Be With Me: 7 Minutes of Biblical Wonder

Listen 7 minutes as a three year old gives us our lesson. It starts with the phrase, "POOPY-BUTT".  If you are three, you'll think this is a HILARIOUS term, and you will barely able to contain yourself.  The use and restraint of the use of this term is an important milestone of being three.  Words have POWER, especially POOPY- BUTT.

Similarly, adults have the same lesson as we learn the power of the tongue.  It is a mighty power that best is under control of some bridle or restraint.  We can use this as a marker for Christian maturity. God asks us to look into the mirror, or in this case, "listen into the mirror" to see how we are doing in this area. Please share with your favorite adult, or 3 year old.  Subscribe at bewithme.us. 

Perhaps the culture of traffic cooperation in Nairobi, Kenya has something to teach us today. Nairobi is a city of 4.5 million people.  Everybody is going somewhere.  You'd think it would be "every man for himself" traffic-wise.  Surprise.  There is a posture there of cooperation, of kindness, of waving people in, of preference; in short, OF MEEKNESS.  It is a wonder.

Similarly, James asks us to approach God the same way.  As the MIRROR of revelation shows us things about ourselves, we are to receive it with the same heart.  If the mirror show us toothpaste on our chin then we just have KNOWLEDGE. Meekness is the INTENT to do something about it.  The DOING is the wiping the toothpaste off our chin.  Meekness is the intent to turn knowledge into action.  God wants all three out of us. Otherwise, we'd all be walking around with toothpaste on our chin. 

Bewithme.us or [email protected] to subscribe. Or any podcast provider.  Please LISTEN for 7 minutes. Attach the listening to a routing in your morning. See you tomorrow.

James turns our inclinations of being slow to hear and quick to speak upside down.
He wants to change the set point we all have of LISTENING vs TALKING.  He wants us to move from being in a hurry to TALK(at least in our head if not with our tongue) to being in a hurry to LISTEN(at least with our ears if not with our heart).  Could anything be more practical? Could anything be more difficult?

Have you ever been in a verbal fight where EVERYBODY is TALKING, and everybody is ANGRY and nobody is LISTENING? This is basically like us ALL THE TIME with God.  I know a guy...

Meekness is  a wonderful, powerful, scriptural, out-of-this-world kind of word.  It means to be gentle, humble, courteous, "no YOU first", considerate word.  It gives preference to the other.  It is capturing of this set-point that moves from talking to being in a hurry to hear.  It means I shut-up and listen by restraining my normally speaking heart, mouth, thoughts, soul.  It means making ROOM for God. Listen just 7 minutes.  It will be brutal.  bewithme.us

God tells us about Himself in the book of James.  It is under this exposure, this revealing, that we should place the scope of our thinking about Him.  So far on the first page, we learn that His intentions are always Good; that evil is the farthest thing from Him; that He allows trials to make us better.

For today, the big one: EVERY good gift is from Him.  We just must get our heads around this.  We are to think of Him as the giver of every good gift.  We enjoy the common graces to our world: children, families, mothers, spouses, marriage, photosynthesis, sound waves, light waves and eyes to receive them, food to sustain us, animals to help us, and minds to figure stuff out.  Thank you Lord for the sourcing of every good gift.

Let's think correctly.  How should I think about God? A good place to start is that He is the giver of every good gift.  Please share with someone who is a gift to you. bewithme.us

The premise of the Terminator movies is a future battle to the death.  It is so far in the future that time travel is possible.  One of the sides gets a bright idea.  "Let's go back into the past, and kill the guy we are fighting right now.  In fact, let's prevent him from even being CONCEIVED. Let's go back and TERMINATE him when it is easier."  And as such, a franchise  is born...

This is exactly what James tells his readers.  When is the easy time to conquer evil.  When it is just a fleeting idea? Or do we wait till we conceive the sin with our YES + the desire.  After conception, stuff happens fast.  Cells divide. Things grow. Birth happens, maturity and then DEATH.  

Listen and lets TERMINATE the evil, BEFORE conception, when it is easier. Listen 7 minutes.

At this very moment, the lowly are being tested. Right now, the rich are in a big trial.  So says James as his first two examples.

