Impartial is Wise--Wednesday, Mar.10th
Are you a good judge of character? Can you discern who is a good person and who is someone to avoid? Are you able to make impartial decisions based on new information, or do you tend to close your mind and stick with what you have known in the past? Do you tend to treat people who are like other people whom you have known in the way you treated the former people?
Heavenly wisdom is “impartial” (James 3:17). What does impartial mean? Its primary meaning is “undivided”. It refers to no being wavering, hesitant, or vacillating in choosing your course of action. This is the mind that has certain convictions which it will not change, but has an open mind to be respectful of others opinions and decisions, and is nonjudgmental. This is the person who makes no hasty judgments about others, knows where he stands on issues and beliefs, and does not show favoritism.
This is the opposite of the double-minded person described in James 1:8. Such a person is one who does not doubt his own motives or actions. This person is consistent in attitudes, choices, and behaviors because his mind is set on Christ. Christ provides the foundation for stability and consistency. To be impartial is to be fair, just, nonpartisan and consistent in our relationships with others. Wisdom operates from impartial objectivity whether persons or issues.
Is your wisdom guiding you to such consistent objectivity?
Wise in him,
Jim
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Good Fruit--Tuesday, Mar.9th
Is a fruit tree’s purpose to produce beautiful blossoms, or good fruit? Is a fruit tree to produce fruit for itself, or far more than it would need itself? Does a fruit tree need the fruit it produces? Is the fruit for the benefit of the tree? Does its fruit falling to the ground enrich the nourishment in the soil, or could it do damage to the tree? The fruit of a fruit tree is for the benefit of others more than for itself.
The other issue of a good fruit tree is that it has to be pruned to produce good fruit. An unpruned tree tries to produce too much fruit, but does have enough food supply for all the fruit. The fruit of such a tree doesn’t fully develop or is dwarfed in its development. Another problem with unpruned trees is that so much fruit may split the tree and destroy its producivity and very existence. Having worked in an apple orchard in college, I well remember Ray Purdy teaching me how to prune his trees and then in the fall to see the result in the good fruit that the trees produced.
One of the traits of heavenly wisdom is that we produce good fruit (James 3:17). This fruit is in keeping with righteousness. We are to be “full of good fruit”. Heavenly wisdom will teach us to prune out anything that will weaken or destroy our righteousness, or our effectiveness in our Christian witness and testimony. This self-discipline will directly impact our production of good fruit. The best illustration of what good fruit is comes from Paul’s writing to the Galatians. There he describes the fruit of the Spirit in the life of a believer. Each of these nine workings of the Spirit in your life is a fruit that you produce for others to pluck and be blessed from your having received from you. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23). The Spirit is working in us to produce all of these fruit, not just one kind. So is your life full of good fruit? Or are you producing no fruit, or dwarfed fruit? God did not bring us into his family to just look good, but to bear good fruit. Be fruitful and multiply was God’s intention from creation, right? Who will pluck from your fruit today?
Fruitful through him,
Jim
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Being Merciful--Monday, Mar.8th
Do you eat till you are full? How many things do you do until you are full? What are you full of? “Huh” is a good word about now?
James guides us to see that heavenly wisdom is full of something. The idea of being full is that you have been filled yourself with something right up to the brim. This isn’t a bottom half of the cup, but all the way to the top filling. With what does he say that wisdom will fill us to the brim?
We are to be “full of mercy” (James 3:17). There are two kinds of mercy. One extends out to the person who is suffering unjustly. A lot like we feel for the Haitians after the earthquake’s devastation. Through no fault or failure of their own, tragedy has befallen them. Most people’s heart goes out to such people. This is worldly mercy. Christian mercy is what is extended to the person who is in trouble, even when it is his own making. God’s mercy doesn’t just extend to us when we are suffering unjustly, but when we are suffering justly. We don’t withdraw from a hurting person who is suffering for his own sins. We don’t take the attitude that says, “He made his own bed, now let him lie in it.” We don’t back away from a person whose life struggles are his own fault that he brought on himself. Instead, we extend to him the same mercy that God has extended to us. Mercy is never deserved. It is given. Remember, “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy” (Matthew 5:7).
Heavenly wisdom is to full of mercy having received it from God himself. We show and overflow with his mercy to others. God’s mercy didn’t come to us because of injustices done to us, but because we were condemned by our own sinfulness. Here we received his mercy that brought us his grace. We get to wisely give to others the same mercy extended to us. We are to be as merciful to others, as our heavenly Father is merciful to us. Do to others as he has done to you. This is our attitude and modus operandi. Be merciful!
Merciful like him,
Jim
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Still Learning, Sunday, Mar.7th
Why is this word to taboo in our culture today? What word, you say—“submissive”?
In our individualistic mind-set, we don’t want anyone controlling or manipulating us. We want to be in charge of our lives, and resent and resist anyone who we think is trying to make us submit to them. If this is your attitude, you will find yourself in big struggles when it comes to the Word of God. Especially, when we come to this word submission (James 3:17).
Maybe we need to review and rethink our approach to submission. It actually can take two distinct directions. The first is to be every ready to obey. The truly wise person has put in his thinking and doing a willingness to obey God, whenever and whatever his Word tells him to do. Such a wise person is always listening to learn what God wants and expects and sets out to do just that.
The second
application means easy to persuade, not in some pliable and accommodating way.
It refers to the wise person who is willing to listen to others insights, the
Spirit’s leading and to anyone who has something to offer in terms of insights
and applications of God’s Word. True wisdom is not rigid and concrete and
beyond learning. It is willing to listen, willing to be persuaded, skilled in
knowing when to wisely yield. This isn’t so open minded that one’s brains fall
out. It is an attitude that focuses on being a learner who wants to know
everything there is to know about God. Especially, as God has revealed himself
in his Word. The person who has locked his mind and heart to learning is a
prisoner of his past. The Holy Spirit is always bringing us to new insights,
understandings, and applications of God’s Word. Don’t ever lock and block
yourself from learning. This does not mean that we question our beliefs,
doctrines or God himself. It means that we are always open to learning more
than we have known in the past. Our God is infinite and we are finite. So stay
open to him and his leading.
