Ambrose Brothers

Committed

The following lines were penned by a young pastor in Africa and tacked to a wall in his house.

My Commitment as a Christian

I'm part of the fellowship of the unashamed. I have stepped over the line. The decision has been made. I'm a disciple of Jesus Christ. I won't look back, let up, slow down, back away, or be still. My past is redeemed, my present makes sense, my future is secure. I'm finished and done with low living, sight walking, small planning, smooth knees, colorless dreams, tamed visions, mundane talking, cheap living, and dwarfed goals.

I no longer need preeminence, prosperity, position, promotions, plaudits, or popularity. I don't have to be right, first, tops, recognized, praised, regarded, or rewarded. I now live by faith, lean on His presence, walk by patience, lift by prayer, and labor by power.

My face is set, my gait is fast, my goal is heaven, my road is narrow, my way rough, my companions few, my Guide reliable, my mission clear. I cannot be bought, deluded, or delayed. I will not flinch in the face of sacrifice, hesitate in the presence of the adversary, negotiate at the table of the enemy, or meander in the maze of mediocrity.

I won't give up, shut up, let up, until I have stayed up, stored up, prayed up, paid up, preached up for the cause of Christ. I am a disciple of Jesus. I must go till He comes, give till I drop, preach till all know, and work till He stops me. And when He comes for His own, He will have no problem recognizing me--my banner will be clear!

Luke 14 25-35 “25 Now great multitudes went with Him. And He turned and said to them, 26 “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. 27 And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. 28 For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it— 29 lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, 30 saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish’? 31 Or what king, going to make war against another king, does not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32 Or else, while the other is still a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks conditions of peace. 33 So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple.   
34 “Salt is good; but if the salt has lost its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? 35 It is neither fit for the land nor for the dunghill, but men throw it out. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”

Could we say the same today?

I’m sure many of you have read these lines before.  It is believed they were found in the home of an martyred African pastor.  These lines and this verse really help put things in perspective.  We all fall short, but perhaps it will help to give us something to aim for.

We Are Back

Although we have more things coming, I wanted to pause for a moment and apologize for our prolonged absence here at Ambrose Brothers. As you have probably noticed both Travis and myself have full time positions at churches in the Southern Michigan area, and sometimes those positions can be time consuming. Over the past couple weeks we have found ourselves preaching a few extra messages, planning and speaking at a large youth event and several other things outside of our average week. This is why you haven’t seen many posts over the last two weeks. However things are slowing back down for a bit to a nice state of the usual chaotic business.

I also wanted to take a moment to let you know of a few new things that will be coming to Ambrosebrothers.org:

Our new Podcast is on its way. The Ambrose Brothers Podcast should be launching sometime in October. We hope to start out with a bi-monthly podcast consisting of news, commentary, and a number of messages. So keep an eye out for this fun new feature.

Ambrose Brothers mail, we are working on getting our websites new email up and running, This will give you a chance to send your questions and comments not only to us for the site, but also for the podcast if you would like.

We will also be having new bolgs, a finish to our study of Ecclesiastes, new book reviews, and a number of other things. So keep posted right here to Ambrosebrothers.org, and well get back to posting. And thank you for your patience.

Can Palin Be President?

Yes, yes, yes, I realize she is not running for president, but for John McCain’s Vice President. But with all the attention she’s getting it would be difficult for the uninformed voter to know for sure. But what has worried me the last couple weeks has not been the attacks from the far left media, but from the far right. The Extreme Conservatives, I group I’m usually quite fond of, and often agree with.

Recently I saw a man I respect very much on CNN discussing why it was wrong for Christian voters to vote for the McCain/Palin ticket. Not because of McCain’s questionable views on things, but because of Palin. Now let me say again I respect Dr. Voddie Baucham a great deal, and often times we see very eye to eye. I have reviewed his most recent book on this site, and had many good things to say . But on this particular issue of a female VP Dr. Baucham is wrong. I’ve read and heard him speak to a number of reasons he felt this was wrong, ranging from the fact she has young children at home, to her husband being unable to be head of the home. He occasionally sneaks a point of truth into this. But all in all seems to have little ground to stand on in taking a biblical argument to the fact women shouldn’t be serving in upper level politics.

All of that being said, I don’t want to paint myself a hypocrite, I have been at times uncomfortable with the Palin pick, and somewhere out there, there may be a cassette tape of me giving a speech why no women should ever be President. (Let me assure you if that tape is out there, I gave the speech to win a debate not because it fostered absolute truth.) But in the end of the day, I support the pick. And I believe its okay for Christians to support the pick as well. Over the next few paragraphs I will try to unpack my views on this, although it may call for follow up posts in the future.

