Grace Mills River

One walks by faith by living with patience. For what our faith is centered on is not only what is true now, but what will be truer still in time. We’ll listen to James’s understanding of what marks our patience and what cultivates it.

No letter to fledgling churches would be complete without at least some reference to how to live by faith concerning material things—whether having much or little. How we think of, how we obtain, and for whose good we seek material gains are all...

Instantly our lives can be forever changed. The hopes we had, the plans we made can be altered irretrievably. What is it to act on the faith not only that our lives can and will change, but that we are tied to the will of One from whom all things have...

We live with conflicting passions and kingdoms. A continual war inside. The gospel calls us to daily look to the beauty of Jesus and to yearn for the beauty we are being transformed into through the work of the Spirit.

There is no community free of conflict--even in that community which has found its central hope and humility in the person of Jesus. The conduct of our mouths (3:1-12) and our conduct in disagreements (4:1-12) rest squarely on our appeal to that...

Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me break my heart.”

One of the uniquenesses of being God-Image-Bearers is the ability to speak; to speak life about and into others or to speak death. Jesus, as The Word of God, has come...

In living by faith in the grace of God, where does love figure in? James makes some of his most direct statements in this passage about the call for tangible care and concern as an evidence of faith. But is James squaring off with Paul about the place...

Our cultural moment of people huddling in tribes of like-mindedness reconfirms our enduring nature: we prefer being with those who are like us. That in itself isn’t a problem--at least until we end up giving preference to those who we want to like us...

"Be doers of the Word.” We do what we believe. The old phrase You are what you do doesn’t align with the gospel. Rather “We do what we Are.” Knowing that God’s “implanted word” - the Word of God (Jesus) as well as the word of God (scripture) -...

If God is God we can never fully comprehend His being. But we dare not become confused by those parts of Him He has made more clear to us. Thinking rightly of Him has everything to do with loving Him properly.