Learning from him,
Jim
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Are You Considerate--Saturday, Mar.6th
Do you consider yourself a considerate person? That is, do you consider the needs and desires of others before you respond to a situation? Or do you just bulldoze ahead with your plans and purposes, or sense of justice?
One of the marks of the heavenly wisdom is to be “considerate” (James 3:17). Put in other related words, it would refer to being gentle, reasonable and gracious. This is the wisdom that does not demand that which would bring harm or hurt to another person, even if that meant giving up ones own rights. It also encompasses a sense of mercy to a lawbreaker.
To be considerate from the Greek usage is a unique concept. It recognizes that there are times when justice isn’t just. There are times when applying the strict letter of the law, just isn’t right. It considers the circumstances and motives of the defendant when making a judgment against him. A considerate person knows how to make allowances, how to temper justice with mercy, and understands that there are greater things in this world than rules and regulations. Such a person knows how to make allowances, give mercy and not destroy justice in the process. It has even been described as “sweet reasonableness”. It is the ability to extend to others the kindly consideration we would like to receive ourselves.
Connecting peace-loving and considerate balances out like this. It is to be tough and tender. Tough with it comes to purity of doctrine and life, and tender when it comes to hurting others for our own advantage, or in making legal judgments upon others without mercy. It is to follow Paul’s advice to the Philippians. “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others” (Philippians 2:3-4).
Consider like him,
Jim
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Faith Isn't About You--<Monday, Feb.15th
The true test of faith is how it responds to God, to situations and to other people in their time of need.
James wraps our minds around faith this way: “What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed, but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action is dead” (2:14-17).
Have you said to someone in need, “I wish you well. I’ll pray for you. I know God answers prayers.” And then you either walked away or dismissed them. Such religious talk isn’t faith. Faith acts intentionally.
It is a discriminatory thing to dismiss a person in need as though the person has no needs. It is a faithless thing to dismiss a person in need when you have been provided by God with what they need. The faith issue here isn’t about their poverty or great need. It is about our faith in God’s provisions to us and through us. Is this a faith verse to you: “You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God” (2 Corinthians 9:11)?
Faith isn’t about what we believe or do. It is about what we believe God will do. Faith is responding to God’s actions with our actions that display our faith in him and his goodness, compassion and love. Faith is never about, look at me or look at what I did. Faith is always about look to God and believe in his power.
Faith is what we do to show others the God we believe is active and present, directional and wise, good and beneficent, merciful and gracious, and saving and sustaining. Faith acts on the beliefs we have about God.
Believing him,
Jim
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Faith And...--Sunday, Feb.14th
Long, loud and laborious are the debates within Christiandom about faith and works. Are you saved by your works, or by your faith? Is it faith alone that saves you? It is your good works that save you? Some have even contended that James and Paul were at strong odds over this issue.
I contend they weren’t arguing against each others position, but were expressing two ways of looking at the same thing. Since we are working our way through James, let’s take a close look at what he is saying.
“What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds?” The true test of whether you believe something to be true is how you put it into practice or into your life. What you believe will have some impact on your life. If you believe in evolution you will hold to the position that random chance can make anything happen. If you believe in global warming, you will watch carefully what C02 emissions you cause. If you believe the roads are icy, you will drive defensively. If you believe it is cold outside, you will dress accordingly. If you believe in Jesus, you will live with a moral and spiritual view of life. You will change the way you see yourself, see others and respond to God. Your motive behind what you do will change. You will move from self to service. You will see the future with a different set of eyes. You will have an eternal perspective.
A deedless faith is an empty faith. “Can such faith save a person?” If you don’t really practice what you believe, do you really believe anything or in anything? If what you believe in makes no difference in your life, what is your belief for? If your faith is in faith that you believe what you believe then you really believe nothing, and in nothing.
So what does your faith believe? How does it show up in your life patterns, choices, and directions? How does your faith work at work? How does it show up at leisure? How does it work in the trenches of trouble and sorrow? A right test of faith is to see how it works in and through you. Do you demonstrate that you really believe in Jesus?
Faith in him,
Jim
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Me, a Lawbreaker?--Friday, Feb.12th
If you show favoritism and discrimination, you sin and are a lawbreaker. So says James 2:9. Now how do you feel about yourself? We do realize that keeping the whole law is impossible, because to stumble at just one point is to break all of it (2:10). Keeping 9/10 doesn’t carry any weight with God. Sin is sin and every sin must be dealt with as sin. This doesn’t mean that we give up on trying to keep the whole law, or of being perfectly obedient.
What we discover about the law is we are the lawbreakers. It is then that we discover God’s intention in giving the law was to show us that we can’t ever save ourselves, and that we need a Savior.
His royal law of love (2:8) is what gives us “freedom”. This freedom involves liberty, latitude, privilege, autonomy, independence and generosity. It is the freedom that gives us the right and power of self-determination. This is not you and I the setting of the terms of freedom, or the demanding of some rights.
It is a new state of being that enables us to act and move without restrictions or hindrances. It means that we don’t see restrictions or hindrances as belief’s legal and proper response to God. Instead, we are set free through love’s work to do the right things. This is a freedom from the laws forms and ceremonies that have all been fulfilled in Christ Jesus. What are retained as works of love are the moral standards and the justice requirements mediated through Christ’s atoning sacrifice culminated in God’s judgment. Central to all of this is the place of God’s mercy and grace.
