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The end of the world is coming soon. Therefore, be earnest and disciplined in your prayers. Most important of all, continue to show deep love for each other, for love covers a multitude of sins. (1 Peter 4:7-8 [NASB]) 

Peter, the apostle of Jesus, wrote his epistle of 1 Peter to the Christians in Asia minor. He told them how to live as believers in a sinful world that worshipped manmade idols and success. Peter encouraged these Christians to stand strong in their faith while their friends and neighbors continued to live for their own desires. He reminded them Jesus suffered, too, for staying moral and true to God’s purposes. They would experience trials and tribulations as He did.

In 1 Peter 4:7-8, Peter concisely repeated what he wrote in verses one through six. He reminded them the end of the world was coming soon. For the Jews, it was imminent. The Romans destroyed the temple in Jerusalem in 70 AD. For Christians, when Jesus began His ministry on earth, He heralded the beginning of the end. With His first coming and later ascent into heaven, His return to earth could occur at any time or day. The Christians could know the first part of God’s kingdom coming on earth was imminent.

How did Peter tell the Christians of Asia Minor to live as they waited for Jesus’ return to earth? In verse seven, he wrote, “Be earnest and disciplined in your prayers.” To the casual reader, Peter may have sounded like he told them to keep on praying. Yet, when considering the Greek words Peter wrote, we realize he taught these Christians, “Because Jesus was to return imminently, be clear of mind, heart, body, and spirit and have God’s perspective of the world. Understand the truth on both sides of a situation and gain God’s understanding from how He sees it. Then, with God’s perspective and giving all oneself to Him, dedicate yourselves to pray God’s will through His Spirit within you, forsaking your own earthly opinion. Offer your whole being: heart, mind, body, and spirit, as a sacrifice of self-desire and self-will for God’s will according to His wise and knowing perspective.”

Peter understood prayer is more than a “gimme list.” He realized prayer is meant to be a believer’s joining with the God to be in a closer relationship and likeness with Him. Prayer is about relationship with God.

When a parent first introduces prayer to a child, it would be at a meal and/or at bedtime. After that, the next time a person encounters the idea of prayer would be at church as part of worship or in Sunday School where the child hears about Jesus praying or the Jews of the Old Testament communing with God. Still, at each of the learning points, the child or teen may not have learned prayer is about having a relationship with God. The child/teen would have learned what prayer to say at which event or what is expected to be said in a prayer. Yet, that child/teen/young adult may not realize times of prayer are to be about seeking God, His perspective, His will, and growing to be closer to and more like Him.

Peter made this last point clean when he wrote in verse eight, “Most important of all, continue to show deep love for each other, for love covers a multitude of sins.” What was most important? Show deep love for each other. Our human idea of love is flawed. It often is self-serving. We love so that someone will return our love. We love because we are grateful for someone or something they did. Our love is connected to what we have experienced. It comes from our own needs and from our limited supplies. This love is not about what Peter wrote. He wrote about agape love, not philia love. He wrote about the love that comes from the source of all love, God. Just as God is the source of faith, joy, hope, salvation, etc., He is the source of true love. The love people give each other-philia or eros-is mixed with self-serving motives. Agape is pure love that does not depend on how a person feels. God loves. In 1 John 4:10, the apostle John wrote, “This is real love—not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to as a sacrifice to take away our sins. God’s love is a one-way covenant with us. He loves us even when we don’t love Him. He loves us when we sin, and He wants us to return to a relationship with Him. When Peter wrote 1 Peter 4:8, he meant, “Continue to love each believer like God loves so that the person’s sins against you do not keep you from loving the other believer with a tainted love.”

Having this form of love, agape love, God’s love, requires a person to have a close and growing relationship with God through Jesus. How does a person have a close relationship with God? Believe in Jesus, God’s Son, as the Savior who died to take your death judgment for your sins so you would not die and be eternally separated from God. Believe and live. Believe and experience pure love. Experience agape love that requires nothing from you except to receive it and be with God. Join God in prayer and Bible study growing in a closer relationship with Him and become more and more like Him. Be like Jesus, who though He was persecuted, hated, and hurt, still loved us, and died for us. Prayer becomes more than a recitation of thanks over a meal or a bedtime blessing over our sleep. Prayer becomes our connection with God, who loves us without end. It becomes so much a part of our relationship with God that it no longer feels like a discipline, but a sacred honor and blessing to be with Him. We then want to embrace any opportunity we have for prayer. Unable to get enough with the twice daily times of prayer we learned as children, we find ourselves breathing in and out, our hearts and minds joining with God, so when people see us, they see the heavenly Father. They marvel at the presence of the One with whom you have a genuine likeness.

Get out of meagerly praying for people based on your self-interest. Pray selflessly and with God’s will in mind. Grow in your relationship with Him. Become the shining beacon of His love to the world around you.

Pray because it is a privilege to join with God.

Pray with each breath.

Pray and thank the Lord for this blessing.

Always be thankful. Never stop praying. Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus. (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 [NLT])

Devoted Love

 

“Shower, O heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain down righteousness; let the earth open, that salvation and righteousness may bear fruit; let the earth cause them both to sprout; I, the LORD, have created it!” (Isaiah 45:8 [ESV]) 

    Almost everyone has stood dominoes in a row on their ends on a flat surface or has seen this done. When any domino falls over, others fall as a reaction of the first fall. People call this phenomenon the domino effect. An action causes a reaction. Our lives are like that. At times, we choose not to follow what God told us. After disobeying, we find the result is not bad, so it becomes easier to go against God’s will more. Before we realize it, we walk so far away from Him that we cannot hear His voice and we find ourselves in trouble. What God said through Isaiah speaks about this. 

    Isaiah 45:8 records several commands from heaven. In it, He commands the heavens to shower from above, tells the clouds to rain down righteousness, tells the earth to open so salvation and righteousness may bear fruit, and tells the earth to cause them to spout. The last section of this verse declares who commanded these actions, the LORD God. 

    Notice the Creator commands different parts of creation to act. From the highest part of creation, the heavens, God commands showers, continual flows of righteousness and salvation, to fall. Descending to the next level, He commands the clouds to rain down righteousness. Finally, God commands creation at humanity’s level to bear fruit and cause it to spout. What does God mean by each of these commands? 

    The first command declares that righteousness and salvation come from the heavens. In biblical understanding, the heavens denote the place God lives. The “showers” spoken of by God are flowing waters. Throughout the Bible, the writers mention a river flowing from the fountain, from God’s mercy seat. He is the source of true salvation, righteousness, grace, and mercy for all people. This means God’s showers from the heavens continually flow from Him with mercy and grace to give salvation and righteousness. 