The first area I’d like to look at is the 1 Timothy 2:11-12 argument. The passage says "11 Let a woman learn in silence with all submission. 12 And I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, but to be in silence." This argument works wonders if Palin was applying for Pastor, Elder, or Deacon. And may pose a very controversial topic for another day. But this passage of scripture is talking entirely about women in the church. Yet government is separate from the church, in much the same way both are separate from the family. And there is not a passage of scripture in the New Testament that speaks to a women’s role in government.

Now Voddie Baucham takes this last throught to an extreme in his blog "What if Palin was..." . Now in this post, Dr Baucham poses this argument "Taking their line of reasoning, what would stop evangelicals from supporting, say, a polygamist candidate?  Ridiculous?  Lets see." Ridiculous is right, Sure Voddie can compare the Polygamist candidate to the female candidate because there are no restrictions from either in the New Testament, and examples of both in the Old Testament. Yet there is a glaring weakness in his playful argument. Now please stop me if I’m wrong, But the practice of polygamy is against the law. And doesn’t Romans 13:1-7 tell us as Christians we are to support the law? I guess if being a woman was illegal then we would have a whole different issue on our hands, but alas its not. (Which is good because if it was we would have a whole mess of problems).

I guess I have gotten slightly off task here, but my point here is not to push a candidate upon you, but to say scripturally, I can’t find a reason not to support a candidate who believes the same way we do, just because she is a woman. There have been times in history where God has called upon women to follow, and there have been times where they have been called to lead. We can look at the example of Deborah in Judges Chapter 4, who was a judge over Israel. She was a leader. We can also look to Esther who had to break taboos and step into politics in order to save her people. Esther, in my opinion, was a leader. So let us not stand and say God can’t do the same thing today, let us not say that God can’t use Governor Sara Palin to save this country in this day.

Now as I stated earlier, Dr Voddie Baucham and myself disagree on this particular issue. However he has been taking a beating in recent weeks from those who would call themselves evangelical Christians. My thoughts here are in no way to do that. As I said before, I have the utmost respect for the man and eagerly look forward to meeting the man again and sitting under his teaching. I will purchase his next book as it comes out, and I will continue to read his blog. As a matter of fact, in the above mentioned blog, Voddie says something I agree with very much. "The Culture War will not end on November 4th, no matter who wins.  Or am I the only one who remembers that George W. Bush was supposed to be a political savior too?" And in this we see great truth, Even if a Christian leader is elected. The problems of abortion, gay marriage, and other social issues won’t go away over night. And we can’t count on men (or women) to solve them. Our country needs a change at the very core of our thinking. We need revival. We need God.

September 11 2008

There were a number of topics I wanted to look at today, on this day of America's greatest tragedy; however instead I have chose to just pause for a moment of silence with the rest of our country.  Let each of us remember the brave Americans who gave there lives that day.

Of Mice and Men

Ecclesiastes 9:11-12

11 I returned and saw under the sun that—
      The race is not to the swift,
      Nor the battle to the strong,
      Nor bread to the wise,
      Nor riches to men of understanding,
      Nor favor to men of skill;
      But time and chance happen to them all.
       12 For man also does not know his time:
      Like fish taken in a cruel net,
      Like birds caught in a snare,
      So the sons of men are snared in an evil time,
      When it falls suddenly upon them.

Just a short time ago, are call to comment was left with a deafening silence.  Yet I continue to see that you are out there and you are reading.  So at this time let me thank you for that, and encourage you to continue, and tell a friend.  Help Ambrosebrothers.org grow. 

I wanted to move us back to Ecclesiastes today we are over two-thirds of the way through the book, and the end in sight.  We have seen that all things under the son are meaningless, yet there is value in many of them, and we must continue to look to the Lord. 

Today’s passage is full of truth, as we so enjoy on this site.  How many times have our best plans not worked out as we planned.  I think of the American Basketball team back in the 2004 Olympics.  They were the biggest, strongest, and most athletic team there, yet they didn’t win.  I have seen wise, intelligent men unable to find a job.  I have seen good men, lose there homes, and honest men lose there families.  We often get caught in the trap of thinking if we do everything we can, if were prepared for every eventuality, good things will come to us.  But it reminds me of a famous quote, from a famous book “The best-laid schemes of Mice and Men, often go astray”

In today’s passage I believe Solomon is laying a warning on us.  We don’t have control over what happens to us in this life.  It’s all in the hands of the Lord.  Yet what we do have control over is our reaction to these times.  It’s a call to be ready for those times of evil that occasionally fall on us all.  I know in my own life it was a little over a year ago when I lived just a portion of this warning.  As the 2007 year came to a start in 1 month’s time, I ended up in the hospital with emergency appendix surgery, both of my cars with nearly 2000 dollar bills apiece, my furnace broke down, and my plumbing went out for the count. 

