The Devotional – A Look at the Book #614

by Jesse Abel

What Papa “J” has to say! #35

It does not take much to see the downward spiral of our nation. Just look at the ornaments hanging from our ear, our tongue, our lip, our nose and some even around our neck. These are not ornaments of progress, but ornaments of decadence. Proverbs 1:8-9 and Romans 1:30.

The Devotional

We hope that your Christmas this year was filled with the joy of the LORD! We also pray that the New Year coming will open doors of opportunity that will direct your steps to the Mercy Seat of the LORD. Speaking of mercy, we all deserve judgment; simply put the Holy Bible states clearly that we all fall short of the glory (Mercy if you will) of God because all of us have sinned. Now there is a whole lot of information in the Holy Bible to explain this more clearly but here are a few verses of scripture to get you started on your own. God desires mercy over sacrifice. Matthew 9:12-13. There are none righteous, no not one. Romans 3:9-18. There is a judgment coming Revelation 20:11-15. Now here is the good news. God loves you, John 3:15-18. Faith in Jesus opens the door of eternal life and God’s Mercy; John 11:25-26 simply answer the question in verse 26; “do you believe this?” Saying yes to God opens the door to His Mercy Seat. 2 Corinthians 5:8-11. This is the judgment that is covered in the work of Jesus Christ at Calvary in that God sacrificed His Son in your place. He became sin for you and me in order that we would receive mercy rather than judgment.

ECCLESIASTES 7

Ecclesiastes 7:2-4 – I have been in the house of mourning and so have you. In the moment it is a hard place to be, every nerve in your body feels as if it will burst and every tear seeks release at once. The mind desires to shut down rather than moving on to the next thought. It also seems that the presence of time will not stand still for even a second as it speeds away from that moment. Trying as we do to put the brakes on so as to say wait, we need to go back!

How then can Solomon say that death is better than birth, well for one he is not talking about those left behind, but about those who have gone; if he or she who died were still with you and me then they along with us would be mourning over another whose days of mourning have ended. At the birth of someone we rejoice, but as time progresses the one birthed takes his or her place in life to mourn over loss of another. Life and death are a natural occurrence under the sun and the living are those who take death to heart.

Wisdom is also found in mourning as mourning provides skill to comfort the living in death under the sun; mourning heals the heart of the loss; and those trained in mourning are needed for those untrained. Sadness is not depression, but sadness left unattended will bring depression and so it can happen that the heart refuses to be healed and one may be found seeking comfort from drugs (mirth) and other distracting substances. The world is full of distracted people.