Tag: James

James 5:11 Happy To Endure

James 5:11 (KJV)
Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.

We count them happy which endure.

The volume of verses supporting this passage are so numerous that I hesitate to begin to illustrate lest I find no place to end.

The gist of the thought is that those prophets who endured to the end are held in high esteem. 

  • Their testimony of faith is an encouragement to us.

  • Their steadfastness in the face of trial and even death, is a blessing to those who are currently suffering for their faith.

We trust and believe that they are today and forever will be in a place of blessing beside the Lord

Jesus addresses this in the beatitudes.[1]

The Apostles rested upon this in their hours of persecution.[2]

The Word of God explains in Hebrews 12:11 (KJV)

Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.

While those who endure may not seem to be happy amid distress, afterward, thank God there is an eternal afterward, the fruit of such trouble is more precious than any amount of gold on earth.[3]

[1] Matthew 5:10-12 (KJV)
Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.
Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.

[2] Acts 5:41 (KJV)
And they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name.

[3] 1 Peter 1:7 (KJV)
That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:

To my readers:
Thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.

Donate to Bible Baptist Church every time you make an Amazon purchase through this link, https://smile.amazon.com/ch/91-1265824

Donate to our cause of “Reaching a world of souls with the Word of God.”

For this and, more than 5600 earlier Daily Visits with God, visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2005.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others.

For more resources from Pastor Marvin McKenzie visit http://puyallupbaptistchurch.com.

My books, and other resources, are available at:
https://marvinmckenzie.org

Merch at my Teespring store https://macz.creator-spring.com/
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James 5:11 Happy To Endure

James 4:7 Submit to Resist

James 4:7 (KJV)
Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

The Bible says that the way to resist the devil is to submit to God.

It’s no wonder that so many Christians experience terrible oppression by evil. (A devil cannot possess a Christian because the Holy Spirit already possesses him.) Nevertheless, there is a general movement among Christianity in America (assuming they are truly saved) toward liberality. The idea of Christianity today is that, since where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty, then just about anything can pass for Christianity. The concept of submission has been, for the most part, set aside. To submit to God is considered legalism.

It’s one or the other. Submit to God, and the devil flees or live in license and be pestered by the devils.[1]

[1] Or oppressed

To my readers:
Thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.

Donate to Bible Baptist Church every time you make an Amazon purchase through this link, https://smile.amazon.com/ch/91-1265824

Donate to our cause of “Reaching a world of souls with the Word of God.”

For this and, more than 5600 earlier Daily Visits with God, visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2005.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others.

For more resources from Pastor Marvin McKenzie visit http://puyallupbaptistchurch.com.

My books, and other resources, are available at:
https://marvinmckenzie.org

Merch at my Teespring store https://macz.creator-spring.com/
Be a witness with hats, mugs, t-shirts, sweat shirts, and more

Let’s have coffee?
The link to Ko-fi  is an opportunity to support this effort to reach a world of souls with the Word of God. I would appreciate any gift you can give. 

James 4:7 Submit to Resist

James 3:18 The Fruit of Righteousness

James 3:18 (KJV)
And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.

Peace has at least three settings:

  • Peace with others
  • Peace with self
  • Peace with God

To see righteousness come to fruition in another we must,
Have this fruit of righteousness in ourselves
That is the product of a relationship with Jesus Christ. “He hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.”[1]

Serve the Lord and others in peace
Though the work of the believer is styled as a warfare in the New Testament, there is no place for a spirit of anger or enmity towards those we seek to convert.

Be peacemakers
That is, to be purposeful, mindful, and busy about the business of reconciling opposing parties. 

In the case of the fruit of righteousness, the parties we seek to reconcile is the lost sinner with holy God.

[1] 2 Corinthians 5:21 (KJV)
For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

To my readers:
Thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.

Donate to Bible Baptist Church every time you make an Amazon purchase through this link, https://smile.amazon.com/ch/91-1265824

Donate to our cause of “Reaching a world of souls with the Word of God.”

For this and, more than 5600 earlier Daily Visits with God, visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2005.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others.

For more resources from Pastor Marvin McKenzie visit http://puyallupbaptistchurch.com.

My books, and other resources, are available at:
https://marvinmckenzie.org

Merch at my Teespring store https://macz.creator-spring.com/
Be a witness with hats, mugs, t-shirts, sweat shirts, and more

Let’s have coffee?
The link to Ko-fi  is an opportunity to support this effort to reach a world of souls with the Word of God. I would appreciate any gift you can give. 

James 3:18 The Fruit of Righteousness

James 1:11 The Root Endures

James 1:11 (KJV)
For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withereth the grass, and the flower thereof falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth: so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways.

