Category: Devotional

James 2:8-13 (Devotoinal Thought)

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If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well. But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it. For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty. For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment. (James 2:8-13 ESV)

I like omelets. There is just something about scrambled eggs, cheese, ham, a few select veggies and bacon that make breakfast worth having. But can you imagine making an omelet with just one rotten ingredient? What if I served you an omelet with rotten eggs? Or perhaps I made one with completely fresh ingredients but threw in rancid bacon? What if it were just one rotten egg or just a few pieces of rancid bacon? Just a little rottenness really ruins the whole omelet experience.

James writes that if you keep the whole law and break it at one point, you are guilty of breaking all of it. Sometimes we are tempted to think of our sins in different categories like big sins and little sins. Conveniently the little sins are sin that we are guilty of like showing partiality. The big sins tend to be ones that we don’t do like murder. The writer of James says that showing partiality is just like murder. An omelet with a little rottenness is a rotten omelet. A person who breaks the law just a little is a law breaker.

We should be merciful to others because God in Christ has been merciful to us. We should not show partiality to people based on whether they are rich or poor. God doesn’t show partiality to us. We need to remember that there is a judge of our actions and it isn’t us. Jesus will judge

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James 2:1-7 (Devotional Thought)

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My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, “You sit here in a good place,” while you say to the poor man, “You stand over there,” or, “Sit down at my feet,” have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him? But you have dishonored the poor man. Are not the rich the ones who oppress you, and the ones who drag you into court? Are they not the ones who blaspheme the honorable name by which you were called? (James 2:1-7 ESV)

Have you ever been the new kid at school? I still remember when my family moved from Montana to Alabama (from the North-West to the South-East) and I started eighth grade in a new school. It was different. I was different than everyone and for the first several weeks of school it seemed like I did not have any friends. Not many people were willing to take a risk on me because I came from a different background. I tried hard to fit in but everyone else knew each other and to be honest my accent was different (think Canadian). It wasn’t until I learned that some other guys liked to play basketball and I tried out for the team that I finally found a group of friends.

James reminds us that we are not to treat some people better than others because they are rich but that we are to show hospitality to everyone, even those who cannot repay us. We are all made in the image of God. Just because someone is poor, new, or sounds funny it doesn’t give you the right in God’s eyes to make fun of them, be mean to them, or even treat them differently.

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James 1:22-27 (Devotional Thought)

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But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing. If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world. (James 1:22-27 ESV)

Imagine that you are dressed up in nice clothes. Nicer clothes than you have ever worn before and then a friend comes by and invites you to a food fight. You forget you are wearing nice clothes and so you go and end up staining everything. The food fight is over and so are your clothes because even with the best of cleaners your nice clothes are left in such bad shape that they now have become the clothes that you wear to paint in… all because you forgot what you were wearing.

Now it may be hard to forget what you are wearing, but James warns us that it is easy to forget who we are in Christ. When we trust in Christ the bible says that we are a “New Creation” the “old is gone and the new has come.” We are growing to be more and more like Christ. But sometimes we can hear God’s word (Which tells us who we are in Christ) and then go live like we haven’t heard it. We act just like we did before we trusted Christ. But those who “Do” God’s word are those who remember who they are in Christ. Temptation comes and they flee. The opportunity to serve others occurs and they represent Christ. They remember that they were bought with a price. They remember who they are in Jesus.

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James 1:19-21

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Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. (James 1:19-21 ESV)

I had a friend that I used to play basketball with, but he was extremely competitive. There is nothing wrong with being competitive but my friend’s competitive nature lead him to get angry about a lot of things. He would often blow up and get mad on the basketball court. He would call fouls on other people when he missed a shot or he would deny that he even touched a guy when the referee called a foul on him. He would get extremely upset over a bad call and on more than one occasion was ejected from a game. The one thing my friend kept missing was that it was the referee’s job to call the fouls, not his.

Like my friend when we are angry we feel confident that we are in the right. Our anger flares up and we do things and say things we wouldn’t ordinarily say. We don’t take time to hear from others because we think we have all the answers. We make bold declarations, we call people names, and in our hearts we feel justified or we feel right about doing it. But the author of James reminds us to pause and listen. We should be, “quick to hear and slow to speak.” Feeling justified in our anger doesn’t make us right. He says, “the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.” In other words when we feel cheated, hurt or betrayed we need to submit our anger to God. God is the one who judges everything rightly. We need to be quick to listen, not quick to blow our lid. We need to be slow to speak, not slow to hear. The key to overcoming anger is to trust God more than you trust yourself.

