Restoring Love

Ephesians 4:26 Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:


When I was a younger man, there were many things that I held onto in my heart that happened to me in my childhood.  I was angry about those things and rather than dealing with them, I stored them deep inside.  Perhaps it was because at the time I did not know how to deal with them, or I did not want to; maybe a bit of both.  Whatever it was, those hurts that went unresolved that I was mad about began to work on me. 


As time went on, I began to use that anger and those earlier events as an excuse.  They were things I would use to explain away my failures and shortcomings and lay the blame upon someone else rather than upon myself.  I became bitter towards those who I felt had wronged me; family, former friends, crowds, women...  whoever.
 

This bitterness took root in me.  I couldn't trust people.  They would only hurt me in the end; make fun of me, hurt me, reject me.  I isolated myself so that I couldn't be hurt.  This was only self perpetuating though.  You can't form good relationships with others if you don't trust.  It would only lead to more hurt and more blame; more hardness in the heart.
 

Over the years, I had become estranged from family, had few friends, and became somewhat of a hermit.  This continued even though I had accepted Jesus Christ into my heart.  There were other issues that the Lord had decided to deal with first.  I guess like an onion, He had to peel away the layers to reveal the next one.  While it is true that His word is sharper than a two edged sword, He uses it with skill and precision like a scalpel in the hands of a surgeon. 


While long ago I had dealt with some of those bitterness issues and let go of most of those burdens I carried, there were still things unresolved.  God just does not cut away the bad stuff, but He also heals and restores the good things.  He just does not take away the pain and leave an empty dwelling, but wants it filled with His love.


Over recent times, the Lord has reminded me what it is like to have friends.  He has slowly returned me to my family.  It's been a blessing that I really find difficult to describe.  It's been over 30 years since I have seen some of my family.  All those years I let be robbed because I let the sun go down on my anger, it grew into bitterness, showed forth as wrath, and led to malice.  I guess it takes time to root that stuff out?


It makes me think of another important aspect... fellowship with the spiritual family.  We are told not to forsake the gathering, but when you get angry and hold it in, you begin to set the stage for that fellowship to be cut off.  Not only with other believers, but with the creator himself we can find ourselves distanced from.  How can we hear our heavenly father when we have ought against our brother?  How can we be blessed when we can't bless?  While I certainly don't feel totally estranged from Yahweh, we could be closer, and in this restorative process I think that closer is what He wants.
 

It's a good thing to find out that you are loved.  It is especially sweet when you have not felt all that loved.  When rejection turns to reception we can rejoice on the reclamation.  Would you like to feel that restoration?  Would you like to feel the love that you have never felt or that has been put so far away from you that you can scarcely remember how it feels?


God so loved you that He came down here to earth in the form of a man, lived the perfect life that we are incapable of, and sacrificed it so that we may take His place in righteousness.  No greater love has someone than this, that he lay down his life for you.  That is what Jesus has done.  Accept His sacrificial offering and believe that Jesus is Lord.  Believe that he rose again on the third day.  Believe that He has ascended to be on the right hand of the father making intercession for us always.  He is making those intercessions for us so that we might have restored what sin has taken away, the devil has stolen away, and what we have given away.  Begin reading His word and applying it in your life, and let Him work in replacing anger and restoring love.

Beginning of Wisdom

Proverbs 9:10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding. 11 For by me thy days shall be multiplied, and the years of thy life shall be increased.


That is a fascinating promise from the word of God.   Let's break it down a little.


What is the "fear of the Lord"?  Fear of the Lord can be looked at in several respects.  One can be truly scared of Yahweh.  One can respect Jehovah.  One can honor the Lord.  All the many aspects of fearing God should lead us to one thing; obedience.  We should fear what God can do to us as sinners which should cause us to repent and change our ways to be more pleasing to Him.  We should have respect For the Lord and understand that what He says is right and just and to do what he says is the same.  We show honor to God when we are obedient to his ways.


