Missions Paul

The sufferings of Jesus Christ and the glory that followed had been known before they happened. They had been revealed to the prophets by the pre-existent Christ. These prophets spent their entire ministries listening, studying Scriptures and searching the depths of their soul for the revelations of this suffering and glory. Yet James knew they had seen even further than the Messiah. They had revelation of the salvation that is ours.

James wrote to his generation who were suffering for their faith and said remember the prophets? The prophets spoke to people in their generation and to us. The prophets suffered but didn’t experience the glory that was to come. The prophets spoke of the Messiah’s suffering and future glory.

What does this mean? When you are struggling through your circumstance it is hard to understand what the purpose is? It sometimes seems meaningless, unfair and the questions are many.

Your salvation contains suffering and glory, it is founded on Jesus Christ, prophesied beforehand and only known to the saved. Not even angels can understand this and they do try.

In your suffering there is glory. A cursory look through the Bible and you see this message constantly. Suffering doesn’t stand alone for the saved it contains honour, worth, value, praise, His presence and ultimately heaven!

“Brothers and sisters, as an example of patience in the face of suffering, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. ¹¹ As you know, we count as blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job’s perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy.” (James 5 v 10-11)

James gives an example of patience and of whom they know full well, Job.

Satan wanted to dislodge and remove Job from faith in God. He boasted that once he touched his body with the pain of severe illness, Job would curse God.

You may be the person who could not sleep last night because of pain (Night pierces my bones; my gnawing pains never rest. Job 30:17).

The days are no better, constant pain and suffering (The churning inside me never stops; days of suffering confront me, Job 30:27).

This illness may have caused you to lose so much weight (I am nothing but skin and bones;, Job 19:20).

The pain is clearly seen for it has aged you (When they saw him from a distance, they could hardly recognize him; they began to weep aloud, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads., Job 2:12).

This might be you, if not you will certainly know someone right now who is in such suffering.

The debate on suffering is not for us here but an opportunity to see that there is a voice near the sufferer calling for them to give up, to curse God and die.

James is using the story of Job to call for us to endure in our own suffering.

Think of Job’s wife. She has lost all her children and all she had. What wife could bear to now see her husband suffer like this? For her, there is no hope and life is not worth living anymore. She questions her husband, “are you still holding on to your integrity?” and it suggests she has abandoned hers. Satan desired to shake Job from his relationship with God. He has failed to do so, but succeeded with his wife. Many today are not where they should be because they walked away from God through the period of suffering.

If you are a sufferer today then you will have known a similar voice maybe from somebody you love or even your own idea. Resist this voice calling you to walk away from God. Job’s wisdom said that God gives good things but also suffering can be a gift from God too. These are words not from a theorist but from someone in constant pain. He knew there was a reason for this even if he couldn’t see behind the scenes of life. God has not forgotten you He will bring you through it. There will be an end to this pain.

Job had lost everything and all his friends and family, but he persevered, he didn’t give up. He may have complained but he never cursed God for his suffering.

They also knew the end of his life and what God brought about for him. They knew that Job prospered through his perseverance. It’s always too soon to give up. You never know what you will miss if you give up now.

Endure this season of suffering whatever it might be for it will be worth it! That is what James is saying.

For the Jew every day contains at some point a moment of thankfulness. In fact because of a legend regarding a plague that took the lives of 100 people in one day during King David’s reign and the rabbi’s understanding of the spiritual reasoning for the plague a daily ritual of saying 100 blessings of thankfulness to God was instituted.

How do you have a heart of thankfulness when you are going through difficulty? When you are seeing the rich exploiting the poor and you in the poor category isn’t the most natural thing to do is grumble?

Remember this promise?

“Those who wait for the LORD [meaning who expect, look for, and hope in Him] will gain new strength and renew their power; 

they will lift up their wings [meaning they will rise up close to God] like eagles; they will run and not become weary, they will walk and not grow tired.” (Isaiah 40:31)

James is saying be like a farmer who continues to sow and waits for the rains to get a crop. Continue to do your best to live your life as a Christian. Don’t take out your worries on others. 

