Psalm 67

1 May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face shine on us–

2 so that your ways may be known on earth, your salvation among all nations.

3 May the peoples praise you, God; may all the peoples praise you.

 4 May the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you rule the peoples with equity and guide the nations of the earth.

5 May the peoples praise you, God; may all the peoples praise you.

6 The land yields its harvest; God, our God, blesses us.

7 May God bless us still, so that all the ends of the earth will fear him.

This Sunday we’ll be looking at Psalm 67. It’s a Psalm that lets us know in no uncertain terms from where our blessings come from…as God’s people, even as a nation. The thing we want to examine though, are the two words that get repeated twice in this poem…the words, so that. God is the source of all we count as blessings – and we certainly live in a nation which has seen its share of blessing in the form of supply and comfort – but what is our responsibility that comes with that blessing? So that…two very powerful words that remind us that our lives are not meant to be lived simply for ourselves. When you read this Psalm…how do you understand the “so that”?

See you Sunday!

Where do you most readily see God? I mean…obviously, we’re told that no one really SEES God…but where do you experience the knowledge of his presence most? When do you most actively seek to acknowledge him in your life?  During the good times, or when times are hard? In church, or at the beach….where?

James encourages us to seek God in every circumstance as we come to our next to the last teaching in James. We’ll be reading James 5:13-18 this Sunday.

Whit shared masterfully last week about gaining a proper attitude of patience during difficult times, and James reiterates the need to pray when times are hard. But then he goes to the other side encouraging us to praise when we’re stoked about life. What are some of the things that happen in life that just make you want to whoop it up, or sing a tune? According to James, that’s the stuff we want to praise and thank God for.

Then we’re told to call the church around us if we’re sick…and we get these odd instructions about rubbing people with oil and God saving and raising up the sick. It clearly is something that has had something lost to us in the transmission from that culture to our own. There are a multitude of differing opinions on what James was saying here – we’ll cover a few of them on Sunday. How does what James instructs here jibe with your experiences?  – No matter how we read this part, one thing is for sure, when we’re physically sick and weary, we can look to God for his help in whatever form it takes. That’s a pretty comforting promise I would say.

Confessing our faults to each other – there’s another strange picture. That is, until we contrast it with the practice of putting on an image of having everything together – of being morally superior to our neighbor.  Maybe James was trying to remind us of the common ground of grace we all stand on. When you are acutely aware of your own need for forgiveness, how likely are you to condemn someone else? Maybe that’s the connection between confessing and healing…a community of people who all know they need to be forgiven sounds like a healing community to me. What do you think?

It should be an interesting study – hope to see you Sunday!

Sorry for the lateness of this post. This Sunday we’ll be reading James 5:7-12.

Have you ever been going through very difficult circumstances and been really anxious to see those troubles end? It’s not easy to be patient when times are hard, is it? James gives his suffering readers the counsel to be patient…but patient for what? What sort of solution does James anticipate, and how does that square with what we normally want for a solution?

Starting with v9, James offers practical ways in which we need to demonstrate our patience when faced with difficult times.  Why do you think he talks about how we treat each other during hard times?

James tries to get us to focus on the significance of suffering by mentioning Job. What lessons do we learn from Job about hard times and what’s really at stake?

This should be an encouraging study – hope to see you on Sunday!

Have you ever wished that you were rich? Someone once said “It’s better to be poor and happy and than to be rich and miserable”…but someone else quipped “Couldn’t I just be moderately wealthy and just a little moody?”

The Bible is replete with warnings about the use of money and resources…and our section of James this Sunday is one of them.  We’ll be reading James 5:1-6.

This passage doesn’t take a lot of interpreting.  Why do you think James says what he does about the rich?  What lessons can we learn about how we use the resources we have from this passage? I’d be interested to hear your thoughts.

Have you ever been on the beach when the morning mist is still thick and wet in the air? It seems so dense and impressive, muting colors and dampening sounds. Yet, give it until about 9:30 or 10 o’clock in the morning and the mist that was so present simply dissolves in the heat of the sun. That is the picture James paints for us to describe the temporal nature of life in the passage we’ll be reading this Sunday – James 4:13-17.

As you read these verses, do you think that James is anti-planning, or against establishing a for profit business? What can we understand his point to be about making plans?

Have you ever had great expectations about something you wanted to accomplish or experience, only to have it all fall through? What did you feel in those moments? How does Jame’s counsel help us to respond well to times of frustrated planning?

