Divine Operating System

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.  For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man unstable in all his ways. JAMES 1:5-8

Wisdom is a gift from God. Ask for wisdom. But before you do, better know what you're in for. Divine wisdom is God's template for living. It's totally incompatible with the operating systems of the world. That's why, when you pray for WISDOM, you must not be double-minded about it.

That was the problem with James'  readers. They're trying to live by the wisdom of the world and the wisdom of God at the same time. This fragmented their souls so badly that James found no word in the Greek vocabulary to describe them. He had to invent a brand new word for their condition: double-minded. Ut literally means two-souled in Greek.

The modern Church is overrun with two-souled Christians. We accept God's operating system on Sunday. But come Monday morning, we switch to.the operating system of the world. James won't have it. It's like trying to run a computer on Windows and MacOS at the same time. Your system will crash. You have to choose one or the other.
This is the sort of doubt that James condemns. It's a doubt that borders a dispute with God. A doubt that looks for proofs, guarantees, contingencies before venturing out in faith. Such doubt stems from double-mindedness. It cripples prayer.
So before you pray for wisdom, make sure you know exactly what you're asking for. Be singleminded. Because heavenly wisdom, if you receive and apply it, it will set you on a collision course with the world and all its humanistic thinking. Then you will know the agony of Abraham when he laid his son on the altar. If he acted on worldly wisdom when God asked him to sacrifice Isaac, he would have never gotten round to it. It was divine wisdom that enabled him to deny himself, defy his natural inclinations, and obey God, despite his great love for his son. And great was his reward.

Are you sure you want this kind of wisdom? Most Christians won't have it. Will you be different? Then simply ask your loving Father who gives and gives with no strings attached.

PRAY AND OBEY

Rocket science can take us to Mars. Medical science can improve our quality of life. But when it comes to knowing and doing the will of God, worldly wisdom can be a devastating liability. Time for a serious self-examination:

• Are you a double-minded Christian? Have you been straddling the fence between God's way and the world's way? Stop being tossed to and fro by conflicting values.  Let God's wisdom be your inner compass, your guiding light - even though it sets you on a head-on collision course with everything in the world around you, including the advice of well-meaning Christians! Seek God. Love God. Fear God. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Knowledge of the Holy One results in good judgment (Proverbs 9:10). Resolve to live by God's Word, God's standard, God's wisdom from above. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts (Isaiah 55:8-9).

• First world Singapore is a hotbed of competing ideas and influences. How do we fortify our young against the tossing waves of worldly wisdom, secularism, and liberal ideologies? Deuteronomy 6 is the key: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.  And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by your way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. Dare believe for a God-sent revival, connecting Church and Home for generational discipleship. (D6 FAMILY)

• Fathers and Mothers: You play a crucial role. The home is the first school where truth is lived, where faith is cultivated, where values are shaped. Will you prioritize this unglamorous home-based ministry to mould the minds of your children, tutor their hearts in wisdom, and sensitize their spirits to the power of the Holy Spirit? Truth is mightier than eloquence, the Spirit greater than genius, faith more than education. (MARTIN LUTHER)

• Ponder and pray this counsel from a wise judge: God assumed from the beginning that the wise of the world would view Christians as fools...and he has not been disappointed. Devout Christians are destined to be regarded as fools in modern society. We are fools for Christ's sake.  We must pray for courage to endure the scorn of the sophisticated world...Have the courage to have your wisdom regarded as stupidity. Be fools for Christ. And have the courage to suffer the contempt of the sophisticated world. (JUSTICE ANTONIN SCALIA)

Total Joy

"Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. Let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, not lacking anything." JAMES 1:2-4

Joy is the hallmark of true discipleship. Joy is not a natural reflex to trials.  It's a Kingdom response by a disciple of Jesus who sees reality from God's perspective. Like Paul and Silas in Philippi. In the deepest dungeon and the darkest hour, they sang hymns under torture! Not that they took pleasure in pain.  Not at all. But because they believed that God was in control and that he would bring about a positive outcome in line with his perfect will. (ACTS 16:23-34).

God doesn't put us on a treadmill to watch us sweat.  His purpose is always to show mercy and compassion (JAMES 5:11).  His plan is to make us perfect and complete in Christ. (1:4).  

Trials are special occasions for rejoicing because suffering produces patience and patience produces character and character produces hope. (ROMANS 5:3-4).

