Wednesday 9 October 2013

Read: Ecclesiastes 4:4-8, 1 John 2:15-17

How many people have destroyed their lives with the endless chasing after wealth and success? It seems to be a common story in our culture. A man, maybe even motivated to provide for his family, works harder and harder for wealth and career success. He puts in more and more hours. Again and again he chases that next promotion. In the process, rather than draw his family closer, he drives his family away. In the pursuit of money he loses something that money can never buy.

Solomon raises the issue of wealth, success and achievement in this part of Ecclesiastes. In verse 4 he makes this stunning statement: And I saw that all labour and all achievement spring from man's envy of his neighbour.

Solomon doesn't pull any punches. In his assessment of all that is taking place under the sun (vs 1) he sees that the motivation behind all human striving and toil is based on the envy of one's neighbour. His point is clear: all our hard work, all our pursuit of wealth and success is motivated by our desire for more and our envy of those who have it.

Solomon also makes it clear that this sort of greed and desire is insatiable. Notice in verse 8 he sees a man who seems to have it all. In fact, there was no end to this man's toil. Solomon tells us that he was wealthy. And yet, "his eyes were not content with his wealth." If we work and toil for the sake of wealth and success we will never be satisfied. Despite how many times we say "I'll just work hard for this next promotion" or "We'll work hard now until we are earning $X or until we can afford Y." The nature of material wealth is that there is never enough. As long as we keep working for it we will keep desiring more and more.

John condemns this kind of greed and desire in the Christian. In fact, according to John, whoever loves the world or the things of the world (wealth, success, power, fame, etc.) cannot have the love of the father in him. This greed and desire does not come from God. In fact it is sinful and from the world.

Finally this kind of pursuit is also ultimately futile. All of these things that we build up, pursue and desire so desperately will one day pass away. All the wealth you have build will disappear, all your success and fame with fade, any power you have accumulated will be passed on to another. Everything you have worked for will pass away.

What is the answer to this? Verse 17, "The world and it's desires pass away but the man who does the will of God lives forever." We are not to labour for the sake of things that will never satisfy. Things that will ultimately pass away. Instead we are to labour for the things of God that are ours through Christ. Only in Him is true wealth and lasting success found. Only through Christ can our life find ultimate meaning and purpose.

Take a moment to do a self check. Are you striving for worldly success, material wealth and fleeting pleasures that will never satisfy? Instead strive for God's will through Christ. Pray that God would transform your heart and that you might pursue and desire Him above all else.

Prayer: Write down your prayer points in the space provided. Use today’s reading to help you get ideas.

Adoration:

Confession:

Thanks:

Supplication:

• Pray for those in your church who are consumed with the pursuit of material wealth or worldly success. Pray that God would fill them with a passion for Him and the things that He loves. Pray that they would seek after Him and His kingdom above all else. Pray that they would love their families well and that in all their relationships they would point to Christ.
• Pray for all the churches in our Presbytery and across Queensland which don't have full time ministers. Pray that God would raise up people to teach and to pastor the churches. Pray that God would strengthen and equip the elders of these churches for this difficult task. Pray that God would raise up men across Queensland with a passion for country churches and that God would enable these churches to be able to support them.

My Additional Prayer Points

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Discussion Questions for families and groups

1. It is so easy to get caught up in the pursuit of material wealth or success. How can you check your heart regularly to ensure that you are not consumed with these things?
2. What would you say to another believer who was pursuing a career at the cost of their family?

Tuesday 8 October 2013

Read: Ecclesiastes 4:1-3, 2 Corinthians 1:3-7

Every blessing that we are given as Christians we are to steward well and give away for the sake of others. This might seem a little extreme to you but think about it for a moment. The salvation which we have through Christ is meant to be shared with others. When God has blessed us materially He expects us to use those blessings to serve Him and others. Our spiritual gifts are meant to be used for the edification and growth of others. Even something as personal as the comfort we receive from God is meant to be used for the sake of others.

Yesterday we saw how God is our comfort in the face of terrible evil and suffering. Solomon turns his eyes and mind to the terrible oppression and suffering he sees in the world. Horrified he concludes that it would be better for man to never have been born. However, unlike the oppressed that Solomon writes about who have no comforter, we have God himself who comforts and strengthens us in the face of suffering. Through God and His comfort we find strength to go on and a reason to live.

But even this comfort is not meant to be hoarded for ourselves. Paul makes this clear in 2 Corinthians. Notice verse 3-4:

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.