I remember as a young lad in the 4th grade, I was on my way to school, and while on my way to school I saw a Tonka dump truck in a yard.  I decided I wanted that Tonka truck and took it.  I carried it to school and even brought it up to show the class during show and tell. during which I lied all about the truck until someone stood up in class and said, "hey, that is not your truck!  I saw you take it!"


Well, next think I knew I was being walked by the ear down to the principles office.  The principle then called my parents.  I was scared to death.  I didn't know what would happen.  Surely there would be severe punishment.  I was taken home by my mother.  I was sent to my room and had to wait for my father to get up.  It was an agonizingly long time, or so it seemed. 


Finally it came...  Dad walked into the room.  The look on his face was at least as bad or even worse than any punishment that I was going to receive.  I saw hurt on his face.  I had disappointed him, disgraced everything he had tried to teach me.  I loved my dad and wanted him to love me, and now I was not too sure he did.  I cried and cried. 


I did not get a spanking that day, if I recall.  It was explained to me why what I did was wrong, and I was forced to go make it right by bringing the truck back to where I had gotten it.  I could not just leave it there either.  I had to knock on the door, tell the people what I had done, give them the truck back, and apologize for having taken it.  It was one of the hardest things I had to do in my young life.


I loved my father.  I had honor and respect for him and wanted to do nothing more than please him.  I was afraid of what would happen if I let him down.  I thought at first I feared getting a whoopin.  That was not it though.  It was a fear of harming our relationship that I feared the most.  Because of that fear, I wanted to do what was right.


That for me was a beginning of wisdom.  When we understand who Yahweh is, and what our relationship is to Him, we should want to do what is right.  Yes there is fear of what he might do to us, but even more so we should fear what doing wrong would do to our relationship with him.  We should want to be obedient not just to avoid getting a whoopin, but because we love the Lord and desire to please Him in what we do.


That fear is the beginning of wisdom.  We will then seek to know and do His will.  As we understand our Father more and more, we will understand better who He is and why He wants us to do the things He asks of us.  Gaining knowledge of what is Holy to God and applying it to our lives gives us understanding of His principles.


When we learn and understand the ways of Jehovah, we find out that all those do's and don'ts lead us to living happier, healthier, and longer lives as a consequence.  Not only do His principles have a consequence of those, but we also please Yahweh and He blesses us with longer life as well.  It is sort of a compounding result. 


Ultimately, understanding who God is and what He expects should lead us to realize that we ourselves cannot achieve that perfection, but only strive towards it.  We recognize, through our own failures and the understanding of His word, that we need a savior.  We will learn that God so loved the world, that includes you and I, that He gave His only begotten son, Jesus Christ, so that whosoever believes of Jesus' sacrifice on the cross will not perish, but have everlasting life.  If we confess with our mouth and believe in our hearts that Jesus was raised from the dead, we shall be saved.  And as saved, we will want to be obedient children and not displease our Father.


Fearing the Lord begins wisdom. Learning leads to understanding. Obedience leads to life; longevity in this life and eternally in the kingdom to come. 


Proverbs 3 My son, forget not my law; but let thine heart keep my commandments: 2 For length of days, and long life, and peace, shall they add to thee.3 Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart:4 So shalt thou find favour and good understanding in the sight of God and man.5 Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.6 In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.7 Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the Lord, and depart from evil.8 It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones.9 Honour the Lord with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase:10 So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine.

When the Going Gets Tough

Have you ever gotten mad at God?  There are times where things just don't seem to fit together like you thought, or you did not get the answer from Him you expected, and life just is not going at all smoothly.  I'm not talking about something superficial like you didn't get that new car you asked for.  I'm talking about gut wrenching issues, agonizing hurt, after long periods of time pleading.  Something that just makes you drop to your knees and scream, Why Lord?

You may be wondering, why Lord. why do the evil succeed?  Why do they get away with it?  How long, oh Lord, must I deal with this or that situation?  Why is it that I never seem to come out on top, Lord?  Why is it that I have been alone so long waiting?  Have you not heard me?  Can't you see that I am hurting?  Why have you not delivered me? 

