Yep, I knew James was going to be good!! What an awesome start to the book. My husband brought a power-packed message. How timely is our God?!
Eddie gave us a great intro to James and a preview to what we will be running into in this book and then we took a dive into the first four verses.
I loved our 2nd section on Trouble has a function. Count it ALL JOY!! Put trouble in the profit column as we weigh our troubles. Oh, the call to stand firm again as we face our troubles and those things and people who trouble us. The fires that come, come to burn away anything and everything that is not genuine. I love that. Genuine faith is all that matters and if it takes the fire to burn away the fake in me, I'm all for it. My prayer is that in the midst of it I will stand firm and be obedient to whatever He calls me to do and be. Eddie has always said that it's when we get squeezed that we see what's on the inside, how true is that? I don't believe we can really know the depth of our character until we see how we react under pressure. It's easy to be kind to others when things are going well, but can we be kind when others are treating us unfairly? God is about making us mature, growing us up in Him. One of the things I've noticed, is how quickly some people come to our defense when we are being unjustly treated. Of course some hide in the weeds to see how it will all turn out but many stand up and defend to the point that we don't even have to defend ourselves. I love that about the body of Christ. May we all be quick to defend our brothers and sisters in Christ and help them through their troubled times. May we never be the ones adding to their trouble.
James is going to pack a punch. It's not for the shallow or for those who try to avoid conviction. I'm not surprised that so many don't like James, he's a tell it like it is man.
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