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Podcast 33

(This is a computer generated transcript of this podcast.  This is NOT a typed transcript and it has not been edited. Expect grammatical and syntactical errors.)

Hello, and good day. This is B. R. Maul, and you are listening to the podcast Living God’s Way in an Ungodly World. It’s good to have you here with me. I’ve been contemplating going through some of the books of the Bible, verse by verse, in my teachings. And so, I’m going to start that today. And I decided I’m going to use the book of James.

New Testament book, written by the half-brother, one of his half-brothers, Jesus. James initially didn’t believe his brother Jesus when Jesus first started his ministry. We can see that. In the book of John 7:5, Even his brothers did not believe in him, referring to Jesus. So his brothers, James would be one of those.

The reason I find that so interesting is because we often think that if God was right next to me, It would be so easy, how could these people in the Old Testament times, or when Jesus was walking the earth, how could they deny God for those who actually witnessed him? And in this case, Jesus. But that’s easy to do.

I think of James. And the struggles that he may have had. Because here’s his brother talking as if he’s God. Remember, Jesus was like 30 years old before he started his ministry. Up until that point, we know very little of Jesus. We have the story when he was an infant, of course, a little baby Jesus. And we have a few other verses here and there.

I believe he was 12 when he was in the temple. In his father’s house, but there’s not a whole lot more, but we can think about that because in the sense of who Jesus wasn’t. Because we don’t know of anything in the Bible of him claiming to be the son of God until he begins his ministry. Before that, he’s a young boy, learning, grows into a young man, and learning the characteristics of his father as a carpenter.

He himself becoming a carpenter. Carpenter, becoming skilled in the craft. So with that, we can safely assume that that was how he was known by the work that he did, by the people he was around, by his lifestyle, just like the rest of us. It wasn’t like Jesus was walking on clouds from place to place or just speaking furniture into existence that he made, or speaking houses into existence.

That he builds. He wasn’t doing any miracles. And we know that because his first miracle is turning water into wine. So he wasn’t running around as a little boy. Doing miracles. I mean, I could imagine him running really fast in races, for example, and thinking, Ah, I’m going to just give myself a leg up. And so, boom, you know, speaks the word and he’s suddenly at the end of the race and wins.

There’s so many things that he could do if that’s the way Jesus was going to live his life. One who wanted to stand out from everybody else, to be different. To be more important, to be bigger than, but Jesus didn’t do that. I find that encouraging. So back to the book of James. James is one of the first people that Jesus appeared to after his resurrection.

And it was from that resurrection that more than likely, He transformed James into a devoted disciple of Jesus Christ. As we go through the book of James, you’ll notice that his writing is much like some of the Old Testament wisdom literature, because it’s more generalized. It’s not speaking to a specific people.

It’s more broad. And it’s more of a collection of wisdom instructions. It’s one of the things I enjoy about reading the book of James. His instructions acknowledge that the followers of Christ will indeed have difficulties. They will have circumstances that are going to test their fidelity to the Lord.

And I like how James’s approach is. He’s not one to recommend. That we do something as Christians. He doesn’t use a niceness, a fluffiness to it that, well, here’s maybe what you, you could do. No, he uses more direct commands such as you must do. And he’ll go on to explain that. James became the pastor, the leader of the church in Jerusalem.

And you’ll know right away from the beginning of the book that James is actually addressing Jews, but it’s a very, again, very broad, so it’s not a particular group, but he does mention two of the twelve tribes. Some of the areas that we will discover in the book of James. are things such as the rich and poor. James criticizes favoritism and partiality and the oppression of the poor. He demands that we all, that is, Christians, love everybody. And that doesn’t mean just those who we feel like because everybody is just that. Everybody, even the poor. In fact, perhaps even especially the poor. James talks about the power of the tongue, something that we really need to address as Christians today.

We need to be aware of the words that we speak to other people, how we speak to other people. We need to do away with gossip. We need to do away with malicious words that hurt, even to our enemies. Because remember, we are representative of Christ himself. And so, as James will point out, we must be very cautious that the same tongue that we use to worship our beloved Lord is not the same tongue that curses other people.

