Deeds

But if we are the body, why aren’t His arms reaching?
Why aren’t His hands healing?
Why aren’t His words teaching?
And if we are the body, why aren’t His feet going?
Why is His love not showing them there is a way?
(Casting Crowns)

. . . Never could slow down enough / To study a face,
but now I wanna know your name . . .

Hold my feet to the fire
“Til I’m breaking a sweat
“Til I never forget
Your calling
Keep me on the line
Give me the nerve
Here it’s all in the serve . . .
(Michael W. Smith)

Could you believe if I really was like Him / If I lived all the words that I said
If for a change I would kneel down before you / And serve you instead . . .

Could you believe if I carried my own cross
If I saw that the children were fed . . .
(Twila Paris)

You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. ~James 2: 22~

Slow to Speak and Slow to Become Angry

As advice, the admonition to be slow to speak and slow to become angry is so obvious that it seems trite. Who needs to be reminded that talking too much and getting mad are not things that help us along relationship paths, career paths, any paths . . . other than the path to the Jerry Springer show? Yet, if you are like me, following James’ advice a little more closely would sure save a lot of headaches and heartaches. Thankfully most of our lives are not normally ruled by tension and problems . . . but to whatever extent they are, most of us can quickly attribute many of the tensions and problems to our (or someone else’s) tendency to speak too much or get mad about something.

So the obvious “take away” from James’ advice is to speak less and listen more. We should all just shut up and listen. (That’s tough for a preacher!) Yet James doesn’t leave it at that because he then warns that listeners are not any more noble than talkers if their listening does not result in some sort of action. “Don’t just listen to the word,” James says, or you become like a person who looks in a mirror and does not care enough to comb his hair.

Perhaps more than nice and very practical advice about our listening skills and our anger management, James seeks to make sure that we get the fact that the “Word” is what we should listen to and take action about. Not our word or words. But his Word. He spoke a Word of flesh and blood that lived and died. Lived and died just to be heard. Will we listen?


Mark

The Tiger Born of Temptation

Remember a few years ago when the magician of Sigfried and Roy was attacked by his tiger? He had raised it from a cub; yet, it turned on him, ignoring his commands and nearly killed him. He was used to commanding that little tiger, but when it was grown, it decided listening was optional.

When we were learning Lusoga (the language in Uganda), I sat under a mango tree for months on end trying to learn imperatives. This was made considerably more difficult by the fact that I had no idea what the term meant and couldn’t point to an imperative even in English! The book of James is full of imperatives. Imperatives say “Do this, don’t do this.” They are commands--emphatic directions. James is practical and pragmatic. Sometimes a little heavier on the imperatives than we might like him to be.

In the middle of James chapter one, James offers a few imperatives regarding temptation. Actually he gives us a flow chart for sin, saying it begins here, moves to here and ends up here. First it looks like this, then this, and finally this. James makes it clear that sin is headed to one place: death.

On one hand it’s not very encouraging to hear, “Don’t blame God. Do blame yourself.” Knowing we’re the problem and we’re to blame doesn’t help much, does it? I had so many problems with imperatives in Lusoga because I never used them in English, or at least not without trying to be polite. I softened them with, “Well, maybe you could . . .” or “What about trying this . . .”

Now that I have kids, I understand the need for imperatives. I find myself asking, “What part of ‘don’t’ did you not understand?” I want to be clear and direct, especially when it is “imperative” they get it. If my son heads toward traffic, I don’t suggest he stop; I demand it. James has neither the time nor inclination to soften his imperatives because he understands the result of sin is death.

Sin is like a baby tiger we take into our lives. It’s cute, interesting and cool to have around, but James knows it will mature, and when fully grown (his words, not mine), eat us alive. So if James sounds a little harsh and direct, maybe it’s because he knows good and well the nature of the beast we are dealing with and just how dangerous it is to play with it. Sin is a tiger, and we have a promise that one day it will turn on us, and we will be no match for it.

