Matthew 18

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Whoever "they" is, that's what they say, and the amazing thing to me is how true it really is. With all of our technological advancement, we still treat people the same and have the same basic sense of right and wrong toward fellow humans that existed even in Bible times. Given that, it should be no surprise that we can find great leadership and relationship principles all over the Bible. In today's passage, Jesus talks about how we should deal with one another when we have been wronged.

First, you have to let the other person know that there is an issue. Often we do things that hurt other people, and we are unaware that we have been offensive. If someone offends you, you have the initial responsibility to let them know. If they don't know that they have offended you, then how can they be held responsible?

Second, you have to be willing to resolve the issue. If someone brings you an offense, you should be willing to forgive. And if you are bringing an offense to someone else, be ready to forgive them. Sometimes, though, things cannot be resolved between just two people, and in that case, other measures must be employed.

Third, when an issue cannot be resolved by the two parties that are directly involved, bring in a small group of others that know both parties. We don't need to air our dirty laundry to the strangers of the world, but we should be willing to listen to the objective advice of our peers. We don't gossip about others with the goal of swaying people to "our side," but we do share with others to find wisdom. Sometimes your friends will tell you that you are wrong, and sometimes they will stand beside you to fight for your rights.

Fourth, if you and your close friends still cannot reach a resolution on the issue, then take it to your church. I think that this could be translated in our society as taking it to the law enforcement because remember that in their society the church was the law. Of course, spiritual issues should always be referred to the church, but a legal issue with someone outside of the church wouldn't really be impacted by the opinion of your pastor. I think the point of this step is the legal pressure rather than the spiritual pressure that can be applied.

Fifth, if you have exhausted all of the mechanisms and you still cannot reach a resolution, then be done. Avoid contact with that person from that point forward and do not allow yourself to be drawn into further disagreement. Sometimes the best solution is to just be separated from someone.

Try it the next time that you have an issue, and see if you don't reach an amicable resolution long before you reach the last step. It works for me. It'll work for you, too.

Matthew 17

Since Peter had revealed Christ's true identity and the disciples were beginning to understand, Christ chose to show a few of them His true self. In an amazing moment, that defies all of my attempts to imagine, Christ revealed Himself in full to Peter, James, and John. I'll be that it was like when Moses met God on the mountain.

So why didn't Christ take them all? Why didn't He show Himself to all of the disciples? Why only a few? And why were they commanded to not talk about it until after His resurrection?

It's about faith. As revealed in the next section, some of the disciples couldn't even drive out a demon because of their lack of faith. Obviously, there were still some among the disciples that weren't sure about who Jesus really was. There was some that weren't ready to meet His true self.

Matthew 16

Jesus Christ is not a party favor sent here by God to perform tricks and miracles for our amusement. He is the savior of the world focused solely on glorifying the Father and saving humanity. This is why, when prompted to perform a miracle, Jesus responded to the Pharisees saying that the signs are already present if you have the eyes to see them. Then He says something really interesting. He says that He will give them the sign of Jonah.

Christ is comparing Himself to Jonah in that Jonah spent three days in the belly of the fish while Christ will spend three days in the belly of the earth. When Jonah was brought forth on the land, a major shift occurred in Ninevah and the people repented. When Christ is resurrected, the church will be born and a massive number of people will be able to enter into a relationship with God.

Interestingly, the disciples still didn't understand. Jesus tried to tell them to guard against the incorrect teachings of the Pharisees and they thought He was talking about food. I think that if I had just seen Jesus feed five thousand people, and then He turned around and fed four thousand more with next to nothing to work with, then I doubt that I would ever worry about food again. As long as I have a crumb in my pocket, He can make enough to feed a few dozen anyway.

Since they were not understanding, Christ wanted to get them to understand and to take a stand. They were probably in some ways still trying to figure out what was happening around them. Why was this guy upending everything that they knew? Why was this guy teaching things so different from tradition? And what about all the different things people were saying about Him?