^“Be patient, then, brothers and sisters, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop, patiently waiting for the autumn and spring rains. You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near. Don’t grumble against one another, brothers and sisters, or you will be judged. The Judge is standing at the door! Brothers and sisters, as an example of patience in the face of suffering, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. As you know, we count as blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job’s perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy.” (James 5 v 7-11)

In the waiting James is calling for a watch on our words. Don’t grumble.

While we wait on God we do not become anxious; we are not frustrated at the place we are at; we don’t become upset; we don’t try and make things happen in our own strength; we wait and trust in God. 

It is in our very nature to grumble. We complain about everything.

It was midnight and 2 followers of Jesus, Paul and Silas, were in a dark horrible prison cell waiting their fate and they began to sing hymns of thankfulness to God. When we lift up thankfulness for whatever is before us then something from God will happen. Suddenly there is a violent earthquake and the prison doors fly open!

What has happened to you? What have you gone through? Difficult that it might be watch what you are saying. Give thanks to God. Something is about to happen.

23^rd June 1978, 9 missionaries and their 4 children went through hell on earth.

They were massacred on a school playing field in the Vumba mountains of then Southern Rhodesia where they were serving. In horrendous circumstances God called them to be with Him.

Peter and Sandra McCann, Philip and Joy…Wendy White… Philip and Suzanne Evans and Rebecca…Catherine Picken…Roy and Joyce Lynne and Pamela Grace…Mary Fisher.
They are an inspiration who with the great cloud of witnesses cheer us on who are here today. They fell to the ground but their act propelled others into a life of service in missions. They fell to the ground not because of God or an evil spirit, it was man who did this. But their life or their impact didn’t end on the ground. They fell to the ground but it wasn’t because they gave up but it was because God gave them the endurance to not give up.

^“Be patient, then, brothers and sisters, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop, patiently waiting for the autumn and spring rains. You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near. Don’t grumble against one another, brothers and sisters, or you will be judged. The Judge is standing at the door!” (James 5 v 7-9)

Some days you just have to go through it and keep going. There are times for whatever reason that we should not stop and admire the view. We should just go through it as best as we can. This place is not your destination nor is it a resting place. It is a going through place. Do not be distracted or attracted to whatever you see around you, just keep walking through.

Today may be a painful day, the memories can be painful perhaps or it could even be a monotonous day, walk through it, you can get through.

Today is the 23^rd June, the exact date, 46 years ago when these missionaries endured their own cross. Over 6 years ago I was privileged to make a new friend centred around a book project he was writing, The Axe and the Tree, please do order that book today if you have never read it.

Stephen is a son of the late Peter Griffiths, the Principal of the Elim School and a British missionary with his wife, Brenda, at the time of the murder of our Elim missionaries in what is now Zimbabwe.

This story even though it is 46 years later is still impacting, still stirring, it is still helping many to endure.

Let me give an excerpt of what happened on this day, the day after the surrender. The Griffiths family were on furlough in the UK at the time.

Stephen writes, “We got up early on Saturday 24 June 1978 to travel together as a family to Surrey. My father was going to speak at the Elim Bible College graduation, in the Surrey village of Capel.

The sunlight came flickering through the trees as we drove through the green countryside of early summer. I leaned my head back against the car window, staring up into the vault of blue overhead. It was a summer’s morning to fill the heart with a numinous joy.

As we drove up through the grounds, we expected to see the spreading lawns of the college splashed with colour; students, their families, and friends strolling on the grass anticipating a day of celebration. But the lawns were deserted. Pulling up close to the main entrance, we were curious and amazed to find that all was quiet. On graduation day we expected noise and movement and laughter. A student stepped out of the shadow of the doorway and quickly stepped forward. “I’m here to take you straight to the Principal’s office,” he said, an unexpectedly solemn look on his face.

We followed him in a small family knot, increasingly bemused. Here and there we saw one or two people as we made our way through the building but they drew back or turned away as we passed. The door to the Principal’s office was opened and we saw Wesley Gilpin, the Principal, standing behind his desk. My father advanced towards him, smiling, with his hand outstretched, and we followed him in.

Without preamble the Principal said, “Pete, I’ve got some bad news for you.”