• These are trials we could do wrong
• These are trials we are supposed to WELCOME: Hello trouble!
• God wants trials WITH EFFECT: spiritual maturity, completeness.
• We'll need help in these trials, so ask for WISDOM (who has enough of that?)
• Rightly apply this knowledge to the reality of your trial of lowliness or riches
• Act with faith in the right thoughts about God's character, purposes, how He gets what He wants (trials), and what my job is

Who gets to be tested? Everybody.  Let's start the book of James with the LOWLY and the RICH. The rich best boast in HUMILITY. The Lowly in EXHALATION in the family of God. BTW: be CAREFUL, for you can do this wrong.  Please like, subscribe and come back tomorrow.  Listen 7 minutes to the PODCAST if you are lowly or rich.

We all have something in our lives that is difficult. These trials can produce something good in our character, but that is after we do the right thing.

So how can we do the right thing without KNOWING what the right thing is and applying it?

WISDOM = KNOWledge rightly applied to REALITY.  That is your real trials.

So what would you ask Dear Abby today?  This would identify your great trial today.  Then, we look at our foundations and resources to bring to bear upon our difficulty.  Likely, we'll come up a bit short.  So then, let us ASK FOR WISDOM.  But from who?????? From A God we affirm is good, who is generous, and who is a giver of exactly our most needful thing: wisdom.  Godly and godly wisdom.

Reading this blurb as we ask for wisdom. Listen 7 minutes to ask for a bit more.  After you get it, share, re-tweet, like, or subscribe at bewithme.us if you wish.

Welcome to a new "season" of BeWithMe, that is a new book of the Bible. It is the book of James.  He is the actual brother or technically ½ brother of Jesus.  To his credit, James did not let it go to waste.

James is highly regarded, and in these few pages, we will see WHY.  He turns out to be wise. He speaks with his heart in the right place with God, but his boots are on the ground.  He leads an important local church.  That is, a bunch of knuckleheads.  Just like all churches.

Here is his open:  "Hello trouble! Nice to see you!" He knows that really really good things can come out of really really bad circumstances. We will need some help with this situation.  We will need wisdom.  Fortunately, we have a God who wants to hear from us; He has something to give; He has something He wants us to ask for:  W-I-S-D-O-M. 

So the real world requires this critical skill: wisdom.  And in the book of James, we have a truly wise man to help us.  Please join us for 7 minutes a day in listening.  Today is an excellent day to start.  Tomorrow will be the 2nd best day to start.  We are on every podcast provider you can think of.  Or write and I'll send you something daily. BeWithMe.us. 

Here are some highlights of the book of Galatians:

• if the people in your church have disputes, then Galatians is the book for you
• God is PLEASED to reveal Himself
• Faith is DIRECTIONAL. Faith is important. The OBJECT of the faith is CRITICAL
• Paul majors on two things that are NOT TRUE: that he(Paul) has been crucified and that he(Paul) is not alive. 
• Abraham is a good example of faith and a bad example when he takes matters into his own pants
• It is ESSENTIAL that the cross be offensive.
• everybody wants the fruit of love, joy, peace patience, etc.
• there is no fruit without the FIGHT.  The fruit of the FIGHT is love, joy, etc.
• when things blow up, what do we do?  Elon Musk will tell us
• 5 chapters: get rid of OLD LAW. 1 chapter: fulfill the "law of Christ" to love the brethren in some very specific, sacrificial, other-centered ways.

Thank you for being here for one blurb. The main idea here is that you "be with me" as we "be with Him" on a daily basis. The meat of this is in the 7 minute PODCAST.  Listen in the shower or when you get in the car or with your Cheerios.

Paul authorizes his final thoughts to the Galatians by emphasizing the "marks of Jesus," his scars from being stoned to death, that the Galatians gave him. Ouch. He is serving as a good example the the NEW SHERIFF in town, the NEW CREATION that we are in Christ. 

This new creation is a a practical creature that obeys the "new" command of Christ: Love one another as I have loved you. It is a love that serves and bears burdens and restores the fallen and carries its' own weight.  It is a love that demonstrates its' affiliation and movement and allegiance.  It is walking with the Spirit; living by the Spirit and keeping in step with the Spirit.

Listen 7 minutes to hear Pauls passionate final words to this new church; to the new "Israel of God."  

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