I've Moved

I've moved the blog to http://dailywalkintheword.com

Mixup of posts

Sorry that Day 2 is showing first on the list of posts. Trying to figure out how that happened. We're on Day 9.

Day 2 - James 1:2

If you took my suggestion yesterday and read through the whole book of James you probably have some questions. The book of James is really a book that is a test of your true faith. By that I mean that we sometimes confuse good works and doing what God commands us to do as a means of getting to heaven. "I've been a good person, why wouldn't God let me in to His kingdom when I die." That's not what the Bible says is the way to get into heaven. We've all seen John 3:16 displayed. Remember the guy at every major sporting event who had the wild colored wig on and either had John 3:16 painted on his chest or was holding a sign?  Well, he was just trying to get the message out, in a sort of unorthodox way maybe, that says "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish". So let's think about it in practical terms. If the only way to get to heaven was through our good works, how much good works is enough? If Jesus was perfect and we use Him on one side of the equation and you take the most despicable person you can think of on the other side, where are you on that line. Where on that line is the dividing marker of who gets in and who doesn't? That's why God sent Jesus to die for our sins on the cross. There isn't a way for you to be "good enough". You have to do what John 3:16 says. Confess in your heart that you're sorry for your past sins, acknowledge that Christ came to wipe away those sins by dying on the cross and agree that you're going to make him the Lord of your life. That's it, if you pray that with an earnest heart, God says He will let you in His kingdom.  That's why it's called being born again.  You are starting a new life in Christ and shedding your old one. It's a do-over of sorts.  Once you make that choice, and you start to really feel like God is at work in your life, then the works part starts meaning something. I invite you to do that right now if you've never done it before. Doesn't have to be fancy, just talk to God and tell Him how you feel. After you've done that, this is where the book of James comes in and why I love it. It's telling us how God wants us to live our everyday life and testing us as to how well we're doing against God's standards. It doesn't matter what you say, you have to be tested the way you live, the things you do. In other words, talks cheap or actions speak louder than words. James, when he wrote this was writing to people who had already confessed to being Christians in the way that I described previously so as we go through the book you'll see that he often times refers to them as brothers or brethren. That's what he means by that. We're brothers in Christ. 


So today let's take a look at James 1 verse 2.
The Message 

Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don't try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.

New American Standard

Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials,

Nothing like starting off with the hardest first. Trials...never really considered it a joy to go through trials before I was a Christian. Now I know that going through trials makes me better, makes me depend on Him more, which is what He wants. We all try to do everything ourselves...and usually fail miserably. Other things are out of our hands. Like when the doctor gives us that cancer diagnosis.  We can do all the things that we "humanly" can do like eating the right things, trying the natural supplement method of healing, even do the medical things that the doctors recommend, chemo, radiation, surgery. But in the end, who's in control. Of course God is. Then we get to the "why me", and if God is a loving God why does he allow bad things to happen. Very real questions and some hard answers. In the Bible, God uses the example of the grape vine quite a few times. If a grape vine is left unattended, it becomes wild and unruly and doesn't produce very good fruit.  However if each year the vine is pruned back it grows the next year twice as much and produces much more fruit.  Trials are like that. It's God's way of making us more fruitful.  Sure doesn't seem like it at the time but think back on some of the trials you've had and how has God used them. Maybe you've had cancer and beat it. Have you used that experience to encourage someone else who's going through the same thing?  If not, why not? You've been there...done that. Who better to help that person who is struggling with their trial. Have you gone through a divorce? Had very sick kids? Or the worst, had someone close to you die? See, that one is one you don't have to be afraid of if you've accepted the Lord into your life. You know where you're going to spend eternity when God decides it's time to bring you home.  I know with absolute certainty that I'm going to see my mother and my wife's mother when I get to Heaven. I had that conversation with both of them before they died and know they had given their hearts to Jesus. That's a comforting thought.  That's why I started this study. So you too, can have the assurance of where you're going when you die. Think about it. If you still have questions about this, you can comment here or email me. bbrown4352@gmail.com

Day 9 - James 1:11

James 1:11

The Message

You know that as soon as the sun rises, pouring down its scorching heat, the flower withers. Its petals wilt and, before you know it, that beautiful face is a barren stem. Well, that's a picture of the "prosperous life." At the very moment everyone is looking on in admiration, it fades away to nothing.

