The Transforming Word of God

Reading Ecclesiastes once again, I didn't find it as gloomy as in the past. Perhaps because I read the whole book at once, giving a better perspective to its meaning. I found it amusing that two well known sayings seem to come from this book, although reworded. The first is "Eat, drink and be merry", although I don't think the references it comes from mean quite what it has come to mean in our culture. There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. Ecclesiastes 2:24 The second is, "A little birdie told me": . ..for a bird of the air will carry your voice,  or some winged creature tell the matter. Ecclesiastes 10:20 Yet the real theme of the book seems to be that life is short and all we do in this life is in vain. But the author's conclusion is that only the fear of God really matters. That makes me recall a little thyme I always loved: Only one life 'twill soon be...

We tend to think of vices as being things like drug addition, smoking, alcoholism, gambling—those obvious physical addictions. We also know that good things can become addictive, like food and exercise. But what about those hidden vices, heart and mind addictions? When I became a Stampin' Up! demonstrator, I laughingly said it was to support my habit,  my addiction. I use my cards for ministry, but the constant desire to get more and more stamp sets is not really necessary. Here are some more examples of things that are not inherently bad but can become vices when they consume us: television, books, electronic games, texting, facebook, and even busyness. It's a matter of their priority in our lives, whether they push away those things that should be priorities, such as our relationships with God and with others or our ability to accomplish necessary work. So often these "vices" are the things that consume our time—and yet we say we have no time to study the Bible,...