Set your hope wholly and unchangeably on Jesus Christ revealed.

Set your hope wholly and unchangeably on the grace (divine favor) that is coming to you when Jesus Christ (the Messiah) is revealed.

We hustle. We bustle. It is in our nature: Change, go, do, renew. The seasons move. We move. We seek always — variety.

Why?

Is the sky not blue enough? Is there too much sun on a July day? Are the full leaves of August simply calling cards for autumnal shades and the hazy gold of late afternoon September fairs and rolls of hay — just to be enjoyed long enough for the foggy mornings of October and then the red berries and green leaves to shine on November’s darkening days? Just to seek and find the berries and wreaths of Christmas and December, and then in January to blow our breath at the powdering snow — hard rock is the cold that becomes the blue ice of February and turns the blustery kite winds of March into free-zone skies — white clouds sailing above with bright ribbons flying behind, right straight into April when Easter changes the face of the world and spring sets in again with lilies and daffodils — Is the readying of the world so boring with its May bonnets that float lazily in reflections off straw hats and fishing piers in the mirrored waters of June? Is the sky not blue enough?

We circle the sun in our searching for perfection, our love of each jot and title of life’s expressions. Looking for the face of God, we stumble in love with the wrinkles of time. What is behind our yearning? Our change of palates and furniture, of hairstyles, of music, and sometimes even of friends and churches?

The bible says: Ecc 3 There’s an opportune time to do things, a right time for everything on the earth:‘2-8 A right time for birth and another for death,A right time to plant and another to reap,A right time to kill and another to heal,A right time to destroy and another to construct,A right time to cry and another to laugh,A right time to lament and another to cheer,A right time to make love and another to abstain,A right time to embrace and another to part,A right time to search and another to count your losses,A right time to hold on and another to let go,A right time to rip out and another to mend,A right time to shut up and another to speak up,A right time to love and another to hate,A right time to wage war and another to make peace.’

After those well loved verses and for a long, long, long time the Quester broods over the smoke and dust, the worthlessness of life, the endless change that leads to nothing until finally this thought hits him:

18-20 After looking at the way things are on this earth, here’s what I’ve decided is the best way to live: Take care of yourself, have a good time, and make the most of whatever job you have for as long as God gives you life. And that’s about it. That’s the human lot. Yes, we should make the most of what God gives, both the bounty and the capacity to enjoy it, accepting what’s given and delighting in the work. It’s God’s gift! God deals out joy in the present, the now. It’s useless to brood over how long we might live.

Then again comes his melancholia: Ecc 6 1-2 I looked long and hard at what goes on around here, and let me tell you, things are bad. And people feel it. There are people, for instance, on whom God showers everything—money, property, reputation—all they ever wanted or dreamed of. And then God doesn’t let them enjoy it. Some stranger comes along and has all the fun. It’s more of what I’m calling smoke. A bad business.

3-5 Say a couple have scores of children and live a long, long life but never enjoy themselves—even though they end up with a big funeral! I’d say that a stillborn baby gets the better deal. It gets its start in a mist and ends up in the dark—unnamed. It sees nothing and knows nothing, but is better off by far than anyone living.

6 Even if someone lived a thousand years—make it two thousand!—but didn’t enjoy anything, what’s the point? Doesn’t everyone end up in the same place?’

Fortunately he hits on insight but he does not quite see his own focus or pinpoint what he is seeing when he says,

7′ We work to feed our appetites;Meanwhile our souls go hungry.’

Over and over his sad tale comes back to this: ‘All it amounts to anyway is smoke. And spitting into the wind.’ He meanders, changes with the mood and the wind until he comes across a few more thoughts worth keeping:’13 Take a good look at God’s work.Who could simplify and reduce Creation’s curves and anglesTo a plain straight line?14 On a good day, enjoy yourself;On a bad day, examine your conscience.God arranges for both kinds of daysSo that we won’t take anything for granted.’Then from in-between comes the motivation for his wanderings, his hithers and thithers, his going up and under– the ins and outs — looking for meaning inside the meaning, looking for changelessness — looking for God. his anguished search, his pain explodes here:’23-25 I tested everything in my search for wisdom. I set out to be wise, but it was beyond me, far beyond me, and deep—oh so deep! Does anyone ever find it? I concentrated with all my might, studying and exploring and seeking wisdom—the meaning of life. I also wanted to identify evil and stupidity, foolishness and craziness … what I, the Quester, have pieced together as I’ve tried to make sense of life. But the wisdom I’ve looked for I haven’t found. I didn’t find one man or woman in a thousand worth my while. Yet I did spot one ray of light in this murk: God made men and women true and upright; we’re the ones who’ve made a mess of things.’After many wise sayings and some silly surface thoughts, our seeker ends his wonderings, his wanderings of the heart, in this way: ‘9-10 Besides being wise himself, the Quester also taught others knowledge. He weighed, examined, and arranged many proverbs. The Quester did his best to find the right words and write the plain truth.11 The words of the wise prod us to live well.They’re like nails hammered home, holding life together.They are given by God, the one Shepherd.12-13 But regarding anything beyond this, dear friend, go easy. There’s no end to the publishing of books, and constant study wears you out so you’re no good for anything else. The last and final word is this:Fear God.Do what he tells you.14 And that’s it. Eventually God will bring everything that we do out into the open and judge it according to its hidden intent, whether it’s good or evil.’Before Adam and Eve by their desires and pride brought time into our world, everything was the moment –and the moment was not– and was all — regardless of anything called time or change. God’s children, His creations, were with the Trinity. After Eden, dropped into time — into birth and death, we seek our home that is heavenward — a beauty and completion that is now changeable to us –set away from, beyond anything that we can imagine.So we seek greener pastures, we seek better lives, we seek brighter days, we seek inside all the aspects of everything, looking for the whole and never able to conceive it. Until we leave this splintering of perfection and see it for shattered desires, pieces of the whole pulled into different and often time slanted directions, we discover, live through, dodge, try to understand and even hunt — change.To go inside change is to leave linear time –cataclysmic. It requires the faith of a caterpillar becoming the butterfly, not seeing itself as the glorification happens, but being inside it — becoming.The bible says:“Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.”[1 Corinthians 15:51-42]“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” [Romans 12:2]“Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is” [1 John 3:2]Eventually our change natures, our butterfly selves, longing to see home again and the face of our God will find this:“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.” [Revelation 21:1]“And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.” [2 Corinthians 3:18]Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows James 1:171 Peter 1:3 Praised (honored, blessed) be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah)! By His boundless mercy we have been born again to an ever-living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. 4 [Born anew] into an inheritance which is beyond the reach of change and decay[imperishable], unsullied and unfading, reserved in heaven for you13 So brace up your minds; be sober (circumspect, morally alert); set your hope wholly and unchangeably on the grace (divine favor) that is coming to you when Jesus Christ (the Messiah) is revealed.

Cherish the moment. Cherish the prayer: It is the closest soul-breath we have this side of forever — this side of home again our blessed Lord, the glorious I Am That I Am.

deeda-zoomlens

Wednesday, August 12, 2015

deeda-zoomlens: Set your hope wholly and unchangeably on Jesus C...

deeda-zoomlens: Set your hope wholly and unchangeably on Jesus Chr...

Set your hope wholly and unchangeably on Jesus Christ revealed.

Set your hope wholly and unchangeably on Jesus Christ revealed.

Followers