I think many of us get to these desperate heart aching points in our walk where we just cannot see or understand the plan God is working in or through us.  Times where we almost can't find any words to express the anguish that we are feeling or the desperation that we are experiencing.  What are we supposed to do?  How are we to carry on when it just seems like the world is falling in on top of us and the bottom has dropped away?

I've been facing such situations recently, so as much as this is sharing with others, it is also a little therapy for myself here.  All those types of questions are swirling around in my head, and I am asking and pleading, wondering when is it going to end?  What am I supposed to do?

I got a word before the intensity of the situation I am in ramped up several hundred degrees. 

Galatians 6:9 And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.

When we are upset and troubled, even wounded deeply to our core, we still need to carry on in a way that is pleasing to God.  He made a promise to us in that verse.  We can't let our pain become so great that we begin hurting others.  We need to keep our focus on God and doing what is right, treating others as we ourselves want to be treated, doing our jobs to the best of our ability, being honest, not being a gossiper, etc etc...  If we do those things, we have a harvest coming.  We might not know when it is or how it is, but we can rest assured that it will come when it is ripe and ready and perfect for us.

I wish I could say that I have been a perfect soldier in this, but really, it is kind of a hard thing to do.  We are hurt and upset and do some things that don't necessarily help, or think we can do something about it and forget that God is the one in control.  We can get caught up in our emotions and reap some consequences we'd rather not.  That is the hard part about the "faint not" in that verse.    We can make things worse when we get like, I got this God.

I think that when we get past the initial "WHY GOD WHY?", we can settle back and look to the word for the practical applications of "how, Lord, how?"  Maybe God will bring some useful verse to remembrance like He did for me with the above verse, or we may stumble upon a teacher on the radio or TV that has a message that speaks to our situation, and we should of course look through the word and meditate upon what it says.  The instructions on what to do can be found there.

Another hard thing that we should be learning to do in tough situations is learning to trust God even more.  It is all well and good to trust God when things are going well, but when things happen and appear to be at their worst, that is when we really need to knuckle down with some serious faith and determined faith that says, despite what I am seeing and feeling, I know that that harvest is out there getting ripe and I have no doubt that if I do as the word says, the blessing is promised to me by God, and God keeps ALL his promises.

Standing In The Gap

The last few weeks have been really tough.  They really have not been terribly tough on what is going on with me personally, but it seems like recently those that are around me are suffering from a myriad of personal crises', some of which are deserving of the personal foul flag for piling on.  Because I care about the people in my life, I am invested into their lives and care about what happens to them.  The biggest frustrations seems to be not being able to do very much about things.  I want to help but I can't in the way that I would like to.


There was a phrase that I learned a long time ago, both by just hearing about it, and by practical application.  The term was 'standing in the gap'.  What I have always understood the term to mean was that an individual would be able to help another through doing things for the person that they may not be able to do for themselves, or taking part of the heat for them to lessen their burdens, or another way was to spiritually breach a gap for them. 


The idea of standing in the gap comes generally from Ezekiel 22:30 And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none.  The previous verse shows that the condition of Israel had gone downhill and the people were acting wickedly.  The idea of seeking one to stand in the gap was to say that one could plead for the people to God.  Someone to stand as an intermediary and plead for mercy from God on behalf of the people.  This same idea can be brought to an individual level as well where some righteous person would plead to god on behalf of others.  I guess some would call this intercessory prayer.


One example of this might be when Abraham was pleading with God over Sodom and Gomorrah, knowing that Lot and his family were there.  Abraham pleaded to spare the place for the righteous folks sake.  Unfortunately for the city, Lot and his immediate family did not add up to enough.  But this was a case where Abraham kind of stood in the gap for Lot and family, as well as any other righteous folks that may have been there.


