Ecclesiastes - Being Satisfied

Hello Everyone!

I have been part of a small-group bible study with men at my church called, "Men in Training."  The Bible study is two semesters long with the first semester being a study of a book in the bible and the second semester being a more topical study.  I was introduced to Warren Wiersbe last year when we did our study on Proverbs.  It was intense, but I learned a lot.  Near the end of the second semester, after our topical study, I started asking myself what I wanted to accomplish in my spiritual walk. Also, how do I get there?  I knew I needed to study the Bible &  be more effective at it.  Overall, I knew I wasn't happy with myself or my walk.  I wanted to be where Paul was at in Philippians 4:11 when he mentioned being content in whatever circumstance.  I went to Lifeway looking for Bible Studies dealing with that topic, and I came across this book.  It intrigued me because it was a topic I wanted to address and I have never seriously studied Ecclesiastes.

Even though I read and heard that Solomon was one of the "wisest people that ever lived," there was a big part of me that didn't believe it.  I know there were stories in the bible that displayed his wisdom.  Obviously you can't deny Proverbs!  But in the back of my head I was like, "If he was so wise, why did he have so many wives, bring in their false Gods, and ruin what was probably the greatest kingdom on earth?!?"  Now I'll admit that no one is perfect and that God uses imperfect people (because frankly if he didn't, he wouldn't have a lot of people from which he could choose).  That still didn't stop my bias before digging into this book.  However after reading and studying Ecclesiastes, I could see the wisdom and intelligence in this writing.  Any Christian or even non-Christian that enjoys a little Philosophical discussion would enjoy this book.

There are so many intricate topics in Ecclesiastes that I could not do it justice in trying to sum it up on this blog.  I thought that's what I was going to do when I started writing this post, but perhaps not.  The funny thing is that Ecclesiastes ends where Proverbs begins. After his long argument, Solomon ends up by saying, "Fear God and keep his commandments" (12:13).  In Proverbs he starts off by saying, "The Fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge" (1:7) and then he goes from there.  Both books display the power of God and the importance of living for him verses living for anything else.  You see that all through Ecclesiastes.  Your job won't satisfy you, money won't satisfy you, people will disappoint, there's nothing new under the sun, you live and you die and without God it's meaningless!  If you want to be truly satisfied, there's only one who can truly satisfy you.  

So, does God want us to just do whatever he wants and we can never have fun?  God wants us to enjoy life.  However no where does he say that to enjoy life means to enjoy sin.  We tend to think that since we got away with it once, we can get away with it all the time. As Wiersbe points out, "God is indeed long-suffering toward sinners and doesn't always judge sin immediately,  however, God's mercy must not be used as an excuse for man's rebellion."  Those who are my age or even a little younger are in danger because we think we have time to correct the sin in which we engage.  Yet even Charles Spurgeon said, "Youthful sins lay a foundation for aged sorrows."   Being in God's will helps us to enjoy life even more!  Think about it in terms of children.  If you ask most children if rules are good, most may say that they should be able to do whatever they want.  They would say a lot of rules are stupid.  However they haven't lived as long as we have and know what we know.  They don't see why they can't go to sleep whenever they want, but we know what happens when you don't get enough sleep.  They don't understand why they can't cross the road by themselves because they don't know the power and unpredictability of traffic.  They don't know why they can't get in cars with strangers, but we know the evil that is in some people's hearts.  Do you see what I'm getting at right now?  Just because there are rules and we don't understand them, doesn't mean that God put them in place for no reason.  He knows something that we don't know.

I believe Wiersbe puts it best near the end of the book.  "Life is worth living if you are truly alive through faith in Jesus Christ."  So the question is, are we satisfied?  Do we feel that Life is worth living?

Hong Kong Days 8 & 9 (2012)

Hello Everyone!

I hope that you all are doing well.  I must admit that I am pretty tired right now and it is kind of late, so hopefully this post will make sense and not sound like gibberish or crazy rambling.  If it does, I give you my sincere apologies!

Yesterday (7/27) was our last day at VBS.  I started off thinking that I wouldn't have that many kids, but I ended up having one of my biggest classes that day.  When we were reviewing the story, some of the kids were able to tell them word-for-word, but really how I would describe that day again would be organized chaos.  I decided to embrace it so I focused on the story and review in the morning, and several small group activities relating to Bible Skills in the later part.  When it was over with, I was exhausted.  With family night coming up after that, I wasn't sure if I would have the energy.

