O land, O land, O land, hear the word of the Lord

O land, O land, O land, hear the word of the Lord (taken from Jeremiah 22:29)

2 Chronicles 7:14 If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land (NIV).

A member of our church was out shopping earlier this week and kept having the phrase "the devil is in the detail" running through her head whilst she was at the checkout at the supermarket. She felt very strongly that she should go sit and read a newspaper, so went and had a cup of coffee and took the only newspaper that was in the rack, The Independent.

It was as if God was directing her thoughts and her eyes as after reading one or two articles, she was told to "keep going, keep going". She carried on reading and then on page 9 of the newspaper came across an article on the Copenhagen global climate summit which will take place 7-18 December 2009. The article was headed "Bureaucrats clash on shape of climate deal" but what really caught her eye was the by line:

"The devil is in the detail ahead of next month's summit, as representatives of 192 countries struggle to reconcile their often conflicting priorities. Michael McCarthy reports"

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Genesis 2:15 (NIV) The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it

From the time the earth was created, it has been man's responsibility to work the earth and take care of it. There has been a great deal of concern in recent years about carbon emissions and the effect these are having on the atmosphere. The fourth report of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was published in early 2007 and this said that there is no longer any doubt that the earth is warming, and that there is a 90% chance this is caused by man. If this continues, then according to the report, the global average temperature could rise by as much as 4C (or even in the extreme case, 6C) by 2100, which would, in effect, make human life on Earth impossible.

In 1997, an internationally binding treaty, the Kyoto Protocol, was signed by 184 countries and subsequently ratified by them all. This treaty commits the rich industrialised nations to quantified cuts in their carbon emissions by a given date, and it is legally binding in international terms. The USA also signed the Protocol but has not ratified it, since President George W Bush withdrew the USA from Kyoto in 2001 as his administration considered it gave an unfair advantage to China.

Kyoto did not go far enough, however, as the cuts are insufficient to reduce the anticipated global warming and unless the agreement is renewed, it will run out by 31 December 2012. At a subsequent UN climate conference held in Bali in December 2007, it was agreed to negotiate a renewal of the Kyoto Protocol to give a "second commitment period" for member states to undertake emissions cuts, from 2013. It also agreed to work towards a wholly new climate treaty, which would:

○ involve the US;

○ oblige China, India and the other developing countries to cut their own emissions;

○ compensate the developing countries for doing this; and

○ set a very ambitious level of new medium-term targets for the rich countries, in an attempt to hold the warming to below the danger threshold of C above the pre-industrial level.

The EU, including Britain, want to have a new treaty based on the Bali action plan which would be legally binding and with a compliance mechanism and international rules for carbon accounting. The USA, however, wants nothing to do with Kyoto or its architecture. It has put forward a wholly new model for a climate deal in which countries would set out what they are going to do without being bound by international compliance regimes, or international carbon accounting. The developing countries, collectively known as the G77+China, are insistent that the Kyoto Protocol be renewed, and its rich country member states sign up for new emissions cuts from 2013 onwards . Three potentially opposing viewpoints. Any deal on carbon emissions and funding for developing countries to enable them to cope with the changing climate needs to be both strong and fair. Bureaucratic detail should be the last thing that prevents an agreement to save the planet from climate change.

For more details, see:

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/bureaucrats-clash-on-shape-of-climate-deal-1817259.html

And

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/britain-rules-out-climate-treaty-at-summit-1815728.html

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God made the world for us, chose us before He even created the world and all that is in it so that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love:

Ephesians 1:4

For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight (NIV).

Long before he laid down earth's foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love (The Message).

His deep desire for a people to love came first. Then a world for them to live in was created. And with the world He gave us all that we needed: the night to rest, the day to wander, water to drink, seed bearing plants, fruit bearing trees, the sun, the moon and the stars, fish, birds, and animals. What an awesome testimony of His love for us.

We are called as Christians to care for others, to care for the world that God created, and yet here we are on the path to heating up the world so it is inhabitable for mankind. This is something that we as a church, as a body of believers, should pray about. We desperately need to turn to God, to seek His will, and ask for Him to move in this situation. We are destroying the very land that He gave us through our behaviour, our lack of regard for the environment, our disregard for others and our continued determination to make sure our own countries are not penalised in some way. We have raped and pillaged God's planet for long enough. This should not about the bottom line. We are all at fault here. We cannot point the finger at our governments, at the industrialised nations, at world powers, at our neighbours. We are all to blame.