James 1:16-18 (Devotional)

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Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.
(James 1:16-18 ESV)
When you get into a small boat and go out on the ocean it can seem like the whole world is moving. Or when you are little and you stretch out your arms and spin around until you become dizzy it seems like the world around you is still moving… But deep down you know that the world isn’t spinning, you are… and it is that simple knowledge that brings everything back into order. You just have to find dry land or stop spinning long enough for the world to look normal again.

The writer James reminds us not to be deceived. He keeps pointing us back to the character of God. Even though our circumstances have changed, God has not changed. The God of the mountaintops is still God in the valleys. He still loves you. He still watches over you. He still cares for you. Our trials are temporary. One day soon we will see things the way they really are.

James 1:9-11 (Devotional)

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Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation, and the rich in his humiliation, because like a flower of the grass he will pass away. For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beauty perishes. So also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits.
(James 1:9-11 ESV)
Not long ago I watched an old cartoon of one of Aesop’s fables entitled “The Tortoise and the Hare.” The fable shares about a race between a very fast rabbit and a very slow turtle. The turtle slowly, but consistently presses on towards the finish line while the rabbit runs ahead and takes a nap, wakes up after the turtle passes him and runs ahead only to stop by a school and impress the students with his speed. While the rabbit is showing off his speed he realizes that the turtle has almost finished the race, but no matter how fast he runs he still ends up coming in second behind the turtle. He had forgotten that the race wasn’t about pure speed, but on who finishes first.

The writer James reminds us that sometimes if we are not careful we can lose our focus on what life is really about. Life is not about becoming wealthy and stacking up possessions. While those things are not evil, they are not eternal. (James compares earthly riches to the fading of the grass.) James says the poor man can boast that Jesus has made him truly rich by bringing him into the Kingdom of God. Sometimes our trials and tough times make it seem like we are losing in life, James reminds us that as long as our focus is on Christ that we are indeed winning.

James 1:5-8 (Devotional)

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If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. (James 1:5-8 ESV)

I love the beach. One of my favorite things to do is take my children out into the shallow water, pick up my feet and let the waves gently rock us. That is what waves do. They pick you up and let you down. They go from high to low. I remember one day several years ago my wife and I went to the beach before we had kids and the waves were particularly strong that day. They would knock us down and throw us toward the shore and slowly pull on us back into the water. The force of the wave was powerful. We would wade out into the tide and try and stand against the waves as they would come rushing in toward shore.

The writer, James, warns us that when we ask God for wisdom we are not supposed to be like waves. Waves are never steady. They go from highpoint to low point in just a few moments. A person who is like a wave asks God for wisdom and then immediately doubts that God will even answer their prayer. They are unsteady. James says they are double minded. One moment they have faith that God will answer. The next moment they are uncertain if God could even care for them. James says that God is not like that. God is generous and he gives wisdom to those who ask. God gives wisdom “without reproach,” which means that God is not there waiting to tell you how dumb you are or to make fun of you for being weak. He just simply gives you wisdom… when you ask. Faith in the bible is not blindly believing that something will happen. Faith is trusting God to be exactly who God is and not doubting His character.

James 1:1 (Devotional Thought)

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James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes in the Dispersion: Greetings. (James 1:1 ESV)

If you have ever been to a Sunday morning worship service at Calvary you’ve heard Pastor Chris ask everyone to stand while he reads from the bible. When he asks us to stand, “out of honor for God’s Word,” he’s helping us to remember that the bible is different than any other book. The bible is God’s Word. It contains important information about who God is and how we are to respond.

Standing to hear the bible read should give us some comfort because we know that God speaks. We don’t have to guess and wonder about what sort of things please God or bring honor to Him… The bible tells us these things. Most importantly the bible helps us understand who God is, how He loves us and how we can have a relationship with Him.

God used special men to write down the bible. Most of the writers in the Old Testament are called Prophets. Most of the writers in the New Testament are called Apostles. James was a relative of Jesus, a leader in the church and an Apostle.

