What Awaits and Becoming Whole

What Awaits

Describe some ways that our culture encourages impatience. 
What kind of garden or crop have you planted?
How long did it take for the flowers or food to appear?

Read James 5:1-11

Did any thing jump out of the scripture to you? Did you find anything interesting or odd?  

What are the two ideas James talks about in this reading?
What crimes have the rich committed?
Is James condemning all rich people?
Do you think of yourself as rich?
Why does James start his second idea with the words "Be patient"?
What are the three examples of patient people given?
How are they patient?

Becoming Whole

What is the sickest you have been?
Do you pray more when you are in trouble or when things are going well?

Read James 5:12-20

Did any thing jump out of the scripture to you? Did you find anything interesting or odd? 

How are you at keeping your word - letting your yes be yes, and your no no?
Have you been feeling more of God's judgment or mercy in the past week?
How does this passage encourage you?
Where in your life do you need God's help to patiently persevere?
Who is someone you admire as a person of prayer?
Who is someone you pray for regularly?
According to this passage, what should you do when you are: In trouble? Happy? Sick? How apt are you to do any of these?
How is confession and prayer a part of the healing process?
What is the connection between the physical and spiritual areas of our life?

Have you ever prayed over someone who was sick or had someone pray over you?
What was the experience like?
Have you even confessed your sins to other trusted believers and received prayer?
When have you come the closest to wandering from the faith? What helped bring you back? How does that demonstrate the healing body of Christ?

Thank you for exploring James with me these last 5 weeks. I have never been so impressed with a group of young people. I'm glad that I got to make this part of my summer here at the church. And remember... If you want to do things like this more often you have to remain diligent.

On Peacemaking and Boasting

Makers of Peace

King Solomon is considered one of the wisest people from history. Who deserves the "Wisdom of Solomon Award" in your family?
Who did you quarrel with most while growing up?
What purchase is highest on your "wish list"?

Read James 3:13-4:10

Did any thing jump out of the scripture to you? Did you find anything interesting or odd?

How can you recognize a wise person?
What two behaviors indicate a lack of wisdom?
What does heavenly wisdom produce?
What is the root of fights and quarrels?
What are two reasons we don't have what we want?
What might some other reasons be for unanswered prayer?
When disagreements arise between people what needs to happen?
What desires seem to drive the world around us?
What can we do to overcome the lure of the world?
How does following verses 7-10 improve our relationship to God?

What qualities in 3:17 do you most need to develop in your life?
When you quarrel, do you seek to understand what desire is really motivating you?
Do you pray about this desire?
Where do you need to improve?
How are you most likely to become a friend of the world?
How does coming near to God strengthen you?
Can self-assertiveness and humility co-exist? Where does pride come in?
Are Christians supposed to reflect verse 9? When?

Boasting

Do you have any idea of what you want to do when you get older?
Do you have any idea of what you want to do this next week? Tomorrow?

Read James 4:11-17

Did any thing jump out of the scripture to you? Did you find anything interesting or odd?

Now that we've read James think back to the questions asked before we read. What attitude should we have toward our plans?
What four areas of life are discussed in 4:13?
What is wrong with this type of planning?
On a scale of 1 (hardly ever) to 10 (always), how often do you pray about your plans and decisions before making them?
How do you feel about your life being a mist?
Is James telling us to not plan for the future?

Do you approach your career planning/college planning in these terms?
Take a second to think about how 4:17 is true in your life. What situations come to mind?


We have one more week and one more chapter left in our High Noon Bible Study. Enjoy your week.

Works and Fire

Welcome to this week's High Noon Bible Study. If you were here last week you know that today will have some challenging discussion.


Faith Without Works is Dead


It's easier said than done. That is certainly true for Christianity. That is especially true for the Christian Perfection that James wants us to have.

How many of you ever act without thinking?
How many of you ever think without acting?
Are you more likely to act without thinking or think without acting?
What are some ways that we as Christians don't put actions behind our words?

