I'm not exactly old yet nor wise. Though I do know that if all I strive for is from my own two hands ... it is worthless. My life can be taken from me by anyone who wishes it. All that I own can be taken as well. Family, children, money, possessions, everything WILL be lost in time. We may imagine that we could fight to keep it. But, it all will taken away from you.
In your life there is only one constant. God.
If He blesses you with a moment of happiness. Be happy in it. If you need to morn. Morn. Turn to God and deal with what is placed before you.
As you do not know the way the spirit comes to the bones in the womb of a woman with child, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything.
We may like to point out that today we can count the stars. We can measure the sands of the seas. We are so smart. And all the Bible stuff is just old stuff that came before man got really smart.
But, from the beginning of time until the end of everything, we will never know the way the spirit comes to the child within the mother. Never.
Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation. When his breath departs, he returns to the earth; on that very day his plans perish.
To take a modern paraphrase ... Don't put your trust in "Hope and Change". The leaders you place your faith to do good for you ... Will not.
No matter how powerful we think we are, we will breath our last and all that we want will pass away with us. Look only to the LORD. Only He thinks on what is best for us. Men think on what is best for them.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.
While I was growing up my grandfather always reminded me to read all of Proverbs. To read it and place it in my heart. And there has never been a time in my life when it didn't speak to me. Guiding my thoughts and teaching me.
Only a fool will ignore God's wisdom. Of course the problem with a fool is that they will not care and will only scorn the truth anyway.
On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper, so that there will be no collecting when I come.
When the income tax was first put in place they didn't have people set anything aside. They were just going to collect at end of the fiscal year. Come collection time it looked like basically everyone didn't have enough money put aside to play their taxes. And that meant everyone would be breaking the law.
So they were faced with an issue of what to do. They couldn't arrest everyone. So to get rid of income tax as a failure or change how it was collected. Seeing that we now have our jobs remove the tax from every paycheck you can guess what was decided.
If you plan to help others financially or with time take a little at a time. Set aside your time every day and every week. Taking it piece by piece the burden is lighter. You can't pick up a roof and place it over a house. But, you can move it one shingle at a time.
