What about James?

Every time I read the book of James, something just jumps out at me. I don’t know what it is. Maybe that is why it is one of my favorite books in the Bible. But anywho, the tongue. What is it? What does it do? We all know (or at least I hope we do) it is a muscle in the body, a strong one, and it helps us eat, and in some cases do other things. It also, according to James 3 provides blessing AND cursing. Wait, what? Both out of the same device? Why yes. We really never think about how powerful, how devastating, and how uplifting our tongue can be, but I think it is time we do start thinking about it. I mean, how is it that one little member of our body can rip and tear one person to pieces and then build another person up a moment later? Truthfully, it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. But the verse that struck me was verse 2 “If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body.” It took me until just recently to realize in fulness what this verse meant. I tried to reason through it most of the day today, and last night, thinking well is the tongue the source of all sin? No that can’t be, because we sin with our thoughts, and our hands and such. What then does this mean that a man is perfect if he does not stumble by word? If one were to look farther down the chapter, the puzzle gets put together in a beautiful masterpiece. It essentially says, that if one can control the tongue, it won’t be difficult to control the other parts of our being that sin, as the tongue is the most difficult. James 3 uses the bridle of a horse and the rudder of a ship for physical examples. But then it goes on to say that “No man can tame the tongue”! What?! It seems like a no win situation. But in reality, it is a win win situation either way we look at it. First, it shows we aren’t perfect, and that Christ was and is the only perfect person to grace the earth. Secondly, the fact that it shows we aren’t perfect, allows room for God’s grace to work in our lives. When we stumble, God’s grace is sufficient to repair the wounds, and ultimately, God is glorified. So then as Paul states in Romans, does this allow for us to sin? I would think not, but rather it allows us to demonstrate God’s grace to others, through our testimony of how His grace transformed our lives in sin, and helped us to somewhat control our tongue. Yes, the tongue can defile a man, but it can also throw him into the grace of God.

He Became Like Us

Hebrews 2:17-18 “Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted.”

What an amazing verse!!! I don’t even really know where to begin. Speechless. It just amazes me that Jesus became like us, in flesh, so that he could be a sympathetic, loving, merciful, faithful High Priest to God the Father for us. This is so encouraging to know that we have a Saviour that knows us. People tend to say that God doesn’t know what we are going through, or He doesn’t know how I feel. But this verse clearly shows, that He does. He became like His brethren, as in He became like us, to RELATE to us. That is what it boils down to here, is relationship. How could we have a personal, intimate relationship with an impersonal god? It isn’t possible, hence Jesus Christ took on human flesh to die for our sins, and relate to us so to speak, to bridge the gap between us and God. God knows how we feel, what we are going through. He understands, we just have to let Him work and not write Him off as unknowing. What a travesty it is when we write God off as unknowing. Surely, the Creator of the world is tuned into our lives, he created us. It is as if you created something, you just don’t forget about it after you have created it, you pay close attention to it, keeping it clean doing what is necessary to preserve its life. So God did for us, He created us, and He has done what is necessary to preserve our life with Him for eternity!!! How amazing!!

Also, in Psalm 8:5, it mentions that “You have made him a little lower than the angels”. This verse seems to confuse me? I have read some ideas stating that God has placed everything He created under the subjection of Man, even the angels, yet we were made a little lower than the angels. Anybody have an enlightenment on this verse?

Burnt, Frozen, and Still Lukewarm

Tonight I went to this college ministry group called One Voice. Usually I go just because I feel that I HAVE to or, as a time filler when I don’t have much to do. Tonight was something different though. I would have never thought that tonight would have brought forth potential change in my life. Ian, the speaker at the college group taught on Revelation 3:14-22. I had heard this portion of scripture over and over again, but the keyword was heard, I had never listened. What a difference it makes when you listen! The verse that really stuck out to me was verse 15-16 “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.”