    The second command God gives is for the clouds to rain down righteousness. Again, only God gives righteousness and salvation. Righteousness is God making a person right, cleansed from sin and made holy. Righteousness is part of God’s character. He is righteous; He never sins. God is holy. A person’s being made righteous by God occurs when he or she professes faith in Jesus as the Son of God and confesses his/her sins for salvation. The salvation by God of a person gives righteousness from God to that person. God alone provides salvation and makes believers righteous. Until a person professes faith in Jesus, the flowing river of God’s grace and mercy does not affect him or her. God does not have to give righteousness and salvation, but He chose to provide for it when He created all creation. He knew people would sin because He gave them freewill to decide what they will do in each situation. This means, before God made a verbal covenant with humanity in the Old Testament, an implied covenant by God to people existed. He planned to provide salvation from sins, guilt from sins, and the judgment of eternal death away from Him for each person. 

    With God’s third command, He orders the earth to open so salvation and righteousness will bear fruit. God addresses the last level of creation, earth. When “earth” appears in this verse, He means people. Once a person professes faith in Jesus, God gives salvation. Salvation is His restoration of each believer to sinlessness in His eyes, a cleansed, righteous relationship with God by Jesus’ death. “For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,” Paul said in Ephesians 2:8 [ESV]. Once a person receives God’s grace (undeserved forgiveness at the expense of holy God) through faith, a relationship with God occurs. This relationship, like any relationship, requires communing with Him in devoted love. Staying in communion with God requires a person to be open to God and grow to know Him better. This explains the analogy God commands that “the earth opening to salvation and righteousness.” A believer devotedly loving God shown by drawing near to Him each day causes growth in his or her relationship with God. 

    The last command God gives through Isaiah is for the earth to cause salvation and righteousness to sprout. God’s fourth command expresses the causal effect of command three for command four. This means open to God and His gifts and you will have a relationship with and spiritual growth from Him. Without a growing relationship with God, spiritual growth, fruit, will not occur. Sanctification becomes stagnant. In this instance, the domino remains standing, but not strengthened in its foundation for stabilization. Spiritual growth may seem the obvious effect from salvation. Yet, some believers reach the end of the honeymoon phase and their find life trouble-free. They begin not relying on God every day and not communing with Him. This causes the stagnation of a believer’s spiritual growth. When times are troublesome, almost every believer seeks God. He or she desires Him and seeks Him through prayer and Bible study. God spoke to this human tendency of not communing with God daily in the fourth command of this verse. He told His children to let their salvation and righteousness “sprout”. Let it grow by devotedly loving God. Devoted love for Him results in believers setting aside time to be with Him each day through prayer, Bible reading and studying, fellowshiping with other believers, and private and congregational worship. Communing with God nurtures and matures the believer to be more like Christ, who is wholly righteous. The result of this maturation of the believer is the bearing of fruit that come from salvation and righteousness. This fruit then leads to obedience to God requiring action and/or thought. Each person will only understand what thought or action God desires by relating to Him through a continual relationship with Him. 

    Stay connected to the Vine. Being connected to the Vina is devotedly loving and communing with God. Once a grape leaves the vine, it withers and dies. Remaining connected to the vine allows the grape to receive nourishment and grow. John said this in John 15:1-2 when wrote, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, He takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit [ESV].” Only God’s righteousness causes growth. Attempts by people to manufacture righteousness fail. God is the author of salvation and causes its growth when a person professes faith in Jesus and stays in a continual relationship with Him. 

    The believer becomes more like Christ and becomes more sanctified when he or she stays in a devoted relationship with God. This shows salvation is for now and for eternity. A growing relationship with God produces a greater faith and sanctification. The growth of righteousness shows by fruits of the Spirit growing in the believer. Paul listed some fruits of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23–love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. God will perfect the believer’s sanctification when he or she dies on earth and arrives in heaven. Salvation is for now, tomorrow, and eternity. God did not intend for it solely to be for eternity. God, through Isaiah, commands the “earth” (people) to “open” (command three) and commune with Him. This means God desires for each believer’s salvation and righteousness to grow (command four). 

    Isaiah 45:22 reiterates verse eight with another command. God commands in this verse, “Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other.” A person cannot save him or herself. Sinfulness cannot beget purity like a mule cannot beget a horse. Do not look elsewhere for salvation and a possible way to be righteous. Turn toward God and look to Him. Keep on looking at Him and don’t look elsewhere. When a person takes his or her eyes off God, the dominoes begin falling. Later, after many dominoes have fallen, that person who looked away will recall his or her life while clinging to the Vine. He or she will realize how and when he or she disconnected from God. When we are at that point, we must pray, repent, and return to God. He will restore righteousness to each person who calls on Him. In 1 John 1:9, John wrote, “If we confess our sins, He (God) is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

    Being saved by God is a continuous action. God saves a believer at a point in time. That person, like all believers, is being saved from death, temptation, sin, and guilt each day. One day God will complete in heaven that believer’s sanctification, purification that leads to holiness. Repenting, which leads to confession, means doing a 180 degree turn to look at God. The believer turns and keeps turning toward God and He continues to sanctify him or her each day as he or she repents and confesses his or her sins. Each day, the believer must look and keep on looking at God. Commune and keep on communing with God. Jesus spoke in His Sermon on the Mount about God wanting a relationship with each person by telling people to seek, knock, and ask in Matthew 7:7-8. He said, 

“Ask (and keep on asking), and it will be given to you. Seek (and keep on seeking), and you will find. Knock (and keep on knocking), and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.” [ESV]

     Cling to the Vine. Take in the righteousness God rains down on you. Let the salvation God gives burrow into the ground of your heart, mind, and spirit so that righteousness and the fruits of the Spirit grow. A believer can allow sprouting and growing by staying connected to God, the giver of the fruit. 

    The Lord created everything that exists, including you. He gives righteousness and salvation to you when you believe in Jesus Christ and confess your sins. You only need to cling to the Vine by devotedly loving and obeying God (Jeremiah 2:2). Don’t let the dominoes in life cause a domino effect in your life. Don’t let things in your life lead you away from God. Stay connected to God. Grow in sanctification and righteousness. 

The Befores Before

Before - the time of

  waking refreshed and the sun shining through your curtain.

            making plans for your future thinking you know all the road bumps.

            dreaming about the one person you will fall in love with and marry.

            remembering life as rosy with few cares in your world.

            hearing the contented sigh of your newborn child.

            whistling as you skipped down the sidewalk to a friend’s home.

            staying up late because school was closed due to snow.

The “befores” seemed so numerous and so wonderful before…

            waking to the sunrise perplexed yet not knowing why

            making plans but fearful of road bumps

            dreaming about what might happen to a loved one held so dear

            remembering that one time back when life wasn’t so rosy and carefree

            hearing of a new virus and thinking about your newborn

            whistling loud to cover the volume of the news as it hurtles like a waterfall on your personal world

staying up late to stay abreast of the closures of businesses, schools, and countries.

