Good Morning.

Grammar classes were always my favorite; I liked diagramming sentences--breaking the parts of speech into little branches and trees. Later, as a 7th grade English teacher, I liked teaching my students to diagram, so that they too would better understand the rules of language grammar. Today's lesson: verbs.

Take a look, class--(ha) James 4.7-10--count how many verbs there are-- SUBMIT yourselves, then, to God. RESIST the devil, and he will flee from you. COME near to God and He will come near to you. WASH your hands, you sinners, and PURIFY your hearts, you double-minded. GRIEVE, MOURN and WAIL. CHANGE your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. HUMBLE yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up. Without doubt, James' readers were really struggling with humility and having a right heart before God. 'Grieve, mourn, wail' tips us off to that. James is having to tell them--get your hearts right, acknowledge how unclean you are before God. See, here's the thing, we're not so different from these Jewish Christians--often we are tempted to think something like this--'hey, I'm not so bad. . . I'm a good guy, really--I pay my taxes, take care of my family, don't cheat, don't even smoke, don't usually drink too much, and hey--compared to that guy over there. . . I'm really a good guy!' Really, well how good do you have to be to go to Heaven? If goodness is the standard, what percentage of good do you have to be--66%? What if it is 81%? Hmmm. . . Well, thankfully, goodness isn't the litmus test, but rather grace is. . . (if the gift of grace is opened). . . And by the way, God doesn't grade on a curve... your goodness or holiness is not in comparison to George Jefferson or Marge Simpson or your next-door neighbor; you are only compared to the righteousness of God. . . so, now, how do you stack up? Because no unholy thing will abide in God's presence, in God's Heaven - and after all, eternity is what we ought to be looking at, because 78 years is nothing compared to forever. Ah, grace. . .

Now, we see why James uses all these verbs--true faith responds to God actively rather than passively.

I love that little line: come near to God, and He will come near to you. Oh, how I love that! Go ahead, Vince -- go ahead, Greg -- go ahead, Karen -- draw near to God, and He'll draw near to you. My boyfriend, Lee Strobel, an avowed atheist and an arrogant intellectual, eventually came to God, and said--'okay, I don't really think you're out there--but if you are, reveal yourself to me. . .' Some of us have been immunized with religion from our youth, just enough so, that we never contract relationship--we miss it. There is an oft-quoted verse in Jeremiah--For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future. 29.11 - okay, that is divinely inspired, but don't stop there, look at the next two verses, because they are amazing - Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart. James paraphrases Jeremiah's words - "Come near to God, and He will come near to you."

So, how do we seek Him and find Him? How do we 'come near'?Another verb, this one from my mother--"Keep still." In the stillness, in the quiet of our hearts, we are able to reach for God, and we can feel Him reaching back. I'd love to hear your responses, my friends, to this commentary on these verses in James 4, or any other. . .

A closing verb for you today, and it too is active--

REACH for Him,

Christine

p.s. of course, Lee Strobel is not my boyfriend, though I have met him several times--I've just been so impacted by his writing, that I am fond of him! And, he is a genuinely nice man, besides being a gifted, godly man. ;)