At some point, each of us has to decide what we want to do with Jesus. Who do we listen to? And what do we believe? Christ asked the disciple, point blank, what they heard about Him. And then He asked them what they believed. Peter responded correctly that Christ was the Son of God, and Jesus used that make a point: man, in and of himself, cannot see that; only God can reveal that to us. Sometimes He works through people just like He worked through the disciples, but man, cannot reveal God to anyone. The created can point to the creator, but it cannot reveal the nature of the creator because it cannot understand it.

Matthew 15

We are still so much like the Pharisees. They judged people because they didn't wash their hands before eating. They thought that washing their hands before eating would keep them spiritually clean, as if the physical food that they ate had any impact on their spirituality. Jesus reminded them that physical food is for the body and that it doesn't make a person clean or unclean in a spiritual sense. The spiritual food that they eat and that is evidenced by their heart is what distinguishes between clean and unclean.

The Pharisees didn't understand that God had established a ritual of washing hands and only eating certain meats for hygienic purposes. God understood about germs long before man, and He understood that washing hands could prevent the spread of germs and illness into your body. God also understood that certain foods needed to be prepared a certain way in order to be safe to eat. Since the people really didn't have the technology to safely eat those foods, they were placed off-limits. It didn't make dirty hands or certain kinds of meat unhealthy spiritually; they were simply unhealthy physically.

The Pharisees missed the point of the Law and so they missed the point of what it meant to be clean or unclean. Sometimes we miss the point as well. We judge people as being Christian or not based on whether they smoke or drink or listen to certain kinds of music. Sure, these things are likely unhealthy physically, but they are no different than the forbidden meats from a spiritual perspective. The real question is, what are we doing about it?

Jesus asked the Pharisees why the broke God's law of honoring their father and mother by hiding behind some tradition of giving support to the synagogue. I think He would ask us why we ignoring the Great Commission by pre-judging others and spending all of our time hiding in a church building.

Matthew 14

There was a hungry crowd gathered. It was getting late. The disciples wanted Jesus to send everyone away so that they could get something to eat in the local villages. Jesus chose not to send them away but instead performed one of his most famous miracles. About five thousand were fed with five loaves and two fish.

I notice, in this reading, two interesting things about this story:

First, the disciples wanted Jesus to send the people away so that they could eat. Not so that the disciples could eat but so that the crowd could eat. How engaging must it have been to hear Jesus speak that the people were actually forgetting to eat. Jesus would have to tell them to leave and get food or else they would stay there with Him all night.

Second, I never noticed before that Jesus didn't say that He would feed all of the people. He told the disciples to feed the people. The disciples, of course, didn't understand how they could feed the people with the five loaves and two fish that they had, but Jesus told them to bring the food to Him. He blessed it, and then He turned around and gave it back to the disciples so that the people could eat.

This is interesting because it's the same thing that Christ requests of us. He wants us to feed the people, and we continually complain that we don't have the right tools, the right facilities, the right people, the right systems, the right timing, the right whatever to feed the people. Christ can take those inadequacies and make them work for His purposes if we allow Him to be in control of the tools we have.

In this case, the disciples fed the people and then had twelve baskets full of food leftover. Twelve baskets. One for each disciple to remember that not only can Christ enable you to do the task He asks, but that He can enable you to do it bigger and better than you could ever imagine. Christ doesn't ask us to do things that can't be done. He asks us to trust in Him.

Matthew 13

Jesus used a lot of parables in his ministry to try and explain things that are generally beyond our comprehension. For example, how can two people hear the same Gospel and only one of them believe? How can Christ reveal Himself to two people and only one of them recognize Him for who He is?

He explains that people are like seeds and that some will hear and have an opportunity to grow in good soil and produce great fruit. Others are like seeds in rocky soil that sprout quickly and then whither. While others are either don't understand or allow other things in their life to continue to be primary and that causes them to never even take root with the Gospel or their faith. Why these things happen, we don't understand, but Christ explains simply that they do and that we need to recognize that. There will be some that believe, some that believe but don't grow, and some that simply never believe.

