Author: Scott

So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin. James 4:17 Whenever we visit our kids in college, we go out for supper and then end up getting ice cream afterwards. We usually go to one of those shops where you can pick from twenty different…
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Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up. James 4:10 (NIV) So, how’d it go? Honestly, it’s been an amazingly smooth experience so far. I was in the hospital at 6AM and the fantastic hospital staff had me home by mid-afternoon. After surgery, I got a long-lasting anesthetic knee block, which means…
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Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. James 5:13-14 I’ve been thinking about this for a while,…
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Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit” . . .  Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your…
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Do not speak evil against one another, brothers . . . There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor? James 4:11-12 At our house, we’ve had many discussions lately about how we talk about the struggles of those around…
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Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you. James 4:8-10 I can clearly remember the first time I used my medical license to divert…
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Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. James 4:8 I’ve got a lot of flaws, but I’ve never been a workaholic. I like my job, but once I work my hours, I go home to my family. I spend my time with my wife and when my college kids are home,…
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Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. James 4:7 While mired in my own drug addiction, I knew what I should do. I knew that the addicted needed to go to treatment, attend meetings, be honest, and change their lives. Did I do those things though? No, of…
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God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. James 4:6 This may be oversimplifying things, but in medicine, it’s generally up to the physician to write orders while the nurse follows those orders. Even writing that though, feels like I’m being patriarchal and domineering. In our independent culture, we just don’t naturally embrace…
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Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. James 4:4 When I was maybe five or six years old, my dad took my brother and me on one of our day fishing trips. We…
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