The truth is, we are ok with a message of love, a sermon of peace, and the hope of prosperity, but a man’s welcome quickly fades when he preaches repentance and obedience.
My beloved friends, please open your hearts. We have been given new lives in Christ. We have been forgiven our sins and called righteous in the sight of God. So then, how can light and dark exist together? For darkness is only the absence of light. Christ has given His children freedom from the shackles of sin so that we may be transformed not His likeness and bear His fruit. Therefore, we must lay aside the former things of our lives, including all our filthiness and the wickedness we have walked in, for when something perishes, it is buried or disposed of and is no longer acceptable for use or handling. In the same way, our old selves have perished, being crucified with Christ and we are raised in newness of life! Let us now, with new ears, not just hear, but receive the implanted word of Christ, for it is able to save our souls in the land of the living, just as in believing, it has saved us already from the pits of Hell. James 1:22, “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” To define receiving the word, James tells us we must act on it. The implanted word must bud forth and cause transformation; it must cause our hands to work, our feet to move, and our mouths to speak, otherwise we see that in hearing, even with eagerness, we have deceived ourselves. For a sower only rejoices if the seed he plants buds forth into something to be cultivated and in due time bear fruit. James 1:23-24, “For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; 24 for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.” We become deceived by Satan in the very root of our faith and identity. Romans 1:17 says, “For the just shall live by faith.” In understand who our God is, what Christ did on our behalf and what it means for us in every aspect of our life, our faith saves us, and we are accepted as children of God. That acceptance becomes then, our new identity. As we hear and read the word, the Lord speaks to our hearts and tells us, “this is who you are.” So as we walk in Him who bought us, our purpose is fulfilled and we are secure in our identify as saved, loved, and welcomed children of God. Yet to see what should be in our life, and to view God’s commands and purpose, but not let it dictate our actions is to say either, "I don't believe, or “I don’t know who I am.” We have looked into our own reflection and turned away only to lose that image of ourselves as God portrays us, and so we lose our identity. But to walk faithfully and to grow in the Lord, is to see that image and fully grasp it; it is to etch the image of who we are through Christ into the very fabric of our minds that we may call on it every time the world and Satan tells you otherwise. When, by the grace of God, you are able to clearly see yourself as a son of God, then grab a hold of that picture and never let it go. For when we look to the world to fulfill our desires and let our temptations overcome us, surely we have looked into the mirror and forgotten our faces, not understanding that Christ is in us and has set us free. James 1:25, “But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.” But when we see the perfect liberty walking in the Spirit through obedience to the father and in the love that He pours out for us, we will be blessed. In not simply hearing the word, but in living it, we see God respond in power to fulfill His word, and we experience His presence and transforming grace in our lives. Then the Circumstance of the world must bow down, because when we walk in our new image through Christ, the world begins to see not us, but the Lord Jesus who dwells with us. Go, and be blessed.
0 Comments
Love is such a thing that should be a discernible quality of our ever-present character, and love should always put others above ourselves. In this guiding force of love, James writes that we should be swift to hear.
To digest such a statement is to say that when others have a concern, a joy, or a word to express, our ears should quickly become attentive. Our tendency should be to give our full attention to, and to engage ourselves in understanding, not only what someone is saying, but what motivates them to say it; we must look into the heart of others. This is simply an act of genuine love. To express to an individual that they are cherished and worthy enough for you to give them your time and focus, and that hearing them, just that they may be heard, edifies them in love, and reinforces their intrinsic value as God’s child; a value frequently attacked by Satan. 1:19b, “slow to speak,” In further demonstration of our love, we must be slow to speak. Primarily for these two reasons:
Speaking just to speak is rarely a desirable quality. Our speech is best when articulated with careful thought, and when equally measured by response within a conversation. Beyond the act of authentically caring for others, being swift to hear and slow to speak also builds a patient and successful character needed to exercise our final command of this verse, which is to be “slow to wrath.” 1:19c, “slow to wrath;” If we cannot control our own tongue, and if patience is found so far from us that we cannot bear in silence for the sake of others, then surely to restrain our wrath is a daunting task. But, we must be reminded of, and edified by, the very character of God, who being endlessly blasphemed and offended by the frailest of His creation, through love, endures in patience with our sin that His mercy and kindness might lead us to repentance. For why we were yet sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8), that He might express His love, and demonstrate our value. In the same way, we must bear with others to show that we indeed have some comprehension of God’s mercy, and demonstrate it that others too may experience the Lord’s mercy for themselves. 1:20, “for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God.” While God in His infinite patience and justice may pour out His wrath and be found guiltless, we are much more susceptible to error, to sin, and to ultimately destructive tendencies. Therefore, the wrath of man cannot produce the righteousness of God, for such would require perfect judgment, and to be righteous is to be “in right standing with” those whom righteousness is in relationship with. While God does at times use man to execute His wrath for the sake of liberation, to act on our own accord or to be anything less than “slow” to wrath, in a very conservative understanding, is to fall on dangerous ground. Rather, the Lord in His right to speak, to dismiss, and to let His wrath fall upon us in our sin, spent the blood of His own Son to shows us “a more excellent way” (1 Co. 12:31 preparing for chapter 13). May we then walk in the love of God and render each not their right or just due, but the affection and affirmation that belongs to beloved children of God, and let us safeguard ourselves from being stolen, as tools, into the hands of the enemy. Go, and be blessed.
