Facing death changes how we see our lives here. This daily devotional begins looking at what Solomon found: knowing God is the most important thing we can do.
Nuggets
- Death is scary for those who do not know Jesus as their personal Savior.
- We will all face judgment and answer the same question: Have you ABCDed or not?
- We face death because of the original sin.
Devotions in The Meaning of Life series
When I was diagnosed with the seizures after the EEG, I was sure the MRI was going to find a tumor. I found myself facing death.
A lot of things went through my mind. I was preparing to meet God. I was thinking about ways that I needed to continue to teach Adam how to overcome his disabilities to live a productive life.
Facing death puts a whole new emphasis on the meaning of life. Scholars think that is why Solomon was grappling with the issue in Ecclesiastes. He, himself, was older.
Let’s see what Solomon came up with.
Let's Put It into Context #1
Here is a running list of what we’ve discussed previously.
Let's Put It into Context #2
- Righteous means we are free from sin because we are following God’s moral laws.
- Wisdom is an enlightened acceptance of God’s principles that leads to knowledge, discernment, and good sense that is put into practice through salvation, increasing our goodness and virtue.
- Discernment means we can evaluate the situation and recognize right from wrong.
- Salvation is the gift of life through the deliverance from condemnation and sin to acceptance and holiness and changes us from being spiritually dead to spiritually alive.
- Sins are actions by humans that disobey God and break one of His reasonable, holy, and righteous laws and commandments, goes against a purpose He has for us, or follows Satan’s promptings.
- Holiness is the transcendent excellence of His nature that includes elements of purity, dedication, and commitment that lead to being set apart.
- Purity means possessing God’s moral character, having eliminated the stain of sin.
- Spiritual death is the spiritual separation from God that occurred as a consequence of Adam and Eve’s original sin. The spiritually alive are those who have ABCDed, so they are no longer separated from God.
- God’s goodness is His holy, pure, and righteous behavior.
- Holy means to be set apart, perfect, and morally pure while possessing all virtues.
- Pure means not being sinful or having the stain of sin.
- Virtues are standards of moral excellence.
Glossary
We Are in God’s Hands
“Indeed, I took all this to heart and explained it all: The righteous, the wise, and their works are in God’s hands. People don’t know whether to expect love or hate. Everything lies ahead of them” (Ecc. 9: 1 CSB)
Death is scary for those who do not know Jesus as their personal Savior.
The way I read Ecclesiastes is that Solomon had been grappling with issues. Here, he finally gets it to fall into place. “… The righteous, the wise, and their works are in God’s hands …” (Ecc. 9: 1 CSB).
But this says that our works are in the hands of God. That means we can’t see them. Is that a little unsettling?
It really shouldn’t be.
Oh, I know. We don’t really care for the withdrawn part because that means it is hidden from us. It is about us, but we aren’t on top of it.
Who are we kidding? We aren’t controlling it.
Gibson wrote, “It is of great importance for our peace of mind firmly to grasp the thought that we cannot at all infer what God thinks or intends concerning any person or his works from the outward circumstances we observe.”
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Elaine-speak. By what we see going on in our lives and in the world around us, we can’t tell what God’s plans for us are. So, we have to be at peace with that.
Remember what Proverbs 3: 5 says. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding” (Prov. 3: 5 ESV). Trust God, not ourselves.
We aren’t going to figure it out.
Part of me is jumping up and down right now saying, “But I have to figure it out! How can I know I am doing what You want me to be doing if I can’t figure it out?”
(These devotions started because God was talking to me. He still is. Don’t think I’ve got it all figured out.)
One of the best things I did this year was reusable pictures. What have we been talking about all along?
It’s about being, not doing.
We want to make it about doing. What am I supposed to do with these devotions now that I am on this medicine that has totally changed me? I didn’t realize how much the seizure medicine had taken me down until they tapered me off of it to put me on a different one.
I am going to do what I can, when I can. I am going to focus on being His child.
All Will Face Judgment
“Everything is the same for everyone: There is one fate for the righteous and the wicked, for the good and the bad, for the clean and the unclean, for the one who sacrifices and the one who does not sacrifice. As it is for the good, so also it is for the sinner; as it is for the one who takes an oath, so also for the one who fears an oath” (Ecc. 9: 2 CSB)
We will all face judgment and answer the same question: Have you ABCDed or not?