My dad’s face changed and he said abruptly, “They’ve killed Phil.”

Very gently the Principal said, “I’m sorry, Pete. They’ve all been killed.”

With those words, my father staggered as if he had been punched, falling down backwards with the shock. My mother stood, shaking all over as if she had a fever, saying, “Why are we still alive? Why have we got life and they’re all dead?” I was traumatized both by hearing words which didn’t make sense at first and then seeing the reaction of my tough, capable father who had coped with so much. The room rocked and swayed and a strange buzzing rang in my ears.

The summer light drained from it, the day passed in a colourless blur of faces coming into view and fading away again. Broken fragments of sentences. Joy Bath’s face, normally so animated and full of fun, running with tears as she stood enfolded in my parents’ arms. Treading carefully, unsure of feet and balance in the weightless atmosphere of shock, I was intensely aware of each movement and moment.

The Bible College graduation service went ahead. Although others offered to take his place as the speaker, my father felt he should do it. He had already planned to speak from Paul’s letter to the church at Philippi: “It is my eager expectation and hope that I shall not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honoured in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” 

Tears ran unchecked down my father’s face as he recalled his friends and colleagues one by one and spoke of their determination to follow their Lord. A graduating student recalled, “I can see him now … his bloodshot eyes seemed to be alive with grief and hope. He paused for a long time, looked into our eyes again, and asked us if we would be faithful to the Lord Jesus whatever the cost. As we knelt to pray we were sobered but determined. His was one sermon I will never forget.”

That’s it, isn’t it? Whatever the cost, will we be faithful? Are we determined? Will we endure? Do we have zeal? Is there passion within? Will this passion compel us to love and will it bring us to our knees in surrender if that is required?

Will you say YES to these questions as I ask them myself also? Whatever you are facing today and whatever you are fearing tomorrow, the Lord is near and He is coming for you. Be patient. Endure. Stand firm. The Judge is about to come through the door.

The news today is that our wealthiest family in the UK with an estimation of £37 billion have been found guilty of exploitation and illegal employment and are starting prison sentences of four and a half years. The workers they brought from India were not paid as much as the family dog. They were paid £7 to work 18 hour days and had their passports confiscated. Two thousand years after James was writing this letter the rich are still exploiting the poor. “What should you do when it all goes wrong? When you have been hard done to, what action should be taken?” James addresses those people at the hands of the abusive rich people and he answers the questions.

 “Be patient, then, brothers and sisters, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop, patiently waiting for the autumn and spring rains. ⁸ You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near. ⁹ Don’t grumble against one another, brothers and sisters, or you will be judged. The Judge is standing at the door!” (James 5 v 7-9)

See how the farmer waits … A farmer does not give up when his crop does not come to harvest immediately. He keeps on working even when the crop cannot be seen at all.

The waiting and need for endurance we have in the Christian life is very much like the waiting of the farmer.

They wait looking for the return on their work.

They wait what might seem a long time to non-farmers.

They wait without standing still, there are other things to do.

They wait without allowing the anxiety of weather patterns and disease to overwhelm them.

They wait because there is no other thing that can be done.

It’s not easy this thing we call patience is it? Who has any time for patience? Today we live in a world where everything comes to us at speed, and we’ve lost the art of waiting.

The word ‘patience’ doesn’t mean to ‘keep smiling’ under duress. It is rather a conquering patience with anything that life can throw at you knowing that God will always turn even evil into good!           It is to hold out under trial before giving into the passion of retaliation. It is to pause long enough to find wisdom.

Of course the situation we are reading of calls for a patience that is so much more challenging than waiting in a supermarket queue. Today around the world Christians are needing to find patience that seems beyond their capability. Jesus said we will have trouble in this world. But to take heart because he has overcome the world.

The Apostle Paul tells us, “We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body”. 2 Corinthians 4:10

A Saviour is one who intervenes, who steps in and rescues from either physical or spiritual suffering. We carry His name and His presence in our lives today. We may not have done much in our lives but He has done it all!

Believe that your Saviour can rescue you from your enemy’s hands: “My times are in your hands; deliver me from my enemies” Psalm 31:15. This ought to be our prayer.

