Love what you do, and do what you love

I thought I'd search by diligence and wisdom to find what indeed is good and fitting for man to do under the sun; but I found vanity!
Houses wax old and fall down, great men glory but for a moment, but are soon gone and forgotten.
Wisdom fades, lights grow dimmer, strong men never stand forever, for soon one stronger than they arises.

So I thought, "Let me drink and understand the meaning of laughter and celebration",
But I learned that it is better to sit in the counsel of the wise than to hear songs of fools.
But of the wise, I thought, what good is wisdom if it makes me understand the sadness of the nature of things?

What good is it to boast of my youth, when in no time at all I'd be unable to hear music and taste food by reason of old age?
Of women I thought, "I will find comfort", but why is my soul still wanting?

No one knows what is to come, but, we can understand by what is and has been in times past.
Of God I thought, He is no more familiar to us than He was to those who came before us.
Therefore what makes me different from those who sought Him but perished in their pursuit?

Drugs destroys one's reasoning, strong drinks end in heavy blows, weed makes stupid, and sex empties the soul.

What indeed is good and of the utmost pleasure in the world? Love.

For although drinks and laughter are vanity, the memories are best when I am with friends whom I love.
And although I am no better than my neighbour, I love seeing him alive and in a happy state.
Although sex empties the soul, it's fullfilling when it's with you my love.
Although music is a career that might leave you homeless and poor, I love playing that piano and slapping that bass.

Love makes all things perfect.
Love makes you the prettiest woman in my eyes above all the daughters of man.
Love will make me rush to jam sessions eager to play those chords.
Men have fought wars for love of their countries and countrymen.
Women have cried aloud till heard for love of their children.
God gave up His only begotten Son for love of the world.
And He raised Him from the pits of death because He loved Him.


Love is everything! All this time I sought for God, but God has always been Love.

Therefore, I understood and thought, "Although all things come to an end, Nothing is vanity when it's done out of love."

Therefore, fear God, and consider His wisdom and ways. Walk in His commandments, and envy not those who do evil.

Whatever work your hands may find, do it with all your might, and when you have found rewards, eat and drink and be merry. For all this is the gift of God to you in this world.

Thoughts about God

As much familiar as we are of this great man(if it be lawful to call him man) Jesus of Nazareth, an Israelite of the tribe of Judah, I'm compelled to share my understandings about Him as described in the holy scriptures. This is intended for all people whether christian or not, but not to judge anyone's faith, but to give a clearer perspective to both the learned and unlearned of who Jesus is to our Christian faith and how, according to our faith, he is the Messiah of us all.

God has created all things that exist in earth and in heaven; all things that we know of, and all things that we cannot even perceive. And when God at the first created man and placed him in the garden of Eden, He gave Him a law saying,

“Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it YOU SHALL SURELY DIE.” Genesis 2

The tree of the knowlegde of good and evil it is said, meaning that we at the first had no such knowledge and the consequences of attaining that knowledge would result to death;
But why die because of eating the fruit of knowledge?
It is written,
"For in much wisdom is much grief, And he who increases knowledge increases sorrow." - Ecclesiastes 1:18

God knowing that by that knowledge we would expose ourselves to consequences that would be grieveous and cause much sorrow to us. For we all know how proud and arrogant one can be if he has much knowledge, and we know how overly ambitious the wise can tend to be.

1 Corinthians 8:1 says "Knowledge puffs up, but love edifies.", teaching us to not depend on our knowledge but rather on love. And also, it should be evident to us how easy it can be, by that knowledge, to tend towards evil than good. As one says in Ecclessiastes 8:11,
"Because the sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil"

Notice also, when reading Genesis further, how quickly mankind tended to do more evil than good, and by completion of the first millenium of existence, God had had enough, regretting that He even made man in the first place and therefore sending the Great Flood.

For it is written that "God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart."
And God said,
“I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.”

So what am I getting to? That by eating the forbidden fruit(of knowledge) we sinned(sin is a breaking of a law) a sin only punishable by death. And God is a just God, for indeed we surely die, but God is also merciful and full of grace.

Therefore, God having had known what should become of mankind, destroyed the former world by a Great Flood saving only 8 people of the house of Noah to repopulate the earth, of which people we are descendants. And the whole world, as we know it, is populated with descendants of Noah for he had 3 sons,Ham, Shem, and Japheth. Of these 3 sons the nations of the world are derived, and God gave to each people a land to possess and dwell in; for this should be evident to us as we can see how Africans are a similar people by skin colour, cultures and languages; similarly the Asian people, Europeans and native Americans and so forth...but we are all descendants of Noah.

