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Who is wise and understanding among you? Show by your good life that your works are done with gentleness born of wisdom. But if you have bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not be boastful and false to the truth. Such wisdom does not come down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, devilish. For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there will also be disorder and wickedness of every kind. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace for those who make peace. Those conflicts and disputes among you, where do they come from? Do they not come from your cravings that are at war within you? You want something and do not have it; so you commit murder. And you covetsomething and cannot obtain it; so you engage in disputes and conflicts. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, in order to spend what you get on your pleasures. Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. (James 3:13 - 4:3, 7-8a)
Happy Tuesday to you, dear Friend! My prayer is that this be a day filled with God-opportunities to better your life and help better the life of someone near to you. I thank you for your prayers yesterday for Martha Jo Whitt, whose surgery was postponed until next Monday. Today, Mr. Kenneth Leonhardt undergoes surgery in San Antonio; pray for a successful surgery. We celebrate that Emily Currie returned home from ICU two days earlier than expected! That's an answered prayer! Also, pray for Daryl and Betsy Pieprzica-Boudreaux, who lost their baby girl Adalita. May the Lord comfort and strengthen them is our prayer. Betsy is a friend of Mrs. Kathy Lester from FUMC Gonzales. Pray for each other; pray for yourselves!
The television show of the 70's was Dallas. The first script was based on Cain and Abel and mushroomed into what this very passage from James warns against! The writers may have used this passage and said, "If the Bible says not to do this, then J.R. do exactly that!" Kids, if you don't remember this tv show ask grandma and grandpa. The show was very crucial to our marriage. Nellie and I were newlyweds and we moved to an area near the opening scenes of the show and whenever Nellie had to return home from some place I would say, "Remember the two bank towers. We live near there." Actually, I said it in español. And what got me thinking about the show was the recent Texas Monthly is about the 40th anniversary of the show. Everything about the show was wrong. Dallas was not a cattle nor oil city; it was insurance. And most people in Dallas at that time did not wear cowboy boots and hats; both of those scenarios were straight from Houston. The tv show changed all that.
The passage might also seem like the script some people, ourselves included at times, try to live by, and I'm not talking necessarily about the good parts. Our human nature is geared to self-preservation and sometimes we will do almost anything to protect ourselves and to provide for our families. A pastor on Sunday talked about his infant son who found his way to the chocolate chips momma had been saving for cookies. The pastor found his son's face covered in gooey chocolate and he asked him if he had eaten any of the chips, and the baby replied, No! The pastor told the congregation that neither he nor his wife taught that baby how to lie, but it was in there as part of his/our nature. Friends, the Bible exists to allow God to lift us up out of the pits we sometimes dig or wallow in; God's grace is sufficient, God's power is strong enough to lift us way out of that pit of death and place us right on the path that leads to life in abundance.
The closing part of the passage is so true, "You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, in order to spend what you get your pleasures." The remedy? "Submit yourselves there to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. (Here's something along what we said yesterday:) Cleanse your hands, you sinners and purify your hearts..." It's a matter of choice and we should choose God-things over our own selfish things. To be unable to decide is the very last word of today's passage, double-minded. Our single focus should be on the Lord and His will; everything else will fall into place.
PRAYER: Loving God, work in my life to make me the person I was called to be. Bless me into focusing solely on You and Your will for me. This I pray in Christ Jesus' strong name, amen.
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord! Choose life today! Abundant life!
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