Ambrose Brothers

Book Review: Family Driven Faith

"Family Driven Faith" by Voddie Baucham Jr.
Doing What It Takes To Raise Sons and Daughters Who Walk With God

I first heard of Voddie Baucham about a year ago while canadating for the position at my church. The Elders had recently heard Voddie speak at the Evangelism Celebration at Cedarville College and offered me a CD of that message. About nine months later I had the blessing of hearing Voddie preach at the Basics conference at Parkside Church. Having heard him in person Voddie Baucham Jr. may be one of the best speakers out there today. There are very few men who better captivate my attention. And after 2 days he had broke down II Timothy in an amazing way.

That being said you can better understand where I’m coming from when I say Voddie is a better speaker then writer. And Family Driven Faith is definitely worth a read. The basis of Family Driven Faith is that young people are leaving the church today at an alarming rate. Statistics are provided to back up this statement, like the fact that between 70 – 88% of Christian teens are leaving the church by there second year of college. On top of that 85% of "born again teens" do not believe in the existence of absolute truth.

From that point on, Voddie offers his radical solution and he takes is straight from the word of God. On page 93 Baucham says "Contrary to popular belief the home not the church, has been entrusted with the primary responsibility of teaching children the Bible". He takes this idea impart from Deuteronomy 6:6-7.

"[6] And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: [7] And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up."

Baucham then spends majority of the book speaking to that idea. Starting with showing your family that there a priority in your life, to loving them, teaching them a biblical worldview, teaching them the Word of God, and practicing what you preach in the home. And in each of these areas sound advice is offered. From reading these simple teachings I personally have been convicted and forced to look at the way I was handling some areas of my family’s life. And through most of the first 9 chapters of this book we see eye to eye on most things; including a statement late in chapter 9 which said that it in the failure of parents to disciple their children in the past that has resulted in the Emerging Church of today.

However at the start of chapter 10, VB and I go our separate ways as he goes into his thoughts on the Family-Integrated Church. Within this church structure there is no nursery, no splitting apart for Sunday school, no Awana, and no VBS. All things are done all together all the time. And in this I disagree. I agree that the majority of a child’s spiritual education should take place in the home. I believe it is the responsibility of the father to train his children in the ways of the Lord. I believe that often times we can go to far in segregating the families through worship. But I do not believe we must throw out the baby with the bath water to fix this problem.

I would pose that is a child’s primary education and discipleship were being met at home that it hurts nothing for the church to come alongside in a Sunday school, or Wednesday night setting and help to affirm those teachings. On top of that what is wrong with meeting someone where they are spiritually with a class or curriculum? Does my 2 year old daughter need to sit through a theological discussion on the implications of the book of Obadiah. And on the flip side of that, does a 70 year old Elder need a bible story about Adam, Eve, and a sneaky snake. Not to mention that not all families in church are what we would refer to as classic Christian families with a believing mom and dad to disciple the children.

Voddie also goes as far as to say it may be unbiblical in separating the teens on Wednesday night in that the older women will not be available to mentor the younger women, and the older men the younger men. But isn’t that exactly what the 35 year old youth leader and his wife doing every week when they meet. It’s not as if we are having kid’s disciple kids, (and if we are we may have a problem).

All in all, although I don’t necessarily believe in the ultimate solution of this book, the critique is still important; we are missing the boat when it comes to the youth of today. And I think Voddie hits the nail on the head when he says that many parents have stepped back, and simply looked to the church to "Christinize" their children. In the end I believe this book is worth a read. As a matter of fact I would go as far as to say that young parents should read this book. But remember as a former pastor of mine once said; "Most Christian books are like watermelon. We take in the good part, but have to spit out the seeds".

Pointless Pleasures

Today's passage is Ecclesiastes 2:1-11

I thought it in my heart, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure to find out what is good” but that also proved to be meaningless. Ecclesiastes 2:1

Solomon had anything he could imagine at his fingertips. All his wildest dreams could come true, and in chapter 2 he decides to make these dreams happen. But what he found was that all he could acquire on earth, the gold and silver, the vineyards, the buildings, and the livestock was like a chasing after the wind, and nothing was gained under the sun. (v.11)

What is it that our focus is on? Where do we pour out all our efforts? What ladder are we trying to climb? Most of us will spend our entire life trying to achieve a small percentage of Solomon achieved. We spend our days building our own kingdoms, as we claw and scrape to try and seize a piece of the “American Dream”, the mansion on a hill, a bigger paycheck, nicer cars, a better boat, and more stock options. All this so that someday, someday we can kick back, retire, and live the good life for just a few short years before we are no longer able to “enjoy” the fruits of our labor because we are just physically unable to.

Funny that we spend our entire life chasing a dream that someone who lived the dream told us is not worth chasing.  It is kind of like going to a see a movie, that the main actor personally came to you and told you "don’t waste you time it won’t be worth the two hours", and yet you go see the movie anyway.