Family night was I thought a big success!  We had probably 350-400 people there (including kids) and I thought that the format and everything was really professional and structured well.  The pastor of CBIBC would tell the theme and verse of the day, and then the kids would sing the song for that day.  We proceeded to do that for all the themes/verses/songs for the remaining 4 days.  Then the pastor gave a message, Amy came up and talked about missions, and we dismissed for refreshments.  The funny thing to me at the end were the kids that asked to take a picture with me.  In each class you have those kids that just give you the most trouble.  I had three of those, even though everyone contributed.  However, two of them (the other one wasn't there that night) came and asked me for pictures and thanked me for teaching!  Then another kid who I couldn't get to say 1 word to me came up and asked me for a picture.  It's amazing how God works. I'm finding that when working with boys sometimes just being present and available is half the battle.  I feel like I could talk about this more but I have a time limit...

Today (7/28) we went to Macau.  Like Hong Kong, it is a Special Administrative Region (was given to China in the handover as well) and it also benefits from the "one country two systems" way of life that Hong Kong also lives by. It was really fun, but very hot.  We saw the ruins of St. Paul's Cathedral, went to a museum, saw the grave and chapel of Robert Morrison - he was one of the pioneers to bring the gospel to the chinese people...even helping with a translation.  It was great.  I could go on about it but I am short of time.

Things to pray for
-Church tomorrow (we are presenting to the church what we did)
-Health (Fatigue and personally my stomach has been acting horribly the past couple of days)
-Travel
-Safety

Thanks, and have a great day!

 Scott

Hong Kong Day 7 (2012)

Hello Everyone!

It is still very rainy here in Hong Kong!  It looks like the rain will continue to stay with us, but not at high typhoon rates which is good.  We have one more day of VBS left and then Parent night.  I probably won't get to blog tomorrow at a very good time because of that, so I'll tell you how that goes later.

We don't really have any updates from yesterday as far as having conversations with kids about the markings of their decision cards.  Some of the kids didn't understand why they marked it the way they did, some go to church, some don't go to church, some are very knowledgeable, we'll just have to wait and see what happens.  As far as today went, we had a good number of kids.  I think I got the number wrong yesterday and it was actually 125 or so.  I don't think I got the number today, but it was over 100.  I know my group had 16 in it today.  Once again very uneven with 14 boys and 2 girls.  The word that kept coming to my head to describe today was organized chaos!  They listened to the story, we reviewed the days, and did some activities.  It is very difficult to get them to follow instructions.  I have had Winnie translate a lot more for me these past couple of days which has helped.  I am pretty sure that the kid I have the most trouble with doesn't speak English at all.  The really good thing is that they seem to be listening and comprehending the story and lesson.  It's just everything in between is a fight for their attention.  I would have to say though that even though it was chaos today, it was a good day.  It was not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but it was good.

After VBS, we ended up going to Stanley Market to shop.  I went American today and had some McDonalds.  I have to say I'm a little upset.  I got a Big Mac meal there and the place was clean, very modernized, had a cafe, and great service.  The price for the meal?  It translates to roughly $3.00.  That's half the price than in America!  Plus it was almost better!  We need to look into this.  Regardless, I was able to do some shopping and was pretty happy with what I got.  I never know what to get people, so it's kind of weird.  Hope they like it.

That's about it for now.  Hope everyone is doing well!

Things to Pray for:
-Family Night tomorrow night
-Last day of VBS
-Strength for team
-Decisions that were or need to be made
-Weather

Thanks!

Scott

Hong Kong Day 6 (2012)

Hello Everyone!

I hope everyone is doing well.  We had some good news waking up this morning.  It was downgraded to a typhoon one, so today could have all age groups present!  The great thing was this was the day we presented the plan of salvation, so we were really happy that they could make it.  We ended up having (can't remember the exact number) another record-breaking day with either 109 or 115 students!  It was crazy, but it worked out.

