WISDOM

James 1:5-8

⁵ If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. ⁶ But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. ⁷ That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. ⁸ Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.

James starts off by talking about the importance of seeking God for wisdom. The reason we seek God for wisdom is because wisdom only comes from Him. Now, we should make mention that there is a DIFFERENCE BETWEEN WISDOM AND KNOWLEDGE.

knowl’edge \nol’ij\ is a general awareness of information, facts, ideas, truths, or principles.

*Everyone can gain knowledge, obviously some people are able to gain more than others. We gain knowledge through education, reading, experience, etc.

wis’dom \wiz’dəm\ is a God given gift that enables us to make sensible decisions and judgments.

*We seek wisdom from God, because it is His to give and He wants to give it to you!

KNOWLEDGE COMES FROM MAN, WISDOM COMES FROM GOD!

James says if any of us lack wisdom we should ask God for it.  We ask God for wisdom, because WISDOM HELPS US UNDERSTAND WHAT GOD ULTIMATELY WANTS FROM US. Wisdom leads us to understanding how God wants us to live. It is essential for understanding God’s purpose and plan and therefore helps us to live accordingly. You and I are in desperate need for wisdom. Oh  and by the way, THERE IS ONLY ONE WAY TO GAIN WISDOM: YOU HAVE TO ASK FOR IT! “Ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be open to you.” You and I need to start asking for what God is desperately wanting to give: WISDOM.

We need to ask because He wants to generously give! God doesn’t want to give you a taste of wisdom. HE WANTS TO GIVE YOU SO MUCH WISDOM THAT IT STARTS SPILLING OUT OF YOUR PORES. God wants to give you a wisdom overload, because he wants you to understand his purpose and plan for your life. All you have to do is ask!

“YOU HAVE NOT, BECAUSE YOU ASK NOT.”

WHEN YOU ASK FOR WISDOM, YOU NEED TO BELIEVE THAT GOD IS WILLING AND ABLE AND WANTS TO GIVE IT TO YOU. Do not doubt, but be certain that God is going to give, because that’s what He promises and God cannot lie.

James says those who do not believe that God will give them wisdom are LIKE A WAVE TOSSED BY THE WIND. These people are always going back and forth, up and down. James says these people should not expect to receive anything from the lord, because of their lack of faith! In fact, James calls these people DOUBLE-MINDED AND UNSTABLE in all they do. In other words, they are the people who say one thing, but believe something else. Yes, we’ve all been guilty of this. In fact, we do it with God far too often. We pray one way, but believe the opposite.

So this passage leads us to some questions:

·         ARE YOU SEEKING GOD FOR WISDOM?

·         DO YOU BELIEVE HE CAN GIVE IT TO YOU?

·         IF YOU DO, WHY AREN’T YOU ASKING HIM FOR THE WISDOM?

Why should we seek God for wisdom?

·         We seek Him for wisdom in order to DEAL WITH OUR TROUBLING TIMES that we go through. We ask for wisdom so we can consider those moments a pure joy.

·         We seek God for wisdom TO GET A GLIMPSE OF HIS PURPOSE AND WILL for our lives. I mean, we all want to know right?

·         We seek wisdom from God SO WE CAN LIVE CLOSER TO HIS EXAMPLE. When we seek His wisdom we become more like Jesus, which is kind of important!

So, this obviously begs the question: In what area of your life are you in desperate need of wisdom?

·         Are there some IMPORTANT DECISIONS you need to make in the near future?

·         Do you need wisdom in order to RAISE YOUR CHILDREN?

·         Are you in need of some wisdom so you can RELATE BETTER TO YOUR SPOUSE?

·         Do you need wisdom so you can LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR?

·         Are you trying to figure out GOD’S PLAN/PURPOSE for your life?

Ask god for wisdom and believe that he can and wants to give it to you!

Grace & Peace, Marc

poop on the carpet

So I was washing dishes the other night (because I’m a modern man) when all of the sudden I hear Em yell for me from the back of the house, “Marc, come here!” That’s when I saw why she was yelling for me.

POOP.

Yup, poop. POOP ON THE CARPET.

She was getting Mac ready for a bath and he was running around naked and apparently could no longer hold his bowels.

This is one of the reasons I do not have animals.

So, I thoroughly cleaned the poop out of the carpet and Em cleaned it off her foot (oh, did I forget to mention that Em stepped in it. I guess that’s probably why she was yelling for me).

Okay, why in the world am I telling you that my son pooped on the carpet?

Well, WE ALL MAKE MESSES and sometimes we find ourselves the VICTIM OF SOMEONE ELSE’S MESS. Whether we are the ones who created the mess or simply the ones who are caught in someone else’s mess, THERE IS SOMEONE WHO IS WILLING TO CLEAN IT UP.

As I was on my hands and knees cleaning my son’s poop out of the carpet, I couldn’t help but think about how many messes God has taken care of for me. The greatest cleaning solution God ever used was Jesus.

