Coming to the Still Waters

Today's verses are Ecclesiastes 8:14-17, which read, v.14 - There is futility which is done on the earth, that is, there are righteous men to whom it happens according to the deeds of the wicked.  On the other hand, there are evil men to whom it happens according to the deeds of the righteous.  I say that this too is futility. Solomon is pointing out that life is not fair at times.  It doesn't look fair to us.  Sometimes those who are righteous, the good guys, get what the wicked, the bad guys are suppose to get and sometimes the wicked, the bad guys, get what the righteous, the good guys are suppose to get.  It is just the opposite of the way it should be in our eyes.  We come to the conclusion as Solomon did that this doesn't make sense and therefore life is messed up and futile.  Why try if we are not guaranteed the absolute solution to the situation that we deem should happen? v.15 - So I commended pleasure, for there is nothing good for a man under the sun

We are almost two months in of reading the Bible in a year and for me reading it out loud.  I am being re-introduced to passages I have not read in awhile.  --Adam--

Today's verses are Ecclesiastes 8:10-13, which read, v.10 - So then, I have seen the wicked buried, those who used to go in and out from the holy place, and they are soon forgotten in the city where they did thus.  This too is futility. Solomon is just stating the fact that we all die.  The bad or the wicked die and also the good or those who serve in the temple die.  It doesn't escape any whether you are on the pendulum swung to the foolish end or swung all the way over to the wise end.  I have a very high regard for the late Billy Graham and the late R.C. Sproul but they too died even though they did much in the name of Jesus Christ. We not only die but we are also forgotten.  Probably never forgotten in the sense of some record of our lives, especially those who are famous and maybe in the history books of the world but forgotten as someone giving immediate response to a current situation.  We move on to others who are living that fill their roles in our lives.

Good Sunday morning all and here is another radio broadcast containing another phrase or important word from the Bible.  The phrase is "the Garden of Eden."  I was able to double up this devotional to use at a funeral when speaking about the paradise to come.  I hope you enjoy and have a great day.  Adam

Today's verses are Ecclesiastes 8:5-9, which read, v.5-7 - He who keeps a royal command experiences no trouble, for a wise heart knows the proper time and procedure.  For there is a proper time and procedure for every delight, though a man's trouble is heavy upon him.  If no one knows what will happen, who can tell him when it will happen? This is an interesting couple of verses.  We are told to keep the royal command, the command that has authority behind it and also is for our good and the good of others.  Keeping this command keeps us from trouble.  It might not look like trouble now when we are breaking it but trouble comes with the breaking and could be down the road.  We hold to the royal command because there is a time and a place for things.   We will have delight but those delights are for those proper times and procedures.  It makes me think of marriage and also the pleasures of life that come from that union.  You can get those pleasures elsewhere but th

Almost forgot to post today --Adam--

Let's get on to our verses today which are Ecclesiastes 8:1-4, which read, v.1 - Who is like the wise man and who knows the interpretation of a matter?  A man's wisdom illumines him and causes his stern face to beam. Let's start off today with another question from Solomon.  He is a man of questions.  Solomon has shown us that wisdom has value and one who has wisdom does see and understand situations to come to a good conclusion.  They are able to interpret what is going on to respond accordingly and with a result that promotes righteousness, right living.  The one with wisdom helps him to go from a stern face to a beaming face. Body language speaks volumes and a stern face shows a lot of concentration on what is going on and maybe someone who is trying hard internally to figure it out.  They are even stressing their facial muscles as their mental muscles are working overtime to decide how to respond verbally or act openly toward this situation that has him stu

Here is the Bible reading for the day.  We are getting into a lot of Jewish levitical law that gets a little embarrassing at times to read.  --Adam--

Today's devotional is an in between chapters of Ecclesiastes devotional of something I read just recently titled  "6 Reasons Why Church Leaders Must Go To The Mountain"  by Chuck Lawless. I gravitate to Chuck's lists.  This is especially because it talks about prayer and it is so important to the life of the church and to my life.  So many times it done but it is just to say that I did it or at the prescribed times in our weekly and monthly church calendar.  Prayer is so many times just left for those desperate times rather than a fixture in our lives whether we are in the valley or on the mountaintop.  Chuck has six points along with some commentary and it is so good that I am tempted to stop and just say,  "Go read the article and I will shut up."   Here is the link by the way:  www.chucklawless.com/2018/02/ 6-reasons-why-church-leaders- must-go-to-the-mountain/ It is fresh after coming away from the Ottawa Prayer Center's one year a

Children's story time of the book "The Knight's Map" by the late R.C. Sproul. Some great congregational singing with our worship team.  Stephanie is playing the piano. One last song...it was a good morning at OUC!

Good Sunday morning and hope all is well.  It is another day to be with God's people to raise our voices to Him and to read from His Word.  God bless.  --Adam--

Today's verses are Ecclesiastes 7:23-29, which read, v.23-25 - I tested all this with wisdom, and I said, "I will be wise," but it was far from me.  What has been is remote and exceedingly mysterious.  Who can discover it?  I directed my mind to know, to investigate and to seek wisdom and an explanation, and to know the evil of folly and the foolishness of madness. Somethings are unknowable.  We can strive to be more wise.  We can put ourselves in discovery mode.  We can investigate like a detective but in the end somethings are unknowable.  It is good to be seeking wisdom and it is good to have a mind to discover and know the explanations that we can grasp but we will scratch our heads at times over things like the shootings in Florida this past week.  How could this happen?  What was going on in his head?  How could this have been prevented?  Where are we failing to have this type of behavior happening across our nation? All these are questions that we coul

Good morning here from foggy Illinois.  Here is the next installment of Bible reading for the year.  --Adam--

Today's verses are Ecclesiastes 7:19-22, which read, v.19 - Wisdom strengthens a wise man more than ten rulers who are in a city. Solomon comes back to the fact that even though all is vanity there are some good things in this world.  Wisdom is one of them.  Wisdom is more important than just being a ruler in the city.  It is more important than just holding a position.  The wisdom of one is compared to the positions held by 10.  The wise one has the strength, rather  more  strength because of his wisdom than the 10 rulers at the gate.  Wisdom is very valuable to our society and the moral compass that keeps us on track. I heard a speaker this last week talk about our Constitution and the Declaration of Independence in America and how those documents held us to a standard of bringing glory to God because they were based off of Scripture.  The problem is that we have too many rulers who don't follow after God in positions who lack His wisdom to maintain these documen

Stephanie and I had a couple of days to meet up with our youngest, Jason and his wife Samantha and our grandkids, Libby and Taylor.  Jason is now the youth pastor at Croswell Wesleyan Church in Croswell, MI.  It is great to see our kids being used by the Lord and putting themselves out there to be His servants.  Here are a couple of pictures of Jason with the senior high group at Croswell.  Have a great day.  --Adam--

Today's verses are Ecclesiastes 7:15-18, which read, v.15 - In my futile life I have seen everything:  someone righteous perishes in spite of his righteousness, and someone wicked lives long in spite of his evil. Solomon gives us this morning another experience of his life.  Someone who was good died early and someone who was evil lived a long time.  In our minds it should be the other way around.  The good person should live long and the evil person should live short.  Just think of the great influence the righteous person could have over the span of a long life and the lessening of the bad influence because the wicked person was out of the picture.  We tend to paint the picture of how we want things to be but sometimes it doesn't work out that way.  I am reminded of this whenever I see a parent who has to bury their child and they stand there and say,  "It's out of order, it should have been me."    Many times I will watch or listen to the news and