Coming to the Still Waters

  I like how this frames what James is getting at when he talks about us being justified by works and not faith alone.  I kept going back in the sermon to the phrase, "James is speaking to the saved, 'the justified by faith alone,' about works that show or 'justify' that they are 'justified.'" I worked through this chart that put Paul and James side by side to highlight their use of the word  "justify" with their audience and what they were dealing with at the time. Paul                                                                              James *Ro. 3:28 - "justified by faith"                                     *Ja. 2:24 - "justified by works" *faith alone                                                                             *faith & works *justify = declared righteous by God                       *justify = being demonstrated and proved *speaking to unsaved Gentiles & Jews                     *spea

  This is a piece of papyrus from the 3rd century which contains part of James 2 and 3.    It is amazing to think of those who undertook the writing and copying of Scripture throughout the centuries so that we would have the words of God to guide us.  What if we didn't have this very practical book of James?  James, the half brother of Jesus, who takes His teachings and puts them into the real life scenarios of the 1st century Christian.  What is amazing is that the scenarios of the 1st century are also the scenarios of the 21st century for the Christian. We have the picture of two hands.  One hand is grasping the sin of partiality and the other hand is holding onto a faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.  James says that this is not possible.  Your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ does not produce partiality or favoritism that puts one above another.  Instead of looking on the outside of the person, our faith produces mercy or compassion for the inside of the person.   Think of Samuel goi

James is giving us a lesson about how we are to respond by showing us what God is like.   Previously we looked at the command for the Christian not to say when tempted, "I am being tempted by God" (1.13).  As a Christian we cannot say this because God cannot be tempted with evil because He is holy and secondly, because God tempts no one, rather He provides the way of escape from temptation. James addresses another issue this week about what the Christian is not to do.  The Christian cannot hold in one hand the practice of showing partiality toward others while holding in the other hand a faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory (2.1).  Why not?  The answer provided by James is another look at our God. God is impartial when it comes to salvation - Jew or Greek. God is impartial when it comes to judgment - you reap what you sow. God is impartial when it comes to social standing - rich or poor. God is impartial when it comes to discipline - no loophole for sin. Since Go

  The picture above was taken in the town square in Medina, Ohio on Memorial Day 2021.  What a picture perfect day to sit on a bench taking in the warm sunshine in this beautiful park and having some dairy free ice cream with my beautiful wife of 36 years.  It was a great place to reminisce of the journey God has taken us on together.  Later we headed to the trails along Medina Lake to walk off that ice cream! It was a special Sunday at Weymouth Community Church for me because: 1) I was able to interact with the children of WCC and share the plane to rocket to cross illustration that I watched my good friend Jeff do with the children of Machias Valley Baptist Church.  It made me think of the times Libby, one of our grandchildren, would come and sit by grandpa up front at Oglesby Union Church for children's message and also of when our children would do the same so many years ago in at the Alpena Free Methodist Church.  I guess I am getting old.   2) I was able to talk about communi