Ambrose Brothers

Know it All

Today’s Passage Ecclesiastes 8:16-17
I remember as a child there were few names worse then know it all. Today I wish that term could be applied to me more often. Yet in all of my wisdom I have gained today, I simply understand I don’t know it all. A few days ago, I found myself even closer to knowledge; I shook the hand of a man who knew Albert Einstein. Einstein was one of the smartest men this country has known, yet Einstein could not understand all the work of God. Around 3000 years ago, Solomon wrote Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon. Solomon may have been the most intelligent man to ever walk the planet. Yet even Solomon could not discover all the things of God.

Today as we close out Chapter 8 on our quest for meaning in Ecclesiastes, Solomon address this particular issue of knowledge. Let’s look to Ecclesiastes 8:16-17:

16 When I applied my heart to know wisdom and to see the business that is done on earth, even though one sees no sleep day or night, 17 then I saw all the work of God, that a man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun. For though a man labors to discover it, yet he will not find it; moreover, though a wise man attempts to know it, he will not be able to find it.

It’s humbling to think, if I were to go back to college full time now, at 30 years old, and attend full time continually until I passed away at 80 years old, I would only possess a fraction of the knowledge available to the people of this earth. And if you took all the knowledge of this earth, it is but a small fraction to the knowledge God possesses. I’m not sure there is a better argument against the belief that we are all "little gods", because it doesn’t matter what we do we can’t know all the works that God does under the son, we cannot know it all.

So what does it all mean, as he often does Solomon leaves us on rather depressing notes, yet there is a great upside to all of this, because although we can never know it all, we can have someone on our side that does? When we repent of our sins, and accept Jesus Christ into our lives we open up a line of communication with the Creator of the universe, the One who does know it all. And He wants us to do just that, He wants us to come to him with all situations. James: 1:5-6 tells us:

5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. 6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.

The one with all of the wisdom wants us to come to Him for it. Yet He wants us to ask in faith, He wants us to believe in Him, to follow Him, and believe that He can do what we ask.

Today lets look to the Lord, we can’t know it all, nor should we, Do you have an important decision to make today, ask God. Facing a problem today, ask God. Are you lost in this life not knowing where to go, ask God. Let’s look to the Lord today, and stop leaning on our own earthly abilities.

Sticks and Stones

Today's passage: Ecclesiastes 7:21-22

21 Also do not take to heart everything people say,
      Lest you hear your servant cursing you.
22 For many times, also, your own heart has known
      That even you have cursed others.

"Sticks and Stones will break my bones but words will never hurt me." "I'm rubber your glue, whatever you say bounces of me and sticks to you." Or my personal favorite "I know you are but what am I." Now to be honest I'm not sure if any of these sayings of my youth are still used today, but in there time they were the most powerful way to fight of "mean" words from ones classmates. In the end however those words still hurt.

Even as adults it's still tough to take personal attacks on your character. The tongue is one of the fiercest weapons we have available to us. James says this about the tongue in chapter 3 verse 8 "But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison." So the tongue is evil, its words can cause damage like poison. You may still remember to this day something someone said to you years ago. The tongue breaks up friendships, breaks up marriages, and leaves people bitter enemies by the time its all said and done.

The tongue is not just a problem today. We see even in Solomon's day people were hurt by the cutting things people said about them. And Solomon as he is offering wisdom on everything under the sun, offer's wisdom on this as well, telling us simply, to let it go. He doesn't tell us to talk it out, he doesn't tell us to get even, were not told to send the negative words right back at them, he advises us to just let it go. And why should we let it go? Because we've done the same thing.

Even if you don't make a habit of it, at some point in your lives we have all said something bad about someone else. And if we somehow haven't, we have at least thought it. We are all guilty as well Solomon tells us, so just let it go. It may not be easy, it may not be pleasant, but its time to let it go.

Application:
1. Are you still holding a grudge because of something someone said about you years ago? Do you still feel emotional pain when we think of something someone else has said about you? Perhaps something said about you is still sending your life is a bad direction today. Let me encourage you to let it go.