In this world things don’t always go the way we plan.  Just because were the fastest doesn’t mean we’ll win the race.  Just because were the strongest doesn’t mean we’ll win the war.  Despite our wisdom we may not always eat, and despite our intelligence we may never be rich.  Yet God is always Sovereign, He is always in control.  And all things happen for His good in His perfect will. 

As far as an action point goes today, let me encourage you to be prepared, but realize sometimes things don’t go the way we plan.

Sunday Thoughts

I had been thinking about what thoughts to leave everyone with today. I thought about talking about the way we use our money, from James chapter 5, or speaking to our commitment level as Christians; both things spoken about today at church. However about an hour ago, my son came down the stairs, at first I was angry because he should have been asleep. But then I noticed he had his Piggybank with him.

You may be wondering what my 5 year old son was doing awake at 9:00 pm on a school night with a piggybank. I know I was so I asked him, and his answer sent me speechless. He said, "Daddy I have so much, I want to give money to people who need it". Now let me assure this you, this was not set up. We hadn’t talked about it in our nightly devotions, and as far as I know it wasn’t in his Sunday school lesson today. Yet from the mouths of children, the truths of the Lord ring true.

My son in this innocent time in his life realizes something that we tend to forget later on in life. Matthew 6: 19-21 says:

19 "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Although Connor’s piggybank full of pennies will do little to change the lives of people here, I believe his hearts attitude, has started him on a path of storing up treasures in heaven. His innocent words also cause me to pause and question my motivations through this life. In the end, I don’t want to preach to you here today. I don’t want to leave you action points. But I hope you, like me, will pause and think.

It is NOT All The Same!

Ecclesiastes 9:1-10

Well to say I am disappointed with the lack of response from the invitation to openly discuss our thoughts and ideas together from the post "It's All The Same" would be an understatement.  I will be honest with you it caused me to question why I take time to share these post.  It caused me to question if any of the hours I have spent typing, spell checking, reading, etc..  have made an impact at all.  Not that I am a scholar, (I am a long way from it) not that Ambrose Brothers is the only good site out there, however after several months of work I had hoped for a small response from those who feel this is a worthy cause.  The cause of "Raising the Standard, with NO Apologies", by proclaiming TRUTH straight from the Word of God.

After I picked myself up from my moment of defeat, I was reminded by yet another TRUTH, we are told to in the "Great Commission" to teach others all that we have been commanded.  The results, are not up to our own efforts, and whether we ever have another comment on Ambrose Brothers Isaiah 55:10-11 tells us "As the Rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my Word that goes out from my mouth:  It will not return empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it"   

So here it is the answer no one has been waiting for.  Is the Bible teaching here to live it up, because none of it matters we all die?  Absolutely not!  Let me give you the skinny (make it short).  This passage of Scripture is a perfect example of why we need to look at the entire text. 

When I say the entire text, I mean the ENTIRE TEXT, Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15:32  "If I fought wild beast in Ephesus for merely human reasons, what have I gained?  If the dead are not raised, "Let  us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die."

Paul is saying here as Solomon wrote about in the Old Testament that a life not lived for God, is a life that is empty and pointless.  However those who give their lives to the one who gave His life for us (Jesus Christ) we have a purpose, a mission, and a reason to get up everyday! Philippians 1:21 "For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain."

Paul is writing a conclusion to Solomons observations, Solomon goes on and on about how meaningless "Our" lives are.  The work, wealth, wisdom all meaningless, pointless, and burdensome.  Paul states the same thing, if all our efforts our for "our" lives, then eat, and drink for tommorow we die, and nothing matters.  However if we died with Christ we are resurected with Christ!  If we die to "our" life, and we deny ourselves, pick up our Cross and follow Jesus, our life becomes HIS life!  And Jesus' Life was a long way from a pointless waist of time!

Jesus came provide a perfect sacrifice for our sins, so we could have eternal life, All our meaning comes from the life of Jesus! To reach out and share His message to a lost and dying world for It is Gods will for none to perish but all to come to repentance.  And that is what Paul gave his life doing! That my friends is the meaning of our lives!  To share the message of Salvation to a world who is crying out to hear it!

Yes a life without Christ is full of toilsome pointless labor, howerver a life with Christ is full of labor with a purpose!  However most chose to denie and refuse this purpose, because they never fully die to "self".  We want to live "our" life and say we follow Christ.  However if you Truly follow Christ you have no life of  your own, your life is HIS life!

Action Step:

Start living for Jesus Christ!  Drop your pointless plans that are meaningless, and follow the plan full of meaning, take the message of Salvation to a world of full guilty sinners, who face eternity in Hell unless they repent and trust the Savior!  There is no greater purpose! 