So in whatever affliction you are experiencing stay where you are today. There is in the suffering a hidden mystery. It is Jesus Himself. The impatient miss Him. They want it over with. They want to move on and move out. And in doing so they miss the fellowship of Jesus in the sufferings.

Being patient doesn’t mean you do nothing. It is not limbo. You are not wasting any time. You are active. Try being a farmer today.

As mentioned before there are clear examples of James being influenced by the words of his brother and Lord, Jesus, especially his teachings on the poor and the oppressed in society. Drawing much from the Sermon on the Mount James expands more fully and does not hold back in the challenge he brings.

We live in an unjust world. It always has been since the beginning of time. We only have to turn on the news to see it. We will do so today and it will be there again, injustice.

Times though have always been bad, and what we read here with the people James is writing to, is a similar situation. They’re living in an unjust time. Being treated unjustly.

So begins the encouragement.

“Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming on you. ² Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. ³ Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days. ⁴ Look! The wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. ⁵ You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter ⁶ You have condemned and murdered the innocent one, who was not opposing you.” (James 5 v 1-6)

James is following the style of writing that Jewish culture would teach. ‘Now listen” or “Come now..” This could make us think James is speaking to the rich he is warning. But he isn’t. He is using a rhetorical device used by the OT prophets. This wasn’t James speaking in a way that would call the people to repentance so much, but rather an encouragement to God’s people, an encouragement not to fear those that threatened them. James is saying as if it were “don’t become like them, for they are on dangerous ground.” James doesn’t pull any punches which gives us an understanding of the pain that these people have caused.

There is misery coming. All will face justice. There will be a time when everyone has to face justice. The people hearing James would have been pleased to hear that. That justice will come and those persecuting will have to deal with the consequences of their actions.

He is saying misery is upon you, already what you have is wasting away. Your wealth is rotting. What you counted on you are losing. Your clothes are being eaten by moths. Your gold and silver are corroded. James is giving an imagery of what they think is all powerful is not so. Not even the gold which they think is unable to rust will last. They are not as secure as they think. Your flesh is eaten, meaning that not only their possessions but they themselves will be destroyed. They face death, and not a blessed hopeful one either.

Why? They hoarded their wealth, living in luxurious self-indulgence. Being wealthy isn’t wrong. But these were people who didn’t use their wealth for others and they have absolutely no thought of using it for God and His kingdom. And they were treating people awfully.

They have mistreated people. They became fat off other people’s efforts and they treated these people poorly. They overworked and underpaid them. They defrauded those who worked for them.

They have murdered the innocent. In the Jewish world to deprive a person of what they are due is equal to killing them. The murder is probably something to do with the framers ending up in prison because they could not pay the land-rent to their wealthy landowners because these very same people were defrauding them of their wages.

It is akin to the terrible suffering of the brick-factory workers of India and Pakistan who end up generationally held by what was at the beginning a small loan taken out by a late relative but due to the horrendous percentage interest means it will be generations before the family are freed, if ever.

God has heard the cry. God – the Lord Almighty. The real power lies with him, not with those who abuse, who mistreat, who lie and hurt. He is the all-powerful one. The Lord Almighty hears the cry of the harvester. He hears the cry of the sexually and physically abused. He hears the cry from those suffering under a terrorist regime. He hears the cry from those who are struggling due to being a financial slave to the loan-shark. He hears the cry of those who are trafficked across the world.

He hears your cry, James says.

Today, He hears our cry too. We have a God who knows what it is like to suffer, and who did not want a world of suffering for us. He meets us in suffering doesn’t abandon us.

We live in an unjust world and it can be really tough at times. But you can do this, you can thrive and flourish because it is not all that it seems. Justice will come and justice will prevail.

I learnt these strange 2 letters in my first church.
I had a lovely man who was my usher.
But after every Sunday morning I would ask him, “Are you okay to welcome people into the church tonight Harry?” His reply was “Aye, D.V.”
It is the Initials of the Latin words Deo Volente, meaning God willing. I don’t think Harry knew any other Latin! Yet these 2 letters would put me in a spin during the afternoon wondering who would be on the door if D.V. was in the negative!
“Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” ¹⁴ Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. ¹⁵ Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” ¹⁶ As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil. ¹⁷ If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.”(James 4 v 13-17)

God knows. It is used often as a blasphemous response to not knowing ourselves what will happen. But it is true. This is what James is challenging the people on.

