Category: 2024 – Nelson’s A Life Well Lived (Ecclesiastes)

Are you concerned with spiritual atrophy?  Just as we can experience physical atrophy when we don’t exercise our muscles, we can feel the effects when our spiritual muscles are never exercised.  We can neglect to: stretch our faith, build up our mind, or increase in wisdom.

C.S. Lewis once wrote in his book Screwtape Letters, “Indeed, the safest road to Hell is the gradual one—the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.”

Solomon would say, “Our axe has become dull.”

This reminds me of Stephen Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, which has sold more than 20 million copies worldwide over the last 35 years.  His seventh habit is “sharpen the saw”—preserving and enhancing the greatest asset you have: you. It means having a balanced program for self-renewal in the four areas of life: physical, social/emotional, mental, and spiritual.

Are you sharpening your saw to stay poised?

Click here for more from Pastor Tommy Nelson on Ecclesiastes 10

Would you live differently today if you knew when you were going to die?

In Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, bitter old Ebenezer Scrooge needed a glimpse of his death before he changed his miserly ways. After he is visited by the three ghosts of Christmas—past, present, and future—Scrooge is transformed from a miserly and self-centered businessman into a generous and joyful person.

Scrooge’s change in attitude is evident in his behavior:

• He becomes more humble and willing to learn
• He becomes a better employer to Bob Cratchit by giving him enough coal to keep his office warm and a large turkey for Christmas dinner
• He gives money to a man in need
• He places more importance on family and less on money

Like Scrooge, we all know we are going to die, so we must ask: will that fact change the way we live today?  How will we move towards living well now rather than later?

The truth is, later never lasts as long as we think it will.

What will it take before we start living the life God intended?

Click here for more from Pastor Tommy Nelson on living well now from Ecclesiastes 9