by ems 06/23/25
Ecclesiastes 3:1-18
1 For everything there is a season,
a right time for every intention under Heaven —
2 a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
3 a time to kill and a time to heal, time to tear down and a time to build,
4 a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
5 a time to throw stones and a time to gather stones, a time to embrace and a time to refrain,
6 a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to discard,
7 a time to tear and a time to sew,
a time to keep silent and a time to speak,
8 a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.
Whether we want to admit it or not, our times are in God’s hands.
The reality that God alone has given us life and has measured out the number of days we will travel on this earth is clearly expressed in the Bible, God’s Word.
Before you were a twinkle in your mother’s eye,
God knew you.
God loved you.
God made plans for you.
But, most importantly, God died for you to redeem your life from the pit of hell – the eternal darkness of torture with no relief or presence of God.
We have certain limits in this life placed upon us by God.
He decided who our parents would be and where we would be born.
He chose the design of our frame, whether we would be tall or short, blue-eyed or
brown-eyed, even the colour of our hair and the length of our fingers and toes.
He crafted us with love and an intimate connection even before we drew our first breath!
Psalm 139: 11-18 (I like to call this “the birthday psalm.”)
11 If I say, “Let darkness surround me,
let the light around me be night,”
12 even darkness like this
is not too dark for you;
rather, night is as clear as day,
darkness and light are the same.
13 For you fashioned my inmost being,
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I thank you because I am awesomely made,
wonderfully; your works are wonders —
I know this very well.
15 My bones were not hidden from you
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes could see me as an embryo,
but in your book all my days were already written;
my days had been shaped
before any of them existed.
17 God, how I prize your thoughts!
How many of them there are!
|18 If I count them, there are more than grains of sand;
if I finish the count, I am still with you.
IF you want to know for sure that God will bring you into His dwelling place, Heaven,
then you must do three things:
1. Agree With God That You Are A Sinner And Have Offended God.
None of us is righteous, no, NOT one!
We can not do enough good things for God to accept us;
God requires perfection and complete purity … in other words,
we must be sinless! Yet none of us can, nor have any of us achieved this.
So God the Father made a way.
Romans 3: 9-12 (Romans, the Apostle Paul’s letter to Jews, is for all of us!)
9 So, are we Jews better off? Not entirely, for I have already made the charge that all people, Jews and Gentiles alike, are controlled by sin. 10 As the Tanakh puts it,
“There is no one righteous, not even one!
No one understands,
11 no one seeks God,
12 all have turned away
and at the same time become useless;
there is no one who shows kindness, not a single one!
2. Believe that Jesus the Messiah, God’s Only Provision, Died For You!
God made one way to Heaven: Believe and Trust that Jesus, who was perfect
took your punishment, died a horrible death on the cross after being tortured,
was buried three days, but then … ROSE AGAIN!
Because Jesus the Christ is alive today, we know that the Only Almighty, Righteous
and Holy God accepted Jesus’ sacrificial death.
Yeshua the Messiah is our Passover Lamb so that God may pass over our sins forever!
John 14: 6-7 (One way, One Truth, One Life!)
6 Yeshua said, “I AM the Way — and the Truth and the Life; no one comes to the Father except through me. 7 Because you have known me, you will also know my Father; from now on, you do know him — in fact, you have seen him.”
3. Confess Your Sin and Repent (turn 1800 away from sin)
How do we live a life that pleases God? God’s Holy Spirit, Whom you receive
the moment you believe will enable you to:
Read the Bible,
Find other followers of Jesus, and ask them questions.
Gather together regularly with other believers in Christ,
Be baptized,
And Give from your heart using the gifts God gives to you.
Isaiah 53: 4-5 (This whole chapter reveals what Jesus, The Messiah did for us!)
4 In fact, it was our diseases he bore,
our pains from which he suffered;
yet we regarded him as punished,
stricken and afflicted by God.
5 But he was wounded because of our crimes,
crushed because of our sins;
the disciplining that makes us whole fell on him,
and by his bruises* we are healed.
Here’s the bottom line:
God Rules. We Sinned. God Provided. Jesus Gives. We Respond.
Life is short!
Have you acknowledged to God how great He is and how much you need Him?
One day, the hourglass of your life will be broken, and no more time will flow.
You do not know when you will come to your last day.
Are you ready to meet your Maker?
Have you experienced His peace?
If you were to die tonight, are you sure that you are going to Heaven?
You can grow in faith and deepen your understanding.
Psalm 90: 10 -12
The span of our life is seventy years,
or if we are strong, eighty;
yet at best it is toil and sorrow,
over in a moment, and then we are gone.
11 Who grasps the power of your anger and wrath
to the degree that the fear due you should inspire?
12 So teach us to count our days,
so that we will become wise.
I pray that God reveals Himself to you today and enables you to walk in a manner worthy of Him, pleasing Him in every way!
BLESSINGS!
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Gleanings From Heaven's Gate 