Category: James

Was I called to it?

James 1 (NLT)
5 If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you.
22 But don’t just listen to God’s word.  You must do what it says.  Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves.
26  If you claim to be religious but don’t control your tongue, you are fooling yourself, and your religion is worthless.

In light of James 1, today’s devotional from Oswald Chambers (which I just “happened” to read today – not a normal occurrence) really hit me between the eyes.  Read it here.

In case you didn’t, let me quote part of the article:

God speaks in the language you know best— not through your ears, but through your circumstances.

God has to destroy our determined confidence in our own convictions. We say, “I know that this is what I should do”-and suddenly the voice of God speaks in a way that overwhelms us by revealing the depths of our ignorance. We show our ignorance of Him in the very way we decide to serve Him.

Have I been persecuting Jesus by an eager determination to serve Him in my own way? If I feel I have done my duty, yet have hurt Him in the process, I can be sure that this was not my duty.

It’s a solemn reminder to “be still and know that I am God” and to wait on him.  It’s a solemn reminder that every single act of ministry I do, I must be called specifically to do.  I know to often, I jump in without asking if that is what He wants me to do at this time, at this moment, in this season.

Time for a little self evaluation… through His eyes and not my own.

Father, I invite you to inspect my life, my ministry, my motivations.  Show me if anything is not pleasing or not for this time.  If there is anything I have committed to without your calling to, I ask forgiveness and the wisdom to know how to handle it.  In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.

Right Now…

James 5:1-6 (NLT)

1 Look here, you rich people: Weep and groan with anguish because of all the terrible troubles ahead of you. 2 Your wealth is rotting away, and your fine clothes are moth-eaten rags. 3 Your gold and silver have become worthless. The very wealth you were counting on will eat away your flesh like fire. This treasure you have accumulated will stand as evidence against you on the day of judgment. 4 For listen! Hear the cries of the field workers whom you have cheated of their pay. The wages you held back cry out against you. The cries of those who harvest your fields have reached the ears of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.
5 You have spent your years on earth in luxury, satisfying your every desire. You have fattened yourselves for the day of slaughter. 6 You have condemned and killed innocent people, who do not resist you.

I found it interesting that the verbs referring to the “things” of the rich in this passage are all present tense, when the rest of the verse has verbs indicating a time to come. “Your wealth is rotting…”, “… fine clothes are moth-eaten…”, “… gold and silver have become …”.

It just got me thinking of the here and now. All of it, the cars, the houses, the jobs, the status, the ______________ (fill in the blank of whatever floats your boat), is all crap to him.

Isaiah 64:6 “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags…”

My best is like a filthy rag. If you’ve never heard what that word “filthy rag” really means, it means a bloody tampon. That’s what I have to offer him. My best acts, all the “greatness” I acquire on earth is nothing more than a bloody tampon to Him.

A little further in Isaiah the Lord says this:

“I was ready to respond, but no one asked for help.
I was ready to be found, but no one was looking for me.
I said, ‘Here I am, here I am!’
to a nation that did not call on my name.
All day long I opened my arms to a rebellious people.
But they follow their own evil paths
and their own crooked schemes. ” (Is 65:1-2)

God is in the now of things. Jimmy Evans preached a great sermon on “The God of Now” that I really like. I’ll tell you this, I don’t want to be the one not asking for His help, when He’s ready to respond. I don’t want to be the one not looking, when He’s wanting to be found. I don’t want to be following my own evil path or crooked scheme when Papa is crying out “I’m here! I’m here!”

Where is my focus today? Where is my focus in this moment? Right Now! That’s all that really matters.

I need you

James 5:19-20

I’ve always felt the book of James ends abruptly, like it’s missing the conclusion or the wrap-up or even a “good bye” that are seen in so of Paul’s writings.

Today, though, it kind of made sense.

19 My dear brothers and sisters, if someone among you wanders away from the truth and is brought back, 20 you can be sure that whoever brings the sinner back will save that person from death and bring about the forgiveness of many sins.

