All is Vanity

Some of you may recognize that the title of my post is the title of the first section of Ecclesiastes 1.  I am currently in a life group with some of my good buddies at BIOLA and we just started reading through and discussing Ecclesiastes.  Last Thursday night we went over Ecclesiastes 1 and I was blown away by what I learned.  I am going to be completely honest with you but when I first read over Ecclesiastes 1 I felt a  overwhelmed, confused, and depressed.  If any of you have ever read Ecclesiastes 1 you know why.  It talks about how living a life not for the kingdom of God is not a life worth living.  In other words it is useless.  There are many things that we do in life that may not be bad but if those things are keeping us from bringing glory to God then they are insubstantial.  Everything we do in life should be for the glory of God.  A verse that stood out to me in Ecclesiastes 1 was verse 7, "All streams run to the sea, but the sea is not full; to the place where the streams flow, there they flow again."  What Solomon (the author of Ecclesiastes) means by this is that all people's experiences that are not lived out for the kingdom of God will never fill nor satisfy them just as the rivers will never fill the sea.  There may be things in life that bring us temporary satisfaction but only God can bring us a satisfaction that lasts forever.  Everything we do must be for the glory of God.  When we seek to glorify God we are filled with an unexplainable joy but when we seek to glorify ourselves we will find nothing but emptiness.  A life lived for ourselves brings death but a life lived for God brings life!  

A Genuine Friend

I have many friends but one characteristic that separates the friends from the genuine friends is honesty.  Although honesty hurts sometimes it is necessary in friendships.  There have been instances when instead of being honest with my friend I just told them what they wanted to hear.  The reality is that it may be intimidating to be honest with friends but it is worth it.  Last night I was being stubborn about a certain situation.  I went to my room not wanting to talk to anyone.  Suddenly one of my friends came to me and talked to me about why I was being stubborn and how I should act more maturely about the situation.  At first I was shocked and kind of upset that he was saying this stuff to me.  But as we kept talking I realized he was not doing it to make me feel bad, he was doing it because he cares about me and wants to help me grow.  We finished the conversation with him praying for me.  When he left I had a complete change of heart.  I knew that rather than being stubborn I should humble myself and face the situation maturely, which I ended up doing.  It probably took my friend, who I have not known for that long, a lot of courage to confront me like that.  He probably knew that I was not going to like what he had to say but he told me anyways because he knew it was the right thing to do.  That is what genuine friends do.  They do not lie and say what their friend wants to hear.  They do not get super upset with them and tell them off.  They confront their friend honestly and calmly.  This whole situation made me think about Ecclesiastes 4:10 which says, "If one falls down, his friend can help him up."  This is exactly what my friend did to me.  I am so grateful that my friend was honest with me.  He helped me up when my stubbornness was bringing me down.  I do not have many friends who are honest like this.  Let this be an encouragement for all of us as a group that when we see a member of circles or someone at school/work doing something he/she shouldn't be doing or see that they are down to have the courage to confront them and be honest in order that we may lift them up and help them grow.      

Life is Short

As most of you already know there was a shooting in my home town, Seal Beach, on Wednesday October 12.  Eight people were killed in the shooting.  I have lived in Seal Beach my whole life and nothing like this has ever happened.  It was a shock for the whole city.  One of the victims was the mother a girl who I graduated with.  Although the shooting brought a lot of pain and sadness it also taught me that life is short.   It say in Psalm 139:16 that "all the days ordained for me were written in your book".  Only God knows when our last day will be.  Knowing this has encouraged me to not only live life to the fullest but to reach the lost.  Some of the people who were killed in the shooting were not believers and that breaks my heart knowing that there life was cut short and now there is no way for them to find Christ.  I really want this traumatic event to be an encouragement for all of us as a group.  We, as a group, need to reach those who are lost.  In my opinion, to live life to the fullest cannot be done without Christ because without Him our lives are empty.  Let us reach the lost so them too can live lives of fullness.  Please continue praying for Seal Beach.  My hopes are that this event will bring many to Christ.  Thank you for taking time to read this post.  I love you all.