Missions Paul

Ecclesiastes 3

“There is nothing better for a man than to enjoy his work” v22
Do you enjoy your work?
Enjoy is a strange word.
I don’t think Bishop Peters of All Saints Church of Peshawar, Pakistan, is enjoying his work right now.
I don’t think Pastors around the world dealing with the evil that man does to man on a daily basis say they enjoy their work.
I don’t think Christians who face being bullied and ostracised at work because of their faith are enjoying their jobs.
Can we enjoy such work?
Perhaps enjoyment is found in realising two truths:
a) There is a time for everything.
b) There is a God in the centre of it all.
There is a time for everything: There were three sisters—ages 92, 94, and 96—who lived together. One night, the 96-year-old drew a bath. She put one foot in, then paused. “Was I getting in the tub or out?” she yelled. The 94-year-old hollered back, “I don’t know, I’ll come and see.” She started up the stairs, but stopped on the first one. She shouted, “Was I going up or coming down?”The 92-year-old was sitting in the kitchen having tea, listening to her sisters with a smirk on her face. She shook her head and said, “I sure hope I never get that forgetful,” and knocked on the wooden table for good measure. Then she yelled, “I’ll come up and help both of you as soon as I see who’s at the door.” Every experience has had a start and it will have an end. This season will come to an end.
There is a God in the centre of it all: He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men, v11. The timeless God is present here right now in your work, working in time all things together for good.
We live, we work, we die, we enjoy only because God is here.
Yes. It is possible to enjoy.

Ecclesiastes 2

The old man Solomon testifies that he had denied himself nothing, achieved everything a man could achieve, had every pleasure possible, he got to the very top and when he did there was nothing there. All that was ahead was the same thing that a man who had wasted his life had waiting for him: death.
“So I hated life” v17
Thank God for this old man. I have always learnt more from the struggler than those who have lived in perpetual victory.
Solomon, I don’t want to hate life. I want to enjoy it. I don’t want my life to be meaningless.
The Count of Monte Cristo tells the story of Dantes who is unjustly accused and sentenced to life in France’s most dreaded prison. After 13 years he escapes, but has been unwilling to talk with Mercedes, the woman to whom he was engaged before he went to prison. Thinking that she betrayed him, he does not realize that she never stopped loving him over the years. At the end of the movie, Mercedes finds him and seeks to reconcile with him. “Let it go, Edmond,” she pleads. “Let it go. I don’t know what dark plan lies within you. Nor do I know by what design we were asked to live without each other these 16 years. But God has offered us a new beginning—don’t slap his hand away.” “God! Can I never escape him?” “No,” Mercedes says. “He is in everything.”
Solomon found that “without him, who can eat or find enjoyment?” v25
In order not to hate life, God must be in everything.
Martin Luther was approached by a working man who wanted to know how he could serve God. Luther asked him, “What is your work now?” The man said, “I’m a shoemaker.” Much to the cobblers surprise, Luther replied, “Then make good shoes and sell them at a fair price.”
God in my work. God in my rest. God in my leisure. God in my everything. For without Him there can be no enjoyment.

Ecclesiastes 1

This book was written at the latter part of Solomon’s life. The Bible shows us a spiritually fallen Solomon. He moved away from the worship of God to that of the idols of his many foreign wives.
These are not the words of an angry young man. These are not the words of an atheist or a hedonist seeking pleasure as the ultimate goal in life. These are the words of a much older man who has risen to the top and fallen to the bottom. He has known great successes and equal failure and disappointments. He is sobered by his own actions of which he never thought was possible. He writes this book to show that he is now back. After a period of searching for understanding of this life he has found it. However, he begins with, “Meaningless!”
I was king.
I was devoted to learning.
I have seen it all.
I have grown and increased in wisdom more than anyone.
I have experienced much.
I have given myself to wisdom and foolishness.
It is a chasing after the wind. It is pointless. It has no meaning.
Why am I here?
Greta Christina, a writer and atheist wrote an article in the ‘Skeptical Inquirer’ entitled, “Comforting Thoughts about Death That Have Nothing To Do With God”.
“The fact that your life span is an infinitesimally tiny fragment in the life of the universe, that there is, at the very least, a strong possibility that when you die, you disappear completely and forever, and that in 500 years nobody will remember you can be a profound and defining truth about your existence that you reflexively repulse. It can make everything you do, and anything anyone else does, seem meaningless. It can make you feel erased, wipe out joy, make your life seem like ashes in your hands”.
A 21st century atheist and a 1st BC believer struggling with hope.
We know who finds it. The next 11 days the old man will lead us to find it for ourselves.

Proverbs 31

The good woman: A manager, industrious, skilful, shrewd, enterprising, kind, giving, a counsellor, a mother, pleases her husband and has a strong faith in God.
As a man, I like this list. I approve of it!
I wonder how many married, single, mothers, childless women have made the Proverbs 31 woman their aim in life.
I wonder how many have become disappointed.
I wonder how many men are not married because they are waiting to find this Proverbs 31 woman.
I wonder how many married men are disappointed.
Finally, I wonder how many women are lined up in heaven waiting to give this mother of King Lemuel a slap!
However, the mother did tell her son that this kind of woman is hard to find.
We might want to add … nigh impossible!
How do you find perfection? Who is perfect?
Even this perfect woman’s list isn’t perfect. There is little advice on the relationship between the wife and her husband.
So maybe it will never be possible to be the perfect.
I feel quite happy to leave being perfect to someone else because I know I will never achieve it. Is it not better to let the perfect One be perfect and for us to live in the shadow of that perfection?
Let’s not tear out the list.
Let’s just aim to be the shadow.
The shadow is not that of the image of a woman.
The shadow is that of the cross: an image more beautiful than the Proverbs 31 woman.

