How Futile It All Is...

Going thru the book of Ecclesiastes for the past several weeks in our morning service has brought light to just how futile the things of this world are when they're separated from God.

Ecclesiastes 1:2-4 says;

Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity. What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun? A generation goes and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever.

Our work is toil and will be past on to someone else when we either move on or even pass on.

Ecclesiastes 1:18 speaks of how our wisdom increases sorrow. Chapter two goes into how our self-indulgences are also nothing but vanity.

The more I thought about and meditated on these and other verses I began to ask myself, "What's the point of anything then?" That's the great thing about knowing the Lord and having His Spirit dwell within us. He brings to remembrance that all things are for Him and His glory!

Ultimately, the answer is given at the end of the book. The purpose of man is to fear God and obey Him! Everything else will one day be gone. Everything from our earthly relationships to the Macbook I'm typing this on will one day burn away. The only thing that will last is that personal relationship with Christ who bought us on cross with His blood.

So, I encourage you to dig deep into what Soloman has to say in the book of Ecclesiastes. If you don't have a church home then feel free to join us this Sunday @ 10am at Blue Ridge Bible Church as we continue to study this wonderful book of the Bible. Visit the church website and take a few minutes to watch the video that speaks about our current series into the book of Ecclesiastes.

In Christ Alone,

Mr. V

Hermie & Friends- Antonio Meets His Match…

I just finished watching Max Lucado’s latest Hermie video entitled, “Antonio Meets His Match.” This is my first encounter with the Hermie videos and honestly the main reason I decided to view and review it was to see if these videos are something I would want my young girls to watch.

I thought the animation was done very well. This didn’t come across as some low budget video that no one would want to watch because it has that “cheesy” or poor look and feel to the characters. The art work reminded me of the Disney Pixar film “A Bugs Life.”

The video also offered good quality and clean humor. Yes, the video is Christian based and has biblical meaning behind it, but it didn’t come across in that stereotypical “church is boring” kind of way. The humor wasn’t degrading anyone, but rather just showed how crazy our everyday lives can be.

Antonio, who is the “head ant” of the garden gets a new neighbor. His neighbor is loud, obnoxious, and at first it seems as though the only thing that the two of them have in common are that they are both ants. Antonio and his friends have a hard time getting use to their new and different neighbors. The garden friends pressure Antonio into asking the new ants to leave the garden. On his way to the neighbors mound Antonio finds himself in a conversation with God who reminds him that we are to love our neighbors. From the reaction Antonio gives it shows us that he wanted to please God and obey Him. Antonio returns home to his anxious friends who are waiting to hear the details of how he ran the new neighbors out of the garden; instead, Antonio reveals his conversation with the Lord and says he will do as the Lord has instructed. The great thing is that Antonio not only works toward loving his neighbor, he also expects the rest of his friends to do so as well.

Without giving away what happens, Antonio and his friends had to work hard at loving their neighbor. It showed how when we are asked to do things that even though they are from the Lord that we can still struggle. Through our struggles the Lord is lifted up and we are forced to rely more on Him. “Antonio Meets His Match” does an excellent job of showing us what it means to love our neighbor. I was entertained and fed the Word. I will definitely be encouraging my girls to watch this video and I recommend Max Lucado’s Hermie & Friends to you and your family as well.

Featuring:

Tim Conway as “Hermie”
Sam Mercurio as “Antonio”
Fred Willard as “Angus”

Bonus features include:

Trivia Game/Quiz
Short film “Caterpilla”
Read-along story

In Christ Alone,
Mr. V.