Posts with the category “fall-2023”

We're ending our James: Faith That Works devo one week early to make way for 287: Excel in Giving. Don't fear! We still have a resource to help you connect with God daily. Read on!287 is our fall stew...  Read More

DAY 40Until the Lord’s ComingJames 5:7a Fix your focus to grow your patience.Above all, James urges us to fix our focus on Jesus Christ. When we do that, we’ll be stretched to trust God’s goodness. We...  Read More

DAY 39Fix Your FocusJames 5:10-11How do we grow patience?I wonder if the answer to our impatience is in the rest of James’s opening line: “Be patient until the LORD’S COMING?” What is James doing? He’...  Read More

DAY 38That Really Burns Me Up!James 5:9Parents are great for quirky, quotable lines. My dad used to say, “That really burns me up!” anytime someone irritated him. Those were the situations that tempte...  Read More

DAY 37Perseverance vs. PatienceJames 5:7-11What’s the difference between perseverance and patience?“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you k...  Read More

DAY 36Worth the Wait?James 5:7-11 Have you ever asked yourself, “Is this really worth the wait?”Our family took our first-ever trip to Disney World back in 2019. If you go to a popular theme park, get...  Read More

DAY 35How to Stop PrideJames 4:17In each of these three examples, pride makes me most important and everyone else a distant second. Pride works its way into our words, our attitude about the future, a...  Read More

DAY 34Wasting Your WealthJames 5:1-6 Where does pride show itself in our lives?James gives us our third example of pride in ch. 5. It sounds like he’s changing the subject again but hang with me for a...  Read More

DAY 33OBSESSED WITH TOMORROW?James 4:13-17 Where does pride show itself in our lives?We have a second example of pride in v. 13 and it’s surprising, at least to me. “Don’t brag about tomorrow.”We love...  Read More

DAY 32WATCH YOUR MOUTHJames 4:11-12Where does pride show itself in our lives?This first example of pride that James mentions probably doesn’t surprise us: “Brothers and sisters, don’t slander one anot...  Read More

DAY 31DANGEROUSLY OVERCONFIDENTProverbs 16:18Some people suffer from a lack of confidence. “I could never do that” or “I’m just not good enough.” But sometimes we’re too confident. Maybe you bragged a...  Read More

DAY 30I SURRENDER ALLMark 14:35-36Growing up, we sang “I Surrender All” at least once a month in church. I grew tired of it. It was always part of an appeal for non-Christians to become Christians. “W...  Read More

DAY 29SUBMIT TO GODJames 4:4-10How do we win the fight inside and the fight outside? How do we find happiness?James answers our question but not with an answer anyone in Hollywood would expect! First,...  Read More

DAY 28FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!James 4:1-3“Fight! Fight! Fight!”It was pretty rare for me to hear that schoolyard chant as a kid, but it happened! More serious fights happen all the time: Ukraine, Israel, ...  Read More

DAY 27THE FIGHT INSIDEJames 3:13-18Do you ever feel torn between one choice or the other?Of course! We all do! Some of our indecision comes from a fight happening inside us all. James says there are t...  Read More

DAY 26WHO IS HAPPY?James 3:13Who do you know who is happy - really happy?In a 2005 interview, actor Jim Carrey told a reporter that earlier in his career, he believed that making just one more film, g...  Read More

DAY 25TAME THE TONGUEPsalm 51:1-2There’s a grain of hope in James’s pessimism. First, when he says “no human being can tame the tongue,” he’s not telling us to be hopeless. He’s telling us to look for...  Read More

DAY 24FROM THE HEARTJames 3:7-12“I sound just like my dad!”Let’s be real: lots of us grow up promising not to be like our parents in one way or another. But as we age, little bits of our parents’ atti...  Read More

DAY 23WHAT’S MY FOOTPRINT?1 Thessalonians 5:11Words can do a world of good.“I love you” can change someone’s world. Words can inspire us to virtuous action. Sir Winston Churchill rallied the English a...  Read More

DAY 22WHAT’S MY FOOTPRINT?James 3:3-6Reduce, reuse, recycle. My generation grewup with those words repeated to us like a mantra. It was our gateway to caring about the environment. As cities choked on...  Read More