And this is life, you fear. Life different from any you’ve known before.

Cries of “Come, Lord Jesus, come!”

Fear for your life and the lives of the ones you love. Wondering if you’ve said all you need to say because you or they may not live another day.

Grasping in panic for any lifeline, then hearing of doctors and nurses falling to the same song. “No one is safe!” you shout in your head.

So many sick; so many dead.

FEAR burbling to a crescendoed shout that deafens all reason.

FEAR given way to TERROR and the change of life you thought you controlled.

A change not dictated by professionals, but a change mandated by yourself because FEAR has confronted you head-on with your own MORTALITY.

That sudden REALITY and the extreme of your FEAR cause an instantaneous HUSH.

A HUSH that comes from knowing you KNOW NOTHING.

You control NOTHING.

You cannot stop DEATH.

You cannot snatch your LIFE from its viselike grip.

DEATH, when it’s time, CANNOT be CHEATED.

And with that REALITY, you are ready to listen, and see, and come to know.

Life is a GIFT. A Gift given from the CREATOR GIVER.

And a hush comes over you as you recognize this truth.

And you come to your moment of decision.

You recognize you cannot cheat death.

You cannot save yourself.

You have very little control and all you want is the sun to shine through your curtains again and to make plans and dream and remember and hear and whistle and stay up late because it’s just snow.

Then you realize you can have this even when fear calls to you. You can have this hope and live in the knowledge of the victory that you will always have this, even if not in physical form, but in the mind, spirit, and heart because you KNOW the CREATOR GIVER.

Live life with HOPE.

Live now and the future with HOPE.

Accept the HOPE God gives each person who believes in Him.

Then VICTORY is yours because you are GOD’S CHILD.

You want to be a child again and dream and wake to snowy mornings with the sun shining through the curtains and know that no matter what happens, fear does not win because Jesus has given you victory over fear, sin, and death. Before takes on new meaning. Before is the time prior to you becoming GOD’S CHILD. NOW and FOREVER is living in the VICTORY HE GIVES YOU.

A Devotional Thought

“There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love.” (1 John 4:18 [NIV])

This verse comes from 1 John, in which John writes to believers in Jesus Christ. He reminds them if you have fear, you do not have perfect love. You are not mature in your faith in Jesus Christ. Perfection is very difficult and none of us ever get it right and are truly perfect through our own means. Yet, John says we can be perfect; we can be mature. This perfection, perfect faith in Jesus, comes by knowing and believing the love God has for us (vs. 16) and becoming His children through faith in His Son, Jesus. John said, “God is love and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.”

Love and fear cannot occur at the same time. Fear is from Satan. With it he causes us to doubt for our lives, reputations, jobs, safety, and salvation, etc. Satan, in his attempt to keep us from believing in Jesus as the Son of God, tries to turn our eyes away from God by distracting us with fear. This is why John said perfect love casts out fear. Fear and love cannot occur at the same time. Satan doesn’t want us to be perfect in Christ. He doesn’t want us to grow to maturity in our relationship with God. Satan seeks to create chaos so other people will not believe in him. If he can cause the people who believe in God to fear, then unbelievers see no purpose in believing either and he can lead many people away from salvation.

Perfect love, God’s love that He gives to us and that lives in us as His children, casts out fear. Is your faith growing to perfection or are you allowing Satan to distract you with fear for your life?

Perfect love casts out fear just like God cast Satan out from heaven when he sinned against Him. Because God lives in His children, His love resides in them, too.

Perfect love casts out fear. As a child of God, you have His love residing in you; you have perfect love in you and available to sustain you during this time when Satan is trying to distract you from God and your relationship with Him.     

Perfect love casts out fear. You have this love in you and can share it with other people so they have hope, and fear cannot cause terror and panic in their lives.

Perfect love casts out fear. You, as God’s child who has His perfect love living in them, love people just as God loved us enough to send His Son, Jesus, to die for our sins so we could be in relationship with Him forever. Are you showing and sharing this love with others who are fearing and living in terror during this crisis?

Perfect love casts out fear.

What are you doing to grow and allow God to cast out fear in and around you?

Lord, God, I admit, I am afraid. I’ve been following the news of this crisis and I fear for my life and the lives of people I love. I had not stopped to think about You and Your love for each of us. Forgive me for getting so absorbed in the unfolding and mounting crisis that I lost sight of You. Forgive me for not coming to You before now. Why do I only think about You, God, when crisis comes? Lord, save me now and save me from my sins forever. Help me to believe in You always.  Let the love, Lord, You’ve put into me show so people see Jesus in me and want to know about the peace I have even in the midst of this crisis. God, speak and work through this body You’ve given me so that others come to know You as their Savior and have Your peace because of You living in them. Let Your love be evident, so the fear Satan is causing decreases. Let Your will be done, Father, on earth as it is in heaven. Perfect me, mature me, so that day by day I become closer to You, our relationship becomes more intimate. May Jesus’ prayer that we be one as You and He are one come to fruition. Amen.

Hearing

Samuel answered, "Speak, for Your servant hears." 1 Samuel 3:10

When reading the passage from which this verse comes, the question comes to mind, do we really hear from God? From that question come two offshoot questions. One, do we take time intentionally to seek to hear from God? Two, do we do what God tells us?

The latter question is very important. In the Jewish mindset, hearing requires not just listening, but reaction to what is heard - obedience or disobedience from stubbornness. How often do we listen to God, but then say, "Nah, that can't be God telling me to do that? He knows I can't do those types of things," or "He knows I'm afraid to do that." Another statement we might make is, "Did God really tell me to do that?" Each of these come when we want to refuse to "hear" God, listening and obeying Him. It boils down to one question, “Do I love God more than I love myself?” We might say, "Of course! I am a Christian, you know." Yet even Christians can refuse to do what God tells them to do.

Of course, the first question related to this topic is, "Do I take time intentionally to hear from God?" The answer to this question should be an assumed, "Yes", but in reality, each of us very often say, "No." Sometimes the "No" comes from never having been taught to seek God and His will. Other times it comes because we get "too busy" with our lives to have time for God. Others of us will answer, "I read His Bible every day and pray when I need something." None of these replies is an adequate reason for not "hearing" God. No reason is a "just" reason or excuse for not seeking God and hearing Him if a person truly is a Christian.

Today, search yourself. Are you hearing from God? Or, are you just listening and not obeying? Possibly, you are not making the time or are questioning God's reasoning. Another reason could be you aren't intentionally seeking God when you do you "required" daily reading and prayer. What is your excuse for not seeking God, and hearing and obeying Him? We should learn to say, as Eli taught Samuel, "Speak, Lord, your servant hears."