Mark

Tested

pure joy whenever you face trials . . . know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance . . . [you] will receive the crown of life that God promised . . .
~James 1: 2, 3, 12~

So through the fire
I’ll be refined
And if that fire
Were to take this life
I’ll be with him forever
~Rebecca St. James~

I didn’t come lookin’ for trouble
And I don’t want to fight needlessly
But I’m not going to hide in a bubble
If trouble comes for me . . .
Let the lightning flash, let the thunder roll,
Let the storm winds blow
Bring it on
Let the trouble come, let the hard rain fall,
Let it make me strong . . .
I’m not gonna run from the very things
That would drive me closer to Him
~Steven Curtis Chapman~

I will walk by faith even when I cannot see
Because this broken road
Prepares your will for me
~Jeremy Camp~

Consider It Pure Joy . . .

When you have a baby...now that’s pure joy. When church members bring you food so you don’t have to cook . . .ahh, pure joy. When my son steals a ball and makes a layup or when Samer Tohmy improves his jumpshot . . . pure joy. Basically, anything good that happens to ME or the PEOPLE I LIKE are things that fit my description of “pure joy.”

Yet James tells us, “consider it pure joy my brothers . . . when you face TRIALS and TEMPTATIONS of many kinds.” What’s that supposed to mean? When I get cut off in traffic . . . “Pure joy.” When my neighbor complains about my dog barking . . . “Pure joy.” When a raccoon bites me . . . “Pure joy.” (Sorry, Julie!) When something bad happens to my children . . . “Pure joy.”

Now that’s some pretty hard line advice. If we think of James’ advice as a haughty slap upside the head to all spiritual slackers, then it’s a little hard to swallow. James has been read for too long as a series of little pithy bumper stickers for macho Christians like . . . “when the going gets tough . . .” But when we think of James’ admonition as the wise words of a man who had faced his fair share of “trials and temptations of many kinds . . .” then we see that he is standing alongside us. He is saying, “I’m old and strong and mature now, and I got there by being tested. I got here by persevering . . . not necessarily by being perfect or by being excellent.”

I think it is encouraging to read James and not feel pressured or burdened to “feel pure joy” when the raccoon bites us (or whatever random crazy things come along), but rather to “consider it pure joy” to have persevered the encounter with faith not only intact, but enhanced. Otherwise we are caught in a trap where the only joy we can feel is when something really good happens to us or the people we like . . . which Jesus reminds us, isn’t any different than the rest of the world we are trying to reach.

Indescribable*

From the highest of heights to the depths of the sea,
Creation’s revealing Your majesty.
From the colors of Fall to the fragrance of Spring,
Every creature unique in the song that it sings.
All exclaiming:

Indescribable, uncontainable
You placed the stars in the sky, and You know them by name.
You are amazing, God;
All powerful, untamable.
Awestruck, we fall to our knees as we humbly proclaim
You are amazing, God.

Who has told every lightning bolt where it should go
Or seen heavenly storehouses laden with snow?
Who imagined the sun and gives source to its light
Yet conceals it to bring us the coolness of night?
None can fathom.

Indescribable, uncontainable;
You placed the stars in the sky, and You know them by name.
You are amazing, God;
Incomparable, unchangeable.
You see the depths of my heart, and You love me the same.
You are amazing, God.

*By Laura Story © 2004 Worshiptogether.com Songs

Psalm 65

O you who hear prayer, to you all men will come.
When we were overwhelmed by sins, you forgave our transgressions.
Blessed are those you choose and bring near to live in your courts!
We are filled with the good things of your house, of your holy temple.

You answer us with awesome deeds of righteousness, O God our Savior,
the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas,
who formed the mountains by your power, having armed yourself with strength,
who stilled the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves,
and the turmoil of the nations.
Those living far away fear your wonders;
where morning dawns and evening fades
you call forth songs of joy.

You care for the land and water it; you enrich it abundantly.
The streams of God are filled with water to provide the people with grain,
for so you have ordained it.
You drench its furrows and level its ridges;
you soften it with showers and bless its crops.
You crown the year with your bounty, and your carts overflow with abundance.
The grasslands of the desert overflow; the hills are clothed with gladness.
The meadows are covered with flocks and the valleys are mantled with grain;
they shout for joy and sing.

(2-13)