James

James 5 : 11-13

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James 5:11 Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.
12 But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath: but let your yea be yea; and your nay, nay; lest ye fall into condemnation.
13 Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms.
 
Here we are reminded of the patience of Job and what he endured. Job is probably one of the greatest examples of what it takes to endure hardships of every kind but in the end he was restored by God to a position greater than what he had before his hardship began. When we are suffering God’s mercy and grace is at its strongest. Again James warns us about our tongue and how we use it because it reveals how we really are in our heart. When we speak we should use straight honest speech otherwise we invite God’s judgement on us. Anything more than a simple yes or no is presuming that we have more power than we do. We do not want to be condemned of God for thinking too highly of ourselves. Verse 13 is talking about hardships we go through and the best cure for these things that cause us so much discomfort is prayer. After we see how God answered our prayer it should bring joy to our life so we should sing praise to our God. We should be happy to sing praises to Him every day for the mercy and grace He showed by sending His Son to die for our salvation.
James

James 5:9-10

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James 5:9 Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned: behold, the judge standeth before the door.
10 Take, my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience.
 
Here the scripture is actually telling us not to murmur or talk bad about people or else we could be condemned because God is seeing and hearing everything we do and say every day. Jesus is sitting on ready to call his people home, do not do that which could get you left behind. James reminds us of the prophets of the old testament that endured suffering and a lot of them a terrible death but they still did the work God had for them and did it with patience. Today when some one gets their feelings hurt at church they act like they are being burned at stake when with just a little bit of patience and some forgiveness on both parties part everything could be like it should be. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to be in church where everybody was on the same page and there was no confusion about anything and all the ministries in the church were working together to accomplish what God intended. For this to happen Pride has to be aside and a humble heart with patience has to surface.
James

James 5:7-8

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James 5:7 Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain.
8 Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.
 
James here is saying to be patient with those who have oppressed God’s people, realizing the glory that awaits them at Christ’s return should motivate believers to patiently endure mistreatment. We see from this an encouragement to wait patiently on the coming of the Lord. Many believe the early and latter rain, spoken of here, is speaking of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit of God. Verse 8 is a call for resolute firm courage and commitment to those about to collapse under the weight of persecution to shore up their hearts with the hope of the second coming. Here we see that the great work of salvation takes place in the heart. It is the heart that must be stayed upon God.
2 Thessalonians 3:5 “And the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and into the patient waiting for Christ.”
James

James 5:4-6

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James 5:4 Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth.
5 Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter.
6 Ye have condemned and killed the just; and he doth not resist you.
 
This scripture starts us off letting us know that those who are over us are subject to take or keep that which belongs to us. We also are aware of what theses people have taken from from us and cry out to God for this happening and he hears our cries. As you should know from Revelation, not only does God avenge His people but He also uses angels to help Him. Verse 5 continues showing how because someone desires to have all they can materially it leads to over indulging in the pleasures they have gotten themselves accustomed to, to the point of being likes cows fattened for the slaughter. Finally in verse 6 we see how far this indulgence can take someone. It may not necessarily be physical death they cause, for how many have been destroyed by what someone said. These people are the ones that helped nail Jesus to the cross,but wait, because of our sin we also helped nail Him to the cross. This is the reason we need to repent and ask God to forgive us, so we do not suffer the slaughter coming to those who have no desire to change.
James

James 5: 2-3

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James 5:2 Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten.
3 Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.
 
The riches here are corrupted because they were obtained by any means possible and by someone who puts wealth ahead of everyone and everything. It is not the riches that are evil, but the use of the riches by this corrupt man. We see in verse 3 that this rich man, spoken of here, is putting his faith in the gold and silver, rather than in God. People have stored up treasure for their last days which God will use against them in the last days. We do know that there is nothing wrong with silver and gold in their selves. The fact that silver means redemption and gold symbolizes the purity of God, tells us that the metal is not bad. It is our use, or rather misuse, that is bad. This is like anything that God has given us, we are to use it the way God intended. Today I pray you will find a church to attend and let God have His way in your life.
James

James 5:1

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James 5:1 Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.
 
James starts this chapter not just talking about the rich but about the rich that claim to be Christians. They have way more than they need and misuse it in away not pleasing to God. Their real god is the money itself. Remember God’s word says you cannot serve two masters and if you misuse the generosity God gives you then there will be punishment from God. God does not mind us having wealth as long as we do let it over take our lives to the point we make it our god. Remember in some of the earlier verses it said to know to good and do it not is a sin, well this is another area I think where we may have a tendency sometimes to fail in doing the thing God would have us do. But it is just with money but with everything God God gives us. He say to him who is given much, much is required. So let strive each day to do all we can God and His Glory.
James

James 4:15-17

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James 4:15 For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.
16 But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil.
17 Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.
 