We must not forget that God’s judgment scales are integrating justice and mercy? Mercy is limited to those who are merciful (2:13). As we have received his mercy, so we extend mercy to others. Just as we are the recipients of his forgiveness, so we forgive. We have received his love, so we love. We have received hope, so we give others the reason for the hope in us. We impart what we have received. In giving to others what we have received, we discover the well that will never run dry. We are plugged into the power that will never be turned off. What a way to live!
Under him,
Jim
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Real Obedience--Wednesday, Feb.10th
The royal law is the law handed down by the king. It is what is expected of every citizen under the king’s authority and jurisdiction. Such decrees demanded complete obedience, or there were consequences that made you wish you had. These weren’t the kind of laws that accepts, “if you feel like doing this then go ahead. But if you really don’t want to, then just ignore it.”
The royal law that James is referring to is found in Scripture. It isn’t issued or decreed by a king, but by God himself. This is what God mandated for all his subjects. It is expected of all those who believe in and worship God. It is a chosen obligation out of loyal obedience to our God. If your citizenship is known for just one thing, this is the one thing to be doing. Yes, it is simply, “Love your neighbor as yourself” (James 2:8).
Our task is to be obedient to this royal law. What is it that we are doing that demonstrates our obedience? Jesus taught it in two directions: the first is loving those who love us (Matthew 5:46—48; Luke 6:32-36) That is no major thing, for even the tax collectors and sinners do that. That is the easy part of love. It is the second kind of love that Jesus went on to emphasize that this royal law of love requires us to love in specific and hard ways. It is given to those who don’t deserve, and perhaps even shouldn’t receive your love. You love them with a God-like (agape) love. There is no “if you…” or “when they…” in this loving love. It ministers regardless of the other person’s responses. It gives without expecting anything in return. It cares especially when some folks are at their ugliest and meanest. Yes, we hate the sin, but we love the one sinning against us.
Jesus said when we do that “your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High” (Luke 6:35). Notice we will not be “called” sons and daughters, but will “be” sons of the Most High. We aren’t loving just to be loving. We are loving because we are God’s sons and daughters and that is our new nature. Look at everyone as a person whom God loves, and love them as he does. That is sonship and daughterhood. You belong to God’s family, love like it!
Loving like him,
Jim
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The Love Remedy--Tuesday, Feb.9th
Quick, put your beliefs in one statement? Bring what you believe down to one statement or one fact. This statement must convey everything about God, what God wants from us, and how we are to live every day? Does that seem impossible to summarize all that you believe and all that God wants of you into one sentence?
As Churches we have been pushed to develop a mission statement or a purpose sentence to describe why we exist and what we exist to do. Many hours of thought and discussion have gone into such statements. Here at First Christian, our Mission Statement is: FCC’s Mission Is To…Believe Through Hope; Live By Faith; Serve With Love; Grow In Grace. It is true that having a clear vision of what we are to do and how we are to do it will keep us on track. The problem with Mission Statements is staying on task with the mission as designated and described. The greater task is to get everyone to buy into that statement and into practicing that purposive mission. It isn’t our faith or doctrine that often need adjustments. It is our people relationships. We are to love them with agape (God-like) actions.
James really put it all together and right in verse 8 of Chapter two. Ponder how he clearly states the mission and purpose of our faith: “If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing right.” The true mark of spirituality, maturity and sanctification is only one thing--love. The real proof of our faith in God is proven in our love for our neighbors. When belief enters our heart, mind and being, this transforms us to see ourselves, and our neighbors as God sees each of us individually, and everyone of them uniquely.
Jesus summarized the whole law in saying we are to love the Lord our God with our whole heart, mind, soul and strength and to love our neighbor as ourselves (Matthew 22:37-40). When James is addressing our struggles with people and ourselves, he points out that the remedy for our struggles is to love our neighbor as our self. This is the right remedy. How will you love your neighbor with a God-like love today?
Loving them like him,
Jim
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Insulting--Monday, Feb.8th
Have you been insulted recently? Who tends to insult other people? Is it someone who really knows another person, knows him or her slightly, or doesn’t know them at all? Or are people groups the ones insulted the most--say a family unit, racial group, economic class, professional class, or of an opposite political persuasion. Insults and slander aren’t very far apart.
As James is addressing the issues of favoritism and discrimination, he notes that the most insulted group of people are the poor. Have you realized how true that is? People aren’t poor necessarily because of poor choices. Sometimes they had no choice. I have three enlightening books that challenge that idea. One is “The Working Poor—Invisible In America” by David K. Shipler. The second is “The Truly Disadvantaged: The Inner City, the Underclass, and Public Policy” by William Julius Wilson. And the third was perhaps the most powerful for me: “What Every Church Member Should Know About Poverty” by Ruby K Payne and Bill Ehlig. If you have never been “poor”, you have no idea what poverty is. Have ever heard someone say, I have, “Well, why don’t they just move to a new place?” Did you catch the insulting implications made in that question?
Why do we join in on insulting the poor? James reminds us that it isn’t the poor who exploit us. It is the rich. Look carefully how James describes this: “Is it not the rich who are exploiting you? Are they not the ones who are dragging you into court? Are they not the one who are slandering the noble name of him to whom you belong?” (2:6-7).
Are we so caught up in being rich that we fail to recognize that we too exploit the poor to advance ourselves? Have you checked your heart in God’s reflective mirror lately? Very few people choose to be poor. So what is it that God wants us to see and to know about the “poor”?
Now there’s a God thought to ponder all day today.
Thinking like him,
Jim
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True Riches--Sunday, Feb.7th
This is one of those types of statements that as soon as you hear it, you go, “Huh?” Catch this: “Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world”. Notice they aren’t poor in God’s eyes, just the world’s and their culture’s eyes.
