Greetings,
The words of a famous song came to mind earlier this week – “What a difference a day makes.” The situation that brought it to mind concerned the rapidly unfolding local events here in California, caused by recent heavy rains following an extensive period of drought. Residents living in a beautiful country town nestled at the foot of America’s tallest dam might possibly have thought of those words too, as they were forced to evacuate their homes in the face of a potential massive dam failure. I guess we could all say that life is like that as from time to time we all experience the sudden change that unexpected events can cause. However, it appears that many such events are happening to people in all parts of the world. A day can make an enormous difference in a person’s life.
A day is an organic period of time. It was created by God as an important part of physical life on this planet. Solomon observed that there is a time for every purpose. As he listed times and purposes that each human life could expect to experience as a matter of course (Ecclesiastes 3), we can see that in most cases, a day can make a huge difference. Everything from a new birth or death to times of war and peace can be parts of any day in any of our lives. As Solomon continued his thoughts and observations, he made some points that are not easily accepted in regard to human life. He maintained that, “The day of death [is better] than the day of one’s birth” and that “The end of a thing is better than its beginning” (Ecclesiastes 7:1,8). Why would he say that? It sounds a little negative.
Solomon’s point is that there is something more important than physical human existence. The physical life that God allows us is a period of time during which we have the opportunity to develop spiritually. To this end, each day is an important building block. It is a period of time given to us to use – a living dynamic that we are to embrace and put to work in terms of spiritual development.
The events of any given day have the potential to frustrate us or even make us angry. “The patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit. Do not hasten in your spirit to be angry, for anger rests in the bosom of fools. Do not say, ‘Why were the former days better than these?’ For you do not enquire wisely concerning this” (Ecclesiastes 7:8-10). Why is this happening to me? We are cautioned not to resent the inevitable “purposes” that life throws at us. This attitude could cause us to desire the “former days”, when things were better, rather than embrace the “day” we are in and use it for character growth and development.
Rather than state the obvious as the song does – what a difference a day makes – let us turn it into a valid question: What difference will today make? And the difference should be you!
Feast of Tabernacles
Information regarding the Feast sites for 2017 has been posted on our website. For the U.S. sites, all three hotels involved are ready to receive bookings. Just look for the appropriate code for the hotel at which you want to make a booking. Quoting the code to the hotel you call will identify the contract we have negotiated with them.
On the website, go to Welcome>Feast of Tabernacles>Feast of Tabernacles 2017. At the bottom of the information page there is a link to Registration.
As noted in the posted information, it is better to call the hotel directly rather than call a Central Reservation number. From past experience some found that they could not obtain the negotiated room rate because Central Reservations did not have knowledge of our contract with a particular hotel.
Warm regards,
Brian Orchard
