15/7/22. Ecclesiastes (roundup)

By -

 1. After completeing the study of the whole book, how do you now understand Qoheleth's repeated statement that "everything is meaningless"?

Life is really unfulfilling, unpredictable, unjust and temporary. So we must look to eternity in the way we live.

Everything without God’s perspective is meaningless.  Preoccupation with earthly things is meaningless. We must live in light of  eternity  what is left is fearing God and enjoying life  

Self-striving is vain /meaningless. Pursuing empty pleasure is meaningless.


2. Which one of the many lessons of the book has stuck in your mind? Why?

 "Better is a handful of quietness than two hands full of toil and a striving after wind." (4:6) reminds me that it's fine not to work so hard for what is not ultimately meaningful.

Also I like Qoheleth's affirmation that we are to enjoy life despite all its difficulties

WJ: “Remember your Creator”  we have the best our ourselves to give when we are young .

Qin: Enjoy life  both good and evil people will die.  We won’t be remembered  we cannot take too much pride in what we do. We only aim that Christ will be remembered.

Joyce: a reflection on our achievements as being so easily forgotten. We must trust God when we don’t see His work in our immediate situation.

Winnie: toil is meaningless. We can’t control who takes over from us. Enjoyment of work is a gift. Part of the enjoyment of work is when it is shared. Good spiritual friends are a treasured blessing  we should learn to honestly share our sins with one another  


3. Has the study changed your approach to life? If so, how? If not, why not?

Ecclesiastes for me affirms life choices.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Study 9 ("Reach out to people")

By -
1 Cor 9:1-18 is Paul’s defence of his apostleship to a difficult church. He insists from commonsense (v.7-8), Scripture (v.8-10), natural justice(v.11-12) and Jewish custom (v.13) that he is totally entitled to material support from the Corinthians. However, he refuses to exercise this right, and takes pains to ensure that mentioning his right is not misunderstood as an attempt to exercise it. He is concerned for the purity of the gospel, which must not be sullied by greed on the part of the preacher. He will never be put in a position where his integrity is compromised by accusations of personal gain by his preaching (v.15). He will “boast” that he can present the gospel free of charge. Here we made a note that boasting is not necessarily a bad thing. Boasting that takes glory away from God and directs it to ourselves is wrong (1 Co 1:29), but boasting about one’s weaknesses to glorify God’s provision (1 ), God’s people (2 Co 1:14), and our ministry enabled by God (Ro 15:17ff) is
Read more

YMEFLC 2016 reflections

By -
Image
2/7/16 Luke 17:11-19 11  On the way to Jerusalem he was passing along between Samaria and Galilee.  12  And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, [ a ]  who stood at a distance  13  and lifted up their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.”  14  When he saw them he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went they were cleansed.  15  Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice;  16  and he fell on his face at Jesus' feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan.  17  Then Jesus answered, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine?  18  Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?”  19  And he said to him, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.” [ b ] At the age of 32, this passage is not unfamiliar to me. Events in the past months, however, have changed the paradigm on which I interpret and view the text. The seri
Read more

QC and SG accountabilkity session (1/7/16)

By -
 Wen Ai shared about the book she was reading ("Furious Love") and how it had touched her and made her feel the need to love people more. (Thanks, Wen Ai!) The book had stories of individuals who were faithful in small ways and who were able to make their love for people concrete. I asked the question then: "Are we supposed to love everyone equally? Do we love, for instance, Christians more than non-Christians?". Joshua then asked, "Does God love everyone equally?", which led to our main discussion for the evening! There is certainly a sense in which God loves everyone, but it is clear that He does 'play favourites'. Shaun kept saying, "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated" (Rom 9:13). If God's love is expressed in action, and some are saved and some are not, clearly God does not love all in exactly the same way. Selwyn objected: but doesn't God treat us in response to the way we treat Him? (Which is to say, if we reach out to Him in
Read more