Brent and Bethany on James
(from a letter to Stephen)

Hey. I am going to send you the notes from your Uncle's sermon last Sunday. You said that you wanted to hear him preach and I think that he does a great job. Since there aren't any tapes available I will send you the notes.

We had another good Bible Study tonight. We are starting James, your Uncle's pick, and I was excited about it. So here is what I really enjoyed to night.

James 1:1-8
James, a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad: Greetings.
(We talked about James being Jesus' brother. One who thought at one time that Jesus was crazy. He was convinced only after the resurrection. We talked about being a bondservant. The connection to Leviticus and making a choice to be a slave ( "bondservant"). He became the head of the church in Jerusalem and was martyred around 63 AD. This is one of the very early Christian books. Written to Christians a good many of whom where probably Jews. We know this because he calls them brothers and he refers to them as those scattered from the twelve tribes. They are probably Christians who have fled the persecution in Jerusalem.)
My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. (The word "testing" is often used in the new testament though it isn't a very common word in other Greek texts. It is the kind of testing that you do to a pot when you fire it to see if it will crack. It is a testing for quality.) (We also talked about the selection of the word 'count.' James didn't say to feel joy but to count it as joy. There is an issue of choice and attitude.) (Patience, or endurance, is also an interesting word in the Greek. It means to choose to stay under. To keep under something. Imagine a huge weight on you and you choose to stay under it. Brent started talking about it as staying power.)
But let patience/endurance/perseverance have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. ("Perfect" is coming from Jesus' use of the word. In Matt. he uses it when he is talking about loving your enemies and again when he talks to the rich young ruler who kept all the law but couldn't sell what he had and give it to the poor. This kind of perfection is not perfection out of being human but rather it is like God because it is whole or complete. It is a perfection from maturity. It means to become all that it is possible for you to be.)
If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double minded man, unstable in all his ways.
(We didn't get to those verses tonight. I guess they will be for next week. One thing Brent did say about the whole book had to do with some of the history of the text. How Luther didn't like it because he thought that it had too much to do with works. But Brent pointed out that the book begins with faith. It begins with the testing of faith. He sees this as the theme. This book is about maturity, staying power, and the fulfilment of all that you were given to be. It is about the sanctification through faith.)

It has been good to hear this kind of exposition of the word. I don't think that I have been around it much since I was a kid in 8th and 9th grade. I realise it is what you got all your life so this stuff might all be familiar to you. Sorry if it bores you but I find that this is a method of preaching that I will enjoy learning from for a while. You know me, always balance. I don't think that this is the only way but it is a good one.

I was blessed to hear these things tonight. I had a rather depressed day and I really didn't want to be at the Bible Study, but it is here at the house so I couldn't get out of it. But is was really the best thing for me. As I am troubled there is wisdom available. A wisdom which is not just knowledge but practical knowledge, knowledge used for working though and in life. That wisdom is given by God, through the kind of faith that is perfected. So maybe when I was a kid and prayed for trials it wasn't a stupid thing to do. I am willing to have them, to be tried in the fire, to be sifted like wheat. One thing that I have been thinking is the way that trials can make people bitter. Yet we are to count them as joy. Inell and I have been talking about living life to enjoy it. It is good to have someone else around who sees the value in enjoying things. So I really hope that I don't loose the love of life and become bitter. I want to live gracefully.