Paul makes it clear that the comfort that we receive from God is not meant to be something that is hoarded for our own benefit or advantage. Instead God gives us comfort in trouble so that we can comfort others when they are in trouble. God's blessings to us are meant to be given away.

How can you comfort others with the comfort that you have received from God through Christ?

We are all able to share the hope that we have through Christ with others. You have many opportunities every day to share the love of Christ with those who are suffering and grieving. How will you comfort them? This can include practical service, offering to pray for them (you might be surprised at how many people will appreciate it!) and to share Christ with them.

Also think about the specific troubles and suffering that you have had. Have you lost your job and had to deal with unemployment? How can you comfort those who have lost their jobs? Have you endured ridicule for your faith? How can you comfort those who are enduring ridicule for your faith? Have you suffered the loss of a family member? How can you comfort others who have lost a family member? The list could be endless.

Don't hoard this comfort that God gives to His people. Instead, share it with others!

Prayer: Write down your prayer points in the space provided. Use today’s reading to help you get ideas.

Adoration:

Confession:

Thanks:

Supplication:

• Praise God that He is your comfort and your strength in spite of all the terrible evil and suffering in the world. Pray that He would give you opportunities and the courage and passion to share Him and His comfort and strength with others. Pray that you would be able to share Him with those who are suffering and broken.
• Pray for all those in the church who are sick and suffering at the moment. Pray that they would find comfort in God. Pray that they would be filled with joy in Him, despite their circumstances. Pray that God would heal their bodies and restore them.

My Additional Prayer Points

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Discussion Questions for families and groups

1. Practically, what can you do to show the comfort that you have received from God to those around you?
2. If you are comfortable share some specific situations in which you would be particularly able to share God's comfort. Practically how would you comfort someone in these situations?

Monday 7 October 2013

Read: Ecclesiastes 4:1-3, Isaiah 51:12-16

Have you ever wished you had never been born? This is a huge statement. A statement like this is not normally made lightly. Instead this sort of claim is generally only made under severe suffering or distress. This claim is normally reserved for those who feel truly, entirely broken.

That is why it is so shocking that Solomon would make this statement regarding all people in verses 2-3. Not only does Solomon say that those who are dead are better off than the living, he takes it a step further and says that the one who was never born is better off than both of them. He makes the radical statement that every person would be better off if they had never been born. What could possibly lead Solomon to such a dire conclusion?

We find the answer in verse 1 and in the end of verse 3. Solomon has looked again at all the oppression, evil and suffering under the sun and he is horrified by what he sees. His conclusion is as horrible as the awful things he sees; man would be better off to never exist than to be exposed to this fallen world.

How do we reconcile Solomon's conclusion with the hope that we have in Christ? Should we also decide that it would be better to never have been born and spend the rest of our lives wallowing in self pity?

NO WAY! Why? Because we have a reason for hope which Solomon did not include in his statement. Solomon comes to this conclusion after seeing all that is taking place under the sun. In order to see our reason for hope and comfort we must look above the sun, to our comfort and hope. Unlike those with no comfort that Solomon is talking about we are promised that God Himself will be our comfort.

We see this in Isaiah 51. God reminds His people that they can have comfort in who He is. He reminds them that He is the all powerful creator and sovereign ruler of the universe. Why would they fear anyone else when the all powerful God of the universe promises to be their comfort and to hold them in His hand?

How much more can we, those who are saved by the blood of Jesus Christ, brought to perfect relationship with the Father and in dwelt by the Holy Spirit, have confidence in our all powerful, comforter God. Because of Him we can find tremendous hope and comfort in the face of terrible suffering. It is good to live as a child of God.

Prayer: Write down your prayer points in the space provided. Use today’s reading to help you get ideas.

Adoration:

Confession:

Thanks:

Supplication:

• Pray for the married men in your congregation. Pray that through the strength of the Holy Spirit that they would lead their families well. Pray that they would have the sensitivity to care for their wives and children in a way which honours Christ. Pray that they would be courageous in proclaiming Christ to all who would hear.
• Pray for the single men in your congregation. Pray that they would continue to grow in their love for God. Pray that they would honour Him in the way that they treat women and children. Pray that all they do would be done for the glory of God. Pray that they would be zealous in their self-sacrificial service of the church and God's kingdom.

My Additional Prayer Points

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Discussion Questions for families and groups

1. When you are grieving or in trouble what practical things can you do to remind yourself of the comfort found in God?
2. How would you describe this comfort to other believers?

