Isaiah 22:13 “Let us eat and drink,” you say, “for tomorrow we die!”

Many people search pleasures in kind of a desperate attempt at enjoying themselves. Often while being profoundly unhappy within. Sometimes I think all those forms of drug taking is there to appease the soul so that man will enjoy himself for a short time, be free of pain. (By the way: Who ever told has we have a right to a pain free life, as nice as that is? Not Jesus certainly.)Before the drug is loosing its effect and it all starts over. - Now I don't think, contrary to common thought, that drugs debilitate. Under drug influence, as long as it is not overpowering, somebody can work much harder, party much harder too, of course, but for a brief time that person will be, depending on the drug, funnier, smarter, wittier, alert, happy. Which makes somebody more successful. Which is why drugs are in such high standing, no matter what warning is issued against them. Cigarettes and alcohol are two very well known drugs and everybody knows horror pictures of abusive drinkers. But while drinking in society, these people are smarter, sometimes even kinder, for they forget all the bad stuff that is behind or upfront. - In Jesus times they partied as well, it included slaughter of many animals. Jesus didn't even reproach the partying. He gave something like 600 gallons of wine to a wedding party. He was reproached by the Pharisees as: Glutton and wine bibber. So Jesus gave a thumbs up to the party. Where there was a true reason to have one. This is my point: Where there is a true reason, the party is a very good thing to bring people together. But - even though in these times, as rich as we still are, every day may have a reason for a party - to overcome sadness or pain or sorrow was not the intention of a party. Being in a club, whether with older or younger people, what are they looking for? Entertainment? Diversion? From what? Boring rich lives? From their troubled soul, unable to know when it is happy? From the joy that has been robbed out of our lives? For who is happy here? Kind of all are searching for additional comfort, however at ease they may be financially. In Jesus can be found peace for the unhappy soul, but he may bring trouble to a comfortable life too. - The comfort of a cat, though I haven't found cats in the bible, may bring down to a certain reality. They are happy with nice food, clean water, a warm bed and clean litterbox, some caressing, but not too much. Why can not man be content? Why is he so greedy for more, more happiness, more money, more things, more friends, why cannot we be happy? It seems to be a curse of society. Of living outside of God's word. To be able to live with the pain of unfulfilled lives here opens the path to heaven. To embrace pain and sorrow as due, a result of any sin is very reasonable and strangely enough the way to true happiness.

Luke 5:16 But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.

Have you lately felt lonely? Abandoned? Crying to God for answers? Psalm 25:16 Turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am lonely and afflicted. As David did in this verse of Psalms? Loneliness can be both, a blessing or a curse. Luke writes that: Jesus withdrew to find peace and to pray. Mark 6:46 After leaving them, he went up on a mountainside to pray. So Jesus withdrew from the demands put on him to find time for contact with God. Often demands pressure modern man. Though he supposedly has more "free" time than his forefathers, quiet time is rare. Maybe because the opposite effect is it a little feared. For in quiet all unsolved problems seem to raise their ugly heads claiming to be solved immediately. But many things cannot be solved, at least not in this world. Man lives with that tension . Between the utter despair, the cries of loneliness and the blessed silence of withdrawal and the quiet time of reflection. Some think solitude is boring, to some it is frightening, to others a blessing. Some of that new "solitude of big towns" that has been claimed, may be a blessing with nobody looking to ease that loneliness, while others even in smaller towns nearly die out of lack of companionship. Whatever your stand towards a time alone, at some time or other it seems to come to everybody and it is a great good, if man is able to enjoy his own company. It will very probably be required of all. Sooner or later. And even Jesus felt lonely when he cried at the cross: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Mt. 27:46

Today I will comment on something that happened a couple of days ago, maybe even yesterday. A lady died while biking. She was a very rich and quite famous lady, working with amazon.com in its start-up days. I love amazon, I have published my books and my music there and I think it is great they are there. But here is the hick. They don't seem to be paying their workers a lot. This lady happens to have been responsible for finances. How come she dies dirt rich where the workers are scraping? She made a difference to many lives, did she make a difference to those who worked for her? - When I was a kid I admired the genius, the rebellious. I thought - wow - these guys know that things should be different in life. And then these famous, different, rebellious people go home, beating their wives, scolding their children, cheating, not paying fair wages, watching and producing porn and much more. This is not written to condemn. It is written to say they are a lot like anybody else. - I found out, little by little, that they are neither different, nor wiser. They numb the pain through drugs and alcohol and pills and haven't found any answer to what bugs all people. - But life should be different. Even after knowing about quants and quarks, light-years and dimensions, after reading Schrödinger or look at Picassos paintings, we should know that something isn't right. That life should reflect it. There are too many, who, after wonderfully challenging speeches go home and beat their children. Or mistreat their aging parents. - There is a difference. But it is hard to find. It is in Jesus. Sometimes it seems, all that this could be for humanity has been forgotten. If it was ever known. Would a God, who chose the well known and too often clicheed crib, a dirty place full of bugs and fleas and bad smells as birth place for a special child by a single, virgin mother. That should tell mankind something. That there has to be a difference. Life has to be different, where God is the center of it. Have you found the difference? I please myself in thinking I have grasped its hem..... still a long way to go..... to heaven, which will be a very different place. Are you ready?

