King ruler fool

Of Fools & Rulers

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This chapter focuses upon foolish people, rulers and then rulers who are also foolish people.

The progression of the thoughts go from how very little foolishness it takes to completely undo veritable tons of wise actions.

It then goes on the rulers and our proper response to the authority God has invested in them as a stewardship.

Then, Solomon marries the two together and still concludes that it is wisdom for those under unjust and foolish rulers to never curse them – even in your thoughts.

The reasoning is that they may discover your view of them, but the greater New Covenant truth is that we bless and NEVER curse. We pray the goodness of God upon those who afflict us, because the goodness of God leads to repentance. Furthermore, we dare not harbor unchaste thoughts in our minds, but God dwells there.

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Bread Fellowship

Breaking the Bread of Fellowship Part 3

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In this message we wrapped up the 3rd of the 4 primary expressions of devotion throughout the initial church which was the daily Breaking of Bread from house to house.

As we have already covered in previous messages, this included both the Communion meal or Last Supper, and the Agape Feasts mentioned in scripture.

The early church understood in deep and penetrating ways the meaning behind their participation in the body and blood of the Lord in Communion. The modern church’s understanding of the same is infantile at best. So we went to Romans and spent some time with the basics of these truths.

In closing, we examined what little we know about the Agape Feasts of the early church. Scripture does not elaborate much and so we dare not turn something into mandated doctrine which was not recorded in inspired scripture. Nevertheless, we wanted to at least get a simple grasp of what these feasts were for and what occurred in them. So this is how we ended out time together today!

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…in the hand of God

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This chapter is building upon the conclusions of chapters 7 & 8 which is clear by the opening words, “But all this I laid to heart, examining it all…”

As we have come to expect in Ecclesiastes, the greatest amount of Solomon’s conclusions are from the very narrow perspective of physical life on this earth. This includes recognition, honor and status before mankind as well as opinions on justice.

This chapter bares down upon man’s inability to understand God’s justice since our point of view is largely limited to what we see and experience “under the sun”. Notwithstanding this, all things are “in God’s hand”.

Nevertheless, there are hints that there is more to consider than this and that wisdom is of great value to man, regardless of how it effects there standing before other men.

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Bread Fellowship

Breaking the Bread of Fellowship Part 2

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This week we simply continued our examining of John 6 in relation to the “Breaking of Bread” the early church devoted themselves to daily. They understood “the Fellowship” as a shared live, shared experience and shared resources. Their times of communal meals were a living expression of this, and in a way, they were partaking of Christ even when the meal was not officially “the Lord’s Supper”.

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Bread Fellowship

Breaking the Bread of Fellowship Part 1

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We are still in our 3rd of the four primary expressions of devotion throughout the initial church. We are using these “devotions” as a means of better understanding the Ephesian church at the end of the 1st century who had “neglected the love they had at the first.”

This 3rd devotion was to the breaking of bread, which includes both the Lord’s Supper as well as “love feasts”. These communal meals were very important and while they did not symbolize Christ as the Lord’s Supper does, they did represent “the fellowship” or koinonia of the brethren.

Today we spent time working through John 6, where Jesus presenting Himself as the Bread of Life.

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