The ABCDs of Salvation
If you have not become a believer in Christ, please read through the
Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.
A – admit our sins
B – believe His Son Jesus is our Redeemer
C – confess God as Sovereign Lord
D – demonstrate that commitment by making any changes needed in our lives to
live the way in which God has called us
The Disciple’s Job Description
Gibson told us that we are safe because we are in God’s hands. There is no better place to be.
Homilies was correct in saying that, in this life, it does seem like the children of God are treated in the same ways as worldview people. They wrote, “All are subject to the same diseases, bereavements, disappointments, all go down to the grave alike.”
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It brings up a good question. Why are we trying to be morally correct if it doesn’t make any difference?
Homilies brought up two good reasons.
- The law doesn’t change based on our moral character.
- That means there is more after this.
The first one first. We aren’t getting to Heaven based on being a good person. We can champion human rights, put our money where our mouth is, and help grandma across the street.
Doesn’t matter. The only thing that matters is that we know Jesus as our personal Savior.
To read a related devotion, click the button below.
We want to base everything on what we see and know. That isn’t going to fly.
God is a spirit. He lives in a spiritual world. We will be going to a spiritual world one day.
Devotions in the The Unseen Spirit World series
The cry these days is that everything has to be more equally distributed. That may have been how God originally planned it, but Satan nixed that. In other words, that will never happen on this earth.
Homilies brought up a good point. Disciples look at things differently than worldview people do. They see trials as judgment. We see it as a Father correcting His children. They see the wealth and prosperity they have earned through their own merits. We see gifts from our loving Heavenly Father. We see what we gain from trials, not what they cost us.
All Our Hearts Are Evil
“This is an evil in all that is done under the sun: there is one fate for everyone. In addition, the hearts of people are full of evil, and madness is in their hearts while they live; after that they go to the dead” (Ecc. 9: 3 CSB)
We face death because of the original sin.
Once Adam and Eve bit into the fruit, mankind became sinful and cut off from God. The consequences of sin are spiritual death and separation from God. The results of sin are poverty, crime, disease, and death just to name a few.
We may think we have good hearts, but we don’t. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jer. 17: 9 ESV).
Cooper said it correctly. “The Gospel uniformly proceeds on the supposition that man is born in sin; that his corruption is not accidental, but innate; not acquired, but hereditary.”
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If if is hereditary, there is nothing we can do about not having it in the first place. If it is innate, there is nothing we can do about not having it in the first place
Notice, Solomon said that our hearts are full of evil. Not a touch bad — not like the chili has a touch of firebrand in it. It is the whole bowl of firebrand.
But there is something we can do. It is called free will. Free will is the ability within us to make decisions, which determine actions that produce character.
Robertson reminded us that we have all sinned within our hearts. “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Mt. 5: 27-28 ESV).
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Worse than mental madness is moral madness. The Homiliest notes those with moral madness ignore God, the greatest interests, and the greatest dignities. He wrote what God is looking for is “the dignity of a pure character, moral conquests, and self-sacrificing deeds.”
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Making the Connections
God designed the Plan of Salvation so that the consequences of sin could be eliminated – if we accepted His gift. Gibson described it this way. He wrote, “It is with Him who looks on from the side of eternity, and who makes all things work together for good to them that love Him.”
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How Do We Apply This?
Finney noted that, when talking about moral insanity, it was talking about that of the heart. He wrote, “By the heart here is meant the will — the voluntary power.
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To me, that means we make a choice. We must choose to believe in God.
We need to search for God if we do not know Him.
Searching for and Seeking God
Hearing His Word (Rom. 10: 17).
Reading His Word (Rev. 1: 3).
Praying to Him (Heb. 4: 16).
Studying His Word (Ac. 17: 11).
Meditating on His Word (Ps. 1: 1-2).
Memorizing His Word (Ps. 119: 11).
Father God. We are full of sin. We admit we are separated from You, believe that Jesus died so that His blood paid the price for them, and confess You as Sovereign God. We will live for You in the life and can’t wait until we will stand before You in the next. Amen.
What do you think?
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