The plans had no mention of God and yet only He knows and we certainly do not. To boast of what is going to happen is to sit where God sits, just like when James said earlier regarding our judging of others. Dr Michael Moseley (TV presenter/author) went for a walk on his holiday and never came back. We could all create a list of celebrities and people we know who just didn’t know when they got out of bed it would either be their last or that it turned out the way it did. Death is closer to life than we realise. People can suppose a lot and yet they can be wrong. I remember a colleague giving his vision talk to his church and stating they would be a 500 strong church within 2 years. The church of 12 people were very excited to hear this even though they never saw it. The church are not there now.

We are living in times of the most amazing declarations. Themes for conferences are often presumptuous boasts to actually outdo the other conference across the road. They may mention God but they may not have checked beforehand to see if He approves.

D:Ream, a Northern Irish pop group had a number one song in 1994 with the title ‘Things can only get better’. I am sure if you know the song you have started to hum the tune right now!

I love these kind of opportune songs. The start of political conferences or presidential runs there are usually these kind of upbeat visionary songs that indeed things can only get better. The above was because ‘I’ve found you’ though they are usually played to firmly suggest ‘you’ve found me’!

Every Pastor and Church are familiar with vision statements, looking ahead to see what is before us, a time to imagine the impossibility becoming possible. But we are foolish to presume anything.

God is in charge. When you make plans are they flexible?
I love how Eugene Peterson puts it in the Message,
“Instead, make it a habit to say, “If the Master wills it and we’re still alive, we’ll do this or that.” v15.
I do love this! I like putting the onus on the Master.
I am content to say I am doing His will and if I survive I will do some more.

Remember the rich man story from Jesus who built bigger barns?

The ground of a rich man gave him an abundant harvest and so he took life easy.

The barns of the abundantly rich man were too small, so he worked only because he wanted to live for himself.

He built bigger barns for himself..

But he was a fool.

That night his life was taken from him too easily.

This rich man actually was a poor man.

Those who have most usually appear to have the least if they are only thinking of themselves.

Those who are powerful struggle to get on the floor.

Those who have done it all don’t usually do it now.

Those who treat others harshly have lost grace for their own lives.

Live for self and there is no legacy when life is soon over.

Instead of taking life easy make life easy for someone else and you will know what it is to be truly rich.

If you know what is good and you know you can do good, then do good. If you don’t it will be taken from you.

Deo Volente!

One of the news headlines yesterday was that a man called Joey Barton, a football manager, was ordered to pay Jeremy Vine, a TV and radio presenter, £75,000 for defamatory and slanderous comments.

Can you imagine if we were ordered by some Divine court (who sees everything we have ever said) to pay fines for every slanderous defamatory words we have spoken about other people? No one would have any money would they?!

In a final section James once again doesn’t mince his words. He says that no one in the Church should speak in a harmful way about another.

“Brothers and sisters, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against a brother or sister or judges them speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it. ¹² There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you—who are you to judge your neighbour?” (James 4 v 11-12)

Why should we not slander others?

• When we begin to sit in judgment on another then we have moved away from the main focus of being a good person ourselves. We have stopped looking at how we are doing regarding the standards of living set out by God and have focused on the other and how they are not being who they should be. Read the words again. God is the only who can sit in judgment because He has given the law/the standard for life. When we slander, accuse or defame we are taking on a role we were never created to take.
• When we speak against another we put ourselves out of step with God. When we huddle together to pass on confidential information (another word for gossip) and which then destroys someone’s reputation there is someone missing in that huddle, God, He is not there.
• We forget who we are. Who are you? That is the rhetorical question and the answer is certainly not the Judge.

Tough words for all of us.

“It was pride that changed angels into devils; it is humility that makes men as angels.” -Saint Augustine

I think we genuinely need more people in all spheres of society but definitely in the Church, who will stand up and say that one of the hallmarks of their life is that they are lowly in their thinking of themselves. The axis of their worldview is that they recognise the value of others above their own value. They are humble.

