WORD From The Woods
James 4
“What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” 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. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you. Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor? Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin”.
James, in his matter of fact way, gave us a bold warning against worldliness in this chapter. We've talked about this before, but it’s something that we need to be constantly reminded of. The pursuit of worldly passions is all around us, especially in our industry. For many loggers, it's all about how many sides they have running, how many trucks are in their fleet or how many board feet they can move in a month. It becomes a viscous cutthroat business when we start seeking greatness though the world. Even many popular television preachers today preach a "give to get theology" or if you just have enough faith, you'll have health and wealth. Worldliness is simply when life is all about me instead of the Lord God, Creator of the universe! It's called idolatry, and it comes in many different forms. James says here that, "God yearns jealously over our spirit." We can become caught up in the passions and desires of this world so easily, trying to find joy in it. God tells us through James to mourn and weep over our sinfulness, and humble ourselves before Him, and He will exalt us. He doesn't tell us this so that we won't have joy, but that we will take our idolatrous ways seriously and turn our hearts to Him, and in Him we will find true joy, all to His glory! God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. James warns us not to arrogantly say that tomorrow we'll go to a certain place and trade and make a profit, because we don't know what tomorrow will bring. All such boasting is sin. Instead we should say, "if the Lord wills I will do this or that." There's nothing wrong with preparing for the future, in fact it's part of being a good steward of the resources God has entrusted us with. We should build our companies so that we can be good, solid, Christ centered employers and leave a good inheritance to the next generation. But, we should never trust in our own resources, rather we should trust only in the one who gives and takes away! James reminds us that this temporary life is like a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. So, our focus should be on building things that will have an impact on eternity and glorify God, not just the pursuit of temporary success and pleasure! There’s so much more that could be said about this passage, but we’ll leave that for another time.
God bless and have a great week! -Terry-
James 4
“What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” 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. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you. Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor? Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin”.
James, in his matter of fact way, gave us a bold warning against worldliness in this chapter. We've talked about this before, but it’s something that we need to be constantly reminded of. The pursuit of worldly passions is all around us, especially in our industry. For many loggers, it's all about how many sides they have running, how many trucks are in their fleet or how many board feet they can move in a month. It becomes a viscous cutthroat business when we start seeking greatness though the world. Even many popular television preachers today preach a "give to get theology" or if you just have enough faith, you'll have health and wealth. Worldliness is simply when life is all about me instead of the Lord God, Creator of the universe! It's called idolatry, and it comes in many different forms. James says here that, "God yearns jealously over our spirit." We can become caught up in the passions and desires of this world so easily, trying to find joy in it. God tells us through James to mourn and weep over our sinfulness, and humble ourselves before Him, and He will exalt us. He doesn't tell us this so that we won't have joy, but that we will take our idolatrous ways seriously and turn our hearts to Him, and in Him we will find true joy, all to His glory! God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. James warns us not to arrogantly say that tomorrow we'll go to a certain place and trade and make a profit, because we don't know what tomorrow will bring. All such boasting is sin. Instead we should say, "if the Lord wills I will do this or that." There's nothing wrong with preparing for the future, in fact it's part of being a good steward of the resources God has entrusted us with. We should build our companies so that we can be good, solid, Christ centered employers and leave a good inheritance to the next generation. But, we should never trust in our own resources, rather we should trust only in the one who gives and takes away! James reminds us that this temporary life is like a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. So, our focus should be on building things that will have an impact on eternity and glorify God, not just the pursuit of temporary success and pleasure! There’s so much more that could be said about this passage, but we’ll leave that for another time.
God bless and have a great week! -Terry-