I often heard a quote in the past so I decided to look up its origin. Seems like it is credited to Edmund Burke and a Spanish philospher, George Santayana (no that is not Santana). Winston Churchill changed it somewhat in his 1948 speech before the British Commons. The essence of that quote-even though its wording has been changed somewhat is this: “Those who fail to learn from the past are doomed to repeat it.”  I suspect most of us would agree with that statement. How many times have we been admonished on a personal level to “learn from your mistakes?”

In 2008 the Penn State University football team was embroiled in a public scandal of the conduct of its players. Former Lion, Matt Millen, in an attempt to put it in its biblical context said, “If people out there are thinking that this is new, let me just give you a little bit of Scripture. Ecclesiastes. Nothing is done what hasn’t been done before.”

As I read and reread Ecclesiastes I can’t miss that lesson. Nor this one: satisfaction is not found in things we can taste, touch, or feel, things we can experience. Satisfaction is found in only one place: a life surrendered to Jesus Christ.

My study for the next two months will be on this somewhat obscure book found following Proverbs in the OT.  We will learn through studying Ecclesiastes that everything is vanity and whatever we think we have here on earth will amount to nothing in the end. Join me please for the next two months as we study this intriguing book on Sunday mornings.  Due to the influx of the China virus in our congregation (by those who attend and those who have stayed home), we will be virtual at least one more week…possibly a couple more until we are sure it is under control. If you go to the church’s website you will find the links to both the church’s FB page and YouTube link. If you can’t join us, please pray for us.