Enjoy Each Moment with God; Proverbs 7, Ecclesiastes 8

May the mumbling commence!

It is pitiful.  It is repugnant.  It is evil when we misuse the avenues that are meant to worship God – when we use these avenues to worship something or someone other than God.  In the Hebrew Bible, this kind of act is associated with adultery.  Read from Proverbs chapter seven:

So she caught him and kissed him;

With an impudent face she said to him: 

"I have peace offerings with me;

Today I have paid my vows. 

So I came out to meet you,

Diligently to seek your face,

And I have found you. 

I have spread my bed with tapestry,

Colored coverings of Egyptian linen. 

I have perfumed my bed

With myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon. 

Come, let us take our fill of love until morning;

Let us delight ourselves with love. 

For my husband is not at home;

He has gone on a long journey; 

He has taken a bag of money with him,

And will come home on the appointed day." (Verses 13-20)

“Look,” she says, “I have peace offerings.  I have paid my vows.”  To who has she offered peace offerings?  To who has she paid her vows?  She seeks out someone to share “love” with that is not her husband.  They return to Egypt.  They also misuse myrrh, which is associated with the worship of God. 

But they are worshiping their own desires and ways.  They are worshiping their shallow concepts of love that can only be learned through God.  They are lost, and they sully the actions of those who strive to use these avenues to worship God.  They sully the faithful in the eyes of both those within the faithful community and those outside looking in.

That is pitiful and repugnant and evil.  Let us admit when we misuse the sacred and holy ways of worshiping God for anything other than worshiping God.  Let us use the avenues and attitudes of worship rightly.  Let us be in the moment and give thanks to God.  Let us be in the moment and embrace the divine appointments that God throws in our laps.  Read from Proverbs chapter eight:

So I commended enjoyment, because a man has nothing better under the sun than to eat, drink, and be merry; for this will remain with him in his labor all the days of his life which God gives him under the sun. 

When I applied my heart to know wisdom and to see the business that is done on earth, even though one sees no sleep day or night, then I saw all the work of God, that a man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun. For though a man labors to discover it, yet he will not find it; moreover, though a wise man attempts to know it, he will not be able to find it. (Verses 15-17)

So, let’s enjoy what God grants us.  Let’s be merry.  Let’s share our blessing and mirth with others.

Enough mumbling for now… 

Peace Out