James 1

It has been awhile since my last post. I do apologize to those following me for the delay. Reading Passages with new eyes is sometimes the most important thing in our life. This is, I believe, one of the greatest things about the Bible; it continues to provide us with more information about the God we serve as we go through different life experiences. This next study will be extremely slow taking in every possible thing that could be expressed through the Word of God.

James 1:2-4

"Consider it great joy, my brothers, whenever you experience various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. But endurance must do its complete work, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing."

Who in their right mind would open up a book of the Bible like this? Answer- someone who knows that there will be struggles, and who has been through the struggles themselves and has seen God's providential nature.  Lets take the first verse with joy and trials being the main points. What is true joy? how is it related to happiness and how does it differ? Happiness has been described as temporary joy, however I believe that the two should honestly not be put in the same boat. Happiness by all means can come from our Father above and from the things around us. Our joy is directly dependent upon the things we worship though. As futile beings if we place our joy in things of this world our joy will be short lived and be miniscule. When this joy is placed in something so much greater than us, so much more powerful than us, and will out last all that we are, this joy will last as long as the thing we put it in. God is the only one who can give us this kind of joy. The Bible says itself that the things of this earth will pass away but God's word will still remain. Happiness is the short burst of pleasures that we get in life. These are short lived and pale in comparison to the joy that we receive from God. Unfortunately all too often we put more stock into our happiness than our joy. As we see from James, joy comes with suffering.

James tells us that we should count it great joy when we suffer. So this everlasting happiness that we receive from God we are suppose to have when we endure hard times. This seems and is completely contradictory to our human nature, is that not what God has called us to though? James does use careful language here in order to show that we should have joy in every trial by saying that we should count it great joy whenever we encounter "various Trials". James emphasizes this because in smaller trials it is easy to turn to God, but when it comes right down to our livelihood, to whether or not the gun pointed at our face is loaded, to whether or not we can provide for our families, it becomes much harder then to turn to God. We think, "If I just try hard enough I can make things right. God bless my hard work." God blesses hard work, hard work with faith in Him. These types of trials are the kind that knock us off our feet and continue to pound us mercilessly while we are down and bleeding. these are the trials that truly test our faith, will we run to God, or lean on our own strength? 

James tells us to consider these trials great joy because they test our faith. These trials are now quick fix. These trials require us to dig our fox hole just a little deeper, we will be in them for awhile. THese trials test our faith by bringing us to our lowest point, then dragging us for miles/years at this point in order to do whatever possible to break us. These trials test our endurance. If we persevere and push through these trials with the help of God then we will be rewarded. James warns us however, "endurance must do its complete work" (my emphasis). When we hit the low point of our life we can easily Look to God and think, "Ok, its over right? The Devil brought me to my low point and You'll bring me out right?" Wrong. 

In order to be "complete and lacking nothing" our endurance must be pushed. We must see just how long we will be able to suffer for the Name that we claim to live our lives by. WE must be brought to our lowest and kept there. We must be brought to our breaking point to remind us WE ARE FUTILE AND CAN DO NOTHING WITHOUT GOD!!! When we hit this point it is then that we see our faith strengthen. We see why God has placed us in these circumstances, we see why God has allowed us to go through these things, and we see how He has been guiding us through it all the whole time. We finally see how we are able to find joy when all our world around us is crumbling. 

God today let us be reminded that we need You. Let us seek Your strength, Your face, Your peace. God test our faith so that we may be able to serve You better. Make us mature and complete, no matter the cost. Let us be reminded of the cost You paid in order to save us from these trials. God let us find You today. We ask all this in Your son's powerful Name, in Jesus Name. Amen.

Boldness Acts 4:18-20

"So they called for them and ordered them not to preach or teach at all in the mane of Jesus. But Peter and John answered them, 'Whether it's right in the sight of God for us to listen to you rather than to God, you decide; for we are unable to stop speaking about what we have seen and heard'".

When was the last time someone accused you of being too bold? When was the last time you remember anyone being accused of being too bold? I would like to propose that if you have to think about this for longer than 15 seconds it has been far too long. This is one of the problems we have as American Christians. We have become so comfortable we have no feeling left of what the transforming power of the Spirit has done for us!! Our fire has been reduced to nothing but coals, on a good day!!!

In Acts we see that Peter and John have been put before the royal council. The council sends the declaration for them to no longer preach the Gospel. Filled and so compelled by the Holy Spirit they respond with dignity that they can not stop. The things that they have witnessed and have preformed through the Spirit is too much for them not too share. 

What made Peter and John's testimonies so strong was that they told the truth and they SPOKE IT!!! To give testimony means to recount a religious experience. You can not testify to that which you have not experienced. These men talked about what Jesus had done and what the Spirit is doing, giving them an unshakable testimony. THe Chef Priests, as the Bible states, thought themselves as uneducated when they heard their testimony (vs. 13). This could not have happened though had Peter and John not opened their mouth in the first place. Granted a lot of our boldness comes from the Holy Spirit, by the same token when we pray for boldness we need to pray that we will speak when the opportunity comes. 