2. James continues with his thoughts on the tongue in verses 10-12 which state: "10 Out of the same mouth precede blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so. 11 Does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening? 12 Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Thus no spring yields both salt water and fresh." Is this true with you, do you continue speak badly towards those around you. Do you speak badly about people behind their backs? Let me encourage you to change today. Repent and ask for the Lords help in taming your tongue.

The Strength of Wisdom

Ecclesiastes 7:19

19 Wisdom strengthens the wise
      More than ten rulers of the city.

As we think about manly attributes, wisdom probably isn’t the first one that comes to mind. Instead we think of things like strength and speed, power and might. Yet when told he could choose anything, Solomon chose wisdom. He had seen his father: strong, mighty, powerful; yet Solomon saw wisdom as being greater then all of those things.

I must admit when I first read today’s verse, it gave me pause. When we think of city rulers today we think of "wise" men, or at least men who appear to be so. Ecclesiastes was written at a different time. Several thousand years ago, the city ruler was a different type of man; he was a strong man, the kind of mad who could lead the battle to protect the city. For a visual aid today, I grabbed these pictures. Please don’t write me angry letters for promoting these movies, because I’m not, however they do fit the bill for a city ruler of the day:

Okay, perhaps not 10 city leaders, but you get the idea: because these ultimate tough guys are not the important part of this verse. What we see here is not Solomon speaking to the power of these 10 city rulers, but to the power of wisdom. The wise man is stronger then any 10 of these guys. He’s more able to lead; he’s going to do better with life. And I’m not talking only about intelligence either. The intelligent man can tell us why we should come in out of the rain. The wise man comes in out of the rain.

The Bible calls us to wisdom. It’s true we saw earlier in the book, that wisdom apart from God is meaningless, yet wisdom with God is what we are all called to. When Solomon chose wisdom, we find that God was so pleased by his choice that he gave him all of the others to go with it. In the book of James we are told to ask for Wisdom when we have none. James 1:5 says, "If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him."

Action Step:

For our action step today, let’s look to the word of God, and ask the Lord for wisdom. Is there a problem in your life today, ask the Lord for wisdom. Having trouble sharing the gospel with someone, ask the Lord for wisdom. Do you see people in distress around you and not know how to help, ask the Lord for wisdom. I could keep going, buy you get the point. Ask the Lord for wisdom.

Happy Days

Today’s Scripture: Ecclesiastes 7:11-14

Before we get started today, let me again encourage you to flip open your Bibles and read the complete passage of the day. We won’t be able to go in-depth with each verse, but each verse of God’s Word can be profitable to us.

OK, Maybe a slight stretch for the Happy Days Picture because were not really talking about "Happy Days" But being Joyful in the days of prosperity. However as I was getting ready for this post, I grabbed my NASB which uses the term happy in the days of prosperity. So let’s take a look now at Ecclesiastes 7:14:

14 In the day of prosperity be joyful,
      But in the day of adversity consider:
      Surely God has appointed the one as well as the other,
      So that man can find out nothing that will come after him

Or as we find in the New American Standard Bible (Happy Days):

14 In the day of prosperity be happy,
         But in the day of adversity consider--
         God has made the one as well as the other
         So that man will not discover anything that will be after him.

We see here a couple teachings we don’t often talk about. First that it’s ok to be happy about our prosperity. We don’t have to go around feeling bad when things are good for us. We may think that’s crazy but its true, find someone in Christian circles who had blessed financially, and they will shrug it off, with comments like "Its never enough" or "I wish I could do more". Pause and think about it, how many "Happy" wealthy people have you met. There may be a lot of them out there, but I only know a few. Yet we see here, the "preacher" (Solomon not me) teaches us to be happy in our prosperity.

