The epistle of James has inspired my blog writing over the past few entries and it is this book and these thoughts that will be the foundation of my portion or contribution to the home group study at the church house. This will probably start in late October.
However if you wish to get a head start, you will find it all here. That is not to say that this blog will be just about the epistle of James. I will discuss other subjects as in the past from time to time. But for today, it is the book of James.
James puts faith into action by proving the old saying “ actions speak louder than words.” He says “shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works.” Yes, James is saying that faith without works is useless. And it is true that we can believe for God to answer prayer but unless we act on that faith what is accomplished? Mental assent to a truth is not real faith just by itself. There needs to be a balanced walk of faith. In the salvation of a soul, until that person takes a step of faith and asks God to save them and truly repents and casts their burden on the Lord, nothing changes. That is the key word…change. When a man or a woman truly repents and is born again by the Spirit of God, there will be a change in that person’s life and it will reflect in their lifestyle. Paul wrote to the church at Corinth and said “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold all things become new.”
Once again we see James and Paul in total agreement.
James discusses a whole list of things that Christians and non Christians face and they are detrimental to our Christian walk and he gives us directions on how to avoid these pitfalls, if you will. He says that you ought to be doers of the Word and not hearers only. This epistle or letter to those Christians who were driven from Jerusalem and dispersed throughout the world of that time is also for our benefit today and the list includes wisdom as well as pride, discrimination, greed, lust, hypocrisy, worldliness and slander to name a few. He talks about drawing nearer to God and that is an area that we always need to strive for. We will take our time with these subjects as long as the Lord directs us to.
I have touched on the subject of joy in trials and wisdom through faith that is unwavering and a few other areas, I think, however we will come back to these subjects as we feel led to do so. This portion today is a kind of belated introduction to my thoughts on the book of James. As always, I welcome your comments, which by the way have been sparse of late.
Followers
About Me
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Hi again
As I was reading it came to mind that as you read through the bible you will see that the Lord gave instruction on what we have to do.
I think of Moses remember the Red Sea Exodus 14:21 Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea and all that night the Lord drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. Moses had to stand there with his hands out all that night.
This is just one example but you see were I am going God gave us His promises but we must do something to get them.Matthew 7:7,8
Ask and it will be given to you ,seek and you will find,knock and the door will be opened.
In all of these things i first had to do something,to find I first had to seek and so on.
Our faith has to be put into action.If we need healing the first thing to do is asked for it and then believe that it is going to happen,tell someone that your God is healing you of what ever it is you need healing from. So many times we say if it is God's will I will get healed but if not that is alright too.I think that when we talk like that sometimes we are making excuses because we don't think that we will be healed.
C.M.
Post a Comment