What Papa “J” has to say! #15
Discipline is no longer a top shelf word in the United States. This does not mean that discipline has lost the intended flavor or intoxicating potential. It simply means that men have lost their integrity to consume it. Proverbs 11:1-3
The Devotional
In the early nineteen fifties when my father bought us our first television. There were very few programs to watch. Mostly as I recall we watched a round circle that identified the one or two stations that were available. It took several minutes for the TV to warm up so there was this excitement for all of us when the round emblem of identification popped up. Here the punch; my father was mentally disabled from World War II and ever so often he would go to the Veteran’s hospital for several days, so within a week of getting our first TV my dad left for one of his treatments. Mom determined that if dad was not at home, we would not watch any television until he came home. This was applied discipline that showed up in other areas of our young life too; one that often controls my way of life today. But I know that in today’s world it would be considered cruel and abusive. Times have not changed… people have. One of the pillars of growing is a pillar of discipline. I do not mean to say that my parents were super disciplinarians; the fact is they were really lousy at it, but they were superior disciplinarians compared to today’s secular parenting techniques. If you know me personally you know that I am slow to pull the ripcord. Sometimes I know that I aggravate people by waiting so long, while in my mind I am simply waiting for my dad to return. (No, not literally) but I am waiting for the right moment. I have also learned that our God is waiting for the fullness of time and that He is not slack as some count slackness. There is time for you to be saved because He is not willing that you should perish in hell. Be saved from this undisciplined, selfish and sinful world. 2 Peter 3:9.
Ecclesiastes
Ecclesiastes 3:8-15 –I would like to spend some time looking at the things this king says about the skill of living life under the sun. Men work for profit; some are satisfied with enough to get by, but some strive for; not just a little more but all they can get. So this question of living a life of “what profit is there” is very large in our minds eye whether we strive for just enough or too much. If we would just turn to God, as Jeremiah 33:3 says we would see great and mighty blessings.
The task of living then is intense. Living requires knowledge of God and in our current world there is a world wide web to remove God from every facet of the gem of Creation. God not only created every cut in this gem; He also set in place every Law of Creation which includes the boundary of eternal life. In the fall of Adam that boundary was broken and as a result God established a Law of discipline and of moral and social conduct. The Books of Moses called Leviticus and Deuteronomy describe the God given task of labor under the sun.
If you’ve not read these books or even the New Testament then your striving is for nothing and your enjoyment to live life has dissipated like the lifting air in a crashing hot air balloon. God’s desire for you is to eat, drink and be merry within the disciplines of His Creation; He is waiting for you to come home. We will be spending several days in these few verses in Ecclesiastes since these words are packed with God’s purpose for you and for me.
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