Righteousness In Moderation?

We've all met them . . . perhaps we are one of them . . . those people who strive for perfection in terms of godliness. The ones that make you feel like you're a bad person because you watched a movie last weekend. OK, now we're totally judging them . . . lol. It's good to want to be righteous though, right? It's good to strive to perfection in this life . . . isn't it? Yes . . . quite clearly life works better when you do the right things. But is there a point when doing the right things crosses a line from doing to impractically demanding things which one cannot deliver on? I think so. And I'm wondering what Solomon meant when he wrote:

"Do not be overly righteous, nor be overly wise." (Ecc. 7:16)

Perhaps the answer is found in the follow up verse . . .

"For there is not a just man on earth who does good and does not sin." (Ecc. 7:21)

I don't think Solomon put this out here to discourage us but to let us know that, "hey, you can't do perfection . . . you can't make yourself perfect or righteous . . . that's impossible to do" (and annoying to be around).

Righteousness is a gift from God . . . that we can ONLY get when we accept Jesus as our Savious . . . that's pretty much it . . . no strings or laws attached. After that since we have chosen Jesus, that gives Him permission to work in our life . . . and that's where He starts working to correct all those crappy habits that we hold on to. If we continue to choose Him and His will for our life then we will see a difference because we will also choose to do what He asks . . . this isn't about going out and finding the perfect formula for Holiness . . . this is about letting Jesus mix a personal formula just for you . . . that works JUST for you and no one else (you're not supposed to feed your formula to anyone else! God can make one for them if they even want one.)

This is called sanctification. When God perfects us . . . it's not about us being overly righteous . . . that's works. Allowing God to guide your life and doing what He asks even when it doesn't make sence . . . that's faith. (And obviously since you're allowing Him to work in your life . . . you will have good works too . . . but they don't come first . . . the faith does.)

Just do what you need to do

That's kinda what I got out of Ecclesiastes chapter 5. Just do what you need to do to live and don't try to work for everything your eye sees that you want because you're just headed back out of this world as you came . . . naked. Can't take anything with you, so might as well not burden yourself down with more worries than you need to while alive.

It's kinda a simplicity gospel. I really like that. Simplicity is very much the way to go . . . in my opinion.

Politics

Yesterday I was confronted with a lot of politics . . . in the ministry. It's always annoying to see that—politics in the Church. People who are both trying to reach someone yet believing they first have to fight their brother who is also trying to reach that person only a SLIGHTLY different way. Oh well.

Sometimes you just want to walk away and say forget it . . . and then you think of that person caught in the middle who probably is thinking the same thing you are and then . . . that's when I get upset . . . angry actually . . . that because of two differing views on the same thing, we . . . the Church . . . are pushing people away who are able to think and see above the politics. We just think our position is so important.

So . . . I'm still reading Ecclesiastes . . . haha . . . it's kinda nice actually because it's all the emotions I'm feeling . . . this whole charade is just vanity . . . grasping for the wind . . . while getting nothing . . . barely the people you try to reach . . .

So the verse that struck my chord today was Ecc. 2:17:

"Therefore I hated life because the work that was done under the sun was distressing to me, for all is vanity and grasping for the wind."

Yeah . . . distressing.

Wisdom = Grief & Knowledge = Sorrow

I never thought I would like Ecclesiastes. I thought that the book would just be about how much the world is "all vanity," and I didn't want to hear that because . . . well . . . for me . . . I was kinda enjoying my life here with all the stuff I had and saw and wanted.

But something has changed . . . it's called knowledge. Not that I'm any smarter . . . hardly. I just have seen another side to life on this world that isn't all about "stuff." And not only seen it . . . but been affected by it.

So today when I read the last verse in Ecclesiastes chapter one . . . I was like, This book is awesome . . . cause I totally feel like this . . . 

"For in much wisdom is much grief, and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow." 

Sorry for the bummed-out post . . . but it's true.

How do you read the Bible?

Yes . . . uh . . . so I've been reading it most of my life and have kept this blog for the past four months (or was it five?) and yes, I'm still opening my Bible and not sure where to start. But that's OK . . . because somehow, even when I have no clue what I'm doing . . . God makes sure I find just the right verse. Thank You so much, Jesus.