“If the ax is dull, and one does not sharpen the edge, then he must use more strength; but wisdom brings success” (Ecclesiastes 10:10 NKJV)

September 5, 2015

Take time to sharpen your saw. One of Solomon’s habits long before Covey’s seven. My mother’s father, my Papaw, knew this habit. Before the invention of weed-eaters, he used a large hand scythe to clear the creek bank. He always kept a sharpening stone in his pocket and would pause from time to time to keep an edge on his blade. He also had a mesmerizing method to his motion, using his strength to lift the long blade and then allow its weight to drop and fall through the weeds. I never mastered this, hacking away at the brush, often with a dull blade, I would spend my young man’s energy in under an hour, while Papaw could continue all day even in his 70s. Papaw would say, “Son, you’re just beating yourself to death. Let the weight of the blade do the work. And stop to sharpen it once in a while.” He had the wisdom that I lacked. You can actually get more done by taking a break to sharpen your saw. Slow down to speed up. Retreat to advance. Take a sabbath one day out of seven to sharpen your edge.

“Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work or device or knowledge or wisdom in the grave where you are going” (Ecclesiates 9:10 NKJV)

September 4, 2015

Solomon’s study of life “under the sun” was limited to the physical world, and therefore, did not include observations of life “beyond the sun.” So, the idea of an afterlife with eternal reward and judgment are not topics considered by him. Yet, there is a wisdom here for those still on this side of the “grave:” Work with all of your might, while there is still light. As Jesus taught his disciples, “I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; the night is coming when no one can work” (John 9:4). I want to finish this earthly life serving the Lord with all of my might. How about you?

“Oh, clap your hands, all you peoples! Shout to God with the voice of triumph! For the Lord Most High is awesome; He is a great King over all the earth” (Psalm 47:1-2 NKJV)

September 3, 2015

This psalm calls all peoples of the world to recognize God as King. It is a call to worship the Lord Most High. He is not just the king of Israel, but over all nations. There is no one higher nor mightier than He. There may be rebellion in the world today against the great King, but His triumph is assured and those who oppose Him are destined to fall. For whom do you offer your worship of clapping and shouting?

“He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end” (Ecclesiastes 3:11 NKJV)

September 2, 2015

King Solomon was the writer of Ecclesiastes. He observed the beauty of how God had assigned everything a season and how these things seemed to repeat over time. Yet, he also observed that God had put an eternal longing in man’s heart that wanted to know and experience more than just what his season on earth allowed. This “eternity” that God put in humanity’s heart makes us unique in creation. We long for that which will last. We long for ultimate meaning and purpose. We long for God. Solomon found that everything “under the sun” was “vanity” (empty, meaningless). Why? Because we long for that which is beyond the sun. We long for the Eternal One. As Pascal said, “There is a God shaped vacuum in the heart of every man which cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God, the Creator, made known through Jesus.”

“I know that You can do everything, And that no purpose of Yours can be withheld from You” (Job 42:2 NKJV)

September 1, 2015

Job’s response after God answered his questions with some of His own was brief. He basically concluded, “You’re God and I’m not.” This is not fatalism, but acceptance that even though God’s good purposes are higher and better than ours, He still hears us and responds when we cry out. God is not afraid of our hardest questions. Yet, be aware when you ask that you may learn as Job did that your “arm’s too short to box with God.” Or that your intellect is too limited to understand. Are your questions motivated by a desire to know God better? Or are they really expressions of doubt or accusation? Suffering did not cause Job to doubt God. And God heard Job’s cry and answered him.

“For we walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7 NKJV)

August 31, 2015

Presently, we walk through life believing in our risen Lord without actually seeing Him. We believe because of the witnesses – the witness of the Bible, of the saints who have passed the faith down to us, and because of the inner witness of the Spirit of adoption who causes us to cry out, “Abba, Father” to our God. Our faith is by God’s grace and not our sight. The world says seeing is believing. However, Jesus said to Thomas, “You have believed because you have seen, but blessed are those who have not seen, yet have believed” (John 20:29). We believe in the risen Lord. He is the Head of His body, the Church. And so, we believe that just as the Head was raised, so shall the body be raised. The same God who raised Jesus from the dead, will raise us. We live by this faith, even though our eyes have not yet seen its fulfillment.

“For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6 NKJV)

August 30, 2015

The same God who created physical light by His command has sent His Son, Jesus to be our spiritual light. Yet, our hearts remain in sin’s darkness until they behold the light of the gospel “in the face of Jesus Christ.” Those who would seek to know God, to see His glory, must seek the face of Jesus. There is no other power to enlighten our darkened hearts. For Christ is the image of the invisible God, the Light of the world, the only way to the Father. Although our hearts now reflect His light as we share the gospel, we are not its source, so we must always direct others to seek His face. We sing: “Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in His wonderful face. And the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace.”

“I have made a covenant with my eyes; Why then should I look upon a young woman?” (Job 31:1 NKJV)

August 29, 2015

Job made a “covenant with his eyes” that is a much needed one for today. His covenant (pledge, sacred promise) was with God and with his wife, that his eyes belonged to God and to his wife alone. He had predetermined what he would allow his eyes to gaze upon and what he wouldn’t. Looking upon a “young woman” was not allowed. Why? Because he had made a covenant that restricted his vision. He would not let his eyes linger on a young woman, therefore avoiding the temptation to covet or lust after her. It is an accepted fact that men are more susceptible to visual stimulus than women. Yet, both should make a covenant with their eyes that protects them from temptation.

“Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; For I shall yet praise Him, the help of my countenance and my God” (Psalm 42:11 NKJV)

August 28, 2015

A psalm for the soul. When you are discouraged and “cast down,” learn to encourage yourself in the Lord (1 Sam. 30:6). Bring your soul to the Lord. Instruct your soul to “hope in God” and “praise Him.” Have you not yet learned that a fresh encounter with God in Word and prayer will change the disposition of your soul and therefore your “countenance,” putting a smile in place of a frown? Reset your soul’s hope from its idols and put its hope in God. Worship works.

“Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6 NKJV)

August 27, 2015

Parents, discipline your child and teach them the right way while they are still young. It’s much easier to correct a 3-year old than a 13-year old. Focus on heart change, asking the Lord to help you, and perhaps someday you will know the joy of having your 30-year old walk beside you in friendship, holding the hand of your 3-year old grandchild doing the same.