Lord help me! There are too many days when I forget the life I used to live...the person I was before I said, "Yes, Jesus I'll follow You no matter the cost." On those days, which I have just admitted are too frequent, I have less tolerance and patience for the people that don't already know this Jesus...the ones whose lives don't look all neat and tidy...the ones who don't have this Jesus-led journey all figured out like I do. Ha! [Hopefully, you detect my sarcasm!]
But seriously though, I've already shared recently that I desire to "Receive the Word Implanted" and that James 1:21 promises it (the Word of God) is able to "save your souls". This is an amazing promise. Having God's Word so deep down in your soul that it feels "implanted" saves you because it can't help but change you...or can it?
See, there's a little bit more to the context, and it's this:
"But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he's like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was." (James 1:22-24)
Nowhere in this passage does it say to stop hearing the word. It simply says if you only hear and there's never any doing of this same word then, really...you must have somehow forgotten who you used to be before you heard this word.
Don't believe me that this happens? Then ask any restaurant server which shift they hate working the most. Probably 90% or more would answer, Sunday afternoon lunch. It seems that the after-church crowd is notorious for being rude, demanding and very stingy with their tips...if they even tip at all. Okay, I don't know in what church that is teaching the Bible as their text, anyone would ever be told, "Therefore, go into all the world, being nasty to the working poor and just assume that they want to work for you for free." And since I want to assume that no preacher in his right mind would so blatantly distort the Word of God in this way, the disconnect has to be between the hearing and the doing, right?
And you're not off the hook if you don't believe in going out to eat on Sundays!
You see, there's a whole Bible...both Old and New Testaments...chock full of "words" that say we should be advocates for the poor, taking some of the wealth God has blessed us with and sharing it with those that either can't help themselves or simply didn't get the same educational, familial, societal or behavioral opportunities that you did. And yet, even if you think you have had a charmed life...truth is...you didn't. Because all other factors aside...before you met Jesus...you were at least morally bankrupt and heading toward an eternity separated from Him that would include lots of weeping and gnashing of your teeth.
Yet, for some disconnected reason, week after week, we hear (or read) the Word of God and we're perfectly content not doing it.
If the restaurant analogy doesn't hit close enough to home, please just stop and ask God to show you where your area of weakness in not doing His Word lies. Because I can assure you...we're all guilty in some area of falling short of His ideal. (Romans 3:23) And the blood of Jesus absolutely covers these failings. That's called grace. But He also repeatedly cried out either through the prophets in the Old Testament, through the disciples in the New or through His own lips as He walked this earth, that the ones who thought they were righteous should be the first ones to line up and cry out for justice, mercy, compassion, healing, assistance and above all, love to the weak, poor, downtrodden, misjudged and neglected.
I speak from experience...it's a whole lot easier to send a check to a sponsored child half a world away than to enter into someone's messy life just down the street. After all, they may not want to change in the way or the timing we want. But God commanded us to love and serve them anyway...even if they think they're entitled to handouts or can't muster the mental acuity to pull themselves up by their bootstraps like we've been brainwashed into believing everyone can, if they only try.
See, if I 'look intently into the perfect law, the law of liberty' which James explains in just a few verses is "To love your neighbor as yourself," then I'm going to remember that "myself" wanted Love, mercy, justice, a helping Hand, a listening Ear and a compassionate Heart when I was a miserable wretch (and still am!)...if I just remember what I am without the One who freely gave me His Hand, Ear and Heart before I got my act together...maybe that love, mercy, justice, help, compassion, etc. will flow a little more freely to the ones that we've all been judging as just lazy and undeserving.
I've known people that have beaten themselves up for decades because they can't ever forget the things they've done. I've lived through the bitterness and resentment that consumed extended family members for this very reason. I don't ever want us to feel the guilt and shame that our enemy uses to keep us enslaved. No, instead, I praise God that His Spirit taught me early on in this journey that the only way I wouldn't be a slave to my past was to thank Him for the place from where He brought me. When the memories and shame would assail, I would pray my thanks and whisper, "Never let me forget". Amazingly, those memories never again had any power over me, but I confess, that life of so long ago now seems as if it were lived by someone else. I actually struggle to remember. James is teaching me to no longer merely whisper this prayer...but everyday, I need to look in the mirror at the life-path the "natural" me would be headed down if not for Jesus and His grace, and to rejoice in the blessing of the opportunities I have to live out my thanks by not just hearing His Word, but by doing it too.
