Do not be quick with your mouth,ndo not be hasty in your heart to utter anything before God. God is in heaven and you are on earth,so let your words be few. A dream comes when there are many cares, and many words mark the speech of a fool.

It sounds like he's saying not to pray too often. But the rest of the bible says pray constantly. what does it mean?

Walking with Solomon

In church yesterday the pastor preached a sermon from Ecclesiastes. So, since I'm in Ecclesiastes, I'll try to talk a little about it.

In Ecclesiastes, the whole point is that everything is meaningless. Here's a few of things that he mentioned were meaningless:

Time. He said were always trying to beat the the clock, to make an impact, and two generations later, we won't be given a thought. Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever. No one remembers the former generations, and even those yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow them.

Work. Solomon said that no matter how much you work you do, your'e not gonna take it with you. the greatest building ever was probably Solomon's temple and where is that now? There's only one wall left. The same thing applies with riches.

So, life, in itself, is meaningless. The end. No. This is where God comes in. God gives meaning to a meaningless life. He judges how we lived this meaningless life. Is there ultimatley a meaning? Yes, because God gives it meaning, therefore, it has meaning.

I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live.

Ecclesiastes is mostly about everything being meaningless, a chasing after the wind. He even mentioned work as being meaningless, but if it was meaningless, why did he say that there's nothing better?

To show partiality is not good - yet a man will do wrong for a piece of bread.

When you read that you probly think, 'I would never steal a piece of bread.' Well it's not just like stealing a chocolate chip out of a candy store, it could also be in your own home, like stealing a cookie out of the cookie jar or eating the chocolate chips out of the cereal. We're so quick to do wrong.

Do not fret because of evildoers or be envious of the wicked, for the evildoer has no future hope, and the lamp of the wicked will be snuffed out.

Have you ever really wanted to do something bad? OK, I know you have. But the bible says that there is no hope for them, that their lamp will be snuffed out. Think about all those guys that were famous, didn't exactly lead a great life, and what did he say? 'Iv'e wasted it' don't waste your life.

Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you punish him with the rod he will not die. Punish him with the rod and save his soul from death.

I noticed it says in this translation: 'save his soul from death' but in another translation: 'save him from death.' I think it's true both ways. If you don't discipline your 2 yr. old, and he goes out into the street and gets run over by a car, well, you failed to save him from death. But if that 2 yr. old grows up without discipline, goes into the army and gets shot and goes to hell, then you failed to save his soul from death. I think most parents don't realize how important spanking your'e kid acctually is. Some people are afraid to hurt their kids. But if that's the case, it says ' if you punish him with the rod he will not die' and it said somewhere else in the bible that it wouldn't even bleed. So, do your'e kid a favor and spank him when he needs it.

Pastor Chris talked about this some 2 weeks ago, and it also matches with out bible study last night, so when I saw it today, I thought, I'll share what I learned on this! So, here goes.....

“Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.”
Then the people answered, “Far be it from us to forsake the LORD to serve other gods!It was the LORD our God himself who brought us and our parents up out of Egypt, from that land of slavery, and performed those great signs before our eyes. He protected us on our entire journey and among all the nations through which we traveled. And the LORD drove out before us all the nations, including the Amorites, who lived in the land. We too will serve the LORD, because he is our God.”
Joshua said to the people, “You are not able to serve the LORD. He is a holy God; he is a jealous God. He will not forgive your rebellion and your sins. If you forsake the LORD and serve foreign gods, he will turn and bring disaster on you and make an end of you, after he has been good to you.”
But the people said to Joshua, “No! We will serve the LORD.”


Why would Joshua do that? it's like he was trying to discourage them from following God! He was letting the people know that this was really serious. This wasn't just a 'Yea, OK, we'll follow God. Sure.' He was telling them to go all out, or not do it at all. there's no in between, no neutral. Your'e either there with all your heart, or not at all.