JESUS TOOK CARE OF OUR PAST MESSES, OUR PRESENT MESS, AND OUR FUTURE MESSES.

Here is the crux of the matter: Mac can’t clean up his poop anymore than you and I can clean up the messes we’ve created in our own lives. Therefore, we need someone to do something for us, something we are unable to do for ourselves.

“God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

-Romans 5:8

“God shows us how much He loves us, because when we were creating messes of our lives, Jesus was cleaning it up for us.”

-My Paraphrase

WHAT KIND OF MESS ARE YOU IN?

Grace & Peace, Marc

ugly to beautiful

I was listening to Gungor this morning and thinking how awesome it is to serve a God who makes beautiful things out of dust.

“The LORD God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.” (Genesis 2:7)

Now if that ain’t beautiful, I don’t know what is.

But what I find more beautiful is the fact that God has the ability and desire to make beautiful things out of us. We are flawed, imperfect, damaged and broken, yet God calls us beautiful. He calls us beautiful because Jesus makes it possible.

Jesus is the lens that God sees us through.

Thankfully.

Maybe even the most profound thing about all of this is the fact that God takes our nastiest sins and makes them beautiful. I know He’s done that for me and I pray you realize He can do it for you too.

God takes a troubled past and makes it meaningful by using it for His glory.

That’s beautiful.

God conquers your failures so He can use it for His success.

That’s beautiful.

God transforms your mistakes by turning them into a testimony of His grace.

That’s beautiful.

I have an ugly past!

You have an ugly past!

But we serve a God who takes our ugly and mends it into something beautiful.

Allow God to turn your ugly into something beautiful today.

Grace & Peace, Marc

joy \’jȯi\

James 1:1-4

¹ James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ,

To the twelve tribes scattered among the nations:

Greetings.

² Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, ³ because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. ⁴ Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

Sometimes you read a passage of scripture and you just want to say, “Yeah, whatever!” Yeah, this is one of those passages for many people. This is one of those passages for those who are in the middle of a difficult time in their life. James says, “Consider it pure joy when you face trials and troubles.” Ok! Let’s see what the heck he’s talking about.

MANY PEOPLE CONFUSE HAPPINESS AND JOY.

hap-pi-ness \‘ha-pē-nəs\ a feeling that comes and goes, an emotion that is dependent upon our personal circumstances.

joy \’jȯi\ a fruit of the Spirit that is not based upon our circumstances, but upon our faith in Jesus Christ.

You can be unhappy and joyful at the same time. Happiness is wishy-washy. Joy is deep-rooted. This is why people can go through hell on earth and still say, “The joy of the Lord is my strength.” It doesn’t make sense, but I’m not so sure it’s supposed to. 

James is talking about JOY, not happiness.

James isn’t saying, “Be happy when you face troubling times.” He is not saying, “Turn that frown upside down when life gets hard.” No!

JOY IS NOT NATURAL, IT’S SPIRITUAL.

James says to consider these moments a pure joy, because he realizes the end result will be worth the difficulty of getting there. The middle road may be extremely difficult, but the end will bring,

perseverance

maturity

completeness

NOTE TO SELF: this is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to achieve when you are in the middle of a hardship, because we are unable to see the end result (this is the blessing of hindsight). When life is hard, real hard, it’s hard to see how it will all turn out.

When my mom found out she had cancer, I sent her this verse. The reason I sent it to her was because I was already praying for the end result. Obviously, chemotherapy stinks, surgery stinks, radiation stinks, more chemotherapy stinks, but what matters is the end, not the middle. In fact, my mom’s faith has grown during this time. THIS ISN’T THE REASON SHE HAS CANCER, BUT IT’S HER RESPONSE TO HER CANCER.

She is going to allow God to be glorified through everything!

If you have gone through a difficult time, and I’m sure you have, I pray that you came out the other end more passionate about your faith. I hope you were strengthened as you went through your valley. If you are more faithful today as a result of a difficult time in your life, consider that a PURE JOY.

Maybe you are going through hell right now. I know you cannot see the end. Right now you’re not even sure there is a light at the end of the tunnel. My hope and prayer for you is to hold on. I want you to know that you are not alone. Jesus is walking with you every step of the way.

Oh, I almost forgot the best part: I AM WALKING WITH YOU TOO!

I love you and I am here for you!

Grace & Peace, Marc

the checklist

The Christian life isn’t a checklist. We treat our Christian duties/responsibilities as a list of chores that need to be completed before “dad” gets home from work.
reading
praying
loving our neighbor
telling someone about Jesus
etc…

We need to quit thinking about our spiritual disciplines as a checklist and start referring to them as habits.

hab’it n. 1, a tendency or disposition to act in a certain way, acquired by repetition of such acts. 2, a usual mode of action; a custom or usage.

You and I are forming habits every day.

…good habits and bad habits…

What habits are you forming today?

How do you plan on starting good/godly habits in your life today?

Grace & Peace, Marc