James Chapter 1

² My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, ³knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. ⁴But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. ⁵If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. ⁶But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. ⁷For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; ⁸he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

…¹² Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. ¹³Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am tempted by God"; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. ¹⁴But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. ¹⁵Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.
¹⁶Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. ¹⁷Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. ¹⁸Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of first fruits of His creatures.

¹⁹ So then, ^F63 my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath; ²⁰for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God.

²¹ Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
²²But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. ²³For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; ²⁴for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. ²⁵But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.
²⁶If anyone among you ^F64 thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this one's religion is useless. ²⁷Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.

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Now James said that they are to count it joy when they face the trials that come because they can become steadfast as they have their faith tested. What does it mean to count it joy and why is having a steadfast faith a good thing? First, to count it joy is not to pretend you are having fun in the middle of a difficult time. The circumstance of the trial may be due to evil, wrong. The suffering caused in and of itself is not a source of joy. Joy has to do not with the trial itself, but in the use to which God intends to put it. He's saying set your sights on what going through the trial will add up to (count) because God is in the business of making sure it adds up to our benefit and God's glory. So joy is based on the God-given promise of what he intends to do with the trial.

As we go through trials we are faced with the choice to live as if God is good, active, and present or to act as if He isn't hearing us, caring about us, and able to bring good out of this struggle. James reminds his readers in the first paragraph of his letter that we can trust that our trials will add up to joy because as we count on God through them our confidence in Him is strengthened and God will bring us to completion through them. He will make us truly perfect, able perfectly to receive His life and love for us. We will be filled with His fullness, lacking in nothing.

In vv. 7 & 8, James describes a kind of person who is "double-minded". Another way to say this is literally being "in two minds." Such a person who asks God could be double minded about their request—they may say they really want God’s best, but have their hearts set on something far less. Perhaps they go back and forth in their requests. Or the double-minded person may also be double minded about whether or not they trust God in the midst of their trial. They may be equally counting on something else besides God to get them through this trial. So, he says, one should not suppose that "a double-minded man ... will receive anything from the Lord."

We are not really counting on Him when we are also counting on ourselves, therefore we have put ourselves in a position where we are unable to receive the generous gifts He desires to give. The problem is our receptivity at that point, not God’s generosity.

We say with the man in Mark 9:24 "I believe; help my unbelief!"

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I was sitting on the internet, doing my own thing when the word ‘Temperance’ came to my mind and that i should look it up. I stumbled onto a website talking about the ‘fruits of the spirit’ and that led me to this web site:  James Bible Study

I have read James before but i just think it is a great book of the bible so i think i will read it again. Also that study on James seems to be very good and in depth, i like it.

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Temperance: moderation, restraint, sacrifice, self-control, self-discipline.

Don’t know how it is You looked at me
And saw the person that I could be
Awakening my heart
Breaking through the dark
Now there’s a joy inside I can’t contain
But even perfect days can end in rain
And though it’s pouring down
I see You through the clouds
Shining on my face
~Battistelli

“Let your love be sincere, a real thing; hate what is evil, loathe all ungodliness, turn in horror from wickedness, but hold fast to that which is good.” Romans 12: 9 Amplified Bible

AFFIRMATION

“O Lord, Seek Us”
O Lord, seek us, O Lord find us In Thy patient care;

Put Thy love before, behind us, Round us everywhere;

Lest the god of this world blind us, Lest he speak us fair,

Lest he forge a chain to bind us, Lest he bait a snare.

Turn not from us, call to mind us, Find, embrace us, bear;

Put Thy love before, behind us, Round us, everywhere.”

Christina Rossetti

“Evil is only good perverted.”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

• Proverbs 28:26 says, “He who trusts in himself is a fool, but he who walks in wisdom is kept safe.”
• Proverbs 29:25 says, “Fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is kept safe.”
• Proverbs 18:10 says, “The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous run to it and are safe.”
• Psalm 34:10 says, “... those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.
• Deuteronomy 33:12 says, “Let the beloved of the Lord rest secure in Him, for He shields Him all day long, and the one the Lord loves rests between His shoulders.”

Clearly, obedience is key to our security and livelihood. God’s mercy is new every morning. May we partake of His fresh manna and drink of His new wine daily so that we may enjoy life in complete safety.

This morning i decided to search for a daily devotion. This is what i found on my very first click:

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The devil loves to make a playground out of people’s minds and imaginations. He delights in filling their perceptions and senses with illusions that captivate them, paralyze them, and ultimately destroy them. How can believers avoid falling victim to the devil’s attacks? They must make a spiritual and mental decision to take charge of every thought that enters their minds!

Taking your thoughts captive is going to require determination and energy. Once you made the decision to do it, you still have to stick with that decision. If you’re not really committed to seizing every thought the devil tries to inject into your mind and emotions, he’ll be back to strike you again and again. And if you don’t stop the enemy’s thoughts from invading your mind, it won’t be long until your faith begins to empower those thoughts and they become a bona fide reality in your life!

Mark 11:23 is a powerful verse about faith and confession that believers claim and use around the world. But the principle in this verse works both in a positive and negative sense - or to put it another way, this principle works both in the realm of God and in the realm of the devil.

Mark 11:23 says, “For verily I say unto you, that whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.” According to what Jesus taught in this verse, you can bring to pass whatsoever you say and believe in your heart.

QUESTIONS FOR YOU TO CONSIDER
1. What negative things do you say about yourself -0 about your weight, your appearance, your skills, etc. – that you know you ought not to be saying?

2. Can you recall an example of how you confessed something negative for so long that your words eventually came to pass in your life?

3. How much time do you spend reading your Bible and meditating on God’s Word? There is no reason to be dishonest in your answer, because God knows the truth anyway. Look at your life honestly as you answer this question.

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This ministered so much to me. Yesterday me and Bob were talking about something that has been troubling my mind, falsehoods that i was starting to believe about myself. It just goes to prove that God will minister to you when you least expect it and it shows you how close he is to each one of us. He's there sitting beside you, listening to you confess your problems, and he is just waiting to help you and encourage you.

I thank God for showing me these scriptures and words of wisdom and encouragement. And while my problems are not yet solved, i know that he is helping me and is with me every step of the way. Even with things you wouldn't think would be important to God (which i have no clue why we would think that) because if it is important to us, it most likely is to God as well.

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Link to devotion: http://www.crosswalk.com/devotionals/Sparkling%20Gems/11605538/

Matt 6:14-15
14 For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you:
15 But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

Heb 3:12-14
12 Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.
13 But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
14 For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end;

Mark 13:13 says:
[Jesus said] “All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved.” [NIV]

Matthew 13:3-9
3 Then [Jesus] told them many things in parables, saying: “A farmer went out to sow his seed.
4 As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up.
5 Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow.
6 But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root.
7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants.
8 Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop – a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.
9 He who has ears, let him hear.” [NIV]
Matthew 13:18-23
18 “Listen then to what the parable of the sower means:
19 When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the seed sown along the path.
20 The one who received the seed that fell on rocky places is the man who hears the word and at once receives it with joy.
21 But since he has no root, he lasts only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away.
22 The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful.
23 But the one who received the seed that fell on good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” [NIV]