What is poverty in God’s eyes? Isn’t it having a spiritual bank account with nothing deposited in it, and therefore nothing to withdraw from it? It is our worship and service that fills our heavenly accounts. And with those blessings, God adds his interest in us, and blesses us with every spiritual blessing.
Are you investing by Paul’s counsel: “And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all they you need, you will abound in every good work, As it is written: ‘He has scattered abroad his gifts to the poor; his righteousness endures forever.’ Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.” (2 Corinthians 9:8-11). This is God’s formula for spiritual financial success. Are you investing for your future in this program. It does work!
Wealth from him,
Jim
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Who Is Rich--Saturday, Feb.6th
Are you rich or poor? Do you view yourself as somewhere in between? What is your description of a rich person? What is it of a poor person? How have you come to your definitions of whom is rich and poor? Is it based on where you are compared to others? What “others” are you comparing yourself too? Are you looking at those ahead of your economically, or those behind you to make your judgment? Is it based on what you have, what you want, or what you “need” to live?
In James follow-up advice on favoritism, he adds this information: “Listen, my dear brothers: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him?” (2:5). There is no implication that God made these folks poor. Is his blessing on them because they are poor, or because they live more by faith? Our economic situation does not determine God’s view or responses to us. It is our faith that determines his benefits that he gives us. The more comfortable and materialistic minded we become, do we depend on God more or less? Do we seek God’s will, direction and blessings, or do we depend on our own resources and the material goods we have acquired to provide what we need? Do we relegate God to be our loan officer when we want more than we have? Have we made God our stimulus plan to get us what we can’t afford for ourselves? Is God a vital part of our economic equation, or are we so independent minded that we don’t really need him?
What kind of faith do you have? Is yours a trusting dependent kind on God’s goodness and provisions? Or a “I’ll contact you when I need something I can’t get or afford for myself” kind? Are you rich in faith or material goods? Rich faith isn’t materialistic or economically driven. It is a deep and abiding relationship with God himself built on who is he, what he has, is and will do in and throughout our lives. This faith also focuses on what he will do through our lives as our ministry to him that serves others. How rich are you?
Rich in him,
Jim
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Valuing--Friday, Feb.5th
It has amazed me that within five minutes of a second campers arrival at church camp, he or she will have found the first troubled camper like himself or herself. How these campers find and connect with each other is still a puzzle to me. I don’t know how they recognize in each other what they do as quickly as they do, but I know they connect. I can understand their connecting. The puzzle is, how quickly they found each other and how soon they connected.
When guests enter our church buildings, are we seeking to make a connection with them where they are at, or are we seeking to connect with those who are most like us? Sometimes, we defer to those we want to be like? We sometimes slither up to those whom we want to accept us and include us in their lives?
James correctly surveys this scene this way: “Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in shabby clothes also comes in. If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, ‘Here’s a good seat for you’, but say to the poor man, ‘You stand there’ or ‘Sit on the floor by my feet,’ have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?” (James 2:2-4).
If right now after reading that last phrase, your first thought was to justify your behavior or explain away what James wrote, what is that saying about you? This is a teaching to take at face value. He said what he meant. There are no hidden meanings. When you treat people based on their dress, style, name brand logo’s, the Goodwill mix-and-match look, or the color of their skin, aren’t you judging that person by appearances. In that judgment, whom are you elevating and who are you devaluing? Who is worth less to God? Is it the finely dressed rich person, the shabbily dressed poor person, or you? There is also a second question: Who is worth more to God?
Discrimination can go both ways. Discrimination can be as much against the rich, just as it is toward the poor. However, neither behavior is right, wise or correct. How do we adjust and correct our thinking that leads to our behaviors? We have to get behind our thinking to see what our heart values, desires and wants.
James also points an index finger right at us, and gives us a firm look when he says to us, “Have you become judges based on people’s appearances? So who appointed you to this judgeship anyway? God didn’t and won’t.” God looks at the heart of all people, and teaches us to see people there. If you can’t get past the external stuff and fluff, then you are playing judge. God will never give you that right, role or responsibility.
Check yourself out on this. The next time two visitors come to church, pay special attention to your thoughts about whom you will go to first and why? It’s the “why” that is most important. It is here that our motives and intentions are displayed. Or as James put it, “Stop showing favoritism!” Don’t look around to see what anyone else is doing. You do God’s right thing yourself.
Valuing like him,
Jim
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Stop Discriminating--Wednesday, Feb.3rd
Everyone has people that they connect with, and people that they just don’t fit in with. Among the twelve disciples, Jesus was closer to Peter, James and John. That did not mean that he slighted the other disciples, but that he and they were closer. In every ministry that I have had, there have been some folks that I just connected with from the start.
James confronts an issue that plagues the church to this day. It isn’t about connecting closer to some folks. It is about disconnecting from some folks. It is about favoritism. He writes it this way: “My brothers, as believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, don’t show favoritism” (2:1). So what is “favoritism”? Can’t we have close friends? Do we have to like everyone equally the same? Do we have to love everyone the same way? That’s just not human! Or maybe that’s the problem, we are too human?!
James is actually telling them to “Stop showing favoritism”. That means that they were already discriminating about whom they would welcome and fellowship with in the body of believers, and with guests who came to a service. It is very hard not to judge people by their external appearances, or their societal reputations. In our culture, we defer often to the people that we most admire and want to be like. Our cultures definition of success is about outward appearances. Christianity, on the other hand, focuses on a person’s inward being. It sees the person as a person of equal status as you before God. Once we were sinners with no status, like they are. Now we hope they will soon believe and gain the status of belonging to the family of God.
James hits hard where the issue is decided. It isn’t cultural spirituality that he is addressing, but being biblically spiritual. This is the foundation stone for all relationships: “As believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ”. Is wasn’t the poor, the diseased, the disabled, the demon-possessed or the dead that Jesus shied away from. He only withdrew from those who rejected his message and who he was. Yet, he still interacted with them. He spent time with these folks. He talked with them and to them. He touched them, when no one else would.