A consecrated heart is a humble one.

“Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. ⁸ Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. ⁹ Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. ¹⁰ Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.” (James 4 v 7-10)

So we are getting into practicalities. There are things we can do that takes us into humility and it is that process that becomes a journey of consecration.

James gives us a helpful list:

1. Submit and to do so voluntarily. To say, ‘Your will be done in my life.’ It is the idea of a soldier awaiting commands from his superiors. ‘Lord whatever you want for my life you can have, I lay down my own desires.’ It is to say, ‘I lay down who I am and what I am to do your will. I submit to you.’
2. Resist the devil. To resist the promptings of the god of this world that tell us to stand up for ourselves. It is only to those who have submitted to God are they then commanded to resist the devil. When we submit to God we become objects for the devil’s attention. He will do anything he can to water down our commitment, to pull us away. His darkness will even try and impersonate the light to fool us. He hates your desire for consecration. Resist and he will flee.
3. Come near to God. Something that didn’t get said in past generations and still today with the world religions. But because of Christ the promise is that He will draw near to us. Surely this coming near means prayer and worship.
4. Wash and purify. Figuratively speaking of repentance which enables us to turn away from commitments and loyalties other than that of God. Living like this James says makes us double-minded, our focus is divided.
5. Grieve, mourn and wail. James is saying don’t be self-centred, wrapped up in your own desires for an easy life, don’t be complacent but be aware of your sin before God for only then can you reach out for grace. James wants us to exchange our laughter and joy with mourning and gloom. Let us not dismiss everything of the past. Their prophets of old lived their lives speaking these words as they looked at the sin of their nation and the people of God. Our generation also needs to draw from our ancestors their approach to life especially sin.

James closes this section with a quote which has to be based on the words of Jesus who encouraged us all into a life of humility, ‘for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled and he who humbles himself will be exalted.’

In closing I have tried to live by 4 principles:

1. Selfish exaltation leads to public humiliation.
2. Open demonstrations of humility lead to public exaltation.
3. How you treat people and how you view yourself has eternal consequence.
4. Think less of me, see less of me, speak less of me.

You know what it is like when humanly we are jealous. It so consumes us that the very person we are jealous about, the very person we loved, we now hate. It’s self-centred jealousy, because it’s about us, how we feel, how we don’t have what we want. 

The consecrated heart is free from this jealousy. Yet it also has experienced a jealousy that many don’t understand.

God has it. He is jealous.

God’s jealousy is so utterly different and utterly beautiful, it will blow you away. James knows it.

“You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. ⁵ Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us^[b]? ⁶ But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but shows favour to the humble.” (James 4 v 4-6)

It’s a strange concept to get our heads around; God being a jealous God. It’s actually a thought that perhaps we’d rather not think about, because it could be offensive or too confusing. Why? 

Because everywhere else in the Bible, jealousy when not referring to God is negative. We’re told not to be jealous. Jealousy leads us into wrong thoughts, wrong actions. And yet God is regarded as a jealous God and this is supposed to be seen as a good thing. 

But this is because God’s jealousy is so different to ours. There’s a bad type of jealousy and a godly type. We as humans experience a jealousy that to be honest is rather an ugly trait. It’s a jealousy that unites itself with envy.

It’s so different from godly jealousy. We see a glimpse of godly jealousy when Paul writes to the Corinthians (2 Corinthians 11). He says to them that he is jealous over them with a godly jealousy, because he promised them to one husband, to Christ, and now they were being led astray and Paul is upset with them, angered by their behaviour, but in a good way, it’s out of such love for them, that he wants them to be completely dedicated to Christ, for their sakes. He’s jealous that they are turning from Christ. His heart is consecrated and he is operating in the jealousy from God.

It is an angered love, and it stays loving. It’s not about him. It’s about them.

Godly jealousy remains loving whereas bad jealousy kills love.

He is wanting the best for you. He is wanting intimacy, so that when you go the way of the world, the way of worldly wisdom, He is jealous, but it’s not self-centred, it’s all about you. It’s because He wants the best for you. The greek word for jealous, zelos, means burning heat. So intense is God’s love for us. It’s passionate, and cannot bear to see our hearts being drawn to other things. 

