ECCLESIASTES

Background

I can’t believe it but many scholars say that Ecclesiastes was written by someone other than Solomon. In reading the book for a moment you can’t help but be overwhelmed by the evidence for Solomon as the author. I will still hold to Solomon as the author and think up on his life as I read the book. It is the only probably explanation for all of the writings and emotions from what we know of scripture and OT history.

Chapters 1 & 2

-Solomon is looking back at his life only to find that all is meaningless and is like chasing after the wind. I love this parable for there is nothing more pointless in life than to be chasing after the wind. He begins by talking about how creation continues in the same order all the time and will continue to do the same again. He is overwhelmed by the consistency of life with or without him. If we think of life purely for our individual gain it will hold no worth in our lives. One thing that causes his grief is that most people are not remembered and even those that are still to come will live and not be remembered.

-Solomon had more wealth and potential to pursue pleasure than anyone who ever lived. He set his heart totally to this and still found that his only reward was the immediate delight, but looking back it still lacked any value. It cracks me up that he tried to be a fool to find value in life. He found that all he did was walk around in darkness and that wisdom is better than foolishness, although with great wisdom comes great sorrow and with more knowledge there is more grief.

Verse 26 in chapter 2 really stood out to me. The man who pleases God is given wisdom, knowledge, and happiness. These are greater blessings than money although the sinner is given the task of amassing great wealth just to give it over to the one who pleases God. Money is not the greatest blessing of life. I am continually brought back to that point as I live this life. It is only gained to be given although all in the world run after wealth more than any other target. I want to continually seek to please God and give Him glory in my life. In giving Him glory and enjoying Him I gain life and the greatest blessing life has to offer – God. He is the treasure and the all-satisfying one.

COLOSSIANS 3

Heart Issues

Wow! There is so much in this chapter. My notes are forever long and my heart is challenged like crazy. I want to run after these attributes that Christ would have be true of my life and character. I want to continue to put to death that which still lives in me that keeps me from reflecting Christ. I am challenged as a dad and a husband with my God given roles. I am comforted big time as well as I recognize again that I am holy in God’s sight and that I am dearly loved. I have found what I have searched for and I want to continue to bask in the treasure of the favor and presence of God. I find myself so thankful today as I look at the life that I once lived and could still be living and I realize the truly awesome grace of God that met me and changed me to be more like Christ.

Notes

-We are far too earthly minded and need our attention focused upward. We died to the principles of this world and our life is now hidden with Christ in God. Barnes says it very well ” Our eternal life, therefore, is as secure as it could possibly be made. The true condition of the Christian is, that he is "dead" to this world, but that he has immortal life in prospect, and that is secure, being in the holy keeping of his Redeemer, now in the presence of God. From this it follows that he should regard himself as living for heaven.” Our salvation is not in our keeping, but it lays in the hands of the one who never fails.

-How we should long for the day of Christ’s return for we shall appear with Him in glory.

-It is not a rule that we have to put to death these things, but a privilege since our life has been rescued from death and brought to life. We need to continually put to death that which is already dead in us. We all used to walk in these ways and still struggle with some, but we are to rid ourselves of all of these attributes of sin. This is where freedom is found, when all the shackles have been removed.

-We need to be real with one another and approach our struggles with brotherhood as we resist lying to one another. I believe this may have been placed here in reference to our struggles and our need for community in combating Satan’s pull on our lives. We are one in Christ.

-We have been made holy and we are dearly loved. Let us not skip too quickly past this statement as we find our identity in Christ and the sole search of every man and woman on this earth. We all long to be dearly loved and it is found only in the person of Christ. Because of this love we are to reflect what we have experienced to a world in great need of this same love. We are to be compassionate, kind, humble, gentle, and patient in our workings with others. Lord, would you help me in these areas as I lead high school students toward your throne.

-Help me to bear with those that frustrate me and forgive well when I have been wronged and to seek forgiveness when I have been the offender. I long to love in the same way that you love, Father.

-We are called to peace and not division as we follow Christ. The only way to continually achieve this is to allow the word of Christ to dwell in us richly and change us to become more and more like Christ. All that we do should be bringing us closer each day to becoming more like Christ and giving God the praise as He works in us and through us.

-God has placed specific roles for us as we live our lives. Our world would try to call these roles chauvinistic but they are evident when we look at the natural, God intended relationships between men, women, and children.

