For what is your life? It is even a vapour
James
{4:13} Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: {4:14} Whereas ye know not what [shall be] on the morrow. For what [is] your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.
{4:15} For that ye [ought] to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.
{4:16} But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil.
{4:17} Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth [it] not, to him it is sin.
Planning our lives. We all make plans or I should say, most of us make plans for our future whether it is just our immediate future or possibly our far future. We might make plans to go to the store in an hour, or go to work the next day, or take a vacation in six months, retire in thirty years. We make our plans with the belief that we will be alive to fulfil those plans and why shouldn't we? There's no sense in planning on not being about to do so. Living day to day without any planning could leave you in very dire straits. It's not impossible to live that way, but it's not very wise either. Yet life, as it says in the verse above, 'It is even a vapour that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away.' We have very little control over when we die. You can be the healthiest person by all medical standards and you'll still die. Health is no preventor of the freak accident. Our lives are but vapours- wisps of air in the grand scheme that is called life. So, do we not plan because we might die? No. We do plan but we do so by the grace of God at His mercy, His will. 'If the Lord will we shall lie and do this or that.' If the Lord will may all our plans be realized. So, is it safe to say that if something doesn't go according to our planning that God doesn't will that it happen? I believe it's safe and comforting to know that if we live with God's will the most prominent thing in our lives that we can trust Him to see us through to the end no matter what happens. If our plans fall apart and we want to cry we need to take comfort that the Lord's will, will be done some how, some way even through the disappointments that we cannot comprehend.
If we boast that we are in control of our destinies, that we've attained this or that by our own will, by our own effort it is wrong and it is ungodly to do so. We cannot boast of our successes as if they were all our and due to our planning, and the realization of that planning. By the grace of God we can boast in HIM. Give glory to Him, give praise to Him that made it all possible. It's so wonderful to see a winning athelete down on their knees thanking God and not taking the credit for their victory even as people look on and want to say- but the athelete did all the hard work, why are they thanking God. Perhaps the athelete realizes that all the hard work in the world will not give a victory, a true victory. Perhaps they realize that their very strength to do all the work comes from God, their Creator. When people thank God it is an acknowledgement that God is in control, God reigns, and God wills. We can boast all we want and it will be evil because we don't hold the control over our life or our death. If we know to do good and we choose not to... we sin. If we know our lives are by the grace and mercy of our Lord and we lay claim to them ourselves as if God had nothing to do with them, we sin. If we know better and still do it...we sin. With the knowledge of right from wrong we have an obligation to choose the right over the wrong, or it is sin.
May the Lord Jesus Christ bless and keep us by His grace and His everlasting mercy and love for us. May we have discernment by that grace through the Holy Spirit living in us to know right from wrong and to choose the right over the wrong so that we may not willfully sin. May we boast only in Christ and not in ourselves at all. God is the giver of all life and it is in Him that we live and breath to accomplish His good will, not our own, whatever that will maybe.
All praise, honor, and glory to God!
In Christ,
Amen
7/13/10
Col 3:16 LET the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
Teaching.
Admonishing.
When we think of teaching we don't necessarily think of harshness, not that some teachers don't use harsh teaching methods to instruct their students. When we think of admonishing someone we almost definitely think of harshness. If I'm admonished by someone what comes to mind is a certain sternness. Yes, you can admonish someone nicely, it's done all the time, but a lot of time most admonishing results in hurt feelings. We take offense over a lot of admonishing because it makes us feel stupid. Don't tell me that! I know that already, what do you think I am, stupid? Sound familiar? Maybe it does, maybe it doesn't. Maybe the thoughts against being admonished are silent ones.
ad·mon·ish
[ad-mon-ish]
Show IPA
–verb (used with object)
1.
to caution, advise, or counsel against something.
2.
to reprove or scold, esp. in a mild and good-willed manner: The teacher admonished him about excessive noise.
3.
to urge to a duty; remind: to admonish them about their obligations.
Pasted from <http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/admonish>
Bottom line most people I know do not like to be admonished, I'm one of them.