The analogy is of the “glory” of the rich man. In order to get the full analogy we must consider,
James 1:9-12 (KJV)
Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted:
But the rich, in that he is made low: because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away.
For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withereth the grass, and the flower thereof falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth: so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways.
Blessed isthe man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.

  • The man himself is as the grass. 
  • His riches as the flower of the grass. 
  • The sun is a likeness of the temptation he endures, wilting the flower and making dull the glory of his riches.

Here’s the thing.
The flower may perish, and the blade may wilt, but grassroots are some of the most enduring of all plant species. When everything on the surface has died away the roots, the true life of that grass, endures.

If we, who are believers, are to ever glory in the Lord as He deserves, all that is our own glory must dull to nothingness.[1] Never worry. Your life in Christ is eternal and your crown with Christ is far more glorious than any wealth of this world.

[1] Not necessarily that we have none of this wealth. It is only, that in means so little to us.

To my readers:
Thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.

Donate to Bible Baptist Church every time you make an Amazon purchase through this link, https://smile.amazon.com/ch/91-1265824

For this and, more than 5500 earlier Daily Visits with God, visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2005.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others.

For more resources from Pastor Marvin McKenzie visit http://puyallupbaptistchurch.com.

My books are available at:
https://marvinmckenzie.org

James 1:11 The Root Endures

James 5:17 Like Passions

James 5:17 (KJV)
Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months.

We have a tendency, I think, to elevate certain men above the common fray: 

  • Missionaries 
  • Evangelists
  • Particularly gifted preachers
  • Pastors of huge churches even
  • Heroes of the Bible

Interestingly the Bible goes out of the way to give to us the sins of those Bible characters, as well as their acts of faith. In this case, the Bible says that Elias was “subject to like passions as we are.”

In other words, he was no extraordinary man. 

This is such an essential truth because, in it, we discover it is never the man that is extraordinary but God. 

In this case, too, we are encouraged that if such a man could pray and receive extraordinary results, then so can we. 

So, pray. Pray earnestly. 

Don’t count the worth of your prayers on the quality of your person but on the quality of the God to whom you pray. 

To my readers:
First of all, thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. Secondly, I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.

Donate to Bible Baptist Church every time you make an Amazon purchase through this link, https://smile.amazon.com/ch/91-1265824

For this and more than 5100 earlier Daily Visits with God visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2005.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others.

For more resources from Pastor Marvin McKenzie visit http://puyallupbaptistchurch.com.

My books are available at:
https://marvinmckenzie.org

James 5:17 Like Passions

James 2:1 A More Suitable Pursuit

James 2:1 (KJV)
My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons.

The book of James was written very early on in the New Testament experience. It contains such teachings that have led to some people not believing it to be New Testament truth. 

  • I understand Martin Luther cut it out of his Bible
  • Some consider it transitional and primitive, not fully developed doctrine
  • Some believe it to apply to the Tribulation period and not specific for today

I find it interesting to see that so early on in the New Testament churches they had difficulty with respecting persons. Already, just a few years after Jesus’s crucifixion, Christians were tempted to play favorites with those who were wealthier. 

It tells me that some wealthy souls came to Christ even 
Money doesn’t and has never bought happiness, satisfaction, and peace. Money cannot and never has salved the sin-sickened conscience. Those who spend their lives pursuing material wealth find it, only to discover it was not a worthwhile pursuit. The most miserable are those who make it their lifelong pursuit, never find it, and thus never do look for something more suitable to pursue. 

It also tells me that the temptation to pursue material wealth has always been in the churches 
The redeemed soul still fights a corrupt nature. That nature tends toward the material. We may manifest our love of money differently than they did in the first century, but we still need the warning. 

God is no respecter of persons and neither should we be.

To my readers:
First of all, thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. Secondly, I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.

Donate to Bible Baptist Church every time you make an Amazon purchase through this link, https://smile.amazon.com/ch/91-1265824

For this and more than 5100 earlier Daily Visits with God visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2005.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others.

For more resources from Pastor Marvin McKenzie visit http://puyallupbaptistchurch.com.

My books are available at:
https://marvinmckenzie.org

James 2:1 A More Suitable Pursuit

James 5:8 Even So Come

James 5:8 (KJV)
Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.

I think this time of Chinese coronavirus pestilence has brought with it two strong temptations: 

One is to predict the end of the world

  • When we see the global panic and one world response, we, who are biblical literalists, are wont to cry “the coming of the Lord draweth nigh”. 
  • When we it was the disintegration of love for others in the social distancing orders, we are wont to cry, “the coming of the Lord draweth nigh”. 
  • When we watch as governors treat churches with undue harshness, we are wont to cry, “the coming of the Lord draweth nigh”. 
  • When we hear that the SCOTUS disregarded the first amendment protection of churches in a recent opinion and reflect that the opinion was written by one of the so-called conservative Justices, we are wont to cry, “the coming of the Lord draweth nigh”. The problem with this is we can so frequently cry it that those who hear us ignore us. 

