Be With Me: 7 Minutes of Biblical Wonder

Today we move from talking a good game to living a good game.  Faith is expensive, inconvenient, challenging, demonstrable, external, exposing, definable, quantifiable, and we best be ready for it. Faith alone does not exist says James. He'd want to put a small footnote on the  5 solas of the reformation: By grace alone, for the glory of God alone, by Scripture alone, in Christ alone BY FAITH...

James couldn't be stronger in his condemnation  of treating people badly based on external factors.  He uses the shabbily dressed poor as an example. It could have been dishonoring them based on country of origin, age, smoking, vaccine status, or anything else that really doesn't matter. It demonstrates a wrong view of people;a wrong view of God's activity; and even a wrong view of...

If you are like me, you don't even know what PARTIALITY is.  James couldn't be stronger in his alarm at its presence in the church.  He calls it EVIL.  It is a BIG DEAL, and we don't even know it. We'd best figure this out. Partiality, at its' presentation, is a negative discrimination based on some external, superficial and ultimately STUPID factors.  These could be previ...

Listen 7 minutes as a three year old gives us our lesson. It starts with the phrase, "POOPY-BUTT".  If you are three, you'll think this is a HILARIOUS term, and you will barely able to contain yourself.  The use and restraint of the use of this term is an important milestone of being three.  Words have POWER,  especially POOPY- BUTT. Similarly, adults have the same lesson as we lear...

Perhaps the culture of traffic cooperation in Nairobi, Kenya has something to teach us today. Nairobi is a city of 4.5 million people.  Everybody is going somewhere.  You'd think it would be "every man for himself" traffic-wise.  Surprise.  There is a posture there of cooperation, of kindness, of waving people in, of preference; in short, OF MEEKNESS.  It is a wonder. Similarly, Jam...

James turns our inclinations of being slow to hear and quick to speak upside down. He wants to change the set point we all have of LISTENING vs TALKING.  He wants us to move from being in a hurry to TALK(at least in our head if not with our tongue) to being in a hurry to LISTEN(at least with our ears if not with our heart).  Could anything be more practical? Could anything be more difficult? Have...

God tells us about Himself in the book of James.  It is under this exposure, this revealing, that we should place the scope of our thinking about Him.  So far on the first page, we learn that His intentions are always Good; that evil is the farthest thing from Him; that He allows trials to make us better. For today, the big one: EVERY good gift is from Him.  We just must get our heads around this....

The premise of the Terminator movies is a future battle to the death.  It is so far in the future that time travel is possible.  One of the sides gets a bright idea.  "Let's go back into the past, and kill the guy we are fighting right now.  In fact, let's prevent him from even being CONCEIVED. Let's go back and TERMINATE him when it is easier."  And as such, a franchise ...

At this very moment, the lowly are being tested. Right now, the rich are in a big trial.  So says James as his first two examples. These are trials we could do wrong These are trials we are supposed to WELCOME: Hello trouble! God wants trials WITH EFFECT: spiritual maturity, completeness. We'll need help in these trials, so ask for WISDOM (who has enough of that?) Rightly apply this knowledge...

We all have something in our lives that is difficult . These trials can produce something good in our character, but that is after we do the right thing. So how can we do the right thing without KNOWING what the right thing is and applying it? WISDOM = KNOWledge rightly applied to REALITY .  That is your real trials. So what would you ask Dear Abby today ?  This would identify your great trial tod...

Welcome to a new " season " of BeWithMe, that is a new book of the Bible. It is the book of James.   He is the actual brother or technically ½ brother of Jesus.  To his credit, James did not let it go to waste. James is highly regarded, and in these few pages, we will see WHY.  He turns out to be wise. He speaks with his heart in the right place with God, but his boots are on the ground...

Here are some highlights of the book of Galatians: if the people in your church have disputes, then Galatians is the book for you God is PLEASED to reveal Himself Faith is DIRECTIONAL. Faith is important. The OBJECT of the faith is CRITICAL Paul majors on two things that are NOT TRUE: that he(Paul) has been crucified and that he(Paul) is not alive.  Abraham is a good example of faith and a bad exa...

Paul authorizes his final thoughts to the Galatians by emphasizing the "marks of Jesus," his scars from being stoned to death, that the Galatians gave him . Ouch. He is serving as a good example the the NEW SHERIFF in town, the NEW CREATION that we are in Christ.  This new creation is a a practical creature that obeys the "new" command of Christ: Love one another as I have love...

