PPic: Oberon Golf Course - Links Pro Am 2006

PGA Chaplain Bible Studies

Weekly Study No 15 - 03/07/2009

Weekly Study No 15 Ecclesiastes Ch 5:1-7

“Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. Go near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools, who do not know that they are wrong. Do not be quick with your mouth; do not be hasty in your heart to utter anything before God. God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few. As a dream comes when there are many cares, so the speech of a fool when there are many words. When you make a vow to God, do not delay in fulfilling it. He has no pleasure in fools; fulfil your vow. It is better not to vow than to make a vow and not fulfil it. Do not let your mouth lead you into sin. And do not protest to the temple messenger, ‘My vow was a mistake”. Why should God be angry at what you say and destroy the work of your hands? Much dreaming and many words are meaningless. There-fore stand in awe of God.”  (Ecclesiastes Chapter 5: verses 1 to 7 NIV).

Ch  ch? What’s Missing?

I find it sad that few feel the need for church any longer. In most cases it is a matter of some kind of hurt or disappointment they have experienced.  These are real for many. Or in other cases someone might say they don’t get anything out of church or it’s boring. You hear this among the younger generation and I can recall my own children saying this.  Obviously being a minister I am biased towards church since I work at the church, but let’s try to take an objective view about meeting together. As a golf chaplain I always try to meet together with believers at golf tournaments to encourage them and myself.

First we must be clear that meeting together is God’s idea, not made up by the church or any minister. It is God who calls us together. You can find this out in the 10 commandments of the Old Testament in the bible; you can see it in Jesus calling his disciples together to follow him; you can see it in the early Christian community when it was born on the day of Pentecost, you can see it in the teaching of the writers of the New Testament and you can see it in the picture of life after death in the book of Revelation. To not respond to that call is to ignore the call of God.

The second point is part of our reading today. We go to church to listen, to learn, we go with a hunger to be fed, not to think about who is playing footy in the afternoon or what we might be having for lunch. Our reading encourages us to be quiet, in order to listen to God and to say few words, just in case our heart is in the wrong place. The last part of our reading urges us to do what we say we will do, and not be a hypocrite as we say. Our reading concludes with a healthy attitude; to stand in awe of God.

I find the controlling factor is the matter of our heart. If your heart is in something, you look to get the best out of it, even if it’s broken. When your heart is in something, you tend to overcome the obstacles in the way. When your heart is not in something we can usually find many reasons not to get involved. With God following him is more a matter of the heart than about words or looking for excuses.

Being in golf ministry is about encouraging golfers to follow Jesus and to find ways to meet together and encourage each other to follow Jesus. When we meet our hope is to talk less about golf and more about the amazing things Jesus has accomplished to bring new life to the world.

Gracious God, help me to search my heart to see if I truly love you with all my heart. If not, let me start today. Amen

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