Her we see that all things that we should be doing are in the will of God. We should not be planning some elaborate thing and leave God out of it. To boast in what we are doing is not good mainly because we do not know if we will see tomorrow so we should focus on today and be in the will of God in what we do. Verse 17 is one, as a Christian, we have heard more than once and that is to know to do good and not do it , is a sin. You know when you really think about this how many times have we failed to do good and thought nothing else about it? You know God’s word tells us to to be in a repentant mood daily and a lot times it could be for this very reason. So if you see in your daily routine of life an opportunity to good, do your best to follow God’s will in what you do.
A Note from Hope

The Parable of the Sower, A Bible Story – a Note from Hope

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Mom told me another story this week from the Bible.  This one was about DIRT!

You see, my mom knows I love to dig in the dirt, and I especially like it when I find things that smell good. Sometimes I find stuff like flower bulbs; Mom takes them away from me and puts them back down in the dirt.  Sometimes Mom says the stuff I find smells bad and she won’t let me play with it or eat it.

But this story about the dirt… well, Mom says Jesus liked to teach his friends by telling them parables, which means “teaching stories”. One of the stories he told was about a farmer who sowed some seed.

Some of the seeds fell on the path, and when the birds saw them, they came down and ate them. Some of the seeds fell on ground that had lots of rocks in it; when the seeds sprouted, they didn’t have room for their roots to grow; when the sun came out it made them die because they couldn’t get to any water. Some of the seeds fell in the thorns; since the thorns were already grown they blocked the sun from those seeds and drank up all the water before the seeds could  get to it, and the thorns just wrapped themselves around the new plants and they couldn’t survive. (mean old thorns!)

But some of the seeds fell onto good dirt; as the rains came, they drank it up; they pushed their roots down into the good dirt and held on when the wind blew; and when the sun came out shining hot on them, they drank up water that was deep underground. They were able to grow up to be big plants that produced lots of grain.

Mom says that the seeds in the story stand for God’s word.  Sometimes people hear His word, but they don’t really pay attention or try to hold on to it. Then satan comes along and takes it away from them by getting their minds on other things.  Sometimes a person hears the word, and they get excited when they realize it’s for them.  But they don’t put their roots down into God’s word and hold on when things get tough; maybe their feelings get hurt by someone and they decide they don’t want to go to church or be around Christians anymore.

Sometimes a person hears God’s word, but they start worrying about stuff, instead of trusting God to take care of everything. They worry so much that they choke out what they’ve learned about God; then they decide that God can’t be trusted and they give up on Him.

But some seed falls in the good dirt; that’s the folks who pay attention to what the Bible says, and trust God to take care of them. They keep studying and learning about God, even when things get tough. They don’t give up, because they remember that God doesn’t give up on them.

And those are the seeds that grow up to bear lots of fruit… that means they teach others about Jesus too, and bring more folks into God’s Kingdom.

I want to bear lots of good fruit for Jesus; I love Him and I know He loves me!

Here’s a color sheet about this story, if you like to color. (Mom won’t let me color because I try to eat the crayons.)

James

James 4:13-14

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James 4:13 Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain:
14 Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.
 
In 13 James is saying it is ok to be a wise business man but do not leave God out of the things you do and plan and also we should not put off to tomorrow what needs to be done today. As verse 14 goes on to say we do not know what tomorrow will hold. Even though we may live to be a hundred years our live is but a vapor compared to eternity. We feel when someone dies at young age, even a baby, they had a short life and in human terms they did, but again compared to eternity it is but a vapor no matter how long we live. These verses show how important it is that we have our heart and soul right with God each and every day because we are not promised tomorrow.
James

James 4:11-12

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11 Speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaketh evil of his brother, and judgeth his brother, speaketh evil of the law, and judgeth the law: but if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge.
12 There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judgest another?
 
James here says we should not talk bad about people in any way. A lot of time we will begin saying something about someone and not realize we are judging them by what we say.  By doing this we are saying we are better than the law itself and think we are above the law, and setting our self up as judge and there is only one judge and that is God. There is only one that gave the law and He can save those that repent from their sin and He will destroy those that do not, but He, God, is the the only one that can. Remember when Jesus ask the people, when they brought woman accused of adultery before Him, he who is without sin cast the first stone, they all had to leave. They had judged her but Jesus showed them who are we to judge. We are no better than anyone else except for the saving grace Jesus Christ and that still does not put us above others for us to judge them.
1 John 1:8 “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”