Read James 2:14-26

Did any thing jump out of the scripture to you? Did you find anything interesting or odd?

What kind of faith is condemned it verse 14?
In what way does this still happen today?
What is the relationship between faith and works, according to James?
In what way is "faith without works" dead?
What are the lessons from Abraham's and Rahab's examples?
When has your faith been put to the test? What happened?
In what way should the lifestyle of a Christian verify their faith?

If you were in Abraham's shoes, would your "faith" have prompted you to do what he did, or would you trust God to find another way, without climbing the mountain?
If you were arrested for being a Christian what evidence would be used against you?


Fire of the Tongue


An out of control fire can be devastating. Personal belongings going up in smoke, the beauty of nature is marred, even the loss of life itself. Our words can be like an out of control fire.

How have you seen destructive words damage groups?
How have you been hurt by words?

Read James 3:1-12

Did any thing jump out of the scripture to you? Did you find anything interesting or odd?

Why is it such a big responsibility to be a teacher, especially of the scripture?
What do the examples of the bit, rudder, and fire teach about the importance of watching what we say?
In light of verse 8, what hope do we have in relation to controlling our tongues?

In your everyday conversation, how seriously do you take verse 9?
Jesus and the apostles Peter and Paul were not always very "tame" when it came to the tongue. When is harsh language acceptable?
How do verses 2-10 make you feel about your tongue? How will they prompt you to pray?

Listening, Doing, and Favoritism

Welcome back! I hope you enjoyed your week and are all set to continue our study of James. Today we'll break our discussion up into two parts. We'll start by finishing the first Chapter of James and then we'll move on to the first part of Chapter two.


Part One: Listen And Then Do

We all do it. While someone else is talking, we're thinking about what we're going to say next instead of considering what is being said to us. We know others are worth more care and attention. But the habit is hard to break. God wants us to slow down and listen too. But even when we've really listened to him, we're still not done.

Which bests describes your temper: short fuse, big bomb? long fuse, little fizz? Other?

Read James 1:29-27

Did any thing jump out of the scripture to you? Did you find anything interesting or odd?

Answer the following questions:

• When was a time you wish you had been "quick to listen" and "slow to speak"? 
• What is "the word planted in you" and how can it "save you"?
• How does the term "Sunday Christian" illustrate James' point in verses 22-24? Conversely, what does the life of someone described in verse 25 look like?

• In what area of your life could you do a better job at applying God's Word rather than merely listening to it?
• What can you do to protect yourself from being "polluted by the world" in the coming week?

Part Two: Favoritism
 
1. What kinds of things make you favor one person more than another?
2. For what event would you buy the "best seats": The World Series? Carnegie Hall?
3. What third world country, or low-income area, have you spent time in?

Read James 2:1-13

Did any thing jump out of the scripture to you? Did you find anything interesting or odd?

Answer the following questions:

• In general, what are some ways people show favoritism?
• How does God look on favoritism? When has favoritism hurt you?
• What is the lesson in this passage for how we are to relate to others- rich and poor?
• Why do many people give preferential treatment to those who have money?
• What two gifts does God give the poor? Why would the poor be rich in faith?
• From a practical standpoint, why was it foolish for early Christians to favor the rich over the poor?
• To what extent is James' description of the rich valid today?
• What grade would you give yourself for living by the "royal law"?
• In what sense is violating one law as serious as breaking every law?
• What is one practical way you can "love your neighbor as yourself" this week?

• Who are the "rich" in our churches and communities?
• Who are the "poor"?
• How does the love and mercy commanded here relate to God's love and mercy towards you?

Some interesting questions brought up by students this week:

• What is Morality? 
• What is Ethics? 
• How are they different? 
• How can you differentiate from right and wrong?
• Is the Bible really how God wants us to act or is it just how these people perceived God? Did all of these people have a God sighting?  In other words, is the Bible God's inerrant word, or is it Divinely inspired, or is it a mixture of both? (A good example of how to think of this can be found in 1 Corinthians 7)
• Is technology, like the ability to text people, helping us in our ability to be slow to speak or is the ability to hide behind the technology make it harder?
• What is the perfect law? (James 1:25) Is it the same as the word? Is it the Jewish law? Is it something else?

