[Faith-talk] Good Night Message for Friday, November 16 2012

[Paul]

Well, it's that time again, time to end what we in North America call the end of the workweek, for those of us who are gainfully employed.  For the rest of you it's Saturday, a day traditionally associated with sports such as American or Canadian football, European football or soccer, cricket in the UK and English-speaking member countries of the Commonwealth and other types of sport.  Anyway I hope and pray that your day is going well or went well.

Did you enjoy the writing of Joyce A. Felske? If you did, here's another article she wrote entitled "Stop Dreaming," rendered as follows:

Do you like to dream? All of us have done our share of dreaming about what we would like to become or what we would like to have. In the real world our dreams are often shattered.

Solomon tells us in Ecclesiastes ch5 that whoever loves money never has enough money. He will never be satisfied. We ought to enjoy what we have instead of dreaming about what we do not have.

In ch6 Solomon wrote that there is a common evil we see in life. A man might have much wealth, but then he dies young or is in bad health and cannot enjoy his wealth. This is meaningless.

A man might have many children and yet be miserable all his long life on this earth because he does not enjoy what he has. He dies without seeing any good in life. Solomon said it would have been better had he not been born if this is all he has in life.

This scene makes me think of the people who work hard to prolong life through exercise, vitamins, or whatever else they do to find the fountain of youth. Many of them die young or develop an illness later on anyway. They all die eventually. They strive for long life but give no attention to their spiritual condition, which will give them eternal life.

God is in control of our lives. Do you believe that? Only God can see the future. We do not always know what is good for us; therefore, we should trust God for our future. He knows what is best for us and guides us in that direction.

Our dreams in life might not be good for us; therefore, we ought to trust God for whatever comes into our lives. To be content will keep us from becoming bitter or angry with our lot in life.

Are you beginning to see that this life without God is meaningless? Those in our country who are trying to remove God from anything have only the life that Solomon wrote about in Ecclesiastes.

Our prayer should be that those in leadership will realize that when God is removed from everything in our country, we stand alone and outside of God's protection.

We cannot make people believe in God, but we need to be witnesses to the world of what the real meaning of life with God is.

And there you have Joyce's insightful and thought-provoking article for today.

And now may the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob just keep us safe, individually and collectively, throughout this night or day and especially in these last days in which we live. Your Christian brother and friend, Paul