Yesterday, my oldest son Scott said something that I thought was interesting.  He said, "Wouldn't it have been hard to have your older brother always being perfect.  Can your imagine what James felt like having a brother that was always good.  Never got into trouble.  Was always obedient to his Mom and Dad.  Never missed church.  Gladly shared everything he had."  Then my son said, "That would have been really, really hard to live with."

Sometimes we read the Bible and we don't think about the humanity of the people we read about.  We know that James didn't think that Jesus was the Messiah.  He didn't think Jesus was anything but his older brother until the resurrection.   Then it all came into focus.  Jesus was God.  Jesus had lived a perfect life in order to die for us.  When Jesus rose from the dead, James was forever a changed man.

James started the letter he wrote by saying, "James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ,…"  James had given his life to God and recognized the Lordship of his own brother.  He realized that everything his mother Mary had told him about his older brother had been true.  After the resurrection, James understood the prophecies of the Old Testament had been fulfilled.

Mary and Joseph.   Jesus,  James and their sisters and brothers.  Wouldn't that have been an interesting family.  I had never even thought about that.

There is so much in the Bible that I have never thought about.  That's why reading it is so interesting.  You always are learning something new.  It is alive.

I'm going to tell you a story.  Six months ago, I got tattooed.  A radical procedure for a woman who is  75.  But there is background.  You don't just jump up and go get tattooed at my age.  My mother probably rolled over in her grave--as the old saying goes.

Five years ago, after a long illness, (I survived, praise God)  not only did my hair fall out, so did my eyebrows.  Permanently. Then a year ago one of the chambers of my heart quit working.  Stopped. So I had to have shock therapy and then they put me on a drug that makes me shake.  Which meant that every time I tried to sign my name it looked like  chicken scratching.  And every time I tried to use my eyebrow pencil it took forever and a day to pencil them in and was a mess.  Lipstick was even worse.  So I had my eyebrows  tattooed on.  Best thing I ever did for myself.  It was so great I decided to have my lips tattooed as well.

Yes,  I could  have given the makeup up, but my generation always makes up their face.  Our mothers instilled real fear in us if we left the house without looking our best.  And Seventeen magazine reminded us in every issue of all the things that were wrong with the way we looked.

James 4: 17 "Therefore to him (her) that knows to do good, and doesn't do it, to him (her) it is sin."

James is definitely not talking about tattoos. He's talking about doing good.  Not getting something good--like a tattoo.  He is saying that not only is doing the wrong thing a sin, so is not doing the right thing.  That divides sin into two categories.  Mercy.  Just when I thought I was almost there, I find out that there is an entire other category of sin.  This is getting serious.   I am certainly not doing enough good things for others.  I can do better.  And James says if I know it and don't do better, I'm in trouble.

It's time to give up on the okra and tomatoes.  For me, it's hard to pull up the stalks that have served me so well all summer long.  It's like saying farewell to an old friend.  But the okra has made seed that will get planted again in the spring.  And the tomatoes were so prolific that I have been begging my neighbors to take them.

When I was very young, my dad once told me  that if there weren't any yellow blooms on the okra, there wouldn't be any okra. And if there wasn't any rain, there wouldn't be any blooms.  I wasn't very big, and had never known anything about growing things, but I understood what he was saying.  You have to have rain.  So in Oklahoma, we always pray for rain.

James 4: 17 "…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."

My dad was all of those things.  Pure.  Peaceable.  Gentle.  Easy to be Entreated.  Merciful.  Full of good works.  Without partiality.  Totally without hypocrisy.  I was  truly blessed.

He gave me the wisdom that he had without making me feel stupid.  Now, when I pick okra, I always look to see how many yellow blooms are there.  So I know how much more okra is coming.  And I always think of my dad.  Maybe that is why I like to garden.

How do you pass wisdom along?  Maybe the reason that the younger generation doesn't listen to us like they should is because we don't have the qualities needed to pass wisdom along.  They need it.  We have it.  So maybe those 8 qualities James talked about God having, are qualities we need in our own lives.

Bloom where you are planted.

