Watch Your Mouth!

When I was in 6^th grade, all my friends and I thought we were super cool. We tried to create a gang, and each of us had a nickname after a sports car. I was RX-7. We also thought it was cool to tell dirty stories and use cuss words. Our principal squashed our plans by telling us it was illegal to form a gang. Thus, we were instantly reformed from our thug lives.

Do you look at your past and regret some of your actions? I do, especially things I said. I was a know-it-all, and I said a lot of things that hurt people’s feelings. I want to publicly apologize to everyone I went to school with, because I was a self-centered braggart. Even now, I still slip up and wish I could take back something I said yesterday, but I try to think before I speak. In Chapter 3, James says being able to control your tongue is a sign of maturity. I’m not there yet; I am a work in progress. James says a tongue out of control is restless, evil, and full of deadly poison. Lord, forgive me.

James uses a number of word pictures to explain the power of the tongue. It’s small but powerful, like a bit in a horse’s mouth or the rudder of a large ship. The tongue is like a small spark that sets a forest ablaze. James says it is easier to tame wild animals than it is to tame our tongues. Amen! Preach it, brother!

James says it isn’t right to use our tongues both to praise God and to curse men. We can’t be wells of refreshing, clean water if we spew dirt and filth from our mouths. He says if we are wise and sensible, we will be humble and right with God and others. James contrasts two types of wisdom: earthly and heavenly. Which of these lists does your own wisdom resemble?

I’m convicted. Are you? Let’s grow up, be mature and wise, and control our tongues. My goal for today: Watch my mouth so I don’t have to eat humble pie for supper.

3 Signs That Your Faith in God Is Good for Nothing

The topic covered in James 2:14-26 is a hotly debated subject among churchgoers. What does it mean that your faith is dead? Is James saying you earn your salvation by doing good works? I don't really think James is questioning whether his readers have faith. He questioned whether their faith was good for anything. He asked his readers to reflect on whether or not they were tapping in to the power of their saving faith. If you say you are saved, but you never utilize your faith to accomplish anything, what good is it? It's sort of like having a fine set of China in the cabinet but never putting it to good use. Yes, you have China dishes, but for what purpose if you never use them to serve your family or guests? I'm not questioning IF you have dishes; I'm questioning WHY you have dishes if you are never going to use them. I can assure you that Jesus did not die on the cross just so you could have a pretty display for your China cabinet of faith. He paid for your salvation so you will use it EVERY day of your life, not just Sundays or Wednesdays or holidays.

 

So, how can you tell if your faith is good for nothing? I propose the following 3 signs may indicate that it's time to take your faith off the shelf and put it to good use.

1. You trusted Christ years ago, and that was it. You believed in God that one day, that one time, but you have no stories of how your life in Christ is bearing fruit yesterday, today, and tomorrow. James gave examples in chapter 2 about Abraham and Rahab and how they exercised their faith. They didn't use their faith on just that one occasion, however. They were people with a lifestyle of faith, and they put it into action day after day, not just one time when they walked an aisle at Vacation Bible School.

2. You never talk about what God is doing in you, and nobody would guess that you are a Believer. DO NOT make your family wonder at your funeral whether they will ever see you again in heaven. DO NOT make your preacher lie about you. Be very clear. Be very intentional about sharing with everyone you meet that God is alive and at work in you each and every day.

3. You do not recognize the Holy Spirit's voice.

• Knock knock
• Who's there?
• Holy Spirit
• Holy Spirit who?
• See. You just proved my point. You don't recognize the Spirit when he is knocking on your heart's door asking you to put your faith into practice.

Are you not sure how to revive your faith? Why don't you dust off your set of China and invite your preacher to Sunday lunch? Ask your godly neighbor over for afternoon tea served in a China teacup. Ask them to hold you accountable to put your faith into action. Better yet, invite a lost person to dine with you, and ask them to read the Bible with you. Sharing your faith with someone who is dying without Christ is the best Holy Spirit fire starter I can suggest to you.

Don't Play Favorites

Why are Christians so judgmental? Because they are wrong, that's why.

James 2:1-13 plainly teaches that it is evil to be judgmental. James painted the picture of two people visiting the First Church of Jerusalem. One man was poor and the other rich. The church greeter gave the rich man the royal treatment and made the poor man sit on the floor. James asks (v. 4), "What are you doing?!?! You are making some people more important than others, and with evil thoughts you are deciding that one person is better." Stop it!!!

If you are visiting churches that ignore you or belittle you because of your outward appearance, then keep shopping around. If you are a member of a church like this, please follow the Spirit's leading and speak up to change your church culture. Judging others is wrong. That's God's job, not ours.