Friday 4 October 2013

Read: 2 Corinthians 5:1-10

Did you know that following Christ provides the very best beauty and healthcare plan that has ever been offered? In fact, this plan is so good that it should change the way that we live every day.

I'm not talking about fellow believers with the spiritual gift of beauty care. I'm talking about the hope that we have in the resurrection. That we will all one day be resurrected in Christ and given new, perfect, heavenly bodies. We cannot spend a number of days discussing our inevitable deaths and the fact that we will be going home to be with Christ without also dealing with the topic of resurrection.

Our reading from 1 Corinthians 5 gives us a glorious picture of this resurrection and an encouraging look at death from a Christian's point of view.

Paul begins by talking about the eternal house we have in heaven when our current earthly tent is destroyed. This is our resurrection body, heavenly and perfect. No longer will we groan in these feeble, earthy bodies. Instead we have hope in our future bodies.

Jesus is our perfect example of what it means to have a resurrection body. He was raised from the dead first just as we will be. His body, although interestingly still bearing the scars of His life, was perfect, totally made new. This is the resurrection that we can look forward to.

This gives us incredible hope. Do you suffer now? Do you struggle with ill health and all sorts of groanings because of this earthly tent? If you are in Christ you too can look forward to the heavenly house you will be given at the resurrection. Praise God!

Prayer: Write down your prayer points in the space provided. Use today's reading to help you get ideas. 

Adoration:

Confession:

Thanks:

Supplication:

• Pray for the youth in your church. Pray that God would grow them in their love and passion for Him. Pray that they would be passionate in their service of Him and that they would see Him as their greatest pleasure and treasure. Pray that God would help you to encourage and help the youth of your church.
• Pray for the gatherings of believers all over the world this coming Sunday. Pray that God would begin working in hearts now that people might be changed by His word and glorify Him with their whole lives. Pray that God would fill those who share God's word with His spirit and help them to preach the word faithfully and boldly.

My Additional Prayer Points. 

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Thursday 3 October 2013

Read: Ecclesiastes 3:19-21, Hebrews 9:23-28

What happens when we die? Yesterday we looked together at the certainty of our death, the fact that all of us will one day face the end of our lives. What will happen when we get there? Solomon raises this question in passing in verse 21: "Who knows if the spirit of man rises upward and if the spirit of the animal goes down into the Earth?"

There have been numerous theories about what exactly happens when you die. The Catholics believe in purgatory, a place where you go once you die to suffer for your sins until you have been punished enough to go to heaven. Some Christian groups believe in soul sleep, the idea that once you die your soul sleeps or is unaware for a time until Christ's return at which point we are all judged.

The Bible does not teach these ideas however. Instead the Bible gives a clear picture that all people die and immediately face God's judgment. At that point those who are in Christ go to be with God and those who are not are cast out. We see this picture in Hebrews 10 where the author, writing about Christ's work on the cross, tells us that man is destined to die once and then to face judgment.

We see this picture also in 2 Corinthians 5:10 (which we will look at in detail tomorrow) where Paul tells us that to be away from the body is to be present with God. There is no delay in Paul's mind between death and being with God, no soul sleep, no purgatory to cleanse us of our sins. Instead we go immediately to face God in judgment.

What do we learn from all this? Firstly we learn that our only hope for salvation is in Christ alone. There is no second chance for us to atone for our own sin by being punished for a time in purgatory. This idea undoes all the work of Christ on the cross for us.

Secondly, as believers we have tremendous hope that when we die we will go to be with Christ immediately. This provides us not only joy in relation to our own deaths but also tremendous comfort knowing that those believing loved ones who died before us are know with Jesus.

Prayer: Write down your prayer points in the space provided. Use today's reading to help you get ideas. 

Adoration:

Confession:

Thanks:

Supplication:

• Pray for the elderly members of your church. Pray that they would grow in their love and passion for the Lord. Pray that they would be bold in proclaiming the gospel wherever they are. Pray that they would be faithful in showing the love of Christ to their families and friends. And finally pray that God would give them the strength and health they require to work for His kingdom.
• Pray for all the children who came along to Extreme Week at Christlife last week and heard about the love of Christ. Pray that God would be working in their hearts and the hearts of their families. Pray that they might come along to church to hear about all that He has done for them and that they would respond to Him with repentance and faith.

My Additional Prayer Points. 

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Wednesday 2 October 2013

Read: Ecclesiastes 3:18-21, Genesis 3:17-19

Death is coming for all of us. In Terry Pratchett's fantasy novels the character Death has an hourglass on his shelf for each and every living person. As the last grains of sand fall through the hourglass he appears at the last moment to do his job and to end the person's life. Each and every person has an hourglass. Some hourglasses run for a short amount of time, some run for a very long amount of time, but every hourglass runs out.

