JustJeff

Paul's revelation of the mystery that God had manifested to Him was the incorporation of the Gentiles into His body, the welcoming of His adopted children. The Jewish people were biased toward their faith as the law had intructed them not to assimilate with Gentiles. Tradition probably carried this to the extreme causing ill feelings between the two groups. By accepting the Gentiles into His family, God threw out the welcome mat and made the Gentiles feel the same love that Adonai displays to His chosen, with eventual acceptance into the Messianic Jewish community.

When a person is sick it is that person who should call upon the elders of the church to anoint with oil and pray over them. This is significant because it represents that individual exercising his or her faith, the necessary step toward receiving a healing.

Insofar as all scripture is inspired by God and all scripture is truth, it is the basis of our faith. To walk in the Word, that is, to be doers of the Word, is our life. To deviate from the Word is death. To take away or add to the scriptures as given by the Holy Spirit is to create religion which is why the church today is a mess and a sea of confusion. Those who deny the revelations of God to His people today, by His Holy Spirit, have lost the entire purpose of the Messianic gift and God's divine plan for our salvation. Their command of the Holy Word is superficial, to say the least. Imagine going to Japan and not speaking a word of Japanese then attempting to look someone up in the Japanese phone book. Try reading and understanding the Word of God without revelation from the Holy Spirit. Same difference. God reveals Himself in this manner to His people today and without understanding His language, the Word, there is no revelation. Consequently those who do not believe in the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit to reveal things of God to us are, lost.

I believe that grumbling and complaining tells that we are proud and selfish, which is the opposite of what we are supposed to be, humble and giving of our love. Obviously, there is little faith, as faith knows that God will supply our every need and that is what is best for us. Impatience illustrates spiritual immaturity, a stunted Christian, someone who cannot go through the fire while trusting in the Lord.

The congregation is a body of believers and together we are the temple of God. It is intriguing that I, as one, am the temple of God, and we as a group are the temple of God, and Christians worldwide are the temple of God, His body. O the depth and riches of our God! Since He does not dwell in temples made with hands, rather in us, if we fail to function as a unit, that is our congregation is in discord and sin has a foothold, He will not be present. Our temple is incomplete and Jesus will be missing. For me to be experienced and appreciated (by the Lord, as it is He we should please. When we do, everything else falls into place.) I need to be a doer of the word, not a hearer only. Doing the word brings the fire, fire the purging, purging the experience, experience the patience, and patience brings the appreciation which will come from those who admire your commitment and dedication to our Savior and what you can give as a result, the love of God.

On a ship there are hatches or steel doors that prevent compartment flooding in the event of damage to the vessel. When these hatches are secured it is not possible to go from one compartment to another. There is no access. For those who do not know Jesus and have no relationship with Him. For those mired in sin, there is no access to the Father, the hatch is closed. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. To get to the Father we must go trough the Son as He is the door. Once access is attained the Father hears us, at anytime, in any place. The Holy Spirit is our Intercessor. He reveals the desires of our heart to the Son when we are unable to pray as we need to. He enables us to be in perfect communion with the Father through the Son. The Holy Trinity in action!

If we, as Christians, lack patience in waiting for the return of our Savior we will fail. Romans 5:1-4 says quite simply that patience is an element that gives us hope and is the necessary key to the experience we need to build our hope upon. Without hope, we are lost.

By His coming, His perfect life, His death and resurrection and the Good News that He gave, Jesus fulfilled all the sacrificial requirements for atonement for sin set down in the Mosiac law. By His Holy Sprit, He has provided us the ability to accomplish what the law cannot. We can lead sinless, sanctified lives and be made righteous once and for all. For all is the key. Jesus Christ has broken down the partition between Jew and Gentile. He is the Savior of the world and all who come to the Fountain may drink. One day we will all accept this as we will learn that God is no respecter of persons. We are all the same in His eyes and heart.

The Spirit and the flesh are opposed to one another so if we try to heap the world's pleasures upon ourselves we cannot possibly be in the Spirit and we become dead, spiritually. By trying to obtain the best for less we force manufacturers to cut corners. That has forced US jobs overseas resulting in unfair labor practices in countries that do not have labor sensitive laws in place. The result slave labor wages and oppression to 3rd world workers. Those jobs that do remain here usually go to migrant works who are paid below minimum wage with no protection from injury or sickness. If we are patient in our needs the Lord will provide. I said needs, not wants.

James is warning that in making our own plans for the future we are self reliant and not submitting ourselves to Adonai and His plan for our lives. Humble is submitting yourself to God and His divine authority of you as His creation. When we are led by His Holy Spirit we are sons, guided lovingly by a caring father. There is nothing wishy washy about this as such faith is very courageous.

If the blind lead the blind they both fall into a ditch. When we ourselves cannot see the truth then it is not possible to be a faithful witness. Those who have not come to understand that we have been adopted into a covenant relationship with God and, His chosen children, the Jews, are lost. If we cannot grasp the depth of this relationship we do not understand the great salvation that we have been given and we ourselves are lost. To me, those who do not believe in Jesus Christ as the manifest presence of God among men and do not except Him as the way, the truth and the life, are lost.

Being a mere mortal, I always have that tendency to justify my faults by pointing out those of others. In doing so I am being a judge of them, that is, I am being critical of them. Since there is one Judge, I am in effect trying to be God. Whoops! There's only one God.