Now, there is a flip side to the coin here. The #1 excuse people use for not going to church is they feel judged by all the hypocrites at the Church of the So-&-Sos. May I kindly suggest that if you feel judged, it may have nothing to do with the church people? It may have everything to do with your personal relationship to God. Whether you realize it or not, a spiritual battle for your eternal soul is being waged. Jesus already forgave your sin when He took your place on the cross, and the Holy Spirit is pounding on your heart so you will invite Him in to clean house. But Satan lies to you and makes you feel like your heart is pounding because you are a walking billboard with a list of all your sins for all those church people to judge.

Here's a little secret.... All those church people are in the same struggle you are. They don't see your sins, because they have their own to deal with. And if they are really saved, they want you to find the same relief from guilt they found in the forgiveness of Jesus. Recognize that the pounding in your heart is the Holy Spirit inviting you to be forgiven. The heart pounding is not because all those church people are staring at your ugly sin.

Will you be judged at church? Yes, but not by men. Let God be your judge, and He will set you free. God's Mercy triumphs over judgment! (James 2:12-13)

Check Your Mirror for Sin Cancer

As women, we often spend inordinate amounts of time in front of our mirrors. I mean, hey, we don't wake up looking this beautiful. It takes work! It intrigues me to think that my husband sees me the same, whether I have make-up on or not and whether my hair is curled or still wet from the shower. But when I look in my mirror, some days I feel beautiful, and other days I don't recognize the old girl staring back at me. What's up with that?

 

The next word picture James painted for us is about looking at ourselves in the mirror. James 1:22-25 points out that it does us no good to stare into God's Word and not respond in obedience, just like it does me no good to stare into a mirror, see that I have mud on my face, and walk away without washing it.

The truth of God's Word is like a sieve that filters all the gunk out of my soul. God's Word is the mirror that enables me to see the sin God wants to surgically remove from my spirit. When I ignore what He shows me, it is like letting a cancer grow.

Last fall, I had a small sore on my forehead that would not heal. It was about the size of a pencil eraser and didn't really hurt, but every time I bumped it, the scab fell off, and it bled a little. I kept thinking I should mention it to my doctor, but when my annual appointment came around, I completely forgot. It's hard to focus on much else when the doctor is up in your business. (Is this too much information? Sorry. Back to my point....)

My sweet hairdresser is the one who finally forced me to see the dermatologist. "Dana, you NEED to have that checked!!!" So, seven months and $1600 later, I now have a chunk the size of a quarter missing from my forehead. Had I paid attention to the initial warning signs in my mirror, the doctor could have taken care of the tiny spot with creams.

So, what ugly sin cancer do you keep ignoring in the mirror of God's Word? James 1:19-27 mentions things like anger, moral filth, not watching how we speak, and not taking care of the needy. James gets even more specific in the remainder of his book. Ask God to make you aware of those areas where you tend to push back whenever the Holy Spirit is prompting you to surrender. Let Him take care of your sin with the anointing oil of of forgiveness. It will keep you from going under the knife of the Great Physician.

Perseverance

I am feeling the same hesitation I had when I covered the life of Jesus. The book of James packs a powerful punch in five short chapters. James says it so well, and I’m certain I cannot add any wisdom to his writings. My favorite study on the book of James was written by Beth Moore. She challenged her readers to memorize all five chapters of James. It was a thrilling experience that made the book come to life. I wish I could still quote the entire book. However, the word pictures that James painted are still vivid in my imagination. So, I will focus on those paintings for you here on my blog.

 

James 1:1-18. The first sketch James created for us is Perseverance. The words I would use to describe trials would be blood, sweat, and tears. James uses the terms joy, faith, perseverance, completeness, maturity, and abundance. Imagine the victory you and I could achieve in our trials if we took James’ advice. We could change our stories from defeated to champion. Instead of focusing on how much we despise our struggles, we could ask God for the wisdom to stay focused on the end goal of our journeys. We could picture ourselves standing in the winner’s circle with Christ, who rewards us with joy, faith, maturity, and abundance when we persevere under trial.

What struggles are making you focus on the negatives of life? Will you allow God to recreate your story today? Will you ask Him to paint your portrait of Perseverance?

My Man James

Remember, we are taking a chronological journey through theBible. Our next stop after Galatians, which may have been written in AD 48-49, is the book of James, which may have been written before AD 50. 

