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Daily Devotional, Year 3 – December 12

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The Gospel According To Pollyanna,

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Part 5:

“Sorrow Is Better Than Laughter!?!”

To read Part 1, click here…“January 2 (The Gospel According to Pollyanna, Part 1)”

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“It is better to go to the house of mourning,

than to go to the house of feasting:

for that is the end of all men;

and the living will lay it to his heart.

Sorrow is better than laughter:

for by the sadness of the countenance

the heart is made better.

The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning;

but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.”

Ecclesiastes 7:2-4

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Is Solomon correct?

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Does this above passage from Solomon’s Ecclesiastes make any sense whatsoever to the world?

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And does it even make sense to the vast majority of those who call ourselves Christians?

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Well, let’s examine what the Bible says about all this happiness/sorrow business, using the movie, Pollyanna as the backdrop for these concepts…

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Dore – Solomon – Proverbs – Wikipedia – Public domain (2)

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THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO POLLYANNA

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Yes, in that charming little Disneyland movie, Pollyanna, was a recently orphaned young girl who came to live with her very harsh and judgmental aunt.

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And yet, this happy, lovable and precocious little girl in that movie, had followed her father’s gospel of his own making (which eliminated the thousands of seemingly harsher verses found in the Bible).

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And so, the movie tension was somewhat centered on Pollyanna’s happy, 800 verse no-judgment religion, against the sour-faced fire-n-brimstone preaching that her Aunt Polly was pushing.

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But in the end, Pollyanna brought joy and happiness into that religiously-oppressed little village.

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Pollyanna statue – cropped photo – Wikipedia – Creative Commons 2.0 license

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And so, the question to be asked is this: “So what’s wrong with bringing sunshine into the lives of those who suffer under a dark shroud of depression and despair?”

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Pollyanna statue – cropped photo – Wikipedia – Creative Commons 2.0 license

Question Marks – At a loss – svg – Wikimedia Commons – Share-Alike License

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PSYCHOLOGY: HAPPINESS FIRST!

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Well, most people (including most Christians) would probably applaud what Pollyanna did in her newly adopted community.

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After all, Pollyanna’s glad outlook on life made a lot of sad people feel happy once again!

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Pollyanna statue – cropped photo – Wikipedia – Creative Commons 2.0 license

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“THERE IS A WAY THAT SEEMS RIGHT UNTO A MAN”

Proverbs 14:12

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 But is happiness and being at peace with the world what our Heavenly Father wants above all else?

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Is that His chief goal for the human race?

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Well, that was the message which this feel-good movie trumpeted: “God just wants all of you to be happy!”

This was the inference made in the movie.

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But is this proclamation in harmony with the Bible?

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Pollyanna statue – cropped photo – Wikipedia – Creative Commons 2.0 license

Hands Toasting Drinks – Cheers! – cropped image – Wikimedia – Creative Commons Attribution 2.0

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“SORROW IS BETTER THAN LAUGHTER!?!”

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Yes, is mere earthly happiness and peace with the world God’s chief desire for Mankind?

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Let’s examine once again, just what the Wise Man has to say about all this…

“It is better to go to the house of mourning,

than to go to the house of feasting:

for that is the end of all men;

and the living will lay it to his heart.

Sorrow is better than laughter:

for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better.

The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning;

but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.”

Ecclesiastes 7:2-4

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Well, this above passage from Solomon seems to be saying just the opposite of what Disneyland’s movie was proclaiming!

Yes, contrary to the general consensus, the Bible says it’s better to mourn, better to be sorrowful, and the heart of the wise is in the house of mourning.

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But the above passage even goes one step further by finishing up with these words…“but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth!”

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Pollyanna statue – cropped photo – Wikipedia – Creative Commons 2.0 license

ABOVE PICTURE: Unfunny Judgment Day Cartoon – a party tonight – signsofheaven.org

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“EVEN IN LAUGHTER THE HEART IS SORROWFUL; AND THE END OF THAT MIRTH IS HEAVINESS”

Ecclesiastes 14:13 

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Well, the fact is, God does indeed want people to be happy!

But He wants us to find true happiness!

And this world can never bring true and lasting happiness!

Because true and lasting love, joy, peace and contentment are not attainable in this world!