God gives us opportunities to be bold and proclaim His name, our free will lets us decide if we will follow Him and proclaim His gift, or hoard it like the sinful people we are and keep to ourselves like society tells us to. 

God today make us bold for you, but let us speak when you give us these opportunities. Let us open our mouths and proclaim once and for all that You are Lord of our lives and that You have come to save the souls of the lost. You came for us and took our pain. We deserve nothing less than Your wrath on our shoulders everyday!! To You be the glory for You have continued to shine Your mercy down on us. Forgive us our sins and take the cup of trials from us so that we may serve You whole heartedly and see You in our trials. In Jesus powerful Name we pray. Amen.

Mark 12:43-44

"summoning His disciples He said to them, ' I assure you: this poor widow has put in more than all those giving to the temple treasury. For they all gave out of their surplus but she out of her poverty has put in everything she possessed-all she had to live on.'"

Before you close this because you think i'm about to pass a hat around to take up an offering consider what this could actually mean. Oh and by the way, I'm not taking one. lets focus in on verse 44. this is a familiar passage that preachers have been teaching from since the prophets first recorded it. All to many times we tune out because we do not like people asking to have our money. Upon reading this myself I have discovered that this is asking for so much more than just our money (if you do not people asking a lot of you, you may tune out now. be warned though; you may need to seriously evaluate your relationship with God if you do not like people asking things of you). 

'For they all gave out of their surplus but she out of her poverty has put in everything she possessed-all she had to live on'. It is easy to give out of our surplus. It takes a lot to continue to give when we have nothing to give. jesus declared that the woman, through her faith, gave all that she had to live on. She gave EVERYTHING to Christ. why is this such a foreign and challenging concept to us? We are so caught up in the fact that we need to be in control and that we have to make everything better that when things go south we freak out. We have the hardest time asking for help.... we have the hardest time even admitting we can not do anything on our own. This woman likely had nothing left. we are told that she is a widow, meaning she has no status in society because she has no man to identify with. she likely has no job because well she is a woman. all her other income likely could have gone to sustaining her life thus far; buying food, sacrifices, etc. When this woman gave her two pieces she very well could have just given the last things she owned, outside of the cloths on her back.

How does this apply to us today? well obviously it does apply to our finances in that none of it is ours, all 'our' money is to be God's and He can choose to do with it what He wills. This does dig so much deeper though. We see that the woman had nothing to look forward to in life, in all rights she could claim the saying that she has 'no hope left'. She found her hope in Christ though, which is why she kept giving. We should be giving every area of our life to God; studies, relationships, automobiles, our future, EVERYTHING. We think that somehow God needs our help in managing everything so we start to think, "oh its OK God i can do this part of my life. If You could just help me out over here it'd be really nice". WRONG!!! Christ sacrificed His life for us!!!! who are we to try and control the life that He has now given us!!! We have been bought by His blood and we are not our own. If we truly want to find peace we need to truly trust God. I will be the first to admit that I royally stink at this concept of life. Ask anyone who knows me well and they will tell you the same. By the same token, i could ask your loved ones and i'm sure I would hear a similar story. This is an area that we all need help with. 

This is why accountability partners and mentors are so crucial to the building of our faith. They constantly challenge us to be better. They hold us accountable for our actions. When we mess up they tell us straight up, "hey your wrong". Find someone like that for your life. Find an older individual who has so much more wisdom than the boyfriend/girlfriend you are with, or your friends that do the same idiotic things you do. 

God today let us be taking the first step to furthering our faith in You. God melt our hearts of stone and let us give all that we are, let us give our whole identity to You. God surround us with godly brothers and sisters to challenge us and uplift us. God be our all in all. Amen

Mark 9:42-50

Jesus is in Capernaum teaching His disciples when He grabs a child and says in verse 42, "And if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him to be thrown in the sea with a large millstone tied around his neck". Jesus is exspressing the idea that if we cause anothere brother or sister to sin it is detestable, especially if they are a child since we are to be examples for them and are to be pointing them towards righteousness. The idea of having a millstone tied around your neck gives the image of a person with so much weight that they could not swim and would certianly die. Small millstones still weigh over hundreds of pounds, having a large one tied to your neck furthers the idea that if you cause a child to sin your punishment will be great.

In verses 43-49 Jesus begins to give problem-solution examples of different parts of the body sinning. While Jesus does say that we should "cut off" or "pluck out" the parts of our body that cause us to sin, I do not believe this is to be taken literally. When God created us He said that we are, "Very good". Why then would Jesus want us to literally cutt off parts of us that He called very good? Instead, I believe that Jesus was intending us to remove the parts of our body from the things that are causing us to sin. If we can not control our eyes on the computer, then have a friend set up a parental control on it. If our hands can not be controled when with the opposite sex, then do not be alone with them. Your cutting off the ability to be put in those situations that cause you to sin. This is the key; do not even let the situation present itself and the sin will not occur.

