Ecclesiastes Solomon Windows Beauty

Windows of Hidden Beauty

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In this chapter Solomon sets as a consideration before his listeners, a window through which to observe the events.

These do not so much reflect Solomon’s thoughts as he was living his life, but rather when he was reflecting back on those events towards the end of his life.

Solomon’s thesis is that God operates in such a way as to bring everything to its appropriate closure so that cause and effect, sowing and reaping, choices and consequences, mercy and judgement all culminate in depiction of perfect balance within the sphere of Divine order and that IN THAT WAY “He makes all things Beautiful in its time”.

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Faith early church

Faith of our Fathers Pt. 6

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This week we are examining the second point of absolute devotion the early believers had which helps us capture a clear image of the lofty heights from which the 7 churches in Asia Jesus addresses in Revelation 2 & 3 fell.

This second point of devotion was to “THE FELLOWSHIP”.

Now in English this sounds like an odd wording but it is consistent with the Greek and greatly impacts the meaning.

The Greek word koinonia implies partnership, sharing in common, and active participation. It was not merely socializing, but sharing one’s life, resources, and spiritual union in Christ.

It pointed to a specific, defined community and a concrete reality rather than an abstract concept of general friendship. It refers to a REAL partnership, sharing in common, and active participation with Christ and all who belong to Christ. It is not merely socializing, but sharing one’s life, resources, and spiritual union in Christ.

Today we began exploring examples of this in the letters of the New Testament.

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Solomon Ecclesiastes 2

Wise insights… Narcissistic conclusions

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Chapter 2 of Ecclesiastes begins to uncover Solomon’s state of mind and being.

His own account in the chapter is that his wisdom remained with him even throughout his lascivious pursuits. Borrowing this assumption as true, we learn much. Solomon made clear and keen insights into life, but his conclusions were largely run through his lens of selfish ambition and desires which led to his being literally repulsed by what he perceived as injustice since he alone would not be the sole benefactor of his work and life endeavors.

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Faith early church

Faith of our Fathers Pt. 5

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Sound Doctrine, Sound Doctrine, Sound Doctrine… the need to be devoted to Sound Doctrine, its study, its eager examination and investigation was a primary focus of the early church. In fact it was FIRST in the list of 4 things the early church focused upon without ever even being told to – they were compelled from within by the Holy Spirit of God. The other things were THE fellowship (koinonia) of the brethren, the breaking of bread (including communion) from house to house and THE prayers.

We’ve been examining the Ephesian church in view of Jesus’ warning that He would remove their church if they did not repent (change their minds) and do the FIRST WORKS, by which Jesus was speaking of placing their love for Him as #1 in their lives in chronology and priority. These believers had their Sound Doctrine down, but their love life had been neglected. In our study of the Ephesian church AND the initial church found in Acts 2, we have uncovered the need for every believer to continue with the ardent strength of their first love for Christ and to allow THAT, along with their reverence for Him to generate a passion and urgency to study His words to be sound in doctrine.

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Solomon Ecclesiastes vain fleeting

Solomon’s initial thoughts… Vain of just Fleeting?

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As we open the book of Ecclesiastes, we once again tack down Solomon as the author whether he was the one who compiled it into a “book” or whether it this was done at a later date.

We then spent some time with the word ‘Vanity’ which has a fundamentally different meaning in the Hebrew, but which is most often translated as ‘vanity’. We explored the other relevant nuances of the word which will help us as we continue through the book since in only 12 chapters it is mentioned 38x’s.

Finally we talked about Solomon’s outlook on life as being both fleeting and in the end meaningless. But this was largely both due to the way in which he largely wasted his life on godless pursuits and the fact that this was written in his older age looking back over those choices with regret.

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