"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!
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