Ecclesiastes 12:1 “Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them;”

Hello readers, thanks for reading my blog today. I hope it is a blessing to you. I posted this on my FB, but am also posting it on my blog here.

In Ecclesiastes 12:1, we see the right “philosophy” to live by. Everyone has a philosophy for living their life. Even if you don’t consciously know it, you’re living by your philosophy right now.

Our society is incredibly steeped in philosophies such as that the meaning of life is that “life has no set meaning” and “life is what you make it to be to you” and “enjoy it while you’ve got it” and “maximise it while you have it”.

But the Bible says in Colossians 2:8 “Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.”

This is because these philosophies come from somewhere, you didn’t come up with it yourself, they’ve been handed down, and they can be traced all the way back to the ancient Greeks. And they have become incredibly ingrained in our thinking and living.

Yes, it is good to enjoy life, but to make it the “reason” for your existence rather than enjoying it as a “by product” of your existence is a huge mistake.

The problem with living for the moment is that once the moment passes it’s useless to you. To make your reason for existing “live for now” or “make a memory” is such a degradation of God’s meaning for your life.

But, of course, when you forget your Creator because you don’t believe you have a Creator, because you’re a self made product of the self creative process of evolution who makes your own meaning of life, all you ultimately do is degrade your own meaning and purpose.

Young people are particularly encouraged to live for experiences, fun and pleasure, to “be free”. But the Bible teaches you to remember your Creator in the days of your youth, not forget him while you enjoy them. Why is that?

Because two key attributes of sin is that it “deceives” you and “hardens” you. As you grow in a life of sin, sin will deceive you about the purpose and meaning of life, and it will furthermore harden you to the truth of Jesus Christ “…lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.”

Sin’s capacity to deceive us is really quite incredible. It deceives us about right and wrong, death, hell and judgment. It deceives us about reasons and purpose and meaning for living. We think we can dip our lives into sin and it not affect us or change us. But it does, and more than we think. Sin will deceive you about everything, it will mess up your thinking. It will make you hopelessly lost. And the reason why your youth is so vital is because these are formative and foundational years which adulthood is built upon, and hence why David said “Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions: according to thy mercy remember thou me for thy goodness’ sake, O Lord.”

And you see this deceiving and hardening happen in people. I observe it in my own life, and in the lives of those around me. As you go along in a life of sin, your sin affects you, and you get more philosophical, but also more messed up, and it only gets harder for you to get saved. That’s why people even on their death bed still refuse to get saved, though they have nothing to lose at that point.

In this verse quoted at the start, a guy called Solomon, the wisest man to ever live bar Jesus Christ, closes out a book which has centered on life philosophy. He tried pleasure, fun, and lived by all the different life philosophies… which lead him to despair, not fulfillment. As they will you. Vanity! Maybe we can learn from him?

The fact is, if you live for the vain and small minded meaning that you’ve created for yourself rather than minding your Creator… you will find it provides no value to you as you get older and face realities of age and mortality and a crisis of meaning in your life “mid life crisis”.

For all the worldly philosophies on life, they will ALL fail you. None of them provide meaning, fulfillment or are based on truth. Jesus Christ said “I am the way, the truth and the life…” It doesn’t matter what fancy philosophical garbage you live by… without Christ you are living a dry and barren and vain and wasted life.

I do hope that you think more about this. I’ve found in life that people don’t lack for philosophy, far out people have lots of wisdom these days… but very little of our thinking is actually rooted and grounded in Christ.

The Bible says in Colossians 2:7 “Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.” And that’s where I want to be. We need to think Biblically, not according to our philosophies that justify and excuse our sin. And those philosophies can be very subtle, just as Satan is subtle, and they can be in our thinking much more than we think. Where did we get them from? Not from God.

The philosophy of this world will spoil you. And all this world has to offer you is rudiments. Look up that word rudiments. Because something “rudimentary” is very primitive and basic and not fully formed. And just think about how dumb and short sighted and small minded worldly philosophy really is. People’s philosophies on life are so stupid! Without God we are dumb as the rocks we think we evolved from. Hence why we need to… Proverbs 1:23 “Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you.”

The Bible says that “The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple”. We need enlightenment in the mind. We need to be quickened by the Spirit. God will completely transform our outlook and motivation and manner of life. Let our passion be his passion. Think about it, we were created for so much more, for such a higher purpose than living a meaningless life that revolves around indulging base desires. We are more than a beast, so let’s be that?

Today is the day to start, it’s only going to get harder from here. The younger you start the better. Suffer the little children! All those memories you’re making, experiences you’re having, pleasure you’re pursuing… they aren’t what you should anchor your soul too. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, be saved, because in your life… Zechariah 13:1 “In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness.” Worldly philosophy runs dry, but the fountain of Christ springs eternal.

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