New Mailing List Set-Up

Hey guys, I just wanted to let all of you know that I've set up a new way for y'all to get the lesson's on e-mail. It's no longer the cool, fancy html email anymore (which is sad), but it's something that will automatically send out emails of the stuff posted on the blog. For instance, this right here. I'm posting it on the blog, but if everything works out right then you should be reading it in your email. If you didn't get it in your email then you might not be subscribed. Here's the new way to subscribe and unsubscribe:

• If you want the blog updates to be sent to your inbox then send bibleforlife@gmail.com an email with the subject "Subscribe"
• If you no longer want to get emails then you can send an email to bibleforlife@gmail.com with the subject "Unsubscribe"

Hopefully this works out for everyone. It's slightly less exciting without the pretty colors and the logo, but it's automatic, therefore it's easier for me. Let me know if you have any problems!

-Drew

A Life Given To God

So, the thoughts from this lesson have been on my mind because of another book that I've been reading (called Don't Waste Your Life, by John Piper), but I read some more in Ecclesiastes and I learned some important things about God and about wisdom that seemed to jive with chapter two from this other book I've been reading. (I've actually found that the two books have a whole lot in common, except that Don't Waste Your Life talks more directly about Jesus because it was written after he came.)

All along I have tried my best to let wisdom guide my thoughts and actions. I said to myself, "I am determined to be wise." But it didn't really work. Wisdom is always distant and very difficult to find. (Ecclesiastes 7:23-24)

I not only know, because the Bible is talking about it, that this statement is true, but I can feel that this is true. I can feel that wisdom is such a hard thing to find and to know. Being wise is something that takes a very long time and many, many years of experience to have. I know that I am barely even on the edge of being wise. I'm somewhat wise in the percussion scene because I've been actively playing it for four years and now I'm a section leader in band because of that. I have a tiny bit of wisdom when it comes to talking about girls because I've had several girlfriends and learned a lot from them. I have a little wisdom when it comes to scriptures for no other reason than because the Holy Spirit dwells in me and blessed me with the gift of understanding the Bible. So, I know a little bit about wisdom, and I try my best to let wisdom guide my thoughts and actions, but it seems like so often wisdom is just difficult and hard to find.

Later on in chapter eight Solomon is talking about his own search for wisdom. He says,

"In my search for wisdom, I tried to observe everything that goes on all across the earth. I discovered that there is ceaseless activity, day and night. This reminded me that no one can discover everything God has created in our world, no matter how hard they work at it. Not even the wisest people know everything, even if they say they do." (Ecclesiastes 8:16-17)

This spoke a great deal about God to me even though he's only mentioned as a side note in this verse. I just thought that it was interesting how the guy who has a "wise and understanding mind such as no one else has ever had or ever would have" (1 Kings 3:12) is saying that not even the wisest person (which would be himself) knows everything. Solomon is pretty high up there on the list of people who know a lot. It's pretty crazy to me that he is spending all this time searching for wisdom even though he's been made the wisest man ever. This is all so crazy to me because all this stuff that Solomon can't quite wrap his mind around, God created.

God, once again, is clearly a ridiculously powerful and amazing god. All this ceaseless stuff going on day and night, God knows. No man can possibly even discover all the things God has created and set in motion. I mean, there's really no words to say it. I could say that God is the wisest being that there is, but that's not right, because God created wisdom. In times that I seek wisdom all I can do is turn to God. Ecclesiastes says, "The wicked will never live long, good lives, for they do not fear God. Their days will never grow long like the evening shadows." (8:13) I think that when this is talking about length it is not talking about the earth, because the verse before that Solomon is talking about how many people who sin live long lives. I think the main focus of this verse is the quality of life. That's why I italicized the word "good." I think the point that is being made here is that "Well, they might live long lives, but they won't live long, good lives." And it's because they don't fear God. It's because they don't follow Him. Because of this they loose all hope of gaining wisdom.

People who live in wickedness not only loose their hope of wisdom, but also any hope of an eternal life, stretching out like the evening shadows. Not life on earth, but life after earth. Talking about death Solomon says, "None of us can hold back our spirit from departing. None of us has the power to prevent the day of our death. There is no escaping that obligation, that dark battle. And in the face of death, wickedness will certainly not rescue those who practice it." (8:8) It is inevitable that someday we will all die. But those who follow God have been rescued from spiritual death, however wickedness will never save the wicked.

So, here's the part where I start wrapping up, and here's the part where I bring everything full circle and start talking about Don't Waste Your Life. When it comes down to wisdom and eternal life the only place we can receive these things is from the hand of God. No man, not even the wisest man, can know everything. So the only way we can become wise, and we can receive the gift of eternal life is to turn away from ourselves and to give our self to God. And I'll close with a quote from Don't Waste Your Life:

[Eternal life] is to know God and his Son, Jesus Christ. No thing can satisfy the soul. The soul was made to stand in awe of a Person--the only person worthy of awe. All heroes are shadows of Christ. We love to admire their excellence. How much more will we be satisfied by the one Person who conceived all excellence and embodies all skill, all talent, all strength and brilliance and savvy and goodness. This is what I have been trying to say. God loves us by liberating us from the bondage of self so that we can enjoy knowing and admiring him forever.