So, before we read the very practical book of James, let’s do a mini bio of the man. He was likely the 2^nd born son of Joseph and Mary (Matthew 13:55), and he and his brothers were not believers during Jesus’ ministry (John 7:5). I wonder if James was jealous of his older brother, and I wonder if Mary had a hard time not playing favorites. James did become a believer, however, the day he met his brother who had come back from the dead (1 Corinthians 15:3-8).

James then became the leader of the church in Jerusalem, which was made up mostly of Jews who believed in Jesus. James took the lead at the Council in Jerusalem (Acts 15), agreeing with Peter, Barnabas, and Paul that the Gentiles should not be required to follow the entire Jewish law. James helped draft a letter from the Council to the Gentile churches. The letter said that the Holy Spirit did not want to burden the new believers. The only laws they were asked to follow were to “abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals, and from sexual immorality” (Acts15:28-29). These were necessary to avoid because they were common pagan rituals. The Jerusalem Council wanted the Gentiles to keep their worship pure.

You and I can be thankful that James spoke up, because he paved the way for us to be grafted in to God’s chosen people. I think you and I are going to enjoy his writings!

**Several of my notes today came from my NIV Study Bible. I encourage you to find a good study Bible. I also love using biblegateway.com, which is where all my links will take you.

Top 10 Tips for Getting Along with Church People

Truthfully, I love my church family for a number of reasons, but mostly because we have a good mix of every age in our church family, and we take care of each other and our community. Our church motto comes from Matthew 22:37-39, “Love 1 God. Love ALL People.” We admit that we aren’t perfect, but we do our best to love like Jesus loved.

I have been studying the book of Galatians, and today I am going to cover the final chapter in the book. In the first five chapters, Paul took a pretty stern stance against the division that was going on in the church family of Galatia. I can imagine the leaders in most churches have felt this same frustration occasionally. My favorite book (other than God’s Word) that addresses unity in the church is Releasing the Revival Flood by Greg Frizzell.

Paul was frustrated because the Galatian believers had been taught the truth of the gospel, but they were choosing to slide back into their old habits. The summary of his argument against the church is found in Galatians 6:12-16. In synopsis, “Do not go back to your old life of slavery to the law. ‘What counts is [becoming] a new creation.’” New creation is a theme throughout all of Paul’s writings. Here are just a few examples: Romans6:4, 2 Corinthians 5:17, Ephesians 4:24, Colossians 3:10.

Galatians 5:26-6:10 is all about living in Christian community. How can a diverse body of believers get along, take care of one another, and make disciples? Let’s take a look at Paul’s top 10 tips for getting along with church people.

1.      Do not be conceited, which stirs up trouble and envy.

2.      Gently restore anyone who falls into temptation.

3.      Build an accountability system.

4.      Carry each other’s burdens.

5.      Don’t be self-centered, and don’t compare yourself with others.

6.      Do your part, and be involved in the church family.

7.      Share with each other whatever God teaches you. Even teachers can learn from their students.

8.      You reap what you sow; therefore, sow to please the Spirit, not the sinful nature. (See my study of Galatians 4 & Galatians5.)

9.      Avoid burnout.

10.  Do good to all people, especially your church members.

What if we all lived by these concepts? We just might become the church that changes our generation.

My paraphrase of the ending to the book of Galatians is, 

“Peace out, people! And stop causing me so much grief already! 

Love ya, 

Paul”

Galatians 5

There is a fork in the road of faith. Which path will you choose? Freedom in Christ, or Slavery to the sinful nature?  If you did not get a chance to catch up on the history behind Paul’s rant, please check out the links in my Galatians 4post. Paul continues to draw a line in the sand between freedom and slavery in Galatians 5.

v. 1 “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” Paul continues to question the Galatian believers about their choice to be burdened by following every letter of the Jewish law (v. 3), because Paul had plainly taught them that Christ had already fulfilled the ultimate sacrifice of the law in order to set them free.  My husband had a Jewish friend who told him, “As Jews we rarely encourage you as Gentiles to convert to Judaism. Then you would be responsible for keeping the WHOLE law.” I want to join the Apostle Paul in urging my friends to find peace and wholeness and liberty in the Cross of Jesus Christ. What is keeping you in bondage? Will you confess it here so I can join you in prayer, asking God to lift this burden for you? Oh, wait; there will be more on this topic in Galatians 6. I love how the Word of God fits together like a puzzle!