There is very little time between now and the start of the summit on 7 December, so please, please pray about the summit, however you may be led. The devil is in the detail here, and he is at work creating havoc, causing the nations to disagree, creating disharmony and strife. There is a spirit of mischief at work, designed to sidetrack the summit and take the earth off course.

We need to pray that God will be at work in the leaders, politicians and civil servants taking part in the summit, that there will be a real spirit of harmony, a genuine desire to reach a compromise and reconciliation and not a spirit of territorialism, of protectionism as countries seek to do as little as possible so as to protect their foreign trade and their own industries and economies. We have a corporate need to humble ourselves and pray and seek God’s face and turn from our wicked ways. Then He will hear from heaven, forgive our sin and heal our land.

But one church cannot do this on its own, it needs all churches, not just the church here in the UK, but the worldwide church. We have a God given mandate to look after the earth and all that is in it, so please, forward this email to your friends, family, brothers and sisters in Christ to mobilise the global church to prayer. We need to seek God’s will here and ask for his Spirit to be at work before, during and after the summit. This prayer request needs to hit as many inboxes as possible in as many countries as possible in the next 24 days (at the time of writing) so that the church is actively seeking God’s will on this matter and praying for all involved. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much (James 5:16). Like the widow in Luke 18 who kept going to the judge for justice, we need to seek God’s face. Now, will not God bring about justice for His elect who cry to Him day and night, and will He delay long over them? I tell you that He will bring about justice for them quickly. Luke 18:7-8 (NASB)

James 1:5

If you don't know what you're doing, pray to the Father. He loves to help. You'll get his help, and won't be condescended to when you ask for it. (The Message)

If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. (NIV)

How many times a day do I sit here and wonder exactly what I am doing, what job to do next, what task on my never ending to do list should be done first? How to phrase that email or letter, what to say to a friend or loved one, what to do, how to do it. There are a myriad of things running through my mind at any one time and confusion is generally uppermost. I know I for one need wisdom and guidance on many many things, yet when you are "all growed up" with a family of your own, responsibilities, cares and worries, who do you turn to? Who can help? After all, you are supposed to be able to deal with things yourself, not ask for help every five minutes.

But life isn't like that. It is not always easy and sometimes, making the right choice is difficult. You may have no one to ask, no one to turn to, no one who’s opinion you trust. Then again, you may have everyone and his dog giving you advice, each piece of advice different from the next one. So what do you do? Where do you go? To whom do you turn and who can you trust to give you the right advice, the right answer?

James knew. He wasn't just talking here about intelligence, the ability to solve problems, do maths, understand scientific formulae, remember facts and figures. He was also talking about making the right decisions, the right choices, walking down the right path. After all, the road to hell is paved with good intentions, so making the right decision is crucial.

The Jews to whom James was writing knew that he was talking about the understanding and practical skills needed to live their lives as Christians to the glory of God. It’s the wisdom to be able to put into action the things that need to be done instead of just sitting there working out solutions (or looking for problems). You can have the intelligence to know there is a problem, eg the car won't start, but you need wisdom to work out that you have run out of petrol.

It's more than just having common sense too. It’s the wisdom to know the peace and joy that comes from knowing God and doing His will. We are called by God, chosen, sealed with the Holy Spirit, and we each have an assignment(s) from Him. Sometimes those assignments take us to places we don't want to go, like missionaries in other countries who face imprisonment and persecution, where no one in their right mind would choose to go because of the dangers. Other times we are asked to stay exactly where we are, in that awful job where the boss is a hard task master, always expecting more and more but paying less and less. Maybe it's at school or college, where everyone makes fun of us because we are Christian. Sometimes, we don't even know what we are there for, why we are where we are, what God is calling us to do.

But God knows. God cares. And He has all the answers. We just need to ask Him.

After all, isn't that what Jesus did all the time? Wasn't he always going off by himself to find a quiet place where he could be with his Father, without all the worries and distractions of this life interfering? And is Jesus felt the need to do this, how much more should we in this day and age when we have an expectation that everything should be instantaneous? We have ready meals, microwaves, fast cars, aeroplanes, the internet and computers. With modern technology we can reach any part of the world, any time of the day or night. We can come home and have a meal ready within 5 minutes, we can watch umpteen different channels on television and can get information on just about anything at the touch of a button.