May we say, as Eli did, “It is the LORD. Let Him do what seems good to Him.” (1 Samuel 3:18 [ESV])

Lord, I know you are great, awesome, all-knowing, and the only God. Still, sometimes I put myself before You. If I am totally honest, often I put myself as first in my life and You as second or third. Lord, forgive me for not truly seeking You. If I had sought You, I would have not only listened, but obeyed what You said. I feared You would ask me to do something too hard for me. I got so caught up in my life, I didn’t give you time. I am stubborn; please forgive me. Help me to desire You more than my next breath. Lord, help me to seek You alone and to love you completely so I not only listen to You, but I obey You. Lord, grow me to be like Jesus “who though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” (Philippians 2:6-8 [ESV]) Lord, I do love You. Help my love for You to be complete. Amen.

True Light and Peace

Coming to the end of a year, a question often arises. Do we look back before looking forward, or do we face only the future closing the door on the past? To answer that question, we must ask another. Is the fear of pain from the past too great to consider when thinking about the new year? Let’s conjecture that looking back helps prepare us for the future and helps us see and experience both joyful and hard times with balance, with peace. How can these be?

Consider what John said in John 1:10. He spoke of Jesus, the “true Light,” when he said, “He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him.” The Son existed before He created the world, and yet the world did not know Him. Still, God did not count that against humanity completely. He desired to have a relationship with each person, who though sinful was loved by Him. God’s desire for a relationship led Him to plan a way for each person to receive complete cleansing from sins and renewing of a right relationship with Him. This plan is God’s provision of salvation from sin’s penalty by the pure sin sacrifice of Jesus, His Son, the Light John spoke of in John 1.

John said more in verse ten. He said, “The world did not know Him.” This word “know” comes from the Greek word ginosko. It means to realize something through personal experience. If you recall meeting a person unfamiliar to you, first you may have seen the person, but not known the person’s name. Next you would have heard the name of the person, but not met the person. The following step in an experiential relationship of knowing a person was being introduced to the person or meeting and introducing one’s self to the person. The next step of knowing this new person was to look purposefully for the person where you expected him or her to be, like at school or the shop. The following step would be to call the person to get to know him or her better. Later you may have planned together to go jointly somewhere. As you spent more time together, you learned of the person’s likes and dislikes. You strove to give him or her what he or she liked. Finally, you committed with your heart, mind, body, and soul to be best friends, husband and wife, or some other close relationship. This is what ginosko means. It means a gradual, experiential knowing someone.

Moses taught this same understanding of our verb “to know” to the Hebrews when he returned to Egypt and led them from Egypt to the Promised Land. The word he used was yada. Yada has the same meaning. Moses showed the Hebrews the power of his God when he proclaimed the plagues over Egypt. Next, he showed them the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night telling them it was God’s presence protecting and guiding them. The Hebrews learned to recognize and expect God in those ways. As Moses set up a tent of tabernacle wherever they encamped, the people learned that meeting with God is real. He is as near as your own being and as far away as the heavens. They saw Moses’ face glowing from being in the presence of God’s glory. Moses continued to make God known to the Israelites throughout His forty years as their leader. By the time the Israelites entered the Promised Land, they knew God and covenanted with Him that He would be their sole God and they would be His people. The Israelites came to know God experientially, too.

This understanding of “knowing” is what John meant when he said, “The world did not know Him (Jesus).” Through the Old Testament period, the Jews had the commandments of God, which were to lead them to Him to have a relationship with Him. Still, the Jews often strayed from a relationship with God. They sinned, and He disciplined them. The Israelites enemies captured, scattered, and/or took some of them into captivity. Their national land size decreased. The Israelites worshiped other gods. Finally, during the 400 years before Christ’s birth, silence reigned over the land when no prophets of God spoke for Him to the Israelites. “The world did not know Him.” John was right. Even the Jews did not know Jesus. “Jesus came to His own (the Jews), and they did not know Him,” John said in verse eleven.

We each need to consider our first question and answer it for ourselves. Do we look back before looking forward, or do we face only the future closing the door on the past? Knowing God is not just an intellectual action. It is a response of faith and acceptance of Christ, the One who made God known. When we consider our first question, we must decide if we know God through Jesus Christ. Can you hear His questions?

“Did you know Me when happiness came to you this year? Did you seek Me to thank Me for what I did for you and for being in a relationship with you? Did you seek to use the blessing I gave you for My purposes or did you withhold it?”

“Did you know Me when the dark abyss knocked at your door? Did you seek Me and My will or did you turn your back on Me doubting My love for you?”

In each of these situations, you can do God’s will. What is His will? That we know Him, love Him, and show our love of Him by our obedience to Him. That we glorify Him, not ourselves or what we own, will do, or will become. Oswald Chambers surmised that if we follow God’s will and experience pain, then we are being pulled by other things and God. We are torn in two. Chambers says that comes from lack of trusting God to take care of us. Pain, also, comes to grow us. God allows pain to occur. Sometimes we grow more when walking through pain. When Peter saw Jesus walking on the water in the storm, he immediately climbed from the boat and walked on the water toward Jesus. While he kept his eyes on Jesus and not the storm-tossed waves, he walked. When Peter took his eyes off Jesus, he sank. (Matthew 14:22-33)

God allows storms to grow us. We have a choice in how we will approach each storm. Will we trust God and walk while keeping our eyes on Him, or will we take our eyes off God and flounder? How well we know God, ginosko, determines the answer to this question. If you only know God when someone points out what He did, then you might succumb to the storm. If you know God as your personal Savior and have a deep, personal relationship with Him through regular Bible reading and studying, praying, and listening to Bible teaching and preaching, then you will grow stronger in the Lord as you walk with Him. A close relationship with God includes loving Him and doing His will. Paul said in Romans 8:28, “We know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” From this close relationship with Him, trust grows. When trust grows, then the peace of God, given through Christ becomes part of a person’s life through the joys and trials. Jesus spoke of this peace He offers in John 14:27 when he told the disciples He would soon go prepare a place for them. He said, “Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.”

As we consider the new year coming, we return to our first question. Do we look back before looking forward, or do we face only the future while closing the door on the past? Are you afraid to look back at this year when looking ahead to 2019? Do you only consider the future and slam the door on the past because you don’t want to face it again? If you know God, you do not have to fear the past or the future. You do not have to make resolutions to ensure the upcoming new year is better than this year. Instead, trust God to take care of your new year and your pain from this year. Allow yourself not to be self-sufficient, but to trust in God. How do you do this? How do you trust God with your year and your life? Get to know Him, really know Him. Knowing God starts as an intellectual exercise, but it must go beyond the mind to the heart and soul. Oswald Chambers said, “Belief is a deliberate act of my will, not an intellectual act, where I deliberately commit myself to God and obedience to Him.” (My Utmost for His Highest, December 22^nd) Truly knowing God is a deliberate act of your will. Jesus told us to love the Lord with our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Once you begin truly knowing God through seeking Him with your whole being and through belief in Jesus as your Savior, then you trust Him more and receive the peace He gives to every believer.

