Ecclesiastes 9:7-10

"7 Go, eat your food with gladness, and drink your wine with a joyful heart, for it is now that God favors what you do. 8 Always be clothed in white, and always anoint your head with oil. 9 Enjoy life with your wife, whom you love, all the days of this meaningless life that God has given you under the sun— all your meaningless days. For this is your lot in life and in your toilsome labor under the sun. 10 Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the grave, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom."

To me, this passage has many messages, but one also very simple one: live life. Enjoy the simple things. Enjoy the complex things. Enjoy the blessings that are physically present. Have a glass of wine, and drink it joyfully (don't mind if I do), chew your food with a smile on your face (and your mouth hopefully closed). No we don't have to be clothed literally in white, or put oil on our heads, particularly car oil, you might be viewed a bit oddly if you do that.

I think what it is saying there though, is that we should do our daily tasks, we should enjoy life, but we should do so with a pure heart and a pure lifestyle, hence the always being clothed in white. Always remaining spiritually clean, and keeping an upward reminder on our heads and minds.

We are also told to enjoy life with our wives, or for you wives, your husbands. For someone like me with no wife or girl friend or significant other to speak of, I think it means to enjoy our lives with our family and friends.

Put simply, this is life, there is not more to this life. We are living this life to prepare ourselves for our eternal life hopefully with God. Thankfully that is so, I cannot imagine my depression if I knew that this life was all there was and nothing more. In this life though, we are born, we grow, we work, we meet people, we grow old, and we die. That is life. How many people can you name from 100 years ago? How many people can you name from 500 years ago? How about 1,000? How about 3,000? Even our most significant actions in this world are but a speck on the world at large.

If this is all life is then, we are told to take joy in it. The daily mundane tasks we do, and the people we see every day that we maybe take for granted for just being there on a consistent basis. Take joy and gladness in this. And my favorite verse from this, "whatever your hands find to do, do it with all your might." We only have a little while on this earth, when we are dead it is too late to do anything here, so whatever it is that is your calling, the millions of things that could possibly be, do it with all your might. Don't be afraid to try, to "fail."

Find what you enjoy, find what you are good at, and do it with all your might. Put a smile on your face, and praise God for each day, because one day, there will be no more days left for you.

2 Corinthians 4:6-10

We are young,
No one can tell us we're wrong
Searching our hearts for so lo-o-o-o-ng
Both of us knowing
Love is battlefield

The timeless song from Pat Benatar, love truly is a battlefield. Life truly is a battlefield. Sometimes us younger generation can be looked down upon because we are young. Paul says, "let no one look down upon you because you are young." The young and the old both know though, that love and life is a battlefield. It doesn't take much to see that.

"6For God who said, "let light shine out of darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. 7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. 8 We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. 10 We always carry aroudn in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body."

In this fight, we are hard pressed. At times it really seems like we are losing. Though it seems like we are knocked out, we aren't. God is on our side, and if He is for us, who can be against us? We may seem weak, tired, and heavy laden, but we have not lost the fight. Nay, we have already won, for we are more than conquerers! We are soldiers in a spiritual and physical war. Alone or together we would be lost, rejected, overcome. But we have a powerful God who fights on our side, and we equips us with weapons of the Spirit.

He gives us His light, the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. He gives us the breastplate of righteousness, and the sword of truth. For those of you familiar with the Lord of the Rings, especially the book, all are in fear of the Nazgul, the Nine Riders. One of the hobbits however makes the comment, that although they have the Nine, we have the One, the White Rider, who is better than any Nine. So Christ is our White Rider. He leads us forth into battle, the battle against darkness of all kinds.

It doesn't have to be epic darkness either, though that is certainly the kind I enjoy reading and thinking about. It can also be daily darkness, the darkness of a continuing doubt. The darkness of an illness in the family. The darkness of a continuing sin. The darkness of confusion and worry. Christ's light penetrates all these darknesses though. "for the light shines through the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it." (John 1:4)

In the end though, epic or not, it is a struggle, a daily struggle, and an eternal struggle until Christ comes again. We already know who wins though, so we may fight with a smile on our faces and love in our hearts towards our fellow man, woman and child, knowing that Christ's is a love that conquers all battle fields. I leave you with these lyrics:

A Mighty Fortress is Our God

A mighty fortress is our God,
A sword and shield victorious;
He breaks teh cruel oppressor's rod
And wins salvaton glorious.
The old satanic foe
Has sworn to work us woe.
With craft and dreadful might
He arms himself to fight.
On earth he has no equal.

No strenght of ours can match his might.
We would be lost rejected.
But now a champion comes to fight,
Whom God himself elected.
You ask who this may be?
The Lord of hosts is he,
Christ Jesus, mighty Lord,
God's only Son, adored.
He holds the field victorious.

Though hordes of devils fill the land
All threat'ning to devour us,
We tremble not, unmoved we stand;
They cannot overpow'r us.
Let this worlds tryant rage;
In battle we'll engage.
His might is doomed to fail;
God's judgment must prevail!
One little word subdues him.

God's Word forever shall abide,
No thanks to foes who fear it;
For God himself fights by our side
With weapons of the Spirit.
Were they to take our house,
Goods, honor, child, or spouse,
Though life be wrenched away,
They cannot win the day.
The Kingdom's ours forever!

Amen.

John 16:33

"I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In this world, you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."

It has been a long time since I have written on this. I will admit, I don't have anything particularly epic or profound to say. I also don't feel any specific urging to write a specific piece like I would normally feel to write a blog post or whatnot. Instead, I just feel like it would be good for me to write something, and maybe something that I need to hear myself. In essence, I am the intended audience of this piece. Maybe you can get something out of it too.

Christ died for our sins. That much I believe. Those who believe that are promised eternal life. This too do I believe. Where does that leave us in this life though. What about right now? For right now, Christ promises us trouble. It is not that we might have trouble, we WILL have trouble.

Most of the time when I think about this I think of external trouble, someone dying, being faced with a tough decision, being hurt by someone, etc. Over the past little while in my life though, I am beginning to look at it as not just external trouble, but also internal trouble. Not just for the trouble that others cause us, and circumstances cause us, but the trouble that we cause ourselves.

We are all sinful and unclean and all fall short of the glory of God, so we are told many times in the Bible. I think what Jesus is also telling us here, is not only will we face persecution and struggle from the outside, but we will also face it on account of our own sin. Think of 3 mistakes you've made, not just in your life, but in the past month, the past week, even the past day. How did these mistakes negatively affect your life? Did they get you into a difficult situation? Did they cause you heartache and pain? Did they harm you in any way?

I feel like in this passage, Christ is offering us peace. We will not always have this peace, because sometimes we reject it. But when we allow Christ to put himself into our lives, and when we take the focus off of ourselves and place it on Christ, he can fill us with His peace in any situation we create for ourselves. Any situation. Any situation. I feel like I need to just keep saying that to myself over and over....

Not only do we have peace though, we can take heart, that Christ has overcome the world! We are baptized into death with him, and so also experience new life with him and we too overcome the world! We conquer the world. In fact, we more than conquer the world! "In all things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us." (Rom 8:37) (video coming soon, check back)

Grace, and PEACE to each of you through Christ our Lord, regardless of what you face, of what you do, of how bad it is, Christ loves you, and His is a love that really does triumph over all.