But in the hustle and bustle of this world, when do we find time to spend time with God? To rest on His presence? Read His word? Really get to know God and see His will for our lives? Do we really want to and can we spare the time?

We need the wisdom that can only come from God to discern the truth of this world, to see beyond the lies of the enemy when he tells us we need to work late, to have an extra 5 minutes in bed instead of having a quiet time, to not bother reading our bibles because we can hear all about Jesus on Sunday mornings in church. After all, no one else we know reads their bible and they would only make fun of us if they knew we read ours. And as for praying, well, God never sees fit to answer my prayers so why should I bother?

But God is there by our side at all times. He answers each and every one of our prayers. He sees everything we go through, he hears the words we speak, knows the thoughts we never utter. We just need to ask Him. He won't laugh at us when we ask a stupid question, or state the obvious. He loves us and cares for us, no matter what we perceive our level of intelligence to be. We don't have to have first class honours degrees to turn to God. We don't have to be able to read and write even. We just have to have a heart that is turned towards God, is seeking after him and his ways, wanting to do His will, despite whatever circumstances may surround us.

He won't look down on us or despise us when we ask for help, for guidance, for wisdom, telling us we should know better at our age and we should be able to work it out for ourselves. He is a God of mercy, of justice, of love and faithfulness, full of forgiveness, slow to anger. He will be the sure foundation for your times, a rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge; the fear of the Lord is the key to this treasure. (Isaiah 33:6,NIV)

Proverbs 3:13-14 Blessed is the man who finds wisdom, the man who gains understanding, for she is more profitable than silver and yields better returns than gold. (NIV)

James 1:4

Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything (NIV)

So don't try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way. (The Message)

When things are going badly, when times are hard, all you really want to do is curl up into a ball, make the world go away, walk out on the situation, the people and go to a desert island or some place where you won't be worried or bothered by what is going on around you. When you are trying to do your best, be patient, considerate, kind and caring and all people do is throw it back in your face, ridicule and taunt you, or when the day to day problems seem insurmountable, money problems, job worries, illness, stress, you name it, today's world is full of problems, what do you do? How do you cope?

Well, James is telling us to be patient, to persevere, to carry on, and just lean on God, trust in Him. How we react when we are under pressure, when the stress is too much to bear, shows exactly what type of person we are, whether our Christian beliefs are just skin deep or really go all the way down into our hearts. Can we really be patient when our children are yelling at one another, wrestling on the floor with one of them trying to kick and bite the other? What about when we have no money to pay the bills, the mortgage? When everyone is demanding this, that or the other expecting you to pull it out of a hat like a magician with his rabbit? And what about work, or the lack of it? Can we really demonstrate the love of Jesus when people are being laid off all around us and there are no jobs to be found anywhere?

Then what about your faith, how people treat you when they know you are a Christian? Do they ridicule you, watch you closely to see how/when you slip up? Do they change their habits, their language, when you are around? Or maybe no one knows, it is a secret you carry around with you and never talk about because you know your life would be made a misery if others knew.

We each have our own problems, our own troubles in life. But how do we react when under pressure? Do we try and wriggle out of it, put the blame on others, run away and hide, or do we persevere, carry on despite the problems, trusting in God to see us through it?

This letter was written to the persecuted church. They had left their homes, possibly their families, and moved away, to different towns and cities, even different countries as there were people out to kill them because they believed in Jesus. The same thing is happening today in many parts of the world. In Orissa, Christians have been burnt alive in their own homes by mobs of Hindu protestors. In Nigeria, Christians have been hacked to death, there have been mass burials as there were too many dead to bury individually. In North Korea, you, your husband or wife, children, brothers, sisters, parents can all be imprisoned just because you yourself are a Christian. In Eritrea there are currently around 2,500 Christians in prison because of their faith. Being a Christian is a matter of life and death in those and many other countries in the world. Yet how do they react? They count it all as joy.

I read of the troubles they go through and I am in awe of their faith, of how they react when their husbands are beaten to death, when they are forced from their homes, lose their jobs, have no recourse other than to sell their bodies to provide for their families. Hate and despair does not fill their lives, in fact exactly the opposite. They are so full of love it shines out of their eyes and faces. Their troubles have refined and honed them to be more like Jesus and just imagine what joy awaits them when they get to heaven?!!!