With this, James’ address to us as his “beloved brethren,” shows the intention of love, care, and purposeful edification that we spoke of in our devotion of James 1:1.
What this command should do then, is set us up to examine ourselves and soften our hearts to the possibility of some deception that James will soon direct our attention to, that we may test and approve ourselves according to the faith. 1:17, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.” First, James reminds that every good thing, every perfect thing, in our lives or that may come into our lives, has only one source of origin: God the Father. In such, He deserves our praise, our thanks, our attention, and our devotion. For Allah can surely provide no good thing. Buddha stands mute in the face of petition. Satan will indeed offer you some outcome, but everything he calls good only ends in death and destruction. Surely, there are endless places to seek goodness and perfection, but only one will ever be in stock and able to provide. The Lord and Father Jesus Christ. For since these things only come down from the Father, our prayers must go up to Him for use to receive. And we must know for certain that as long as we seek fulfillment and provision in our own strength, in our peers, in the promises of the world, or in false religions, we shall receive only that which is corrupted and imperfect, both in of themselves, and as they pertain to our wants and needs. To know that this mighty God, who calls Himself our Father, gives such gifts, and in fact authored all that is good and perfect, and is coupled with character that never changes or turns from us, is to know that just as He has once done, so He shall be delighted to do again and again, to the full adequacy, and even overflow, of our needs. 1:18, “Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of first-fruits of His creatures.” For we are not as beggars coming before a God who needs to check his pockets, or stir Himself up to compassion, but to a God who has called us to such an inheritance, to such a promise, and to such a glory that we fail to ever accurately grasp it, even as the most devout scholars may try. In this, He has boldly called us forward into His riches and goodness, not as beggars, but as heirs, and as friends. Being the author of all things, unrestrained in might and power, He is cable of affording all to those who ask, and to do so without burden, resentment, or deficit. For in Him all things were made and consist. In Him is the ability to give all and never spend, and in Him is to bear all things and always forgive. Do not bear your own burden. Do not trust falsely in power or riches, do not hope in your neighbor or friend, and seek no empty deity who has a name, but no power, or who has servants, but no authority. Come gladly to the Father of Heavenly Light. Come boldly to ask, and in great pleasure He will give to all who need. Look only to the Lord, and in all things you shall receive. Go, and be blessed.
James 1:12, “Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.”
Verses like these are where reality hits us. It’s where prosperity preaching and the baseless, yet ever present, idea that a Christians life should be easy and carefree, find their end. For James speaks of blessing not the man without temptation, but the man who endures it. Furthermore, he speaks that when one endures and is approved, that he shall receive the crown of life. But when can a believer expect to receive such a crown? Is it not only at the Bema Seat of Christ as we enter the Eternal Kingdom? If then, we receive this crown once we’ve been approved through temptation, and the crown doesn’t come until the Day of the Lord, then it is only rational to understand that our own testing and temptation shall continue until our death. For we cannot by any means be wholly approved here and now, else by the crown of life, we, in our fallen flesh, live forever in sin. A Christian’s life therefore, is itself in fact the temptation and is in fact the trial. For at every moment we are urged to walk in the ways of our fallen nature, to please our sensations, and exalt our own name. Praise to God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ that we have His Spirit to overcome such desire! And we then can glory in Christ. However, as we are established in faith, and by faith put the flesh into submission, it is the character of Satan himself to stir up a rebellion in our trust towards God. He will surely take your wealth and health to see where your treasure is, rather her or in heave. He will gladly revolt your family against you to see if you are worthy of discipleship (Matt. 10:34-39), and with great joy he will put you on the edge of disaster, hoping against hope that you will unanchor yourself from God’s word in worry, and fall without harness. In these things we are tested to prove, rather we are wheat, or rather we are tares (Matthew 13:24-30), and by faith alone we are approved. 1:13, “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am tempted by God’; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone.” So we are instructed in the understanding, that though God uses trials and temptations to mold and approve us, He can in no way be the author of our tempting. For being absent from all evil, He instills evil in no one. 1:14, “But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.” So it is not God, but our own nature to desire that entices us. Our very existence is a fight to fed the Spirit, that the flesh may be starved of its illegitimate power and authority. 1:15, “Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.” We could certainly entertain the flesh. In fact, doing so is the most prevalent and available option to all people at all times, but to do so is to welcome death. To do so is to label ourselves as unapproved. The very nature of the flesh is to sin, and the very nature of sin is in fact death. Yet it is the very nature of God’s Spirit to bring forth life, and if we walk by the Spirit, we are not under the law of death (Galatians 5:16-18), and if we are not under the law, there is no judgment or death to be foreseen. Temptation is then a simple invitation to once again shackle ourselves in chains to the enemy, but to be a child of God through Christ is to be free, and those of us who are free, are free indeed. Temptations will come, and even as we grow in faith and love, they will not cease, but count it all joy my brethren, for to overcome is to prove ourselves children, more so even heirs, and to overcome is life everlasting. Stand strong and do not entertain the Kingdom of Death, but endure as witnesses to the Kingdom of Light. Find your strength in the Lord and fight through prayer, through praise, and through the reading of His word, for in all these things we give our flesh over to the Spirit that we may walk in Him. For if we walk in the Spirit, we shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh (Galatians 5:16). Go, and be blessed.
