Our study of James has given me a different perspective on what we believe as a society.
Following Thanksgiving, an another opportunity to give thanks to GOD for our blessings, which obviously we could do every day, I am a little taken back on the brazen attack by commercialism. Not trying to be judgmental, but face it brothers, the underlying message I am hearing is that our economy (i.e., retail sector) again is at the mercy of consumers. Indeed, James may agree that it is a "black" Friday in the context of being evil or Satan based. Although believers, this is a stark reminder that we are still "duel" minded, where we aspire to be spiritual, but still live in a physical world, tainted with original sin since creation. Sad to say, I am not above it as I ponder how to spoil the grand kids for Christmas.
Past holidays, I confess I tried to offset my consumerism with token donations (i.e., a goat, or portable water treatment in the names of our grand kids) more so out of guilt, but no fault to them, it would be very unlikely, that they would be able to recall those small mercies given in their same.
Bottom line, pray for me and ourselves for that matter, that we can survive this holiday with some spiritual integrity still intact, and not to take repentance for granted.
Love you all in Christ.
Friday, November 27, 2009
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Thank You, Father.
Could God have blessed us with a more glorious day than we have today?
Not a cloud in the sky. An awe-inspiring sunrise. Pikes Peak standing so tall and glowing so majestically under its snow cap in the blue morning sky—a stalwart, dominating our Colorado valley. Just a gentle breeze from the south. Air so fresh and crisp. A forecasted high of 61.
What a day to be alive! What a day to be in His kingdom!
What a day to say, "Thank You, Father!"
For everything.
But mostly, thank You for loving us.
Let's take the time to really include Him in celebrating this national holiday with our families today. For, without Him we would have nothing. We would be nothing.
Happy Thanksgiving!
____________________________________
Here's the link to the Manhattan Declaration that we briefly discussed yesterday: http://manhattandeclaration.org/ You'll know what to do when you get there.
Not a cloud in the sky. An awe-inspiring sunrise. Pikes Peak standing so tall and glowing so majestically under its snow cap in the blue morning sky—a stalwart, dominating our Colorado valley. Just a gentle breeze from the south. Air so fresh and crisp. A forecasted high of 61.
What a day to be alive! What a day to be in His kingdom!
What a day to say, "Thank You, Father!"
For everything.
But mostly, thank You for loving us.
Let's take the time to really include Him in celebrating this national holiday with our families today. For, without Him we would have nothing. We would be nothing.
Happy Thanksgiving!
____________________________________
Here's the link to the Manhattan Declaration that we briefly discussed yesterday: http://manhattandeclaration.org/ You'll know what to do when you get there.
Friday, November 13, 2009
The Law of Liberty
While pondering the phrase "the law of liberty" in James 2, I came across an interesting view by J. Motyer that I thought I'd share for your comment.
"James has so far taught us two truths about the command to love our neighbour as ourselves.
First, because it is the royal law, the law that in a special sense belongs to the king, we would wish to obey it—simply because he would specially desire us to do so.
Secondly, because it is a command of the law of God, we must obey it. To dismiss it is to dismiss the facet of the Glory of God which it represents; to leave it to others is to say that it is immaterial whether this part of the Lord’s likeness is seen in me. It comes to us as a revelation of God, and with his authority, therefore we must obey it.
But, thirdly, it is part of the law of liberty, and therefore we can obey it.
... the Lord gave his law to his people in order to safeguard the liberty which he had achieved for them by bringing them out of Egypt (Ex. 20:2). The law of God is not a new bondage, but is given to mark the end of the old bondage and the beginning of true freedom.
We must now seek to understand how this is so.
All around us today we see the social rules and conventions, which used to be respected, being broken or discarded. It is very easy to lament over the spirit of rebelliousness which this seems to represent, but the true explanation lies deeper. What people are really seeking is freedom. We look around us at a whole array of inherited laws and customs, find them a real restriction and bondage, and cast them on one side, saying that we want to be ourselves, free of the cramping restrictions of former people and earlier days.
The easiest and in many ways the best illustration is marriage and sex. Why should something as hopefully exciting and satisfying as sexual intercourse be reserved for marriage and restricted to the married? The adult generation replied: It has always been so; that is the way we were brought up. The young replied: But we are not yesterday; we are today; we don’t see it like that; we want to be ourselves. The church said: It has always been church teaching and tradition; and the young replied: But we don’t belong to your church; we want to be ourselves. And since neither Christian nor non-Christian marriages seemed to be a great commendation for the adult and church viewpoint, a generation of experimenters grew up, trying to find a life-style which would ‘enable us to be ourselves’—in other words, to be free.
But what does it mean to ‘be ourselves’? What is true human nature? What seems to enable us to ‘be ourselves’ so often leads only to a new bondage. We see it in the sex-scene and the drugs-scene all around us. Liberty was promised; bondage followed. We must first know what we are before we can arrive at ‘being ourselves’ and truly free. The Bible has the answer: Man is made in the image of God. Our true freedom depends on discovering how we can give expression to our true nature. How can we live so as to be like him?
James answers this crucial question by his startling expression, the law of liberty. bringing together the two things which people think of as opposites, law and liberty! But, as we have seen, the law is the nature of God expressed in commandments. When we obey his commands, then we are living like him. We are in the image of God; the law is in the image of God. When we bring these two together, we are ‘being ourselves’; we are truly free. God’s law describes the life of true freedom; obedience opens the door into the free life.