To test your partiality or impartiality toward others, take a serious look at how you talk to the disadvantaged or the advantaged? How much time do you give them, or spend with them? Do you touch them or not? The real key to our learning not to discriminate is to set out to copy Jesus way of ministering to people. We need to become color blind to skin, shade blind to wealth or poverty, and insensitive to prejudice and discrimination. I start here: I look at the people I talk to in the eye. What I am looking to see is their heart as God sees it. This takes me past the prejudices and discriminations that are pushed in our societies. Learn to see people as God sees them. Put his glasses on your face and see them as he does.
Seeing like him,
Jim
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Good Religion--Tuesday, Feb.2nd
If you knew what kind of religion or religious practices that God accepts, would you want to know what it is? Would you want to know so that you can legalistically and ritualistically follow it to the inth degree of obedience? Would you look at such requirements as God trying to control you and not let you live your life? Would you look at such requirements as recommendations that you can choose to follow or disregard? Would you look at such requirements as a perfect standard that is beyond human ability? Would you look at such requirements as faith responses to God’s responses to our lives? Which way will you and are you approaching the religion that God accepts?
James lays it out this way: “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world” (James 1:27). Was that what you expected him to say? We you looking for a long list of do’s and don’ts? Were you looking for theological dogma that must be believed? Were you looking for programs and activities that would keep us so busy doing religious things that we would have no time or place for anything else? Were you expecting him to say that we have to join the 3n10 Club—that’s go to church three times a week and tithe?
Were you surprised that the first religious response that God accepts is ministry to those in distress? Did he then say what you expected when he told us to keep ourselves unpolluted by the world? Did you notice that the religion that he accepts is “pure and faultless”? Okay, did you get this. Our personal religion must be directed toward the “pure and faultless”. This is the only standard that God sets and accepts.
Therefore, this is the question that matters the most: Is your daily goal to be “pure and faultless” in God’s eyes, or is it to live your “religion in ministry and personal purity? This is the standard set by God himself. He is pure and faultless, and expects nothing short of that from us. “Be holy, because I am holy” (1 Peter 1:16). You can’t raise this bar, but must never try to lower it either. How will you show you purity and faultless character in Christ to others today? Who is in distress that you know who needs your ministry for him to them today?
Like him,
Jim
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Are You Religious--Monday, Feb.10
Do you think of yourself as a religious person? Are you religious? I mean are you a religious person? Of course that means, whatever you consider religious to be. Is our definition of religious God’s?
James addresses the issue of thinking oneself religious and comes at it hard. His point begins with this: “If anyone considers himself religious” (1:26). Is he implying that a person can think they are religious, but in reality they are not? This phrase “considers himself” literally refers to a person who is expressing his subjective mental estimate and opinion of himself as he sees himself. It is to think, to suppose, to believe that he is something. Whether he is that which he thinks he is, may be another matter. But he believes he is. Does it need to be said that a person can self-deceive himself or herself? And the answer is “Yes”.
James goes to the heart of the matter in his word “religious”. This word refers to a religious and devout person. It has two distinct focuses in its meaning. It can refer to a person who performs all the divinely ascribed duties of the outward service to God. This is called the ceremonial service to God. These are the people Jesus spoke to and about in Matthew 23 in his strong condemnation of their practices. If your religion is nothing but religious, watch out! If all we do is go through the motions, say the right words, recite the right phrases, sing the chosen songs, and listen to what is proclaimed, but do nothing about applying it to our lives, we have deceived ourselves. The second is the person who lives by the applications and practices of what he is taught.
There is a decisive test to utilize in checking whether we are ceremonially religious or not. Want to know what it is? James succinctly nails it down this way: “keep a tight rein” on your tongue. My brother had a high spirited horse, and the one thing you never wanted to give him was a loose rein. If you did you were either on the ground or hanging on for dear life. “Dusty” loved to dump your off on the ground so he could go where he wanted to go. With him you always kept a tight rein.
James is saying that a truly religious person will keep a tight rein on his or her tongue. He will constantly be aware that if he is doesn’t keep a tight control over his tongue, it will slice and dice people. This four inch piece can slay a six foot six person. The first true mark of our religion taking affect in our lives is tongue management. We will never tame it (James 3:8), but we can rein it in. We put bridles on 2000 pound horses with eight once bits in their mouths to control them so they go were we want them to go. In your mind and heart, put a bridle on your tongue and let God control the reins. Only then will your religion not be “worthless” to you or anyone else. This is your religious practice, right? How will you rein in your tongue today?
Reined in by him,
Jim
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Be Blessed--Sunday, Jan.31st
Want to be blessed in all you do? This is the way: “But the man who look intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he had heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does” (James 1:25).
So, the reason to apply the word of God to your life is to live a blessed life. Wow, that’s a pretty good reason to apply God’s word to our lives, right! This is God’s promise. God will bless the obedient person. If this was the only reason to apply his word to our lives, this would be enough of a reason. Yet, the word itself when applied to our lives will bear great fruit in us and through us as well. Even if being blessed was a natural follow-through on applying God’s word, just knowing the truth and living by the truth would be blessing enough. Imagine this, we get both blessings. Now that is a double blessing, if there ever was one. Are you double blessed?
Blessed by him,
Jim
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Self-Deception--Saturday, Jan. 30th
The hardest deception to deal with is self-deception. This deception is when we desire something to be true, or discover something to be true and truth. There are two different directions this self-deception takes. The first is that we hold it to be true, and act as though it is true when it is false. The second is that we believe something to be true, but do nothing with it. Which deception is worse to act on falsehood, or to believe the truth and do nothing with it?
James counsel is this: “Do not merely listen to the word and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says” (1:22). It is one thing to believe a lie and live by it. It is quite another thing to know the truth and do nothing with it.