He addresses faith and works. In his epistle, there’s an area that we’ll get to that many mistaken and often use. As pointing out that here’s works. Works, James is saying, will get you into heaven, but that is not at all what he says. James, like Jesus, makes it very clear that it is faith. It is our faith only, not our works, but faith only. Patience and prayer. Waiting on the Lord. He addresses that. Patience and endurance. Submitting our time and our life to God. He talks about the power of prayer, especially in difficult times. That’s hard to do. I know. It’s an area that, to this day, I struggle with. I need to work very hard at concentrating on the fact that waiting on the Lord means just that.

Not me trying to make things happen or trying to push God along, but truly just being patient, doing what he has placed on my heart to do for now, and not to get so caught up with what other people are doing. I need to learn to follow his cues. So if he wants me to wait patiently, and be quiet for some time, then I must do that.

And for those who know me personally know that that’s a struggle for B. R. Maul. I have the need and the desire, the burning passion in me to speak out and wisdom. James acknowledges that wisdom is not mere knowledge, but the ability to live skillfully in the light of that knowledge in our lives, through any situation.

And acknowledging that, of course, this wisdom only comes from God himself. It’s nothing we can pick up in books. It’s nothing that we can do by listening to a whole bunch of, uh, I was going to say tapes, but I suppose in these times, I’m kind of dating myself a little bit there, but people don’t listen to audio tapes anymore.

It’s digital. But listening to others speak, that wisdom comes from God. That wisdom is only gained as we read God’s Word. We take the time and read His Word to meditate on it, to study it. Those are different ways of approaching God’s Word. Sometimes we do just need to read large amounts. So we get kind of a overview from like high above, seeing the picture from a distance.

But we also need to then zoom in closer and read certain passages slowly, emphasizing different words to see what it does with the meaning, how it speaks to us. Ten different people can sit down and read a passage, and it will speak to them in ten different ways. I’m going to be very cautious with what I’m saying here, so I need to make sure you understand.

So please listen. Be very attentive to what I’m going to say next, and that is there is One truth in God’s Word. There are not multiple truths. There are not many ways to interpret God’s Word. Those are used by people who want to make an excuse so they can fit God. into their life, which of course cannot be done.

So what a person is doing is they’re actually making their own god and worshipping their own god. We can’t do that. What I mean by that is we are all in different areas with our walk with God, some as baby Christians, some as Christians who have been walking with him for, for many years. And our circumstances are different.

Some Christians are, are parents. They have kids. Some Christians are kids. And they don’t have the perspective of parenthood. Where we live around the world… Someone who lives in America, reading a passage, it could easily speak to them differently than someone who lives in China, India, Brazil. It makes a big difference what is pertaining to our lives, what is in our lives.

When God’s word speaks to us, because that’s one of the brilliance behind our heavenly father, is that he meets us where we are at, where we are at in life, where we are at on the globe, on earth itself. Where we are at in time. Have you ever thought of that? How different it is with just the time that we live in.

God meets us there, and that’s why ten people can read the same passage and God’s Word will speak to them differently. It’ll move them. Maybe not much different. Maybe subtle difference. It means the same, but how it moves them. And the other thing I like about James is that James is pretty big on, Hey, walk the walk.

If you’re going to talk the talk, you need to walk the walk. We can’t read God’s Word and then tuck it away, keeping it just for ourself. We need to live it out. We need to live God’s Word. As we read God’s Word, it will sanctify us. And as I have said many times before, sanctification is a two way street. And what I mean by that is, a relationship with someone isn’t a one way.

We can’t just head one direction and have one person in the relationship doing all the work. Give and give and give and the other person just takes and takes and takes. Relationships like that are very unhealthy and often do not last. No, a relationship is a two way street. Sometimes we’re coming, and sometimes we’re going.

Sometimes we’re giving, sometimes we’re receiving. And that’s the thing with sanctification. A Christian who is born again, who never opens God’s Word, and just from time to time prays to Him, how is that Christian going to expect much movement in the sanctification process? It’s not that the Holy Spirit that dwells in us, needs us to do something.

