James Chapter 1 vv. 13-15

What did James know that will help us?

What do you believe is going to happen to you next- not this thing that has happened to you, maybe you've been told your health is shot, maybe you've been told your bills are too high and your ability to pay is diminished, maybe your best friend has turned on you and said unbelievably cruel things in a very public place like Facebook-  there are literally hosts of things that can happen that are bad.  Label that the present bad, and think of it that way, this is now, this is bad, but what do you believe is going to happen to you next?  It appears from the text in James herein displayed as the Berean Bible Interlinear- so the Greek is placed therein, with the English not an easy thing to accomplish but the Berean's are a very faithful group of translators that seem to be very sincere in keeping the translation as clean and true to the writing as possible. Above the Berean Interlinear is an New International Version (NIV) translation so you can see them clearly, the NIV stays so close to the actual meaning of the words.  Please visit Bill Mounce contributor to the New International Version translation.

13When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone;14but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. 15Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.

13Μηδεὶς (No one) πειραζόμενος (being tempted) λεγέτω (let say) ὅτι (-), “Ἀπὸ (By) Θεοῦ (God)πειράζομαι (I am being tempted).” 14ὁ (-) γὰρ (For) Θεὸς (God) ἀπείραστός (unable to be tempted) ἐστιν (is) κακῶν (by evils); πειράζει (tempts) δὲ (now) αὐτὸς (He Himself) οὐδένα (no one). 14ἕκαστος (A man) δὲ (however) πειράζεται (is tempted), ὑπὸ (by) τῆς (the) ἰδίας (own) ἐπιθυμίας (desire) ἐξελκόμενος (being drawn away) καὶ (and) δελεαζόμενος (being enticed).15εἶτα (Then) ἡ (-) ἐπιθυμία (desire), συλλαβοῦσα (having conceived), τίκτει (gives birth to) ἁμαρτίαν (sin); ἡ (-) δὲ (and)ἁμαρτία (sin) ἀποτελεσθεῖσα (having become fully grown), ἀποκύει (brings forth) θάνατον (death).

  These first passages in James are very important for the Christian to grapple with because James is going to draw from his deep well of life, faith and practice as the Pastor of the First Church Jerusalem- and he's going to pass on to us, what he believes faith for us should be.   Life once again lets bear in mind, this is the man who lived with Jesus before He was declared as the Son of God.  Why say it that way, because Jesus didn't self declare until the near end of His ministry, why would he be secretive, had a lot to do with, if the enemies of the Word would be able to put Him in situations that would make it untenable, Christ might be forced as the Lamb of God to act in a way not accomplishing the Will of God- what am I saying, Jesus was fully man, He had free will, just like you and I, so, kneeling in the garden do you now see why it was God's will that had to be done, not Christ?  Do you further see how the condition of Christ wasn't secret to His brother who knew Him in ways and with family closeness that only James could?  Verse 13.

James saw the present horror, there's no other word for the situation which Jerusalem under Roman rule was.  Seeing a friend you have prayed with beaten, spit upon, and then nailed to a piece of wood and burned with tar on them so the roads could be lit.  Horror all around you, and for what, what you believe, because you aren't doing a thing against Rome except telling Caesar he isn't God.

James doesn't preach, teach or believe in a dead faith, an intellectual ascent to the mental idea and concept of Jesus's teachings- James knew that such faith isn't real, it won't last and doesn't have within it the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.  The indwelling of the Holy Spirit was something that James likely caught the first time he and Jesus got into something that they shouldn't have when Joseph wasn't looking.  While your jumping up and down about that not being in the New Testament- let your mind look again at this simple verse.  When tempted- well, could Jesus be tempted?  Well what's Paul say in Hebrews?  Wasn't Christ a man tempted in every way as we?  So that we don't have a savior who doesn't get what it is to be we?  Now look again at verse 13 and there it is, right up front- when tempted no one should say...because James had been, catch, this, taught that- by his brother- for years upon years of constant every day contact.  Contact with a brother who at the end of it, taught His brother that He was indeed, God, that He did indeed rise again.   Verse 14.

Now James turns to the experience of those teachings bouncing off what he knew from having lived it.  He probably remembered that look, a look that only someone who knows something you can't, but can't wait for you to discover it- my typing teacher had that look, she knew, touch typing would change my life forever, but, she also knew, like James had seen Jesus show him, it ain't easy. Now comes the nature of the present evil- we are always in a situation where we think it's good, but it may only look good, evil always does.  What we grab hold of in terms of understanding and present day knowledge, but what comes next?

Inside their homes James's congregation was safer than they were assembled, because when scattered to their each place, they couldn't be grabbed coming away from an assembled place, so they couldn't gather together without the actual danger of being spotted and identified by a solider of Rome as one of them, one of the way.  Now James reflects back on that also, and he sees the temptation to not gather together, and he sees how separately they weren't supported.  They didn't have each other, they didn't have the elders, they didn't have the Under Shepherd (Pastor).  At this point in their worship they have the Holy Spirit, but they didn't have much else, which tells us, the Holy Spirit is enough and James says very clearly here, we allow ourselves to fall, and it's a process, we think about and execute the sin that grabs us, and then we try to act like we hadn't- that, says James, isn't truth.  Note the word James uses, desire, which, when it is placed upon by a good guide, the Holy Spirit, for the good of the Body of Christ, it is a great heart moving tool.  When it's based on your own selfish whims, desire begins a process that will kill you.  Verse 15.

Lets stop there for today with the finalizing question, if you don't know what the Holy Spirit indwelling you is we'll be only to happy to share with you about Him, He's wonderful.

