The Meaning Of Life

https://biblehub.com/nkjv/ecclesiastes/10.htm

Allow me to babble for a second.

I was struck by the first verse of Chapter 10 talking about how flies putrify the perfumers ointment. I just watched a YouTube video this past week about how cowboys ate in the 19th Century. Obviously there was no refrigeration, and outside of a hotel, the only place to eat was in the saloons.

The video said that the food was free as it enticed the cowboys in, who would then buy liquor. The food usually consisted of salt preserved meat along with biscuits (hard tack), which set out on the open bar all day and was often riddled with flies. And to make the biscuits, the cook often had to sift the bugs out of the flour before she could bake, but some obviously got past the procedure.

And it made me think of our blessings and how spoiled we are. As a former firefighter, there is virtually nothing that turns my stomach accept a fly. I know where they’ve originated and I know where they’ve been, and once one lands on my food, I can no longer eat it. If a fly lands on my sandwich, I tear that section off and throw it in the trash. I can safely say I was born in the wrong era, because I definitely would not have been overweight if I had lived in those days.

These three chapters end the Book of Ecclesiastes. At first read, it is truly nothing more than a collection of proverbs, of wisdom, except for Chapter 12 which is genuinely valuable.

Bring your children up in Christ! Let me say that again, bring your children up in Christ.

I am not critical of my parents, but I’m not sure they knew how to sit and talk to me about God. Two of my three sisters tried their hardest, my eldest trying to get me involved in her church because our local church was small, mostly elderly people, and virtually no children. My youngest sister urged me to read the Bible when I was young, even buying me a modern translation so it was easier for me to read. But being the baby of the family, and almost an only child (I was just discussing with my youngest sister the other day how she left for college when I was just 7 years old), there was little to guide me.

Don’t misunderstand, I brought up in a Christian home. The family Bible sat on the coffee table in the living room, and it was regarded with utmost reverence, you weren’t even allowed to put anything on top of it. We went to church every week, we observed the Sabbath, and I had to endure the Billy Graham Crusades when they came on television. My mother loved George Beverly Shea and his rendition of “How Great Thou Art”.

And honestly, I would probably have been a wayward child regardless of what they had done. But, I say again, it wasn’t their fault.

Today, it is obvious our youth are not being brought up to love Christ. And what’s worse, each generation gets further and further away from Christ. I watched a video of Charlie Kirk just this week having one of Charlie’s discussions about God with a proud athiest. I won’t name his interviewer, but he is well known. It was a private podcast, so the interviewer was drinking as the conversation went on, drinking too heavily I might add, which I perceived as being that he was intimidated by Charlie. His heels were dug in in his non-belief, but his actions were not normal, instead of being the formidable intellect that had an answer for everything, he was giddy and laughing as he mocked God, impressing on me that even he, himself, knew he would lose the debate with Charlie.

As I watched, I couldn’t help to think how we got in this situation. I have no idea how old the interviewer is, but he is likely a Gen X or perhaps even a Boomer, old enough in my opinion that he should have been raised in a semi-religious household and was “dragged to church”, so to speak. But he wasn’t. And I know we cannot be responsible for our children once they’ve left the nest, which is even further proof of why we should instill a good Christian background in our children when they are young.

I watched another video (honestly, I do more than sit around watching videos all day), and the premise of the video is pretty routine, I’ve seen many of them. Someone will enter a box store or supermarket, then walk around to random people offering them cash if they can quote just one scripture. You can tell a few are very faithful because they immediately quote something, something that even I might not be able to do. But for those that can’t quote any scripture, that isn’t the worst of it. The worst is the older ones that scoff at the thought, that roll their eyes and say things like, “Oh, another religious nut”, or “I don’t have time for this crap”. There are some older folks even, people my age or older that flat out say, “There is no God.”

It shows me that Satan has been very hard at work, all the more reason parents should work even harder to teach their children about the great battle between God and Satan, between good and evil. As our education system declines and home schooling is becoming more popular, it is even a better chance to include spiritual education mixed in as well.

When I was a fireman, I made a plea to our local school board to adopt the “Learn Not to Burn” curriculum in the schools. It wasn’t an added class, but it was one that incorporated fire safety in with regular studies; for example, they could use some examples of fire in chemistry class, or the importance of not playing with fire in social studies.

If you’re homeschooling, or even just in the evenings at home, instead of sitting around watching television, do some spiritual “home schooling”. Instill a love for God in your home. Instill a love for your fellow man in your home. Don’t just talk about God and Biblical history and Biblical stories and events, talking about proof that God exists, so they grow up not only as believers, but confident that they are right in that belief.

Times are tough. Satan is strong. Even in my generation as a boomer, the few kids in school that were deeply religious were ridiculed for their behaviors. It wasn’t “cool” to have clean language. It wasn’t “cool” not to tell dirty jokes. And now, as I look back, I have nothing but the deepest respect for those kids who were staunch in their spiritual beliefs and resisted the peer pressure to be abnormal. And it truly was. If you didn’t go to keg parties, you were not in the popular crowd. If you didn’t drink beer and get drunk while you were dragging main, you weren’t with the “in” crowd.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the number of believers and faithful far outnumbered the others? Wouldn’t it be wonderful if there was peer pressure to be a nice, decent, God loving human being? Instead, we’ve let our guard down on Satan. We’ll “take our kids to church and that will be enough” practice just doesn’t work.

Listen to the advise of Solomon, and heed it.

“Father in Heaven, I fear that it is too late for our society. The pendulum has swung too far to the side of Satan that it will never come back. For generations now, we have ignored You, and to be a non-believer is the norm. However, we can rest assured that through prophesy, we know the return of Your Son is imminent. Soon, Satan and his followers will be judged, and this society we now live in will come to an end. We pray that many can be converted before that time comes. Your Son forgave the thief on the cross, so we know it is never too late. Save as many as You can Father, and guide us in helping with that endeavor as You wish. Turn our hearts to what is good in Your eyes. Amen.”

For centuries now, those who believe in the Second Coming have been saying, “The time is close.” I personally believe that God knows the future, that He knows who will be saved in the end and those that are truly lost, and I believe He is just waiting for that last person, who will be converted, to be converted. Then Christ will come and rescue all of us from the world we live in. All the more reason to talk about Jesus with as many people as possible, especially our youth.

May God bless you all.