Eat, Drink, and Be Merry

 

Have you ever heard something at one part of the day 

and it kind of resonated with you but you just went on 

with the rest of your day? Then later that day you hear 

something of the same thing? 

That happens to me all the time. 

This is how I know God is trying to talk to me. There are no sure things a coincidences. If this happens to you, PAY ATTENTION! God is trying to tell you something. 

    I am bringing this up because I feel like it is a message that the church needs to hear. I have been feeling led to write this blog for days now, but have ignored the leading. Today I sat down, turned my computer on, only to learn that the battery had stopped working completely. I knew in my spirit this message needed to go out...so I went to WalMart to buy a new computer. The enemy knows this is how I share what God teaches me, so he attempted to stop it, but he did no prevail. Now I am sitting at my kitchen table with the power of the Holy Spirit in me and we are going to write this blog. 

It all started Saturday morning, August 17 2024. I went to my Hebrew service as per normal. I was attempting to fast that day. Because God has been putting it in my spirit to FAST. I have had a couple attempts the last couple weeks that have not been successful. But that is not the point. At Shabbat, there is always such AMAZING food. The ladies are amazing cooks. I wish I could make food like that. 

But as we were going through the teaching with Pastor Mark Biltz, he was talking about king Solomon. King Solomon had everything he could possibly imagine. Money, power, fame, wisdom, God's favor. But we find that in Ecclesiastes, he felt empty. He was building all of these things, a kingdom if you will but his words were, in Ecclesiastes 8:15 (ESV) "And I commend joy, for man has nothing better under the sun but yo eat and drink and be merry, for this will go with him in his toil through the days of his life that God has given him." 

Well, Sweet I can do that! Actually I already do. If we are being honest, that is what most of us do. Am I wrong?

I noticed a couple things in that verse. King Solomon was looking for something that he could take with him after this life. He had realized that he could not take anything that he was building, which was a lot! The second thing I noticed is that he recognized that this life was given to him by God. He had God's wisdom. he KNEW in his head that the stuff on earth was pointless and that His life belonged to the Lord. BUT, he still missed the mark somewhere...

It is obviously possible for us to have all this knowledge and still not apply it the way the Lord means for us to. I mean look at the Pharisees and  Sadducees. 

God calls that thinking pattern FOOLISH!

Luke 12:16-20 And he told them this parable: "The ground of a CERTAIN rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, 'What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.' Then he said, 'This is what I'll do.. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I'll say to myself, "You have plenty of grain laid up  for many years. Take life easy; EAT, DRINK, AND BE MERRY.' But God said to him 'You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself.'"

Later that night, I was doing a little study with 3 kids after we got back to my house. We started it off by reading a teen daily reflection book. The reflection book talked about the same thing. To not eat, drink, and be merry. 

Sometimes when I notice that the Lord is trying to show me things, I get curious about them. So He will see my spiritual hunger, and bless me. He put into my spirit this.....

The opposite of physically eating would be fasting, the opposite of drinking would be sober minded, the opposite of being merry would be mourning. 

I remember reading about mourning and fasting in the bible. When you read about one the other one comes up. Fasting and Mourning go hand in hand. When Jesus was walking with the disciples, they asked Him "Why do they fast and we don't have to? Jesus told them there is no point in mourning while the Bridegroom is still with them, but when the bridegroom leaves then you can mourn. 

We should be fasting with mourning waiting for our Bridegroom. We should be fasting and mourning for His children. We should be fasting and mourning for His nation. 

What I realized is that when I get with most church groups, it is let eat and drink and be merry. Where is the getting together with fasting and mourning. Like when Esther got the people together to pray for the nation! Those are the types of meeting that I want to attend to!!!