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Yes, let’s be honest! Any joy, any peace, and any contentment will only be short-lived in this world!

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Because of sickness, death, loss, loneliness, rejection, mistrust, selfishness, dishonesty, lust, and all the other results of sin, humans can only attain to a limited and temporary degree of love, joy, and a peace.

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Because soon, those wonderful attributes will evaporate and return back into sorrow, mourning, pain, grief, despair, loneliness, and other similar woes, commonly experienced by Mankind.

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Vincent van Gogh – Old Man in Sorrow (On the Threshold of Eternity) – Wikipedia – US Public Domain

Weeping Woman – Van Gogh – Wikimedia – US Public Domain

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“SHOULD WE THEN BE DOUR AND DEPRESSED?”

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Now does this mean that we Christians should not be joyful, upbeat, and cheerful, etc.?

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Should we instead go through life all dour and depressed?

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After all, Aunt Polly’s harsh and judgmental gospel was certainly not the true Gospel, but rather, was just another false, counterfeit gospel, much like the judgmental and self-righteousness of the Pharisees of old!

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Well, tomorrow’s devotional (click here) will hopefully answer these questions.

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Pollyanna statue – cropped photo – Wikipedia – Creative Commons 2.0 license

Munch – Det Syke Barn – 1896 – Wikipedia – US Public Domain

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TO READ PART 6, CLICK HERE…

December 13 (The Gospel According To Pollyanna, Part 6: “Don’t Worry, Be Happy? Or Don’t Be Happy, Worry?”)

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TODAY’S PRAYER…

“Dear Lord, help me to be wise as a serpent in regard to Satan’s deceptive tactics in his ongoing war against God’s people…

Pray for Our Nation sign – Wikimedia – Share-alike-lic.

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READ MORE…

To explore deeper into this subject, please read… “Fleeing to the Mountains: The Abomination in the Church, Part 1”,

or you may also read…March 1st (A Designer Jesus!)

Question book magnify svg – Wikimedia – GNU license

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THE END

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TODAY’S FEATURED HEAVENLY SIGN

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“And there appeared a great wonder (“sign”) in Heaven;

a woman clothed with the sun,

and the moon under her feet,

and upon her head a crown of twelve stars:”

Revelation 12:1

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ABOVE STAR-CHART – Summer Constellations w/ark (aka: Sagittarius) & Revelation 12 Woman (aka: Ursa Major, including The Big Dipper) – www.theheavensdeclare.net

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If you were to go out on a dark and starry night in the summer months, and lift up your head, you might just see this constellation group.

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Looking at this sketch, do you see this woman as she tries to take hold of that crown?

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Well, this is a heavenly fulfillment of the above Bible verse (“And there appeared a great wonder (or “sign”) in Heaven; a woman…and upon her head a crown of twelve stars:” Revelation 12:1).

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And this woman is known as the Revelation 12 Woman, and that crown is known as the Revelation 12 Crown.

You can see this constellation group in the summer months by looking in the western skies.

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ABOVE STAR-CHART – Summer Constellations w/ark (aka: Sagittarius) & Revelation 12 Woman (aka: Ursa Major, including The Big Dipper) – www.theheavensdeclare.net

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HEAVENLY SIGNS

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These constellations are the Summer Constellations, and they are the beginning constellations of this wonderful message which God has inscribed in the heavens, which He promised in Luke’s Gospel.

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Listen… “And there shall be signs in the sun,

and in the moon, and in the stars;

and upon the earth distress of nations,

with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring;”

Luke 21:25

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READ MORE…

To explore deeper into this subject, please read…The 12-Star Crown Constellation of Revelation 12

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TOMORROW…

December 13 (The Gospel According To Pollyanna, Part 6: “Don’t Worry, Be Happy? Or Don’t Be Happy, Worry?”)

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90-MINUTE OPEN FORUM

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ALL‘NOBLE BEREANS’ (open-minded seekers of Bible truth) ARE ENCOURAGED TO LISTEN TO THIS DEBATE REGARDING WHETHER THE CHURCH-AGE HAS ENDED.

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CLICK HERE TO LISTEN…The Open Forum Harold Camping March 20, 2003

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ABOVE PICTURE: Holy Bible – cropped image – Wikimedia – Creative Commons Lic.

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