We too have an hourglass that is running out. One day all the sand of our lives will eventually run through and we will die. There is nothing we can do to stop it or to prolong it, death is coming for all of us.

This is Solomon's point here in Ecclesiastes. Every person will die. Solomon points out that this is not merely the doing of man but of God. God has made all of us, men and women, so that we will one day die. Just like the animals and the plants and all other living things we will one day die and return to dust.

Genesis 3 records the reason behind this sombre pronouncement. Read back over the first 3 chapters if you don't know the story. In brief, God created the world and everything in it. God created all things so that they were very good. He made man in His own image and set Him over creation to tend it and keep it. God's only stipulation was that man was not to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Mankind broke this one stipulation which God had made and as a result God pronounced punishments and cast man out of the perfect garden forever.

We read one of these punishments in verses 18-19: "By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return from the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return."

Because of sin we will all one day die and be judged by God. We cannot avoid death, it is coming for all of us, but we can prepare ourselves to face His judgment. How do we do this? Our only hope is in Jesus Christ, the one who lived a perfect life on our behalf and who suffered and died to take the penalty for our sin. Only in Him can we have hope in the light of our coming death.

Prayer: Write down your prayer points in the space provided. Use today's reading to help you get ideas. 

Adoration:

Confession:

Thanks:

Supplication:

• Praise God that He has provided an answer to the problem of death through Jesus Christ. Pray that He would strengthen and encourage your faith in Him and that he would give you a passion to share Him with all those in the world who are facing death without Him. Pray that He would give you many opportunities to share.
• Pray for the other churches in your presbytery. Pray that God would build up the ministers, elders and committee of management in each church. Pray that each and every congregation would be filled with a passion to share Him with others and that the gospel would be proclaimed loudly and clearly across Queensland, Australia and even the world.

My Additional Prayer Points. 

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Tuesday 1 October 2013

Read: Ecclesiastes 3:16-17, Psalm 73:15-28

Yesterday we spent some time lamenting the evil, suffering and injustice in the world. Thankfully Solomon does not wait long to give us the answer to this problem. What is the answer he proposes to the issue of injustice, suffering and sin in the world? Have a look at verse 17: "God will bring to judgment both the righteous and the wicked, for there will be a time for every activity, a time for every deed." Solomon's answer to the issue of evil and suffering is God's final, absolute judgment of both the righteous and the unrighteous. God will bring all things to account.

This is the same hope which changes Asaph's tone in Psalm 73. After spending the first half of the Psalm lamenting the injustice he saw in the world Asaph changes his tone in the second half and finds his hope in God. What changes Asaph's mind? Have a look in verses 16-17: "When I tried to understand all this, it was oppresive to me till I entered the sanctuary of God; then I understood their final destiny."

Asaph comes to the same conclusion as Solomon does. The answer to injustice, evil and suffering in the world is found in God's final judgment. Because he remembers this and finds hope in it Asaph is able to shift from lamenting injustice in the world to praising God as his strength and hope. See some of the incredible phrases he uses to praise God in the remainder of the psalm.

As New Testament believers we have one additional thing that can give us hope in spite of evil and suffering in the world. Not only do we have a God who will one day judge the wicked but we also have a God who chose to become a man, to endure suffering, wickedness and injustice and die for our sake. Even when we were far from Him He chose to suffer for us. We not only have a God who will bring all suffering to account, we have a God who has experienced suffering firsthand and offers us comfort and strength.

As Christians we still lament the horror of evil and suffering in our world but we do so with hope that is firmly rooted in our God Himself. Praise Him that He chose to suffer for us and that He will one day answer this problem of evil, suffering and injustice.

Prayer: Write down your prayer points in the space provided. Use today's reading to help you get ideas. 

Adoration:

Confession:

Thanks:

Supplication:

• Pray for the young adults in your church as they transition from school to university or work. Pray that God would strengthen and encourage them in all that they do. Pray that they would seek after Him with their whole hearts and that they would grow in the love and passion for Him.
• Pray for the Committee of Management at your church or whatever other group oversees the practical management of finances and ministry in your church. Pray that God would encourage and strengthen each one of them. Pray that God would give them wisdom and help them to make Godly decisions for the church. Pray that God would show you ways to support and encourage these people in their service.

My Additional Prayer Points. 

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