I want that in my life. Not the persecution, obviously, as it is definitely not something on my Christmas list although even here in the west there is persecution of Christians, but for the love of Jesus to shine from me no matter what I am going through, what struggles I am having.

So how do we get that in our lives? How do we persevere no matter what the odds facing us? It is a case of trusting in God, of turning our hearts and minds to Him at all times and in all circumstances. We are never alone, God is always with us :

Psalm 73:23 (NIV) Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand.

Psalm 16:8 (NIV) I have set the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.

So we have to change our mindset, to stop focusing our eyes on ourselves and our problems, our worries and turn them to Jesus. Jesus told us in no uncertain terms not to worry:

Matthew 6: 25-34 (NIV)Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labour or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendour was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

And then look at what he says in Matthew 11:28-30:

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

They have to be some of my favourite verses. The sheer peace that those verses bring to me is unbelievable. To know that I can cast all my cares, all my worries on Jesus, and He will take care of each and every single one of them is such a relief, such a lightening of the load on my shoulders. No matter what I am facing, He is there by my side and I can leave everything in His hands. It doesn't mean I can sit back and expect money to pour into my bank account without me going to work, or that a meal will miraculously appear on the table without anyone cooking it, or that this morning my husband will wake up with no trace of depression ever again. What it does mean is that I can rest my heart, because I know all things are in God's hands, that He knows the Master Plan, He knows the full picture and all things will work out according to His will in time, his time, not mine. It means those Christians in Orissa can face each day because they have Jesus, they carry the Holy Spirit within them and they know that the things we go through here on earth are just temporary, fleeting, because we will spend eternity with Jesus in heaven.

We need to let our lights shine, to face the world with joy in our hearts, peace in our minds, because we are not of this world. We need to demonstrate our faith by our actions, our deeds, our perseverance in times of trouble, how we react to the bad things in life (and there is certainly no shortage of those).

I pray that we will each have peace in our hearts today no matter what we face, that the love of God will shine from us and through us, and our reactions when under stress, under pressure, others may be drawn to Christ.

James 1:3

06:09

James 1:3 Because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance (NIV)

The testing of your faith develops perseverance. So what, exactly, is testing and perseverance then? Well, according to the Oxford English dictionary, testing means difficult and the verb, to test, means:

test1

• noun 1 a procedure intended to establish the quality, performance, or reliability of something. 2 a short examination of proficiency or knowledge. 3 a means of testing something. 4 a difficult situation that reveals the strength or quality of someone or something. 5 an examination of part of the body or a body fluid for medical purposes. 6 Chemistry a procedure for identifying a substance or revealing whether it is present. 7 a test match.

• verb 1 subject to a test. 2 touch or taste before proceeding further. 3 try severely; tax (a person’s endurance or patience).

So to me, testing is not a case of sitting an exam, of seeing if I have passed, or got a particular grade. Instead, testing means seeing how strong something is, what the quality is like how it reacts under stress. How will you ever know how strong your faith really is if only good things happen to you? If you were born with a silver spoon in your mouth, if you always have enough money, have a nice house, good clothes, pots of money in the bank, a wonderful marriage, well behaved and intelligent children, and never have a days illness? It is when the bad things happen, when life hits with a vengeance, that you really know just what you are made of and whether you really do believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God who died on the cross to save each and every one of us and that He is now seated in heaven at the right hand of the Father.

Look again at the definition for test. In chemistry, a test is a procedure for identifying a substance or revealing whether it is present. So the tests we go through identify or reveal whether faith is really present in our lives.

Trust also means a difficult situation that reveals the strength or quality of someone or something. The tests we go through show us (and others) what our faith is made of and whether it stands up in the face of opposition or when things don't work out the way we want or expect. It demonstrates the quality and strength of our faith.

Remember the parable of the sower (Matthew 13:1-23) when some of the seed was thrown onto a footpath, some fell on rocky ground, other seeds fell amongst the thorns and some seeds fell on good ground? The seed that fell on the footpath represents those people who hear about Jesus but don't understand it and the enemy comes and snatches it away. The seed that fell on the rocky ground represents those who hear the message, receive it with joy but do not have deep roots. When times of trouble come, or they are persecuted for their faith they turn away. The seed that fell in the thorns is the people who hear the word but it gets crowded out of their lives by the cares and worries of this world, by the desire for wealth and other things. The seed that fell on the good soil, however, represents those who truly hear and understand God's word and produce a harvest of thirty, sixty, even one hundred times as mush as had been planted. It is when the times of testing come that you will know whether the seed has been planted on good soil, a footpath, rocky ground or in thorns.

