Morning Musings with the boys at breakfast...
James chapter 1 showed us the progression of our faith building and how we need to persevere under all kinds of trials and consider them pure joy. Why? These trials often reveal some of our character deficits; areas where pruning and "fertilizing" are needed. These in turn can aid the forming and ripening of the fruit of the Holy Spirit within us and in so doing we mature and come to greater completion of faith in our God.
Moving along we get to some more of the 'DO' bits of God's Word of truth. The part where disciples of Jesus Christ should imbibe God's Word and that not just by "listening" but by adding the "doing". When the rubber hits the road, we gotta do 'the do'. Read James 1:22-27.
We are given the example of looking into a mirror, seeing what condition our visage happens to be in at any given time so we can 'touch up' as needed. If we just look and go away and do nothing about it, then what was the point of peering into said mirror?
Once upon a time I mistakenly thought it was only girls who primped and preened in front of mirrors but I have observed that boys are not to be outdone. Yes, I said 'boys' and who do so with vigor. Poking here and poking there at their hair to get it "just right". Definitely this is "looking intently" (vs 25) into the mirror and doing something about the real, or not, deficiencies seen there. This act is often repeated many times per day on a daily basis.This is exactly how God wants us to read His Word. When we hear it read; when we read it ourselves; when we learn from it and compare God's standard with where we are at, and then go into the necessary action to perfect ourselves, with God's help to meet up with His measure, then we have "looked intently" and are "blessed in what we do". This process we do well to repeat and continue.
An example is of a person who is forever criticizing their elders/leaders in any given church and on the things they do or don't do and/or of how they 'run' the church. The New Testament commands us to beware of this (1 Timothy 5:15; James 5:7-9; 1 Peter 2:1). If we are people who are critical of others, know that God hates this divisiveness. We had best stop it!
Following are some other ways in which to look intently into God's mirror.
First let's begin with a secular definition of the word "religious" by Google...
relating to or believing in a religion.
"both men were deeply religious, intelligent, and moralistic"
synonyms: devout, pious, reverent, godly, God-fearing, churchgoing, faithful, devoted, committed
"a religious person"
Now look at what God says through James (1:26-27) [NIV]
"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."
How religious are you?
Keeping a "tight rein on their tongue..." What sort of things need we to rein in? How about this check list: anger (words/actions); slander (as alluded to above in regards to criticizing); malice; gossip; betraying a confidence; foul language/dirty stories; or lying.
Here's a story I heard eons ago in a Sunday school in New York, USA. The dear, dear elderly brother tottered to his feet, smiling broadly and exhibiting a twinkle in his eyes as he asked us children if we knew God kindly gave us two gates so we wouldn't say wrong things. One of those gates, he said, is our teeth and the other is our lips. If we part open our lips to say something we still have that second chance to not say the hurtful, or defiling things by choosing not to part open the teeth. God has given us help to keep that tight rein.
I believe our minds are part of the equation as well. When we renew our minds with God's Word and are pondering on them, those are the words that will be more likely to come out of our mouths. When we read and listen and do God's Word, as seen in vs 22-25, we will gain the rein more effectively.
The second aspect of religiousness is to "...look after orphans and widows in their distress". Some do not have distress but those who have, we need to address their needs. If you don't know any such persons in this category, then ask God to show you whom to help. How about a woman whose husband took off on her and left her with several young children? Such abandonment would be devastating. How about the wife who's husband has become incapacitated through an accident or for whatever reason? Look around you and observe the needs of others. Ask God to give you wisdom as to how you could be of service to these brothers and sisters in Christ. Don't just say "Have a nice day" and hurry on your way. The apostle Paul has given some guiding principles in regards to widows; have a read of 1 Timothy 5:3-16.
A third point is to "...keep oneself from being polluted from this world..." Agreeing with society on matters such as abortion, pre-marital sex, gay relationships as being ok, "chill, it's a norm" does not reflect God's standards. I do not hate these people who engage in these things but I do hate what God hates and that these actions are what He abhors. God loves the sinner but hates the sin. Gambling, drinking, drugs; power struggles at work, church, etc; or love of $$ will all pollute the follower of Jesus Christ who is wanting to be more Christ-like.
[Note here that gambling is not specifically said to be a sin in the Bible but there are many verses that do talk about money. Please read my blog entry Money Talks in this regard.]
When you look into God's mirror what do you see? Any of the above? You know what to do. These are a whole lot of 'do' to do. May you all have a healthy portion of God's grace to set these in motion in your life. You will surely be blessed by Him in so doing and speed you on towards that maturity God seeks in His children as I do in mine.
~ERC 2016~
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