When you get to the start of the new year, looking back helps you recall where you walked with your eyes on Jesus and where you did not. It helps you gauge your relationship with God so you can grow closer to Him with each day of the new year. Looking back at the last year helps you see where you had peace because of knowing God.  It helps you see where you did not have peace because you tried to manage in your own strength. You can experience peace in the new year when life is stormy and when calm. Knowing and trusting God through Jesus Christ gives peace for all situations.

Are you ready to slam the door on this year thinking next year has to be better? The new year can be better if you seek the Lord to know Him with your heart, soul, and mind, and obey Him. Knowing and trusting God does not mean you will not experience storms. It means you can live with peace during the storms.

Knowing God grows trust and gives peace.

Rana's Story

The chubby-cheeked face peeks out of the clothes that warms it and smiles at the love emanating from his mother’s face. He peers to his other side and sees his sister bouncing in place as she looks at him expectantly. The man he’s come to recognize and whose voice booms from the depths of his chest is not visible. Still, he feels secure. Why shouldn’t he? Rana’s world is small. He recognizes just the people who cherish him most. Still, something seems not right. From the look at his sister, nothing appears to be wrong, but a second glance at his mother’s face, her tightly clenched hands, and her worried eyes speak of something he doesn’t know. Rana hears crying, but it’s not him…and it doesn’t come just from one place. Cries bounce against the mud-brick walls and flow liquidly from hut to hut. To Rana, these cries are about more than wanting food. Even in his short life, he recognizes cries from the heart, not just the belly. Could his father’s absence be related to this reverberating and piercing outcry among the walls of huts?

Days would pass, Rana and his sister, Roxana, would become familiar with others holding, feeding, and watching over them. Nights of long walks and whispers would become the new norm for Rana and Roxana. Days of hiding in bushes and having hands cover their mouths felt suffocating. Where is Papa? Why doesn’t Mama smile anymore? Where did the joy in Roxana’s face and walk go?

Many dark days and weeks have passed. Mama doesn’t cry in the dark anymore. Roxana doesn’t dance anymore. She sits and stares blankly at the ground. I cry, but am not always heard. Papa is missing from the family still. Life, it seems, is not easy.

My clothing is tight. My ears have learned many new sounds. Sounds of bass booms and rapid-fire pellets hitting trees. I have missed hearing the birds and fear the sounds of the night animals. I wish Papa was here. I would be safe. Will I ever be safe again?

Roxana would have been 6 today. I miss seeing her face full of joy and her bounce of excitement. Mama tells me she was too small and too sick. She went to Papa, wherever he is. Mama never smiles anymore. She always looks for roots and bugs. I wish we could eat the food my people tell me they used to eat. For now, I am always hungry; a little bug or a stick lined with them is not enough to fill my stomach. Even Mama notices I am small for my age. The clothes I wear as a four-year-old are Roxana’s clothes from when she was two. What must life have been like back home, wherever home was?

Today, I am a man; I am thirteen. Mama and Papa are not here to celebrate with me. Roxana was too small and sick. No more voices of laughter and love echo around me; I am without family. I live as part of the group of orphan boys. We take care of ourselves…mostly. It would be nice to have a Mama and Papa. I see others who are Mamas and Papas and wish I had one of them, too. Maybe then I could feel a hug, see joy, eat meat, celebrate life. Maybe one day, I will get to be with Mama, Papa, and Roxana again. The other Mamas say not to talk like that, but I want what they were to me. I want family.

The Person Who Prays - Solitary Prayer (part 3)

Introduction

Over the last four weeks, we have learned prayer is communing with God – speaking and listening. We have learned how to approach God with our heart, mind, and soul – recognize God is to be revered, God’s mercy, God exists, God’s power, God’s faithfulness, God’s righteousness, and God is eternal and omnipotent so keep focused on Him. The final part of approaching God taught our prayers should give testimony of God. The Bible has taught us how to pray to God – petitioning for self, others, enemies, adoration, thanksgiving, and confession/repentance. Besides this, we started learning about the attributes, attitudes, and actions of an effective person of prayer. Two of these are righteous, which comes from God, and belief God has the power to do what is necessary to change things and answer prayers.

Today we will learn one more thing the Bible teaches about the person who prays. The person who prays, prays in solitude.  Why is this important? Why does it not conflict with other Bible passages?

Pray in Solitude

The third most common teaching in the Bible regarding the attributes, actions, or attitudes of the person who prays - the pray-er - regards where physically to pray. Five times in the New Testament, the disciples recorded Jesus teaching or modeling prayer in solitude. With Matthew 6:6 and 14:23, and Luke 5:16, 6:12, & 9:28, Jesus taught His disciples solitude is necessary in praying. Mark and John each record the same thing as Matthew 14:23.

In Matthew 6, Jesus taught the disciples whatever they did because of their belief in Him must not be done to receive attention and praise from men, but to be noticed by the Father. Whether the disciples gave help to the poor or prayed, they should only seek recognition from God. In Matthew 6:6, Jesus said to them, “But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.” [NASB] He spoke against the Pharisees’ method of prayer that sought the attention and praise of people. Jesus contrasted it with the purpose of true prayer - to be in the presence of God, communing with Him, petitioning Him, seeking His will, and listening to Him. Jesus called the Pharisees hypocrites because they sought the approval of man and not God. They were not as righteous as they pretended to be. Jesus told the disciples not to stand in high traffic places praying just to be seen by people. Instead, He said, go to a quiet, solitary place – an inner room or closet - since the reason of praying is to draw closer to God. Solitary prayer keeps people focused on God and their relationship with Him. It keeps the person who prays from seeking self-centeredness.

In Matthew 14:23, Matthew recorded after feeding the 5000 men, plus women and children, Jesus went up the mountain to a solitary place to pray. It says, “He was there alone.” When reading this chapter, we understand Jesus and His disciples fed the people in the evening, which was about 6pm before night fell.  After the feeding, Jesus sent His disciples away from the crowd, probably to give them a respite. While He prayed, a storm blew up and battered the boat. Verse 25 says, “And in the fourth watch of the night, He (Jesus) came to them walking on the sea.” The fourth watch was a Roman term of time for 3am-6am. Understanding this, we realize Jesus prayed alone for almost twelve hours. Mark 6:46 and John 6:15 record this for us, too. He took time to be with and commune with the Father and gained rest for His body. Solitary time in prayer provided rest for Jesus and rejuvenated His Spirit from communion with His Father.