DAY 21WHAT’S YOUR PLATFORM?James 3:1-2Do you want to be famous?Believe it or not, your answer depends a lot on when you were born. One in four members of Gen Z, people born roughly 1995-2010, want to ...  Read More

DAY 20WHAT GOOD IS IT?1 John 3:16-18Faith is no good if it does no good for others. That’s the startling, simple truth from James. Jesus never imagined his followers privately enjoying religious activ...  Read More

DAY 19HOW MUCH DOES IT COST?James 2:20-26I hate buying new cars.Don’t get me wrong, I love everything about new cars: the smell, the feel, the total lack of maintenance problems. But I hate car paymen...  Read More

DAY 18DO BELIEFS MATTER?James 2:18-19Do beliefs matter?“You do you” is a popular way of navigating differences in how we see the world. It means, “You believe what you want and I’ll do the same.” Mini...  Read More

DAY 16BUT I DIDN’T DO ANYTHING!James 2:14-17“But I didn’t do anything!”You’ve heard this if you’ve ever had or worked with kids. “You didn’t take out the trash, wash the dishes, put your books away.” ...  Read More

DAY 16ARE THE ATHEISTS RIGHT?James 2:14Does religion do any good? About 15 years ago, the New Atheists were all the rage. People like Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and Christopher Hitchens wrote a stri...  Read More

DAY 15SEE THE JUDGEJames 2:12-13James tells us the final way to love below the surface in v.12-13: "Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom… " A lot of modern C...  Read More

DAY 14SEE YOURSELF IN OTHERSJames 2:8-11 James shows us a second way to love below the surface in v.8-11. He says, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” James quotes Jesus who quoted Moses. To love your n...  Read More

DAY 13DOES GOD PLAY FAVORITES?James 2:5-7James says, “Don’t play favorites,” but then he says God has chosen the poor, not the rich. Is God contradicting himself? Does God play favorites? Is God fair?...  Read More

DAY 12SEE LIKE GOD SEESJames 2:2-4Be like God, but don’t try to be God.That summarizes the Bible’s wisdom in one simple sentence. Be like God - reflect God’s love, compassion, and fairness. But don’t ...  Read More

DAY 11PLAYING FAVORITES James 2:1 “I’ve got you all figured out.”Have you ever thought this about someone? Of course you have! I have, too, an embarassing amount of times. I scanned someone’s hair, cl...  Read More

DAY 10THE DEVIL’S WORKSHOPJames 1:26-27“Idle hands are the devil’s workshop.”Did you know that’s from the Bible? Well, it is - sort of. It’s from the paraphrase-translation, The Living Bible, of Prove...  Read More

DAY 9FOCUS ON FOLLOW-THROUGHJames 1:22-25One summer in college, I got interested in healthy eating. I still remember some of the insights from one book I read. I read a lot and I forget a lot, but thi...  Read More

DAY 8FREE TO LISTENProverbs 18:13My friend recently moved to Florida to pastor a church with a strong recovery ministry. Many of his churchgoers have messy lives because of substance abuse. On his ver...  Read More

DAY 7MAINTAIN THE MAIN THINGJames 1:21 Don’t miss the forest for the trees.This old saying warns us about narrowing our focus so much that we miss surrounding details. Imagine studying the bark on one...  Read More

DAY 6WHY SO MAD?James 1:19-21 Words can move the world or burn it down. Christians are supposed to love people but too often we hurt people with words. This week’s focus, James 1:19-27, is all about w...  Read More

DAY 5HOW TO GROW THROUGH HARD TIMES, PART 2James 1:12-18How do we grow through hard times?James gives us five ways to persevere so obstacles become opportunities. We looked at three yestoday and two t...  Read More

DAY 4HOW TO GROW THROUGH HARD TIMES (PT 1)James 1:2-5 How do we grow through hard times?James gives us five ways to persevere so obstacles become opportunities. We’ll look at three today and two tomor...  Read More

DAY3OBSTACLES OR OPPORTUNITIES?James 1:2-4Let’s circle back to James’s main point: trials of many kinds are opportunities to grow. Let’s say it another way. Faith that works grows through hard times. ...  Read More

DAY 2TWO KINDS OF TRIALSJames 1:9-12 What counts as a trial?James says we should “consider it all joy when you face trials of many kinds” (v.2). He names two kinds in v.9-11.In v.9 he says, “Believers...  Read More