Now as I have mentioned earlier, I had heard this a thousand times up to this point, but for some reason, this time it really hit me. The analogy used was that of coffee. Humans (in general) like their coffee hot, or cold, and if it is lukewarm, they don’t like it, they spit it out. And so it is with God, He would rather have us hot and on fire or cold and hating Him, than have us just be so-so about Him. This is typically contrary to our human minds, as Ian so adequately pointed out. We don’t want people to hate us, we would rather have people sorta like us than not like us at all. So as I began to think about this, it was drastically, and most upsettingly pointed out, that I was lukewarm, and had been for some time. Me lukewarm?! I thought it couldn’t be! I mean, I went to church every Sunday, I’m involved in a Christian house, I go to One Voice almost every Thursday, I “read” my Bible, how could I of all people be lukewarm? Then as the night went on, and Ian continued, I realized, it isn’t the actions that make a lukewarm Christian, but the heart. And I realized my heart wasn’t His, my life wasn’t His. I still held on to that tiny bit I wanted to control, or more realistic, I only gave the parts that didn’t matter. It was then that I started fearing being rejected, and spit out, but as the verse continues there is a tremendous promise of grace. It was then that I wanted to change, it was then that I started crying at my lukewarmness. But how to change, I had tried before, but it never worked, things only seem to got worse. After the night was over and I had thought this out, I realized, we can only change with the help of God, and by help, I mean a lot of help. If we try changing by ourselves, more than likely we will burn out and make things worse, we in reality need the transforming grace of God. So what started out as a normal night, in reality rocked my world. Things were revealed to me, that I didn’t necessarily want to be revealed right then, but God hits us when we need it the most, and that is usually the point at which we are complacent, which I was.

When I got home, I also began to think, well, why doesn’t God like lukewarmness? I mean, it seems that a lot of Christians are that way, and that God would seem more pleased with people that sorta wanted intimacy with Him, than those that don’t. Then I realized, it is the lukewarmness of the church that gives the rest of the world the idea of what a “Christian” is. God doesn’t want this perceived image for those that follow Him. He wants us hot, or cold, plain and simple. Mediocrity leads to hypocrisy it seems. The more I think about this idea of lukewarmness giving the rest of the non-believing world the image of “Christianity”, the more it makes sense. I had a teacher in high school, that spent 3 years in Arabia, and he said, the Muslims perspective of Christians, was everybody from the west! Do we truly want that image for the followers of Christ? Do we want to be known as the people who engage in fornication, drugs, murder, etc.? Do we want to be covered in a shroud of mediocrity? I don’t think so. This is why God doesn’t like lukewarmness. Lukewarmness makes people mediocre towards God. Mediocrity towards God leads to compromise. Compromise leads to more sin. And obviously, the sin is of the world. That is it right there, we are to be set apart, not of the world. And if we live in a lukewarm state, we look more and more like the world, more and more of the time, because we really don’t care. Society today is lukewarm, we really don’t care. But fortunately, we have a God who does care about how His people are perceived, and ultimately by us how He is perceived. We don’t want people to think God tolerates sin. We don’t want people to think God tolerates lukewarmness, because that would be a lie. And honestly, our God doesn’t lie, and what a shame it would be for people to find out, that being a true Christian, means sacrifice, not just “Yeah sure, I believe in God” We can’t always expect God to do everything. That is part of the reason for lukewarmness, laziness. If we want God to draw near to us, we have to make the effort to draw near to Him. Then and only then, will the beautiful intimacy between God and creation occur.

Welcome

Hello everybody!!! It’s Mark. This is my blog, inspired by Pastor Ryan Couch. He started a blog, and I thought it would be a good idea to get my thoughts on paper, er, cyber paper. So here it is, my blog. Hopefully I will have some inspirational stuff, stuff to make you think, and most importantly, stuff that I need answers to. But anyway, I just request that you keep the comments and stuff clean, and somewhat to the point, and whatnot. You know, just common courtesy kinda stuff. Well, I’m going to go off to bed, and hopefully this thing will be up and running sometime soon.

Mark Halvorson