"Pleasures & Wealth Do not Satisfy." said the one who had gone through all - Ecclessiates 2

One of the richest and wisest kings of all time, King Solomon, pursued pleasures, wealth, great works and great wisdom told us that at the end of it all, nothing truly satisfies and all is vanity.

The mind-map for this chapter 2 is:

To discover the meaning of life, King Solomon embarked on full scale experiments of

1. seeking pleasure of wine and wives and concubines, of songs and dances, 
2. accumulating great wealth of not just silver and golds, but also of slaves and live stocks.
3. building great work of houses, vineyards, gardens, parks, reservoirs. Solomon was the one who built the Temple of God.
4. pursue of great wisdom.

It does not mean that pleasure, wealth and great works are not important. It does mean that they cannot be the highest objective of one's pursue in life. They can be the by-products or sub-objectives. By pursuing the truth one gets freedom and joy as by-products. By just pursuing wealth or happiness alone, one is never satisfied and will end in disappointment.

His conclusion was shocking to ordinary men like us, who thought highly of wealth and pleasures. He said those things could never satisfy us, no matter how much. He lamented that all his great works and wealth will be given to others after his life on earth is gone. What then is the meaning of life. He answers for us in the next chapter3.

Lim Liat (c) 23 Aug 2013

Loosing Our Religion and Knowing Jesus Rightly - Discussion on Tim Keller's Sermon

Understanding the modern critique of religions enables us to re-examine our own faith see it in a new light that we may embrace Jesus Christ rightly without the misuse and abuse of religion. Our faith is not to justify our evil actions, a means for wealth, health or power, to exclude others, to boss over the 'unenlightened' and the less spiritual lay people, etc. It is to realize that even our own virtues and good work are not basis for our salvation. We are to enjoy His love and extend His love to others that they may also know Him.

The Bible Study group listened and discussed on Tim Keller's 'Loosing My Religion' sermon.

We can learn much from others' critiques of us. Breaking away from our own point of view and trying to see from others' viewpoints is a good and refreshing thing to do. In the sermon, Tim Keller examined the view points of Freud, Marx and Nietzsche. We can easily see how easy it is for us to fall into the traps that they mentioned, self-justification, social or class justification and power-trip abuse of others. But our Jesus Christ is entirely different to their critiques. Jesus is anti-religions, inclusive and self-sacrificing.

Here is the mind-map that summarized our discussion, our additional reflection and sharing on the sermon.

Lim Liat (c) 13 July 2013