We have a major problem in our day – God's Word is not studied the way it should: in fact, it may not even be read all that much. We use excuses like, "I don't understand it" or "I don't have time." This is far from good and it is producing Christians who are not Christ-followers. These verses remind us why we should read. We'll come back to that in a moment.
The Bible is God's Truth – it is the life-giving book of thousands of generations. It tells us how God perceives us, lets us know what God wants us to do, answers the questions plaguing man, provides for us a way to know Him deeper after we enter into a relationship with Him. Yet, we don't like to read (never mind Psalm 119), or we don't like learning (the word for disciple means "learner") and a million other things that go through our minds. Don't we see that our lack of desire for God's Word is similar to us "being our own master – or god?!?" This is the lie that has been given since the beginning of time. We must read this book in order to grow.
James understood this and encourages the church to investigate and swim deeply in God's Word. Here in these verses he reminds us to be slow to speak, quick to listen and slow to become angry. This is not the natural human way to do things. Any reality TV show can show us this – humans like to fly off the handle. This is "good TV" but bad for us to learn. Suppose that we watch 4 hours of TV a day. What might we see? We might see quick tempers, seductive glances, adultery, murder, children born out of wedlock, abuse (verbal, physical, sexual), or any other number of bad things. Some of us assume this is normal and act like this without even thinking twice. Others of us know these things are wrong, but we realize that we are not like any of these people and we go on with our day thinking, "I am better off than them – I am a good Christian because I don't…"
This makes TV a mirror into our lives. We look at it, see the evil and pain in all the world, realize we are better and think we don't need to grow. Yet, James saw something else that should be a mirror into our lives – God's Word. A mirror shows us what we look like and what we need to do to change. Four months ago, I finally saw the fat man in the mirror staring back. This morning, I saw a crazy hair-do from my sleep that encouraged me to shower and do my hair. A mirror tells us what we look like and a mirror tells us what is wrong. If we use a dirty mirror (TV), we are deceived. Use a clear mirror, one that will show us imperfection (Bible) we have somewhere to start. Now many have used James as a book about human works and how this book seems to focus on how humans can become righteous. I don't see that at all. James is telling us to look into the right mirror – ask God for help (James 1:5) and to trust that He can change us (James 1:17). We have a problem in our day – but I know where to start.
Interesting how one of the first things you point out was the excuses we create that keep us from really diving in because i used the "i'm really busy excuse" on myself last night...while i was on facebook....
ReplyDeleteI do have a somewhat busy schedule with school in the day and work at night, but even so, i still am able to find time to hop on the computer and get on facebook or watch sportscenter to wait for the highlights of the brewer game (which of course they lost...). True, we all do have busy schedules with school, homework, and jobs. But as i found out the other night, if i have enough time to check my email, fantasy teams, facebook, bank account, facebook again, chat with so and so, read over the brewer blog over and over (yes, i'm that crazy of a fan) and watch a video on youtube...i probably have a few minutes to get into the word.
But this morning i tried something a little different. I woke up at 6 am (well more like 6 20 after i hit the snooze button a couple of times) and dove in to the devotionals (hence my status post). It’s something I’ll probably do more because nothing starts out a day better then getting into the word and then spending some time in prayer…and drinking starbucks coffee. I would say to those who have “busy schedules”, should give it a try. I know we like sleep, but I figure if 6 in a half hours of sleep won’t be enough anyway, what then is 6 hours and 20 minutes(yeah my sleep schedule is stilled goofed up from the summer)? I got to say; doing that has made the day a bit better, considering I feel a little more filled spiritually for the day.
I know there is a lot more content in the blog post but I thought I’d put my two sense in on that issue.
Sweet - thanks for the honesty Mike. Here's hoping that you can get up early for a while here and build a good habit!
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