When trouble comes

The man James who wrote the epistle or letter that bears his name is considered by Bible scholars to be the same man to whom Paul refers to in Galations 1:19 as the Lord's brother. If this is true, and there doesn't seem to be any forcible argument to the contrary then we know that he had the best possible example to help him understand what life is all about. Life is about trouble...now I know that you probably do not want to hear about that subject, but let's face it, if there is one thing that is common to man it is that we all face at one time or another...trouble.
What do we do with trouble? James says: rejoice; count it all joy. Now the first thought that comes to mind is that James has spent too much time on his knees and has not been smelling the coffee. And he missed out on the roses also. (It was said of James that his knees were as those of a camel, he spent so much time on them.) Some would say that he was too heavenly minded to be any earthly good...some might say that. But James had a personal relationship with his heavenly Father and a divine revelation of who Jesus really is. And he says here in ch.1 verse 2, "My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials." That's how trouble comes doesn't it? You sort of fall into it. "So and so is always falling into trouble." Yeah, you fall into it, you don't look for it. James says continuing on in verse 3, "knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. vs. 4 But let patience have her perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete , lacking nothing." The test of faith...Enter Job, I've talked about Job in either this blog or the moreaboutHisWord blog that I have done previously. Job was a good man, in fact there was no one like him in all the earth, he was blameless and upright and he feared God, that reverential kind of fear, and he hated evil. He was the greatest man of all the people of the east, and that would mean that he was the greatest man in the known world at that time. Here is an example of the kind of man he was; He had seven sons and three daughters and by the way he was the richest man alive, his sons would have these feasts in their own houses, each having a special day for it (they might have declared it a holiday) and they would invite their sisters to eat and drink with them. And when the days of feasting were over, Job would send and sanctify them, and he would offer burnt offerings for them because he said, "my sons may have sinned and cursed God in their hearts The Bible says this did Job regularly
Enter Satan...Trouble (note the capital T.) Read it for yourself in chapters 1&2 in the book of Job. A quick summary says that Job lost everything that was dear to him; the only thing he had left was life itself, he even lost his health, and on top of all this for reasons that I can't quite understand...God allowed it to happen. To say that I know why would not be true. Even his wife turned against him....for better, for worse, 'til death do us part? Richer, poorer, all that stuff?
Enter Eliphaz the Teminite or perhaps he should have been called the Termite. He is supposed to be one of Job's best friends and he is there to comfort him, so what does he do? He says that Job has sinned and God is punishing him for it..."Job you are a sinner, you deserve what you get" ( That's my paraphrase.) So James, if Job had been listening to you, he should be rrejoicing right about now.....this is gonna be a long series I think. "But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing."That is just what happened to Job; his patience is legendary. More later.....RC