacuum exists. Our hearts draw us into all sorts of things that will bring us before God's judgment. Sin will never satisfy and the indulgence of where our hearts take us will only bring us to that judgment. So, what to do with that vacuum? God reached out to us by sending his Son for us. When here Jesus said, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty." John 6:35. To the Samaritan woman at the well Jesus said, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." In the sermon on the mount Jesus said, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled." Matthew 5:6.

 

Here is the rightful fulfillment of our hears so many of us yearn for. We have a felt need that was created, that vacuum, when God's very presence was ripped from us in the garden of Eden. In our estrangement from him, all there is under the sun will never bring a satisfaction to us. We have to look beyond what lies under the sun. Only our Creator, he for whom we were created, can bring us fulfillment and satisfaction, in both this life and in the resurrection.

 

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share your thoughts of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We'd love to hear from you!

Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com

Worship for Today: Life beyond "life under the sun."

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him in Ecclesiastes 9:5,

"The living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing; they have no further reward, and even the memory of them is forgotten."

 

Solomon makes this comment as a summary to his observation that from the perspective of "life under the sun" those who are alive have hope, "even a live dog is better off than a dead lion!" The same can't be said for the dead. Solomon's perspective is clear and dreadfully accurate. From the perspective of this life, all there is - is in this life.

 

But God, in his wonderful love for us, has provided us a much broader perspective. Life under the sun is only a part of the totality of life. As we read the Scriptures, as an example, we find in the first book, Genesis, Jacob has a startling vision. The veil of what can be seen in life under the sun is pierced and Jacob sees angels ascending and descending between heaven and earth. In the New Testament, as the account of the birth of Jesus Christ is given, we are told of shepherds who witness an amazing sight. An angel of the Lord appears to them, someone from beyond life under the sun! He tells these shepherds of the news of great joy, a Savior has been born! We read on and find that, "Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, 'Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.'" In the last book of he Bible we read of the heavenly throne, Revelation 4. In the next chapter we read of millions of angels, living creatures and elders singing praises to God as they gather around the throne. All this is beyond life under the sun.

 

From the myopic perspective of this life under the sun, there is what we get and then the grave. From the broader perspective of all of reality, there is much, much more! We read of the experiences of those who have passed through the gate of death to move on to their eternal reward. Jesus gave us the story of Lazarus and the rich man in Luke 16:19-31. There he speaks of the concerns of the suffering rich man for his five brothers. We read the prophetic words of Abraham from paradise of the responses people will make to the resurrection of Jesus Christ, an astonishing and fascinating account.

 

Together with those of faith the writer of Hebrews speaks of, we yearn for what lies beyond life under the sun, "they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them." Hebrews 11:16.

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share your thoughts of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We'd love to hear from you!

Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com