Waiting

All right one more day.  Let me encourage you to please take 5 minutes and post a comment on "It's All The Same"  This is an incredible opportunity to fellowship with each other.  We can cover miles, and miles, and come together and share thoughts and ideas and have small group study, right here on the good 'ol' World Wide Web.  Tomorrow I will finish "It's All The Same"  I would love to have at least one comment.  Let us know that your there.   

Gotta Have Faith

I’d been debating what to talk about today, I didn’t want to steal the thunder from my brother as he probes Solomon’s meaning in the latter verses of Ecclesiastes. Nor did I just want to skip today entirely. Now on a separate matter, I’ve been teaching my Wednesday night class through the armor of God. Tonight we talked about the "Shield of Faith". So I figured that was a good place to go tonight, to the thought of faith.

Ephesians 6:16 says: "above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one."

Now from this point we could take to logical approaches to this verse. 1. We could describe the shield and how it keeps the soldier safe, or 2 how can faith work as a shield. Since I doubt most of you want a history lesson on the Roman shield, lets look at the work of faith, if protecting the believer. To do this, I would like to look at two men of faith, Job and Paul.

Job

Job probably took on more hardships then any man outside of Christ. Let me encourage you to open your Bible’s to the first 2 chapters of Job and give them a read, but for space today, I’ll give you a paraphrase. In a short time Job:

· Had his servents slaughtered

· Had his oxen, donkey’s and camels stolen

· Lost the rest of his lifestock to fires

· Lost all of his children when a house collapsed on them.

Shortly after that:

· He had his body covered in boils

· His wife turned against him

· His friends blamed him

But even admist all off this Job did not lose faith. He made it through the greatest diseasters life has to offer, because he had faith. Jobs’s faith turned away the firey darts of the wicked one. Just look at these responses Job gave as his life fell all around him.

Job 1:21-22 - 21 And he said:
      " Naked I came from my mother’s womb,
      And naked shall I return there.
      The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away;
      Blessed be the name of the LORD."
22 In all this Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong.

Job 2:10 - But he said to her, "You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?" In all this Job did not sin with his lips.

Paul

We all know the story of Paul, but let me encourage you to pause for a moment as you read these next few verses and remember this was a real man who went through these trials. Lets look at 2 Corinthians 11:23-27:

23 Are they ministers of Christ?—I speak as a fool—I am more: in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often. 24 From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one. 25 Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep; 26 in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; 27 in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness

Yet with all of this Paul was still able to say this about his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 8:37-39

37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Truly in the Lives of these two men, we see the shield of faith in full use. They went through trials and tribulation beyond what any of us can imagine. They were under the full attack, and drew full attention from Satan. Yet both me prevailed. Both men kept the faith. Both men were able to fight of the attacks of the evil one. Because as there bodies were sick and beaten, there souls thrived in the love of the Lord.

It's All The Same

                                                              Ecclesiastes 9:1-10                                                            

Today we are going to take a look at what may be our longest section of Scripture since we started our study on Ecclesiasstes (a long time ago).  As we look at these words from Solomon I will pull out a few verses but as always I encourage you to read the entire text for today, go ahead even read a little before and after our passage for today, I promise it won't hurt you.

Ecclesiastes 9:2a  "All share a common destiny- the righteous and the wicked, the good and the bad, the clean and the unclean, those who offer sacrifices and those who do not."

In these passages Solomon is struggling with what so many of us have struggled with.  When it is all said and done, we all  "buy the farm" "push up daises" "kick the bucket" "pass away" "meet your maker" "croak", and "listen to the fat lady singing".  That's right, when it is said and done, we all die.

So live it up, party, get it while the getting is good, live it up while you can!  Unfortunaltly that is what much of the world believes, and it is that belief that governs our terrible actions.  Is this the right attitude to have?  Is this what life is all about.  Solomon continues with a solution to this observation: 

Ecclesiastes 9:9 "Enjoy your life with your wife, whom you love, all the days of this meaningless life that God has given you under the sun- all your meaningless days.  For this is your lot in life and in your toilsome labor under the sun."

It kind of seems like Solomon is just giving in, calling it quits.  How do we explain this?  It appears the Bible is teaching that life is meaningless, and we all end up the same place.  Well I have my own thoughts on this passage, and a pretty decent explanation on the book of Ecclesiastes, however today we are going to do something different.

I am not going to give an answer today.  Instead, I would like to get our few readers (if we actually have any) involved. 

Action step for today, tell us here at Ambrose Brothers what you think.  Is Solomon giving in, should we believe there is nothing more?  It is in the Bible, so it must be true right?  Read the passage, do a bit of reasearch and post a comment.  On Thursday Sept 4th, we will review the comments, and share with you some interesting  thoughts on this passage, and many other passages in Ecclesiastes that just seem so depressing.

Please take a minute to post a comment, dive into the Word, and research it.  We look forward to reading your thoughts!