-Barnes has an in-depth discussion on the roles of men and women in his notes on Ephesians 5. My favorite part of this discussion is his final description of what this looks like and how it should go, “When there are proper feelings in both parties in this relation, there will be no occasion either to command or to obey. There should be such mutual love and confidence, that the known wish of the husband should be a law to the wife; and that the known desires of the wife should be the rule which he would approve.

-The man is given two commands – do not be harsh and do not embitter. These commands are specific as it is something that he must guard against in being the man of the household. Love prohibits these actions and binds all of the proper ones together in perfect unity.

-I really like Paul’s charge to the slave. The slave was somewhat different in that time period and was most often an indentured servant. They were working off what they owed to their master. This does not encourage slavery or call people to be slaves, but tells them of the way in which they should act even in this position. The Israelites were not strangers to slavery, but all should still be done for Christ. In all things, even the slave, should work as if he is serving Christ and not men. For Christ will reward in the end of days according to our service for Him.

COLOSSIANS 2

Heart Issues

I want to burn with passion for our group and the people around me as well. I want to find myself on my knees struggling for everyone else and asking God to work mightily in their lives. God wants to unite us in love and encourage our hearts. In our following Him he wants to do the same through us for our brothers and sisters. Also I am challenged to continue to be strengthened in my faith and to be more and more thankful to God day by day. I also love the concept of Jesus triumphing by the cross. The guards and the Jews at that time thought they were triumphing by killing Him, but Jesus had and still has all the supremacy and by their work he triumphed over them by setting the captives free and forgiving all of our sin. He has cancelled all that stood against us and nailed it to the cross by giving his life and raising from the dead to live forever. WOW!! What an amazing Jesus we serve!

Notes

-Paul has such an awesome heart for the churches that he struggles for them. He is in anguish through prayer and concern for the churches. I love what he said that his purpose was. He wants them to be encouraged in heart and united in love. That is my prayer for our students as well. I want to pray this more often for only God can bring about this type of atmosphere. The result is a deeper knowledge of Christ and a better understanding of the Spirit-filled life. Paul wants to protect them from falling prey to the deceivers and their fine-sounding arguments.

-After receiving Christ we are to continue to live in him, strengthened in faith and overflowing with thankfulness. I love the concept of living “in” Him. He envelopes us and we need to continue to realize who we are and that we are in Christ, forgiven of all sin and holy in the sight of God. Our faith is being strengthened as we walk with God and through the ups and downs of our faith. We are to continue along the path and as we continue we are strengthened and as we are strengthened we know that it is only the Lord who has accomplished all of it so we can’t help but overflow with thankfulness. What an amazing God we serve! He is so worthy of our praise!

-We find again as Paul talks about Jesus that He is amazing and all of God dwelled in him bodily and as we know from Hebrews he restrained his rights as God and became like us. He has given us that same fullness through the Holy Spirit as we have put off the sinful nature and have been raised with Christ to new life.

-Its amazing that God forgave all our sins and cancelled the law that was against us and nailed it to the cross. Video Idea - Multiple people struggling with different sins and clothed in dark ratty clothes. That people (business man, drug user, jealous/gossipy teen, prideful guy, can’t stop being jealous, doing drugs, etc. and then a bright light shines in and takes over. Then the clothes are nailed to the cross and the people standing in white robes clean. Jesus has taken all of our sin and made us new.

-We can try a lot of rules and regulations to try to keep us from sin. Only freedom and grace can truly change us. It seems right that harsh treatment of the body and discipline are the way to change, but we all grow weary of this and chase back after our sin in our lazy state.

COLOSSIANS PRAYER

Thank you, Father, for your gospel and your presence in our lives. The story is all about you and the power, strength, and glorious might are all in your hands and not our own. We long for your presence to be revealed to allow those attributes to be visible in our world today. I love you Father and I long to know more of who you are and not just know your word. I am thankful for how the Gospel has been bearing fruit and growing in my life because of your work through it. Your unconditional love and grace has changed me and allowed me the freedom to fail and the freedom to love. I want to go after all that you have called me to and not shrink back because of worries or faithlessness. You have obviously always come through on your promises. I not only want to take the risks, but be able to own up to my failures. Help me Lord Jesus to enjoy you and trust you no matter what. Help me to love you and to enjoy you, not everything else. Thank you for allowing me to share in the kingdom of the saints of light, for giving me faith, hope, and love; for strengthening me; and most of all for rescuing me from the dominion of darkness.

