Dear Brothers and Sisters,

You are invited to come to the Wednesday evening prayer meeting and pray. (7:00 PM LHF time, Wed., Dec. 13, 2000)

"Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." -- James 1:2-4

Text: James: 1:22-25

"Do not merely listen to the word and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it -- he will be blessed in what he does.

"If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless. Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."

'Do not merely listen to the word and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.' Why would anyone do that? Why would anyone listen to the word of God (or maybe read it) and not do what it says? But that's what we do a lot of the time -- otherwise we would be mature, complete and perfect and wouldn't need either the word or the testing.

So, do you listen to preaching on Sunday or on the radio during the week and say, "Wow! That's really great preaching. Very convicting." And then, days later you realize that on the very day you heard the word and thought it was great, on Sunday afternoon, what you heard Sunday morning was challenged and you failed the test. You just did what came naturally and didn't even realize that you had been tested and failed until days later -- or worse yet, you realized you were being tested and still failed. (How many times have you been tested and failed and never realized it at all?)

If you've heard the word of God and it seems to have no effect on what you do, you're like the man who looked at his face in the mirror and then went away and immediately forgot what he looked like. And actually, I myself more or less do that every morning. It's because I look at my face in the mirror to shave or comb my hair, not to see what I look like. Why do you listen to preaching? Is it to be entertained? Believe it or not, there was a time when people really did that. They listened to the preaching of a great preacher just as people listen to the music of a great musician now. And even now, I've heard people say of some preachers, "Wow! He's really anointed."

Or maybe you hear the word or read the bible just because you are supposed to. In any case, to do what the word of God says, you must look intently into it. You must look intently into the perfect law that gives freedom and continue to do so. Then you will do what it says and then you will be blessed.

But doesn't the law enslave us? Just what is this perfect law that gives freedom? It's called 'the royal law.' Take a look at chapter 2 verse 8. It says, "If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, 'Love your neighbor as yourself,' you are doing right." How do you practically do this? James gives us a start in the rest of today's passage. Let's look at verses 26 and 27:

What does it mean to be religious? These days being religious has gotten a bad name. Charismatics talk about a 'spirit of religion' and consider it to be a demon. What they are talking about is doing things for outward appearance. But James is talking about true religion. True religion simply means serving God. James gives us two examples of true religion in this passage (and more later). The first is to keep a tight rein on your tongue. If you don't do that, what you think is religion is actually worthless. That is, to say it more plainly, if you don't keep a tight rein on your tongue, whatever else you may be doing that you think you are doing to serve God is actually worthless. The rule is simple enough. Don't say anything about anyone that you wouldn't want them to know that you said. Don't build yourself up at someone else's expense. Don't use words like they were weapons of destruction. Don't joke about or make light of someone else's situation or sin. We are talking about keeping God's royal law here. (Incidentally, God has also commanded us to love him with all of our heart and mind and strength and life. We cannot begin to love our neighbor as ourselves unless we love God first. Would you make light of sin or joke about it in God's presence?) Let us love each other.

"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."

I won't say much about the world at this time except that the world is self-centered. The world teaches you to promote and to take care of yourself at the expense of others. The world doesn't prohibit you from helping someone else, but teaches you that your motive has to be to benefit yourself by doing it. (But, if the benefit you receive is that it makes you happy when you take care of someone else, that's OK.)

"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress." This is the centerpiece of God's religion. All through his word God tells us to take care of those in need -- to not oppress them, but to help them in their need. Jesus quoted the following verse and told us to learn what it means: "I desire mercy, not sacrifice." Also, the LORD says through Isaiah, "Is this not the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter -- when you see him naked to clothe him, and to not turn away your own flesh and blood? Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; and your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard (Isa 58:6-8)."

We have government welfare and various charitable organizations these days, but nevertheless, there are still people in physical need. But more than that, there are people who are suffering from loneliness and rejection. They may not be poor in material things, but long for someone to just visit them and talk to them -- to show that someone cares for them. They may be struggling with some problem that they don't know how to handle and want someone to share their burden and pray with them. Are we all to busy to do that?

Jesus will separate the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. He will say, "Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me." When the righteous ask when it was that they did all these things, Jesus will tell them, "Whatever you did for the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me."

On the other hand, there will be people who did many miraculous signs in the name of Jesus, but he will say to them, "I never knew you. Away from me you evildoers."

Brothers and sisters, maybe we're losing sight of what God's will for us really is. We need the word of God written on our hearts.

Come and let's pray for each other as well as for the whole church. Come and encourage your brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus. Love them.

Love in Christ,
Dean

PS: If you absolutely can't make it to the prayer meeting, send your prayer requests back to me by e-mail and we'll pray for them.