So where has the seed been planted in you? When you face problems in life, do you get down on your knees and pray, turn to God? Or do you look to man, try and sort things out yourself, believe God is punishing you for some wrongdoing, or turn against God because bad things are happening and you thought you would lead a charmed life once you became a Christian? As the saying goes, the proof of the pudding in in the eating.

And as for perseverance:

persevere

• verb continue in a course of action in spite of difficulty or lack of success.

— DERIVATIVES perseverance noun.

— ORIGIN Latin perseverare ‘abide by strictly’.

-perseverance

• suffix forming nouns: 1 denoting a quality or state: perseverance. 2 denoting an action: utterance.

— ORIGIN French, from Latin -antia, -entia.

This means carrying on believing in Jesus regardless of everything that is happening, trusting in Him no matter what we are going through, whether we have money in the bank, full health, a roof over our heads, clothes to wear, food to eat or not. Continuing to believe even when we seem to be getting nowhere and everything is going wrong.

The Message translates this verse as:

You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colours. So don't try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.

Woah! Isn't that amazing? Our faith life is forced out into the open and shows its true colours. Times of testing are times when we can allow our faith to grow, when we really show what we are made of, what we believe in, and it is a witness and encouragement to others.

So what do we do when trials come, when the time of testing seems never ending and there is no light at the end of the tunnel? When life seems unbearable, when it is just one problem after another, yet another set back or hurdle to overcome, we know we can take it all to God. God is there right by our side no matter what we are going through, no matter how hard life is. We need to hand everything over to God, to trust in Him even when things seem impossible, and then to turn our eyes on Jesus, to fix our sight on the truth.

The trials we face strengthen us as Christians. They demonstrate to ourselves, and to others, exactly what we are made of and show up our faith for what it really is. Do we really stand on the Rock, under the shelter of the Lord God Almighty, in the shadow of His wings? Or do we flit here and there, trying out this faith, this religion, this idea, until we find one that we are comfortable with , one that lets us do everything we want to do without fear of criticism? After all, everyone has a right to be happy, a chance at life, a shot at the best things, don't they? So why not follow a religion that lets us be happy, use those drugs, sleep around, take what we want, when we want? Ignore the bad things in life, concentrate on what we want and everyone else can go hang themselves. God helps those who help themselves so go for it, don't worry about the next man because he can look after himself.

If you are truly a believer in Jesus, you will know that He is the only way to God. No other religion, no matter how good it sounds, how believable it is, how logical, how promising can ever lead you to God. Jesus said "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (John 14:6).

Which way are you going?

James 1:1

James 1:1 I, James, am a slave of God and the Master Jesus, writing to the twelve tribes scattered to Kingdom Come: Hello! Faith Under Pressure (The Message)

Having spent all that time yesterday looking at verse 2, I was drawn back to verse 1. Of course, if I had been doing this logically, one step at a time, in order and so on, then I would have actually read verse 1 properly and never have moved onto verse 2 yesterday! It is curious how you can literally skip verses in the bible and think you have read them when really, you haven't even noticed the words at all.

So, verse 1. James introduces himself in this verse, and we find out who he is writing to and who he is. So who is James? Well, there are apparently four candidates for this:

• James the Less, son of Alphaeus, one of the disciples (see Matthew 10:3);
• James the father of Judas (not Iscariot). Judas was one of the disciples and also known as Thaddeus (Matthew 10:3 and Luke 6:16);
• James the son of Zebedee, brother to John (both John and James were disciples, (see Matthew 4:21)); and
• James the oldest half brother of Jesus (Mark 6:3)

I've been reading about this and apparently, no one has seriously considered that it was either James the Less or James the father of Judas but I can't see why they never seriously considered it (and enquiring minds want to know!). James, the brother of John, was one of the earliest Christian martyrs after Stephen and was thought to have been killed in AD44, when there was a wave of persecution against the church by Herod Agrippa noted in Acts 12:1. Interesting to read that Herod Agrippa's sister was Herodias, the wife of Herod who was responsible for the death of John the Baptist (see Mark 6:17-28).