It implies two things to me:

1. God intends us to live in community, and 2. we need each other.

If a brother (a believer) wanders from the truth (the Word of God) and doesn’t live in a fellowship of other believers, how far off course will he/she wander? Jim Jones? David Koresh? I don’t know much about them, but I wonder if they had any accountability in their lives? I wonder if they had anyone who loved them enough to say, “Whoa dude, that’s wacked! You’re way off base on that!”

I need you. You need me. We need to make sure that what we think – what we interpret the Word of God to be – is accurate.

Chapter 1 of James opens with the progress to sin and the result if it is left unchecked (death).
Chapter 5 of James states how to be healed from our sin. By confession and prayer with EACH OTHER.

The last two verses just summarize the beginning and end of the book.

I need you. You need me. We need each other to be healed of our sin.

Chapters 2-4 deal with how to live life and how to live with each other.

I need you. You need me. We need each other to grow. “Iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.” (Prov 27:17) The premise of this whole blogsite.

Father, thank you for your design.  Thank you for faithful men who will live in community with me.  May we be ever aware of Your presence and true to Your Word as we sharpen each other.  Thank you for my friends and brothers.

Pure Wisdom

James 3:13-18 (NLT)
13 If you are wise and understand God’s ways, prove it by living an honorable life, doing good works with the humility that comes from wisdom. 14 But if you are bitterly jealous and there is selfish ambition in your heart, don’t cover up the truth with boasting and lying. 15 For jealousy and selfishness are not God’s kind of wisdom. Such things are earthly, unspiritual, and demonic. 16 For wherever there is jealousy and selfish ambition, there you will find disorder and evil of every kind. 17 But the wisdom from above is first of all pure. It is also peace loving, gentle at all times, and willing to yield to others. It is full of mercy and good deeds. It shows no favoritism and is always sincere. 18 And those who are peacemakers will plant seeds of peace and reap a harvest of righteousness.

“If you are wise…” James begins, and then he throws it down with “prove it!” Prov 9:10 says “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy one is understanding.” A simple substitution of wisdom with “Fear the Lord” would change the context of this passage.

If you fear the Lord… prove it by living a life based in humility. Obviously paraphrased, but kind of a a “duh” moment for me this morning. Who am I compared to the Lord? Of course I fear and revere Him, so why should I do anything outside of an attitude of humility? Just because of who He is, should be enough to keep me on my face. But often time it isn’t.

Here’s where Papa took me with this…. v14 talks about “… selfish ambition…” and not to cover it up, but for me, to search deep in my heart to see if it’s lurking because selfish ambition and jealously open the door for the enemy to come in like a flood (v15). The ESV says that it is “… earthly, unspiritual, and demonic.” That scared me, because jealousy and selfish ambition are a couple of things I tend to (and I imagine many do) struggle with and I do not want to open any doors to the enemy. Verse 16 goes on to say that every “... vile practice (ESV)” comes along with jealousy and selfishness. Yikes!

So how do I gauge my wisdom? How do I gauge how much I fear the Lord? v17 explains… First off it is pure (which means reverent or sacred). James goes on to list a “checklist” of how I am to live. Man I hate checklists. I always so far short. Anyway, here it comes.

  • Pure – Am I reverent to and regarding the Lord?
  • Peace Loving – do I bring peace to the situations I am in?
  • Gentile at ALL times – ALL times?
  • Willing to Yield to others – Do I always want my own way?
  • FULL of Mercy – not just occasional mercy…
  • FULL of Good Deeds
  • Shows no Favoritism – see yesterday’s post on James 2 (Through His Eyes)
  • Always Sincere – Always? Yikes!

Thank you Lord for your mercy where I fall short. If I continue to live in my own strength, I will never check off this list. If I choose to die to myself (Gal 2:20), then and only then is this kind of life possible. With this kind of life is promised a harvest of what we sow. Sow peace. Sow peace.