I made some adjustments to my class.  One of the adjustments that was made was made during class.  It came to me that these kids were only speaking chinese to each other and were not getting what I was saying right away.  Luckily, one of my co-teachers speaks chinese.  I had to translate the Bible story which was SO much better.  We're going to end up doing that for the remaining time.  It just never occured to me but over the years we have come to find that the younger the kids are, the more need there is for translation.  I have worked with preteens the past several years and forgot this fact.  That also explains a lot of the "behavior" difficulties that I encountered.  We are still VERY uneven when it comes to the boys and girls ratio, but that's okay.  The other groups from what I hear are going really well.  It is a bigger adjustment for me personally with the group I have this year.  This is also my first year not teaching with Courtney, and I really didn't take that into account going into it.  So, a lot of learning experiences for me this year!  Even though I've been doing it almost as long as anybody :-)

The story did go very well today.  I ended up going clear to the beginning of the Bible where God created the earth to talking about sin, the mess we are in, God sending Jesus, and the related response.  I ended up drawing pictures and using diagrams while Winnie translated for me.  They seemed to have understood.  On my end, I think I presented it as clearly as I could, so God will just work how he will.  I had some kids signed that they wanted to talk about the decision, so Zach or the pastor will take those kids individually and discuss that.  Hopefully that will open the door for their decision.  Just please pray for the kids and for me.  I think we both are trying to figure out what works!

After the VBS, we went to Jordan to eat lunch and visit the ICM.  I have posted about this ministry before, so I won't go into much detail (you can find these in my old blog posts).  More than before though, this ministry really reminds me of George Müller and his ministry.  Completely by faith, and God takes care of the rest.  Jennifer has been doing an outstanding job with her role there.  I am very excited to see what God does in her life as she goes to Seminary this fall.

Today is Hannah's birthday, so we are going to celebrate the American way and get some pizza (I don't care who you are, that's funny right there!)  I hope that everyone is doing well and have a great rest of the day!

-Scott

P.S.  Things to pray for
-Decisions from today (we haven't had any individual talks with kids yet)
-Weather (still rainy)
-ICM
-Strength for Team
-Patience
-My Group and figuring out what works and what doesn't

Hong Kong Day 5 (2012)

Hello Everyone,

Do you remember when I talked about the different Typhoon warnings and what they meant?  Well, today we had one of those level typhoons where everything closed.  It got to even be a 10 overnight, and then an 8 this morning.  It was pretty intense weather.  It's a mess outside, and we saw some trees uprooted as well.  Everyone is safe and fine.  Unfortunately, we did have to cancel VBS today.  We are still planning on presenting the plan of salvation tomorrow, it will probably just be a little more difficult with where things were.  I did find out this morning though, that we had a record number of children Monday EVEN with the kindergarten absent (95 kids!)  Hopefully we can have a lot more tomorrow.

Since we couldn't really do anything for a while today, we had to plan accordingly.  Once it got to be 11 or 12 the typhoon warning lifted to a three, so some businesses and restaurants opened.   We ended up going to the Science musuem (which was pretty fun and interesting) and then we saw a movie as a group.  We're planning on a dinner tonight, and then getting ready for tomorrow.

We do have some good news though.  Hannah finally got her bag!  It was actually in the Hong Kong airport last night but because of the weather, they were not able to deliver it.  Now though, everything seems to be good.  We were all very happy for Hannah when she got her bag (of course, she was happy too).

We have had some rest, and the kids have had some rest.  Now we really need to get down to business because tomorrow is a big day.

Things to pray for
-Weather to be good
-Clear Communication
-Transportation
-Health
-Lots of Kids tomorrow
-ICM tomorrow (hang out with the kids after VBS)

Thanks, and have a great rest of the day!

Scott

Hong Kong Day 4 (2012)

Hey Everyone!

We have a long break until dinner, so I am able to update a little earlier today.  Hopefully I can get everything in that I want to say before my time is up on this computer.