James 1:1-18

Before we dive into James it's important to learn a little about the history and context behind it.  The book is an epistle, or letter, in a very loose sense. Letter writing was very standardized in ancient Rome. We can get a good sense of the form used by reading Paul's letters. They all follow the exact same formula every single time with one exception. Letter writing was this precise. James' letter, however, starts off with a standard greeting for ancient letters but that's about where it stops. The formal styling of ancient letters disappear past this point. 

James is called the brother of Jesus. He stayed in Jerusalem after the resurrection and became the head of the Jerusalem church and possibly even the first church council. Paul butts heads with James in the book of Acts and this letter addresses the main reason for their disagreement.  That being said, it is possible that James, the brother of Jesus, is not the author of this letter. Somebody else could have used James' name to get people to read their letter. While writing under someones name could get you into legal trouble today, it was a common and encouraged practice in ancient times. It is likely that James would have agreed with most, if not all, of what is said in this letter if he was not the author. 

We can never be too sure of when a book of the Bible was written. The authors did not date them and the originals have long been destroyed or lost. However, using clues from the text and the oldest copies of the books we can usually make some good guesses to when a book was written. Through the account in Acts and using Paul's own letters we can come up with a pretty good time-line of when Paul wrote each of his letter. James is different though. While an important figure in Acts James takes a secondary role to Peter and Paul. His life isn't the focus in Acts so we don't know where to put this letter. Some suggest that it was written around the year 45. If that is the case than it was written before Paul began his missionary travels. This would also mean that James did not write the letter in response to Paul or distortions of Paul's teaching. If this is the case then James' letter has a completely different meaning than if a different theory is correct. This other theory is that James wrote his letter somewhere around 55-60.  This would make James' letter corrective to distortions of Paul's teachings. We will try to think about both of these theories as we read through James.

James is a short letter. It is broken up into 5 chapters. However, these 5 chapters contain a wealth of wisdom and depth. James also holds some controversy from the early church, and even some controversy for today's church.

So, if James tests your beliefs and pushes your comfort zone then you are among a large group of friends. James is not a popular book. But just because it isn't popular or the most well received of books doesn't mean that we shouldn't study James and test our beliefs against this book.

Trials and Temptations

Something to think about:

What is the hardest test you remember taking?

What do you do to cheer up when you're down?

In your family, who does everyone lean on in hard times?

Read James:1:1-18

Did any thing jump out of the scripture to you? Did you find anything interesting or odd?

Questions
If you missed this weeks study, read the questions and try to answer them.

• According to James, what should be a Christian's attitude when facing trials? How often is this your attitude in your own hard times?
• Why is perseverance important? What reward comes with persevering in the faith?
• What does it mean to be a "double-minded" person? How can one avoid being double-minded?
• How does James turn the assumed status of the rich and poor upside down?
• What is a trial you have faced in your life? What helped you through it?
• What reward will a person receive who "perseveres under trail" and loves God?
• In this passage, what do we learn about the origin of temptation?
• What stages does temptation progress through to become "full-grown" sin?
• What have you found helpful in dealing with temptation?
• What trial or test are you currently facing?

 Follow up

• When have you prayed for God's wisdom?
• What do you do when you pray but still have doubts?
• What are two good gifts God has given you this year?

Something to think about

What is temptation? James says that God doesn't tempt our hearts with evil, that temptation comes from ourselves. However, can God tempt us to do good? Is there even such a thing as a good temptation? What do you think?

Let's keep the conversation going. If you have any points you'd like to share, or questions you'd like to ask, please leave a comment below and check back to see if anybody else wants to add anything or respond to your comment. 

And don't forget to join us next Wednesday at High Noon in the Ritter Room (room 217). Feel free to bring a lunch with you.