Words people say part 2--Ecclesiastes 8:21

Well it appears we have touched on an area of high sensitivity. So if you didn't read yesterday's blog, I would encourage you to start there. As we look further into Solomon's advice that we "Do not take to heart all the things that people say, lest you hear your servant cursing you. Your heart knows that many times you have yourself cursed others," we have to decide whether we really believe this to be true. I cannot think of a time when I ever thought to myself that someone else should be damned. Oh, I was pretty upset with the man who ran over my dog out of pure negligence wasn’t a bit remorseful; and I was pretty upset with the man who cut down the wrong tree in my yard (it was a hundred foot, perfectly straight, over two foot in diameter, cherry tree!); but for the most part I can’t think of a time when I cursed someone. But I know better. The Scriptures teach us that our hearts are deceitful and desperately wicked and we can’t even know the depths of it all. So because I believe God’s Word to be true and every man a liar, I know that this teaching is for me; therefore, I need to have a more compassionate and merciful attitude toward those who would treat me unkindly and unfairly. Simply, those who are forgiven the most, love the most.

But, that doesn’t remove the hurt instantaneously. I know of a dear sister in the Lord who found out after her father’s death that she wasn’t her father’s daughter and to make matters worse, found out from her betraying sister that not one cent of her step-father’s inheritance would be hers. She was devastated. I know of a husband whose wife berates him in front of his children. I know of too many wives whose husband’s anger is like a ticking time bomb in their home. They live perpetually on edge; they feel beaten down. I know of a grown daughter whose mother accuses her of being self righteous; and a pastor who tried to reach out to the neighborhood kids and is now labeled a pedophile by his neighbors. Can you imagine this hurt? Certainly these hurts go beyond the scope of what Solomon was dealing with concerning an occasional bashing by your servant. BUT, everything is designed by an all wise God.

The angels said that Jesus was bringing peace on earth and most of our Christmas carols would confirm this. But Jesus said that he did not come to bring peace on earth but a sword! Now which is it? Were the angels wrong? Let’s read what Jesus said:

"Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.

For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.

And a person's enemies will be those of his own household.

Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.

And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.

Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” Mat 10:34-39

That doesn’t sound very politically correct. What is he saying? Simply, if you are going to live for the Lord, then expect that you are going to get roughed up in this life. It is the way it is going to be; and it is the way of the cross! It is the process that God has designed to make us worthy followers; it is the process that God uses to test us to see if we truly desire to follow him. And there is no better place to be tested than in our own homes. If you run away from the pressures then you will not lose the benefits of the testing—tested like gold; pressured to make diamonds. So many lose their reward because they are unable to hold on just a bit longer. God will rescue you; he will redeem you.

Again I will close with the wisdom of my mentor Fenelon from his book Dialogues of Fenelon:

SELF- RENUNCIATION

THE ONLY WAY TO PEACE.

SO long as we dwell within

ourselves, we shall be a prey

to the opposition, the malignity, the

injustice of men. Our temper brings

us into collision with other tempers;

our passions clash with those of our

neighbors; our wishes are so many

tender places open to the shaft s of those

around; our pride, which is incompatible

with our neighbors', rises like the waves

of a stormy sea;-everything rouses,

attacks, rebuff s us. We are exposed on

all sides by reason of the sensitiveness

of our passions and the jealousy of

our pride. No peace is to be looked for

within when one lives at the mercy of a

crowd of greedy and insatiable desires,

and when we can never satisfy this "me"

which is so keen and so touchy as to

whatever concerns it.

Hence in our intercourse with others

we are like invalids who have been

long confined to the bed, who cannot

be touched anywhere without pain.

A sickly self-love, full of pity for itself,

cannot be touched without screaming.

Touch it with the end of your finger, and

it thinks itself flayed alive. Then add to

this sensitiveness the roughness of other

people, full of imperfections unknown

to themselves, their disgust at our

defects (at least as great as ours toward

theirs), and you find all the children of

Adam tormenting one another; half of

mankind made unhappy by the other

half, and rendering them miserable in

their turn.

The only remedy is to come out of

one's self in order to find peace. We

must renounce ourselves, and lose all

self-interest, that we may no longer have

anything to lose, to fear, or to contrive.

Then we shall enjoy the true peace

reserved for "men of good will"; that is,

for those who have no longer any will

but God's, which becomes theirs. Then

men will not be able to harm us; they

can no longer attack us through our

hopes or our fears; then we are willing

to accept everything, and we refuse

nothing.

We may be worried, inconvenienced,

distressed; but God causes it, and that is

enough. We love the Hand which smites;

we find peace in all these troubles,-

happy peace, which follows us even to

the cross! We wish what we have; we

wish nothing of what we have not. The

more perfect is our self-surrender, the

more perfect is our peace.

Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and

beloved, compassion, kindness, humility,

meekness, and patience, bearing with one

another and, if one has a complaint against

another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has

forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And

above all these put on love, which binds everything

together in perfect harmony. And

let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to

which indeed you were called in one body.

And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell

in you richly, teaching and admonishing one

another in all wisdom, singing psalms and

hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness

in your hearts to God.

Colossians 3:12-16