Post by Les on Apr 6, 2022 18:38:42 GMT
Parking Lot Quarrel By: Leslie Koh
Click here for the Audio Message
Do not merely listen to the word . . . . Do what it says.
James 1:22
Today's Scripture & Insight:
James 1:19–27
The scene in the parking lot might have been funny if it wasn’t so tragic. Two drivers were arguing loudly over one of their cars that was blocking the passage of the other, and harsh words were being exchanged.
What made it especially painful to watch was that this quarrel was taking place in the parking lot of a church. The two men had possibly just heard a sermon about love, patience, or forgiveness, but it was all forgotten in the heat of the moment.
Passing by, I shook my head—then quickly realized I was no better. How many times had I read the Bible, only to fall into sin moments later with an uncharitable thought? How many times had I behaved like the person who “looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like” (James 1:23–24)?
James was calling on his readers not only to read and reflect on God’s instruction, but also to do what it says (v. 22). A complete faith, he noted, means both knowing Scripture and putting it into action.
Life’s circumstances can make it hard to apply what Scripture reveals. But if we ask the Father, He’ll surely help us obey His words and please Him with our actions.
Reflect & Pray
What have you read in Scripture that you can do today? What might you stop doing?
Dear God, forgive me for the times I haven’t done what You’ve instructed. Give me the strength and the willingness to obey You with words, actions, and thoughts that please You.
James 1:19-27
King James Version
19 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath:
20 For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.
21 Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.
22 But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.
23 For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass:
24 For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.
25 But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.
26 If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain.
27 Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.
Click here for the Audio Message
Do not merely listen to the word . . . . Do what it says.
James 1:22
Today's Scripture & Insight:
James 1:19–27
The scene in the parking lot might have been funny if it wasn’t so tragic. Two drivers were arguing loudly over one of their cars that was blocking the passage of the other, and harsh words were being exchanged.
What made it especially painful to watch was that this quarrel was taking place in the parking lot of a church. The two men had possibly just heard a sermon about love, patience, or forgiveness, but it was all forgotten in the heat of the moment.
Passing by, I shook my head—then quickly realized I was no better. How many times had I read the Bible, only to fall into sin moments later with an uncharitable thought? How many times had I behaved like the person who “looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like” (James 1:23–24)?
James was calling on his readers not only to read and reflect on God’s instruction, but also to do what it says (v. 22). A complete faith, he noted, means both knowing Scripture and putting it into action.
Life’s circumstances can make it hard to apply what Scripture reveals. But if we ask the Father, He’ll surely help us obey His words and please Him with our actions.
Reflect & Pray
What have you read in Scripture that you can do today? What might you stop doing?
Dear God, forgive me for the times I haven’t done what You’ve instructed. Give me the strength and the willingness to obey You with words, actions, and thoughts that please You.
James 1:19-27
King James Version
19 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath:
20 For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.
21 Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.
22 But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.
23 For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass:
24 For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.
25 But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.
26 If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain.
27 Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.