Day 3 - James

Hmmm... Usually I only blog a few times a month. This whole reading James everyday thing is going to make me an active blogger... weird!


Day Three of reading the book of James Completed: During my lunch break

Thoughts: Third day of reading... I think I am ready to zero in on some things that stood out to me today.

(Anyone reading this - the two of you, mom and Courtney lol - can just look up the scriptures referenced. It would take up too much room to include it all.)

2:1-7

I might be taking this section in a direction that I shouldn't, but while reading it, I was thinking about how I usually have the opposite problem. While I love being welcoming to people less-fortunate, I am less likely to be welcoming to someone who has a lot of money. I think to myself that someone who has a lot of earthly possessions sees no need for God, so what's the point? And that's so wrong of me!

Also, sometimes I am judgmental towards Christians who have especially nice things. I wonder how much those things cost them and think of how many kids around the world could be fed with that much money. But let's face it... I don't buy myself a lot of nice things but am I feeding tons of kids everywhere? Nope. My only two kids in Africa hardly even get letters from me... sigh. But either way, it's not up to me to decide what others should do with their money. Stop judging Jen.

3:1-12

Yesterday my reading in "Respectable Sins" was on 'The sins of the tongue.' Along with this passage, I was hit hard by how often I let myself fall into gossiping, especially at work. Also, I was thinking about how easily I say things without thinking of how they can hurt people. Whether it is with good intentions or not, I shouldn't have said it. A few months ago, I was talking about a friend who has quite a testimony and I said something about one of the sins that was true, but I worded it completely wrong. Months later, I came to find out that one of the people who was present for that conversation used to struggle with that same sin. NO! I felt like such a jerk. There's again my judgmental attitude coming out. Yikes!

3:14-18

The chapter before the sins of the tongue was a chapter on jealousy and other similar sins. This brought it all home.

4:2-3

So often we will take one part of a verse like, "You do not have, because you do not ask..." and decide that we just have to ask God for stuff and He will give us everything. But then we continue reading where it says, "You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions." ...Oh... that makes more sense. Ouch...

5:14

Anointing of oil... why don't we do that anymore? Or if people do, they are considered some sort of charis-maniac or something. That seems wrong to me. Hmmm... (Oh! I just realized I have never written about my friend Bobby and his gallons of baby oil to anoint... EVERYTHING! LOL My heart feels happy just thinking about him. For a later blog... hehe)

Goal for tomorrow's James reading: mmmm not sure. I liked this during my lunch break. Same plan for tomorrow. :)