So the odds are that it was James, the brother of Jesus who initially rejected Jesus as the Messiah. I mean, you can understand that. After all, he grew up with Jesus, Jesus was his big brother, and you really don't expect your big brother to turn out to be the Messiah. You would have played with him, teased him, taken the mickey, tried to pull tricks on him, got angry with him, loved him, hated him, just as most siblings do to each other. So obviously, when someone comes along and says your brother is the Messiah, sent by God, how can you believe it?

James came to faith after the resurrection and became a leader of the early Church (Acts 12:17, 15:13, 21:18), one of the elders. It is thought he wrote this book to believers who were scattered after the persecution of the church in AD 44.

Depending upon which translation you use, he is either a slave or a servant or bond-servant of God. So exactly what is a bond servant? This is not just your common or garden servant, or slave. Oh no, this is someone who has been a slave and after their years of service are up, voluntarily stays with his master. Hebrew slaves could only serve for six years and had to be released in the seventh year. However, slaves could remain in servitude voluntarily , through love for their master. In this case, the master had to present them before God, take the slave to the door or doorpost and publicly pierce his ear with an awl (nice, eh?) and then the man would serve the master for life (see Exodus 21:2 -6).

So James is saying that he is a servant of God, someone who has decided voluntarily to spend the rest of his life serving God. This is not something you undertake lightly, a decision to be made when you have had one pint too many, when you feel obliged or want something in return. Slaves do not get anything in return. In fact, being a slave could be a really awful existence if you had a cruel master, so it is not a decision to rush into.

Yet James (and Paul, Peter, John and the other writers and disciples) gladly made this choice. What is it about God that makes people want to serve him, to follow His Son and makes other hate his very name, deny his existence, spend their lives trying to prove there is no God? If you don't know, then you don't know God, my God, the King of Kings, Lord of Lords, the Creator, the Father of all, the great I AM, Jehovah- Jirah, Jehovah-nisi, the Lord God Almighty. Take a look around you as God is all around, everywhere you look. He is in the love I see in my husband's eyes, in the hugs from my children. He is in the sound of the birds singing in the morning and in the rain that is falling outside as I type these words. He is in the sun, the moon, the stars, in the trees, the flowers, in the air that I breathe and He is in my heart. Do you know my God?

So James is a servant, a slave of God and is writing to those Jews who had been scattered during the persecution of the church. These believers were spread around the Roman world, in Rome, Alexandria, Cyprus, in Greece and Asia Minor. Depending upon where they lived, many would have been suffering persecution, so this letter was written to encourage them , to help them grow in their faith and to teach them.

But his letter is just as relevant today as it was when he wrote it 2,000 years ago. You only have to look around the world to realise that persecution of the church is still here. There have been more Christians martyred for their faith in the last century than on the whole 2,000 years since the death of Christ. In certain countries of the world (Eritrea is a prime example), to sing praise to Jesus is enough to get you thrown into prison. Look at India, where Christians have been burnt alive in their homes by mobs, or in Nigeria, where there were brutal killings earlier in the summer. Even in this country, there is persecution, Christianity is being sidelined and marginalised as people seek to be politically correct and to give rights to all faiths and all life styles.

So this letter is just as applicable to each one of us as it was to the persecuted church back in AD44. It was written by a man who knew what it was to deny Jesus was the Messiah, a man who had known him intimately, and a man who came to a strong faith after the death and resurrection of Jesus and who was one of the elders and leaders of the church in Jerusalem.

I love the way the Message translates this verse "hello faith under pressure"! If our faith is not under pressure in this day and age, then I don't know what it is. So take heart from reading this book, learn from what James has to say about living the Christian life, and let your faith be demonstrated by your works.

James chapter 1

James 1:2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds

I started reading this chapter, thinking I would be able to whip through it, jot down some notes and then get on with everything else I have to do today. After all, I thought, I've read this book several times before, it’s all about the tongue, about watching what we say, having our faith demonstrated through our works and about the need for prayer. So I started reading chapter 1 and got as far as verse 2……

Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds.

