Ecclesiastes 6 bible reading and devotionals.

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Max Lucado Daily: More Sharing

The truth about your stocks, cash, and 4081-K?   They’re not really yours.

The Gospel of Mark tells the story of a poor widow who came to the temple and dropped in two small coins as an offering.  She was down to her last pennies, yet rather than spend them on bread, she returned them to God.

Financial gurus would have urged her to cut back on her giving.  They would have discouraged the generosity of the woman.  But Jesus did just the opposite.  He said,

“I tell you the truth, this poor widow has given more than all the others who are making contributions.”

God owns everything and gives us all things to enjoy. Let’s move from the fear of scarcity to the comfort of provision.  Experience less hoarding and more sharing.

Replace fear of the coming winter with faith in the living God!  Jesus said, “Do good, be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share.”

Taken from Fearless

Ecclesiastes 6

I have seen another evil under the sun, and it weighs heavily on mankind: 2 God gives some people wealth, possessions and honor, so that they lack nothing their hearts desire, but God does not grant them the ability to enjoy them, and strangers enjoy them instead. This is meaningless, a grievous evil.

3 A man may have a hundred children and live many years; yet no matter how long he lives, if he cannot enjoy his prosperity and does not receive proper burial, I say that a stillborn child is better off than he. 4 It comes without meaning, it departs in darkness, and in darkness its name is shrouded. 5 Though it never saw the sun or knew anything, it has more rest than does that man— 6 even if he lives a thousand years twice over but fails to enjoy his prosperity. Do not all go to the same place?

7 Everyone’s toil is for their mouth,
    yet their appetite is never satisfied.
8 What advantage have the wise over fools?
What do the poor gain
    by knowing how to conduct themselves before others?
9 Better what the eye sees
    than the roving of the appetite.
This too is meaningless,
    a chasing after the wind.
10 Whatever exists has already been named,
    and what humanity is has been known;
no one can contend
    with someone who is stronger.
11 The more the words,
    the less the meaning,
    and how does that profit anyone?
12 For who knows what is good for a person in life, during the few and meaningless days they pass through like a shadow? Who can tell them what will happen under the sun after they are gone?


Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Read: Acts 15:7-26

New International Version (NIV)
7 After much discussion, Peter got up and addressed them: “Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a choice among you that the Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe. 8 God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us. 9 He did not discriminate between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith. 10 Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of Gentiles a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors have been able to bear? 11 No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are.”

12 The whole assembly became silent as they listened to Barnabas and Paul telling about the signs and wonders God had done among the Gentiles through them. 13 When they finished, James spoke up. “Brothers,” he said, “listen to me. 14 Simon[a] has described to us how God first intervened to choose a people for his name from the Gentiles. 15 The words of the prophets are in agreement with this, as it is written:

16 “‘After this I will return
    and rebuild David’s fallen tent.
Its ruins I will rebuild,
    and I will restore it,
17 that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord,
    even all the Gentiles who bear my name,
says the Lord, who does these things’[b] —
18     things known from long ago.[c]
19 “It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God. 20 Instead we should write to them, telling them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood. 21 For the law of Moses has been preached in every city from the earliest times and is read in the synagogues on every Sabbath.”

The Council’s Letter to Gentile Believers

22 Then the apostles and elders, with the whole church, decided to choose some of their own men and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. They chose Judas (called Barsabbas) and Silas, men who were leaders among the believers. 23 With them they sent the following letter:

The apostles and elders, your brothers,

To the Gentile believers in Antioch, Syria and Cilicia:

Greetings.

24 We have heard that some went out from us without our authorization and disturbed you, troubling your minds by what they said. 25 So we all agreed to choose some men and send them to you with our dear friends Barnabas and Paul— 26 men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Taking Risks

May 23, 2012 — by Dennis Fisher

Barnabas and Paul . . . have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. —Acts 15:25-26

In his book Stuntman! My Car-Crashing, Plane-Jumping, Bone-Breaking, Death-Defying Hollywood Life, Hal Needham reflects on taking risks. Needham has slugged it out in fist fights, raced cars at high speed, walked on wings of airborne planes, fallen off horses, and has even been set on fire! He risked his life to entertain film audiences and to distinguish himself as a top Hollywood stuntman.