Psalm 9:18 But God will never forget the needy; the hope of the afflicted will never perish.

This verse is part of the psalms, thought to have been written by the great king David in his need. Looking at Davids live some of his great flaws jump to the eye. Yet he is God's greatest hero in the old testament. He is God's most faithful servant throughout the Old Testament. He died in peace in Jerusalem, a revered king. - The old Testament has often given promises of protection and hope after hard times. But many prophets have died horrible deaths, with no fault of their own. And we, often eager for comfort, look up to those who have gone before to believe all will be well. - In the New Testament we are taught otherwise: Luke 11:49‘I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and others they will persecute.’ With a God who suffered a terrible fate considering earthly conditions, we have no right to believe that in this world all shall end well. But Luke even writes more: Luke 6:23 “Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. For that is how their ancestors treated the prophets. Man is told to rejoice if this world is cruel to him. The true reward will not follow in this world but God's kingdom. Some of his riches are already with those who are faithful. If being an obedient servant this service brings a rich harvest. Isaiah 32:17 The fruit of that righteousness will be peace; its effect will be quietness and confidence forever. So, the reward will be in peace and joy and assurance. We, as emotionally involved people, pray so often for health, wealth, work, lack of sorrow or pain. Some have promised those as a sign of God's favor. But Jesus example says not so. John 12:24 Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. Jesus died for us to be saved. We are to be like him as the ultimate goal of life. - I am writing this to keep many from being disappointed with God or with Christianity. They think, if they lead godly lives all problems will disappear. That is not what scripture teaches. The true reward cannot be found in this world, though having work and a nice family are nice things, of course. But this expectancy, the pressure to perform perfectly does at all not conform to scripture. One of the biggest difficulties of the christian life is the pressure from both, believers and non-believers to conform to a certain pattern. Take comfort. God, the completely other, does not expect us to perform. He expects his children to trust. To hope in a new dawn. To love him. This is our hope and the light that shines in the darkness. As David was not without fault and yet the greatest king of all, so we are measured by the faith we have and follow, not by performing according to the pressure of others. Man, even in his best, will never be sinless and never deserve God's grace. Mark 11:22 “Have faith in God,” Jesus answered.

They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.’ Ez. 37:11

Sad words Ezechiel wrote. Have you ever felt that way? All dried up? Without hope or future? When everything seems to go very wrong? Rom 5:3 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. When all hope seems to fail, what is Paul saying? He says that lasting hope is product of suffering. Shortly put. So Paul said he gloried in his sufferings for through them God builds character and in the end hope. Romans 12:12 Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. So be patient in affliction and trust the hand of the potter. - Often, when I have pain, I am searching some fault within me, something hidden in me, that produces this suffering. Paul does not say so. He says: If the suffering is undeserved, glory in it and trust God. His Spirit is the only hope that will not fail.

Gen. 40:7 So he asked..., “Why do you look so sad today?”

Why do you look so sad? Joseph asked this the two officials who were with him in the prison. They had had dreams and Joseph interpreted them, one was for relief, the other for great distress. They came true. So only one man of the two had a reason to be sad. But the dreams had been troubling them, as much as later they troubled Pharao. The one who should have been sad was Joseph. He was in prison for 20 years. No trial, completely innocent. No lawyer, no one to help. He could have given up on life. Sold by his brothers into slavery, put into a dungeon by an unjust master. Can life be any blacker? And yet it is this Joseph who offers advice. He worries for others. And - even though much later, having done so brings back his freedom. - Have you ever been blue? Felt treated unjustly? Been treated unjustly? Have you ever wondered: "Why me, Lord? Why is all this happening to me?" I often have. Until I found some answer in scripture. For the sins we committed, be they as insignificant as may be, we deserve much worse. And hell will be much worse than anything you - or I - would even want to imagine. If God allows our suffering here, as bad as it may be, and as sad as it may get, he is never giving us what we truly deserve. Instead, he has opened a door of grace and a door of honor. The honor to suffer for his name's sake. Please, don't let anyone take this away from you. Instead, turn and help somebody else. It truly helps to do so. It eases pain to ease somebody's pain. To agree with God will bring peace to the soul. Ecclesiastes 7:3 Frustration is better than laughter, because a sad face is good for the heart.