If he be a man indeed, he must always go on, he must always endure.”
–Louis L’Amour (Galloway)
“And we labor, working with our own hands. Being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we endure.”
–1 Corinthians 4:12 (NKJV)
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My patience is being tested this morning. I had a nice Echo on endurance ready to send and when I opened the file it had disappeared. Computers–ugh! Then when I look at my writing, it seems to be in bold print. Computers–yuck. I complain about them, but they are the only way I can communicate with you on a daily basis, so hooraw for computers. (???) So, I’ll send just a few borrowed thoughts this morning.
“The Christian believes that in Christ he has died, yet he is more alive than before, and he fully expects to live forever. He walks on earth while seated in heaven, and though born on earth he finds that after his conversion, he is not at home here. Like the nighthawk, which in the air is the essence of grace and beauty but on the ground is awkward and ugly, so the Christian appears at his best in the heavenly places but does not fit well into the ways of the very society into which he was born. The Christian soon learns that if he were to be victorious as a son of heaven among men on earth, he must not follow the common pattern of mankind, but rather the contrary. That he may be safe he puts himself in jeopardy; he loses his life to save it and is in danger of losing it if he attempts to preserve it.”
–A.W. Tozer
Through all the trials, storms, fears, terrors, pandemics the believer can walk knowing that God is there with him. To die is to live but through all the trials on earth, he must endure.
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Look at those around you. Besides being confused and dazed some of them are fools. Fools despise God and His wisdom. The scorn its obligation. God gives them their rightful name–FOOL! People have no or little fear of the Lord. I like how Charles Bridges paraphrases Ecclesiastes 12:13 (actually he puts more light on the verse and its meaning).
“The fear of God in its practical exercise is the whole of man in all his duty, all his happiness, his first lesson and his last.”
Fools despise the knowledge of the Lord. They believe they are autonomous with no one to answer to. The woke crowd believes that they are the answer, not that they have the answer. More and more we see the words of Proverbs 1:7, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning [principal part] of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.”
Watch out for fools. They are dangerous; their way is dangerous; their thoughts are not guided by reason or by the knowledge of God.