Nothing New Under the Sun

Ecclesiastes 1:9

What has been is what will be,
 and what has been done is what will be done,
 and there is nothing new under the sun.

One of those cliche sayings we use that actually comes from the Bible is the phrase "nothing new under the sun".

By it's very nature, a cliche- "A woman's work is never done" or "You can lead a horse to water but you cannot make him drink" for example gets used so flippantly by people we begin to forget what it really means or to think if it is really true or not.

Well something happened to my yesterday that makes "nothing new under the sun" seem so real and true it shocked me.

The Bible has a way of doing that, for a text thousands of years old.

I was given a box of books by a friend that she had collected over the years. In this box were many hardcover books from the early 1900's - Anne of Green Gables, Emily Post etiquette, etc...

It even contained a school book from before the civil war, an 1850's tattered and rebound school primer.

I also found a small black book entitled "Quite Talks on Power" by S.D. Gordon copyrighted 1903.

That makes this book 109 year old.

It's a nice little book in very good shape with a ribbon book mark built in and a lovely embossed cross on the cover.

I thought to myself:

How quaint.

How adorably old fashioned this book will be. It seems to be on Christian living.

I will amuse myself on how out of date the ideas in it are.

So I began to read.

It almost took my breath away.

It read like a blog written on a I-pad yesterday by a preacher down the road.

It brings to light how a Christian can live with power, real power in their lives.

Here we have a man who traveled the country asking people "What kind of Christian are you?".

Now, it's true 109 years ago most Americans he encountered would have identified themselves as Christians, but the honest responses of the people questioned sound very modern.

As I read further I became so convicted about the kind of Christian I am, that I started to read parts of the book to my husband. He could not believe this book was 109 years old.

I have again come here to this blog to recommend a book that I have not finished reading but I heartily do so with this book

I googled this 109 year old book to find it is out of copyright so you can read the whole thing or down load it on this web site: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/20731/20731-h/20731-h.htm

You can also buy a reprint version on Amazon.

109 years ago people did not get how their little everyday choices had eternal effects.

Are we any different?

I just want to leave you with this small section from the book that struck me as being a truly timeless observation.

Quoted from Quiet talks on Power:

And so I thought I would just ask the friends here to-day very frankly, "What kind of Christians are you?" I do not say what kind you are, for I am a stranger, and do not know, and would only think the best things of you. But I ask you frankly, honestly now, as I ask myself anew, what kind are you? Do you know? Because it makes such a difference.

The Master's plan—and what a genius of a plan it is—is this, that the world should be won, not by the preachers—though we must have these men of God for teaching and leadership—but by everyone who knows the story of Jesus telling someone, and telling not only with his lips earnestly and tactfully, but even more, telling with his life. That is the Master's plan of campaign for this world. And it makes a great difference to Him and to the world outside whether you and I are living the story of His love and power among men or not.

Do you know what kind of a christian you are? There are at least three others that do.

First of all there is Satan. He knows. Many of our church officers are skilled in gathering and compiling statistics, but they cannot hold a candle to Satan in this matter of exact information. He is the ablest of all statisticians, second only to one other. He keeps careful record of every one of us, and knows just how far we are interfering with his plans. He knows that some of us—good, respectable people, as common reckoning goes—neither help God nor hinder Satan. Does that sound rather hard? But is it not true? He has no objection to such people being counted in as Christians. Indeed, he rather prefers to have it so. Their presence inside the church circle helps him mightily. He knows what kind of a christian you are. Do you know?

Then there is the great outer circle of non-christian people—they know. Many of them are poorly informed regarding the christian life; hungry for something they have not, and know not just what it is; with high ideals, though vague, of what a christian life should be. And they look eagerly to us for what they have thought we had, and are so often keenly disappointed that our ideals, our life, is so much like others who profess nothing. And when here and there they meet one whose acts are dominated by a pure, high spirit, whose faces reflect a sweet radiance amid all circumstances, and whose lives send out a rare fragrance of gladness and kindliness and controlling peace, they are quick to recognize that, to them, intangible something that makes such people different. The world—tired, hungry, keen and critical for mere sham, appreciative of the real thing—the world knows what kind of Christians we are. Do we know?

There is a third one watching us to-day with intense interest. The Lord Jesus! Sitting up yonder in glory, with the scar-marks of earth on face and form, looking eagerly down upon us who stand for Him in the world that crucified Him—He knows. I imagine Him saying, "There is that one down there whom I died for, who bears my name; if I had the control of that life what power I would gladly breathe in and out of it, but—he is so absorbed in other things." The Master is thinking about you, studying your life, longing to carry out His plan if He could only get permission, and sorely disappointed in many of us. He knows. Do you know?