THE ONE YEAR BIBLE CLUB

    Sometimes I blame it on the State I live in....Texas!.  It is the Bible Belt of the southwest.  I came here with a preconceived notion that people would be terribly religious, everyone would claim to "know the Lord", but would they live it? I blamed it on the South West Bible belt, but as I read what James has to write in his Epistle, it makes me realize, this is a very long standing issue and has nothing to do with a particular state and/or country. According to James, over 2000 years ago, this was an issue and James was not living in Texas; America did not even exist, but yet James is having to address people who claim to be pious and religious folks, but don't have the actions and character to back it up. James mentions folks praising God and then turning around and cursing somebody. He mentions lots of talk of faith, with little action. He mentions people who can't or don't control what they say. He mentions people who hear sermons, but don't do what t

   It seems like brother James is trying to school us in some “good ‘ol fashion people skills”.  Simple gestures like not to show partiality, show mercy to one another and that “love” covers a multitude of sins. We know that according to scripture, “God has ordained that we be fruitful”, so then why are we often, not fruitful? James helps us to understand that if we want to be fruitful, there may be more to it than praying, “Lord make me fruitful, make my church fruitful”.  It’s not like a “super power” that you just miraculously get endowed with. Fruitfulness will not be the result of something you “just get”, but it will be a result of how you treat people. Obviously James has seen this in the Church, as one of the Elders in the Church of  Jerusalem .  He has seen preferential treatment being giving to one Christian as opposed to another, he has seen lack of mercy in the dealing with each other and he has seen people holding grudges for past sins. “Love covers a multitude of sins” fo

  We read today about a “double minded man”.  A divided man, or woman, you know…can’t make up his mind what he wants, she has divided loyalties, divided affections and divided interests which lead to divided and unstable commitments. I think I know a few of these people. If we like to throw around the term “bi-polar” then let’s do it! They are bi-polar Christians, bi-polar in attendance, bi-polar in commitments and as we rack our heads trying to figure them out, what makes them tick, what makes them so fleeting and unpredictable we just cannot figure it out. James give us insight that what we are dealing with is an individual with divided loyalties.  Joshua says, “stop wavering, make a decision today” David is not allowed to fight with the Philistines, they tell him to go back, David is accused of having divided loyalties (which David had whether he realized it or not). We can live in a Country, be in a Faith, attend a Congregation, each Sunday, faithfully, but have divided loyalties. 

  This is the scripture preachers don't like to read. Every time I read it it leaves me a little unsettled. To think of myself as nothing more than mere entertainment for parishioners is not comforting, in the least. But the reality is, for many Americans, Sunday church attendance is a form of a religious, habitual ritual for many. You get up, put on your best dress, show up to church, it's very social, mingle a little, listen to the sermon (with half our minds on something else) then mingle a little more, go out to lunch and then head home and begin to wind down for the evening. The idea that your sermon is going the be the very spiritual breath in their lungs and change their course, catapult them forward is perhaps naive or overly optimistic. However, this is how the true preacher feels about his sermon. He studies, prays and tries to get the mind of Christ for that service believing that his sermon can make a difference in someone's life. God is really bursting that bub

       THE most disobeyed thought that comes to our minds, more often than we would care to admit is, "Don't do it!" How many times have you and I heard that voice and ignored it. When I am angry....I'm not listening to that voice. When I am filled with lust...I am not listening to that voice. When I am filled with "my way"....I am not listening to that voice. When "I'm tired" I'm not listening to that voice. Isn't that dangerous?! In the times when I need to listen to that voice the most, my feelings override every other faculty of the mind. Don't do it! This thought, may even be screaming to some that are reading this blog today. Everything I feel, everything I sense, everything within me (except for that thought) is urging and pressing me to doing this. I'm tired, I'm fed up. I'm tired of being broke, I'm tired of not having enough, I'm tired....I'm tired, I'm tired....and yet the answer is the same, D

  Depeche Mode even had a hit in the 90's called "Personal Jesus ", the lyrics went something like this... Your own personal Jesus Someone to hear your prayers Someone who cares Your own personal Jesus Someone to hear your prayers Someone who's there Pick up the receiver I'll make you a believer..... We read the verse today in Ezekiel and we might question it. God is telling Ezekiel to let Pharaoh know that He heard him say, "for you have said the river is mine, I have made it myself" Really? Six Billion people in the earth and God is paying attention to one sentence uttered by one person, in the midst of billions of people and quint trillion conversations. How can this be? Somehow this idea of a Personal God doesn't resonate with us. We can believe in God's existence, some kind of moral being in the Universe, even Creator of all. We can even see his as a judge, judging people, as they die, one by one. However this notion of a God who pays attent