Christ Street Fellowship

James ends his letter with a variety of important admonitions. The Lord is coming back - be patient. Don't swear an oath - be truthful. Keep praying through every situation. He ends by telling his readers that each of us are indeed our brother's keepers. 

James provides five safeguards to keep us from making foolish plans. He goes in this section to speak strongly against hoarding and wasting God's resources. 

In this section of his letter James has four messages for Christians everywhere: "Quit all that fighting, Choose your friends wisely, Humble yourself before the Lord,  and If you can't say anything nice..." 

Godly wisdom is filled with the fruit of the Spirit and birthed out of humility. Earthly wisdom springs from pride and selfish ambition. How can we know which is which? In this message Joanna Beasley and Tiffany Kuipers share keys to discerning between the two. 

James tells us that the tongue is powerful, dangerous, uncontrollable, illogical, unnatural and in its own way miraculous! Keeping a healthy fear of the potential damage of our words can help prevent sparks from becoming wildfires. 

James explains what authentic, saving faith looks like. It is not mere mental assent, even the demons have that. It is not faith that fails to produce good deeds. It is not faith plus works but faith that works. James lets the lives of Abraham and Rahab show us what real faith looks like. 

James tells us that favoritism has no place in the life of a Christian or in the life of a Church. God used leaders like Peter to break down the favoritism in the early Church, and wants to use Christians like us today to do the same thing. 

James gives us three rules that can, if followed, revolutionize our relationships - Be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger. Later on in this section of his letter he challenges Christians to cross the line from being "hearers of the Word" into the fellowship of those who are "doers of the Word."

"Count it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds because...."

In Romans 8:31-39 Paul shares the powerful truth that God is for us. That life changing truth leads Paul to ask five unanswerable questions and end this portion of Scripture declaring that we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.