But we know that our God is a loving God. He is a God that desires a relationship with us. And the basic knowledge we have is the very fact That he gives us the will to decide whether or not we are going to share our love with him. He has designed love where it must be shared. Love must be given and received.

Did you catch that? So that’s a two-step process. A two sided road, it must be given and it must be received. We can’t receive love from someone who’s not offering it. That would be taking love from them. We can’t do that. Just like we can’t force our love onto somebody and say, here, put it in their hand and make them hold it and say, that’s it.

Now I love you and you love me and that’s that. We can’t do that either. And God so designed it that way. And so that’s walking the walk. That’s living out God’s word as he sanctifies us, as we read his word and the Holy Spirit changes us and starts to do things in us. The Holy Spirit starts to take away desires we once had before we were born again.

Desires to watch certain things. The kind of movies that we watch. The kind of programming that we watch. The kind of things we look for on the internet, those things begin to change as we read God’s Word, as we pray to our Heavenly Father. And while I’m thinking about it, to emphasize this daily, because a daily walk is so important.

If we married somebody and decided just to see him once a week on Sunday mornings for an hour, maybe two, and that was it, how far would that relationship go? How awesome would that marriage be? Not awesome at all. So Christian, this applies to us as well with God. We can’t expect Him to do everything. We can’t expect him to have a relationship with us if we’re only going to see him for an hour or two once a week.

You must read his word daily, and not for legalistic reasons. Not to please him and so he’ll let you into heaven. To please him so he’ll bless you. Those are hidden agendas and we can’t do that. He knows our heart. We spend time with him because we love him. And we love him because he first loved us. He gave us that ability to love him.

So exercise that ability. Open his word and when you read it just be with him. I encourage brothers and sisters to get to a quiet place when reading his word. And from time to time we want to get something read or studied up and there’s people around us, there might be some noise or whatnot, that happens.

But consistently find a place that you like to be. Your favorite chair, laying in bed, whatever it might be. A place that you can go that’s your comfort area, your comfort zone, a safe place where you can just open his word and listen to what he has to say to you. Because along with taking away evil things that we used to watch and listen to.

As our hearts are changed, as he gives us a heart of flesh and takes away from us that heart of stone, that desire goes away and brothers and sisters, that is a blessing because do you realize the things, the stuff that we did, the things that we did, listen to before we were born again, all of that of this world, we were hooked.

We were so desperately trying to find Something that would fill the void that only God himself can fill. And the sad thing is, for those who are not born again, they are slaves. For those who have been walking with the Lord for some time now, for those who are able to, you look back before you were born again, look back and recall just how you were a slave to the things that you did.

We would do anything and everything to find pleasure. We would do anything and everything to make money in hopes that the money would give us what we needed. And if it meant cheating or lying, it didn’t matter and we didn’t think twice about it and in part we didn’t think twice about it because we had to respond to that.

We had to respond to the flesh, we had to get our pleasure, we had to get our whatever it is that made us feel safe and secure, but none of it ever lasted, and so now you can look back and realize how much God has changed you during this process of sanctification, and how you are no longer a slave.

We, as Christians, as James will point out as we read through the Book of James over the coming weeks, he points out that all of that should make a difference, that people should notice a difference in our lives. Born again believers should have something that stands out from the world around them. Now, metaphorically, that’s light.

Being light in such darkness, there should be something so different about you, that even yourself, when you look back, as you walk longer with the Lord, and you look back at the time before you were born again, there should be that difference. You should be able to know, and others who have known you for quite some time should know, and for those who just meet you now, You should be just so different from the world.

Because for those who walk around calling themselves a Christian, and yet show very little concern for others in need. They don’t make any effort to control their tongue. They say what they want, when they want. They partake in dirty jokes. They partake in gossip without even thinking twice. Just things like that, where they don’t stand out from the world.

In fact, they blend in. They look just like the worldly. Those may be signs that they are only fooling themselves. They are calling themselves a Christian because… There’s hundreds of reasons. Some of the more common reasons that people walk around calling themselves a Christian is because their family all believe they are Christians.