Now that brought me to a complete standstill. I can't remember how many times I have read this verse and thought "oh, yeh, right, joy, uh huh, yep, I know that, joy in the time of trouble, sure" but today, it brought me to a complete halt as if God was saying, "Hang on, wait a minute, read this and actually realise what I am saying here". Because joy is not an automatic response for me when things go wrong, when the children misbehave, when my husband is still so very depressed I don't know what to do, when I haven't the money to pay the bills and have so much work on that I sit at my desk and don't know where to start.

In the Message, it actually says "Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. " Woah! Consider it a sheer gift…well, I don't know about you, but gift is the last word I would use when I have no money or when my already busy schedule is overloaded even more 'cos I have to take care of things hubbie can't do due to his illness…Yet that is exactly what God is telling us here through James. And not only that, but it is a case of when troubles come, not if troubles come. Something to look forward to, eh?

It is a case of not just putting on a brave face, smiling grimly through everything, pretending everything in the garden is rosy when people ask you how you are, telling everyone you are fine. "Fine" is the Christian f-word that is used as a substitute instead of telling others how things really are. Instead, we are to look upon our trials, the tribulations as a good thing because of what it can develop in our character, in our faith. After all, how can we learn to really trust God if only good things happen to us? How can we strengthen our faith if we never have any times of testing, if there is never anything that goes wrong or if we never experience the bad things in life?

These are not easy words. After all, who wants to get cancer, who wants to be made bankrupt, lose their job, suffer the death of a family member, a close friend? But we need to get real. Bad things happen in life. There is a recession, there will be job cuts and you may be one of the ones getting the axe. Death comes to each one of us sooner or later. Money is tight and even more so in a recession. Illness happens and sometimes people are healed but often they are not. Babies die, and some of us lose them even before they are born. Life is not easy.

But these verses are telling us to trust in God, to put everything in His hands, to rely on Him and not our own capabilities and not only that, but to be joyful with it. After all, whilst for God all things are possible, sometimes we do not get our dearest wish, our problems are not resolved, and no matter how much faith we have, we do not get rich, we don't have that fancy car, those designer clothes, that new house. What we have is not dependent upon our level of faith, with those who have more faith having a bigger bank balance. If it was a case of having more material possessions if we had more faith, then what does that say about the Christians in Africa who are living in extreme poverty, with little money, no regular 9 to 5 job, little food and are struggling to even have clean water? Yet they have such a strong faith and they are seeing miracles, the dead are being raised, people are healed and God is moving amongst them, despite the poverty, the persecution, the hardships. They count it as joy to suffer as they do.

And us, what do we do? We moan, we complain, we grumble. Not exactly an advert for the joys of Christianity, is it? We are told by Paul to count it as joy when we suffer for Christ:

Romans 5:1-5 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.

As Christians, we should be known by our love, not by our whinging, our moaning and groaning, our despondency. After all, we have the promise of eternal life, or riches beyond measure in heaven and the knowledge that all we go through here on earth is but temporary. Yes, we have bad times, times that see never ending when it is just one thing after another and that anything and everything that could go wrong does. But take a look at the disciples, they were crucified, killed by the sword, had their heads chopped off, people tried to boil them in oil and they were exiled. Every one of the disciples was killed for his faith except John. Yet their letters are all filled with joy, with encouragement, with hope and their faith shouts loud and strong. I want a faith like that, one that remains strong (or in my, case becomes strong) no matter what life throws at me. A faith that is unshakeable no matter what the consequences and one that is such that my life is filled with joy, no matter what adversities I may be going through.

I pray today that in all circumstances and at all times, we may each have joy in our hearts, a song of praise on our lips, and a faith that daily grows stronger and stronger.

Where to go, what to do?

Ok, I realise it has been sometime since I updated this but life has been busy. We went on holiday to the Lake District, and then when we returned, I was busy with work, designing and all sorts.

I've had a break from journalling, but am about to start again, I just need to see which book. I could carry on with the OT as I already have a fair bit journalled earlier in the year, but I'm feeling very strongly that I should go with a book from the New Testament and do it from scratch rather than just copy and paste what I already have in OneNote.

And as you probably weren't aware, I use Microsoft Onenote which is a brilliant program for note taking, research, screen shots, copying pages from the internet and all sorts. I reckon Microsoft just do not market that program as well as they could do - I'd be lost without it!

Anyhow, as far as journalling is concerned, I'll be back later this week with the first chapter but I don't know what book yet! Oh, the anticipation, the suspense!