Thank you, Jesus, that you are the image of the invisible God. You created all things and placed all things under your feet. All of this world, every detail, points to you. Even the things that are unknown to me and invisible to me point to you. Without your sustaining hand all would cease. Thank you for upholding us and leading us to your presence. I pray that you would come back to get us and bring us home for all eternity. You have made peace with God and you have the supremacy. I bow in honor of you and place my life in your hands. I need you Lord Jesus and I pray that your rule and reign would take precedence over my own. I want to step off of the throne and allow you to sit to direct and empower me to live for you. Thank you Lord Jesus for what you will do in and through me today.

COLOSSIANS 1

Heart Issues

WOW!!! There is so much in this chapter. It has challenged me in multiple ways. It has put me on the right course of how to do ministry. I want to have the same heart of Paul to pray, proclaim, and please the Lord. Nice alliteration huh?! J It is so encouraging and faith-building to read again about how amazing Jesus is. He holds all things together and created every detail of all that we see. He holds all supremacy and has placed Himself within all believers. WOW!! That is amazing. He reconciled us and rescued us and this is a great truth for me to continue to hear and believe. This helps me continue to push further away from works righteousness as I understand all that He has done for me. I know that I cannot attain to any of this. I want to continue to labor that all may know Jesus as He has made Himself known to me. I love Paul’s final verse and I have quoted it many times in regard to the ridiculous amount of energy that God places within me. God does energize us and give us all that we need to continue for Him. I can be spiritually worn out and meet with Him for a moment and all is renewed. Praise be to God for His indescribable energy and help to accomplish all that He has called me to do.

Notes

-Paul Starts with calling out the truth about the Christians in Colosse, that they were holy and faithful. God had set them apart and changed them with a new identity.

-Paul is so thankful to God for what He is doing in people’s lives. Paul doesn’t take the credit and he doesn’t credit others for God’s work. He is always focused on God receiving the glory not man. This view encourages his prayer life and keeps him asking God for things and not just trying to learn how to teach them better.

-The gospel will bear fruit on its own, it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes. This takes some pressure off and lets us know that all we need to be faithful to do is to share the gospel.

-The triad of faith, hope, and love are consistent cornerstones of the Christian faith. They work together so well and are the main three attributes that should be true of a Christian.

-God’s will is that we may live a life worthy of Him and please Him in every good work. We do this through His strength, not our own, and throughout it we give Him thanks and not ourselves. For (I love conjunctions) He has rescued us. It is awesome to see His power and might being the sole reason for our faith, the sustenance for our faith, and the energy to live out our faith to please Him.

-Jesus is amazing. I love this section about who He is. The image for us to see of the invisible God; the first parent over all creation is a better translation, especially in context of the next few verses; all things were created by Him and in Him all things hold together, he sustains all creation; He is the head of the body and the first to beat death; all of the power, presence, rule, etc. of God dwelled within a man (amazing) and through Jesus He reconciled all things to Himself; this was not done easily, peace had to be made for the wrath of God was ready to make war against mankind, but Jesus brought peace

-21-23 let us know of our identity in Christ. It lets us know the bad news first and the past situation to allow us to appreciate the position in which we stand now. God has reconciled us through Christ and we now stand holy in His sight. The scripture goes on to drive this home by letting us know that we are without blemish and free from accusation.

-Paul’s continued ministry will mean that he will be persecuted and will be afflicted for the sake of the Church. This does not mean that it is needed that Christians may suffer or that Christ did not suffer enough for He fully appeased the wrath of God. In sharing the gospel we will most likely run into persecution and affliction but Paul determined to live his life for the body and not for himself. Paul continues to teach the word of God in all its fullness and in all its truth.

-Paul views his role as proclaiming Christ. In this he wants to admonish and teach everyone with all wisdom in order that they may be not perfect in thought or deed, but perfect in the grace, holiness, and righteousness of Christ. The perfection that we desire in this life is the perfect understanding of our positional truths.

-The main concept that Paul pulls out here is that Christ is in you. This is the hope of glory - the treasure, the main thing, the awe inspiring truth of our faith, the evidence of the eternal, the first fruits of heaven. How amazing is it that God would have His presence dwell among us, we are far too wretched for that, but thanks be to God that Jesus Christ has reconciled and rescued us from ourselves and brought us into relationship with the Father and placed His spirit within our very body-temples.