What harvest do I want?  What seeds am I sowing

Through His Eyes…

James 2:1-13 (NLT)

For example, suppose someone comes into your meeting dressed in fancy clothes and expensive jewelry, and another comes in who is poor and dressed in dirty clothes. 3 If you give special attention and a good seat to the rich person, but you say to the poor one, “You can stand over there, or else sit on the floor”—well, 4 doesn’t this discrimination show that your judgments are guided by evil motives? (James 2:2-4 NLT)

How often have I stopped at an intersection because of a red light and seen a panhandler working the intersection looking for “donations” to his/her cause and gone into “lockdown” mode – locking the car doors and looking straight ahead daring NOT to look them in the eyes? It has happened often. Yet as I read this passage today, that’s the first picture I got. The second picture I got – immediately behind the first – is the same intersection but Firemen working the intersection looking for a donation to his/her cause. In this scenario, I react totally opposite. If I have loose change, I give it to them. I always smile and wave at the fireman, even if I don’t have anything to give.

Why? Exactly this verse. I am judging the person by their exterior. Yes, our culture today and often the intersections have something to do with how “safe” I feel for me and my family, but if I’m honest, it is no different than James 2:2-4.

It’s not just with such drastic differences either. I know myself. It is just as easy for me to show favoritism (a really nice way of saying ‘being prejudice’ or judging) to those ‘of significance.’ For example, given the opportunity to meet Stephen Curtis Chapman or the dude on the 3rd row of the 2nd service at church, guess where my attention is going to be?

Is the fireman any different than the beggar in the eyes of God? Is Stephen Curtis Chapman any better than the guy at church in the eyes of God? Am I any different or any better than any of them in the eyes of God?

Nope. Actually, the answer is a resounding ‘NO!’

It goes on an on. It could just as easily relate to those with whom we have a common interest versus those we don’t; those who are easy to get along with versus those it is a struggle to have conversation with; those who are obnoxious versus those who are fun; boring versus exciting; pretty versus ugly; it really doesn’t matter in God’s eyes.

His eyes – His vision – His perspective is the only one that counts. It’s the only thing that matters. James 2:5-14 go on to make that exact point. We are all sinners. We have all broken His law. We have all fallen short of His glory (Romans 3:23).

James 2:14-26

Originally, I thought this was unrelated, but it is not. My actions (my deeds) define my faith. If I have no deeds, I have no faith because it is dead. A dead faith is not a faith at all. Faith – true, living, vibrant faith in God – produces actions/deeds that are driven by my faith. I don’t choose the action, I just choose to be obedient to God’s directive. This is the example of Abraham placing Issac on the altar. God directed his actions and because of his faith, he obeyed.

I know people who let their actions drive their faith. It a natural extension of their ‘religion’. Actions do not create faith. Faith isn’t motivated by actions. Faith isn’t driven or created by actions / deeds / “do and don’t” commands. This kind of faith is a Works-Based faith, which the Lord clearly speaks about in Romans 4:1-5 (The Message):

So how do we fit what we know of Abraham, our first father in the faith, into this new way of looking at things? If Abraham, by what he did for God, got God to approve him, he could certainly have taken credit for it. But the story we’re given is a God-story, not an Abraham-story. What we read in Scripture is, “Abraham entered into what God was doing for him, and that was the turning point. He trusted God to set him right instead of trying to be right on his own. If you’re a hard worker and do a good job, you deserve your pay; we don’t call your wages a gift. But if you see that the job is too big for you, that it’s something only God can do, and you trust him to do it—you could never do it for yourself no matter how hard and long you worked—well, that trusting-him-to-do-it is what gets you set right with God, by God. Sheer gift.

The deception in that kind of thinking – that kind of ‘religion’ – is that instead of actions being directed BY God, they are directed AT God. Minor words… MAJOR difference!

How I view others is just one “deed” that needs to change.

Dad, today let me see others through Your eyes, Your perspective today. Destroy the preconceived ideas I have about people that color my vision and skew my attitudes towards them. Replace them with your perfect love today. In that perfect love, drive my actions to those things that bring you Glory. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.

