Tag: James

Morning Musing: James 3:13

Leave a comment

“Who among you is wise and understanding? By his good conduct he should show that his works are done in the gentleness that comes from wisdom.”‬‬ (CSB – Read the chapter) 

Our littlest graduated from preschool last year and is all geared up for big school this fall. One of the things he always looked forward to most in his preschool program was show and tell. He loved picking out just the right toy to show all his buddies. He would even occasionally stress over it like a teenager choosing his outfit for a first date. Telling about what we have is okay, but there’s just something extra special about showing it. James agrees. 

Read the rest…

Digging in Deeper: James 3:10

Leave a comment

“Blessing and cursing come out of the same mouth. My brothers and sisters, these things should not be this way.”‬‬ (CSB – Read the chapter) 

We planted a garden this year. We try to do one every year. We don’t put a whole lot in our garden, but we do have some staples. Squash and zucchini are two of those staples. This year, we planted three squash plants and two zucchini plants. But, once the vegetables started coming to bear, four plants were yielding squash. Do you know what we said? It’s a miracle!

Read the rest…

Digging in Deeper: James 2:24

Leave a comment

“You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.”
‬‬ (CSB – Read the chapter)

I’ve said many times before that context is king when it comes to understanding the Scriptures. I’ll continue to beat that drum until I have you dancing to it in your sleep. But there aren’t many verses for which such a reminder is so important as this one. Taken out of context, this verse threatens to unravel our whole understanding of salvation and seems to justify the stifling legalism that has given Christianity such a bad name in so many places. How do we get this right? 

Read the rest…

Morning Musing: James 2:10

Leave a comment

“For whoever keeps the entire law, and yet stumbles at one point, is guilty of breaking it all.”‬‬ (CSB – Read the chapter)  

We like for things to be incremental. We want to be able to advance toward pretty much everything in life in a step by step fashion. Every big store offers payment plans for their big ticket items. Cars get paid off over three or four years (and increasingly more). Houses take 30 years even though few people live in one place that long anymore. Why can’t the same be true with getting into Heaven? 

Read the rest…

Digging in Deeper: James 1:26-27

Leave a comment

“If anyone thinks he is religious without controlling his tongue, his religion is useless and he deceives himself. Pure and undefiled religion before God the Father is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained from the world.”‬‬ (CSB – Read the chapter) 

So, last time, we started out by spending some time looking at our culture’s struggles with the idea of religion. I told you that one of the common self-distinctions people often make when it comes to religious identity is that they are “spiritual, not religious” (SNR). People claim this identity because although they have been trained by either personal or impersonal experience or both to think poorly of religion, they don’t consider themselves secular or even merely agnostic. They just don’t like religion. For professed Christians who would claim this identity this is a real problem because they can’t grow well without the church and the church is a form of religion. As I asked before: What do we do with this? 

Read the rest…