Sermon Quotes: "Receive the Day"
The following quotes were cited in the July 29th, 2018 sermon from Ecclesiastes 8:16-9:12 entitled "Receive the Day."
"The Tapestry Poem" by Corrie ten Boom
My life is but a weaving
Between my God and me.
I cannot choose the colors
He weaveth steadily.
Oft’ times He weaveth sorrow;
And I in foolish pride
Forget He sees the upper
And I the underside.
Not ’til the loom is silent
And the shuttles cease to fly
Will God unroll the canvas
And reveal the reason why.
The dark threads are as needful
In the weaver’s skillful hand
As the threads of gold and silver
In the pattern He has planned
He knows, He loves, He cares;
Nothing this truth can dim.
He gives the very best to those
Who leave the choice to Him.
“As we consider what passes before us, we cannot make sense of it. We tend to assume, echoing Shakespeare, that the history of all things is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. But rather, it is a tale told to idiots.”
“When men understand the futility of earthly existence, and they understand it in the way Solomon presents it to us, they are then equipped to enjoy their bread for perhaps the first time. They may consider the redness of the wine and laugh over it with a wise and contented joy. They may turn to love their wives, not because sexual love is forever, but rather because it is not. In the world of creatures, we may only enjoy what we do not worship.”
“Zack, when your grandmother and I wake up, we give thanks to God, because at our age, waking up is not a promise. Then, if we have strength to do what we had planned to do that day, we give thanks to God that we had the strength to do it; because at our age, strength and health comes and goes. If we get a nap in and we wake up, we give thanks. If it’s dinnertime and we’re sitting down to eat, we give thanks not only for our food, but also that we can eat it, and that we made it through the day that far. After that, when we go to bed at night, we look at each other and then back on the day and we thank God for another day that he gave us to live. So, today we went fishing, and what do you know, we have all of these fish! The Good Lord must still have a purpose for us.”