Paul and Barnabas were also “men who have risked their lives” (Acts 15:26). But their motivation was far different. Their goal was to exalt Christ through the preaching of the gospel. As a missionary in the Roman Empire, Paul faced hazards that resulted in shipwrecks, beatings, persecution, and imprisonment—just to name a few (2 Cor. 11:22-30). But Paul was more than willing to take these risks to make Christ known.

Many believers take risks to spread Jesus’ good news. But fear of rejection causes others to remain silent. Have you been passively sitting on the sidelines ignoring opportunities to share the gospel? God has provided His Spirit to empower you (Acts 1:8) and His Word to make the message clear (Rom. 1:16). Ask God for the courage to speak up and witness for the Savior. Taking the risk will be well worth it.

Will you be bold in your witness
By giving lost sinners God’s Word?
Jesus will honor your service,
And sinners will surely be stirred. —Bosch
The rewards of witnessing are well worth the risks.


My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
May 23, 2012

Our Careful Unbelief

. . . do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on —Matthew 6:25

Jesus summed up commonsense carefulness in the life of a disciple as unbelief. If we have received the Spirit of God, He will squeeze right through our lives, as if to ask, “Now where do I come into this relationship, this vacation you have planned, or these new books you want to read?” And He always presses the point until we learn to make Him our first consideration. Whenever we put other things first, there is confusion.

“. . . do not worry about your life . . . .” Don’t take the pressure of your provision upon yourself. It is not only wrong to worry, it is unbelief; worrying means we do not believe that God can look after the practical details of our lives, and it is never anything but those details that worry us. Have you ever noticed what Jesus said would choke the Word He puts in us? Is it the devil? No— “the cares of this world” (MatthewMatthew 13:22). It is always our little worries. We say, “I will not trust when I cannot see”— and that is where unbelief begins. The only cure for unbelief is obedience to the Spirit.

The greatest word of Jesus to His disciples is abandon.


A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

When No One's Pushing - #6618

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

I was at a Christian conference center where the children's program included gymnastics instruction. No, no, I did not get involved personally; my leotard doesn't fit any more. But there were some kids who were getting the hang of the forward rolls and the backward rolls. And there were some kids there who weren't getting the hang of it as well. They paraded them all out one night for a little show. And one girl raised her hands as she was supposed to, very gracefully, got into position to do a forward roll, and stayed there. She couldn't quite get the roll rolling, until the instructor got behind her and pushed her forward again, and then again.

Now, it wasn't the little girl's muscles that were moving her, it was someone else's. But at the end she took a bow just as if she had mastered these gymnastics routines. See, she has the illusion she can do it, but she's really paralyzed on her own, like a lot of God's students I know; like this one right here.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "When No One's Pushing."

Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Philippians 2. It's Paul's commendation of some people who had learned their routines so to speak, pretty well. I'm reading from verse 12, which says this: "Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence but now much more in my absence, continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling."

Now, first of all, this is not a verse that teaches you that you are saved by your good works. It's about working out the salvation you already have; working it out into your everyday life. It's the "out working." It's making sure that what is in you works its way out so people can see it. But He says significantly you don't just do it when I'm there; you do it when I'm not there. See, these people were following Christ, but not just when their leader was there pushing them.

A lot of Christians who do the Christian routines do them as long as there is someone there pushing. The scary part about that is that it's a second-hand faith. What kind of Christian are you when your youth leader or your pastor is nowhere close; when your parents aren't watching? What happens when you're the only Christian in your dorm, or your office, or your class, or your circle of friends? When your environment changes, does your faith change too? See, that's a second-hand faith. It's not going to make it.

It's time you started to develop spiritual muscles of your own. Whatever your age, maybe you're too dependent on someone else to open the Bible for you, on someone else to keep you motivated, on someone else to keep you on track. You've got to develop your own discipline of time in The Word, of making Christ-honoring choices when there's nobody around to see but Him. You've got to take a stand on your own. See, it's risky to be God's person on your own, but it's such a good feeling when you stand for Christ and know you did it on your own, with only Him watching.

Look, let's take the crutches away and start doing some forward rolls on our own. Ask yourself, "What kind of Christian am I when no one is there pushing?" And start building up those spiritual muscles of your own.