The problem is that we are all living together on this planet. We are intertwined with the weeds from Christ's second parable and we cannot be separated from them. When it comes to the end of time, God will separate the two apart, but for now, He cannot remove the wicked without harming the good, so He chooses to allow both to grow together for a time because it will be better for the harvest.

Ultimately, as hard as things are here on earth, there is nothing that you would rather have than a place in the Kingdom of Heaven. People will give all that they have and all that they ever will have to obtain it, but it's not something that can be bought. It just requires all of your faith.

Matthew 12

The Pharisees were so certain that they understood God's Law that they tried to trap Christ Himself with it. They believed that God desired piety above all else, but they missed the fact that God desires a relationship above all else. True, the relationship must be on His terms, but it is a relationship nonetheless. He doesn't desire mindless sacrifice and blind obedience. He desires a meaningful co-existence between a father and children.

Are we more like the Pharisees, absolutely convinced that we understand the mind of God to the point that we may even challenge God Himself with our knowledge? Or are we open to the possibility that we, like the Pharisees, have missed something crucial in our effort to be proud of ourselves?

Matthew 11

Living under the Law was not easy. It was a burden every day to try and meet God's standard. Christ changed all of that. He says that His yoke is easy. He says that His burden is light.

Christ will fulfill the Law for us, if we allow it, and the burden of trying to meet God's standard is replaced by the lighter burden of walking in faith. Christ in you fulfills the burden of the Law. Christ through you is the only burden then that remains.

The problem, though, is that we cannot be pleased. It seems too easy, so we don't do it. On the other hand, the Law seems too hard so we don't do that either. When John preached about Christ, he fasted too much, so the people said he had a demon, and when Christ preached about salvation, they said that He didn't fast enough and spent too much time with sinners. It didn't matter which direction God came from to reach the Israelites, they weren't satisfied. The same thing happens with us.

If we change our church service to be more contemporary we're not focused enough on God, and if we change it to be more conservative, then we are not relevant. The challenge in ministry is not get too bogged down in this conundrum. Christ didn't come so that we could argue over ministry styles, He came to give salvation, and as long as we are preaching that consistently, the style doesn't really matter too much.

Matthew 10

You can almost read these words that Jesus spoke to the twelve as words spoken directly to us. Like them, we are sent out to the world to share the Gospel of Christ. Like them, we are called to stand and give an account of Christ. Like them, we are given the words to speak by the Spirit.

Like the disciples, we may also be fearful of the world's reaction to our message, but Christ admonishes us to remember that we are extremely valuable to the Father. We should not be fearful of those that can only harm us physically. If we are going to fear something, fear God. He's the only one that can harm us both physically and spiritually.

We have no reason to not share Christ with the world, and for those that receive the message, they receive the reward of Christ.

Matthew 9

It's one thing to forgive someone for something that they did to you. Maybe someone was mean to you and then came and apologized and you forgive them, but think about how odd it would be if someone was mean to you and then I forgave them. They didn't do anything to me, and just because I forgive them doesn't mean that you do. What good would it do for me to offer them forgiveness? None. And if I did, you'd probably just think I was crazy.

Jesus did that very thing, though. It's one of the most radical statements that He ever made: "Your sins are forgiven." How could He say this to someone unless either that person had wronged Him or He was crazy? On the assumption that He wasn't crazy, then that person must have wronged Him, but that would only be possible if He were God. Amazingly, the most convincing statement of Christ's deity is not anything that He said directly about being God's Son. It's the simple words: "Your sins are forgiven." Only God could do that or would even have the audacity to say it.

Matthew 8

Jesus healed many people. Everything from leprosy to fever to demon possession was under His control – still is under His control. Since He's God, the fact that He healed all of these people is not really all that interesting to me. I think it's much more interesting to look at the different situations in which Christ worked.

One man came on behalf of himself to be healed from leprosy. He was humble in approaching Christ, and he appropriately made sure that it was recognized that he only wanted healing if it was in God's will. Christ healed Him. When we approach God, we should also be respectfully humbled by His awesomeness and His goodness. Accordingly, we should always remember that we may only have what God is willing to give. We cannot force Him to conform to our will.