So a person who grows up in a family, many just get the impression or the feeling that I’m born into a Christian family. That makes me a Christian. And for those who were told that they were baptized as a baby, which I have spent many of podcasts talking about, they believe that they are a Christian. And yet, they don’t understand that they were not baptized as a baby.

They merely went through a ritual and had water put on their head. It is not the baptism of the Bible. It is not the way Jesus was baptized. That alone should get people thinking, because if that was the main way that we should be baptizing people as a baby, why wouldn’t our Heavenly Father, who used his son Jesus Christ as the example of a Christian life, why would he not put it in the heart of Mary and Joseph?

To have Jesus as a baby baptized. So think on that for a while, for those who still put their trust in infant baptism. Now there’s other reasons why people walk around calling themselves Christians. And yet their life is not reflected at all. And some of those reasons could be they just want to blend in.

They don’t want to be left out. Or they don’t want to be preached at. They don’t want somebody coming to them and telling them how they’re supposed to be born again. And for others, and my heart goes out to these because I was there once, for others they’re misled. And they do feel they are a Christian because of reasons that are not biblical.

Even though they have not repented, even though they have not declared Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, but they were told that they were a Christian. There are still some people that believe that, in our country, being an American is synonymous to being a Christian. That’s far from the truth. So as we venture into the Epistle of James, And I’m going to read it, uh, verse by verse.

I am encouraged, because there are pastors who are teaching this way right now in some churches that I listen to the pastors sermons. And I really appreciate that they do go right through God’s Word, verse by verse. So I’m going to try that too. And the, the Book of James, yes, it’s a smaller book, so I guess that might be A good reason right there to try it, right?

Maybe I’m not good at teaching verse by verse. But, there are things that I really appreciate about reading the book of James. James, to me, also helps solidify being family. Coming together as Christians. Those who love Jesus and are following Jesus. And not coming together for rituals. For the sake of coming together for playing church and that’s not a jab at going to church I love going to church.

I love being with brothers and sisters in Christ But what I said was playing so I appreciate that with James now just so I can Officially start reading the book of James this podcast. Let me read his greeting Which is just chapter 1 verse 1 James A bondservant of God, and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greetings.

I like that. A bondservant of God, and of the Lord Jesus Christ. I like how James didn’t say, and my brother. Jesus Christ. He could have tried laying claim here to some fame, but no, he makes it clear that he’s a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I’ve heard it taught, and I agree that Jesus Christ needs to be our Lord, the Lord of our life.

Savior alone isn’t enough, and what I mean by that is for him to be fully in control of our life. What he does for us is cleanse our sins, and he is our Savior. But to be Lord of our life. It means he controls every aspect of us. We look to him to guide us, to lead us, to do his will. And let’s also acknowledge that James says to the twelve tribes, which are scattered abroad.

This is shortly after Rome came down pretty heavy on the Jewish people, and the Jews scattered, And primarily those who were Christian. Because the Christians, they were no longer accepted as a Jew from their people. In fact, they were often just as low, maybe even lower than a servant. They had no authority.

in Jewish civilization and that’s pretty remarkable what they gave up to follow Jesus. Next week we will go through James 1 verses 2 through 8. It’s a pretty exciting stuff there. I look forward to that. But it is about that time I need to get going and I’m sure you do too. I thank you for joining me and I ask that you pray for me.

Pray for me. That the Lord continues to give me the strength and the guidance to speak in this ministry, in hopes that my brothers and sisters can be uplifted as we all try to live God’s way in this ungodly world. Pray for my family, and pray for all who are listening, that their hearts may be open. And for those who don’t know the Lord Jesus Christ, that they come to know him.

And for those who are born again, that they get to know him more. And I pray that you are opening up God’s Word each and every day. Reading God’s Word and meditating on it. Praying to him and so partaking and enjoying in this process of sanctification. As he makes you more like his son. Jesus Christ each and every day.

So, until next time,

God bless.

Songs

“Heroes Inspire Hope” and “Mountainscape” by Humans Win

“Lovely Memories” by MoodMode

Sound Effects from Storyblocks.com