New American Standard

For the sun rises with a scorching wind and withers the grass; and its flower falls off and the beauty of its appearance is destroyed; so too the rich man in the midst of his pursuits will fade away.

You know I can’t help but think about Bernie Maddoff with this verse. Pursuit of the “prosperous life” at all costs. Then how quickly the beauty and appearance is destroyed. Just took one SEC investigation into his ponzi scheme and his whole world fell apart. He’s in prison, his son who was in business with him has committed suicide, all of his wealth has been taken over by the courts. What a waste. He obviously was a smart man. Why couldn’t he do a legal, legitimate business. A fair guess would be that he wasn’t adhering to God’s word.

Everything is temporary. One of our pastors used to say he’s never seen a hearse with a U-haul trailer attached to it. We come into this life with nothing and we’re going to leave with nothing. Oh, we can leave “stuff” as an inheritance for sure and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. But I’ve also seen a lot of “trust fund babies” who have no concept of reality when it comes to money or how God intends for us to use the resources He gives us. This verse is just one more that deals with putting your full trust and reliance on God and not on yourself.  You know what topic is mentioned more times in the Bible than any other? You would think it would be sin or anything relating to the 10 commandments. It’s money. There are over 800 references to money alone, so guess what the number one issue is in divorces. Not adultery. It’s money. More fights are started over money issues than any other by a wide margin. My theory is that if you are walking with the Lord in every aspect  of your life, the Lord will bless you with just the right amount of money that you can handle. If you show that you can handle the little amounts he will gradually give you more.  God does not tempt. Only satan tempts. But Got will only give you so much as to not get you in trouble.

So remember at the beginning of this study I said that James is all about tests of your faith.  So how you doing on that money pursuit. Is it number one in your life. If so, you better reexamine because according to today’s verse, pretty soon it’s all going to be fading away.

Day 8 - James 1:9-10

James 1:9-10

The Message

When down-and-outers get a break, cheer! And when the arrogant rich are brought down to size, cheer!

New American Standard

But the brother of humble circumstances is to glory in his high position; and the rich man is to glory in his humiliation, because like flowering grass he will pass away.

Here’s what I think this is saying, and remember when James wrote this there were a lot more poor people in the church than rich, So he says if you're poor, you're socially humiliated, you're economically humiliated. Accept that humiliation because poverty is a short-lived trial, it's just for this life. And those who are poor and in Christ have the hope of eternal riches. In other words, don't look to draw joy out of this world, and you'll never be disappointed. If you're looking for your joy in the circumstances of life, you're never going to have true joy. If you attach joy to any earthly possession, any earthly economic status, you miss the point. Accept your humiliation, it's good for you, it keeps your focus where it ought to be and it makes the spiritual realities and the eternal riches all the more precious.

The rich man, he's got a different problem. Verse 10, "And the rich man glory or rejoice in his humiliation." Most rich people are very concerned that they might lose their riches. But let the rich brother rejoice when he's made low. Let the rich boast when the stock market crashes. Let him rejoice when he loses everything because he shouldn't have any pride in his possessions anyway, shouldn't have any hope in his position. Let him rejoice when he's humbled because humility is good for the spiritual life.

There were a few wealthy people in the early church. Those who were wealthy had to bear a certain stigma. You know, wealthy people kind of like to hang around wealthy people, have you noticed? They're not really comfortable with the riff-raff, the rest of us. But you know, the church just breaks down all that. And if you're in Christ you're stuck with the not many noble, the not many mighty, the base things of the world, the common things, just us plain folks. There's a certain amount of humiliation in that. The rich are therefore blended together in common life with the poor.

And faith does an equally blessed thing for the rich brother. It fills him with the Spirit of Christ. It pushes him together with the lowly and the humble and gives to him a spirit of lowliness and humility. So as the poor brother forgets all his earthly poverty, so the rich brother forgets all his earthly riches and the two realize they're equal in Christ. True humility accepts the poor and the rich. Either way, don't attach yourself too tightly to what you have and don't live your life trying to get what you can't.