Luke 5:16 says after Jesus healed the man of leprosy, “But Jesus Himself would often slip away to the wilderness and pray.” After times of ministry, Jesus knew His physical body needed rest. He recognized, too, that He needed to commune with the Father. His relationship with the Father was close. Just as we want to stay close to our parents and other family members by being with and talking to them, Jesus wanted closeness with His Father. Solitary prayer makes it easier to commune with the Father without distractions. It provides rest for the body, too.

In Luke 6:12 we read Jesus went to the mountain to pray. He was alone, we note, because He called His disciples to Him in verse 13. Why was Jesus praying in solitude? How long did He pray? This verse tells us Jesus prayed all night, between 9 and 12 hours. Before this verse, we read Jesus healed a man’s hand. The Pharisees and Levitical scribes were present and challenged Him since He healed on the Sabbath. Jesus prayed to commune with the Father, to receive strength from Him, and to get away from disbelieving, challenging people. He prayed to prepare for the next days when He chose His twelve disciples and teach His greatest sermon – the Sermon on the Mount. Solitary prayer provides peace from daily life, challenges, and the neediness of people. It provides rest for the body and spiritual rejuvenation.

Luke 9:28 says, “Some eight days after these saying, He took along Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray.” [NASB] Before this record, Luke said Jesus fed the 5000 people, questioned His disciples, told them not to reveal yet who He is, and taught them about being His disciples – what it requires. Jesus had been busy mentally, spiritually, and physically. He interfaced with and met the needs of thousands of people. He was preparing to teach His disciples more and heal a demon-possessed boy. Jesus needed rest for His body. He needed strength. Jesus wanted to be with His Father. He prepared for the coming days when strength of mind and body would be necessary. The tired disciples fell asleep while Jesus prayed. Solitary prayer opens the door for the Father to talk to us in ways that will enlighten and strengthen us for the days ahead. It gives rest for the tired body and mind. Solitary prayer brings us into the presence of God to receive from His well strength, nourishment, and rejuvenation. It allows us to be filled with God’s words and goodness so we can walk strong with Him in the future.

Notice Jesus did not always go to prayer by Himself. At times He took people dear to Him to His place of prayer. He modeled prayer for them and allowed them a glimpse of the Father during His own times of prayer.

Relevance and Conclusion

Solitariness solely for isolation was not what Jesus taught. He taught this so people understood the intent of the pray-er’s heart was what God listened to and saw. That intent, be it righteousness or showmanship, determined if God would listen to and answer prayer. Jesus taught this lesson so people understood a pray-er must get away from distractions to commune truly with the Father. A quiet place allows a person to focus on God so the pray-er can approach God with reverence. That person can have an honest conversation with Him that enables two-way communication. This private conversation gives the pray-er solitude so he or she is not swayed to push his or her sins, for which confession should be made, under the rug. Solitude allows focus, genuine communication, sincere repentance and confession, strengthening for the days to come, and rest from the days just passed. It turns the focus back to God and helps us remember He is our strength and the purpose for our life.

When you pray, do you go to a quiet place alone? Do you seek to meet with and commune with God? Do you have a genuine two-way conversation with Him? Or, do you pray so others can see your “religiosity” so they will know of your “holiness.” Do you seek the praise of people or of God? Solitary prayer is given to us as a gift from God to get us away from the demands on our time, attention, emotions, body, and spirit. It allows us to commune genuinely with God, hear His voice, and be strengthened and nourished. It prepares is for the coming days so we walk in God’s will and with His strength. Solitary is not the only way Jesus taught us to pray, but it has its benefits for our whole being – mind, heart, body, and soul.

When did you last truly seek God in solitude and without pretense?

Prayer - More Than Words: James 5:13-20

Introduction

James’ ending to this epistle is not abrupt though it might appear that way compared to the endings by Paul. It concludes his teaching on faith that results in action. Throughout this letter, James admonished the Jerusalem Christians and later readers to put their faith into action by praying without doubting and doing practical works such as bridling their bodies by not showing favoritism, slandering, and judging, and by loving their neighbors by helping the poor and speaking with love. Added to these, James taught the Holy Spirit resides in every believer to help him or her live life as a child of God – loving God with all his or her heart, soul, mind, and strength, and loving his or her neighbors as this or herself. He recognized the Jerusalem Christians experienced trials and persecutions and admonished them to endure knowing they had eternal hope - eternal life Jesus Christ gave them.

This letter’s biggest teaching is that believers must live out their faith in works as evidence and testimony of their faith and salvation. As James said, faith without works is dead (James 2:17). Along with this, he taught faith should be lived out in community with other believers. Christians are not isolated and should support one another in prayer, practical help, and encouragement to walk in the ways of the Lord. The last two of these are the teachings by which James ended this epistle. Through his teaching on prayer in verses thirteen through twenty, James taught the Christian faith is personal and communal. Let us now look into these eight verses to understand what James taught.

Prayers of an Individual 

James taught the Jerusalem Christians prayer should occur during hard and easy times – times of suffering and of cheer. He spoke to individuals in specific in verse thirteen as noted when he said, “anyone.” James taught each person to pray when he or she experienced hardships and troubles, and when afflicted. By using these words, he reminded the Jewish believers of Psalm 50:15 when the Lord said, “Call upon me in the day of trouble; I shall rescue you, and you will honor Me.” [NASB] James taught the believers to pray during their suffering because he knew and wanted to remind the people God will hear and help them.

In this same verse, James reminded the believers they should pray to God even during joyful times when no suffering or hardship wearies them. When times are joyous, cheerful, and peaceful, Christians should praise God. Lifting praises to God is music to His ears. It results in our hearts soaring so that our spirits and minds sing of God, who He is, and what He has done. “Singing praises” to God requires more than our minds. It requires the spirit (the whole person). Paul spoke of this prayer and praising in 1 Corinthians 14:15 when he said, “I will pray with the spirit and I will pray with the mind also. I will sing with the spirit and I will sing with the mind also.” [NASB] In reading verse thirteen, we learn James taught the Jerusalem Christians to pray no matter the situation – suffering or joy.

Prayers of the Ministers and Leaders 

With verses 14-15, James taught the Jerusalem believers the ministers and leaders – the elders – were to pray with and over people in the church. The word “elders” comes from the Greek word presbuteros, which means a person of rank or holding an office in the church, those people in ministerial leadership in the church[i]. In these two verses, James spoke about the elders praying over the sick people in the church. He mentioned four things about praying over a sick member of the body of Christ for the prayer to be effective.