The other temptation is to not cry out at this time, “the coming of the Lord draweth nigh”
Such a cry is not merely the message of a religious extremist. It is virtually the message of the New Testament. Jesus, the angels in Acts chapter one, and every New Testament penman cried, “the coming of the Lord draweth nigh”. The final book of the New Testament is dedicated to the message, “the coming of the Lord draweth nigh”. 

Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus. 

To my readers:
First of all, thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. Secondly, I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.

Donate to Bible Baptist Church every time you make an Amazon purchase through this link, https://smile.amazon.com/ch/91-1265824

For this and more than 4900 earlier Daily Visits with God visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2005.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others.

For more resources from Pastor Marvin McKenzie visit http://puyallupbaptistchurch.com.

My books are available at:
My author spotlight at Lulu.com:
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My author Page for Kindle/Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/author/marvinmckenzie

James 5:8 Even So Come

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James 2:18 Show Me Your Faith

James 2:18 (KJV)
Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works.

I knew a lady once, she’s passed away now, who refused to get baptized because she said she wanted to prove a Christian can go to heaven without being baptized. She had a friend who professed to be a Christian but refused to attend church because she wanted to prove she could go to heaven without being a member of or attending church. They were demonstrating their faith, they believed, by their works, or lack of it. 

I supposed every sort of faith has some sort of work associated with it, even if the work is not to work.  I wish to point out that our actions tell a great deal about our faith – what we believe. I would go so far as to say our work shows our true faith much more than our words do. 

  • One person’s faith compels him to be very religious. He does what he does because he believes these things earn him a spot in heaven. 
  • Another person’s faith sets them to work building up churches. His faith leads him to believe that if he won’t do it neither will God. 
  • I want my faith to show that I believe in a living and present God, with whom I have a true and personal relationship. 

And I would like to lead others to know Him in the same way. 

To my readers:
First of all, thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. Secondly, I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.

Donate to Bible Baptist Church every time you make an Amazon purchase through this link, https://smile.amazon.com/ch/91-1265824

For this and more than 4900 earlier Daily Visits with God visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2005.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others.

For more resources from Pastor Marvin McKenzie visit http://puyallupbaptistchurch.com.

My books are available at:
My author spotlight at Lulu.com:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/marvinmckenzie

My author Page for Kindle/Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/author/marvinmckenzie

James 2:18 Show Me Your Faith

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James 5:11 Joint Heirs

James 5:11 (KJV)
Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.

Notice that it is not the end of job that is mentioned but the end of the Lord. The key to understanding the blessing of Job is not what the Bible says he received after his afflictions, though they were impressive. The key is to see what the Bible says is the end of the Lord:

  • Resurrection 
  • Glorification
  • In the presence of His Heavenly Father 
  • His throne
  • His power 
  • His Eternal being

And then to see that we, who are believers, are joint heirs.

1 John 3:2
Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. 

To my readers:
First of all, thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. Secondly, I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.

For this and more than 4600 earlier Daily Visits with God visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2006.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others.

For more resources from Pastor Marvin McKenzie visit http://puyallupbaptistchurch.com.

My books are available at:
My author spotlight at Lulu.com:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/marvinmckenzie

My author Page for Kindle/Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/author/marvinmckenzie

James 5:11 Joint Heirs

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Please consider helping our church’s teen department by signing up for cash back shopping at http://www.dubli.com/M04VB. This program has three levels of participation, the first being completely free.

James 4:2 Ask

James 4:2 (KJV)
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.

There is so much more in this passage than just “ye have not because ye ask not” but the lesson here is, we need to ask.

  • In some cases we must ask others
  • In all cases we must ask the Lord

Ask in submission
Vs 7

Ask in humility
Vs 10

Ask in charity
Vs 11

Ask in awareness of the brevity of life
Vs 13-14

Ask is deference to the Lord’s will
Vs 15

Ask with the intention of doing good
Vs 17

But ask. 
“Ye have not because ye ask not.”

To my readers:
First of all, thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. Secondly, I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.

For this and more than 4600 earlier Daily Visits with God visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2006.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others.

For more resources from Pastor Marvin McKenzie visit http://puyallupbaptistchurch.com.

My books are available at:
My author spotlight at Lulu.com:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/marvinmckenzie

My author Page for Kindle/Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/author/marvinmckenzie

James 4:2 Ask

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Please consider helping our church’s teen department by signing up for cash back shopping at http://www.dubli.com/M04VB. This program has three levels of participation, the first being completely free.