Do not grow weary of doing good.  It is a reminder to be doing good in the first place.  It calls us to be in a place were the goodness of service and love and bearing burdens is an expectation.  It is a call to especially love those in your household of faith.   What are my duties? Love, serve, bear burdens, do goodness. To whom are they owed? First to the household of faith.  Second, to everybod...

Are you a joy to your pastor?  How would he know? If we asked him about his congregation, "who is a joy to you?" Would your name come up? We are drilling into pure practicality today.  The theology is already laid out in the first 5 chapters.  Now we ask the squirmy questions: Are you putting yourself on the path of service? Are you putting yourself on the path of fellowship? Are you put...

Let's get down to the brass-tacks of how to love .  After trashing the old LAW for five chapters, Paul reminds the Galatian area churches of a NEW LAW , given by Jesus at the Last Passover/First Supper.  It is to LOVE as HE has loved and be known by others by this. Of particular note, this love is a TESTED love.  Check your work. Look over your life. See how you are bearing your load.  See if...

Sometimes things blow up in Rockets and in the Church.  The big question is what do you do just AFTER something blows up.  Do you freak out and shut the doors?  Everybody cries and goes home?  Or, do you engage a process of restoration to return us to our valuable main goal? SpaceX has a terminology for Rocket EXPLOSIONS: Rapid Unscheduled Disassemblies (RUDs).  They have had a few.  They ask the...

What's the second most valuable thing given away for FREE every Sunday at church?  It is FELLOWSHIP.  It is the protective cloak that God gives as a gift to the Church of people.  We need each other.  Why?  Because we're a bunch of knuckleheads.  Join a church, you'll see... So we mess up.  Is the church to toss everybody who messes up?  Nope.  The church would be e-m-p-t-y.  Jesus...

How do I get the FRUIT of the Spirit?  A little at  a time.  Just like eating an elephant . At first, the list of Galatians 5:22-23 is absolutely overwhelming.  So, perhaps let's identify ONE to work on.  Or, if you are like me, perhaps someone around you has identified an acute needfulness in your character. We will look and see if goodness, patience and faithfulness characterizes our walk w...

Indulge me as I "change the Bible" for a second. It may help understand the context of the rainbows and puppies verse of Gal5:22. But the fruit of the FIGHT of the Spirit is love the fruit of the FIGHT of the Spirit is joy the fruit of intense spiritual OPPOSITION is peace the fruit of the WAR is patience the fruit of the CONFLICT of the Holy Spirit with the flesh is kindness the fruit o...

I had the opportunity to meet the BEST FARMER in Mozambique .  She was universally recognized as such by her peers.  The vote was unanimous.  When I inquired as to why she had the best yielding plot in the nation, she humbly described dragging bags of manure and working the soil long before the sun came up; doing battle with every bug that desired to eat the leaves or fruit (she went through every...

Before faith, there are 15 ½ bad things you will want to do. After faith, there are 15 ½ bad things you will want to do. I lumped them together: Mis-(use your) Zipper; mis worship; mis-relationship; mis-contentment; and mis-conduct.  As if that doesn't cover it all, Paul adds, "and other stuff like this." At the moment of conversion, God could have made these 15 ½ bad things disappe...

"A horse! A horse! My KINGDOM for a HORSE!" So says the king in battle in Richard III by Shakespeare.  We will say the same today for the SPIRIT.  One difference is that King Richard did not have a horse at hand, but we HAVE the SPIRIT. We are at war.  Today you will battle.  At least, you SHOULD have battled.  Part of this challenge is to SEE the BATTLE you are in, hopefully before it h...

Every person in your church should be serving; doing something for someone who physically or metaphorically "poops in their pants." It is one of the essential element of the church, because it is one of the essential elements of God's character, when it is motivated by LOVE.   In fact, this is how we demonstrate our belief that we do not need to "earn our way to God" by do...

Jesus is OFFENSIVE.  He has to be. The sin He came to erase is nasty. The holiness He is bringing us to is vast.  The path to get there is one of suffering, blood, curse, and death.  From our view, there is much NOT to like about this whole process: that my sin is THAT BAD.  That I cannot save myself. Not by works, actions, efforts or trying. That I did not make the rules That Sacrifice is require...