Change never happens in the absence of conflict, and ministry never occurs in a vacuum. I recall frequently coming home late from various ministries and being tired and worn out. Some people are under the impression that if you go out to serve people by talking about God and teaching doctrines, you should become very on fire. I do not see that in scripture.
As I was examining some news stories the other day, I came upon a quote by Warren Buffett that I considered important enough to examine in detail. He started, "Every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future." Just consider: if you find a person living out the graceful life of Jesus Christ, ask him his story and you will undoubtedly hear some horrific tales. But look at a drunk on Skid Row and there is nowhere to go but up. Thus, the saint has a past that he may be ashamed, and the sinner has a bright future if only he reaches out to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Let us examine this in more detail.
How many of us still sin after we are regenerated? The answer is all of us! When we are regenerated, however, we start to know what we do that is a sin, and what we do that is not a sin. The bottom line is that we still sin. How? Because we still have a part of our old fleshy, sinful nature. It is still wrong, it will cause chastisement by God if not handled properly. James 1:13-15 tell us the mechanism for our sin. By understanding the mechanism, we can overcome sin in our life.
Today’s verse is a ‘rest of the story’ to James 1:2-4 which talk about trials making you strong. Today's verse covers another caveat of trials. James 1:12 says:
Some people are told that you are a Christian if you prayed a little prayer.In fact, they get you disturbed emotionally by telling you how painfully it will be if you do not “accept Jesus”.The message delivered is often times misbalanced in that it provides all the “goodies” of being a Christian, but never talks about what a Christian really is, or any of the “downfalls”.It is clear that when we give the Gospel message to people, we balance it.Jesus said in Luke 14:25-33:
Some people are well off and boast about it. They may be in sin. Others are very poor and hide in the scenery, determined to never be seen. They may also be in sin. What does the Bible say about these living in poverty or wealth? Today’s verse is James 1:9-11:
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