home.

well, i'm home and i couldn't be happier. Words just can't express how refreshing it is to be back. I had dinner with my parents. I went to a show friday night and chilled with mason for his birthday and my homies in Mouth of the South. It was just super cool. I had dinner with the youth pastors (hs&jh) and their wives saturday night and started at Pantego Bible Church on Sunday morning. life's good. I have the coolest job ever. seriously. first day on the job (kinda, it was yesterday/monday), we had pancake discipleship. pancakes. merge students. james 4:1-12. freaking rad. did i mention pancakes? so cool. the kids in the group are incredible and really have a desire to love Jesus. in two weeks we're going to lake texoma for the upperclassmen retreat and the following weekend is welcome weekend and move up sunday for the incoming 7th graders. just some pretty cool stuff. God's a cool dude. today i helped the ResLife staff at DBU move mattresses, bed frames, and desks into the off campus apartments and i was in my apartment for the first time. i love it. it's gonna be pretty home-y for sure. the sad part is how closed off everyone i was able to talk to or see was. breaks my heart, but God is bigger. He's pursuing them and has been long before i came along.

James 3:13-4, let's go back to that. SO HUGE. "Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom" (js. 3:13). From the very beginning, a distinctly profound and important point is clearly stated: wisdom and understanding are significant. Moreover, they are crucial. Maybe that's why james wrote this in the fourth sentence of the FIRST chapter, " If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him" (v. 5). this verse is a good reference to the remainder of the post so "keep it fresh" (merge kids get this).

1) if God gives wisdom, shouldn't we desire it? (here's a hint: yes). If He gives it, obviously it's something we DON'T have. That might explain this, "Never be wise in your own eyes," or this, "Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil" (Rom. 12:16; Prov. 3:7). How, though, can we know it's something we don't have? we ALWAYS want our way and think we have the, or all the, answer(s) to our questions, problems, and situations. and everyone elses' too. AND if they don't do what WE think is right, THEY are the dumbest human who ever existed. man, that sounds like an attitude of a GENIUS. ..psych. one way, and one way alone can we acknowledge and accept this fact.

humility.

When we think we're wise you have outcomes like those mentioned in James 3:14-16, "But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth (don't put on a front of wisdom when you're full of poopy). This is not wisdom that comes down FROM ABOVE, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic (demons are spirits, so my guess would be the word is really 'unSpiritual'). For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice." in a nutshell: two kinds of wisdom, 1) from above and 2) earthly. heaven or earth, those are our choices of where we want to be fed from. we have the privilege of CHOOSING where we want our (some not so much) wisdom comes from. if the latter of the two leads to disorder and EVERY vile practice, what's left? if we want order and goodness, what should we seek?

"But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. and a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace" (js. 3:17-18). so this is what james was talking about way back in that first verse, huh? makes sense.. when was the last time you just walked outside and had the purest motives, making peace with everybody, gently, listening to their INSANELY wrong points of view openly, mercifully handling everyone the same, showing sincere impartiality and bearing fruit in all of it? never. NEVER. none of us have, but we've had glimpses of it. why? it's God given, which is why we must ask for it.

chapter four is pretty easily summed up, you can read it. the selfishness and jealousy in chapter three carries down to war within us and cause fights and quarrels (v. 1). these lead to hatred and envy of others and we feel hatred toward them (if you aren't loving them and wish bad stuff would happen to em, be real, that's hate) which is, according to Jesus, the same as committing the act in our hearts (v. 2).

When we think we have it all figured out, we chase our desires, our passions, we fight for them! why would we ask God for this stuff? we can totally handle it on our own. heck, maybe we do ask, but do we reeeeally go to God as He is for who He is, or is He more like Santa Clause? Ho Ho Ho is right. which leads right into verse four! WHORES. James compares the Jewish Christians to prostitutes and adulterers, which they would have understood and HATED, in a good way. He tells them they've become their own God's enemies because they desire the things of this world over the kingdom of Heaven.

God is JEALOUS for us. His veins burn green with flames of jealousy. He cannot stand to see His people seeking their fulfillment and pleasure in things other than Himself. He loves us, but He's also selfless. He knows what is best for us, Himself, so He points us in the direction of Himself. Here's where it gets a bit lofty. God's jealousy is His provision for the fulfillment of our purpose: seeking and finding Him, praising Him. ultimately, His glorification is what He is seeking, but we get to play a part in that. cool, huh? moreover, Proverbs 26:11 says, "like a dog that returns to his vomit is a fool who repeats his folly." When we gain wisdom from God, we realize two things: 1) God is the ultimate fulfillment. 2) nothing else can fulfill us, it's foolish to try. take solomon for example. he was the wisest man to ever live (1 kings 4:29) and in his book ecclesiastes, the main point is the stuff of this world we so desperately seek after cant bring us satisfaction. BUT WE CONTINUE TRYING. so now what?

"But He gives more grace." God in His infinite holiness, FREAKING holy, beyond understanding or fathom, gives US grace. more grace. relentlessly. He pours out grace on us like air or sunlight, except without the setting. THAT'S A GREAT ANALOGY, thank you, Holy Spirit. Get this, texans. Sun = hot, yeah? especially when it was 108 today and i was sweating my butt off. when the sun is beating down on you, what do you wanna do? swim, drink water, GET OUT OF IT. The sun burrrrnnsss. God pours out His grace on us in the same way. We go outside, we can't handle it very long, so we don't wanna get burned. the more we realize that the sun's just gonna burn us, the less we wanna hang out in it. our desires change (little drastic, but bear with me). When we desire the things of this world, God pours out His grace to change our desires to Him.

 However, God only gives grace to the humble. We must humble ourselves before Him and accept the change. He gives us a glimpse of Himself, His wisdom, and our foolishness. We must humble ourselves by denying ourselves and taking up our cross and following Him.

wisdom follows grace so we understand how to flee from our old desires and run after these new ones.

This is the process of sanctification. Humility, Grace, Wisdom.

We must humble ourselves before God, accept His transforming power, and let His Spirit teach us all things (Jn. 14:26).

I admit, this may be off and we may disagree, but i love you and pray God's Spirit transforms you as we humble ourselves before Him.
I pray "that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ; the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, having the eyes of your heart enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which He has called you, what are the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of His power toward us who believe" over you in the name of Jesus (see the remaining verses for the power that comes along with that ephesians 1:17-23). be wise.