James illustrates this perception this way: “Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like” (1:23). It is hard for us to believe that a person could forget what he looks like. It isn’t that he doesn’t recognize himself, but that he does nothing with what he sees in the mirror. He does nothing about the dirt on his face, or the disheveled hair, or the unkempt beard. He looks at himself and does nothing about what he sees.
James is addressing the person who goes to worship or Bible study, who listens to what is said and taught, and who thinks that merely listening to what has been said, has made him a Christian. He deceives himself by thinking that his attendance and attention to what was said is enough. He had deluded himself into believing that hearing is the same thing as doing. The key issue in Christianity isn’t attendance and attention to what is said, but the applying of these truths to life in word and deed.
James is telling us that what is heard in the holy place must be lived in the market place—or there is no point in hearing it. Remember is it the application of knowledge that is wisdom. It is the application of biblical truth that is spirituality. Check your image in God’s mirror. What are you seeing about yourself in his mirror that needs to be changed, or needs to be done?
Mirrored in him,
Jim
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The Seed and The Soil--Friday, Jan.29th
As a farm kid, I learned that what you sow you reap. I also learned that if you sowed nothing, weeds, thistles and hedge trees would grow. I especially learned what it took to sow or plant those seeds. Farming has come a long way since I was raised on a farm, but there is still one aspect of it that remains the same. You still have to do some preparation of the soil to receive the seeds, and you still have to plant the seeds.
With that knowledge what James says takes on its meaning. It would be easy to slip right over this important phrase. Catch this and its meaning: “humbly accept the word planted in you” (James 1:21). This is God’s word planted in us by God and the Holy Spirit.
The word is God’s seed of salvation that when planted in us can and will save us. We aren’t saved by wishing God would save us. We aren’t saved by hoping God might do something. We are saved when we accept what God’s word is teaching us about who Jesus is and what he accomplished for us through his death, burial and resurrection. When this seed of faith gets planted in our hearts and minds, and we “humbly accept” it, it will save us from our sins and bring us into full life and eternal life.
As Jesus illustrated, even God’s seed won’t grow in hearts that Satan controls, won’t take root in rocky soil of hearing without obeying, nor will it become productive in a life that is choked by life’s worries, riches and pleasures. However, God’s word will produce when it is sown in the lives of those “who hear the word, retain it and by persevering produce a crop” (Luke 8:11-15). So what kind of soil are you? Even seemingly worthless soil can become productive when it is worked, watered, planted and cultivated. That’s where the persevering comes in. God’s word is sown in the heart. There is takes root and bears fruit. How ready is your heart?
A heart for him,
Jim
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To Change--Monday, Jan.25th
What results usually come from our quick anger, quick words and slow listening? James indicates that such behaviors take us in the opposite direction of righteousness. It actually creates the unrighteous behaviors and acts. If we ever hope to win this battle, we must turn that wrong direction system around. We must learn to listen first, speak carefully and allow our anger to rise slowly.
Here is the heart of this issue: we must intend to “get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is to prevalent” (1:21). This isn’t the stuff in other people that we are working on changing. It is that stuff, our moral filth and evil, inside of each of us. This won’t happen as long as we are comparing ourselves to other people, especially those who are worse than we are. This will only happen when we put ourselves before God and his holiness. This is where and when we will see ourselves for whom we truly are.
This hard self-examination will bring us to true humility. This is not a self-abased denial of our being, but a real sense of who we are as God sees and knows us. Humility isn’t about beating ourselves up or down. It is about seeing ourselves realistically and is more than just tealing with our humanness in terms of our failures and successes. We are not junk, trash, irreparable brokenness, or worthless nothings to God. We are the objects of his love, his grace and his goodness. He isn’t suppressing us. He is exalting us.
For him to do that, we must seek his cleansing from our moral filth and prevalent sins. This is where he starts with us. After than, his miraculous changes transform us in the image of his likeness. To get there he has provided and planted his word in us which can save us. Now that’s worth all the work we need to do to allow God to do his work in us. He wants to make us fully alive and living life at its fullest (John 10:10). Set your sights on this today.
Alive in him,
Jim
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The Correct Way To Anger
Jan.22nd
When you get angry, how do you react? Are you quick to anger, quick to speak, and slow to listen? If that describes you when you get angry, pay very close attention to what James is saying about getting angry.
“My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry” (1:19). So, do you respond this way, or do you react the incorrect way?
Talk about wise counsel, this is it. How many arguments would never end up where they do if we followed this advice? How many arguments expand and explode when we reverse James words? How many regrets do we have because we didn’t take this path? How many wrongful and hurtful things have we said and done that would never have happened had we been quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry?
Implant this verse on the thought process that is triggered by your fears of harm, rejection, failure, loneliness and perfectionism. Make this an intentional and purposive habit when you are in a disagreement or are in a difference of opinion or perspective with someone else.
God is very slow to anger (Exodus 34:8; Numbers 14:;18; Nehemiah 9:11; Psalm 86:15; 103:8; 145:8; Joel 2:13; Jonah 4:2 and Nahum 1:3). What is that? Because he listens before he speaks, and does both way before he gets angry. It is also noteworthy to recognize that the counterbalance to God’s anger is his abounding and rich love. This is how love works and acts. Try it, it works!
Directed by him,
Jim
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Stop Sinning?--Tuesday, Jan.19th
Remember the TV show, Truth Or Consequences? Ever hear of truth and consequences? James does exactly that in his information about sin. He not only addresses sins source and cause (1:13-14). He also addresses sins impact, effect and result. Wrap your mind around this: “Then after desire has conceived, it give birth to sin, and sin, when it is full grown, give birth to death” (1:15). There you have it. Sin’s pleasure isn’t worth sin’s cost or result.