v. 13 “You my brothers were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather serve one another in love.” The purpose of our freedom is not so we can twist off and do whatever gratifies our perverted cravings. The mysterious paradox of living the Christian life is that faith in God’s redemptive plan sets us free to serve others. Jesus portrayed this to his disciples during the last supper as he knelt before them to wash their feet. This was not false humility. Jesus was able to serve sinners unconditionally because he was completely secure in his relationship to the Father.  Oh that you and I would indulge in the freedom to serve others! Jesus was living on the timeline as the perfect Son of God. He had no need to repeat a cycle of sin. When you and I recognize our security in Christ, we will no longer desire to repeat the sin cycle either.

v. 16, 25 “Live by the Spirit.” “Keep in step with the Spirit.” The contrast between a Life of Sin and Life by the Spirit is clear. My Life in Christ must be obviously different than my old life of bondage. When you come to faith in Jesus, your friends and family should be shocked and perhaps offended by your life change. Your old habits should make you squirm with conviction, not because you are condemned, but because your Spirit life changes you to be like Christ. Paul gives a vivid picture of old life vs. new life in vs. 16-26.

I can tell you which life will bring you the peace you so desperately seek. Live in the Spirit, girlfriend! Keep in step with Spirit!

Galatians 4

(Everything in blue on this blog is a clickable link. I want you to read the Scriptures for yourself and ask God to teach you. His Word is so much more powerful than my own!)

Galatians 4  is one of many demonstrations of why we must study both the Old and New Testaments side by side to gain a complete picture of God's redemptive plan for all people. Passages like this one in Galatians simply do not make sense if we ignore God's story in the Old Testament. To understand this chapter, we need to know the history of Abraham, Isaac, and Ishmael from Genesis 15-25. Ishmael was Abraham's first son, born of Hagar, the slave woman. Isaac was Abraham's firstborn son of Sarah, the result of God's promise that Abraham would become the father of many nations. Wrapped up in Galatians 4 is the age-old struggle between two nations, between Hagar and Sarah's sons, whose descendants have always warred against one another, Muslim vs. Jew.

v. 20  Paul was so frustrated with the Galatian believers, because through Christ, they had been born free, children of the promise of Abraham. However, they were choosing to live as slaves to the law. v. 11, 19  Paul had struggled to bring spiritual birth to the Galatians, and he felt like he had wasted his time. We can really hear Paul's frustration and sarcasm in Galatians 5:12!  Because we have children, you and I can probably relate to his feelings of wanting to pinch their heads off, but Paul took it up a notch!

v. 3-7  These are really the focal verses of Paul's rant.  He paints the picture of a timeline.

 

Paul was perplexed and asked, "Why would you want to cycle back to being slaves after all God did to redeem you?"  This reminds me of Hosea and Gomer's story! This has been a cycle of Israel throughout history, and it is repeatedly told throughout the Bible.

 

You and I get stuck in the cycle too!  God has a plan for freedom in our lives.  Let's follow His timeline and get off the merry-go-round of slavery to sin. This is the secret to Victory in Christ!

v. 28-31  This is what Paul is trying to teach to the Galatians:

1. You are sons.
2. God gave you His Spirit.
3. You have a Father.
4. You are free.
5. You are heirs of the promise. 

Are you living as a slave or as a child of the promise? Will you get off the cycle that keeps sending you back into slavery? Will you live in the victory of your freedom in Christ? I guarantee you that Paul has much more to say about this in Galatians 5!

Galatians 3

Lord, will you teach us from Galatians 3?

You foolish Galatians!  Who has tricked you into believing that you could possibly earn your salvation by all the good things you do? Paul's frustration with the believers in Galatia is very evident in his writings. He had been to their city and plainly and vividly declared the truth of salvation to them. The Galatians had received the Spirit by faith in the death and resurrection of Christ. Then they were foolish enough to believe the Judaizers who were telling them they had to follow the law to be saved. Paul was furious that they had so quickly traded the simplicity of the Gospel and were making it difficult for people to receive the Spirit. Do we make it too hard for our friends and family to come to faith in Jesus?

Paul reminded the people that Abraham received God's promise by faith and God saw him as righteous. It was 430 years later before God even gave the law to Moses. The purpose of the law was to prove how unrighteous the people were. It was never intended to bring salvation. It was designed to show us that we need a Savior.

Girlfriend, you can never be good enough to earn eternal salvation. Why not ask Jesus right now to cleanse you from all your sin? Ask Him to fill you with His Holy Spirit and to give you the peace for which you are longing. It is that simple. Do not be tricked into believing that it is any more difficult than that.

If you ask God for salvation today, will you let me know so I can rejoice with you? Post a comment here, or contact me by email. I want to be one of the first to welcome you to the Family of God!