James

My judgement: we shouldn’t make it hard for non-Jews who are turning to God. We’ll write and tell them to keep away from food offered to idols, sexual immorality, the meat of strangled animals, and blood.

James here. Servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. Writing to all of God’s people scattered away from home, the twelve tribes, wherever you’ve ended up. Hello.

When trouble hits you from every direction, count it pure joy. Testing your faith grows perseverance. So let perseverance finish the job, and you’ll come out mature and complete, not missing anything.

Short on wisdom? Ask God. He gives generously to everyone and doesn’t hold it against you for asking. Just ask like you actually believe it. Someone who doubts is like a wave in the sea, blown and thrown about by the wind.

Nobody gets to say “God is tempting me.” You get dragged off by what you want. Want grows into sin. Sin, fully grown, gives birth to death. That’s the order it goes in.

Every good and perfect gift comes from above, from the Father who made the lights in the sky. He doesn’t change. Not even a shifting shadow.

Quick to listen. Slow to speak. Slow to get angry.

Don’t just hear the word. Do it. Hearing it and not doing it is like looking at your face in a mirror, walking off, and forgetting what you look like before you’re out the door.

Think you’re religious but can’t control your tongue? You’re fooling yourself. Religion God actually accepts: look after orphans and widows in their trouble, and don’t let the world stain you.

Picture it. A man walks into your meeting with gold rings and nice clothes. Then a poor man comes in, in shabby clothes. You make a fuss of the rich one and give him the best seat, and you tell the poor one to stand over there, or sit on the floor by your feet. Really?

Replying to @jamesjerusalem

Listen. Hasn’t God chosen the people this world calls poor to be rich in faith? And you’ve shamed them. Isn’t it the rich who push you around and drag you into court?

Love your neighbour as yourself. The royal law. Keep that and you’re doing well. Play favourites and you’re breaking it.

Moses@mosesSame part, from the LORD: no revenge, no grudges. Love your neighbour as yourself. And he signs it “I am the LORD.”

What good is faith that never does anything? A brother or sister has no clothes and nothing to eat, and you tell them “All the best, keep warm, eat well,” and give them nothing. Faith like that, on its own, is dead.

Replying to @scattered.believer

Show me your faith without deeds, and I’ll show you my faith by what I do. You believe there’s one God? Good for you. So do the evil spirits. And they shudder.

Abraham. Wasn’t he shown to be right with God by what he did, when he put his son Isaac on the altar? His faith and his actions were working together. That’s how the Scripture came true: Abraham believed God, God counted it as making him right, and he was called God’s friend.

Moses@moses · MoriahAt the place, Abraham builds an altar, lays the wood on it, ties up his son and lays him on top. He takes the knife.

Same with Rahab, the prostitute in Jericho. She took the spies in and sent them off another way. Her faith did something.

One of the two spies@spy.one.jerichoMeanwhile, we were up on her roof. Under a pile of flax. Not moving.

A body without breath is dead. Faith without deeds is just as dead.

Not many of you should be teachers. Teachers get judged more strictly. And we all trip up, in loads of ways.

A small bit in a horse’s mouth steers the whole horse. A tiny rudder steers a massive ship through strong winds. The tongue’s small too. And look how big a forest one little spark can set on fire.

People have tamed every kind of animal, bird, reptile and sea creature. Nobody has ever tamed the tongue. With it we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people made in God’s likeness. Same mouth. That shouldn’t be happening.

Replying to @jamesjerusalem

Does fresh water and salt water come out of the same spring? Can a fig tree grow olives? Can a vine grow figs?

Where do all your fights come from? From the wants at war inside you. You don’t have because you don’t ask. And when you do ask, you don’t get it, because you only want it to spend on yourselves.

Come near to God and he’ll come near to you. Stand up to the devil and he’ll run from you. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he’ll lift you up.

You don’t even know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? You’re a mist. Here for a little while, then gone. What you should be saying is: if the Lord wants, we’ll live and do this or that.

A trader with plans@trader.withplansBig news: in the next day or two I’m off to a new city. Spending a year there, doing some business, turning a profit. Excited for this next chapter.

Right, you rich people. Start crying. Your wealth has rotted. Moths have eaten your clothes. The wages you held back from the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you, and their cries have reached the ears of the Lord who commands heaven’s armies.

A harvester, still waiting to be paid@unpaid.harvesterMowed the man’s whole field. Still haven’t been paid. Not a penny.

So be patient till the Lord comes. Look at a farmer, waiting for his land to give its crop, patient through the autumn and spring rains. Stop grumbling about each other. The Judge is standing at the door.

You’ve heard how Job kept going. And you’ve seen how the Lord brought it round in the end. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy.

The book of Job@bookofjobAfter Job prays for his friends, the LORD restores everything. Twice what he had before.

Above all, don’t swear oaths. Not by heaven, not by earth, not by anything. Let your yes be yes and your no be no.

Anyone suffering? Pray. Anyone happy? Sing. Anyone ill? Call the church elders to pray over you and anoint you with oil in the Lord’s name. Own up to your sins to each other and pray for each other, so you can be healed. The prayer of a good person is powerful.

Elijah was a human being just like us. He prayed hard that it wouldn’t rain, and it didn’t, for three and a half years. Then he prayed again, and the sky poured, and the ground grew its crops.

Elijah's servant@elijahs.servantElijah’s at the top of Carmel, crouched on the ground with his face between his knees. He keeps sending me to look at the sea. Nothing. Go back. Nothing. Seven times. The seventh time: a cloud as small as a man’s hand, coming up out of the sea.

If one of you wanders off from the truth and someone brings them back: that person has saved a soul from death and covered over a whole lot of sins.

Replying to @johnzebedee

His brothers. Yes. There was a time our family went to bring him home because we thought he’d lost his mind. Now we’re in this room, praying with his friends.