The Bible is very clear that instead of focusing on building up our treasures here on earth we should be building them in eternity.  The book James compares our life to a mist that is here for a little while then vanishes. And yet we work so hard to achieve “Status” in the few short seconds we are here.

Solomon became greater than all that had gone before him. More wealth, more positions, and as we learned yesterday more wisdom, and what he found was that it was all pointless, meaningless, a chasing after the wind. Chasing a dream that never came true. Today let’s stop for just a minute and examine our own lives.  What are our goals? What dream are we chasing? Are we spending countless hours seeking to gain what Solomon has already told us is pointless?

Here is a action step for today, refocus your efforts into what really matters. Today and from this point on focus on things that are everlasting. The things of God. When we leave this world we will stand before the creator truly as we are. By ourselves, no houses, cars, retirement plans, just us. And the only thing that will make any difference is what we did with the Truth that has been revealed to us. Did we put our trust in the Truth? The saving message of Jesus Christ. Did we take this message of hope to a lost and dying world? Did we do all we could to deepen our relationship with a Savior, who paid our fine our penalty of Hell for us? Did we work our entire life to build our kingdom, or did we work to build God’s kingdom?

What a difference it would make, if we turned or efforts to what really matters, reaching the world with the Truth (capital T) the Truth of salvation through Jesus Christ.

The Futility of Wisdom

As we read in yesterdays post the book of Ecclesiastes starts with an aging Solomon’s assertion that all things are meaningless apart from a relationship with God. Life is in vain, its empty there is no lasting satisfaction apart from an eternal relationship with an Almighty God. He went so far as in verse 10 to say everything that has been done will be done again, there is nothing new, nothing special, its has been done, and it will be done again. It is futile. Now with that being said Solomon decides to go point by point to prove his original thesis. In first point he hits an area he knows best, wisdom.

To understand Solomon’s comments on Wisdom, we must first understand Solomon. In 1 Kings 3:5, the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream and said "Ask what I shall give thee". In verse 9, a humble Solomon gives his reply "Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad: for who is able to judge this thy so great a people?" and the lord granted his request in verse 12 "Behold, I have done according to thy words: lo, I have given thee a wise and an understanding heart; so that there was none like thee before thee, neither after thee shall any arise like unto thee." Solomon became the wisest man to ever walk the face of the earth. His wisdom was unmatched by anyone before him, or after him. This being said if there is anyone who can speak to wisdom it was Solomon.

Now before we go any further I would like to encourage you to flip your own Bibles open to Ecclesiastes 1:12-18, and take a few moments to read it. I’ll be using the King James Version through this post, as its one of the few without copyright rules.

As established earlier Solomon’s wisdom was unmatched, yet he spent much of his life outside the will of the Lord. Solomon had spent years concentrating, thinking and searching out the meaning of life and here in these verses we see the four conclusions he came up with.

The first we see in verse 13 "And I gave my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all things that are done under heaven: this sore travail hath God given to the sons of man to be exercised therewith." Solomon’s conclusion is actually found in the second part of this verse where he says "this sore travail hath God given to the sons of man to be exercised therewith." In other words Humans can’t help but seek out the ultimate meaning of life; for the most part we must believe there is a reason to our existence.

Next on to verse 14 "I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and, behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit." Solomon’s second conclusion goes back to his main theme. He has seen it all. He feels he has adequately experienced all that life has to offer and all is "vanity and vexation" or in a more modern day English it’s all in vein and an irritation or annoyance

His third conclusion is found in verse 15 "That which is crooked cannot be made straight: and that which is wanting cannot be numbered." I like this verse as it is saying sometimes in life there are issue’s we cannot resolve. No matter how hard we try no matter what effort we throw at it, it will remain "crooked". This is by no means saying we should accept sin, because we cannot fix it. Yet there are many things out there that we within our own wisdom cannot fix.

Finally we see his last conclusion in verse 18 "For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow." It’s strange to think that the wiser you are the more grief you have, yet it’s true. For example as we grow in the Lord we come to a greater understanding that there will be those who will never come to know the Lord, and with that comes the grief; as no matter what we do, we will each have friends and possibly family who will end up in hell someday.

As we wrap this up, we can take away a truth that there is no point to wisdom outside of a relationship with Jesus Christ. There will always be problems we cannot solve. There will be sickness we cannot cure. Even the wisest man the earth has ever known found his wisdom had its limits. The only hope we have for true meaning in life is a lifelong relationship with the one and only God through His Son Jesus Christ. As we think about an action point today, let’s stop looking to the world for answers; instead look to He who made it.

The Wheel Still Rolls

"Meaningless! Meaningless! says the Teacher. "Utterly Meaningless!  Everything is meaningless" Ecclesiastes 1:2 

Can't you just hear Solomons frustration?  A man who truly had acquired everything, unrivaled wisdom, unequaled wealth, the greatest buildings, 700 wives, 300 concubines, any pleasure he could imagine was at his finger tips.  Yet "Everything is meaningless"

The book of Ecclesiastes has to be one of the most interesting books of the Bible.  It can leave you scratching your head thinking "Well what's the point, of all my hard work" Or "Well life just pretty much stinks, maybe I should just quit".  However if you really look at it, that is the opposite of what we should be thinking.  Solomon gives us incredible insight on how we should live our seemingly meaningless lives.