James told the elders of the church to anoint the sick person with olive oil. In Israel, people used olive oil for their lamps, for anointing their heads and bodies at feasts (religious and secular), for consecrating someone to the Lord, and for a healing aid for the sick. James taught the elders to use olive oil to consecrate and set aside the sick person for God. They would give the sick person into God’s hands. The readers and hearers of James’ epistle noted this with the next prepositional phrase of verse fourteen – “in the name of the Lord.” Pouring oil on a person does not heal that person, but anointing a person for God’s purpose and attention and in the power of Lord’s name requests God’s intervention for the health of the one anointed. Praying in the name of the Lord acknowledges and requests the Lord’s authority, excellences, and power for the person about whom the elders make the prayer. Mark 6:13 and 16:18 tell of the apostles anointing the sick people with oil in the name of the Lord and of the healing of those sick people. The most important point to understand is that the Lord is the one who heals the sick person, not the elder or the oil the elder poured. James made sure the people knew the praying and anointing required the Lord’s power for healing to occur.

Another aspect required for an elder to be an effective participant in the healing of a sick person is the elder’s faith. In verse 15, James said, “And the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick.” Notice to have an effective prayer, the pray-er needs a strong faith to affect the healing of the sick person. The elder must believe in the power and authority of God over everything including the health of people for God to answer his or her prayer. In James 1:6, James taught the Christians if they doubted when they asked God for anything they would be like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. The people who doubted did not have firm faith in God and because of that He would not answer them. In verse fifteen, James said prayer offered in faith would restore (rescue from danger, destruction, injury, and peril) the sick person – the one who is weary and ill. God will answer the prayers offered in faith of Him and His authority and power. James 1:21 says, God has the power to save souls. In James 4:12, he said, God can save and destroy. James 5:20 says, God can save a person’s soul from death. James taught faith can save a person in James 2:14. God has the power to save and heal. He has authority to act as He wills.

With these three elements – anointing the sick person with oil, doing it in the name of the Lord, and praying with faith in the power of Jesus to heal and restore, the Lord will raise the sick person up – cause the person to arise from the sick bed and be well. Besides healing, the Lord will forgive the sick person his or her sins, those things that led the Christian to wander away from God and His divine Law. With this final part of verse fifteen – forgiving the sins of the sick person, James appears to say the person’s illness was discipline or punishment from God for his or her sins against Him. With God’s healing of the person, He forgave the sins of the sick person. Yet if James meant that, the forgiveness of sins would have to precede the healing of the person. Because of that reasoning, a few theologians believe James meant, by including the forgiveness of sins, the prayers of faith by a Christian in the name of the Lord are effective in healing and forgiveness of sins by the Lord. Whether you believe the illness occurred because of God’s punishment for sin or not, James taught the pray-er who prays in faith without doubting is the one whom God will answer for healing and forgiveness of sin.

Prayers of Members of the Body of Christ 

James began verse sixteen with the word “therefore.” By starting this section in this way, he showed this verse is a continuation of his thoughts from verse fifteen. James said in this verse, “Therefore confess your sins to one another and pray for one another so that you may be healed.” He meant since the prayers of faith can bring God’s power to forgive sin, each member of the body of Christ can confess their sins to another member and each believer can pray for God to heal the confessing person from the stain of sin to make him or her whole again – righteous and clean before the Lord.

Confession is important for healing/restoring/cleansing from sin. Through it, the sinner acknowledges his or her walk away from the Lord, which is sin. By confessing, the person recognizes and professes God’s power to cleanse and heal so the he or she can renew a right relationship with Him. Each Christian confesses his or her sins before his or her baptism, so cleansing from later sin requires confession, too. 

The members of the body of Christ can offer prayers of faith to God asking Him to forgive and restore the person who confessed sins to him or her. A communal element exists for Christians. Another person cannot cleanse a person from sin nor make a confession of sin for him or her, but that person can lift the confessor up before the Lord asking for God’s forgiveness and restoration. Another element of communal life as Christians is worshipping the Lord, singing praise to and adoring Him. Offering encouragement and support, as well as teaching and guiding, are other elements of a communal life of faith. Christians make an individual decision to become followers of Jesus; no one can decide for another person. Yet, Christians live out their lives in communion with each other and God. Faith is individual, but a person must live it out – act upon it. Jesus explained this in the two greatest commandments – love the Lord God and love your neighbor. Christianity is not insular. Christianity is relational, and as such is communal and individual. God answers prayers because of concern and love for another person, the relationship of the pray-er with God, and the faith of the pray-er.

Effective Prayer 

James revisited what he taught in verse 15a with verse 16b. He said in the latter verse, “The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.” This sounds straightforward. Let us look at a few of the words of this passage. “Effective” comes from the Greek word energeo from where our English word “energy” comes. Energeo means to be operative and put forth power in aiding another person; intense and fervent, not wavering[ii]. The English word “accomplish” comes from the Greek word ischuo. It means to have power, to be a force, to avail, and to be able[iii]. With this understanding of these words, this passage means the intense, fervent prayer of a Christian who has no doubt about God or his faith in God can bring God’s power and authority to prevail in the situation. God makes a righteous person’s prayer powerful. The rank or position of the pray-er and the anointing of oil do not cause healing; they have no power to heal without God’s power. The three elements of effective prayer are:

1.      To be effective prayer, the pray-er must be fervent with unwavering faith in God

2.      To be effective prayer, the pray-er must be righteous, upright, guiltless, and innocent observing divine laws so he or she is in a close and right relationship with God.

3.      To be effective prayer, the pray-er must acknowledge God is the only One who has the power and authority to bring change in a situation and ask Him to act specifically in each situation for which prayer is needed.

      James reminded the Jewish Christians of Elijah in verses seventeen and eighteen. Elijah was human and prone to sin. He had no power within himself to effect changes in the normal course of nature. When Elijah prayed earnestly for God to withhold the rain, no rain fell on the earth for three years and six months (1 Kings 17:1 and 18:1). After those three and a half years, he prayed again, rain poured from the sky, and the earth produced its fruit (1 Kings 18:42-45). Elijah was wholly man with no personal power or authority over nature to command the cessation and restart of rain. He was a man completely devoted to the Lord; he was righteous. Elijah was in a right relationship with the LORD. He prayed in the LORD’s name asking for this thing to occur and acknowledging the LORD is the only One who had the power to control nature. Elijah prayed an effective prayer.

More Than Prayer 

Living in community with other believers, since Christianity is to be lived communally and individually, now and then requires more than prayer. Because of Jesus’ noting the two greatest commandments, which sums up all the laws God gave the Israelites, living as Christians means loving and being concerned for other Christians. As stated earlier, living communally with others means acting out your faith for the good of each person. Sometimes this means caring for another person by providing necessities. Other times it means supporting a person during trying situations such as during grief, persecution, or sickness. Still other times it means encouraging, teaching, and admonishing a believer for his or her waywardness from God’s truths and laws and then leading him or her back to God. Verses 19-20 speak to times other than joy, illness, or confession.

James said, “My brethren, if any among you strays from the truth and one turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.” [NASB] This passage causes difficulty for a few people. To these people, they think it says a Christian can lose his or her salvation if he or she sins after becoming a Christian. To understand what James meant, we must look at the original Greek words and Greek thought of that time.

