Tuesday, January 12, 2021

James Chapter 1

 

It is still New Year for 2021, 2021 has just arrived. My friend Annie suggested that we should read the book of James together and share our taught moments from God. Here are some of my thoughts on reading the first Chapter of the book of James in the Bible. 

Bible Verses according The Message in red and My Observations in purple.

Growth through trials

2-4 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.

Trials and Temptations make us grow up in the Lord, into the destiny crafted out for us, making us mature and ready to be of use in the kingdom of God. Just like a bag of tea, we would not know how strong it is until it sips inside hot water, then the aroma and fragrance will come forth. Likewise, for humans, adversity and trails bring up the true colours of our beings.

The human nature will reject and be upset with the trials that come our way. During trials, do not seek short-cut to come out of it quickly. Finish the training and yielding, you may emerge stronger and better. 

12 Anyone who meets a testing challenge head-on and manages to stick it out is mighty fortunate. For such persons loyally in love with God, the reward is life and more life.

Stick through the temptations and trials and you will arise victorious. To the victorious, God prepares the crown as reward.

This reminds me of a song, "Thank You Lord for the Trials that comes my way" :-

  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avyMqxOsAkA




Ask for wisdom, Ask in faith 

5-8 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. Ask boldly, believingly, without a second thought. People who “worry their prayers” are like wind-whipped waves. Don’t think you’re going to get anything from the Master that way, adrift at sea, keeping all your options open.

Ask the Lord for wisdom, ask without shame, ask without hesitation, ask without doubt. Do not "worry your prayers" after you have asked the Lord to help you. Do not be like the waves, adrift in the sea, keeping all options open and frankly, going nowhere.

When you know you lack wisdom, ask of God and ask in faith.



Rich and Poor Perspectives 

9-11 When down-and-outers get a break, cheer! And when the arrogant rich are brought down to size, cheer! Prosperity is as short-lived as a wildflower, so don’t ever count on it. 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.

Christians' perspective of wealth is opposite of the world. Let the weak take pride in their high position and yet the rich is warned that all is temporary. Wealth is not something to boast about as it is like the flowers in the field, here today, gone tomorrow. It is easily gone with the wind, too fast, too soon. Chasing of earthly wealth and treasures for the sake of self-enjoyment is selfish in the eyes of the Lord. It fades away to nothing.

Temptations not from God

13-15 Don’t let anyone under pressure to give in to evil say, “God is trying to trip me up.” God is impervious to evil, and puts evil in no one’s way. The temptation to give in to evil comes from us and only us. We have no one to blame but the leering, seducing flare-up of our own lust. Lust gets pregnant, and has a baby: sin! Sin grows up to adulthood, and becomes a real killer.

God does not try us in temptations. What stands before us, the challenges we encounter daily are from evil that comes from us and only us. Our own lust seduces us to sin, it grows stronger within us if we do not cast evil away. Our lust if we feed it will get pregnant and give birth to sin and will lure us dying to our selfish death.

Every Good Gift from God

16-18 So, my very dear friends, don’t get thrown off course. Every desirable and beneficial gift comes out of heaven. The gifts are rivers of light cascading down from the Father of Light. There is nothing deceitful in God, nothing two-faced, nothing fickle. He brought us to life using the true Word, showing us off as the crown of all his creatures.

 Stay on course with the Lord on this life journey ! Every good thing comes from heaven above, gifts are like rivers of light cascading down from the Father of Light. God is not deceitful, He is not two-faced, not fickle-minded. He brought us to life using the true Word, showing us off as the crown of all his creatures. Imagine how precious we are to Him. 

 Every good and perfect gifts come from Him, the Father of Light.




Listen well, slow to speak, slow to anger

19-21 Post this at all the intersections, dear friends: Lead with your ears, follow up with your tongue, and let anger straggle along in the rear. God’s righteousness doesn’t grow from human anger. So throw all spoiled virtue and cancerous evil in the garbage. In simple humility, let our gardener, God, landscape you with the Word, making a salvation-garden of your life.

Control your human anger, God's righteousness does not grow from it. Lead with your eyes, listen attentively; follow up with your tongue, be slow to speak, think first before the words come forth and let anger straggle along in the rear, let it be last.

Throw away all the spoiled virtue and cancerous evil in the garbage, let our gardener, God, landscape us with the Word, making a salvation-garden of our life, for the glory of God.

Everyone be fast to listen, slow to speak and even slower to get angry.  

22-24 Don’t fool yourself into thinking that you are a listener when you are anything but, letting the Word go in one ear and out the other. Act on what you hear! Those who hear and don’t act are like those who glance in the mirror, walk away, and two minutes later have no idea who they are, what they look like.

Be a doer of the Word and act on what you hear. Those who listen but do not act are like those who glance in the mirror, walk away and forget what they look like. 

Delight in the eyes of God

25 But whoever catches a glimpse of the revealed counsel of God—the free life!—even out of the corner of his eye, and sticks with it, is no distracted scatterbrain but a man or woman of action. That person will find delight and affirmation in the action.

We can find delight in the eyes of God if we live out our lives faithfully without distraction, the glimpse of the revealed counsel of God.  Precious !

The Real Religion

26-27 Anyone who sets himself up as “religious” by talking a good game is self-deceived. This kind of religion is hot air and only hot air. Real religion, the kind that passes muster before God the Father, is this: Reach out to the homeless and loveless in their plight, and guard against corruption from the godless world.

Do not be deceived by merely talking about religions and not walk the talk. This kind of religion is just hot air. The real religion that the Father God approves is this : Reach out to the homeless and loveless in their plight, and guard against corruption form the godless world.

If we say we have a religion and imply that we are religious, then remember that God detests the prideful religious people, he wants pure religion that lives out a life helping others in this godless world.



Lights from heaven at Tambunan Plains
Credit : Pastor Lam Kim Hing

Dear Father God,

We always get the upside down and wrong side out. We often think trials and temptations are crafted by you to test us but in actual fact, it is our giving in to our own lust and lust giving birth to sin and death, and yet we have the nerve to drag God's name into it. We think wealth is everything worthy to pursue and the poor, we think they somehow deserve it due to their poverty mindset. We do not think of helping them. When we are stuck in any life situation, we do not want to admit defeat, we do not want to ask for help from God. When we do ask, we doubt that God will ever listen to help us. When we listen, we listen half-way and start to speak forth our judgement, we do not reserve our thoughts, we say what we think is right without regards to who is hurting. We get angry super fast, we fight back with angry words.  

Help us remember that the trials that come our way, the testing of our faith produces perseverance and when perseverance finish its work, we may be complete and not lacking in anything. This is pure joy.  Help us to remember true religion to you means looking after the orphans, widows and marginalised and to keep ourselves from being polluted by the world.

In Jesus' Name, we pray, Amen ! 

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