How can we respond, how can we heed what James is saying? 

How do we do this life? How do we live up to that devotion to God and not the world? Are we a lost cause? Within our desire for consecration will we ever know this?

‘But he gives more grace’ v6.

James quotes Proverbs 3:34 “He mocks proud mockers but shows favour to the humble and oppressed.”

He gives grace to those who recognise their own frailty and weaknesses.  To those who end up at the cross. 

And God says he is ‘YOUR God’. I am the Lord your God – Ex 20

There’s this intimacy here. And it’s because of this intimacy that ‘YOUR God’ went to the cross. He gave himself so that the jealousy he has over us, when we befriend the world, doesn’t lead him to destroy us or hate us or kill us, like bad jealousy would, no his jealousy takes him to the cross where he dies for the one that rejects him.

The consecrated heart knows this. It has experienced the angered love of God that stays loving.

In every walk of life to become what you want to become then you must decide first what you will stop doing. It is not about doing something new as much as not doing what you are doing now. The examples are endless: but if you are really trying to get out of debt but still carry and use your credit card and do not change your spending then you will remain in debt. If you are wanting to be healthy but are still feeding on the wrong foods then you will remain unhealthy. We have to carry around in our lives the important two words, DO NOT.

James has these two words at the forefront of his mind in this next verse:

“You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.” (James 4 v 4)

The consecrated heart has a commitment towards God which carries a Do Not towards the world.

James says, ‘DO NOT be a friend of this world because if you do you will become an enemy of God.’

He is warning the people about the battle that is ever present. The battle of friendship with the world v friendship with the Spirit. To be honest, they were facing the same struggles as we face today. They were making the same mistakes that we make today. 

And James doesn’t mince his words, he makes it very clear how he feels. He calls them an ‘adulterous people.’ He’s saying you can’t have it both ways.  

Friendship with the world, which basically means, assessing things by human standards, or by dedicating oneself to material things, cannot be your master. It’s not meaning a contempt for the world, but James is saying you can’t let it control you, you must use the things of the world and allow it to help you serve others, not be it’s servant. 

Obviously when James says to the people they’re ‘adulterous’ he isn’t meaning literally. When we are being mastered by the world we are committing spiritual adultery because our relationship with God is likened throughout the Bible to one of a husband and his bride. 

In the OT it is Israel as the bride and in the NT we see the Christian thought of the Church as the bride. 

God’s heart breaks when we serve the things of the world, when we follow the world’s systems and wisdoms over God’s, the covenant is broken. 

The problem has always been that the people of God do not completely reject God but they compromise their walk with Him.

Is the Holy Spirit happy living in me? Is He comfortable alongside me? Is He in charge or do I use Him? How much time do I spend thinking about the Spirit in me? When I speak is He speaking? When I write my statuses on social media is He writing them? When I accuse is it Him who is accusing?

The consecrated heart carries a DO NOT in order to remain consecrated. The consecrated heart is not a friend with ego; it yearns but not through eyes filled with ambition which desire more and work hard to be noticed; it does not reach out for the poisonous fruit to become someone. The consecrated heart makes choices in what it sees; what it desires; who it walks with; how it speaks; these are big choices and in order to make them it has to decide that friendship with God is more important than friendship with the world.

When I joined Elim as a Pastor there were 2 national names, one had an amazing children’s ministry, the other was a sought after Pastor.
Yesterday I was talking to a couple who had attended the funeral sadly of the sought after Pastor. It wasn’t really a Christian funeral, in fact one of the eulogies came from a work colleague who said “when he started at work he told us he was a Pentecostal Pastor but then he became one of us” he then quoted something that he was well known for which wasn’t fitting for any Christian.
At the same funeral my friends met the amazing children’s minister that was. He was not the man that he once was. He was no longer national, nor a minister, nor working with children.

What makes man and woman move from such places in God to become shadows of who they were? What do they think about when they’ve walked away? Do they still pray? Do they rubbish their experience of God? Did they have anything to walk away from?

The consecrated heart means these questions will never be asked of us.