A New Year Of Bible For Life

Hey Guys,

I have some exciting ideas for Bible For Life this year. First of all, as many of you hopefully know, I have made many, many different ways to access Bible For Life available to you. I will gladly update any of these things, as well as anything else. However, I would like to get some feedback from you all about which of these is the best way for me to minister to you. There is a poll, or you can just email me what you think. The answer choices are:

• Message Board
• Blog
• Podcast
• Email List

And if there's anything else that you would like for me to do I will gladly do it!

One thing that I'm sure many of you know is that I am very busy and a lot of times don't update Bible For Life for long periods of time. There are two, actually three things, I'd like to say about this. One is that I hope I can do a better job of keeping Bible For Life going. Two is that I really want all of you guys to get more involved with Bible For Life so that this ministry can be not just me, but all of us. The third thing I would like to say is that I'm proud to say that Bible For Life is no long just me. I'm very happy to welcome Greg Jeffers to the "Board of Administrators." Haha. Basically, he and I were talking about Bible For Life and how I don't update it very often and he asked me if I could make him an administrator so that he could take part in writing lessons and such. Of course I said yes and I'm so excited about it. One more thing that I'm hoping to do is to get some sort of girl administrator. I think that would be awesome for any girls in this group. I believe that a girl would be able to write lessons that could help y'all much better than anything I could ever write would help. I still have yet to ask a girl to be an administrator, but I have some ideas in mind and I'm going to start asking if they would like to take on the responsibility.

Another thing that I'm going to try to do this year is grow Bible For Life to be yet an even bigger community of people who can touch one another with our love and share in God's love together. I'm going to be making some announcements to the First Colony Youth Group and some other places too if I possibly can. I ask you guys to please tell people about this ministry. I know it has helped me grow with God tremendously, and I hope it has you too.

Thank you so much for being a part of this ministry and my prayers are with you.

God Bless,
Drew Dixon

When Things Don't Go My Way

I don't know how many of you have really been kept up to speed on some stuff going on in my life lately. Some of you who are close friends of mine, or who read my blog, will know about this. Over a month ago the elders of my mom's church (Alief Church of Christ) came to me about my attendance there. Typically I go to my dad's church (First Colony Church of Christ). They came to me asking whether or not I really considered myself a member at Alief anymore. This really made me start thinking about my life a whole lot again. My home situation, all of that.

A little over a year ago I was really down about how my home is split. I live part time with my mom and part time with my dad. The talk about my membership at Alief seemed to bring about this whole thing again for me, and I was feeling really discouraged for awhile there. This whole this was really on my heart a few weeks ago, and that's when I wanted to write this lesson, but I never did. So I write it now to let you guys know what's been going on with me, and to share a couple of verses that got me through it.

I spent a lot of time, both a year ago and some weeks ago, feeling very upset about my life. I was very dissatisfied. I kept wishing that my home was not one that was split, but that I could have a specific family and a specific home. I kept desiring other things. I just kept wishing for something different than what God had given me.

I opened up my Bible to Ecclesiastes chapter six to see what was going on in this book, also because I really wanted to write more in Bible For Life, when I found a couple of verses that completely spoke to me, how I was feeling, and what I was facing. The first verse God showed me was this:

"Enjoy what you have rather than desiring what you don't have. Just dreaming about nice things is meaningless; it is like chasing the wind."

The next verse that really spoke to me was one that I had found and highlighted sometime before. It says:

"Notice the way God does things; then fall into line. Don't fight the ways of God, for who can straighten out what he has made crooked?"

This was amazing to me.

To me the first verse I saw meant to stop desiring a different home situation and to accept what God has given me. To you maybe it means that you should stop wishing it was still summer or wishing that you had some leadership role in some organization. Maybe it means you should stop dreaming about that nice car that you want or when you will get your driver's license for that matter. The second verse spoke much more to my heart.

The second verse touches on the idea that God might just make something in our lives crooked that was once straight. For instance family or marriage. He could take these things and break them apart. Make them crooked. But who is to try and straighten out what He has made crooked? After all, this is the way God does things. So I should just fall into line and stop desiring what I don't have.

Sometimes I find myself saying things like, "I would give anything not to have gone through that." Or, "I wish (this particular thing) in my life was different." But then I wonder -- where would I be if I hadn't faced that trial? Or if my life was different than it is? Maybe I would be a completely different person, maybe I wouldn't know any of the amazing people in my life, maybe God is preparing me for something in my future that I will have to face.

There's really two things that I want you guys to take away from this study. One is that God has a plan for you. I don't understand why God decided for me to be born into a family that would be divorced, but I know that without it I wouldn't have ever known First Colony or any of the amazing people that are in it. Maybe without that I would never have had such a passion for God, who is the only constant in my life. God has put me in this place for a reason, and no matter what circumstances you are in right now, I know God has a reason why you are there. The second thing I want you to pull away from this lesson comes from the first verse that I had found. I think it means that we should just appreciate what we have for today instead of wanting something different right now. Maybe that change will come about later in life, but for now we have what we have and we need to use it for God's glory.

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Quotations from Ecclesiastes 6:9 and 7:13