WEDNESDAY, April 9th, 2008

James 4:1-10

1 From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?
2 Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not.
3 Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.
4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.
5 Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy?
6 But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.
7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
8 Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.
9 Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.
10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.

Once again there is so much in this passage. I will point out what impacted me the most. This whole passage starts out by asking us another question: The question is, "Where does all of this fighting come from?" If I hate someone, what causes that hatred? God explains that my hatred comes from my fleshly desires. (My Lusts) Those desires could range from anything to jealousy, pride, anger, selfishness, and many more. These things are the root of fighting in your and my life. Think about it, if you are fighting with your parents, it is because you want something, you want to be treated a certain way, you think you deserve better parents... Whatever the case is, Any fighting that we are involved in is simply a false understanding of our selfish desires.

And we all love verse 4. We become adulterers when we cheat on God. Maybe you have seen one of those tv shows that show husbands and wives, boyfriends and girlfriends cheating on each other? Well, one of those shows could star, US!!!! When we get involved in sin, God says, when we are a friend of the World, then we become His enemy. I want to be Gods friend, not his Enemy!!!

Love you guys! Keep up the good work! See you tonight in church!
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5 comments:

Jessica M said...

I totally get it..."What causes wars, and what causes fighting’s?" he asks. James answers his question with a rhetorical question, "Is it not your passions that are at war in your members?" The wars or conflicts between us are a result of our passions that are at conflict. The passage teaches us to give up wishing for riches and to strive instead for God’s wisdom. It basically comes down to that for us who are trying to avoid deciding between the world and God are making the wrong choice. We cannot follow both. This world tells us that we need to have wealth and worldly love and relationships and other "things" to be complete and fulfilled but that is not the truth. The key point is to submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil and draw near to HIM. I know that my Christian fellowship can be restored but I must act now to restore it. I know that I will never be able to feel full contentment without the peace of God alone because His peace brings wholeness and health to me. My challenge?...How much more secure, satisfying, peaceful, and fulfilling to receive from God all He desires to give me. Ultimately I want to receive Christ like actions for my life instead of my own desires since they will get me nowhere.

April 9, 2008 at 4:40 PM
HADOKEN!!! said...

This passage talks about why we do what we do. It says that the cause of all the fighting in the world is our lust for things. All wars have been started by someone wanting something wether it be power or reputation or whatever. It then tells us that we can fix this by being humble before God. If we could just humble ourselves and throw away all our worldly desires we would be MUCH HAPPIER!

April 9, 2008 at 9:09 PM
Daemis WolfBorn said...

I understand this very well. People today fight over what they lust for, and things they think they "need" but they just want it. But what we really need is to humble our selves before Christ, and thats the only way we can fix these things.

April 9, 2008 at 9:36 PM
Kacey! said...

This passage is saying that we can't love the world and be in God's will at the same time. Being a friend of the the world makes you an enemy of God. The world will only give you temperary happiness and fulfillment, but God will give you everlasting happiness and fulfillment. All the world will give us in the end is wars and fights. We need to flee from Satan and grow closer to God. He will give us everything we need all we need to do is pray and ask.

April 9, 2008 at 10:03 PM
Amy :) said...

I really need to work on my worldly lusts like selfishness and my attitude.The past two days have been kinda hard b/c i've missed my friends more than ever(since they go to a different school) and I have noticed that whenever i'm angry i take it out on other people and it just turns out bad. My sister told me that everyone could see my attitude and I was embarrast at myself because I'm saved and Faith without works is dead so I was totally convicted of that.

April 9, 2008 at 10:09 PM

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