Let us begin our study of these two verses with definitions of words. A list is below to help our understanding.

1.      “Brethren” comes from the Greek word adelphos, which means fellow Christians[iv].

2.      “Strays” comes from the Greek word planao and means to go astray from the truth into deception, from virtue into sin[v].

3.      “Truth” comes from the Greek word aletheia and means truth about God and Christianity[vi].

4.      The verb “turns back” comes from the Greek word epistrepho and means to turn back to the worship of the true God; to cause to bring back to the love and obedience of God, love for the children of God, and love of wisdom and righteousness[vii].

5.      “Error” comes from the Greek word plane and means led astray from the right way, from God’s laws[viii].

6.      “Soul” is used thirty-three times in the New Testament and comes from the Greek word psuche. Psuche is translated often as “life” in the New Testament. Psuche is the Greek concept of the entire person - body, spirit, mind, and heart (feelings and emotions) [ix].

7.      “Death” comes from the Greek word thanatos and means the death of the body as in separation of body and spirit, or spiritual death[x].

8.      “Cover” comes from the Greek word kalupto and means to hide or veil as in knowledge, or to cover as in Jesus’ blood covers the stain and guilt of sin[xi].

When we study this passage and any New Testament passage, we need to understand the Greek culture of thought. The Greek mindset spoke and thought of a whole person made up of body, spirit, mind, and heart. The word Greeks used for the whole person was psuche. When the Greeks meant to talk specifically about part of the whole person, they used specific words that were not psuche. For our purposes in this Bible study, when the Greeks spoke about the spirit of a person - the part of a person that separates from the body after death and lives eternally either in heaven or hell, they used the Greek word pneuma. Bible authors used pneuma just four times in the New Testament (Luke 23:46, James 2:26, Revelation 11:11, and Revelation 13:15).

With these definitions and the Greek way of understanding our English word “soul,” which includes the body, spirit, mind, and heart, we can better understand verses nineteen and twenty. James wrote to the Jerusalem Christians to live out their faith together and help their fellow Christians not stray from the truth about God, His truth and laws, and their obedience to and love of Him. He told them to bring back the brother or sister going astray from God and His truth because of their own love for God and their straying brother or sister. According to the Bible, they can bring them back using prayer, admonition, and confrontation in love for him or her. Matthew 18:15 and Galatian 6:1 speak about how to lead a straying Christian back to God. James continued in verse twenty by saying, “The Christian who brings his fellow believer back to following God and His ways will save his or her soul – the whole being of the Christian – from death.” By leading a wayward Christian from deception, a believer can save a person from injury and bodily death. Understand this. Because James used the Greek word psuche here, he did not mean a loving Christian would save the spirit of the person from spiritual death. Psuche means the whole person, not just the spirit of the person. This then means the loving Christian who brought the wayward Christian back to a close relationship with God will save the Christian from physical death or injury. Besides that, the fervent Christian who loved and went to save the wayward Christian kept more sins from occurring against God by bringing the sinning Christian back to God and His ways. With these two verses, we realize James taught being a Christian in community with other Christians means more than just praying. It means acting out your Christian faith in love so that a Christian is led back into union with God, a sick Christian is prayed for, and/or praise goes to God for His provisions.

Recap

Throughout this letter, James taught Christians to put their faith in action. In this Bible study, the actions about which he spoke were prayer and bringing a straying believer back to God. In this lesson, James showed that Christianity is not solely an individual life style, but is communal – people helping each other and worshipping together. He exhorted the believers to pray over the sick, rejoice and praise God, confess sins to one another and pray for each other, and to lead a wayward Christian back to God. Faith is not only an inner testament and profession to God, but is an outward way of life. By doing what James taught in 5:13-20, Christians would put love of God and neighbor into action.

Relevance and Conclusion

Throughout this epistle, James taught four primary things. James taught the Jerusalem Christians and later readers of this writing to live out a life of faith in action. He exhorted them to consider suffering and trials as opportunity for growth in Christian virtues – endurance, patience, wisdom, faith, and joy. James contrasted the poor (Christians) and the rich (unbelievers). He instructed them to look to the future for their eventual and eternal hope in Jesus Christ. True faith shows itself in the life – actions and words – of a believer. James conjectured whether a person truly received salvation from sin and death if a testimony of that salvation was not visible in the person’s life. He did not propose a person had to work to receive salvation, but rather the person’s salvation would show in what he or she said and did. James encouraged the Jerusalem Christians to persevere in the midst of trials asking God for strength to endure without doubting He would give it. From trials, Christians will grow in virtue. James reminded them in the midst of trials to hold on to the hope they have that Jesus Christ gave them when they believed and received salvation– the hope of eternal life with Him in heaven. In the midst of these lessons, he taught particular lessons giving examples of how to live life. James taught them to love others by providing for their needs, praying for them, not discriminating and, by that, judging them based on their income, and helping turn a straying believer back to God. These are a few ways to live out his main lessons.

We can apply the same lessons to ourselves today. Is our faith lived visibly in our community – to other believers and to our neighbors? Do our words and actions testify to God’s saving work in our lives so that His love shines through us? Do we persevere and grow by holding on to the knowledge that God provides strength for us now and hope for the present and future?

Today each of us should stop and take stock of our lives. We should go to God asking Him to show us what keeps us from growing more like Christ and from showing God’s love in genuine love for others. For Christians, it is never too late to return to God. For non-believers, you do not know the day when Christ will return, but when He does, it will be too late for you to receive forgiveness and salvation from God. You, then, cannot live with Him in heaven for eternity.

We all have decisions to make now.

What will you decide?

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[i]  Thayer and Smith, The NAS New Testament Greek Lexicon, 1999. (http://www.biblestudytools.com/lexicons/greek/nas/presbuteros.html).

[ii]Ibid. ( http://www.biblestudytools.com/lexicons/greek/nas/energeo.html).

[iii] Ibid. (http://www.biblestudytools.com/lexicons/greek/nas/ischuo.html).

[iv] Ibid. (http://www.biblestudytools.com/lexicons/greek/nas/adelphos.html).

[v] Ibid. (http://www.biblestudytools.com/lexicons/greek/nas/planao.html).

[vi] Ibid. (http://www.biblestudytools.com/lexicons/greek/nas/aletheia.html).

[vii] (http://www.biblestudytools.com/lexicons/greek/nas/epistrepho.html).

[viii] (http://www.biblestudytools.com/lexicons/greek/nas/plane.html).

[ix] (http://www.biblestudytools.com/lexicons/greek/nas/psuche.html).

[x] (http://www.biblestudytools.com/lexicons/greek/nas/thanatos.html).

[xi] (http://www.biblestudytools.com/lexicons/greek/nas/kalupto.html).