Deception abounds

James 1; Romans 14

Romans 14:12-15:6 talks about what one person does (or doesn’t do) to honor the Lord vs. what another person does or doesn’t do. We shouldn’t judge the actions of another because we are “more spiritually mature” than they are.

[It would be interesting to continue down this thought and compare it to “let the little children come unto me” – something I may do in the near future.]

We are to live our lives in a way that doesn’t make another stumble. Being aware of how our actions could affect another person’s walk is the marching order given. The deception comes when we are concerned about what another person thinks.

Hebrews 10:24 (NIV) 24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.

James 1:7-8 (NLT) references those people who ask God, but their faith isn’t completely in God alone. The deception referenced in v7-8 is that of expectations. The expectation that God is a genie and will give me what I ask, period; that I can control God – to some degree. Verse 8 says “Their loyalty is divided between God and the world…” and goes on to describe their instability in EVERYTHING THEY DO.

I am becoming a firm believer in uncovering any deception I may believe… asking Father to reveal anything that I believe that is not in line with His Word and His Truth.

New Clothes

James 4:1-4 (NIV) What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? 2 You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. 3 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. 4 You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.

OK. The Lord must be trying to get my attention. This is the third day in a row where the word desire (that which conceives temptation – James 1) is highlighted. I’m guessing this is important. As I’ve postulated, what I desire is based on what I believe, which is where the enemy can deceive me – by “misinformation” of what is good, right, and scriptural.

James 1 warns that desire leads to temptation. James 4 tells us it will do more than that. It will lead to quarrels and fights; coveting; stealing; murder – those are all from verse 2. Verse 3 says it can lead to our own pride and a dismissing of God for provision for aide, for whatever we need, or that we’ll try to manipulate God to give us what we “want” under the guise of something else. Wow! Talk about being deceived… to think that we can outsmart the One who created us! How foolish is that! Verse 4 says that we will befriend the world – the creation – in lieu of the Creator.  And in God’s deal, you can’t be friends to both… We  are called to stand on one side or the other.  We can’t sit on the fence.  We’re either for God or againt Him.  That’s not a decision I want to make in the midst of being deceived… in the midst of unholy desires.

Deception, desires… bad stuff.

By no accident (thank you Lord) I also read Romans 13 today in my attempt to continue in Romans. Check out the this verse. Here is the antidote to errant desires.

Rom 13:14 (ESV) But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.

What the ESV translates as “put on” literally means to clothe myself in Jesus Christ. My question then becomes… what does that look like? How do I clothe myself in Christ? By living out Galatians 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.“

Daddy, I die to myself today.  I die to my desire.  I die to everything I “think”.  I die to my flesh, my mind, my soul.  I ask you to take control and live today for me.  Put my flesh on like a suit and walk around in me today so that those around me see, feel, and hear Jesus, not Bryan.  In Jesus’ Name, let it be.

Teacher Beware

James 3:1 Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.

In my last post, I said that deception starts in the mind. Deception is believing something that is errant to the Word of God. When the devil tempted Jesus, he used scripture. When the serpent led Eve into deception, he twisted – just ever so slightly – the word spoken by God.

No wonder James warns those who teach! How important it is to teach absolute truth that is 100% in line with what the Word teaches, else those being taught could believe something not exactly lined up with Scripture and the teacher could lead them in to deception.

Dad, I pray that anything I ever teach anyone, my kids, others around me, whomever you put in my sphere of influence – my prayer is that my teaching is based soley on Your Word, Your thoughts and none of my own.

Drawing Near…

All day today I have been mulling over yesterday’s post.  Dad chose me.

I’m not a robot and God didn’t ordain that I would accept or pursue him.  But he did say “This one can find me if he looks for me.” 

James says “Draw near to me and I will draw near to you.”  I’m so familiar with that verse.  But what rocks me is that there are those people who may never be able to draw near to God – no matter how hard they try – because God didn’t ordain that.

God ordained that I would – if I choose to – draw near to Him so that He would in turn draw near to me.  Wow.  This still rocks me.

Thank you Dad for choosing me.  I choose to draw near to You today.  I love you.  Amen.