God’s Plan – Page 33 – Three Minute Bible

March 30, 2020March 31, 2020

James 5: 7a — Two Sides

Be patient, then, brothers and sisters, until the Lord’s coming.

At the beginning of his letter, James encourages his readers to face trials with joy. The goal, he says, is to produce perseverance. Now he says to be patient. I wonder, aren’t perseverance and patience two sides of the same coin?

James’ letter is sometimes disparaged because he ties what we do to what we believe. Martin Luther, in particular, was critical of James’ letter. Luther had broken free of the legalism imposed by the Catholic Church. His means of breaking free was Paul’s assertion that we are saved by faith alone. Paul writes:

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.” (Ephesians 2: 8-9)

March 21, 2020March 22, 2020

James 4: 8a — Closeness

A man's hand touches a child's hand, fingertip to fingertip.

Come near to God and he will come near to you.

I’ve always thought this statement to be a little bit odd. But then, I don’t think I have always thought about God the right way. If God is a stationary object, it makes sense (in a worldly sort of way) that if I get nearer to Him, He will be closer to me. But that is not what James says.

God doesn’t just wait for us to come to Him. He wants to be united with us. So he is very willing to come to us. Like the father in the parable of The Prodigal Son (Luke 15: 11-32) when God sees us coming home he comes out to meet us.

March 19, 2020March 19, 2020

John 4: 7a — Goads

A man stands next to two oxen with a goad.

Submit yourselves, then, to God.

Since God opposes the proud and favors the humble, do the right thing. As Jesus said to Paul in Acts 26: 14, it is hard to kick against the goads.

Goads are not something we know much about these days. They are common in rural areas where people still use animals for pulling carts or plows. If you want an animal to move when the animal doesn’t want to move you goad it. Basically, you poke at it with a sharp stick or a stick with an iron point. Wanting to get away from the pain, the animal moves. If it still doesn’t want to move, it might try and kick the goad away. That tends to hurt more.

God’s opposition to the ungodly is a goad. It is a pain that is intended to drive us toward God. More accurately, towards reliance on God. If we resist, we are kicking “against the goads.”

Why do we do that?

March 12, 2020March 12, 2020

James 3: 16-18 – Discernment

Picture of a small boy sticking out his tongue

For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice. But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness.

At the end of my post yesterday I asked this question: “Why is it good to be able to discern who is wise among a group of believers?”

In James’ letter, he tells us about the dangers of the tongue and the importance of taming it. I agree, and I agree that I need to tame mine first. Yet where the tongue is not reined in, James warns that it can ignite a great forest fire. It can corrupt the whole body. If it can corrupt an individual’s body can it also corrupt the church body?

March 8, 2020March 8, 2020

James 3: 5-6 – The Demon in Your Mouth

Fire dancer sprays fire from the mouth up in the air.

Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.

STOP!

Do not proceed until you have calibrated your brain to think like James.

Each of us speaks from a unique point of view. As much as we would like to think that everyone agrees with us on this or that topic, the fact is that no one agrees with you on everything. God made us so that we are each unique and dependent on Him.

Yes, there are a lot of things we have in common. But there are more things we disagree on. The challenge with reading the Bible is not to fit the words of the Bible into our world view, but to get our heads around God’s view. I suspect that he purposely wrote the Bible the way he did to keep us on our toes.

March 6, 2020March 6, 2020

Anger’s Summary – James 1: 19-20

My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.

Thank you for bearing with me as I wandered through this topical detour about anger. I have learned a lot. I hope you have picked up something valuable as well.

To review, we began with “Anger’s Cause” asking the question: Is it right to be angry? We answered that question with an, “It depends.” It depends on why a person is angry. Then we defined anger as a secondary emotion and described its origin this way:

“Anger is the feeling that results from an imbalance between our expectations and the situation we find ourselves in.”

March 2, 2020March 2, 2020

Hyperopia – 2 Samuel 19: 6a

You love those who hate you and hate those who love you.

Today’s passage is a bit odd for a theme verse. Joab, the king’s commander of the army, has just killed Absalom and saved the kingdom for David. Instead of thanks and praise, David rewards him with recriminations. Here is the passage in context:

“Then Joab went into the house to the king and said, ‘Today you have humiliated all your men, who have just saved your life and the lives of your sons and daughters and the lives of your wives and concubines. You love those who hate you and hate those who love you. You have made it clear today that the commanders and their men mean nothing to you. I see that you would be pleased if Absalom were alive today and all of us were dead. Now go out and encourage your men. I swear by the Lord that if you don’t go out, not a man will be left with you by nightfall. This will be worse for you than all the calamities that have come on you from your youth till now.’”

— 2 Samuel 19:5-7

For the most part, David lived a noble life. He was courageous before his enemies, and faithful to God, even to the point of respecting the life of the man who was bent on killing him, King Saul. It was only when he had achieved relative peace and had been established as king over Israel that the wheels started to come off.

March 1, 2020March 1, 2020

Anger’s End – Psalm 85: 1-3

You, Lord, showed favor to your land;
    you restored the fortunes of Jacob.

You forgave the iniquity of your people
    and covered all their sins.

You set aside all your wrath
    and turned from your fierce anger.

This passage from Psalm 85 gives us some clues to resolving anger. In this short series of essays on anger, we defined anger as, “the feeling that results from an imbalance between our expectations and the situation we find ourselves in.”*

God expects that his Creation will recognize Him and honor Him. When this doesn’t happen God becomes angry. God says:

“Do not follow other gods to serve and worship them; do not arouse my anger with what your hands have made. Then I will not harm you.”

— Jeremiah 25:6

Because of God’s great love for us, he provided a means for us to be redeemed from his anger. In the Old Testament, that meant dumping all the foreign gods in the Kidron Valley and submitting to God’s will. Unfortunately over the centuries, the Israelites turned their back on God so often that they made a mockery of his willingness to forgive. Instead, when the old covenant was in tatters, God formed a new covenant in his son, Jesus Christ.

February 25, 2020February 25, 2020

James 3: 1 – Understanding

Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.

I don’t think of myself as a teacher, even when I am teaching. This verse is why. I don’t want to be “judged more strictly.” Yet to the extent that I do teach, I am sure James’ words will apply.

So let me tell you what I teach:

I teach that God is real and that Jesus is his Son.

I teach that the Bible is written by God and exists exactly the way He wants it to be.

Everything else comes from the Bible and God Himself.

February 24, 2020February 24, 2020

Affirmation Monday – Easy to Believe

Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.

— John 3: 14-15

I’ve written about this passage before in “Complications” but it deserves a second look as an affirmation verse.

Salvation isn’t complicated. The people who were saved from the venomous snakes in the wilderness were saved from death if they simply looked upon the bronze snake.