ĐẾM THÁNG NGÀY CÒN LẠI

Kinh thánh: Truyền đạo 9: 1-10

Câu gốc: Ê-PHÊ-SÔ 5: 16 – Hãy lợi dụng thì giờ, vì những ngày là xấu.

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COUNTING ALL YOUR DAYS, MONTHS AND YEARS.

Bible: Ecclesiastes 9: 1-10

Main verse: EPHESIANS 5: 16 – making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.

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– Human life is limited, so we must use our time wisely and make every day on Earth count.

– Each day of our lives is made up by time. We all know that when time has passed, we will never have it back. It’s gone forever. With that in mind, we should count our days on Earth one by one and treasure them more than gold or jewelries. Knowing how to do that is called wisdom:

PSALM 90: 12 – So teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

THI THIÊN 90: 12 – Cầu xin Chúa dạy chúng tôi biết đếm các ngày chúng tôi, hầu cho chúng tôi được lòng khôn ngoan.

– God did not let us know how many days we currently have on Earth. He did that in order to teach us how to truly live out our lives wisely. If He let humans know how many days they have, many people will certainly use them to satisfy their desires and greed first before coming to Him for salvation.

– That’s why God kept the number of our days secret and that only Him knows exactly when our lives on Earth would soon come to an end. Even so, lots of people never actually think of it or prepare for the day they face Him. People know that their lives will eventually end someday, but they seem to not care, as though they would live on Earth forever.

Amos 4: 12 – Therefore thus will I do to you, O Israel; Because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel!

A-MỐT 4: 12 – Hỡi Y-sơ-ra-ên, vậy nên ta sẽ đãi ngươi dường ấy; hỡi Y-sơ-ra-ên, vì ta sẽ đãi ngươi dường ấy, nên ngươi khá sửa soạn mà gặp Đức Chúa Trời ngươi.

– Just as the Israelites must face God someday, all mankind will meet Him too, no exception. If God had reminded them to prepare for that day, all mankind should take heed of this verse too.

– God also warned that human life is full of sorrow and darkness, so we should try to be positive and rejoice in them all:

ECCLESIASTES 11: 8 – But if a man lives many years and rejoices in them all, yet let him remember the days of darkness, for they will be many. All that is coming is vanity.

TRUYỀN ĐẠO 11: 8 – Nếu một người được sống lâu năm, thì khá vui vẻ trong trọn các năm ấy; song cũng chớ quên những ngày tối tăm, vì những ngày ấy nhiều. Phàm việc gì xảy đến đều là sự hư không.

– For older people, we know that we had spent a big part of our lives in all those passing years, and now we don’t have many left. That is the reason that older people like us should start to count off our days more seriously, and to prepare sufficiently for the day we meet God.

– But instead of preparing our lives properly in all spiritual aspects to meet God someday, people tend to rush to submerge themselves in eartthly pleasures when they get old. That is because they are afraid that they would never get a chance to get them again. We Christians should not be like that.

– As in the quoted verse above, in Ecclesiastes and in other verses, God wanted His children to be happy and to rejoice with our lives, but many of us don’t know how. That is the result of ignoring the Bible, because in it, God has taught us many ways to achieve that.

PHILIPPIANS 4: 4 – Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice.

PHI-LÍP 4: 4 – Hãy vui mừng trong Chúa luôn luôn. Tôi lại còn nói nữa: hãy vui mừng đi.

– To be happier in our lives, we should use the time wisely so that it can bring us many benefits.

EPHESIANS 5: 16 – Making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.

EPHESIANS 5: 16 – Hãy lợi dụng thì giờ, vì những ngày là xấu.

– The words of God means that with each passing day, our lives are becoming shorter and that we should make the most out of our days. In other words, we should try our best to make each day filled with happy memories, and if we had more happy days than pitiful ones, we would be happier than most people in the world today.

– For example, if a man knew that he had only a limited amount of money in his pocket, he should consider carefully before spending it, and only buy what is most important and essential to his life.

– Therefore, we should remember that our happiness must be based on God’s standards so that it can be true to him and ourselves, and enjoyable. As it was mentioned before, unbelievers are also aware of the importance of time and the limited days they have on Earth, but they often used them for their earthly desires and greed.

– Making each day become filled with happy memories or not is our personal decision. Even though God wants us to be happy, He will not interfere with our decisions. How to use our days is entirely up to us and each one of us must bear the full consequences of it. We should also remember that our happiness should not depend on others, because we cannot control other people’s emotions. We can only be able to do that with ourselves.

– Because we don’t have time to consider all the ways we can make our days be filled with happy memories, we should remember the one thing that God had taught us to make the most of our days. That is to be at peace with everyone.

HEBREWS 12: 14 – Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.

HÊ-BƠ-RƠ 12: 14 – Hãy cầu sự bình an với mọi người, cùng tìm theo sự nên thánh, vì nếu không nên thánh thì chẳng ai được thấy Đức Chúa Trời.

– According to the Bible, a person who is filled with the Holy Spirit will have peace in his heart and be at peace with everyone else without compromising God’s commands and standards:

GALATIANS 5: 22 – But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness.

GA-LA-TI 5: 22 – Nhưng trái của Thánh Linh, ấy là lòng yêu thương, sự vui mừng, bình an, nhịn nhục, nhân từ, hiền lành, trung tín, mềm mại, tiết độ.

– We cannot be happy if we are enemies with someone. Everyone knows that, but many times we have contradicted what we already knew. If it’s possible and not against God’s commands and standards, we should be at peace with everyone in this life.

– Concerning to this matter, for marriage couples, we should try our best to be at peace and to be happy with our spouses, because that is beneficial to the both of us and can lift us up better emotionally more than anything else.

ECCLESIASTES 9: 9 – Enjoy life with your wife, whom you love, all the days of this meaningless life that God has given you under the sun—all your meaningless days. For this is your lot in life and in your toilsome labor under the sun.

TRUYỀN ĐẠO 9: 9 – Trọn các ngày của đời hư không ngươi, mà Đức Chúa Trời ban cho ngươi dưới mặt trời, hãy ở vui vẻ cùng vợ mình yêu dấu; vì đó là phần của ngươi trong đời nầy, và là điều ngươi được bởi công lao mình làm ở dưới mặt trời.

– This is so important, that the ancient people said that when a couple was in love and was in unity, they could make ocean dry if they wanted to. In the Bible, God let us know that this secret can make them gain much more blessings from Him:

PROVERBS 18: 22 – He who finds a wife finds what is good and receives favor from the Lord.

CHÂM NGÔN 18: 22 – Ai tìm được một người vợ, tức tìm được một điều phước, và hưởng được ân điển của Đức Giê-hô-va.

– This verse means that if we could find a spouse that loves us and be in harmony together in most of matters that concerning to our lives, we are truly blessed and we should rejoice with that.

– Therefore we can count each day of our lives on Earth by asking this question at the end of the day: Did we were at peace with all of the people we meet today at work, at school, in our families? And did we rejoice in the presence of our spouses whenever we are together?

– May God teach us much more of how to make the most of our days on Earth so that we are always happy. By it, we will become the best witnesses for Him to unbelievers. May God guide us to enjoy every day of our lives with our families, our friends and our brothers and sisters in Christ always. Amen.