James 1 part 2 :Notes/Thoughts -Thanks for the message, wheres the TV? - So yesterday we covered James 1 and what the early Christian church was going through. Today we covered a passage where I believe we all fail in one way or another... Listening and Doing 19 My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, 20 because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. 21 Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you. 22 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 23 Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror 24 and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25 But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do. 26 Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless. 27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. One thing to dwell on is , Is anger a bad thing? Is there such a thing as righteous anger? Even God gets angry (see Exodus where God talks to Moses about how the Jews were tempting him again and again with their unbelief), yet here is the thing. Our anger tends to not be righteous. God sees the whole picture, we do not. Our anger tends to be one sided. We are people who take offense quickly, we listen slowly, speak quickly and are quick to anger. Everything James just mentioned is the opposite of how we live by default. One of the themes you will find in James is when the Holy Spirit dwells inside a believer it pushes them to action. Certain behaviors that used to be sinful now bother the person when before they didnt. We will explore this a little later in the book , but here is the thing, if you see Gods laws being broke, people being ignored who need help, and you look back on your life and you havent change at all... you might still be dead. I would really question if you are saved at all. You had people in James day who would go around saying they love God and believe Gods scripture but then they would walk by people in distress or they might see some one with a physical need and go up to that person and say, I will pray for you! when they may actually know someone who could help or they themselves could help but that would interfere with me time. Want to know the hard part? Ive done this. Ive told people I would pray for them and then 2 days later Im like, I think I was suppose to pray for that person. Fail. James 1:26 really hits me. A few years ago I considered myself very religious, things were going great, I had many friends and I was reaching out to international students and a pastor I was semi- under came by and asked me to drop out of a few things I was doing in the church for reasons... (that later he realized he should not have said). My first reaction was to send him an awful letter filled with all manner of accusations and anger. Later I went to see him and I apologized for this behavior. What ever awful thing he may have done, two wrongs didnt make a right. I dont get permission to treat anyone bad. 26 Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless. We dont have righteous anger 99 out of 100 times in my experience. What about the 1/100? Lets look at James 1:27 27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. How about anger at the way widows and orphans are treated? How about anger at your own sin? I hate that I am this way, this foul-mouth, judgmental, sinner. Why dont I spend more time in the word? Why do I play so many video games? Why is God so distant from me? Here is a truth I came to once, you have as much of God as you want. I dont have time to study my Bible... yet I have time to do my favorite thing, I have time for my favorite movie, I have time for my favorite video game. If you love something you find a way, you make time for it. Stop pretending. Remember when Al Gore brought the worlds attention to climate change and global warming? Remember how he made this movie called,An Inconvenient Truth? Then remember how we all discovered how he had this giant mansion that he was some how able to own and not discredit himself? He said something like, My job was to make everyone aware of the problem, my jobs done, dont question my mansion! Yet are we doing that with the Christian life? Are we practicing what we preach? James last verse seems to address this; we all practice some sort of religion, fine, want to act ? Take care of the two groups who are helpless, put you religion into practice instead of into needless word debates. Questions of the day: In what order do you practice James 1:19, what is our default? Have you ever been angry with someone and went to far? Why do you think that is? Do you catch yourself wishing you knew God more? What are you going to do differently so that will happen? Is growing and learn more about God an accident? 25 But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do. How will they be blessed?
Posted on: Wed, 25 Jun 2014 12:14:01 +0000
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