Another man came on behalf of his servant. When Jesus decided to go to his house to heal the servant, the man declined stating that Christ can command from a distance the same as a general in an army. He need not be physically present to effect a miracle. The servant was healed, and the centurion who requested the healing reminds us that we can and should pray on behalf of others. And when we do that, we must remember that Christ can act in someone's life without us showing Him the way to the house. We don't need to give God directions to where He needs to be.

Finally, Peter's mother-in-law, was healed simply because Jesus saw that she was ill. Perhaps Peter wasn't too keen on the idea of his mother-in-law getting well while company was in the house, but that's another debate. The fact is that Jesus recognized a need on His own and addressed it. Sometimes, Christ gives us the healing that we need before we even have a chance to recognize that it was necessary. And sometimes He keeps mother-in-laws in our life for His own amusement.

Matthew 7

Jesus kind of bounces around here at the end of the sermon and hits on a variety of topics.

Again, Jesus reminds us that we are in this together. All of humanity has sin and is in need of God's grace, so how can we judge one another. For every one little thing that we find wrong with someone else, God has another big thing wrong with us. Only the one that is perfect is fit to judge, and that means that only God is fit for the job.

Additionally, He reminds us that God give graciously to those that ask. He doesn't judge us for asking. He judges us for not asking. And just like we take care of our kids when they ask for help, of course, He will take care of us. So many people ask what will happen to the South American tribe that never heard of Christ, and Jesus is telling us right here that if they want to know Him, they just need to ask.

Finally, He says to watch out for false prophets. Look out for bad fruit that comes from a nice looking tree. Just like James says, we can't judge anyone's heart, but we can see evidence in their fruit of their relationship with God. It's not an end-all-be-all thing, but it's an indicator that we can use. If someone is not producing the fruit of the spirit, then we probably don't want them teaching in our churches. It doesn't mean that they are necessarily not a Christian, but it does mean that they could be dangerous to our spiritual health.

Just because someone calls himself a Christian and says that they pray to God, doesn't mean that they have any relationship with God. Jesus says that there will be plenty of people that use His name but that don't really understand what it means to have a relationship with Him. This will be no different than when Christ walked among the Jews as the Messiah. They had studied and prayed for so long and they truly believed that they understood God, but they couldn't even recognize His son when He was right there. How many people are in the church today that don't recognize Christ? How many people talk the talk but still have no idea what a relationship with Christ really looks like?

Matthew 6

Are you trying to impress others with your piety, your knowledge, your spirituality? If so, it just betrays the lack of that which you take pride in. The reward will be exactly what you seek: favor from men.

God is not impressed with how we appear to others. Others are not the judge of us, they are equal to us in the sense that they need grace just as much as you, and once you receive that grace, they are still equal to you walking with the Lord. Each of us has different talents and gifts that we can use for the kingdom. Be careful that you don't start to think that you are the most important cog in the church. Be careful that you don't start to play your role for the attention of others rather than the attention of God.

Is Jesus saying that we don't need to pray in public at all? Is He saying that we don't let anyone know that we are believers? Is He saying that we keep all of this a secret? Not at all. He's saying that if making it public and getting the attention of others to stroke your own ego is your goal, then you will have your reward here on earth. If your goal is to have a reward in heaven, then you focus won't be your own ego.

Matthew 5

Jesus caused quite a stir in the Jewish communities where He preached. He wasn't all like the Messiah that they had expected. They expected King David to be reborn and to smite the Romans with a flaming sword and free them from their human rulers. Well, maybe not a flaming sword. The point is that they had read the prophecies of the Messiah for so long from the perspective of humans bound this earthly realm that the reality of a Messiah freeing them from a spiritual imprisonment was a huge hurdle to overcome.