So why do we keep on sinning? The most simple and basic way of stating it is this: because we desire it. If we didn’t desire it, sin would have no allure, pleasure, effect or damage in our lives. This is why the place to start in dealing with sin is in our desires. This does not mean that we have to kill our desires, but it does mean that we must change our desires before they kill us. We must move our desires from pleasing self to pleasing God. One of the best ways to do this is to desire to minister to others in their times of need. It really is true that the desire to serve overcomes the desire to get, gain and grab more for oneself. Try it—it works. Set your desire on pleasing him by serving his people.
Serving him,
Jim
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The Way Out--Monday, Jan.18th
How do you respond to being pushed around? How do you react when someone forces you to do something that you do not want to do? We don’t like it at all, and sometimes we strongly resist such intrusions.
How do you respond when you own evil desires push you into something that you know is totally wrong to do? How do you react when your own evil desires cause you to do something that your don’t want to do, but do it anyway?
We easily end up either hating ourselves, or justifying our own evil actions. And do you know what it is that we hate so strongly? We hate it because we realize just as James writes that it is our own evil desires that drag us away from our best selves (1:14). Also we know that it is our own evil desires that entice us to do the wrong things. Sin is always in inside job.
Take a look at every sin you have ever committed and ask yourself, if these two things aren’t true of you. God does not want us sinning, hating ourselves or justifying our sins.
Let us remember that sin starts in our own evil desires, moves to our wanting to do the sin, then makes plans to sin, and finally acts on the plans that came from the wanting to do it that drew strength from our evil desires. This is the sin process.
Therefore, the sin in your life must be identified as coming from your own evil desires. It isn’t the Devil who makes you sin, but he will assist you in the process any way he can. God will not allow you to be tempted above what you are able to bear, and he will provide you a way out so that you can stand up under it (1 Corinthians 10:13). When we set our desire on pleasing God, he will then give us that way out. Are you looking for his way out, or your desire to go in? Look for his way out today.
Follow him,
Jim
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Your Desires--Sunday, Jan.17th
Flip Wilson popularized it, and is known for using it in his skits. Remember, “The Devil made me do it?”
James takes a serious divergence from that false premise and brings the problem with temptation and sin right to its correct source. The Devil, nor is God the source. “When tempted, no one should say, ‘God is tempting me.’ For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone” (James 1:13). The source-cause of temptations is not the Devil or God. Where then does it come from?
“But each one is tempted when, by his own evil desires, he is dragged away and enticed.” The blame shifts cannot be shifted to no one else, nor to any other cause than our “own evil desires”. No matter how you think it, justify it, excuse it, or blame it on someone else, it always comes right back to yourself. Your evil desires are the source-cause.
Take a strong and deep look at what tempts you and you will see that it is your own evil desires that influence you to do what you do. Also, take a strong and deep look at those things that have no temptations for you. There you will notice that the reason there is no temptation is because you have no evil desires in that area.
Do you understand then that if you have no desire for something, you will not be tempted in that arena? Where your desire leads, your choices and actions will follow.
The key to managing temptation is to set your heart’s desire on pleasing God, and not yourself. How much of your desires are focused on pleasing God primarily? This is the precise place where we win our temptation battles or lose them. So set your desire on pleasing God.
Pleasing him,
Jim
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Life's Quizzes--Saturday, Jan.16th
I rarely liked pop quizzes. Unless I had studied prior to going to class. (Oops, did I say that I didn’t usually study before going to class?) However, if I knew that a professor had a propensity for giving pop quizzes, I tended to study more before the class.
But when I knew a test was coming, boy did I study. Sometimes I even studied the right things. I learned that learning the professor’s style of teaching and testing had more to do with preparing for a test than anything else. In particular it was wise to take good notes as professor’s tend to emphasize what they think is important in class presentations and discussions. Although there were a few who put a question or two on the test that they hadn’t discussed in class to see if we had really read the assigned textbook reading. The worst test question ever was when the professor asked us in the middle of a semester who the textbook author was. Who ever noticed that? I did ever after that. By the way, who is the textbook author of the Book of Life?
Life is a test. Faith is always preparing us for the trials that test us. James writes, “Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him” (1:12). Such trials put the subject to the test. When God tests us, his purpose is to strengthen and prove us. When Satan tests us, his purpose is to cause us to fall and crush us by the test.
Stood the test means that the person is now accepted, received, approved, and proved genuine. He had been tested, examined and passed the test and now is pronounced approved. Imagine God putting his stamp of approval on you! Now that’s a test worth taking. God isn’t trying to defeat or destroy us, but to use his tools to prove to us that we have the faith that stands against all odds and enemies.
And don’t forget what the reward for enduring the trial that tested you is. You and I will receive the “crown of life that God has promised to those who love him” (1:12b). No letter grade can ever compare to that reward. No graduate mortarboard hat compares in any way to this promised reward. This makes every trial a good and beneficial test. So instead of fearing such tests, start looking forward to them. Use them to prove to you that your faith is real and valid and strong. Stand firm in your faith.
Standing in him,
Jim
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Fading Away--Friday, Jan.15th
What have you learned from this economic downturn? Have you seen good or evil come out of this? What have you seen as the cause of it? There is lot’s of blame thrown around and some of it deservedly so.
James makes a very interesting comment, and perhaps commentary on this situation in James 1:11. Here he is addressing the rich and the earthiness of their wealth. Remember they won’t take their wealth with them into eternity. Like grass or a flower, they too will fade away. Then he says, “even while he goes about his business.” Did you catch that his wealth and its permanence will be affected even in his day to day operations?
Not only is wealth amassed to leave it behind, but even while the rich are working at their craft and gain, he is fading away. It isn’t his wealth that is fading away, he is the one fading away. All the riches in the world will not buy health, longevity, or eternity.