James speaks this as if we should grasp it, not as an option, but as an expected reality. After all, the scripture calls us to walk humbly with God (Micah 5:5), and promises to honor those who honor Him (1 Sam. 2:30).
Therefore, as Christians, we are called to lowliness. For just as Christ our King walked with all authority, but as a servant, so should we walk as the least in the midst of a gathering, ready to wash the feet of others, even those who would seek to trample us (Jesus washed the feet of Judas). 1:10, “but the rich in his humiliation, because as a flower of the field he will pass away.” But as the expectation is for the lowly to be exalted, so shall the rich man glory in his humiliation. For if man makes himself nothing before the face of God, God will make of him a mighty thing, that by the “foolish things of this world” He may “confound the wise” (1 Cor. 1;27). But if a man seeks his own treasure and glory, surely he receives nothing from the Lord, and the Lord Himself will humble him. Rather it is publicly or on the great and terrible day to come, where every knee bows, and every tongue makes confession, all men who exalt their own name, will be humbled. But James continues, 1:11, “For no sooner has the sun risen with a burning heat than it withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beautiful appearance perishes. So the rich man also will fade away in his pursuits.” We find this as a very fast unfolding of events. For in all the splendor of this world, as soon as the sun rises, the flower withers and the splendor passes away. Not only does this depict a fall of those who make themselves rich, but it also stands in complete contrast to the man depicted in Psalm 1, whose delight is in the Lord and who meditates on His law day and night. We see the man who delights in himself will be scorched and fade away, but he who delights in the Lord shall be like a tree planted by rivers of waters that bring fruit in its season; whose leaf also shall not wither, and whatever he does shall prosper (Psalm 1:2-3). When we make ourselves low, the Lord exalts us, for His own glory, but when we lose focus on to whom glory truly belongs, we end up chasing fame, fortune, and worthless pursuits, and in the process, we ourselves fade away. But let everyone who is rich find glory in their own humiliation, for God’s will is to give to those who have none, and walk as if you were of no greater importance or position than anyone else…. Because you are not. God will exalt the lowly and humble the self-exalted. Let us all therefore, walk as poor in Spirit (Matthew 5:3), while being rich in faith. Go, and be blessed. A devotion from James 1:2-4 which reads, "My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of you faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing." 1:2, “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials,” Here we often, if not altogether, sin by omitting the weight of this opening statement: “count it all joy,” in order to transition immediately to the favored outcome presented in verse 4. However, we have an immediate and imperative command to be obeyed if we have any hope that the rest of the passage might unfold as we would like it to. I understand that the command to, “count it all joy,” while we are in the midst of one of our “various trials,” comes as such an outrage to our flesh that the following verse must be sought to fulfill the need of self-deliverance naturally rooted in the motives and desire of every heart. But in order to achieve this fulfillment, we must come back to the catalyst presented in verse 2: Joy.