I wonder how many things we've come to expect about heaven based on the application of our culture to our interpretations that when we finally get there will prove to be vastly different? I wonder how many things about God's word we've missed out on or misinterpreted because of our limited insight? I'll bet it's not much different than the mistakes that the Jews made. I just hope that I'm able to recognize those things when I'm challenged with the truth of God.

Regardless, Jesus was trying to reconcile these expectations with the spiritual relationship that God wants everyone to have with Him. He starts out telling them that it's okay to be under the rule of another country here on earth. It's okay to not be able to fight back physically. It's okay to be persecuted for following God. In other words, there is nothing that the Romans can do to you to force you to lose your faith.

They can't put out the light that shines from those that are in a relationship with God, and the Jews should not be ashamed of that. They should let it shine brightly and proudly for all to see regardless of the physical consequences. I've never lived in or even visited a country where people are not free to worship God, so I don't know what that kind of persecution is all about, but I hope that even just in a country where many people don't really understand what it means to be a Christian, that my light shines to show others the way.

Additionally, Jesus says that the Messiah won't replace the Law. He'll fulfill the Law. He can't break the Law to free them from tyranny anymore than they can break the Law to divorce their wife of murder their neighbor. He must fulfill it, and they must have it fulfilled in them to enter into heaven. Fulfilling it then goes one step beyond just following it to the letter. You can follow every letter of the Law and still not fulfill it, Jesus explains, because the spirit of the Law is what's important.

Specifically to the Jews, He is saying that if they are even angry at the Romans for taking over, they've broken the Law. It doesn't matter whether they kill anyone or not. Just wishing that you could is the same thing. What are the things that you wish for or that you lust after that you don't get because you want to keep the letter of the Law?

Finally, Jesus tells us not to hold prejudice against anyone. God is not particular in sending sunlight or rain or even grace. He extends those things to all people if they choose to get out of the shade, out from under the roof, or accept the free gift. Why should we be any different? Even the most godless people in the world understand basic courtesy and can be friendly with one another. What kind of example do we set when we don't extend the same courtesy to our "enemies"? We're supposed to be the godly ones. Besides, as Jesus explains more later in His ministry, there's not really any such a thing as any enemy here on earth. Everyone is your neighbor because we are in the same boat. We're all sinners. We're all in need of grace. We're all in need of God. Don't let your judgment of someone be the reason that they don't see your light.

Matthew 4

From Jesus being tempted in the desert to the calling of the first disciples, this chapter covers a lot of ground. Let's look at those separately.

I've wondered before if I could handle temptation the way Christ did in the desert, and when I wonder about that I often think that His temptation was something separate from any temptation that I've ever faced. If you look closely at the passage, though, I think you realize that it's really just the same stuff that everyone faces.

Jesus was tempted to try and satisfy His own inner hunger by making bread for Himself. We are tempted much the same way in our society today. Rather than feeding on the word of God, we feed on the spirituality of our society, the emotions of our congregation, or the euphoria of doing something "good." Many times it's easier for us to make our own food that tastes good to our senses but doesn't provide any real spiritual nourishment rather than feasting on the word of God even when it challenges areas of our life.

Jesus was tempted to give up and see if God is really there. How many times have we asked God to do this that or the other if He's really there? We might say something like, "You'll heal my child if you're really there." As if God is going to pander to our whims just to prove His existence, we are tempted to forgo perseverance in favor of testing God. We might even go so far as to do something stupid and then blame God for not protecting us. Jesus was tempted to jump off of the temple. Basically, He was tempted to commit suicide to prove that God exists. And what if He did that and God let Him die? Would that mean that it was God's fault? No. It would mean that Jesus made a bad choice. It's the same with us.

Finally, Jesus was tempted with fortune and fame. The most alluring of all things to most people is money. All Jesus had to do was turn from God and He would have all the kingdoms of the world. You might think that that was no temptation at all since Jesus is God and God is ruler of everything already, but I don't think Satan was really offering Him a kingship. I think Satan was offering Jesus the people. He was saying that all of these kingdoms will believe and follow you if you worship me. If you do this one wrong thing, it will cause so many right things to happen that it will more than balance out. That's the temptation. We could take a shortcut to the final ending, and the ends will justify the means.