Hard lesson for those of us in the business world and especially hard for those of us who are in sales.  Within our job the measure of the world’s success is how much you’ve sold.  It’s very easy to let that become out God, our idol as it were.  Unfortunately a lot of people get their self worth from their sales reports rather than from the love of Christ and who we are in Him.  

I pray today that all of us heed the words of James and be humble no matter what our circumstances and realize that if you’ve accepted Him to be the Lord of your life, the real riches will be when we’re in eternity with Him.

Day 7 - James 1:7-8

James 1:7-8

The Message

Don't think you're going to get anything from the Master that way, adrift at sea, keeping all your options open.

New American Standard

For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

So just when I said yesterday I like to take one verse at a time, what do I do, take two verses today. It just seemed to flow together better.

These verses have to do with you doubting whether God will answer your prayer or not. Like I said before, you have to have faith. Remember Hebrews 11:1 from before…”Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”

So will God ignore our prayers when we waver? It’s not so much that God withholds answers when our faith is shaky, but that we are not prepared to receive or recognize the answer at such times. To make sense of our sufferings and trials we must believe that God is somehow going to turn pain, evil, and tragedy into eternal good. Without that foundational trust in God, we often don’t recognize the answers God sends. So far when I’ve been praying, I’ve not seen the answer come up on a billboard and I haven’t heard God’s voice over the radio in my car. My answers usually come from God’s word in the Bible. I was having coffee the other day with one of my friends and told him that one way I pray is to ask God to either open the door or close the door and make it so obvious that I know it’s from Him. That has served me well over the years. Try it, maybe it will work for you too. But, as these verses say, you can’t waver in your faith that God WILL answer and you can’t be afraid of the answer.  

Day 6 - James 1:6

James 1:6

The Message

Ask boldly, believingly, without a second thought. People who "worry their prayers" are like wind-whipped waves.

New American Standard

But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind.

Someone asked me the other day why I’m doing one verse at a time rather than a chapter etc.  Here’s what I’ve learned.  When we pray to the Lord typically we have our prayer list and we go down through it asking for certain things. Sometimes we take the time to just let our mind be clear and try to listen for God’s answer, sometimes we don’t. My thought is the Bible is how God communicates to us. I can’t tell you how many times I have prayed, and then read a verse or daily devotional and during the day sometime, something happens that reminds me of that verse.  It’s like God speaking to me. When you read a whole chapter, and I certainly wouldn’t be presumptuous enough to think that God couldn’t speak to you through that reading but for me it seems when I take a verse at a time and meditate on it, think about it, maybe look up in another reference what other people have said about it, it means more. It also means that I won’t get through the Bible in a year. I’ll be lucky to get through three of the 66 books in a year but I think it will be worth it. Hopefully you will too.

So this verse today I had to think about awhile. What James is saying here is that there can’t be any doubt that if you ask for it, God will supply the answer. May not be the answer you want or expect but it will be His answer and if you believe that God is only going to allow the things that are in His plan then you shouldn’t be afraid of the answer.  We’ve all prayed for healing for ourselves or someone we know. Sometimes they’re healed, sometimes not. Why? Because it’s part of God’s plan. Then the natural question comes up, well why bother to pray then if God already has His plan? Because there are other verses in the Bible that say “For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.” Matthew 7:8

God is God and it’s His plan. He can change it if he wants to and so He tells us, ask.

Prayer request today is for a good friend of my wife, Lyn, who went blind in one eye from a rare disease. We’re praying for a restoration of sight for her.

Day 5 James 1:5

Today’s verse James 1:5

The Message

If you don't know what you're doing, pray to the Father. He loves to help. You'll get his help, and won't be condescended to when you ask for it.

New American Standard

But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him.

If any of you lacks wisdom. Well I feel like that’s me most of the time, so what this verse is telling me is if you feel that way ask God for the wisdom to make the right decision. I kind of categorize decisions into two camps. The first being those “mundane, everyday” decisions that sometimes are split second. Like swerving to the right to miss a car rather than swerving to the left. It seems like those are the instinctive ones. For those I just pray each morning and evening that God gives me that wisdom to make the right choices when I don’t have enough time to talk with Him. Then there are the other decisions where I do have enough time to talk with Him. Those can be biggies or small ones. On those I’ve used this prayer. If it’s not your will, close the door, and make it obvious to my pea brain and vice versa, it is your will then open the door and make it obvious.  That has served me pretty well over the years. Sometimes the answer doesn’t come in the time frame I think it should but there are other times when the answer is scary soon…and obvious.

