First of all, I want to wish all my fellow Canadians a very...Happy
CANADA DAY!!
Best wishes for a great long weekend!
Today we come to the end of Solomon's book, Ecclesiastes, which is, by all outward appearances, a treatise on the utter futility of life. It isn't a very hopeful-sounding read!! However, there are still some great words of wisdom along the way, but it really isn't until the very last few verses that we really realize what the whole point of this 12-chapter sermon is. The point is not how meaningless life is, but how meaningless life WITHOUT GOD is.
My Bible notes the following: The book of Ecclesiastes cannot be interpreted correctly without reading the final verses. No matter what the mysteries and apparent contradictions of life are, we must work toward the single purpose of knowing God.
In his conclusion, Solomon presents his antidotes for the two main ailments presented in this book. Those who lack purpose and direction in life should fear God and keep his commandments. Those who think life is unfair should remember that God will review every person's life to determine how he or she has responded to him, and he will bring every deed into judgment.
Hearing wise words or important truths may not always be pleasant ~ and applying them is very rarely EASY! ~ but they will keep us moving in the right direction if we accept them with a humble heart.
In Acts, we have the conclusion to the beautiful story of how it was made very apparent to the apostles that the Gospel was meant for EVERYONE, not just the Jews. I am always so grateful for the believing Gentiles we've come across to this point and for the obedience of Paul, and later Peter and the others, in spreading the testimony of Jesus Christ to all nations. It blows me away that were it not for their willingness to go places they wouldn't otherwise have gone ~ to speak to those they wouldn't otherwise have cared to speak to ~ I might not know God.
I love, too, how the new believers want immediately to be physically identified with the Body of Christ and to be baptized. I've often wondered why it takes special classes nowadays, or why pastors caution people to wait a while after becoming Christians before they take that step. We never see that happening in the New Testament. Most, if not all, of the converts we read about getting baptized are baptized virtually immediately upon their conversion. Do we just not believe new Christians now are serious enough about their faith yet? Are they under some kind of "trial" period after which WE will know they have truly made Christ Lord of their lives? I don't know, somehow this has never really sat well with me. Any thoughts?
Anyway, after these new Gentile believers are baptized, they request that Peter stay with them a while and this is a beautiful reflection of their hunger for knowledge of God. They wanted to learn everything they could ~ everything there was to know ~ about their Lord and Savior. Oh, I hope we never stop craving that either!! I find that people like me, who've sat through hundreds of Sunday school classes and sermons over the years seem to have this tendency towards believing they know all the stories and therefore know all that needs to be known.
Tomorrow's passages: 1 Kings 12-13; Acts 11.
4 comments:
I've had thoughts about baptism too. We have had some young people baptized at our church over the years (in fact Kiandra's best friend just last weekend) and there is always some older person who will comment about their age in what seems to be a negative way. I think that as long as it is that person's desire, not their parents or friends pushing them, to get baptized that we should celebrate their decision not criticize it.
Ecclesiastes 10:20 stood out for me:
Even in your thoughts, do not curse the king,
nor in your bedroom curse the rich,
for a bird of the air will carry your voice,
or some winged creature tell the matter.
I think it warns about the dangers of gossip and how it spreads beyond your control. This is something I have struggled with over this year as I navigate dealing with parents. I'm new at this craft and "talking it out" helps me gain insight, experience, and relief but when does it cross over from asking advice to gossip and how far will it spread after I share it?? Is is better to just hang on to it by myself??
oops! That was me. I didn't realize Kiandra had been signed in. :)
I think new coverts absolutely should be baptized right away - especially adults.
My only hesitation about baptizing children, especially of Christian parents, is how do they/we know that they've truly made their faith their own, and that it's not just that they believe because WE believe and it's not actually personalized yet. At some point, every teen (or adult) begins to question their faith (in those scenarios), and after they have finished searching for answers, THEN they know that they truly believe because THEY believe. Should we baptize them before that's happened?
Yeah, I wonder about that, too, especially when I hear about really young kids requesting baptism. And yet it really isn't up to us to decide that their conversion is genuine or not. Again, that goes back to the idea of a "trial period" where any new believer is judged by US to be genuine by OUR standards. I guess in that sense, baptism is simply a bit of a leap of faith for the baptizers!
But maybe if we functioned a little more like the Early Church did ~ actually getting very personally involved with each other, older mentoring younger, lovingly confronting each other, and humbly accepting gentle correction ourselves ~ this wouldn't have to be such a concern. Every new believer, regardless of age, would be surrounded by other believers helping them live out their faith, refusing to let new believers fall away, as if they were personally responsible if it happened. (which, in a sense, we are.)
I don't know. But wouldn't that be awesome?!
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