Morningside Devotionals

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) translati...

“ 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 loudes...

What did James know that will help us? Self identifying, it's a way of saying what you are that is systematically accepted by those institutions which have chosen to honor such a declaration.  It is usually about gender, although it can be about other things; these days it is mostly about gender choice, and it is showing up on insurance forms, college admission sheets, used car rentals (hard to see that one, isn't it?) and many other forms of data where what you identify yourself as makes, apparently, a difference?  Is there a problem with this?  In the social media age, is that problem even more rarefied?  One of my associates calls himself a homosexual Christian, that's a form of self identification; one almost has to shudder at what that form of self identification would have gained a person standing at the base of Mt. Horeb? We're going to take a few discussion points into this narrative as a commentary, and try to make relevant a document written a c...

What did James know that will help us? "BOOM" Then silence, inside the silence is a note, a humming?  If you read that and had no idea what it was describing, you've never had a gun go off close to your ears without ear plugs or those headphone shooting protectors.  That tone means your ear is now out of commission, that lasts for a while, during that moment, you don't hear other sounds.  Once while training to use forty five caliber weapons in the military the trainer informed us that we were going to experience this, so that we'd know what it was like when we drew our weapon without protection, and wouldn't freak out in a fire fight.  We did, and that sound is a terrifying one.  Being terrified, being scared to the point that your mind has a certain loss of control, that there is no reference to model your behavior on, that you go out of your mind, so to say, with terror- the moment before the sword strikes, the moments after an explosion, the moment...

What did James know that will help us? Perhaps one of the most difficult things to be among the free is a leader.  Free people have free ideas, and lots of them.  A Pastor asked his prayer group what they thought was the worst problem facing America and what would they do to fix it.  The responses ran from sexual immorality to apathy, about which he said he had little concern.  Freedom is a wonderful thing, but for a leader it means facing the daily challenge of leading ideas and being able to comprehend the incomprehensible God for those who look to the spiritual leader to help them "Get God."  Is this perhaps some portion of what was happening in the life of James?  Were people asking him, "Hey you're in that way thing, what's that mean?"  "Aren't you a Jesus follower?"  "Are you people really carrying fake news about Nero?"  (That's probably not real that last one, oops, fake pun...oops)  Had James become acutely aware tha...

What did James know that will help us? There won't always be a church in the world- there will come a day when it is gone- the reason for that is the removal of the Holy Spirit from the earth.  We know this will happen.  Those who do not believe the Bible don't consider this important.  Those who have read the Revelation of Christ understand that this will take place, and what will follow is beyond any human beings ability to see.  Right now total evil is held back, somewhat in check, like a hit man with no bullets in his gun, he's dangerous, that's for sure, but, not instantly deadly.  When there is no holding action against the evil on earth, then nobody can see what that's like, but it won't be nice.  Did James at some point in his life wonder if it had already hit?   Did John talk about the Revelation he received on Patmos?  Did these early followers of Christ believe that they were living in the last days?  It's possible- s...

What did Jam es Know that Can Help  Us? Briefly lets focus on verse 3, it's often overlooked as sitting between the heavy concept of verse 2 which opens the door on an entirely different way of reflecting on rough times, but here's where it has to get a bit strange, do you wonder that perhaps James may have heard, "Your brother doesn't make messes..." Just food for thought...so in verse 3 we see the idea of faith, the idea of it producing something which allows you to continue on in the midst of rough times. What is amazing love? “ 2Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, 3knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” This is amazing love, that you have the power to make all kinds of all kinds of things, different, but if you do, the result will be people who become servile, incapable of actually ever lovi...