I read this verse…
Col 3:16 LET the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
…and I have to take a second to really think about what it is saying. Is the word of God really telling us to TEACH and ADMONISH each other in POETRY and SINGING????
Uhn?
We don't exist in a 'musical'. I really like musicals, a lot of them actually and I'm a singing type person. I'll sing at the drop of a hat. I've often found myself singing low even in stores, or at family functions as I'm cleaning up etc (this comes to mind because my niece grinned at me at a recent family function and said, "I remember that song." I wasn't singing loudly, or even in my normal tone of voice, just a low humming singing but that's me. The kids will say something and their words will jog a memory of a song and there I go singing that part o the song. I'm mentioning all this because I have asked the question a time or two to my children, 'Wouldn't it be nice to live life as a musical?' Of course that brought snickers even though both my children do enjoy musicals.
This verse tells us to teach and admonish in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Just think of what that might be like.
Clears throat gently… hums a few notes… looks at my daughter and breaks out into song…."Youuuuuuu need to fold those clothessssss or wrinkly they will beeeeeee....not only that....they look so messsssssssyyyyyy."
Yes, I'm being silly, but seriously, think about it.
The word of God tells us …
Col 3:16 LET the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
Do you think that maybe, just maybe if we had to admonish someone in a song we'd take time to think about what we were going to sing to them? Would having to sing, or write a psalm, or a hymn give us cause to really think about what we were going to say giving us less of a chance to just go off half-cocked spouting out things we might regret? Especially if we are to teach and admonish with GRACE in our hearts to the Lord.
It's something to really think about. Not that I believe we are suddenly going to start singing out what we want to teach and most assuredly we are not going to sing out our admonishing to one another, but…. what if we kept this in mind and seriously considered what we would sing to someone. Let's try to do this just to see what life might be like. The next time you go to admonish someone try to imagine doing it in song with grace in your heart to the Lord.
May the word of Christ dwell in us richly in all wisdom! May we teach and admonish one another in psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs…singing with grace in our hearts to the Lord!
By the grace and mercy of our Lord and Savior, in His amazing miraculous love and righteousness now and forever!
Amen.
{4:13} Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: {4:14} Whereas ye know not what [shall be] on the morrow. For what [is] your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.
{4:15} For that ye [ought] to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.
{4:16} But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil.
{4:17} Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth [it] not, to him it is sin.
Planning our lives. We all make plans or I should say, most of us make plans for our future whether it is just our immediate future or possibly our far future. We might make plans to go to the store in an hour, or go to work the next day, or take a vacation in six months, retire in thirty years. We make our plans with the belief that we will be alive to fulfil those plans and why shouldn't we? There's no sense in planning on not being about to do so. Living day to day without any planning could leave you in very dire straits. It's not impossible to live that way, but it's not very wise either. Yet life, as it says in the verse above, 'It is even a vapour that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away.' We have very little control over when we die. You can be the healthiest person by all medical standards and you'll still die. Health is no preventor of the freak accident. Our lives are but vapours- wisps of air in the grand scheme that is called life. So, do we not plan because we might die? No. We do plan but we do so by the grace of God at His mercy, His will. 'If the Lord will we shall lie and do this or that.' If the Lord will may all our plans be realized. So, is it safe to say that if something doesn't go according to our planning that God doesn't will that it happen? I believe it's safe and comforting to know that if we live with God's will the most prominent thing in our lives that we can trust Him to see us through to the end no matter what happens. If our plans fall apart and we want to cry we need to take comfort that the Lord's will, will be done some how, some way even through the disappointments that we cannot comprehend.
If we boast that we are in control of our destinies, that we've attained this or that by our own will, by our own effort it is wrong and it is ungodly to do so. We cannot boast of our successes as if they were all our and due to our planning, and the realization of that planning. By the grace of God we can boast in HIM. Give glory to Him, give praise to Him that made it all possible. It's so wonderful to see a winning athelete down on their knees thanking God and not taking the credit for their victory even as people look on and want to say- but the athelete did all the hard work, why are they thanking God. Perhaps the athelete realizes that all the hard work in the world will not give a victory, a true victory. Perhaps they realize that their very strength to do all the work comes from God, their Creator. When people thank God it is an acknowledgement that God is in control, God reigns, and God wills. We can boast all we want and it will be evil because we don't hold the control over our life or our death. If we know to do good and we choose not to... we sin. If we know our lives are by the grace and mercy of our Lord and we lay claim to them ourselves as if God had nothing to do with them, we sin. If we know better and still do it...we sin. With the knowledge of right from wrong we have an obligation to choose the right over the wrong, or it is sin.