So in getting all you can, what are you losing to get it? A life in Christ may bring your earthly riches, but it will more importantly bring you eternal life. No earth’s riches can compare to that.
That only comes through Jesus Christ.
Only in him,
Jim
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Your Position--Wednesday, Jan.13th
The other day a friend of mine came over to assist me in working on my son’s car. He brought his girlfriends son with him. He stayed in the unheated garage with us for quite a while, but then needed to go to the bathroom. After he came out of the bathroom, he commented to my wife that we must really be rich people. She asked him why he said that, and he said that we had a really big house and that I had lots of tools. He was right, we are rich in many ways. Probably over 90% of the world’s population do not have what I have.
James spoke of “the brother in humble circumstances” (James 1:9), and in contrast with him, “the one who is rich” (1:10). Using such a comparison helps us to grasp whom he is referring to in this passage. The “humble circumstances” probably refers to a brother who has little or nothing in terms of this earth’s material and goods. This would seem to apply directly to those brothers who were slaves at that time. It has been said that five out of every six people were slaves in the Roman world. And it is very sure that many Christians were slaves.
The “rich” were probably the free people. Some were free by birth, like Paul (Acts 16:37; 21:39; 22:26,28-29; 23:27), and some had purchased their freedom, like the soldier in Acts 22:28.
James is telling the brother who is living in humble circumstances to realize and then remember that he will be exalted to the height of heaven to live there eternally. There is no comparison of heaven’s glory with earth’s stuff and suffering (Romans 8:18). The rich brother must realize and then remember that all that he has here is like garbage to what he will have in heaven. He will not stand before God based on his earthly wealth or position. He will stand before God as a believer who lived his faith and used what God blessed him with, or he will stand before God being judged for his rejection of Jesus Christ. His wealth means nothing. Lest he think to highly of himself, let him remember that the grass that beautifies our yards and the flowers that adorn our tables both wither and die. Likewise, the rich man’s wealth will be burned up when this world is uncreated. What will he have then?
So whether living in humble circumstances or wealthy, we are to live to praise and serve God, and to rejoice that we have a home that will never perish, spoil or fade away. Your golden asphalt will be pretty worthless there. You are storing treasures in heaven, right?
Rich in him,
Jim
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Doubt or Believe--Tuesday, Jan.12th
One of the worst characteristics of our 21st Century mind is that we doubt and question almost everything—except lies. Why do we believe a lie far faster than we will believe the truth. It has been said that with the internet, twitter and face-book that a lie has gone around the world three times before truth even gets to the keyboard.
Yes, it is very hard not to be cynical or discouraged in our current world situations. With all this photo technology today, you can’t even trust pictures anymore. The thousand words a picture says, may be about who altered the picture and why. Who can we believe and trust?
Where can we go to get the correct and accurate news, information and instruction?
As for me, I find the Bible to be all of those. And I find God to be the truly reliable one. James tells us to ask God for the wisdom to apply his truth to life in and through our trials and tests. Keeping this principle in this context, he tells us to believe and not doubt (James 1:6) that God will give us wisdom to apply his Word to our life situations. We are to believe that he will and is helping us through our life strife and struggles. He then shows us that we have two responses to what he has said. We either believe, or we doubt what he had said.
To believe is to believe it is true and act on it. To doubt is to disbelieve it is true, and either hesitate to act, or refuse to act on what he has said. That is doubting God and his Word. It is saying, “He doesn’t say what he means nor mean what he says.”
James indicates that the most turbulent times in your life will come when you disbelieve God’s word. Your life will become like a storm tossed wave (1:6). Then he adds this frightful statement: “That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does” (1:7-8). Yes, there is a direct correlation between what you believe God will or won’t do and what he does in your life. When you believe, he responds to your belief and often exceeds what you believe. When you doubt, he withholds what he wants to give you. The antidote of doubt is belief. A double-minded man is one who argues opposing views in his head and can’t decide which one to trust or follow. He can’t decide whether to go with fear or with faith. Such schizophrenic thinking leads to constant instability, indecision and distrust. This leads to a person being “unstable in all he does” (1:8). This isn’t God caused, it is a person’s disbelief. If you are at this point, remember what the father of the boy possessed by a demon who threw him into epileptic like seizures. The father said to Jesus, “If you can do anything…?” To which Jesus responded, “If you can? Everything is possible for him who believes.” Immediately the father exclaimed, “I do believe, help me overcome my unbelief” (Mark 9:22-24). There is the answer to doubt! Believe and don’t doubt! Don’t go with your doubts, go with faith.
Believing him,
Jim
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Wise Applications--Monday, Jan.11th
How wise are you? The only way to begin to answer is to ask: “Compared to what?” Wisdom rises no higher than our knowledge, because wisdom is the application of our knowledge. I wish that I could qualify such wisdom as the right use of knowledge, but there is a lot of supposed wisdom being paraded in our world that is the wrong application of information. For instance, were you aware that n November the leading source of Global Warming information in England was discovered to have altered their weather statistics. They are now a discredited source, because of their wrong use of the application of the facts.
James directs us to understand that the correct application of knowledge leads us to ask God to give us the wisdom we need. “If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault’ (James 1:5). Wisdom is the application of our biblical relationship with God and our awareness that he has a plan, a place and a purpose for all we face in life. This wisdom is based and built on our knowledge of what we need to endure our trials and tests. We need to persevere until we become mature, complete and lacking nothing. The wisdom that God wants to generously give us is the right application of his truth into our lives.
God won’t berate us because we don’t understand information in its application format. But he will be greatly disappointed in us, if we fail to ask him to give us the right application of how to wisely apply his Word in our lives. He will give us the asked for wisdom to gain his understanding and applications in our lives. He will lavish such wise applications upon us. Now that’s a wisdom I want in abundance.
Wise in him,
Jim