V17 almost seems out of place, until you put it in the context of the warning that life is short and planning in light of God’s purposes is vital. In light of how short life is, what is the message of v17 to you?

James pulls no punches, but that’s ok, nobody said maturity would come easily.  Looking forward to exploring this with you on Sunday…hope to see you then!

Fighting and conflict just seem to go with the territory of human interaction, don’t they?  If you think about times in your life when things aren’t going your way or you don’t get what you want – what is your reflexive response to that? If there is another person involved in the frustration of your desires, how do you normally react to him or her? In my experiences, conflict of some kind is sure to follow such circumstances.

This Sunday as we read James 4:1-12, we will explore God’s plan for conflict resolution.

As you read the first 3 verses, what does James indicate as the source of interpersonal conflict? Does that sync with your own experiences?

Growing up in church culture I had continually  heard James’ warning about “friendship with the world” as an admonition about the music I listen to or the TV shows I watch or the clothes I wear, but that really doesn’t seem to fit the context, does it? Given the context of fighting and quarreling, what do you understand “friendship with the world” to mean?

I find it really interesting that the motive James points to for correcting our approach to conflict is all relational. Marriage, friendship and a Creator who is jealous over our lives provide a much deeper motivation than a  code of conduct with the threat of punishment. Have you ever had a friend who suddenly started treating you like an enemy? How did you feel – and does that help you understand God’s perspective when our choices defy his will?

James finishes off the section by giving some solid direction for how we can approach relational conflicts differently. How would you summarize his basic solution in v7-10? Can you see a way that following this pattern would resolve a conflict between people – how would that work?

V11-12 remind me of a quote from Joseph of the Desert Fathers:  “If you want to find tranquility wherever you are, then, whatever you’re doing, say, ‘Me? Who am I anyway?’ and judge no one.” Can you imagine a life like that, and does it sound tranquil to you? What steps can we take to realize these truths in our lives?

Looking forward to exploring this on Sunday – hope to see you there!

Like trying to put toothpaste back in the tube after squeezing it out, words are things we wish we could take back sometimes, but can’t.  I remember once back when I was a teenager and I worked as a stock clerk in a department store. We had a manager there that nobody liked, and behind his back he was the target of some of our cruelest comments. I remember one time so vividly, where I was in the break room imitating him, and then finished off with the snarky comment “I want to be just like him when I grow up.”.  It was sarcastic and mean spirited and it got a great laugh from everyone in the room.

Later that day the manager I was lampooning asked me to do something, and just as I was leaving he said “I hope I’m not like you when I grow up.”.  My blood froze. I didn’t turn around to look at him or acknowledge what he said, but just the way he said it I knew someone hadn’t ratted me out; he had heard my remarks himself. Most likely he was outside the break room and heard me…heard the laughter as well.  That moment has had a lasting impression on me – and I wish I could say that it changed my speech habits from then on. It didn’t. I’ve had plenty of words to regret since then…but that’s not going to stop me from a determination to control my words in a way that cooperates with what God is up to.

Language is such a powerful gift that God has given us, and James puts the focus on our speech habits in the passage we’ll be reading this Sunday, James 3:1-012.

Why do you think James gives this warning to teachers just before he challenges us on how we communicate with each other?

Like most of James’ writing, it needs very little explanation (I’ve been wondering lately if the best way to teach James would be to read the passage out loud, then sit in silence for about 10 minutes and let everyone absorb it).  What ways have you experienced the destructive power of words? How have you felt when words were used against you? How have you felt when you realized your words were the problem?

V9-12 are very interesting to me. I’ve often had this presented to me as “if your words are rotten, your heart is rotten too!”. But I’m not exactly sure that’s what James is saying. He’s using pictures of contradiction. How can lemons be growing on apple tree? The New Testament picture of a believer’s heart is one of redemption. If any man is in Christ he’s a new creation, the old stuff is gone, all things are new.  If we consider that salvation and redemption mean our inner person has been renewed, even though we have to struggle with old habits and patterns from our old lives – does that effect how we read v9-12?  I’d be interested in hearing your thoughts.

This is a challenging section of Scripture….be prepared to wrestle this Sunday!  Also, it’s Surf-N-Grill time again! If you haven’t been baptized and want to make that commitment this Sunday, come see me between 1st and 2nd service in the coffee house and let’s talk about it!