Ecclesiastes the crazy.

Ecc. 3:11
--> ppl come into the church dark. Our responsibility is to treat them as innocent children.
(Galations 6)
1 Timothy 6:10
-->subject: things that will knock you away from the faith.
--> message: keep moving forward and trusting Christ.
-->warning: against faulty doctrine.

"For the love of money is the root of all evil."
^the word 'evil' in that sentence doesn't mean Satanic/core of all evil, like most other places in the Bible. Used above, it means 'to retreat in battle', as in, eluding to the love of money being one of many signs of compromising in your walk with Christ.

So: 'For the love of money is the retreat in battle that will compromise where you stand with Christ'....among other things.

Revelation 2- to the church of Ephesus.
v. 1-3; 4 Paul says, 'You're doing some great things, but your priorities are out of alignment. If you don't change, I will snuff your candle out.'
Yet I hold this against you, you have forsaken your first love.

The fundamentals in church were sacrificed- even for "good" things.

Ecc. 6- author says money and prosperity do not make you happy (dark poetry).
The answer: God. Not money. Not prosperity.

Think about Solomon as the potential author: the pessimism of Ecclesiatestes is as prominent as the optimism in Proverbs.
Pessimism provides distraction. not answers.

Solomon was the Donald Trump of his day. Its as if one of the wealthiest, most successful men of our time wrote something so dark, addressing the deep longings of the human soul, and said, ' I have it all. Everything you could ever want. And its not it."

So with unbelievers, we're supposed to come alongside and help them, not warn sternly and judgementally about things they don't even understand. Give the unchurched more than a social agenda. Its not about bringing the "lost" to us, but going out to them. Its us... going out to meet Him, in them.

Going out to meet Him.
Going out to greet them.
Going out to seek.


Overall, the bigger picture of the church is that Christ in your life brings hope and deliverance. Allah and Muhammed don't. Period.







Selah.

Hard times call for strength.

My macbook crashed.
My car is gone.
I'm falling behind at work.

But God is so good.
And Jesus has my heart.