It is for this reason that we as Christians never need hesitate to point anyone to the law of God as the true way of life, for it spells out the image of God for the benefit of those who were created in the image of God. It is the true way of life for all.
We shall be accused, of course, of seeking to impose ‘our standards’ on those who do not share our convictions, but this is not so. The patient does not refuse the doctor’s prescription, saying, ‘I am not a doctor; he has no right to force his ideas on me.’ With the Bible in our hands we happen to know what human nature truly is, and also the way of life that brings true human nature to full development. In a word, we have on offer what the world wants: real freedom.
But for ourselves there is another whole dimension. Acts 5:32 says that God gives his Holy Spirit to those who obey him. In other words, the very act of obeying is a key to power. The law of God does more than describe the life of liberty; obedience liberates. Hebrews 10:16–17 (quoting Je. 31:33) explains this by saying that through the saving work of Christ we have been given by God a heart that matches the requirements of his law. James might put it in his own way: we were brought to new birth by the word our Father spoke (1:18). His word of truth in all its aspects resides in our new nature, and waits to be triggered off by the precepts of his law. We are called to obey and, because the law corresponds to the wishes and capacities of the new heart, we can."
J. A. Motyer, The Message of James : The Tests of Faith, The Bible speaks today, p100 (Leicester, England; Downers Grove, Ill., U.S.A.: Inter-Varsity Press, 1985).
"James has so far taught us two truths about the command to love our neighbour as ourselves.
First, because it is the royal law, the law that in a special sense belongs to the king, we would wish to obey it—simply because he would specially desire us to do so.
Secondly, because it is a command of the law of God, we must obey it. To dismiss it is to dismiss the facet of the Glory of God which it represents; to leave it to others is to say that it is immaterial whether this part of the Lord’s likeness is seen in me. It comes to us as a revelation of God, and with his authority, therefore we must obey it.
But, thirdly, it is part of the law of liberty, and therefore we can obey it.
... the Lord gave his law to his people in order to safeguard the liberty which he had achieved for them by bringing them out of Egypt (Ex. 20:2). The law of God is not a new bondage, but is given to mark the end of the old bondage and the beginning of true freedom.
We must now seek to understand how this is so.
All around us today we see the social rules and conventions, which used to be respected, being broken or discarded. It is very easy to lament over the spirit of rebelliousness which this seems to represent, but the true explanation lies deeper. What people are really seeking is freedom. We look around us at a whole array of inherited laws and customs, find them a real restriction and bondage, and cast them on one side, saying that we want to be ourselves, free of the cramping restrictions of former people and earlier days.
The easiest and in many ways the best illustration is marriage and sex. Why should something as hopefully exciting and satisfying as sexual intercourse be reserved for marriage and restricted to the married? The adult generation replied: It has always been so; that is the way we were brought up. The young replied: But we are not yesterday; we are today; we don’t see it like that; we want to be ourselves. The church said: It has always been church teaching and tradition; and the young replied: But we don’t belong to your church; we want to be ourselves. And since neither Christian nor non-Christian marriages seemed to be a great commendation for the adult and church viewpoint, a generation of experimenters grew up, trying to find a life-style which would ‘enable us to be ourselves’—in other words, to be free.
But what does it mean to ‘be ourselves’? What is true human nature? What seems to enable us to ‘be ourselves’ so often leads only to a new bondage. We see it in the sex-scene and the drugs-scene all around us. Liberty was promised; bondage followed. We must first know what we are before we can arrive at ‘being ourselves’ and truly free. The Bible has the answer: Man is made in the image of God. Our true freedom depends on discovering how we can give expression to our true nature. How can we live so as to be like him?
James answers this crucial question by his startling expression, the law of liberty. bringing together the two things which people think of as opposites, law and liberty! But, as we have seen, the law is the nature of God expressed in commandments. When we obey his commands, then we are living like him. We are in the image of God; the law is in the image of God. When we bring these two together, we are ‘being ourselves’; we are truly free. God’s law describes the life of true freedom; obedience opens the door into the free life.
It is for this reason that we as Christians never need hesitate to point anyone to the law of God as the true way of life, for it spells out the image of God for the benefit of those who were created in the image of God. It is the true way of life for all.
We shall be accused, of course, of seeking to impose ‘our standards’ on those who do not share our convictions, but this is not so. The patient does not refuse the doctor’s prescription, saying, ‘I am not a doctor; he has no right to force his ideas on me.’ With the Bible in our hands we happen to know what human nature truly is, and also the way of life that brings true human nature to full development. In a word, we have on offer what the world wants: real freedom.
But for ourselves there is another whole dimension. Acts 5:32 says that God gives his Holy Spirit to those who obey him. In other words, the very act of obeying is a key to power. The law of God does more than describe the life of liberty; obedience liberates. Hebrews 10:16–17 (quoting Je. 31:33) explains this by saying that through the saving work of Christ we have been given by God a heart that matches the requirements of his law. James might put it in his own way: we were brought to new birth by the word our Father spoke (1:18). His word of truth in all its aspects resides in our new nature, and waits to be triggered off by the precepts of his law. We are called to obey and, because the law corresponds to the wishes and capacities of the new heart, we can."
J. A. Motyer, The Message of James : The Tests of Faith, The Bible speaks today, p100 (Leicester, England; Downers Grove, Ill., U.S.A.: Inter-Varsity Press, 1985).
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