Trivia:
Happy Monday, my friend. Well Lindsay and most of you didn't disappoint. Yes, the correct answer to the question, Which letter appears in 11% of all english words? Way to go Lindsay and others, the correct answer was the letter E. Amazingly this little vowel finds its way into many words of all varied shapes and sizes.
Here's another mind teaser. Which is the only food that never spoils? Is it Honey, mayonnaise, chocolate, or garlic? Make your guess and we'll give the correct answer tomorrow.
Challenge:
Ecclesiastes 9:4 "But for him who is joined to all the living there is hope, for a living dog is better than a dead lion."
In this verse the writer begins with pointing out just what our greatest blessing is, yes, thats right, it is HOPE. The hope that goes on as long as we are alive. For it is strong as long as we have at least one more opportunity to bring glory to God. Even a dog as lowly as he is in the animal kingdom he has greater hope of bringing glory, than the lion who no longer is able to raise himself to proclaim His glory.
Even though lions were recognized as majestic. powerful, predators, this is refered to in the Bible in several passages such as, in Gen. 49:9; 2 Sam. 17:10; Prov. 28:1; Prov. 30:30, and Micah 5:8. However, when life drains from these mighty creatures, thay have less Hope to be a powerful predator than the dog who is prone to be looked at as a scavenger.
Here the dog is spoken of not in the light of man's best friend, but as the lowest, meanest forms of animal life. While the lion is recognized as the king of beasts, powerful, magnificent, etc.
He has come to the conclusion that is is better to be a dog and hang onto life and HOPE than to die for a seemingly noble cause. When after the loss of HOPE the cause became recognized as an error in their thinking.
I remember a time when we, dad & I began clearing a piece of land that my grandfather had recently given to dad. We spent a month of Saturdays clearing the trees, rocks, concrete, etc. then the caterpillar came to dig the footings for the house. In the process of this project his equipment got stuck in the mud, to the point that we had to bring two trucks to winch it out. We then waited a few months for the land to dry out. Then we began setting the forms for the concrete footings, and before pouring the concrete, the Lord called our contractor to become a missionary to his wife's home land.
I will never forget our coming together as a family and praying for what God's direction was for this endeavor. After several weeks of searching for a locally trusted contractor we together determined that this may not be God's plan for us. When a realtor out of the blue, contacted dad, in which the owner of a two story brick home was offered to us. We had gone with a local realtor several months earlier, as our home projects on our present home was completed and someone had made a substantial offer to us.
Several years earlier we had begun a ministry with Child Evangelism where we had felt lead to reach boys and girls in our area. God had blessed this ministry, in a number of ways. So, we needed room for our ministry outreach and our present home wasn't able to meet this need. So we began, what we felt was under His leading to locate a home that would meet these need. a growing family, and the ministries, extended needs.
Grandpa donated the land for us to build the house, but it seemed to not be a proper move. So, we began to visit homes which could accomplish meeting our ministry needs. Which were missionary housing in our home, for missionaries traveling through our area, a training area for Good News club leaders, as well as, an office area for the regional CEF needs.
We visited this beautiful house in the middle of an upscale area where doctors, and lawyer lived, along with an entire Jewish community. The house had been vacant for several years, and after looking through the house dad etermined that it would require extensive remodeling. The house was on the exterior beautiful, but most of the plumbing has frozen and broken in the walls. So we determined this house was out of our price range and beyond our ability to repair.
So we stopped our search and prayed for what may be next in His plans. After another year, the realtor called back and made this offer. What seemed a large down payment, then an offer for the owner to pay for all costs required for remodeling broken plumbing, the condition was that we would pay for labor and they would pay for all materials. The cost of labor would be treated as sweat equity in the house cost. At the rate of $40.00 dollars an hour for any labor we needed tp pay.
As we went back to visit this house and we sat on the landing and prayed for God to answer our prayers for direction, as a kid I thought this was Hopeless. After praying we went home, that's when mom felt the faith test was in the mail. Upon her going to get the mail we had received from a company that had failed to pay for rental on a steam engine they were using in their open air drama.
Since this has been so long, I will finish this drama tomorrow. But only say:
SO GO WITH GOD my dear saint, for He will never fail you in this work of Hope and Faith. He will always come through in His works when we look to Him in Hope and Faith. Oh, my dear saint rest in His strength for He will never fail you.
If you have three minutes take the time to listen to this song on You Tube: Russ Taff- Praise the Lord
it envelope's the message of Solomon in this verse.
Honey