If the Lord wills
27 Dec 2008 Leave a Comment
in James
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.” James 4:13-15
I was thinking today about how many unexpected changes occur in my life. Whether it’s the day-to-day schedule changes (e.g. change in lunch plans with a friend), or changes on a larger scale (e.g. residence or employment), many things do not turn out as I expected. In fact, five years ago today, I would never have expected to be where I am now. And five years from today, things can look very different from what I may plan today. Now James here is not forbidding wise planning. He does not say that, but exhorts us to plan considering our utter dependence upon God: HE wills, and things happen.
Every day, unexpected things happen (In fact, before I even got beyond this sentence, I accidentally published this post!). Although I can look at the uncertainty of life and be tempted to fear, I am reminded today of the great comfort that this uncertainty, this reality that I am not in control of my circumstances, brings. The reality is that God rules and decrees and sustains and commands. It is in the sovereignty and providence of God that I was born in 1987, became a believer not long ago and now stand before God Most High who has ordained even my most bitter of providences in infinite wisdom, love and mercy. I have no idea what the future holds, but I know all things work according to God’s will and He does all things perfectly. There is immense comfort in that, not in my ability to carry out my plans.
Be Doers of the Word
22 Sep 2008 Leave a Comment
James 1:22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
I’m going through Susan Heck’s book, With the Master in the School of Tested Faith, a verse-by-verse Bible study on the Epistle of James, and reached her notes on James 1:22, with this convicting paragraph:
The way James states it, doer of the Word, instead of do the word, puts the emphasis on the kind of person a Christian should be, not just some act she performs. She is a “doer of the Word” –that’s just what she does! …It’s one thing to run a race; it’s something else to be a runner. It’s one thing to teach a class; it’s another thing to be a teacher. It’s one thing to bake a cake, but it is another thing to be a baker. Runners are known for their running. Teachers are known for their teaching. Bakers are known for their baking. Likewise, doers of the Word are known for their obedience to Biblical truth. The direction of the life is one of real obedience to God’s revealed will, not a sporadic obedience or a partial obedience. Would others say about you, “Now she is a doer of the Word”?
And she had this humorous note on the “hearers only” part:
I once heard a story-perhaps apocryphal-about a new pastor who preached a wonderful sermon his first time in the pulpit. The pulpit committee knew they had done well by calling this man to their church, until the next Sunday when he preached the same sermon again. They were somewhat perplexed. So when some members of the congregation asked the new pastor why he preached the same sermon again, he replied, “When you start living the first message, then we will go on to the next one.”
What a strong reminder to be a doer of the Word.