Springhill is Growing

“Springhill is growing…hallelujah” “Let my lifesong sing to you...”  Timothy Hardaway, Minister of Music and Education Central Baptist Church, Springhill Louisiana. There are few people alive today who really get leading worship- now before you go jumping up and down about that statement, slow your roll, and realize, the people chosen by God are different than the people who aren’t, and that difference was first strongly, incredibly, pointed out to us by Adrian Rodgers, and before him, many other men of God who realized that it was possible for someone to lead people about Jesus and God and be without the Holy Spirit, be frauds- be incapable of just “Getting nuts,” about Jesus, because they were never, born again- as Christ said to Nicodemus, “You must be born from above.” How could a man or a woman pretend such to be true? Gosh folks, seriously- you’re living in a world where yes has become no, red has become blue, truth has become what the last loudest voice proclaimed it to be- we’re in enormous, enormous trouble, and the problem- isn’t with our worship leaders. Why do I say that- well it’s kind of easy to say, but the truth is, we actually are smarter today than at any other point in the history of man. Along with that brilliance comes a very dire problem, Billy Graham often spoke from Paul of the direst condition- “Men of Athens,” [Acts 17] Athenians- smart folks, and not unholy, not bad people, they were just misguided, led by those who preferred wealth and their own gain, wow, not at all like us, thank God. So Billy Graham proclaimed that we lived in unholy times, times when the voice of truth (Another Casting Crowns hit) was growing faint, and as Adrian Rodgers made clear by people who got trapped into thinking that they could be leaders of Godly people without being born again. That they could become smart at a seminary, get their practice in with endless committee meetings of how to be successful, garner others into hearing them and then, mysteriously find themselves in a place where their soulless knowledge would now have followers, and their problem would become pride- and as we who know Jesus know, that goes before the fall- hard like King David, to say, hallelujah.

 Economic development is such a faith based bunch that it’s hard to believe they often don’t succeed. But maybe we need to sit out off the judgment throne for a while, and perhaps, get on our knees? Maybe if we spent a bit more time lifting up prayers about economic development, and spent less time griping about what we see as failings, then perhaps we’d begin to see that success is going to have to undergo a redefining in our time, or we won’t make it folks. Let’s be clear here, economic success, in economic development terms it means a great strategic plan, a great system of checks for success, and a finalizing outcome that will produce profit. Now let’s take that idea and project it into an area where you don’t think it belongs- might wanna sit down for this? First success is Biblical, don’t get fooled, a dear friend asked me in earnest, “Dana do you think Satan can get into our minds?” Its not as simple a question as it appears, but I loved it, because guess what, if evil can get you to believe that it doesn’t exist, oh my. God took a people who didn’t exist, stop momentarily and consider that, the nation didn’t exist- they were a bunch of wandering nomads- now how isn’t that like an entrepreneur- who thinks they’ve found it? God made them into a nation, that’s the record of the Old Testament, and history, despite it’s best efforts to kill the Bible, has it succeeded? Now Israel is a nation, and whether the world likes it or not, whether the world believes it or not, there my friends, they are, success, it’s Biblical. Aw c’mon, that’s worth a hallelujah?

Second, and this is actually way more important to communities who aren’t using economic development professionally- the power to change America’s definition of success is here, and it is, one word. That’s a bit of a cheeky way to get you to keep reading- and I hope, sincerely hope, that you will- you see, if you don’t keep reading, well of course, you won’t get the word, will you? But worse than that, you won’t get what’s needed and how powerful it is. We live in a place and time where even in smaller community’s where the power of greed is pretty sunk in, we need to believe that a business has potential, or it hasn’t got a chance. Did you figure out the word yet? We live in a culture which says, “Prove that what you know works, and do that in language and terms we’ll accept, or, well, we’ll unfriend you.” Want to imagine an impossible sheep to shepherd? Try the one that wanders away because it knows the eating is way better, over there, than where the shepherd has led it? Can anybody prove success before it happens- using language that everybody would love? My football coach, one of the greatest men who has ever lived (go ahead argue with me about that- I’m on Facebook and Twitter, have at it!) used to choose language designed to put the fear of God in us. Those words still echo in my hearing today, on occasion, mind you, only on occasion, coach would lose his ex-Marine gunnery sergeant mind, whisper yell in that voice blown screaming over artillery- words consisting of four letters. No they weren’t politically correct, but we won, much honor and glory and at the end of every game he would say to us, “Be gentlemen you go over and shake their hands.” Know the word yet- let’s understand that the second most important part of economic development is faith! Faith always deserves a hallelujah.

 My friends faith is so powerful that it won’t die- it’s not that it can’t be killed, you can kill faith, all you have to do is not go against it, such ease of existence kills faith. Faith likes a fight- not because fights are fun, but because, faith believes it will win- faith believes it will make things better. Faith believes that a person can learn, even when they’ve been paid for many years to lay on the couch and watch T.V. and not work, and draw a check, and get used to that miserable existence, with it’s miserable ways of language and outlook- faith believes even that person, maybe most importantly to God, especially that person, can learn and grow. Faith believes that sometimes you need to get shocked out of your complacency to understand that the wolf really is at the door? Faith knows that no other voice, no other means of communicating it’s importance in your life, matter more than the called man of God. Not because the called man of God is anything special, we aren’t- in fact many times it’s just the opposite, we’re miserable at times, because, we’re not able to turn to the ways of the world. There are plenty of history lessons about that, we’re not gonna go there in this writing, what we are going to say is this, you can tell a called man of God, and it’s almost instant, the fakers, you can tell them too, and once again, the truth is right there in the Bible- you’ll know because the Holy Spirit will guide you, as it does our music minister we opened with- not everybody loves him, but they should- He’s called by God. Christian's we need to say, hallelujah. Dr. Dana C. Richardson, drd4u on Facebook & Dr. Steve Broe, author of, “Leaders in Transition.”