Good Morning.

The next passage we seek to understand in James is chapter 5, verses 1 - 6--not pretty. Today, I am quoting from "The Message", which is a paraphrase, written in contemporary language--"And a final word to you arrogant rich. Take some lessons in lament. You'll need buckets for the tears when the crash comes upon you. Your money is corrupt and your fine clothes stink. Your greedy luxuries are a cancer in your gut, destroying your life from within. You thought you were piling up wealth. What you've piled up is judgment. All the workers you've exploited and cheated cry out for judgment. The groans of the workers you used and abused are a roar in the ears of the Master Avenger. You've looted the earth and lived it up. But all you'll have to show for it is a fatter than usual corpse. In fact, what you've done is condemn and murder perfectly good persons, who stand there and take it." That is strong talk! It would not appear that James was talking to the young Christian church, but rather those in the world who just 'didn't get it'. Money had become their god, integrity long ago forgotten. James issues a warning of a coming judgment, when their pursuits would all come crashing down around them.

Are there times when you wish you could turn to your neighbor or colleague and say, 'Man, you're missing it! Yeah, your new pool is great, and that car is sweet, but there's more. . .' But where do you start--trying to tell someone else about this great thing. . . this life-altering experience we have. . . this Presence we feel in our lives, the answered prayer we've seen. . . who Jesus was, and what He did for them. . . Where, oh where, do we start? What I am trying to say is that when we experience life with Christ, when we know peace and truth, we otta' wanta' share it! Some would say that should be left to others--to the experts who have all the answers. "Oh, no!" I say. It is not just our privilege to share the greatest thing about us, but our responsibility, and oh yeah--simply the greatest adventure ever!

Earlier, our study in James caused us to look at the state of Christianity in America--we learned that it is folly to think that most Americans have been raised with a belief system in God, because that is not accurate. Truth is seen as relative, which means absolute moral truth has been replaced with 'tolerance', except of course, for Christians. Spirituality a la Oprah is en vogue, but Christianity is not. It wasn't too long ago that I engaged a fellow soccer mom, (sorry, Sarah, I'm no longer a hockey mom!), with a discussion about faith; this woman, who lives in my neighborhood, grew up in Newport Beach, said she had never been taught, had never learned about Jesus. . . I was taken aback. You see, I grew up learning learning about Jesus, so it used to be easy to paint the world in a soft-purple hue of 'everybody knows about Jesus. . . why, didn't everybody go to Sunday School?' If that has been your thought, let me correct your thinking right now--the world, yea, even the world around you--your neighbors, your fellow teammates, your colleagues, may not know anything about Jesus--and if they do, His name might have been besmirched by fallen 'evangelicals', televangelists, or the like. Read these words carefully, please: they don't know Jesus like you know Jesus, like I know Jesus--they don't know how unutterably good He is, how unabashedly humble, how unbelievably sacrificial, how amazingly creative, how unfathomably deep His love, and how inexhaustible His grace. . . oh, no, they don't know about my Jesus, because if they did, they would want to know Him, too! They would want to experience life on this side, and life eternally, with Him--and never risk being without Him. My friends, I cannot imagine what life is like without knowing Jesus Christ, the love of the Father, and the presence of the Holy Spirit. No wonder people have such a void.

I would like to leave you today with another mental picture. . . it may not go like this at all, but it paints a valuable picture nonetheless. WHAT IF--when we die, we go to the pearly gates sorta like you've seen in the movies. . . there is a dry ice effect going on. . . St. Peter or St. Elmo is sitting there with the book of names. . . and two lines form in front of him--one going to the right, to Heaven, and the other going to the left, to outer darkness, separation from God forever, Hell. WHAT IF you got there, (you who has sought to follow Christ), the same time as your attorney or your best friend from high school or your work-out partner got there. . . you both come to the front of the line together, only--he is in the left line, heading for eternal darkness, and you are heading the opposite way. . . WHAT IF he turned to you and said, "Amy, why didn't you tell me? Why didn't you tell me how much Jesus meant to you, and how much He loved me? Why didn't you tell me that life was really about choices made for eternity? Why, Lisa? Why didn't you tell me?"

What possible answer could be good enough? Oh, it probably won't shake out like that. . . but maybe there will be some similarities. . . After all, once we became 'believers' or 'followers of Christ,' why didn't God just take us to Heaven then? Because He wanted us to share our experience, our faith with others. . . it is not His will that any would be left behind, and yet, He does give us free will. Hmmm. . . maybe robot status would have been better--what do you think? He could have just put a chip in us so that at a certain age, if we hadn't already, we would turn to Him. . . but then, it wouldn't really be love, would it? How do you spell 'automaton'?

So, as James looked around at'the worldly' of his time, he warned of their coming destruction. . . what will you and I do? Yesterday, I brought up the virtue of courage; how about it we summoned up the courage to tell someone about the life of faith in Jesus? Just one. . . doesn't seem like too daunting a task. After all, just tell them what you've experienced, the assurance you feel. . . Oh, I could go on and on, but I won't. . . Suffice it to say, there is nothing like the feeling you have inside when you know you just shared divine truth with someone, and they GOT it.

Grace and Peace to you,

Christine