You are invited to come to the Wednesday evening prayer meeting and pray. (8:30 PM EST Wed., Jan. 14, 2001)

Note time change from 7:00 PM LHF time to 8:30 PM EST (Please also note the change from LHF time to Eastern Standard time. Also, Bill Rankin will be leading the meetings and will be talking about other topics than James. I have about four more messages from James so I will continue to send them by e-mail.)

Dean

"Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming upon you. Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days."

Could this be about us? Is the corrosion of our gold and silver going to eat our flesh like fire? We may be rich compared with many, or even most, around the world, but surely not relative to others in our nation. Are we hoarding wealth? Surely this couldn't be written to us as believers in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. -- Look at chapter 1 verse 2.

James chapter 1 verse 2 starts out, "Consider it pure joy, my brothers,..." James is a believer in Jesus Christ. He is writing to his brothers in Christ (and sisters). We are his brothers and sisters too. Jesus gave his life for James and he gave his life for us also. James is writing this entire letter to us.

So, have we really cheated people out of the money we have promised them while indulging ourselves? Have we condemned and murdered innocent men who were not opposing us? -- maybe in our hearts, if not outwardly? Think about it. Each of us knows the truth about these things. But here's what I've observed: If your goal is any kind of earthly success, whether it's to make a lot of money or to advance in a career or to receive honor from men or even to have a "successful" Christian ministry, you will certainly do all of the things James mentions. You will cheat those to whom you are indebted, and condemn and murder innocent men. You will stab them in the back.

Here's how it works. If you set any other goal than to become like Christ and to follow him, you will begin to treat the word of God -- even Jesus himself, the Word that became flesh -- like a set of regulations or rules that you must follow while you are pursuing your own goal. If your goal is not God himself -- to know him, to know his presence, to know his heart -- he will become, in your mind, an obstacle to you on the way to your goal. God's word, which reveals his heart, will become to you a set of regulations in which you look for loopholes that will make it easier for you to reach you goal. You will also regard other people, whom God loves and for whom Jesus died, as obstacles in the path to your goal. When Jesus died for us he set an example for us to follow in his steps. "Love your neighbor as yourself," is not a regulation that slows us down on our way to our own goal so that we have to somehow figure out a way to satisfy it while still pursuing what it is we really want to do. No, it's not that at all. What it is is the expression of the very heart and nature of our Creator God who made us in his own image and wants us to be like him.

Think about it. Do you get angry when someone gets in your way? Do you regard that person as a hindrance to your agenda? Do you find yourself stretching the facts or the Scriptures to justify some decisions you are making? Goals are a good thing, but only if serving Jesus is your ultimate goal. Can you say this: "I belong to Jesus. He bought me with his own blood to love him and to serve him and to rejoice with him forever -- to become like him?" Is your final goal to meet Jesus face to face and to rejoice with him in the presence of God with many others that you have known and loved and to be with him and with them forever? Ask yourself this question often.

James's letter is to believers and is about testing. You will certainly be tested in the way described in today's passage. Maybe not by wealth, but in some way that involves pursuing your own goals or agendas. And it's not something you will have to watch out for in the future. It's a daily thing. The passage, of course, describes what a failure of the test looks like. But God's purpose is not for you to fail, but rather for you to become perfect, not lacking anything. And God never fails in any of his purposes.

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. -- Eph. 3:20,21

Pray that our goal may to be to follow Jesus and to be like him -- to love him and to love our neighbor. Pray that we may not little by little turn aside toward worldly goals. Pray that we may consider every interruption to whatever it is that we happen to be doing at the time as an opportunity to serve someone who is in need. Ask the Lord to remind us to pray this way often.

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.

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.