Sometimes standing in the gap for another may put yourself on the line.  Jesus tells us that no greater love does a man have than to lay down his life for his friends.  Sometimes, we have to put ourselves out there to protect friends, family, fellow believers.  It could require literally jumping into the middle of a fight, or placing yourself in harms way to protect another.  Again we can look to Abraham and Lot for this also when Lot was captured and Abraham got his band together to go take out Lots captors and rescue Lot.


There are times too when standing in the gap can be purely spiritual.  You pray and pray hard for lost loved ones and friends, asking God to intervene in their lives and open their eyes to accept Jesus Christ.  Daniel 10:11-13 gives us some insight into this.  We see how when Daniel prayed, the prayer was immediately heard and responded to, but it took 21 days for the angels to fight their way past the demons to accomplish the prayer.  This happens when we pray too, especially when we are praying for the lost.  We are in a war.


Doing these battles takes its own toll on those of us standing in the gap.  We get tired, depressed, weak, etc, during these times.  The Holy Spirit that resides in us as believers desires to help us through this.  He will give us strength, wisdom, understanding, and can do some simple things like making sure our needs our met during these times.  I kings 19 tells the story of how Elijah was ministered to after doing some of the Lords work.  Elijah was so depressed he wished to die, and God had an angel bring him some food to eat to help strengthen him and bring him back into balance.


We as Christians are involved in some deep struggles whether we know it or not.  We will often be asked to or feel the need to stand in the gap for others individually or as a group.   It is what we do.  Sharing the gospel and ministering is hard work and may require much of us mentally, physically, and spiritually.  We can trust that God will see us through if we are acting under His authority. 


Isaiah 26:4 Trust ye in the LORD for ever: for in the LORD JEHOVAH is everlasting strength:

Change of Habit

We humans are creatures of Habit.  We tend to find for ourselves patterns of living and then we kind of go into automatic pilot and repeat the process without giving it a lot of thought.  Once we get a number of years behind us we have established certain patterns and we become "set in our ways".  We just accept our habits as being just who we are and often are no longer interested in changing or altering them.


I suppose this is why it is so universally true that we should train up a child in the way they should go and they won't depart from it.  That is both a biblical verse of scripture and something non believers also know is true.  This is why there is such a battle for the hearts and minds of the younger folks because that is where these habits are formed, and once those patterns solidify, the person is then set in their ways and it is difficult to near impossible to change those patterns.


We do know that our patterns can be changed once they have become set, but it takes a strong desire to change them and effort on the part of the person who wants to change.  It also takes a good deal of time to retrain the brain to reset the new habits we want into place, or else we will revert back to the previous mold of habits.


Changing our habits by ourselves is extremely difficult.  It often help if we can surround ourselves with people who hold to the habit we are aspiring to, and friends that will help us hold to our attempted changes.  There are various support groups that can be found to help almost anyone change their habits on nearly anything.  A believer in Jesus should find this in a congregation of other believers.


Sometimes changes are forced upon us.  This is often true with bad habits we may have developed that have led us to places we really did not want to go.  Negative consequences are a great motivator for changing negative behaviors.  The harder habits to change are those that don't really appear to have negative consequences. 


Some of the changes that Christians have a hard time with might involve wanting to pray more regularly, or read the bible daily, or become more involved with the body of believers.  The world will tell us that we can make changes if we reach deep down inside of ourselves and find that inner strength to overcome.  Some have that, others don't, but either way, this won't do anything for eternity. 


Christians can take what it is they want to change and lay it at the foot of the cross and ask the Lord to make the changes within them.  It may be a small thing or a large thing, but we are to submit it to the Lord and He will deliver.  He does not always just take things away though.  Often there is a process God says for us to do.  That process will always include being obedient to His word.  When we spend our time doing the do's of what God has said do, we won't find any time to do the don'ts. 


Romans12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

Did God Just Say That? pt 3

A few weeks ago I shared the story of how God talked to me and gave me a parking spot in the front row of the grocery store.  I took a lot of grief sharing that tale.   Some people don’t think God talks to people.  Others think God would not be so trivial.  Still others questioned why me and why not some elderly person.  I could not answer those questions, nor did I even try.  God does what God does for reasons only He knows.  It is not for us to wonder why, it is for us to obey and live.