After the flood, the people, as they increased, persisted in their evil ways as I have already pointed out that evil is easier over good, and God having known what would happen chose one man, Abram, in whom He found good faith and intended to bless him and raise up a nation from him who at the time was old and having no children to himself. But this was to the intent, as we have learned it, that all the people of the world should come to the knowledge of God by that thing that the Lord would do in Abram whom he later renamed Abraham. Now Abraham means "Father of many nations" for God said to Him,
"In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice."

Abraham, was a faithful man, amazingly convicted in the faith of God, and abundantly blessed by God for this his faith. He bore a son Isaac who became the father of Esau and Jacob. This Jacob was later named, by God, Israel for his faith in God, and the nation of Israel is derived from him. For he had 12 sons which were the patriachs of the 12 tribes of Israel a nation which still is, though a remnant, to this day.

Because of the promises God has made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, He bore much grief because of the evil that the children of Israel did, and in rebuke, He often delivered them in the hands of their enemies, and saved them when they repented and served Him. Having have read the stories of these people, one must understand the injuries they have gotten from the hand of the Lord in rebuke for their evil which was typical of mankind. But we must also understand and admire this people for they are a people raised by God, from an old man who could not have children until the age of 100 which thing is a miracle, for the purpose that God may be known to the rest of the world.

Indeed God has been a sheperd to this people, and although they have often provoked Him to such anger that He regretted being their God, He did not utterly destroy them but always left a remnant for them to sustain the nation and the oracles of God.

As one wrote in the scriptures, "Unless the LORD of hosts had left to us a very small remnant, We would have become like Sodom, We would have been made like Gomorrah."

For as history is told, there were 12 tribes of Israel, and the 10 were (lost) committed to the hand of their enemies by God, and only 2 remained which were Judah and Benjamin. These are the Jews. Of this Israel were the holy prophets of old, men who by their faith have done mighty deeds, and have prophesied of the Messiah which was to come in the world. And because of mankind's love of evil, they dispised all that the prophets stood for and preached; so most of the known prophets were killed and persecuted by the same people of Israel.

For one also wrote, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!"

It is indeed easy to judge and conclude against the Jews from our(Gentile) point of view, but we must understand that we are no better than them. In fact, all throughout history, these people have suffered greatly, and for some reason have managed to increase their enemies. One may wonder if nations hate them because of the pride they have for their nation, or the mystery of their faith, or the sacredness of their land. What I have understood from reading my Bible is that, these people are a special people for the reason that God had formed them(who were not a people at all) to carry and preserve His oracles; for the Law of God was given to them to practice while the rest of the nations of the world had committed themselves to the worship of strange gods which did not speak nor could they hear nor see.

So where do we(non-jews) fit in? Everywhere! As I have mentioned, God's intention was to raise a people for Himself out of the people of the world, that He may make make Himself known to us. Indeed we hear the wonders He has done, we read His laws and we marvel because it is good. We hear of mighty deeds and we fear. We hear of His lovingkindness and we hope.

For He has since the beginning of time, written in the oracles that He committed to the Jews to preserve, promised salvation to the world by His Christ. Because the Jews were a stubborn people, as is typical of mankind, even after the many deeds they have witnessed, or the wisdom they received in the writtings, the gentiles were given opportunities to be partakers of His salvation. For they(Jews) became like us Gentiles, although they knew God and His laws, they did not love Him as God, nor did they perform that Law according to Love(God is Love), but became proud of their Laws perfoming their rituals thinking it was the rituals that made them a happy people. As it is written,
"Sacrifice and offering You did not desire"

Therefore, we gentiles were made partakers also, for they who were at the first invited to the feast, turned the invitation down, and the master of the feast invited the poor and blind to sit at the table that was prepared for the originally invited. This is the wisdom of God, that when Christ came, they did not know Him, and when He preached and taught the Law of Love which encompassed altogether the Law they thought to have been correctly practicing, they were offended and they stumbled and fell out of the knowledge of God. They stumbled by that stumbling stone(which is the Christ) that was written of in the scriptures saying,
"Behold I lay in Zion a stumbling stone, a rock of offence..."

Now, have they lost the salvation? No! Because they rejected God, they now attain it by the same means the gentiles attain it by, which is through Christ. Is it not written that "Salvation is of the Jews"? And also that, "blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in"? But that the promise of GOd to Abraham may be true, that "In your seed shall all the nations of the world be blessed". For we are indeed blessed; we have received hope in Christ Jesus, who is the son of David of Jesse of Judah of Jacob of Isaac of Abraham! We have attained the salvation of God by faith in His Christ, that the saying may be true which says, "In Him the Gentiles will trust"

We ought to, therefore, marvel at the wisdom of God, and His longsuffering towards us.