I think that the cool thing here is that you would be hard pressed to find a temptation in your life that can't be boiled down to one of these three things. We want to feed ourselves spiritually because it feels good. We want to test God to see if He's real. We want to justify our actions by having a good ending.

So, once Jesus had dealt with all of those things He'd seen everything that Satan had to offer and turned it all down. At that point, He was ready to start preaching the Gospel. At that point, He was ready to call the disciples.

In the past, when I've read about the calling of the disciples, I always thought of it as a hard decision for the Peter, James, John, etc. Recently, though, I've learned a little more about the society back then, and I think that it was no choice at all. When we look at it from our perspective it seems that these men gave up their livelihoods to follow Christ and that they basically became homeless nomads. We look down on that because our society doesn't value men being disciples of a teacher.

In their society, however, all young men were sent to rabbinical school and then systematically weeded out as they got older. To get to the point of being asked to be a disciple of a teacher was one of the highest honors that the men could achieve. The rest settled for work as fishermen, carpenters, etc. So, here's a group of guys that washed out of rabbinical school. Their dreams are shot and they've settled for a lesser life when along comes a teacher who asks them to be His disciples.

Of course, they are immediately going to jump at that chance. It would be about the same as Donald Trump walking up to me and saying, "Hey, come work for me, and I'll teach you everything I know about business." Of course, the Donald isn't quite the same as Jesus, but sociologically it's the same deal. These guys just got bumped a few rungs back up the ladder. There was no doubt about how they would respond.

The question for us today is not whether we would give up our jobs and become homeless, but whether we recognize, as the disciples did, the amazing opportunity that is offered to us when Christ says, "Walk with Me, and I'll teach you everything I know about the Father." Are you willing to change your life for that kind of education?

Matthew 3

John the Baptist must have been quite a sight. Even in the time of Christ, I don't think very many people lived in the desert, ate locusts and honey, and still managed to get respect. Obviously, there was something special about this man: the Gospel of Christ.

Right from the start, he made the division clear. On the one hand were those that believed in the Law and Abraham. On the other hand are those that repent and enter into a true relationship with God. John told the Pharisees and Sadducees that it would do them no good to claim that they were children of Abraham. In other words, God doesn't care about the superficial names we put on people. He cares about the people.

To put that in today's terms, he might have said that it would do them no good to say that they are faithful church attendees. That's just a superficial outward appearance. God is going to cast it aside and see you for the real person inside, and if that person doesn't have a relationship with Him, there's going to be trouble.

Are you standing on being a good person? Being from a good, Christian home? Attending church regularly? Or do you stand on your relationship with the risen Savior?

Matthew 2

Unlike the portrayal of most nativity scenes, Jesus was not a newborn when the Magi arrived in Bethlehem. We don't know much about them other than that they came from the East and they brought at least three gifts with them: gold, incense, and myrrh. We can infer that they were noblemen of some kind, or that they were at least respected socially since they were able to get an audience with the king, but beyond that we are just guessing.

What's interesting to me is the correlation between the events here and the events of the original stories of Egypt. In the Old Testament, Joseph became a rule in Egypt and brought the children of Israel there for protection against a famine. Ultimately, the first Passover was celebrated as the Israelites escaped the death of the firstborn and the Hebrew nation was born. Here, Jesus was sent to Egypt for protection against another killing of children to emerge later as a new leader for the Israelites. Surely this story would resonate with the Jews as a link to Moses.

It's cool to me how God can use similar circumstances in creative ways to tie new concepts to old ones so that we can easily digest a change. In this case, He clearly tied Jesus to Moses to make it easier for the Jews to grasp that they had a new savior; not one that would free them from slavery to men, but one that would free them from slavery to sin.

