James Chapter 4

Hi, everyone! I pray this e-mail finds you all well...

We started "The Patriarchs" today, and I am so excited. Today we just watched the introduction on DVD. If you have the CD's, take a few minutes to listen to the introduction. It is fabulous!!!

I have to watch DVDs because I am a visual learner. So, it was nice to sit down in front of "Beth" for an hour today and enjoy her teachings. I will probably start my homework on Thursday for week one. So, bear with me for a couple of days!!!

Today, I decided to spend some more time in James...thought I would share these powerful words!!!

James Chapter 4

Submit yourselves to God

"What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you? 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. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred towards God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the spirit He caused to live in us envies intensely?

But He gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says:

'God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble'

Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and He will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

Brothers, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against his brother or judges him speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it. There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you - who are you to judge your neighbor?

Boasting About Tomorrow
Now listen, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.' Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, 'If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that.' As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil. Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins."
 
I just love James!!! I know I have said that a thousand times, but he is such a straight shooter!!! Isn't it true that the reason we argue with our brothers and sisters is always out of desire for something. Think of all the jealousy that goes on in this world. When we can learn to be sincerely happy for our friends/family when they receive a blessing from God, then we will know what it is to truly love our brother/sister. I don't understand why the human nature in us will not allow us to be happy for someone without coveting what God has blessed them with. Brian and I are bad to say thing like, "man, how do they afford that?" You know, it is really none of our business. We are questioning God when we question these things because it is God that has blessed them. I have come to realize that it is impossible to do what is right towards others if you do not have the Holy Spirit dwelling within you. Satan is too real...he knows how to work every wrong button in our nature. Without the Holy Spirit, we would literally eat ourselves alive with hatred and envy towards others. It is the Holy Spirit that comforts us and encourages us to love at all times.  

Wow! It hits home when James says that we have no right to declare what we will do tomorrow without giving the Lord's will credit first. Isn't this true? We should always prayerfully consider what the Lord will have us do before we plan specific ventures in our lives. When we belong to God, our plans should fall in line with His will. If we do not pray that His will be done, then we make plans that do not carry out His purpose for our lives. We are here for such a short time that it is imperative that we follow God's will while we are blessed to be here on earth.