Trials are intended to drive us in dependency on God to Him. To make us realize we have no human resources, we are left only with an invisible means of support. The true believer then in the test is going to know he needs wisdom and reach out to God for help.

If you lack wisdom, you're commanded to ask God who gives to all men freely and liberally, holds back nothing and when you ask...at the end of verse 5...it will be given him. Pretty plain and simple isn’t it.

Next trial try it.

My prayer concern today is for my children and grandchildren. The Lord knows what their needs are.

Day 4 - James 1:4

Today's verse James 1:4 
The Message

So don't try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.


New American Standard
And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.


I like the The Message's version of today's verse.  Don't try to get out of anything prematurely.  Our first inclination when trials hit is to want to get it over with as soon as possible. Normal human reaction. But now that we know that it's God's way of "pruning" us, perfecting us, why would we want to short-change that process.  Because it hurts, that's why. Nobody likes pain...except maybe some deranged masochist type of person. So resist that first urge to remove the pain as quickly as possible and instead pray that God shows you why he has you going through the pain in the first place and be hopeful about what he's trying to show you. When going through a trial there's only one way out of it and that's through it. There are no side exits. You have to endure it. Remember though from yesterday God won't allow you to have more than you can endure. There is an end, it may take a little longer than you would like. Trying to think of a practical example...maybe it's a lot like working out. When you first start exercising, say walking, you don't go very fast or very far but at least you're going. As you do it more and more you can walk farther and faster. You're body builds up endurance. That's what God is doing with trials. He's building up endurance which in the spiritual sense is making us mature as a Christian. I remember my wife's grandmother who was 90 or so when she went to be with the Lord. Godly woman. Volunteered at the hospital almost till the day she died. Never said a bad thing about anyone. You know the type. So do you think she became that way overnight, or was born that way? I'm sure personality types enter into how we react to trials but I say no, she went through many trials in her life that matured her as a Christian so that by the time she died there weren't many trials that life could throw at her that she wouldn't "count all joy" that she was going through them. 


I was reading something earlier that Warren Wiersbe wrote,  He said, "Our values determine our evaluations.  If we value comfort more than character, then trials will upset us.  If we value the material and physical more than the spiritual, we will not be able to count it all joy.  If we live only for the present and forget the future, then trials will make us bitter, not better." He's right. Your values determine your evaluation of that trial you're going through. If we can't rejoice in our trials, then maybe our values are wrong. 
Of course while I'm writing this, I'm thinking in the back of my mind, the Lord is probably going to make you live this soon. Well I just pray that I have the strength to do what I've written and I pray that you do too. 

I want to start something new today also. Prayer concerns. I don't know how many people are reading my rambling but even if it's one, I'd ask you to pray for my concerns and if you post yours I promise I will pray for them also. I think in an earlier post I said that prayer can be a whole topic of it's own. I just know that prayer works. Maybe after James we'll tackle prayer. 

So I'm not going to go through my whole prayer list but maybe just one a day. Today, pray for my brother-in-law Dick ( I actually have two brother-in-laws named Dick, but the Lord knows which one I'm talking about) that the medicine he's taking will work so he won't have to have surgery.

See you tomorrow.

Day 3 - James 1:3

Today we look at James 1:3. Here's the text from both translations.

The Message

You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors.

New American Standard

knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 

I said in a previous post that the book of James is all about the testing of your faith. Faith according to Hebrews 11:1 is defined like this - "Now faith is confidence in what we hope for, and assurance about what we do not see". 

Think about that for a minute.  So to love an unseen God and have confidence that what we're reading in the Bible is true, is faith.  So James wants to see  whether you really love God and have "faith" with a series of tests. There is the test of blame in temptation, which we'll look at later on in chapter 1.

And then there's the test of how we respond to the Word. 

Then there's the test of an impartial love to others, the test of righteous works, the test of the tongue, the test of humble wisdom, the test of worldly indulgence, the test of dependence, the test of patience, the test of truthfulness and finally the test of prayerfulness. Now all of those are tests which a person who truly loves God will pass.

