The devotional - A Look at the Book #608

What Papa “J” has to say! #29

Does it cost a lot to pay attention, or could you say that by paying attention there is a great reward? Hmmm! “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver” Proverbs 25:11

The Devotional

I know of no one who does not like to get a reward… even a strong reprimand can be a reward, but we earnestly try to avoid these. However, in our young days, the reward of reprimand might be just the thing that promotes longevity of life as we grow older. You know do you not that to repeat a mistake can be very unrewarding and dangerous. Once as a young sailor I was walking on the pier next to my ship and the “jacking gear” was engaging the prop causing the big screw to turn one way for a few seconds and then the other way. There was a “camel float” near the prop and I watched as it became wedged between the screw and the hull. Without much thought about it, I jumped off the pier on to the camel… I was going to help! Once on the camel the thought crossed my mind. “What are you doing here on this floating camel?” One second I am safe on the pier; the next, I am in a dangerous moment in time. Some of the sailors who were involved in the, “jacking process” stopped the screw from turning and spent the next half hour getting me off the camel. The Boatswain Mate; my boss was not very happy with me; my reward was “mess cook” for the next ninety days. As many of you know, it could have been worse. Rewards; good or not so good, are the pruning shears of life. Luke 13:6-9

ECCLESIASTES 4

Ecclesiastes 5:8-9 Jesus states that we will always have the poor with us (Matthew 26:11) and Solomon notes or adds this thought, that along with the poor you also have corrupt government. Some might say that the mingling of these two thoughts cause people to be poor. I disagree; we have poor people and corrupted government because; all peoples of the earth are SINNERS.

Romans 3:23 states clearly that all of us sin and fall short of the glory of God. God is not glorified because people are poor and He is not glorified when the governments of the world step away from the Justice and Righteous standards of the Holy Bible. You may want to argue about SIN and Justice or Righteousness and I say… go ahead. Your argument does not change a thing; it simply adds more confusion as you chase after the wind.

The unbalance that Solomon refers too in these two verses does not look at equality of life but at the unbalanced life in a sinful world. We are all served from the field of harvest, the fields of life are controlled by vanity, the reapers reap vanity. In the verses later in the chapter we will see this more clearly.