Patience is not passive resignation to suffering. Nor is it a denial of reality.  It's a resolve to bear up under the burden, trust God's character, and cling to his promise over the distance.  Patience confronts reality head on with the faith and joy of Jesus.  Give patience a chance.

Fanny Jane Crosby lost her sight in infancy due to a doctor's negligence.  But she never grew bitter.  At the age of eight, she wrote these lines: "O what a happy soul am I, although, I cannot see; I am resolved that in this world contented I will be. How many blessings I enjoy that other people don't. To weep  and sigh because I am blind I cannot and I won't."

Fanny Crosby never gave in to self-pity.  Like Paul and Silas, she sang her way through the darkness until she saw the face of Jesus in heaven.  She was so prolific a hymn-writer that she had to use a hundred pseudonyms to prevent her name from inundating the hymnals of her day.  She wrote 8,000 hymns, including all-time favorites such as Blessed Assurance, Christ the Lord Is Risen Today, and Near the Cross.

Are you suffering?  Assess the situation from a Kingdom perspective.  count it a total joy!! Give thanks for the good outcome that you cannot see.  Joy is the simplest form of gratitude. (KARL BARTH)

PRAY AND OBEY

• Following Jesus does not mean a trouble-free life. No one is exempt from suffering.  When trials come your way, your attitude is more important than your IQ. Do you react or do you rejoice?  Typically, people get upset or anxious. They feel undone. They despair. They blame.  They grumble. They demonise their enemies, real or imagined.  Some lose sleep.  Others fall into depression.  Some withdraw from Christian. fellowship.  Others become suicidal.  If any of this describes your pattern of response, break the cycle today in Jesus' name.  Turn to God with all your heart.  He is with you.  He is for you.  He is not against you.

• Are you in the thick of a painful, prolonged trial? Is it a personal health crisis? A domestic problem? A relational conflict? A workplace injustice? Take James (book of James) seriously.  Set your mind to rejoice, especially when negative emotions overwhelm you. rejoice in Faith. Defy your feelings.  Joy is a value of the Kingdom.  Joy is a command.  Joy is a choice.  Choose to obey.  Sooner or later, you will experience the joy of the Lord as your strength in the storm.

• In the midst of your trial, accept and confess the Truth: God is a Father. God is my good Father.  God never makes a mistake.  God is working all things for my greatest good.  God has nothing but good intentions for my life.  God is sovereign, and since he is sovereign, there is never any cause for despair.

• Pray: Heavenly Father, I am your precious possession, bought at a great cost.  I believe your Word of Truth. I accept your wisdom from above.  I cannot control everything that happens to me.  But I can control everything that happens to me.  But I can control the way I respond.  Yes, trials are not sent to crush me.  Trials are meant to create a better version of me. To bring out the gem in me.  To make me more like Jesus.  When troubles come at me from all directions, I will count it all joy! In all things, I will exercise patience so that I may become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.  I want to be your disciple of joy. I want to share in the fellowship of your suffering (PHILIPPIANS 3:10).  I will encourage others with the wisdom I gain from each perplexing episode.  I will look to Jesus...who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.(HEBREWS 12:2).

Ponder and pray this wise insight for living: Who are the most beautiful people in the world?  Those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths.  These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen. (ELISABETH KÜBLER-ROSS)

The Lord's Family

"James ... To the Twelve Tribes in the Dispersion: Greetings."
James 1:1

Families can be messy. James addresses his letter to the Twelve Tribes in the dispersion. This signals two things about his readers. First, they are the family of God. And 2nd, they are the Exiles from their Heavenly home. They are in the world but not of the world- at least in principle.

The Church Jesus builds is not a crowd but a community. When he feeds the five thousand, he sits them together in companies. No one eats alone. We are not a refugee camp where everyone fights for survival at the expense of others. We are the Lord's family.

But James' readers were behaving like rival gangsters than members of God's household. They flattered the rich and bullied the poor.  They slandered and judged each other.  They quarreled violently. They divided the church along class lines.  They were full of selfish ambition.   They were driven by envy, anger, and arrogance. They lacked the values of the Kingdom and the fruit of the Holy Spirit.  And you thought the Corinthians were bad! 