James writes the letter to the twelve tribes of the dispersion. The dispersion refers to the people of the nation of Israel who don’t live in Israel. Many of these people had heard about Jesus through friends and relatives or they were in Jerusalem when Jesus was crucified, but they had recently fled across the world to escape persecution. They were very far away from their home.

James sends his greetings. He wants them to know that even though they are living all across the world and away from their home, they are not outcasts. They are loved by God. God has a message for them and the book of James is that message. He writes to give them encouragement, strength to face persecution. He writes with wisdom that comes from trusting in God.

Your Prayer Has Been Heard

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Zack and gabeA Meditation of Luke 1:5-25.

Have you ever longed for something? Ached so bad that you could feel it in your bones? Cried out to God and begged? Perhaps in the midst of it all doubted God and thought he was cruel at worst or just uncaring at best? You prayed and Heaven were silent. No, not just silent… This deafening quietness makes it seem like Heaven doesn’t  care.

There once was a righteous man who was married to a righteous woman. They kept the Law. They loved God. They worshiped Him! But they had no children. They would have counted children a blessing. They asked God for this blessing, to be able to have kids. They petitioned Heaven, but they heard no reply.

Enter in for a moment to their life: As life goes on, so does everyone else. Nieces, nephews and even cousins are born. You watch as friends give birth and celebrate with joy the arrival of their sons and daughters. Some families seem especially fruitful and as they pass by there is a silent exchange. No one says anything out loud, they don’t use their mouths to speak, but they don’t have to. You read it in their look. The silent words of pity as they stroll through with so many blessings and your house has none.

You cry out to God. “Bless me! I know I don’t deserve a little one but you are a God who blesses! Our home would be a fine home for a child. We would fine parents. You who have opened wombs before, open this one!”

And you pray that prayer through your twenties, your thirties, your forties and on until you feel a little silly praying like that anymore because you know your body is too old. There marriage act itself would be a miracle these days, how shall their be a child now?

But there is one story in the history of your people where such a miraculous birth took place and so there is hope. This petition has become so well rehearsed and that perhaps you ask Heaven for a child each day as you go through your daily prayers. Or perhaps you ask with a hint of belief that the God who worked in Abraham and Sarah will work in you to produce a child as well. Either way, you still pray.

So then one day you are in the very act of worshiping God and there at the alter of incense is an angel. It’s a scary thing to be in the presence of an angel. When they appear they usually pick people up off the ground and tell them not to be afraid. This he does, then he says, “Your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will call his name John.”

When Elizabeth is with child she says it like this, “Thus the Lord has done for me in the days when He looked on me, to take away my reproach among people.”

These are amazing words because they allow us to see the unfolding drama in the stories of Zechariah and Elizabeth. While they were receiving the blessing of a child they were also receiving something more…more than they had asked. They were invited into the drama of redemption. The longing of their hearts and the absent roll of parenthood in their life wasn’t placed their by God’s cruelty… Just the opposite. It was a blessing. They would be parents of the prophet of God who would make ready the way for the Messiah.

The story of the birth of John reminds us that we are not the author of our lives. Our lives are given to us by our Creator. While we like to think we are the main characters in the story, we just play a supporting role. Even John himself would just be support for the real lead, Jesus. When asked about Jesus’ ministry John would say, “He must increase, I must decrease.”

But now we have to look at our lives through the story of John’s birth. Do we live lives of humble submission to God? Do we live in the greater awareness of His Kingdom? Do we see that our community, family, workplace, and perhaps even our bareness or fruitfulness is not ultimately ours alone but can all be used by God in bigger ways than we have ever thought or imagined? Or have we been busy with our lives trying to rip the pen from the authors hand and rewrite the script?

Owned!

