Month: August 2016

James 4:8-10   Cleanse your hands, you sinners… Be wretched and mourn and weep… Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you. If you have never failed in a way that was painful for you and your loved ones, then this is not for you. You can stop reading. If however, like me, you…
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James 4:8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. I have over the last two years become desperately interested in how God changes me. In this process of sanctification, what am I to do and what does God do? Where do Heaven and Earth meet and what is my responsibility in…
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James 4:6 God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. The opposite of faith is not disbelief. It is pride. Faith keeps its eyes on God and acts accordingly. Pride says, Sure, I believe in God but I keep my eyes on me and I do what I want. I am not that…
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  James 4:5 He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us. In my daily efforts at turning from self and focusing on God, I often become focused or consumed with the defects of self. I suppose it is a primary defect that I always make everything about me. I…
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James 4:4 Whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Have you every looked at your surroundings and wondered how you got where you are? I am not speaking of geography. I am talking about looking down at the scale of life and gasping in horror. I am…
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James 4:2,3   You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. God does not answer my prayers… God won’t help me… He has abandoned me… In my addiction, I prayed and prayed that God would change me but I…
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James 4:1,2 What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. When I am in conflict with someone, it is never my fault. It…
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James 3:17 The wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. When it comes to wisdom, I have two desires in conflict with each other. I truly want to have the wisdom that James describes but I also want to be known…
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James 3:6,8   The tongue is a fire… setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell… no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. If you would have asked me two weeks ago if this was one of my defects, I think…
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James 3:2   We all stumble in many ways. When my life defects erupted in spectacular fashion, I felt like I was the worst person in the world. I felt like I was alone at the bottom. I eventually sought out a refuge where I could meet with others who had similar struggles. I found comfort…
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