The elections are over.  Thank goodness.  The vitriol was killing me.  I haven't had to endure such devision between people in this country in all my years.  It is wearying.  Exhausting.  People think that they are changing minds by yelling, using horrible language, etc....they aren't.  I think I am going to unfriend everybody on Facebook.  I grew up in a kind, polite world.  It has vanished.

James said, "But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy...the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace."  James 3:17-18.  I am ready for peace.

James also said, "...the tongue is a little member...how great a matter a little fire kindles.  The tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity...it defiles the whole body...no man can tame it.  It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.  Out of the same mouth proceeds blessing and cursing.  Brothers, these things ought not to be so."  James 3: 5-6, 10.

Tony finished the tile.  Tomorrow he will paint, grout and call the job done.  God willing.  For the first time since I moved, I feel like my life is going to be normal again.  It's close.  I am so ready.  My house remodeling....and the elections.  Equal irritations.

On Sunday, my class discussed what "works" are.  James 2: 17, 26 says, "...faith, if it doesn't have works is dead...For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is also dead." I shared with the class that when I had open heart surgery, (I was thirty five with four children)   there was a lady in our church that made soup for me.  Over and over again, week after week.  It was one of the few things I could eat.  There are many works that we do, but we, as Christians, will do something for others.  It is a natural result of the Spirit within.

Works don't save you.  What James was saying was that the Spirit of God within you changes you and produces a servant's heart.  As a matter of fact, James introduces his letter by saying, "James, a servant of God..." You want to help others.  Your "want to" changes.  Paul says you become a new creature. 2 Corinthians 5:17 "...if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature.  Old things are passed away, behold all things are become new."