But the beginning test, and what we're looking at in these verses, is the test of endurance through trials. It reveals whether love is really a strong bond, whether it is genuine faith. True faith sustained by true love perseveres in this test.  What happens when a trial comes into your life? How do you respond? If you bail in the middle of the trial and sort of curse God or walk away from God or deny God or ignore God, then that is probably showing your faith may be a bit lacking, don't you think?

Hopefully if you've given your life to Christ, I mean really given it up, then see what happens the next time a trial comes into your life.  Our human reaction will take over first, at least it does for me, then hopefully your faith will kick in and take over and you'll know that God is doing that pruning we talked about previously. So here's the tough part, it's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when trials will hit. What will your attitude be? What James is saying in these verses is your attitude is to be an attitude of joy because you anticipate what perfecting work the Lord will do through that trial. You learn then to cultivate that right attitude. 

Much easier said than done when you're in the midst of the storm. Let me go to one other verse for today that will give you some comfort- 1 Corinthians 10:13 - No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and  God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.
If you're a new Christian and new in the faith as we've described, God is not going to give you more than you can handle. As you mature in the Christian faith he knows you can handle more and more. Remember the vine. If the first year you plant a grape vine you trim it all the way back down to the root, chances are the next year you're only going to have a plant that maybe grows back to what it was before you pruned it. But if you only prune a small amount from the branches that are showing, those branches will probably double in size the next year.  See the parallel? God will only prune enough to make us stronger in Him and our faith.

Day 1 - James1:1

Thanks for taking this journey with me. Hopefully this will be an interactive discussion where together we learn what God has in store for us. Part of the problem with New Year's resolutions is that by the time the 15th rolls around we've usually forgotten about them. Hopefully that won't happen this time. If you've come here from some other way than through the Facebook link I hope that you will be sure to friend me there. Bill Brown in Dublin, Ohio.

So together we're going to study the book of James. It's one of the shorter books in the Bible at only 108 verses. So that's 108 verses in 100 days of study. But the reason I really like it is because it's chock full of wisdom in how to live the Christian life every day. By the time we get to the end I believe God will show us exactly what He wants us to understand and we will be closer to Him as a result.

So, let's get started.

First a little history of the book of James. It's one of the 27 books of the New Testament. The New Testament being that which was written after Jesus Christ came into the world. Technically it's a letter that was written by James to the 12 tribes. There were 4 James' mentioned in the New Testament but most think the author of this letter was Jesus' half brother who was the leader of the Jerusalem church. It is thought to have been written between 45-50 AD. Along the way, I'll use some other resources to bring the person of James alive. We'll get to know the man a little better.  Since the people reading this for the most part are not that familiar with the different translations of the Bible, I'm going to use one that is written in everyday English called The Message and a more traditional New American Standard (NAS).

The Message

James 1:1 - I, James, am a slave of God and the Master Jesus, writing to the twelve tribes scattered to Kingdom Come: Hello!

NAS

James 1:1 - I, James, a bond-servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes who are dispersed abroad: Greetings.

So that seems pretty straight forward doesn't it. He's opening up the letter like you normally would when you're greeting someone. Except look at that "a bond-servent of God". What does it mean to be a bond servent? The Message in this case describes it a bit better as being a slave of God and the Master Jesus.

I want you to think what that means. Are you ready to give it all up and be a slave? James did. He saw his half brother perform miracles, raise people from the dead, feed 5000 with practically no food, and most important of all was a witness when He came back from the dead and appeared many times to his disciples as well as other people. So would you sell everything and become a slave for someone like that?

Better think hard about your answer because you might have to come to terms with that sooner rather than later.

So who were the 12 tribes he was addressing? They're the Jewish Christians who are scattered throughout the world. Hmm, no internet, no blogs, no Facebook. Talk about faith. We probably won't know until we get to Heaven how many of the early Jewish Christians actually read this letter but we do know that it was included in the writings of the first New Testament and has been read by way more than those Jewish Christians. Just as you're doing now.

I would encourage you to go ahead and read the whole book of James. If you don't have a bible there's a lot of them on the internet for free. Here's the one I use most. http://www.biblegateway.com

Comment, go ahead and get the discussion going.

See you tomorrow.