Matthew 1

This passage really makes it clear that the Bible is singularly focused on telling the story of Jesus Christ. From the beginning of time until the end, everything is focused on Him. I'm sure that there were many people of faith throughout all time that are never mentioned or heard from the Bible. There are many people of faith with amazing stories testifying to the power of God that never made it into the Bible. There is only one story that ever mattered: the story of Christ.

Reading through the genealogy of Christ is like reading the Cliff Notes version of the Bible. Almost all of the names are familiar as characters from the Old Testament. It's no wonder then why their stories were told. They are the lineage of the savior's human birth. They are the thread of humanity that bore the seed that changed the world. Their stories were chosen to show God's plan all along to bring Christ.

James 5

We talk about patience in our society, but in many ways, we've forgotten what it really means. In the age of computers, instant messaging, cell phones, and microwave ovens, being patient means that we've only got to wait a couple of minutes. We forget, then, sometimes that God is not a microwave oven and He doesn't have a cell phone. We can instant message Him through prayer, but the response doesn't pop up on a computer screen for you to immediately read. We can't expect to see results in the next thirty seconds.

James has come full circle in his letter. He's right back to the topics that he started with: patience and perseverance. Don't give up on the hope of riches in heaven just to collect them now. Don't give up on the Lord's return just because you haven't seen Him yet. We must persevere for the same reason that the crops stay in the ground for so long before producing fruit. It's about maturity.

Perseverance and patience are a part of growing up in Christ, and we must endure them for the sake of producing fruit. The crops don't grow any faster than they should. They don't produce fruit until they are mature. And they don't blame the farmer because things are moving slowly. The crops understand, maybe better than us, that that is just the natural course.

We tend to want to be mature now. We want to produce fruit now. We want to have riches now. We want to be there now. The difference between us and the crops is that we often don't realize when we're not ready, and we blame the farmer (God) for the fact that we are immature. It's not His fault. It's not anyone's fault. It's a process that must be completed.

Don't be tempted to try to take shortcuts. It seems like you can have all you want now through money, clothes, and other worldly things, but at what cost? Is it really worth trading your relationship with Christ?

James 4

God wants us to be happy, but God wants us to be happy in Him not in the things that fill our life. In some ways, I envy the people that live in undeveloped countries. It seems that there is far less in their world to distract them from a relationship with God while where we live there is TV, cell phones, cars, jobs, clothes, and many more things that I probably can't even think of.

Of course, it's naïve to think that the distractions are all related to my environment. James himself lived in a time that was far less developed than ours and he is writing to an audience that deals with the same issues of distraction. It's not the environment. There will always be something that catches our eye and tugs at our focus. It's a human problem.

Our only choice then, is to either choose to focus on God and request His help in maintaining a proper focus or to allow ourselves to be distracted by bright, shiny things. "Grieve, mourn and wail." God would rather that we did this than enjoy the moments of sin that tempt us. Of course, when we do this, and we turn from the sin, God fills us with joy anyway, so it's not a losing proposition.

James 3

You can go to all the leadership and management and communication classes in the world, and they are all going to tell you the same thing that James says in this passage from centuries ago: Be careful what you say and when you are in charge, be even more careful. People judge us by what we do and what we say, and when you are in a position of authority, people follow what you say.

We have the power to influence, encourage, and even hurt those around us with just a few words. Think about the different ways that you could say, “I love you.” You could be absolutely sincere and communicate affection. You could be absolutely sarcastic and communicate hatred. You could be sarcastic and communicate humor. Your words are more powerful than just words because the way you say them says more than the words themselves.

The problem is that keeping our mouth shut and communicating effectively is extremely difficult. It’s not that you want to lie to anyone. It’s that we get into a mood and the easiest method of lashing out and hurting someone is often with our words. It leaves no marks, takes little effort, and it just seems to come right out. Is that how you want to be known, though? Is that how you want to be judged by others?

At the same time, we must be careful that the words that we say are true. When you claim to be able to do something or teach something, and you really cannot. You have put yourself in the position of a leader or teacher and your audience will judge you harshly for speaking falsehoods. The truly wise will realize that they are incapable and will be open to instruction from others.