Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; James 4:8a

Today we are going to look at the next 2 commands:

1. “Draw Nigh….to you”–  At one time the only ones who could “draw near” to God were the Levitical priests.  To get right with God you had to go through a priest.  (Exodus 19:22, Leviticus 10:3, Ezekiel 44:13).  Now because of Jesus, we can all draw near to God because we have been given access to Him by the blood of Christ.

Think about how amazing this verse is.  Now we are BEING COMMANDED to do something that previously was impossible.  “Draw nigh” speaks of a relational closeness.  The Creator of the universe wants us to draw near to him.  We can have a close, intimate, love relationship with God.

1. “Cleanse your hands“- Remember that James is addressing jewish believers who would have understood the ceremonial law of the old testament priests. Part of approaching God for the priest was the process of washing hands.

God is holy.  He is completely seperate from sin.  Our sin problem must be taken care of so we can draw near to Him.

“Cleanse your hands”also speaks to having our righteous standing with God show up in the things we do.  To be ready to work for Christ, our lives must be clean.

Monday, October 24, 2011 

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

In this weeks devotion we are going to be looking at 4 verses.  James commands his readers with 10 different imperatives (command verbs):

Here are the 10 commands in these 4 verses

1. Submit
2. Resist
3. Draw Nigh
4. Cleanse
5. Purify
6. Be (afflicted)
7. Mourn
8. Weep
9. Let (your laughter be turned to mourning)
10. Humble

 

Today we are going to look at the first two commands:

1.  Submit– “to line up under”- recognize the authority of God in your life and act upon it.  Like a soldier that understands his rank, the faithful Christian recognizes and works under the authority of God.  God says go, we go.  God says don’t, so we don’t.

Song- “Obedience is the very best way to show that you believe.”

1.  Resist– “to take a stand against”- recognize the enemy that we have.  As a soldeir recognizes hi true enemy, we ought to respond to Satan only with resistance!  The worst thing we can do is not even realize we have an enemy or that we are in a war.

Submit–> God

Resist–> Satan

Notice Satan’s response–“He will flee from you!”  He is a defeated foe.

Application:

Are you being submissive to God?  Where are you trying to do things your own way and not God’s way?  God has told us what He wants in His Word.  We ought to be submissive to Him by reading and following the Bible.

Friday, October 21

Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy? But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. James 4:5-6

“the scripture saith in vain”– This is not a direct quote of any place in scripture.  Rather it is a statement regarding a theme in scripture that teaches both man’s tendency to evil desires and God’s resistance of people who live for their own desires first and foremost.

“he giveth more grace, wherefore….giveth grace unto the humble”-  I know 2 things about you.  You need grace, and you want grace.  It’s universal.  How do we receive grace?  James says the key here is humility.  Understanding who we  are before a Holy and Righteous God helps us to have a humble attitude.

The proud person says, I don’t need God, nor do I need to do what He says.  We may not say this with our lips, but we often say it with our attitudes and actions.  God resists that.

The good news is that He gives grace to the humble.  The humble are not perfect, and they realize that they do need God and need to follow what He says.

Application:

Today’s verse leaves us with the  questions we’ve been asking all week.  Creation or Creator?  Proud or Humble?  God or the world? Evil desires or putting others first?  Where are you at?

Thursday, October 20

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.  James 4:4

The words “adulterers and adulteresses” hear speaks of  people who should be finding their satisfaction in God who seek satisfaction in things that ultimately can not fulfill them.  Like the wife or husband that seeks the attention and affection of someone other than there spouse they ultimately seek for fulfillment in the wrong places and will bring heartache to themselves, their spouse, their family and their community.

A question that many people have asked here is about what the word “world” is talking about.  World here speaks of “world system”.  The world-system takes what God has made (the creation) yet denies Him as Creator.  They long to find satisfaction in everything but God.  They abuse and fight, murder and war to fulfill these desires.  They don’t recognize God as Creator and don’t thank Him for what He has given.  In doing so they have made themselves God’s enemies.

James says that when we do the same we are becoming comfortable with those who have made themselves the enemies of God.

For further reading on this theme, check out the Old Testament book of Hosea

 Application

Are you living for what is temporary or what is eternal?  What are you more into- the creation or the Creator?