As one of the points mentioned in yesterdays post  one of our goals at Ambrose Brothers is to help people understand the Truth, (yes, Truth with a capital T) Absolute Truths, in a confusing world, that is doing all it can to avoid the Truth.  Solomon understood the Truth, he understood what real life is, and what it is not.  He understand the frustration of reaching all the world says you need to acquire to be happy, only to find it left him empty and depressed.  What I would like do is dive into a few of the things that Solomon figured out, and brake them down so we can understand them and put them into practice in today's confusing world of "chasing our own tails", and running the "rat race" 

We encourage you to make sure you have your Bible with you and open when reading through these thoughts, we will pull out a few key verses, but we encourage you to look at the text in their entirety.  For example now would be a good time to stop and read Ecclesiastes 1:1-11

Ecclesiastes 1:9-10 What has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.  Is there anything of which one can say "Look! this is something new"? It was already here, long ago; it was here before our time.

One thing Solomon understood, was that even with all his wisdom, all his ideas, all his planning, building, creating, etc... there was nothing that was new.  Buildings had been built before, and will be built again.  Wealth had been gained before, and will be gained again.  Thoughts he had, others had before, and will have again.  What does this mean for us in todays confusing world?

Well let's just look at the Evangelical Church of today.  Todays title is "The Wheel Still Rolls"   The church today is spending countless hours trying to reinvent what the Word of God says, in order to "reach" more people.   All this effort is "meaningless" we have already been taught how to reach people, it is given to us in Proverbs 19:7 "The law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul" (KJV).   So instead of trying to think of new ways to "reach" people should we not be instead focusing on what we know to work in reaching the lost with the message of Salvation?  We should never reinvent the wheel, the Word of God, the Truth, it is  perfect!  All the other ideas we come up with, Prosperity, Emergent, Seeker, All Inclusive, all these ideas, have came before, they will come again, and they are meaningless!

Ecclesiastes 1:10b "It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time"  What was already here, long ago, before our time? John 1:1-3 In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.  He was with God in the beginning.  Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made.

As you read through the thoughts and teaching of Ambrose Brothers you need to know that none of our thoughts are new.  You will not read any ground breaking "new" ideas, we simply seek to share with you the timely Truths of Jesus Christ, so we as Christians can truly live the life God has called us to. 

We will revisit the book of Ecclesiastes, and continue to learn from Solomons wisdom.  My prayer for you today, and an action step for you to take is that you would not be consumed with trying to reinvent what already works, and what has already been invented.  Instead open the Word of God, and seek the Truth, and I promise you it will give you direction in any of you lives situations!

Welcome to AmbroseBrothers.org

We live in a day of confusion within the church.  Where we once knew we were wretches saved by grace and worthy of nothing in and of ourselves, we are now told of the promises of prosperity and happiness that can be ours if we only believe.  We could once gain an understanding of a church’s beliefs by the sign in the front yard, words like; Methodist, Baptist, Lutheran, United Brethren, meant something.  Today we have to deal with words like; Fundamental, Seeker, Post Modern, Seeker Friendly, Seeker Driven, Charismatic, Emergent, Emerging, Post Post Modern, Legalistic, and so many more.  We have more translations then we could ever hope to gain an understanding of, and speakers taking passages out of context in each of them. 

The church as we know it is in trouble.  Yet that is not a new thing.  Nearly 2000 years ago the church struggled with a similar problem to that of today. Peter speaks of these things in the 2^nd chapter of his 2^nd letter verses 1-3: 

1 But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. 2 And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed. 3 By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words; for a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber.” (NKJV)

False teachers fill the church today as they did in Peter’s day, and there leading thousands and thousands astray.  Sometimes the problem seems just too big, as its impossible to be on all fronts denouncing all false teachings, at all times.  But there is a solution.  I once heard a wise man say, the biggest way to keep people from false teachings is to teach them the truth.  It’s like a bank teller, they are trained in what a twenty dollar bill should look like, not what all the counterfeits might look like; and because of this there as well prepared as they can be to spot the fakes.

Teaching the truth to avoid the false is not a new idea Jude dealt with just that issue in his letter.  For the first 20 verses Jude teaches against the false teachers of the day. Yet as he closes he tells his readers how they can watch out for them.  Verses 20 & 21 say:

20 But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, 21 keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life” (NKJV). 

Jude calls his readers to grow in the true faith, to pray in the spirit, to keep in good graces with God, and to remember salvation is found in the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ.  In short we are to fill ourselves with truth to keep away from the false.

That may be a long introduction, but that is our goal here with Ambrose Brothers Ministries.  We desire to help with the truth.  We may take a number of formats in our daily blogs, from Bible Studies, to Book reviews, to random thoughts, we want to focus all that we say and do on our Lord Jesus Christ who alone is the truth in which we should all strive to live within.