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JAMES LESSON #1 Ok everybody. This is the first one of many to come. This is lesson 1 of an in depth study on the book of James. I�ve studied long under Kay Arthur and much of what I�m giving you is what I�ve learned from her. I�m also implementing some of what I�ve learned from Brennen Manning�s book entitled �Ruthless Trust,� into the lessons as well. Take your time working through these. They will never be more than two-three pages � mark your margins and insert notes into your Bible texts so that when you open your Bible to James and have no notes from me, you�ll have plenty of notes from you that you can share with others. Never ever have I felt such an urgency to pour the Word of God into peoples lives. Please learn deeply and share with those on your mailing lists. Feel free to print out, share, whatever: Just please don�t learn, and not release it to others. I will copy write these because I don�t know what I�m going to do with them later. Should they ever get �booked� I would need to go back through them and footnote and highlight excerpts taken directly from Kay or Brennan. For now, just know that they are very much �my� teachers and I�m simply pouring into you what they�ve poured into me. Study hard. I�m praying for you. Robin �2001 Jim and Robin Hibschman James Chapter 1 Verse 1 James ( a Jew) a bond-servant: What�s a �bond-servant?� (A bondservant is a servant who�s master has set him free, but he loves his master so deeply that he chooses to remain a slave. To show that his �slavery� to the master is his personal �choice,� he goes to the temple and drives an awl through his ear � leaving a large hole in his earlobe. Everyone who sees that knows that whoever this guys master is must be an incredibly awesome master, that a slave would �choose� to remain a slave) � a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes (the Jews) who are dispersed ( they are scattered all over the place because of Roman persecution) abroad, greetings. Verse 2 Consider it all (every time � each experience -this should become a habit: something practiced) 1) watch what you feel 2) watch what you think (more on this later) Consider it all �joy� � What is joy? Where does it come from? How do you get it into the core of who you are? Is this saying that when the tough stuff hits your life you�re supposed to be happy? Joy is not �happiness.� The �root� of joy, is GRATITUDE. Joy is a response to gratitude. To be grateful for the people who love us, and the good experiences in life is easy, but to be grateful for all of who we are and from where we�ve come � the successes, the failures � the acceptance and love and the rejection � the laughter and the tears- THAT is tough work. This verse says �Consider it �ALL� joy- As long as we work hard at breaking our lives into pieces: good ones and bad ones � putting the good experiences in one box, and the bad experiences in a box under the bed, we aren�t considering it ALL joy- we are not claiming all of who we are as a gift of God to be thankful for. We spend a great deal of time resenting parts of who we are and what we have or have not experienced and rob our lives of �joy.� We either accept everything in our lives as part of what God has allowed to bring us where we are and live in gratitude or we live out our lives in anger, bitterness, isolation and despair. So what�s the big deal about �considering it all joy?� � the big deal is the �journey� � and THAT is up to our response to what surrounds us. Consider it all �joy� my brethren, when you encounter various trials (mental, physical, emotional, spiritual � usually coming in and through circumstances and people closest to your heart) Verse 3 KNOWING � (no question in your mind at all) That the testing: The word �testing� in the Greek is :(dokimion) It means to �purify� � to �refine� as when they refine silver. When silver is refined the blacksmith heats the fire to �just the right� heat- the �Crud� that�s in the silver surfaces to the top. The blacksmith scrapes it off of the surface. After he clears the surface he increases the heat but makes sure it never gets too hot as to ruin the silver. The blacksmith never leaves the silver while it�s under heat. The process continues until the refiner looks into the silver and sees a CLEAR REFLECTION OF HIMSELF�. That the �testing� of your faith � (Question: What do you believe in? What�s really being tested? What do you �trust?� Do you focus your heart on God�s hands or on His heart? If you focus your heart on God�s hands and trust Him for what He will or won�t do, you will have a relationship with Him that�s �conditional� � (I trust you God to �do� this or that- I believe God �for this or that�) � What happens when God doesn�t �do,� and the �for this or that� never happens? Does your trust stand? Usually we turn away from the very thing that could help us and get repeatedly slammed up against the wall emotionally � why? Because we�ve focused our �faith� in the wrong place. God doesn�t always �DO� according to what we �think� �and when the disappointment comes � if our �faith� is in what God will or won�t �DO� �instead of God�s �love� �we hit the wall and think He doesn�t care.. Much of our �refining� �testing� time is to purify that area of our lives: God will repeatedly ALLOW us to move in an out of circumstances that will force us away from dependency on His hands � right into dependency on His heart � a �free fall� experience � totally vulnerability: NO CLUE as to what will happen or where we�ll end up � When you believe with all of your heart that God loves you � no matter WHAT happens to you � you know that the �free fall� is a wide open sky to experience all that He is- If the bottom falls out of your life and you hang on to believing that God loves you � your emotions may bang off the walls, but your faith won�t � you�ll stay in position � ever open to knowing more of who God is. KNOWING- that the testing of your �faith� produces ENDURANCE -- why endurance? Hold that thought! Smile�I�ll give you the answer to that one tomorrow�Chew on these three verses for a little bit! I love you guys: Share what you�re learning. � Copyright 2001 Jim and Robin Hibschman |
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