What is salt? Scientifically salt is Sodium Chloride. To the everyday chef or just the general food eater, salt is a flavor enhancer. Salt obsorbs the flavors around it, boosting that flavor. In verse 50 Jesus questions, "how can you make it salty again" after salt looses its saltiness. The answer: you can not. As a result, Jesus gives us the challenge to always have salt in ourselves and to be at peace with each other. We are to always have saltiness and are to always be uplifting our brothers. We are to magnify each other's strengths and use them to further God's kingdom. Jesus also commands us to have peace among us. We lose our effectiveness, our saltiness, when we are against the people we serve with. In order to further the Kingdom effectively we must be at peace with the ones we serve.

God today let us not be a stumbling block the people around us. Let us always seek to be uplifting in our speech and actions. God give us a saltiness from You. Let us enhance our brothers and sisters to better serve You and to fulfill Your plan God. We ask this in Jesus' Name. Amen.

Mark 5:25-34

A women suffering from bleeding for 12 years had endured much under many doctors. She had spent everything she had and was not helped at all. On the contrary she became worse. Having heard about Jesus she came behind Him in the crowd and touched His robe. For she said,"If I can just touch His robes I'll be made well!" Instantly her flow of blood ceased and she sensed in her body that she was cured of her affliction. At once Jesus realized in Himself that power had gone out from Him. He turned around in the crowd and said" who touched My robes?" his disciples said to Him "You see the crowed pressing against You and You say, 'Who touched me?'" So He was looking around to see who had done this. Then the woman knowing what had happened to her came with fear and trembling fell down before Him and told Him the whole truth, "daughter" He said to her, "your faith has made you well. Go in peace and be free from you affliction.

This is an amazing story of pure faith. in the opening lines of the story we are told of a woman with a medical condition that has plagued her for 12 years!!! we thing it is rough when we have a 24 hour cold. this women had non-stop bleeding for 12 years. she had gone to doctors to see treatment but the Bible tells us that the doctors could do nothing for her and her condition continued to spiral down. this woman however had heard about Jesus and the works that He does. She knew that even just the touch of his robe would be able to cure her. Do we have that kind of faith? do we have a faith as strong to do something because it was told to us?

someone had obviously told this woman about jesus for she had the foreknowledge of him. she believed everything this person had told her about him. she believed in the miracles that jesus had been doing throughout the land. from what is told this woman had never met jesus face to face prior to this moment. she believed without any physical evidence before her that jesus was who he proclaimed to be. 

far too many times we ask god for signs to let us know what he is doing in our life or where we should go to follow him. do not get me wrong it is vital to distinguish between the latest heart jerking moment that we have and a passion that God has put on our hearts. by the same token when jesus says go we do not need to question whether or not it is god's will, we just need to go.

Next we see that Jesus actually recognizes the woman. Jesus felt his divine power pass from him knowing that someone of faith had touched him. this shows that christ provides for us.

Jesus then turns around and begins to search out the woman. this shows that jesus also fervently searches for us and wants to get to know us. Jesus was on his way to heal a dying girl and he stops in the middle of the crowd to find this woman that had touched his robes. jesus wants to know us personally and wants to know our deepest concerns and the things that plague us day and night. we must have the attitude of the woman though.

we see the woman know that she must confess that it was she who touched jesus' robe. she did so with 'fear and trembling' because she had just felt the power of God. when we approach god it should be with the attitude of fear. not a fear of "god can kill me for all that i have done", but a fear of "god you are all powerful and can change any situation". far too many times we see god as a mean kid with a magnify glass just waiting to burn us to hell. while god did send jesus to judge us for what we have done, God sent him as the savior from the world as well. we can run to our heavenly father's arms and find rest from the trials of this world. he is there to correct us when we are wrong and to comfort us with everything around us is falling apart.

Jesus says to the woman, "go be at peace and be free from your affliction". Jesus saw the faith in the woman. Jesus blessed her for her faith. She had exhausted every other resource available to her at the time. She turned to jesus and was healed from her wound. do not read this the wrong way; we should not exhaust every other resource and then turn to jesus. jesus should be our first choice always!!!!! we now have the holy spirit living inside us. He lives in us to be with us. when trials come we should first turn to the one who has done it all and has overcome death itself! we should do nothing under our own strength. we fail doing things ourselves. we need jesus everyday in order ever hope to take another step in becoming more like jesus.

God today give us a faith that needs no physical evidence to know who you are. god give us peace to know that you know who we are and everyday you seek to know us on a personal level. god let us be fearfully respectful in our approach to you and let us always be reminded of the wretches we are, and how great a gift you have given to us. god let us always seek to be more like you each day and with each step we take. amen

HELLO EVERYBODY!!!!

So this is just my first blog. not sure how this will will go over or if people will actually follow it soooooo yeah just bear with me if i do not post on here all that much.