Christine's Blog – January 2012 Archive (11)

Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness, and he was called God’s friend. You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone.

In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging…

James' mood makes a decided shift--he seems frustrated with being unable to make his point to these new Jewish believers, with regard to the discussion about faith and works—he wanted them to GET IT . . . their conduct simply had to line up with the faith they claimed to have!

In James 2, verse 19 we see James' mood…

I recently mentioned the reading of a great book as a wonderful way to stimulate your thinking and grow your mind.  Now I am more than halfway through BONHOEFFER: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy by Eric Metaxas, and I read something that gripped me, and I thought perhaps, just perhaps, it might you.  I have been reading this book at the gym, and I read this passage, then I reread it, then I…

What is a conundrum?  [Another lesson plucked from the study I wrote on James a few years back … the balance between faith and works from the second chapter of James]…

Last night on television I saw an advertisement for Scientology … one of our culture’s greatest dupes to entice people to grow wiser and actually increase their ‘IQ’… Of course, it also entices folks to spend a lot of money to do so, because a ‘follower’ has to work with an auditor on his e-meter (similar in function to a lie detector machine), to achieve next levels as he moves to remove the…

I memorized the following verses from the Living Bible when I was 11 years old:  “From James, a servant of God to Jewish Christians scattered abroad, Greetings! Dear brothers, is your life full of difficulties and temptations? Then be happy, for when the way is rough, your patience has a chance to grow. So let it grow and don't try to…

Before we move on to Paul’s letter, Colossians, and a new format for Morning Briefings, I would like to invite you to refresh yourself with where we have been, since we began our journey together, almost four years ago, now?  My beginning briefings emanated from the book of James, a brilliant, masterful letter written to Jewish Christians.  It is filled with wisdom that has…

Back in September, we began studying Paul’s letter to the Philippians, though now ‘it is finished’ . . . we have come to the end.  What a letter it has been!  I feel like I learned more about Paul’s softer side, as he expressed his love for his Philippian brothers and sisters repeatedly and in several different ways.  Everything Paul lived for…

Nobody mourned its impending death . . . no one talked about how much it would be missed.  No billboards or television commercials warned of the void it would leave . . . yet, just like that, it has almost vanished as a viable connection of hearts, of happenings and goings-on, as exchange of cordialities, and recording of historical events—it is the irreplaceable hand-written letter.…

Mind the Storehouse of your Mind.  Philippians 4.8

Paul was just published in the ladies’ magazine, Good Housekeeping, did you see it?  In a section about prayers to refresh your life, Paul made the cut with Philippians…