We often associate first generation faith with radical commitment. But that is not always the case.  The Corinthians were first generation converts.  It took them about one generation to clean up their act.  Winning converts is a whole lot easier than making disciples.  But Jesus commands us to make disciples and train them to obey his teaching. (MATTHEW 28:19-20)

James readers were also first generation believers. Like millions of Christians and thousands of churches today, they apparently omitted the teaching of Jesus from their curriculum of discipleship.  They wanted to be teachers (JAMES 4:1).   But they themselves needed proper teaching.

This is the mission of James. First, to get the world out of the church.  And second, to make his readers practicing discipleship according to the teaching of Jesus.  More than 40 verses in James echo specific sayings in the Sermon on the Mount.  And one out of every two verses contains an imperative call to action.  

The voice of James calls them and us back to the voice of Jesus.  James invites us all to become in practice what we are in principle: the Lord's Family. In the world, not of the world. 

PRAY AND OBEY

• Church can be messy. Some Christians say they're done with Church just because of some bad experience, usually a hurt or disappointment.  Wise up. Revisit the Truth.  Confess aloud:  Christ loves his Church and gave himself up for her.  He doesn't give up on his Church, despite her many flaws and failings.  He is washing her clean with his Word and ironing out all his wrinkles (EPHESIANS 5:25-27).  The Church's Family, his chosen means for reaching the lost and changing the world.  The Church is God's force for good society.  To reject the Church is to reject God's Family, God's wisdom, plan and strategy for his Kingdom come, his will be done on earth as it is in heaven (MATTHEW 6:10).

• We are Family.  We are created for community.  But we often encounter solo Christians with a mind and an agenda of their own.  In the name of freedom, they wander from place to place, shopping for a diet and ambience that suit their fancy.  Like stray cats, they are homeless.  Wise up.  Face the Truth:

• God organizes his Family in communities called local churches.  Do you     belong to a local church? Or have you dismissed it? Repent of any wrong attitudes and wrong thinking.  Acknowledge that the local church is God's wisdom--his structure and blueprint for spiritual covering and accountability, community and care, discipleship and nurture, training an     equipping, evangelism and missions.  Ask God for a new appreciation for     your local church, a work in progress.  Thank God for your pastors, elders, and members, imperfect as they are.  Pray that the solo Christians will come to their senses and come home to the local church family

• The local church is a powerful platform of public persuasion.  Will you pray for your local church?  The local church is the hope of the world... There is nothing like the local church when it's working right. Its beauty is indescribable. Its power is breathtaking.  Its potential unlimited. It comforts the grieving and heal the broken in the context of community. It builds bridges to seekers and opens its arms to the forgotten, the downtrodden, and the disillusioned. The potential of the local church is almost more than I can grasp. (BILL HYBELLS)

• Be gracious.  A pastor's job is a tall order.  Lovingly pray that your pastor will:
• Lead by example with love, patience, courage, and wisdom
• Lay strong foundations according to the Word of God
• Uphold the standard of God's Word
• Drive worldliness out of the Church
• Major on the teaching of Jesus, full of grace and truth
• Turn every convert into a practising disciple of Jesus
• Multiply disciple-makers, especially among the young

SOURCE: WISDOM FROM ABOVE

The Lord's Brother

“James, slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.” James 1:1

James who? Just James . Or James the Just, as he is known in history.

Most scholars agree that the James is the brother of Jesus. His credentials are over the top. He saw the Risen Lord (1 Corinthians 15:7). He was in the upper room on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 1:14). He succeeded Peter as head of the church in Jerusalem. Paul calls him an apostle and ranks him as a pillar of the church along with Peter and John (Galatians 1:19; 2-9)  And a fourth-century historian identifies James as the first bishop of Jerusalem.  Impressive CV. 

Ancient letters usually begin with an inventory of the author’s credentials. But James takes after his Brother Jesus, who would not even allow his disciples to have titles.  The greatest among you shall be your servant (Matthew 23:8-11).  James introduces himself humbly and the modestly as a slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The word slave is doulos in Greek.  It literally refers to one who is in bondage to another, as the Israelites were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt.  But slavery to God and Jesus Christ is voluntary.  It’s a very special relationship of loving service and unquestioning obedience.  

James is about as close as you can get to the Historical Jesus.  His name appears first in the list of Jesus’ brothers, implying closeness in age (Matthew 13:55; Mark 6:3).

James had a reputation for holiness and prayerfulness.  They called him Old Camel Knees because he developed thick calluses on his knees during long hours in prayer.