2 CORINTHIANS 13

Heart Issues
There are a few people that I need to be reconciled with. I do not want there to be any division between anyone and myself. I desire that I could model to others what it means to be restored. I am experiencing the fruit right now of having a rift in a relationship. The problem is that we cannot work it out to ever get together and talk through the issue. This is so destructive all the way around and Christ is exalted through our love for one another. I have found myself speaking against him instead of lifting him up and approaching him with humility. The longer the rift lasts the worse the infection sets in and we are torn apart more and more. I have to be the one to push for unity and to continue to try to restore the relationship. I am challenged here as well to continue to test myself as I walk with the Lord and approach Him in weakness and humility. I also wonder how my life would look different if I knew that Paul was coming to exercise judgment upon our congregation. I would be making sure that all things were good to go between me and others. This is how we should respond as we know about the sovereignty of God and the second coming of Christ as we never know the day or time that this will occur.

Notes
-Paul starts/continues with a pretty stern tone toward the church at Corinth. He desires that they walk in the truth and he calls them toward this multiple times in this chapter.
-Paul is giving them their second/third chance before he executes any type of judgment upon the people. This would not just be a personal disappointment, but is believed to have been a supernatural type of judgment that Paul could call down on the people.
-Perfection of the individual was not the point here. He wanted each person in the body to examine themselves and to see how they could be united again in relationship to the church. Divisions were destroying them and keeping them from being effective and productive in their faith. Paul does not want to let anyone take away from what the Lord wants to do in that area.
-Christ was not weak when he was crucified, but allowed himself to appear weak. He laid down His life to allow all of us to live in power with Him. We are to be weak in Him to allow Him to live through us. He opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.
-Again at the end of this chapter the call is not to the individual to get all things together and stop sinning personally. They are called to aim for unity and to live in peace with each other. Fellowship is the major key throughout the whole chapter. He wants them to be restored and unified again that they would not be torn apart.

2 CORINTHIANS 12

Heart Issues
I don’t always lead people to repentance although that is such a vital part of their Christian lives. They cannot walk in the Spirit if they have sin short-circuiting their relationship with God and what He wants to do in and through them. Paul cares for the Corinthians deeply and wants them to not only follow him or support him, but he is coming that they may give themselves to him. He wants their hearts and their allegiance not because Paul is great, but because God has called him as a father to them. The thorn topic is close to my heart although I will not even begin to attribute my struggles with Paul. He went through far more and when he says thorn I am sure there was great pain and anguish through the thorn that kept him humble. I want to boast in the Lord as well and not in myself. I need to become weaker and allow Christ to become greater. This is so tough in our culture of today (and has always been, may we never make our culture the hardest of all). There are so many youth groups and ministries that vie for students that I feel the need to have bigger and better sometimes. This is focusing on my adequacy and not in the Lord’s ability. I want to hold, even the students I lead with an open hand that the Lord can do whatever He wants with them. I also am thankful for Jesus humbling me through the process of my ACL recovery and through my various health issues.

Notes
-There seems to be room for boasting of others as long as you are not exalting yourself through boasting of others. I know a lot of people that think they’re “somebody” because of someone they know or are acquainted with. Paul does not want to go on boasting in himself, but wants people to only think of him by what he says and does. He would be fully in the right, because he is telling the truth, but he recognizes that the Lord does not want him to become conceited.
-The thorn in the flesh is such a rich concept. God did not want him to become arrogant so he gave him a tormenter. I wonder if God is doing the same with the pastors of mega-churches who can easily become conceited, or has my thorn been my knee and my stomach issues. Thank you God for showing me dependence upon you and not myself as I have walked through physical and health struggles. God knows that He deserves the glory and not the vessel that He is using to get the work done. When I am weak, then I am strong. This phrase sums up so much in the Christian life. The spirit filled life hinges upon this concept. It is not about our strength, but the letting go of ourselves in walking with God, and Him receiving glory from our lives.
-Paul here refutes his accusers that have said that he caught them and used them by his trickery. He goes on to show that he never exploited them or used them for His means. He or his followers were never a burden to the Corinthians.
-Paul closes this chapter by expressing his concerns with the Galatians and with a reasoning for all of his boasting and commendations. He hopes that his struggles and ministry may encourage them to go beyond their past or possibly current way of life and to follow closely after the Lord. He fears that they still may be struggling with the deeds of the flesh. If we are to lead others, we are to lead others toward repentance in following God.