James 1:1-4 – Count It All Joy

Jam 1:1
JAMES, a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ,

To the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad:

Greetings.

Jam 1:2
My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials,
Jam 1:3
knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.

Jam 1:4
But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

Verse 1
This epistle was written specifically to Jews, but I believe it can be applied to our own lives as well (2 Timothy 3:16).

Verse 2
It’s so easy to say that we are suffering because God doesn’t care about us, or to accuse someone else of wrongdoing when we see them suffering.

Think of Job’s wife telling him to “Curse God and die” (Job 2:9). But what of Job’s response, “‘You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God and shall we not accept adversity?’” In all this Job did not sin with his lips” (Job 2:10).

Verse 3
Why should we rejoice in the midst of our trials? Because trials test our faith. When our faith is tried, we come out stronger and more trusting on the other side.

God tests us for a reason. We don’t have to understand the reason, because we’re not God. He won’t give us anything more than we can handle (cf. 1 Corinthians 10:13). That’s great news. When we’re not in a trial!

The victory comes when you endure a trial, when the world feels like it’s going to end, and you have nowhere to turn. When that happens and you hold to your faith and stand strong, despite circumstances, you can thank God that He has started bringing you down the path of patience.

Verse 4
Why should we be more patient? Well, patience will lead us to being complete. Perfect. Lacking nothing. That’s be a good thing!

Preaching…

Ryan has a couple of posts that highlight a certain preaching methodology. (Part 1 | Part 2)

It has brought about some really interesting comments. Whatever the case, it has definitely started me thinking.  So is drive by preaching really a demonstration of love?

Looking for love
Just a quick search of the New King James shows me that a few books in the Bible don’t mention the word love. It’s kind of an interesting list, actually.

• Numbers
• Ruth
• 2 Kings
• 1 Chronicles
• Ezra
• Esther
• Lamentations
• Joel
• Obadiah
• Jonah
• Nahum
• Habakkuk
• Haggai
• Malachi
• Acts

The first mention of Love in the Bible is in Genesis 22:2. The last mention is in Revelation 12:11. In light of the conversation, I find it interesting that the word can’t be found in the writings of so many of the prophets (Jonah, Habakkuk, and Malachi most noticeably), or the book of Acts.

In all of the preaching in the book of Acts, with all of the conversions in Nineveh, we don’t read anywhere of anyone telling sinners that “God loves you and have a wonderful plan for your life.”

In fact, the entirety of Jonah’s message was, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” (Jonah 3:4). We read nothing of Jonah building relationships with the sinners in Nineveh. We read nothing of him setting up greed counseling centers. All we see is that one sentence. The result?

So the people of Nineveh believed God, proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them. Then word came to the king of Nineveh; and he arose from his thronw and laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes.

Powerful stuff. How did it come about?
We can pretty much understand from scripture that Jonah was not praying for Nineveh’s conversion. In fact, he was giddy about their impending annihilation! We read in Jonah 4:1, “But [Nineveh's conversion] displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he became angry.”

So how did Nineveh’s conversion happen?
We understand that nobody comes to Christ by their own will. “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him” (John 6:44). We also understand that nobody comes to Christ apart from their own will. “Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord” (Acts 3:19).

There are a combination of factors in play here in the macrocosmic conversion of Nineveh, just as there are a combination of factors in play in the microcosmic conversion of a single soul.

1. Prayer
   I believe the first step to a person’s conversion is genuine heartfelt prayer to God for that person’s soul (cf. John 14:14, James 5:15, 2 Peter 3:9).
2. Preach
3. Hear
4. Believe
   

But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart“, (that is, the word of faith which we preach); that is you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the mouth
confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture says,”Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. For “whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.“

How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written:

“How Beautiful are the feet of those who peace the gospel of peace,
Who bring glad tidings of good things!”

Romans 10:8-15

The final three steps in the process are all summarized in Romans 10:8-15.

We are all parts of an ongoing chain. We may be the one who prays. We may be the one who preaches — the first time. We may be the person who preaches the gospel and experiences their conversion.

I think that the preacher in the video is being motivated by love. I don’t think that is the way I would approach it, but as Jason is clear to point out in his comments, the gentleman’s stated motivation is clearly loving, and nothing he says is particularly offensive.

It may be one of those situations where the people are complaining so loudly because his words hit close to home. On the other hand, it may also be a situation where they have heard the same thing so many times that their ears are unresponsive. I think this is where the hypocrisy issue comes out clearest. We will never know this side of heaven.

Therefore Submit to God

So I am working on reading the New Testament this month. I did very well for the first three days.

Then I went to San Antonio last weekend and fell behind because of that. Then I began focusing on praying a whole lot as I prepared my sermon for Wednesday night. The sermon went really well, but I fell behind in my reading plan.

So I have to ask myself…what is the priority?

Am I reading the New Testament in a month just to be able to say that I did it (again), or am I reading it so that I can hear from God?

I believe that I am reading it so that I can better hear from God. If I am spending time in focused prayer, than I am hearing from God. So the plan has backed off just a bit. I am behind, but I plan to continue reading quite a bit each day. I may not finish by January 31st, but I will finish before the end of February for sure.

But the whole point is to draw me closer to God, and I can definitely say that this year has started out by being great in that respect.

Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands,you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning andyour joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up. – James 4:7-10