Since we are all born with a measure of faith, that is belief and trust in God, then it is He, the Creator who has seeded us. Only a puffed up person could trie to take the Lord's glory and claim such a prize as their own initiative. We really shouldn't condemn a person who does not exercise their faith rather, we need to be witnesses and examples by we ourselves walking in faith. There are too many factors that might cause a person not to believe, the prime being spiritual ignorance. You can catch more bees with nector than vinegar. Teaching a 10 year old faith would be by I myself being trustworthy. Then, as the child has trust in me, so I would talk of my faith in God. I would use the world around me, the flowers, the sky, the sea, etc., as the doings of an invisible Maker, who can by a single thought, change the world.

Verses 7-10 are the things that we must do to completely surrender to God. The Jews use the word trust instead of faith which openly states our dependency upon Him. James is giving us the steps we need to take to attain this. Everyone wants to be self sufficient, at least to a degree. To be in anyway dependent upon someone else is difficult. To be totally dependent upon the Living God, sight unseen, is seemingly impossible. For me, humbling myself to achieve this trust is the most difficult of all things. I pray for the courage to do this.

Works, works, works! We are here to work to learn how to work. Not the works of the Torah, the old laws, which were fulfilled on the cross of the New Covenant but, by the works of the Holy Spirit. That is, Christ in us and manifested by our good deeds, our testimony, our witness, our Christ like lifestyle. Paul decried the works of the law as vain efforts to make ones self righteous. This can only occur by God's grace to the which we PRAISE HIM!

The Lord looks at the church (us) as His bride. We are purified and sanctified by Him through the Holy Spirit. Sanctified, set apart for His use, has us in a place of spiritual living. To have any workings with the world, that is the foolish pleasures therof, means we are spiritual adulteresses, just like a spouse having a sexual relationship outside of the marriage bed. In having an affair with the world we are going out on our husband, Jesus Christ. And, to make matters worse, when we mess around with worldly pleasures we are slapping the Lord in His face since He is at enmity with the world, opposed to the world and all that it is.

More than just jargon, saved has become somewhat of a copout for Christians to sin. Once saved, always saved seems to take this great salvation for granted. Saved is only a step of faith, soon forgotten when just that one step is taken. Yes, Jesus does deliver us from our sins but in order to keep from sinning we need the Holy Spirit, the spiritual rebirth to teach us new ways, His ways so that we do not intentionally sin again. Saved has great significance when we acknowledge that He has saved us from our sin, not in our sin.

God is not against pleasure, as long as what we are doing is pleasing to Him and, seeking pleasure in Him. On the other hand, if we work to fulfill the lusts of our flesh we are leading ourselves away from Him, into the arms of the Adversary. This is not the kind of pleasure that God wants us to have. As you say, it is Hedonism, living for our own pleasures.

As we are taught from childhood that to get any good thing out of life we must work for it, we cannot comprehend a God that forgives and gives without anything in exchange. The concept of His love, manifested by His grace is alien to us. To teach this in a language that a child would understand one would have to do it. Love, with no strings attached, forgiveness without bitterness, correction without judgement, suffering without reward then, in the simplest of ways, an explanation for your actions, Jesus Christ in you.

The only tool that can sow shalom is the love of God shed abroad by the Holy Ghost. It is this love that grows within believers that produces righteousness by conquering sin, specifically, self.

Envy and selfishness are manifestations of pride and pride defeats humility. These two traits are caustic and generate separation and wounded souls, inflicting great pain and suffering. Healing cannot occur in such an atmosphere. Once again, boasting is the same root causing of hurt, one's pride allowing the individual to believe that they had done some great thing of themselves when, in fact, all great things come from God.

The Lord alone knows our heart and He sees iniquity where we cannot therefore, we always have garbage coming out of our mouth, even when we try our best to say the right things. The cure? Change what is inside which can only be done by the Holy Spirit, fed with the Word of truth and it's application and, patience. It is a lifetime worth of effort, finally to be resolved when we are perfected in heaven.

I don't see James as discouraging people to teach rather, urging caution. I may be somewhat prejudice here as I do aspire to be the best teacher that I can be and the church needs doctrine based teachers more than ever. James probably felt the same urgency during his time and knew that the enemies fault finders could nit pick the simplest of errors. So, the need for a teacher is to be as accurate as humanly possible, led by the Holy Ghost. Strictness is discipline and Lord, that we could discipline our tongues as you do. With God there is no respect of persons. People who criticize pastors need to look at themselves. I often think about this comment when I'm monitoring my own thoughts on this subject: "I would rather go to church with the hypocrites than to hell with the hypocrites." Gives me pause to self examine.

We are joint heirs with the Lord. He looks at us as equals and as such He has extended to us His power and authority through the Holy Spirit. This, the Kingdom of God within, is our current place with Him in heavenly realms. He also represents us directly before that Father as our Mediator. Yes, we are well seated with Him in heaven. It is reserved for us wholly, for eternity. God's grace is truly amazing. As the song says: "Who am I, that the Lord of all the earth would care to know my name?..." much less even consider me to be as His Son, who has been with Him since before time began. This is too wonderful for me to comprehend. Jesus has given us authority over all things spiritual, especially the devil, whom we can resist at anytime and at all times. We can also exercise this power over our flesh and the world. We are only obligated to listen to the still small voice of the Holy Spirit and utilize this great gift to the fullest extent possible. We have direct access to the Holiest of Holies and should approach this realm with boldness and confidence, knowing that the prayers of a righteous person avails much. In other words, we have a private line with the Creator of all things. Awesome!

James points out that works, that is our Christlike manifestations of compassion, witnessing, preaching, spiritual gifts in action, et al, are a reflection of our faith. Paul on the other hand is stressing salvation by grace, which must be claimed in faith, not by the works of the law. Bottom line is that both are emphasizing the need for faith in action.