The second teaching we find, is probably more useful to people like me; that when trouble comes, remember, God has allowed that for us as well. We often like to blame these things on others, get angry, wonder why God isn’t blessing us. But just as sometimes God gives us prosperity, sometimes he will allows adversity to come into our lives. He does this so we will rely on Him, we will understand we need Him; we will not take Him for granted.

This second teaching is sometimes foreign to us, especially if you like to watch a certain smiley preacher on TV. But when you take to word of God as a whole, you realize that things won’t always be all "happy" and we won’t always have prosperity, sometimes we will face adversity, and it is important that we remain joyful even in those times for God in His perfect nature has allowed us to have both types of days. This thought reminds me of James 1:2 "My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials". Do we remain joyful in trials, do we trust in God’s will in the midst of adversity? Or do we sit around and pout and wait for the blessings to start flowing again.

As we close out these thoughts for today let me leave you with these thoughts from A.W. Tozer *"Now I submit that the whole hectic scramble after happiness is an evil as certainly as is the scramble after money or fame or success. How far wrong all this is will be discovered easily by the simple act of reading the New Testament through once with meditation. There the emphasis is not upon happiness - but upon holiness.   God is more concerned with the state of people's hearts than with the state of their feelings.  Undoubtedly the will of God brings final happiness to those who obey, but the most important matter is not how happy we are - but how holy."

Action Step:

1. Has God blessed you financially or in other ways, thank him and rejoice in that.

2. Has adversity come your way, praise the Lord, and find joy in that.

* A. W. Tozer's Of God And Men, "Holiness Before Happiness", Christian Publications, 1960, pp 43-46

A Thought from James

Another busy day has come and gone, in many ways I’m spent physically, and emotionally drained. I’ll give you fair warning that I have a number of thoughts moving around in my brain that one day will come pouring out on these pages. Although right now, I’m getting ready to teach my Sunday school class tomorrow. Were going through an in-depth study of the general epistles and currently are covering the book of James. I thought I’d just take a minute tonight to share the passage I’ll be teaching on tomorrow, and maybe share a few thoughts about it.

James 2:1-13

1 My brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with partiality. 2 For if there should come into your assembly a man with gold rings, in fine apparel, and there should also come in a poor man in filthy clothes, 3 and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say to him, “You sit here in a good place,” and say to the poor man, “You stand there,” or, “Sit here at my footstool,” 4 have you not shown partiality among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?
5 Listen, my beloved brethren: Has God not chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him? 6 But you have dishonored the poor man. Do not the rich oppress you and drag you into the courts? 7 Do they not blaspheme that noble name by which you are called?
8 If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you do well; 9 but if you show partiality, you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as transgressors. 10 For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all. 11 For He who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.”Now if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. 12 So speak and so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty. 13 For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

Now I hope your reading this with an expression of shock, and not of condemnation. Because on first impression I hope you don’t read this and see yourself as someone who shows partiality, but as someone who can’t believe it happens. But now let me break the bad news to you, chances are you or your church have at some times shown partiality. Of course we don’t ask anyone to sit on the floor at our feet. But how excited do we get about the poor elderly bachelor who comes through our door, compared with the young family. Have we ever passed by the scary homeless person to share the gospel with the less threatening person, the person who just seemed more like us?

If we have done these things there’s a good chance we’ve not considered these acts sin, simply human nature. Yet that thought in itself should let us know were sinning, as sin defines our very nature outside of Christ. I like how James breaks down this sin. First he speaks of Christ’s two great commandments the second being love your neighbor as yourself. Now in verse 9 we see that if you show partiality you do not love your neighbor as yourself and you sin. Finally to top it off James brings us one of the hardest hitting verses of the Bible. In verse 10 James tells us that if we break a commandment, we break all commandments. I could probably spend a week on this verse alone, but for know I wont. I guess in the end, we are aware of a sin in these verses. And once we are aware we are called to turn from that sin.

I’d like to give an action point today; I just heard it on Way of the Master Radio, Stop Sinning! You, me, everyone, lets all continue to strive towards not sinning.