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Grammar classes were always my favorite . . . I liked diagramming sentences--breaking the parts of speech into little branches and trees.  Later, as an English teacher, I liked teaching my students to diagram sentences, so that they too would better understand the rules of language grammar. Today's lesson: verbs.    verb |vərb| noun - a word used to describe an action  …

In 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.  So, James is telling them, ‘get your hearts right, acknowledge how unclean you are before God’.  We are not so different from the Jewish Christians to whom James was writing.  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 the holiness standard is 81%?  Hmmm . . . Well, thankfully, “goodness” isn't the litmus test, but rather grace. 

And by the way, God doesn't grade on a curve, or a sliding scale ... 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?  God’s idea of holiness, and how we can be considered ‘right’ ought be our concern, because when this life is over, well, what then?  One thing for sure--no unholy thing will abide in God's presence, in Heaven; after all, eternity is what we ought to be looking at, because 78 years of life on this planet 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 line: come near to God, and He will come near to you.  Oh, yes I love that.  Go ahead, Rita -- go ahead, Dave -- go ahead, Justine -- draw near to God, and he'll draw near to you.  Unfortunately, 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."  Indeed, in the stillness, in the quiet of our hearts, we are able to reach for God, and we can feel him reaching back.  Action – we reach, and he reaches back.

Grace . . . peace-

Christine

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