May the Lord Jesus Christ bless and keep us by His grace and His everlasting mercy and love for us. May we have discernment by that grace through the Holy Spirit living in us to know right from wrong and to choose the right over the wrong so that we may not willfully sin. May we boast only in Christ and not in ourselves at all. God is the giver of all life and it is in Him that we live and breath to accomplish His good will, not our own, whatever that will maybe.
All praise, honor, and glory to God!
In Christ,
Amen
7/13/10
Col 3:16 LET the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
Teaching.
Admonishing.
When we think of teaching we don't necessarily think of harshness, not that some teachers don't use harsh teaching methods to instruct their students. When we think of admonishing someone we almost definitely think of harshness. If I'm admonished by someone what comes to mind is a certain sternness. Yes, you can admonish someone nicely, it's done all the time, but a lot of time most admonishing results in hurt feelings. We take offense over a lot of admonishing because it makes us feel stupid. Don't tell me that! I know that already, what do you think I am, stupid? Sound familiar? Maybe it does, maybe it doesn't. Maybe the thoughts against being admonished are silent ones.
ad·mon·ish
[ad-mon-ish]
Show IPA
–verb (used with object)
1.
to caution, advise, or counsel against something.
2.
to reprove or scold, esp. in a mild and good-willed manner: The teacher admonished him about excessive noise.
3.
to urge to a duty; remind: to admonish them about their obligations.
Pasted from <http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/admonish>
Bottom line most people I know do not like to be admonished, I'm one of them.
I read this verse…
Col 3:16 LET the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
…and I have to take a second to really think about what it is saying. Is the word of God really telling us to TEACH and ADMONISH each other in POETRY and SINGING????
Uhn?
We don't exist in a 'musical'. I really like musicals, a lot of them actually and I'm a singing type person. I'll sing at the drop of a hat. I've often found myself singing low even in stores, or at family functions as I'm cleaning up etc (this comes to mind because my niece grinned at me at a recent family function and said, "I remember that song." I wasn't singing loudly, or even in my normal tone of voice, just a low humming singing but that's me. The kids will say something and their words will jog a memory of a song and there I go singing that part o the song. I'm mentioning all this because I have asked the question a time or two to my children, 'Wouldn't it be nice to live life as a musical?' Of course that brought snickers even though both my children do enjoy musicals.
This verse tells us to teach and admonish in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Just think of what that might be like.
Clears throat gently… hums a few notes… looks at my daughter and breaks out into song…."Youuuuuuu need to fold those clothessssss or wrinkly they will beeeeeee....not only that....they look so messsssssssyyyyyy."
Yes, I'm being silly, but seriously, think about it.
The word of God tells us …
Col 3:16 LET the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
Do you think that maybe, just maybe if we had to admonish someone in a song we'd take time to think about what we were going to sing to them? Would having to sing, or write a psalm, or a hymn give us cause to really think about what we were going to say giving us less of a chance to just go off half-cocked spouting out things we might regret? Especially if we are to teach and admonish with GRACE in our hearts to the Lord.
It's something to really think about. Not that I believe we are suddenly going to start singing out what we want to teach and most assuredly we are not going to sing out our admonishing to one another, but…. what if we kept this in mind and seriously considered what we would sing to someone. Let's try to do this just to see what life might be like. The next time you go to admonish someone try to imagine doing it in song with grace in your heart to the Lord.
May the word of Christ dwell in us richly in all wisdom! May we teach and admonish one another in psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs…singing with grace in our hearts to the Lord!
By the grace and mercy of our Lord and Savior, in His amazing miraculous love and righteousness now and forever!
Amen.