The scripture for today, May 15 (5/15), is Ecclesiastes 5:15 as found in the Old Testament of the Bible:
“Naked a man comes from his mother’s womb, and as he comes, so he departs. He takes nothing from his labor that he can carry in his hand.”
As most people enter their senior years, they finally understand this verse. In their youth, they struggled to get jobs and status and things. Some accomplished it, and some didn’t. But in the senior years….
when health is gradually declining….
the world is passing them by….
and they are sitting in their chair most of the time
….the main thing people look back on is what difference they made in their world, and how they did or did not help people important to them.
Often in their senior years, when their income goes down, and they are living only on a small pension, and they are unable to keep their big house, and fancy car, and impressive stuff, they realize they are still the same person inside regardless of what they own.
Ask a senior what they want for a birthday present. It is not likely to be things. It is likely to be time spent with a loved one or something special given to someone in need.
What about you? How much time are you spending on things?
I wrote this about twenty year ago when I was a young 61. Yesterday I turned 81. I went shopping to buy myself a birthday present, but didn’t see anything I wanted. Instead, I looked through the 340+ birthday greetings I received on my two Facebook pages — friends I hadn’t seen in decades, strangers who loved me, delightful pictures, sweet verses. You were my birthday gifts. With you I had all I needed or wanted. You all fill my heart.
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INTREPID MEN OF GOD. TITUS: THE ARISTOCRAT. Titus is born of privilege, surrounded by luxury in the family palatio, and a graduate of the university at Pergamum. His father is the supreme judge of Antioch and Flamin of Apollo, while his mother is Flaminica of Apollo’s Muses. His ambition is to become important like his father and qualify for the purple border on his own white toga. Then he meets the Apostle Paul and becomes a Christian. He gives it all up to travel to church and places where Jesus is yet unknown. To BUY NOW, click a book cover or paste this: https://bit.ly/TitusAristocrat-8
“Yet for us, there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord [Word], Jesus Christ, through whom all things came [by a Word] and through whom we live [by the Word]. But not everyone knows this. Some people are still so accustomed to idols.”
“Naked a man comes from his mother’s womb, and as he comes, so he departs. He takes nothing from his labor that he can carry in his hand.”
“What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish that I may gain Christ.”
” ‘Meaningless! Meaningless!’ says the teacher. ‘Everything is meaningless!’ “
“The Lord Almighty is the one you are to regard as holy, he is the one you are to fear, he is the one you are to dread, and he will be a sanctuary.”
“Yet for us, there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord [Word], Jesus Christ, through whom all things came [by a Word] and through whom we live [by the Word]. But not everyone knows this. Some people are still so accustomed to idols.”