On the Passover of 62AD, James followed his Brother in martyrdom.  The Scribes and the Pharisees stood him on the pinnacle of the Temple and told him to denounce Jesus before the large crowd that had gathered for the festival.  With a loud voice, James hailed Jesus as the Son of Man seated at the right hand of God.  Many in the crowd resounded with Hosanna to the Son of David.  Frustrated, the Pharisees and Scribes threw him down. James survived the fall.  But then a laundryman finished him off with a club.  So ended the life of James the Lord’s brother, faithful witness, and slave of Jesus.

Pray And Obey

• James takes after his Brother Jesus, who would not even allow his disciples to have titles.  Yet Christians have often been hung up on titles (MATTHEW 23:8-11).  Some make a big fuss about how they want to be addressed in print and in public.  Is it just institutional or is it something more?  Time for a Holy Spirit diagnosis.  Are you obsessed with titles? Search your heart. Ask the Holy Spirit to intercede through you with precision and power.
• James takes after his Brother Jesus, who though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being (PHILIPPIANS 2:6-7).  James does not capitalise on his lineage for personal advantage.  Instead, he honours Jesus by imitating him. Know anyone like that? Treasure this rare specimen.  Ask God to increase his or her influence.
• Are you a disciple that takes after Jesus? Wisely surrender your all to him and be his voluntary slave for life.  God is not looking for more stars; he's looking for more servants (HOWARD HENDRICKS). Dear Lord, help me cultivate genuine humility, unquestioning obedience, loving service, and absolute loyalty to you.
• Memorise and pray the Word: You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served, and to give his life as a ransom for many. (MATTHEW 20:25-28).
• James had a reputation for holiness and prayer. May our Church be that way too --today and tomorrow and forever! Holiness and prayer go hand in hand, something we seldom talk about.  We train Christians how to pray better. We give them the scripts and the strategies.  But we fail to emphasize that effective prayer flows from a life of personal holiness.  If I cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened (PSALM 66:18). Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart... Such is the generation of those who seek him (PSALM 24:3-6). Holiness and prayer are God's mighty weapons against today's culture of worldliness and lawlessness! Who will stand up and be consecrated?
• James stood for Truth and died a martyr.  The fact is, there are more persecuted Christians in the world today than there were in the first centuries of Christianity (POPE FRANCIS). When persecution comes, may we be ready! We triumph over evil by the blood of the Lamb, by the word of our testimony, and by not clinging to our dear lives even in the face of death. (REVELATION 12:11)

Wisdom from Above

Wisdom from Above

Introduction to the Book of James.

Imagine. You receive a letter from a man who knew Jesus personally.  He grew up in the same village as Jesus. In the same family. The same house. You open your letter box, and there it is. A letter from the brother of Jesus! Would you read it? Treasure it? Memorize it? Would you obey it? Or would you frame it up as a curiously to be admired and talked about?

What have you done with the book of James? Most biblical scholars agree that the brother of Jesus wrote it.  And yet most of us neglect it. How many sermons have you heard from James?  Martin Luther, the Protestant Reformer, famously called James an epistle of straw. Understandably, the champion of justification by faith alone didn’t like James’ emphasis on works. But for many of us, James is simply not exciting enough. Not mystifying. It doesn’t tickle ears. Like the teaching of Jesus, James is a little too practical and too demanding for comfort.

Few biblical books take us closer to Jesus than the letter of James. It bears the imprint of Christ and the stamp of the original Jesus Movement.  It may well be the first writing of the New Testament. Apart from the Gospels, James preserves more of the teaching of Jesus and the Sermon on the Mount than any other portion of the Scripture.

Let James introduce you to his brother Jesus. He writes like Jesus spoke - in pictures. Truth comes to life in sea and water, wind and wave, grass and flower, horse and bridle, ship and rudder, forest and fire. See the truth about yourself in the Mirror of God's Word (James 1:23-25). James revisits the teaching of Jesus while it’s still in living memory. He preserves the radical and revolutionary character of the early Jesus Movement before tradition and institutions tamed it. James is no epistle of straw. It’s a mountain of salt. A tract for transformation.  A pathway to practical holiness.  The brother of Jesus puts the ethical demands of Jesus in your face, uncompromised and unadulterated.

The ancients compared the teaching of the wise to string of pearls. That’s why Jesus said don’t throw your pearls to pigs.  James is a string of precious pearls.  If you can stomach it, blessed are you. Most people prefer peas and corn.

Source: Wisdom from Above (40 Day 2016)