Today was our first day of VBS.  It was a little different because of the weather.  Real quick...there are certain level of typhoon warnings in Hong Kong that effect whether certain schools will be closed down or not.  For example if it is a lower level typhoon the primary schools would be closed, a higher level secondary schools would be closed, and really high everything closes.  Our typhoon warning was high enough today where our youngest kids could not attend (4-5 year olds).  That is one of our biggest groups, so we didn't have as large of a group as we could.  I don't know the exact number we had today.  I know I had 15 kids in my class and I heard another class had around 22...so we probably had 75-80 kids there today.  It was kind of crazy with the weather though.  It's been really windy and rainy, so the kids were hyper and tired (strange enough) and there was just a lot going on.  The report from the teachers was that it went pretty well today.  My class was okay, but I need to make some adjustments tomorrow.  I am using the 3rd-4th grade curriculum, but I have all 8 year olds, so I need to actually treat them a little differently and maybe modify some of the activities.  These are all fun things that I will try to wrap my mind around tonight.  I have a very uneven class though...13 boys and 2 girls.  These boys are all boy.  I mean that in the sense of can't sit still, very active, want to fight/wrestle on the time.  It makes it fun, but a little challenging in the classroom.  They did sit down and listen to the Bible Story very well, so that should be good for the upcoming days ahead.

We were going to go to the peak tonight, but the weather is kind of bad so we will probably just do or eat something local.  It's going to be a very chill day.  It will be good rest of the team.  I don't know about everyone, but my internal clock is still acting weird.  It also seems like I experience jet lag in spurts.

Things to pray for
-My Class
-Strenth
-Weather
-Ministry at ICM (I think we're doing something with the kids either tomorrow or Thursday)
-Hannah's bag to get here (should be getting here tonight)
-Local church

Thanks, and have a great rest of the day!

Hong Kong Day 3 (2012)

Hello Everyone!

I have some good news and bad news.  The good news is that our luggage came tonight!  The bad news is that only 6 of 7 bags came.  Our poor Hannah was the one bag we were missing :-(  We knew we would be one bag short because they said they only got six, but Zach and I were hoping we would be missing a supply bag and not someone's personal bag.  The good thing is that they weren't sure which one was missing, so after we were able to confirm it and give them the number and the bag description, they should be able to find it easier.  So let's hope we can get that resolved soon.

Now to talk about what we did today.  Because the church has to meet elsewhere during the summer and they cannot meet at their usual place, they had to find a place to have their service.  They did find a place but they could only use it at 4pm, so we had a lot of time in between.  We jam packed it with a lot of different stuff, so I'll try to include as much as I can (A side note real quick about these blogs: I am limited with the amount of internet time I have.  I don't have time to proof read these like I want to, so please bear with me if I misspell it doesn't make sense :-D)

The first thing we did today was go to a Daoist temple.  It felt kind of weird going to this kind of temple on a Sunday morning, but I knew I was going to church afterward so it was okay.  This was my 3rd or 4th time going, but it still gets me all the time about the idolatry and false worship that is going on here.  It was VERY crowded today too.  This was one of the things on the trip that I think every new team member should see.  I know I look at the whole concept of Idolatry and the way it mentions it in the Bible differently now that I have seen a physical representation of it.

After the temple, we went to...this pier or something (I'm a little tired, so you need to give me a little grace on this).  It was really cool because we were able to take a boat ride and see more of the island/shore of HK.  We were able to stop at this little island that was evangelized by Catholic Missionaries from a long time ago.  Not many people live there anymore because there used to be salt farms, but it either got destroyed or the resources were used up by a certain time.  The cool thing about that island was that after the Catholic missionaries got there and set up a church, I think the whole island eventually became Christians!  Good stuff.

After the Boat ride, we ate some fresh seafood.  When I say fresh...I mean fresh.  We sat in outside of the restaurant and were able to pick our food from the tanks.  The thing was these weren't in the tanks very long because we asked the waitress where they came from and she pointed to a boat that was docked!  We had boiled shrimp, scallops, fish, etc. right from that ocean.  They all had the heads and eyes, but it was still good.  I also had a sense of satisfaction knowing that I got revenge on a fish that I felt was giving me dirty looks.  Whose giving dirty looks now?!?

Then came time for the church service.  It was held in a school gymnasium and was a bilingual service.  Usually they have a chinese service and an english service separately, but during the summer they combine because they have people out of town, people traveling, new people in for summer, etc., and this just works better.  It was great to be with the church family and get prayed for the rest of the week.

Things to pray for
-Hannah's luggage
-VBS Starts tomorrow
-Weather
-Jet Lag
-Volunteers

Thanks, and have a great rest of the day!

Scott