Proverbs 30
Every word of God is flawless …v5

Did you know …? The Bible has been read by more people, and published in more languages than any other book. There have been more copies produced than any other book in history.
Did you know …? The Bible compared with other ancient writings has more manuscript evidence than any 10 pieces of classical literature combined. Jack W Montgomery wrote, “to be sceptical of the NT books is to allow all of the classical ancient writings to slip into obscurity, for no documents of the ancient period are as well attested bibliographically as the NT.”
Did you know …? No other book has been so chopped, knived, sifted, scrutinized, and slandered than the Bible.
Did you know …? If this book had not been the book of God, men would have destroyed it long ago. Emperors and popes, kings and priests, princes and rulers have all tried their hand at it; they have died and the Bible still lives.
Did you know …? The exact criteria the early church used to choose the books is not fully known, but there are believed to have been five guiding principles used to determine whether or not a New Testament book would form the Canon:
Did it come from the hand of God?
Was it written by God or man?
Is there any doubt?
Does it come with the life-transforming power of God?
Is it received, collected, read and used?

The Authentic, Prophetic, Authentic, Dynamic, Accepted and Flawless Word of God.

I have chosen to sit in the camp of those who believe this. Have you?

Proverbs 29

Do you own a pair of Reebok trainers? If not then you have sure seen someone wear them. Did you know why these trainers are made? The answer is according to Reebok: “to help consumers, athletes and artists, partners and employees fulfil their true potential and reach heights they may have thought un-reachable.” Are you reaching those unreachable heights?!! Are others?!!

Verse 18 : “Without vision, the people perish”
“Where there is no revelation the people cast off restraint.”

People need vision. For everything that has ever been achieved it was because firstly someone saw what could not be seen. They received vision. Take revelation away, destroy hope or damage someone’s dream is to take away the reason for their living.
God has an amazing vision for His church and for you.
Vision is not a bunch of ideas and programmes. It is not an events calendar for the next 12 months. Vision is seeing the importance of what we can become and contains the wisdom to know how to get there and the knowledge to be able to ascertain whether we are there yet.
What’s your dream?
We are pursuers of God’s dream for our lives.
At times we find that our dream is hurled into a pit like Joseph was when his brothers tried to get rid of him.
Sometimes our dream is taken into the darkest recesses of a cave because we are frightened of our circumstance as David was when Saul was chasing him.
At times our dream seems to be taking just too long and we become frustrated in waiting as Abraham was when waiting for his Isaac.
Don’t let go. Don’t give up. Don’t back off.
That dream maybe in a pit but it will end in the palace.
It may be hiding away in a cave but you will rise to Kingship.
It may be a seed right now but it will be a son.
You can reach the unreachable through holding on to the vision God has shown you. It can happen.

Proverbs 28

Blessed is the one who always trembles before God, but whoever hardens their heart falls into trouble, v14.

Someone was describing a church recently to me. It was their home church and they remember how the people their used to shake in the presence of God. But today there is little shaking but there are still church services.

Why does that happen? What is the process for that and how long does it take?

I know of so many today who are spending the second half of their life hardened to God rather than trembling as they did in the first half.
They are in trouble.

Why does that happen?

They will have their reasons. Others will be to blame.

“The fear of God is what is left of the storm when you have a safe place to watch right in the middle of it. Hope turns fear into a trembling and peaceful wonder; and fear takes everything trivial out of hope and makes it earnest and profound. The terrors of God make the pleasures of his people intense.” (John Piper, The Pleasures of God)

Get to that place and do all that you can to keep your heart soft and open, for this is where blessing is.

Proverbs 27

The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold, but people are tested by their praise, v21.

For silver and gold to be silver and gold they have to go through the testing.
However the kind of testing that makes a person a Godly person is not the testing but the successes.
How does a person handle praise?
Do they deflect it to God out of false humility?
Do they crave for more?
Do they try and please to get praise?
Is it a drug?
Does it create their fantasist identity?
Do preachers think they’re giving a presidential speech?
Do worship leaders think they’re pop idols?
If there’s no praise do workers think they are undervalued and so do not work?
Never!
But within praise there lies such temptation.
Praise is a crucible, it is a furnace.

Proverbs 26

Like one who grabs a stray dog by the ears is someone who rushes into a quarrel not their own, v17.

To grab a stray dog by the ears is not a good thing to do. There will be a reaction. You will need to find a different way to bring the dog under control. For the bite may be worse than the bark.

Likewise to rush into quarrels that are not yours to fight is wrong. There will always be a reaction.

Today, stay calm, keep your nose out of other people’s business.

Proverbs 25
It is the glory of God to conceal a matter; to search out a matter is the glory of kings, v2

God hides things. We discover things. Get that wrong and Christianity has a bad name.
We want to be discovered, seen, noticed, appreciated, applauded and cheered. There is much of this going on in Church; many dreams of being discovered but a small uptake of those willing to discover.
This is why there is little glory.
Are we more motivated when people see what we are doing?
Are we willing to serve when no one seems bothered with whether we do or not?
What are we finding out about God today?
God hides us. We discover Him. It’s that simple.