There was one person who gave an interesting perspective.  They brought up Matthew 25:21 His lord said unto him, well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.  They were thinking that God used something insignificant to see if I was listening and faithful and that down the road there would be something bigger.  They were right.

A little over a week ago, I found a receipt for a certified letter in my mailbox.  It said that I needed to go down to the post office to sign for it and pick it up.  Now, normally I don’t do certified letters.  They almost always mean bad news.  Suddenly I had that familiar thought in my brain.  It was the same way as the parking event.  “Go and pick it up.  It will be ok”.  

 
I gave pause, just like I did before.  Did I just hear that?  Did God just speak to me again, or am I just wishful thinking.  I went back and forth in my head as I drove down to the post office.  Was it me?  Was it God?  But I did know from the parking incident that following through brought a blessing.  Perhaps this too would end up being a blessing?  There was only one way to find out; be obedient and go get the certified mail.

I wish I could say that things went as smoothly and quickly as getting a parking spot and whizzing through a checkout line.  It has not.  What was uncovered with that certified letter was years of underhanded sneakiness and deceit that has been going on behind my back.  It exposed some dark dealings meant to rob me of what was rightfully mine.   Those who have been exposed are not just going to step aside either and are digging in to fight tooth and nail. 

Normally, what has been uncovered and the subsequent fallout would be very stressful.  It would be a normal reaction to be angry.  While it is taking some effort on my part to further uncover things and do my due diligence to rectify the wrong; there is a peace in me about this.  The matter is already settled.  God already said it will be ok.  It is already finished.

While I was at work before getting home to write this, God spoke to me in another way; through a preacher.  The program I was listening to came from Joshua chapter 1.  He was explaining how Israel was about to go in and possess the land that was already theirs.  It was already a done deal.  God had already given it to them.  Certainly it was not easy.  Israel fought many battles along the way before they actually owned the land.  But, while they fought the battles, the outcome of the war was a foregone conclusion.  It was theirs.  They just had to root out those who were there.

Did God just Say That? Part 2

In my previous blog, I related to you how God had spoken to me and shown me a little favor by providing me nice parking and quick checkout in an otherwise very busy shopping time.  I seem to have gotten some blowback on this testimony from some in the Christian community.  There are those who feel that God does not speak to people in this day and age.  They argue that God no longer speaks to man, but only speaks through the Bible.  In support of their claim, they use Hebrews 1:1-2 God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;


Do these verses say anything about how God communicates with man?  Yes, in some ways it does.  It tells us about prophets who were spoken to in different ways.  Does it say this ended?  No.  It only says that in these last days God spoke to us by Jesus.  Some people take that to mean the end times last days, but there is no real reason to think that.  Paul is simply stating that in these last days, meaning the time they were in, not about any future time, or of the end times. 
 

The first verse speaks to how God spoke through men in various ways pointing to the cross of Jesus.  Once Jesus came along, He completed and fulfilled what the prophets spoke of.  After that people spoke back to the cross, and also forward to Jesus’ return in glory.  How many prophecies did Jesus fulfill that were spoken of by the prophets?  Too many to be just a coincidence, that is for sure.  Also in ways that could not have been intentionally fulfilled either.  People today still talk about unfulfilled prophecies; so to say prophecy is dead and over with is obviously wrong.  
 
The entire context of Hebrews first 2 chapters was showing the excellence and superiority of Christ and the necessity to believe based upon the Old testament prophecies that are fulfilled in Jesus.  Then it slides into warnings against doubt and unbelief in chapter 3, then back to Christ’s superiority up into chapter 8, where the new covenant is shown to be superior to the old.  It closes with exhortations to faith and holiness in the closing chapters 11-13.  The book of Hebrews is about glory to Jesus.  Nowhere is it saying that God stopped talking to men in various ways.  
 
