Post by Woody Williams on Aug 7, 2007 7:41:15 GMT -5
Text for the Day -- Ecclesiastes 4:1-8
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Again I saw all the oppressions that are practiced under the sun.
Look, the tears of the oppressed--with no one to comfort them! On the
side of their oppressors there was power--with no one to comfort
them. And I thought the dead, who have already died, more fortunate
than the living, who are still alive; but better than both is the one
who has not yet been, and has not seen the evil deeds that are done
under the sun.
Then I saw that all toil and all skill in work come from one person's
envy of another. This also is vanity and a chasing after wind. Fools
fold their hands and consume their own flesh. Better is a handful
with quiet than two handfuls with toil, and a chasing after wind.
Again, I saw vanity under the sun: the case of solitary individuals,
without sons or brothers; yet there is no end to all their toil, and
their eyes are never satisfied with riches. "For whom am I toiling,"
they ask, "and depriving myself of pleasure?" This also is vanity and
an unhappy business.
Devotional
----------
The basic theme of Ecclesiastes continues with a view to oppression
and injustice, and the area of work. Meaning in life needs to be
found beyond understanding the paradoxes of good and evil, wisdom and
foolishness, since all end up at the same point. If life is looked at
only in its physical setting, it is vanity.
Prayer
------------------
Lift me to a higher
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Again I saw all the oppressions that are practiced under the sun.
Look, the tears of the oppressed--with no one to comfort them! On the
side of their oppressors there was power--with no one to comfort
them. And I thought the dead, who have already died, more fortunate
than the living, who are still alive; but better than both is the one
who has not yet been, and has not seen the evil deeds that are done
under the sun.
Then I saw that all toil and all skill in work come from one person's
envy of another. This also is vanity and a chasing after wind. Fools
fold their hands and consume their own flesh. Better is a handful
with quiet than two handfuls with toil, and a chasing after wind.
Again, I saw vanity under the sun: the case of solitary individuals,
without sons or brothers; yet there is no end to all their toil, and
their eyes are never satisfied with riches. "For whom am I toiling,"
they ask, "and depriving myself of pleasure?" This also is vanity and
an unhappy business.
Devotional
----------
The basic theme of Ecclesiastes continues with a view to oppression
and injustice, and the area of work. Meaning in life needs to be
found beyond understanding the paradoxes of good and evil, wisdom and
foolishness, since all end up at the same point. If life is looked at
only in its physical setting, it is vanity.
Prayer
------------------
Lift me to a higher