To count your current struggles, trials, and testing as joy, is not only seemingly insane (without the promise of God behind it), but it is also something that must be obtained through purposeful care and conscious experimentation of prayer, biblical meditation, worship, and finally, focused implementation. To hope in the fulfillment of being “complete, lacking nothing,” without the execution of counting our trials as joy, is as sane as hoping to win the lottery prize without ever scratching a ticket. What God is giving us is a process. We must, in the midst of trials, take a mental pause, and step back to reassess the situation according to promise of God’s word. We do so in 5 steps:
1:3, “…knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.” We are able to literally and intentionally count our circumstances as joy, only in knowing that it is really our faith that is tested, and that it is tested in order to produce patience. This means that we must primarily focus, not on the physical conditions, or on our personal ability, but on our own faithfulness in asking and trusting God to perform. Furthermore, as patience is the desired outcome, we achieve our goal and hold fast to our faith, by purposefully pushing the boundaries of our patience with God, and ourselves, until he has delivered us from our trial, therefore instilling this work of faith and patience as a new reaction to life events through repetition and training. This isn’t as easy as it sounds, but if we can become conscious of the Lords will in our life, we can continue to put our hope in Him, and allow the Spirit to lead us as we continually give our anxiety, doubts, and burdens to Lord. 1:4., “But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.” The wording here is both surprising and revealing. Surprising in that it is not faith that is committed to us as having a perfect work, but rather the fruits of our faith, namely being: Patience. It is when faith takes hold of our life that patience is produced. It is when faith is a foundation and reality for us on a day-to-day and situation-to-situation basis, not as an ideology or an internal principle, but rather as an imperative reaction that is as unceasing as breathing is to our being. As the Holy Spirit says, let faith produce patience and “let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.” This perfect work transforms us so much so, that we are given an expectation of becoming perfect (Matthew 5:48) and being so complete, that there is nothing we lack. This, my friends, is why we can have joy! This is our desire and expectation; this is the active work of God in the life of those who actively practice His ways. Conclusion Do you lack peace? Do you lack wholeness or health; fellowship or relationship? Is there a void in your marriage? In your family? Do those things the word directs: call on God, have faith, and by faith, patiently endure your trial, because on the other side of that trial is the perfect work of patience. Whatever you lack now, spiritually, physically, or emotionally, will be fulfilled, and you will be complete, lacking nothing. But heed these words carefully, and be sure not to hope simply to achieve the end result with no work or obedience, but be sure that through trials, you obey these words, and allow the final promise to be produced according to Gods’ design. Go, and be blessed. A devotion from James 1:1 which reads, "James, a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tries which are scattered abroad: Greetings."
1:1.a, “James, a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ…” It is first notable the title by which James chooses to be identified. James, who is the half-brother of Jesus, does not hold to some special claim or attitude, but rather humbles himself appropriately and purposefully as this alone: bondservant. As a bondservant, he speaks both of his total devotion, void of a personal pursuit, as well as his position of one who bears the authority of his master and is engaged in doing His will. The key here is not authority however, but that as a bondservant, he would be devoted and engaged in the master’s work, with no misuse for selfish gain. 1.1.b, “To the tribes scattered abroad…” Here we must consider the full extent of James care for God’s people as he writes this letter. Consider the difficulty of the task at hand: no Facebook, no cellphones, no modern postal services, no copy machines, and no mode of easily tracking someone down. Fulfilling his role as bondservant, James is putting forth a letter by hand, that must be taken by personal travel, across an entire continent in various directions, to peoples of (possibly) unknown location. Furthermore, if they were to be copied and sent forward, they would have to be copied by hand which takes a skilled scribe. All-in-all, James invests a lot of effort and care in writing this letter and having to facilitate some means of travel for his message to be heard. So, what’s my point? The point I’m trying to make is reflective of the heart that James has towards God’s people, and how intentional he is in encouraging, teaching, and edifying them, to no benefit of himself. Oh how much easier it would be if he could have picked up a phone to call! If Facebook was invented, all would hear! Even if he had today’s postal resources, his letter would have surely filled the mail bins so much, that extra help would be hired to carry and sort through the tangible faithfulness and love that James possessed for his Lord’s people! Yet we, who have all the above resources, show not the slightest evidence of such a love stricken heart. Phones do not ring, mail boxes do not bear the weight of exhortation, and the medium of our social platforms vaguely resembles an acknowledgement of our hope in Christ through aimlessly posted scripture verses, more in the pursuit of blue thumbs, red hearts, and wowed emoticons, than in filled spirits and stronger communities. What could be our greatest asset in church health has become a greater illusion of faith-born works than Satan could have ever devised on his own. In Conclusion Here we see love, devotion, and purpose. Here we are challenged profoundly past our cultures comfort zones, to step out of an air of apparent apathy, and into the reality that is the Church’s calling: pursue unity and edify the body. Be a bondservant. Make an effort in serving the Lord, by making an effort to serve His people. Go, and be blessed. |
Details
Darrin MillerWorking for the Lord. Archives
October 2016
Categories
All
|