We have a dear friend (Cleta) who brings Ken a coconut pie every couple of weeks.   Ken loves coconut pie.  He has half of it eaten before the day is done.  And then finishes it off before noon the next day.  It is such a nice thing for her do for Ken.  Her husband Jim was part of the Normandy invasion on D-day.  We eat breakfast with them every Saturday and Ken and Jim swap war stories.

We have been so blessed with people in our lives that really do what James said we should do.  Do good.    When James writes something, it's all black and white.  No gray.

James 2:19  "You believe that there is one God; you do well: the devils also believe, and tremble."

Now there is an interesting thought.  Believing that there is a God doesn't save you.  Believing there is only  one  God doesn't save you.  If there is anyone who believes there is one God, it is Lucifer--Satan himself.  He went head to head with God and lost.   He, the devil, knows positively that there is only one God.

Now he (Satan) roams the earth.  1 Peter 5:8  "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walks about seeking who he may devour."  We must take this fact seriously.  We are in danger of an adversary who spends all of his time  looking for people to ruin.  Their lives.  Their relationships.  He is relentless.  You are his target.

The Holy Spirit is what saves us.  Inviting Christ into your life is the step we must take after believing that there is one God.   It is Christ who saves you.  "...Christ in you, the hope of glory. "  Col. 1: 27b

He alone is our hope.

James 2: 8  "I you fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, You shall love your neighbor as yourself, you do well'."

John put it this way:   "A new commandant  I give to you, That you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another."  John 13:34.

The other disciples said it in similar ways.  But one thing is sure, Christ changed the way we look at law. Keeping 10 rules no longer cuts it.   That's just a starting place.    We have to love others in exactly the same way Jesus loved us.  It has to come from within our hearts.

You can't possibly do it unless you have been changed.  Even when you have been changed it is sometimes difficult.  Some people just aren't lovable.  But we are not given a choice.  Love and "Like" are two different things.

Love is not a feeling, it is a behavior.  It doesn't matter how we feel, what matters is what we do.

James nails this down in James 2: 14a  "What does it profit, my brothers, though a man says he has faith, and doesn't have works…."

Faith, followed by works is the natural result of being changed by Jesus.

There are lots of ways to love others.  Sometimes chicken soup will do.  But sometimes it takes writing a check.  Other times a person just needs someone to listen to them.

Thanks for listening to to all the stuff I've written.

The word "religion" is very seldom used in the Bible.  Of the three times I found it referenced, two are in the book of James.  Once in James 1:26 and once in verse 27.  James realized  that Christianity was something very, very different from Judaism, and tried to define some basic behaviors that any religion

should produce in the lives of its followers.   He was primarily speaking to Jewish converts. 

James 1:26 "If any man among you seems to be religious, and doesn't bridle his tongue, but deceives his own heart, this man's religion is vain."

James 1:27  "Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this,  To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world."

I think that James was correct about the necessity for a few identifying  characteristics  that any religion should have.

1.  You know when to keep your mouth shut.  I got on one of my daughter's horses a few months ago and was able to lead him where I wanted him to go because of the bridle in his mouth.  God needs to be in the saddle of  your life and you need a bridle in your mouth.

2.  You attend to the needs to those who are in need:  those who are sick, those who are homeless, and those who are alone.   

3.  You live differently (unspotted) from the world.

But religion in itself isn't enough for salvation.  You must give the saddle to God.  You must accept the bridle.  When you truly give yourself to Christ, you have the heart to do his will.  The Holy Spirit.

There is nothing worse than getting on a bucking horses that won't do your will.   They aren't worth anything to the rancher until they have a heart to do the master's will.   

Last week was difficult for Ken.  Thank you for your prayers.  Like I told you, I don't believe in luck.  I believe in prayer.  And when you are exhausted, it is very comforting to know that others pray for you.

So I can't help but skip from the first chapter of James to the fifth chapter to tell you this:

James 5:16b  "…and pray one for another, that you may be healed.  The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much."  Effectual.  Fervent.  Prayer.  Of righteous people.

He's better, siting up.  He ate  a huge dinner  and finished it off with Blue Bell peach ice cream.

Some of you have asked why I haven't answered your comments.  I didn't know how.  Yes, it is easy if you know what you are doing.  I don't, but as it turns out, the system didn't work.

Your comments now work.
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