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Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers and deacons: (Philippians 1:1 ESV)

Paul and Timothy use a weird word to introduce themselves. They use the word servant. The Greek word is “dulos” (just in case we got any Greek Scholars out there). It could be translated as “slave.” The first thing they say about themselves is, “Hey everybody we’re slaves of Jesus.” When I first read this and thought about it, it was weird. Think about it. How would you introduce yourself? I might say hey I’m Jonathan and I’m a pastor. To get more personal I might say that I’m an Auburn fan. I might even reveal too much and say that I like Pizza way more than I should. Those are all statements about my identity.
We all go through this part of life where we try and figure out who we are. We know the basics like, who raised us and what our parents want for us. But then we start trying to figure out who WE are going to be. It’s like going back to school shopping with your mom for new cloths and trying on new outfits. (I know the guys are thinking, let’s just throw 3 pairs of the same jeans in the cart, try them on at home and be done with it. Some of the girls, however, will try on one of everything in the store… I know I had sisters). So you try on the preppy outfit, the sporty outfit, the I don’t care outfit… Then you have to do this delicate balance between finding an outfit that you think is socially acceptable but also not the exact same as someone else. You want to fit in, but you also want to be a little bit different.
We do that with our identity too. We try and figure out who we are going to be. Are you going to be a jock? In the band? A gamer? A cheerleader maybe? You look for crowds to be a part of (or not to be a part of). You try different things. You test the water with different crowds.
I went through a country music phase. The rational side of my brain has tried to repress all of those memories, but I do remember that Randy Travis would love someone even if her hair fell out. I also went through a Tom Petty phase, the Grateful Dead (which was all probably related to the activities I found myself taking part in) and then I was off to bands like the Smashing Pumpkins, Everclear, Nirvana, Counting Crows and Korn (before they were mainstream) and now I love talk radio, Classical music, hymns and praise and worship music (mostly because my life has been radically changed by the gospel).
When I was trying to figure out who I was going to be I also went through different things. I collected basketball and football cards. I played guitar for like a minute. I was on the quiz bowl team. I was in the FFA (Future Farmers of America). I was in drama. I played football and basketball. I even ran track. I went through a lot of phases.

But I also made a big mistake during that time of my life. While I was trying to figure out who I was, independent of my parents, I thought that Jesus was just something else to try on. It’s like life was a giant buffet table and you could just pick what you wanted. I’ll take a little Auburn football please. I’ll take a little bit of country music. I’ll take deer hunting. I’ll take playing right defensive tackle on the HS football team. I’ll take playing the 6th man in basketball… Oh and I’ll take Jesus too.

The problem was that Jesus isn’t something you could just add to a plate or an outfit you can buy. When we think of Jesus like this, we are in control and we determine just how far we’ll go with the whole Jesus deal. We want enough Jesus to deal with the pressures of life, but not so much Jesus that we actually love our enemies. I wanted him to heal my great-grandma of cancer, but I don’t want him to ask me to love people who are different than me. I want Jesus to pay my debt, but I don’t want to be generous with my money… So really I didn’t want Jesus, I just wanted the good things he could provide for ME. Man, if it ever got too tough or too real I was out.
Truth be told, I was really looking to Jesus to serve me, not to save me.
So naturally nothing really changed in my life because I was still in charge. I only wanted His gifts and I wasn’t ready for His grace. Then something changed… I had a dream. I felt the weight of my sin. I knew that I needed to be forgiven, but had no right, no claim, no demand that God should forgive me. I needed Jesus to save me from my sins and it was at that point that I realized that this whole Christianity thing can’t be something YOU own, it’s more like someone (Jesus) owns you. Anyone who has read the Bible for like a minute can tell you that. It’s one of the reasons I taught my kids how to pray what’s often referred to as the “Lords Prayer” because at the very onset it sets out that we are seeking God’s Kingdom and God’s will, not ours.
So Paul and Timothy at the very beginning of this letter want to make it clear that they don’t have Jesus in their pocket, they are in His pocket. He’s not a designer label. He’s not just an occupational thing. He’s not someone to be dealt with and handled. He’s the boss! They are owned!
In our culture that’s a put down. It’s a slap in the face. When someone is better than you at something, like maybe someone dunks the ball on you, other people will say you “got owned.” Nobody wants to be “owned.” It wasn’t a point to brag about in ancient culture either, yet here we find Paul and Timothy stating from the very beginning that they are owned. I think the reason they seemingly boast here is because they know the real freedom that come from being a slave of Jesus. They have no power in their own name, but their is great power in the name of their master Jesus.

Your thoughts and comments are welcome below. Keep them friendly. I reserve the right to censor crude comments.