Dowie (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8)

Good morning ladies,

The word of the day is “dowie.”  My parents’ generation loved some funny songs.  One that is going to stick in my head for the rest of my life is a song called Turn Turn Turn.  It's about the different phases in life and how we all live within those seasons.  That's actually a really good representation of what each of us will face.  But, what is even better is that the song is pretty much taken straight out of the Bible.

There’s an opportune time to do things, a right time for everything on the earth:

A right time for birth and another for death,

A right time to plant and another to reap,

A right time to kill and another to heal,

A right time to destroy and another to construct,

A right time to cry and another to laugh,

A right time to lament and another to cheer,

A right time to make love and another to abstain,

A right time to embrace and another to part,

A right time to search and another to count your losses,

A right time to hold on and another to let go,

A right time to rip out and another to mend,

A right time to shut up and another to speak up,

A right time to love and another to hate,

A right time to wage war and another to make peace.

~Ecc 3:1-8

My question is: what season of life are you in right now?  My mentor talks to me often about understanding each season of life as being particular and important.  Never should we go through life and live haphazardly.  Instead, we need to take every opportunity to be in God's grace and will at all times.  My prayer is that you ask God to always be in the right place at the right time.  Of course this will not always happen, but the more we seek counsel from the Lord, the better chance we have of living in his will.  Do not live a dowie life of dullness, but be in the moment and run for God's plan.

Praying for you,

MO

Kickshaw (Philippians 3:1-14)

Good morning ladies,

The word of the day is “kickshaw.”  One of my favorite chapters in the book of Philippians (my favrit NT book) is the third. It does not get a ton of play because of the chapter it precedes. But Paul said some pretty outrageous comments here. The following verse used an actual cuss word of his day, and the peeps had to be totally astonished to hear him say it. But, he needed to get his point across as to why he followed Christ and believed in the Gospel.

“What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ...” ~Phil. 3:8

The word "garbage" has been inserted here by English scholars to replace a more colorful word that we would use today.  I will let your imagination take you there for explanation.  My question is: what are the important things in your life… what do you value most?  My prayer is that you would take Paul's advice here, which is to realize everything in your life doesn't mean very much, and is pretty trifle in comparison to what Jesus has commanded to do in following him.  Take some time today and ask yourself what would be like to lose everything for the sake of your relationship with Jesus.  He did it for us, and asks us to do the same.

Praying for you,

MO