But seriously though, I've already shared recently that I desire to "Receive the Word Implanted" and that James 1:21 promises it (the Word of God) is able to "save your souls". This is an amazing promise. Having God's Word so deep down in your soul that it feels "implanted" saves you because it can't help but change you...or can it?
See, there's a little bit more to the context, and it's this:
"But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he's like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was." (James 1:22-24)
Nowhere in this passage does it say to stop hearing the word. It simply says if you only hear and there's never any doing of this same word then, really...you must have somehow forgotten who you used to be before you heard this word.
Don't believe me that this happens? Then ask any restaurant server which shift they hate working the most. Probably 90% or more would answer, Sunday afternoon lunch. It seems that the after-church crowd is notorious for being rude, demanding and very stingy with their tips...if they even tip at all. Okay, I don't know in what church that is teaching the Bible as their text, anyone would ever be told, "Therefore, go into all the world, being nasty to the working poor and just assume that they want to work for you for free." And since I want to assume that no preacher in his right mind would so blatantly distort the Word of God in this way, the disconnect has to be between the hearing and the doing, right?
And you're not off the hook if you don't believe in going out to eat on Sundays!
You see, there's a whole Bible...both Old and New Testaments...chock full of "words" that say we should be advocates for the poor, taking some of the wealth God has blessed us with and sharing it with those that either can't help themselves or simply didn't get the same educational, familial, societal or behavioral opportunities that you did. And yet, even if you think you have had a charmed life...truth is...you didn't. Because all other factors aside...before you met Jesus...you were at least morally bankrupt and heading toward an eternity separated from Him that would include lots of weeping and gnashing of your teeth.
Yet, for some disconnected reason, week after week, we hear (or read) the Word of God and we're perfectly content not doing it.
If the restaurant analogy doesn't hit close enough to home, please just stop and ask God to show you where your area of weakness in not doing His Word lies. Because I can assure you...we're all guilty in some area of falling short of His ideal. (Romans 3:23) And the blood of Jesus absolutely covers these failings. That's called grace. But He also repeatedly cried out either through the prophets in the Old Testament, through the disciples in the New or through His own lips as He walked this earth, that the ones who thought they were righteous should be the first ones to line up and cry out for justice, mercy, compassion, healing, assistance and above all, love to the weak, poor, downtrodden, misjudged and neglected.
I speak from experience...it's a whole lot easier to send a check to a sponsored child half a world away than to enter into someone's messy life just down the street. After all, they may not want to change in the way or the timing we want. But God commanded us to love and serve them anyway...even if they think they're entitled to handouts or can't muster the mental acuity to pull themselves up by their bootstraps like we've been brainwashed into believing everyone can, if they only try.
See, if I 'look intently into the perfect law, the law of liberty' which James explains in just a few verses is "To love your neighbor as yourself," then I'm going to remember that "myself" wanted Love, mercy, justice, a helping Hand, a listening Ear and a compassionate Heart when I was a miserable wretch (and still am!)...if I just remember what I am without the One who freely gave me His Hand, Ear and Heart before I got my act together...maybe that love, mercy, justice, help, compassion, etc. will flow a little more freely to the ones that we've all been judging as just lazy and undeserving.
I've known people that have beaten themselves up for decades because they can't ever forget the things they've done. I've lived through the bitterness and resentment that consumed extended family members for this very reason. I don't ever want us to feel the guilt and shame that our enemy uses to keep us enslaved. No, instead, I praise God that His Spirit taught me early on in this journey that the only way I wouldn't be a slave to my past was to thank Him for the place from where He brought me. When the memories and shame would assail, I would pray my thanks and whisper, "Never let me forget". Amazingly, those memories never again had any power over me, but I confess, that life of so long ago now seems as if it were lived by someone else. I actually struggle to remember. James is teaching me to no longer merely whisper this prayer...but everyday, I need to look in the mirror at the life-path the "natural" me would be headed down if not for Jesus and His grace, and to rejoice in the blessing of the opportunities I have to live out my thanks by not just hearing His Word, but by doing it too.
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