We can go to the book of Acts chapter 2 and see that God speaking through people in various ways was not dead or done away with, but was alive and well after Jesus’ day.  ¹⁴ But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and said unto them, Ye men of Judaea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words:
¹⁵ For these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day.
¹⁶ But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel;
¹⁷ And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams:
¹⁸ And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy:
¹⁹ And I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke:
²⁰ The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and notable day of the Lord come:
²¹ And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

  The writer of First John advises us to, "…test the spirits to see whether they be of God." (I John 4:1). The test is truth. God is the God of truth—all kinds of truth.  This was also the test for a prophet.  If what the prophet said was true, or came to pass as said, then He was truly a prophet.  Jer. 28:9. "The prophet which prophesieth of peace, when the word of the prophet shall come to pass, [then] shall the prophet be known, that the LORD hath truly sent him."  The fact that what I was told ahead of time came to pass as said passes the biblical standard.  It was truth.

Prosperity or Persecution?

Recently, I posted a praise report on my Facebook page.  It read as follows: I was going shopping at Wal-mart this evening. Before I got in the parking lot, I thought I heard God say he'd save me a front row spot, in an aisle where I would be facing away from the store. So, I go in the lot a few minutes later. I'm rolling along slowly, stopping to let people and other cars by, crossed the whole store to the far exit when right then, someone pulls out of the first spot, and I rolled right in. That's not all. In the store, I got the first cashier with nobody in line while the other lines were into the aisles. I zipped right through. That's not all. I got permission to go to McDonalds. When I went to the store, it was packed. When I stopped on the way back, not a single car in the drive thru. This is rush hour mind you, the whole time. And people laughed at John Osteen for saying God saves us parking spots. We serve a great and mighty God.

It certainly did not take long to hear some chime in with the negative.   I heard about how we were only promised suffering in life.  I heard about how if we are not being chastised by God, that we must not be His.  I heard about how we are not blessed in material ways in this life.  I heard about how God is not our magic genie to make our lives all comfy.  Why is it so hard for people to accept the idea that at times, God may choose to bless His children with good things?  And why would a praise report about the goodness of God make people react as if you have uttered some profanity?  Maybe it was the Osteen reference, but I dealt with that issue on my last blog.

All throughout the Bible, we see the promises of blessing on those who believed.  A quick perusal of the Book of Proverbs will quickly show this.  Proverbs 10: ⁴ He becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand: but the hand of the diligent maketh rich.  Is that not a promise from God?  There are many more in this book and the other 65 books to be found.  Mathew 7: ¹¹ If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?  If God knows the very number of the hairs on your head, don’t you think he would be intimately involved in your daily goings on? 

On the other hand, we also see throughout the bible men being tested, scorned, and persecuted.  Look at what Joseph went through, and Job, and Jesus himself.  We can cite a number of examples where we are told to shun riches and worldly things and look to spiritual things.  Mathew 6: ¹⁹ Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:²⁰ But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:²¹ For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.  Numbers of other examples can be found.

It seems to happen that people run to the extremes.  Some will solely focus on teaching only prosperity and leave out the suffering.  Others will focus on the suffering and forget about the blessings.  Each of those extremes will miss out on what the real message is.  You won’t handle suffering well if you think God only blesses, and you will pass on great blessings if you think this life is only about suffering.  Neither one is the full council of God.

The truth is that there is a balance.  When we submit ourselves to god, we are His to do with as He so pleases.  If it pleases Him to bless us, we are so blessed.  If it pleases Him to try us, we are so blessed, for we know that all things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose. (Rom 8:28)  I close with these words from Ecclesiastics 3
1 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

² A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
³ A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
⁴ A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
⁵ A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
⁶ A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
⁷ A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
⁸ A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.
⁹ What profit hath he that worketh in that wherein he laboureth?
¹⁰ I have seen the travail, which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it.
¹¹ He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end.
¹² I know that there is no good in them, but for a man to rejoice, and to do good in his life.
¹³ And also that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy the good of all his labour, it is the gift of God.
¹⁴ I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it: and God doeth it, that men should fear before him.