Being patient isn’t always easy. Waiting for your boss to finally give you that promotion after years of hard work. Waiting for your grade to come back after weeks of studying.But while patience is important, being passive and simply waiting without doing the work to prepare may not be the best way to go about it.

This week in our series The Way, James challenges us to move beyond passive patience and learn how to be active in our waiting.

It’s good to trust. You can trust that having money in the bank will keep the lights on. You can trust having food in your refrigerator will keep your stomach full. You can even trust your well-maintained car will get you to work every day.

But there’s a big difference between trusting something to serve you in life and trusting it to sustain and even save your life.

This week in our series The Way, James warns us against putting our complete trust in even the most dependable things in this life because they can’t do a thing for us in the life to come.

Most of us know that we bend the truth sometimes. Whether that’s because we forgot to take the trash out, we woke up late or we just really wanted them to think we got a good grade. 

Well this week in our series The Way, James pleads with us to not bend the truth and to just be honest with what we say and how we say it.

One of the most consistent questions Jesus Followers asking is how to discern God’s will for their lives. But how do we tell if we’re following our will or God’s? What wisdom does the Bible offer for navigating this crucial question?

Visiting teacher Jeff Lucas is back to bring us another message in our series The Way. This week, we explore what James has to say about aligning our plans with God’s will.

If you have a stomach virus it’s not going to do you any good to ask your doctor to prescribe topical antibiotics and a torso cast. Why? Because the virus doing battle against your body is inside of you.

This week in our series The Way, visiting teaching pastor Jeff Lucas explores James 4 and the things trying to destroy our character, reminding us that the real battle is not external, but within each one of us.

Everyone wants our reviews. Businesses send a text or email asking us to leave a review of our experience. We get a prompt to leave a review for our Uber and Lyft drivers as soon as we get out of the car. Rotten Tomatoes is built on those of us with no experience in writing and producing movies leaving a review of the film we just watched.

We’re so conditioned to leave reviews that we think it’s our right to review people. But we don’t call it “reviewing.” We call it “judging.” And the consequences of judging are so much higher than the consequences for reviewing.

This week in our series The Way, James calls us to a different way of engaging with those around us, one that brings the truth with a heart to build up, instead of tear down.

Most people know how to explain their “type.” Maybe you find a sense of humor attractive. Maybe a specific kind of job or hobbies draws your attention. Maybe it’s someone who champions a cause you’re passionate about. Or maybe your type is all built on someone’s looks.

This week in our series The Way, James shows us what true beauty looks and acts like.

Jack Russel terriers can be trained to fetch slippers and throw items in the trash. Dolphins and sea lions have been trained in the U.S. Navy Marine Mammal Program to detect and clear underwater mines. And carrier pigeons were trained to transport vital messages that were crucial in the Allies winning WW II.

But humans can’t seem to train or tame their tongues.

This week in our series The Way, we examine James’ words about the importance of learning to be in control of our words.

Everyone has had the experience of being picked last or not being picked at all. It hurts to be on the negative side of favoritism. Yet, more often than we realize, we are the ones creating negative experiences for others with how we show favoritism.  

This week in our series The Way, the Apostle James warns us of the dangers of a treating one group of people with more respect than another.

There’s nothing better than a carton of fresh blackberries. So, there’s nothing worse than opening that cartoon and finding blackberries covered in mold. 

This week in our series The Way, the Apostle James reminds us that we as believers must constantly check ourselves to get rid of anything “molding” in our lives so we may continue to be the best representation of the sweetness of life in God.