CHURCH OF GOD FAITH FELLOWSHIP
  • Home
    • FOT 2018 >
      • Feast messages
  • Essays
    • Psalms of Ascent >
      • Psalm 120
      • Psalm 121
      • Psalm 122
      • Psalm 123
      • Psalm 124
      • Psalm 125
      • Psalm 126
      • Psalm 127
      • Psalm 128
      • Psalm 129
      • Psalm 130
      • Psalm 131
      • Psalm 132
      • Psalm 133
      • Psalm 134
      • Psalms of Ascent Chiasm
    • Yes, There Is Good News!
    • Timely Comments - Blog
    • Christian Walk
    • Holy Days >
      • Passover >
        • children's lessons
      • Days of Unleavened Bread >
        • children's lessons
      • Pentecost >
        • children's lessons
      • Trumpets >
        • children's lessons
      • Atonement >
        • children's lessons
      • Feast of Tabernacles >
        • children's lessons
      • Eighth Day >
        • children's lessons
    • Holidays
  • Current Sabbath School
    • Sabbath School 2025
    • Sabbath School 2024
    • Sabbath School 2023
    • Sabbath School 2022
    • Sabbath School 2021
    • Sabbath school 2020
    • Sabbath School 2019
    • Sabbath school 2018
    • Sabbath School 2017
    • Sabbath School 2016
    • Sabbath School - 2015
    • Sabbath School 2014
    • Sabbath School: July-December 2013
  • 2025 Calendar
    • 2024 Calendar
    • 2023 Calendar
  • Newsletter
    • Newsletter 2025
    • 2024 Newsletter
    • 2023 Newsletter
    • 2022 Newsletters
    • 2021 Newsletters
    • 2020 Newsletters
    • 2019 newsletters
    • 2018 Newsletter archives
    • 2017 Newsletter archives
    • 2016 Newsletter archives
    • 2015 Newsletter archives
    • 2014 Newsletter Archives
    • 2013 Newsletter archives

Yes! There Is Good News!

Bill Rollins has been publishing each week a column in the local Elk Horn, Iowa paper for the past several years.
Note the original publication date on each blog post

Yes! There is Good News!                    July 28, 2018

3/17/2021

0 Comments

 

The opening words of the book of Ecclesiastes let us know that “everything is meaningless, yes utterly meaningless.” Verse 1 along with verse 12 gives us the understanding that it was King Solomon who penned the book. He is the man who was given great wisdom from God and yet went astray. This in itself should cause us to sit up and take notice of what could lead a man of wisdom to walk away from the true God. Something to think about!!

But as I said in our last installment, “It is my opinion that Solomon came back to his senses and saw his error. And so the book of Ecclesiastes may be seen as his book of repentance.” In his book of proverbs Solomon makes this observation: “Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.” Solomon was trained by his father, King David, in the ways of God and when he was older he came back to it.

So why, pray tell, should a book that opens up by telling us everything is meaningless, be the one that can lift us up and help us find satisfaction is all that we do? Good question, I’m glad you asked!!

But before we tackle that issue, let’s do a short outline of the first two chapters. Chapter 1 verse 1-11: everything is meaningless! Chapter 1:12-18: wisdom is meaningless! Chapter 2:1- 11: pleasures are meaningless! 2:12- 16: wisdom and folly are meaningless! 2:17-26: toil is meaningless! OK, enough of this Bill, where am I going to find the good news?

There is a clue to this answer in a phrase that Solomon uses 29 times in this short book of only 12 chapters. The phrase “under the sun” is inserted by Solomon in very strategic positions to help us see where the vanity and meaningless activities come from. Let’s consider some of these examples. The first instance is found in chapter 1:3, “What does man gain from all his labor at which he toils under the sun?” Well, the answer to this rhetorical question is “he gains nothing.” In other words, you can’t take it with you. (This reminds me of the story of the rich man who meets St. Peter at the pearly gates with a wheel barrow of gold ingots. St. Peter takes a look and asks the man why he is bringing paving material into the kingdom. Ah yes, streets of gold!!!)

We are ultimately just consumers. We earn, we spend, and we leave the rest to others when we die. Jesus put it this way in John 6:63, “The Spirit gives life; the flesh profits nothing.” The term “flesh” is used here to indicate our life here on earth – it is a wonderful experience that we have been given; but without God, without the hope of eternal life, without the hope of glory, there is no profit in our fleshly existence. As Solomon put it, “no gain from labor under the sun.”

In Chapter 2 Solomon writes this, “I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure. … yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.” We will consider this catch phrase some more in the next article.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Bill Rollins resides in Elk Horn, IA, with his wife, Sally, and has pastored the Church of God of Omaha, NE for more than 35 years.

    Archives

    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • Home
    • FOT 2018 >
      • Feast messages
  • Essays
    • Psalms of Ascent >
      • Psalm 120
      • Psalm 121
      • Psalm 122
      • Psalm 123
      • Psalm 124
      • Psalm 125
      • Psalm 126
      • Psalm 127
      • Psalm 128
      • Psalm 129
      • Psalm 130
      • Psalm 131
      • Psalm 132
      • Psalm 133
      • Psalm 134
      • Psalms of Ascent Chiasm
    • Yes, There Is Good News!
    • Timely Comments - Blog
    • Christian Walk
    • Holy Days >
      • Passover >
        • children's lessons
      • Days of Unleavened Bread >
        • children's lessons
      • Pentecost >
        • children's lessons
      • Trumpets >
        • children's lessons
      • Atonement >
        • children's lessons
      • Feast of Tabernacles >
        • children's lessons
      • Eighth Day >
        • children's lessons
    • Holidays
  • Current Sabbath School
    • Sabbath School 2025
    • Sabbath School 2024
    • Sabbath School 2023
    • Sabbath School 2022
    • Sabbath School 2021
    • Sabbath school 2020
    • Sabbath School 2019
    • Sabbath school 2018
    • Sabbath School 2017
    • Sabbath School 2016
    • Sabbath School - 2015
    • Sabbath School 2014
    • Sabbath School: July-December 2013
  • 2025 Calendar
    • 2024 Calendar
    • 2023 Calendar
  • Newsletter
    • Newsletter 2025
    • 2024 Newsletter
    • 2023 Newsletter
    • 2022 Newsletters
    • 2021 Newsletters
    • 2020 Newsletters
    • 2019 newsletters
    • 2018 Newsletter archives
    • 2017 Newsletter archives
    • 2016 Newsletter archives
    • 2015 Newsletter archives
    • 2014 Newsletter Archives
    • 2013 Newsletter archives