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Most of us carry regrets. We think, “If…” “If only I had not done that…” “If only I had done that…” “If God had done this … why didn’t God do this?” But that was then and this is now. Is there any answer to “If” that will make a difference?

The singer/songwriter Michael Card has a line in one of his songs that comes often to my mind: “Waiting is the most bitter lesson a believing heart has to learn.” But learn it we must. We need patience as part of our very beings. It enables us to be joyful and at peace even when dealing with difficult people and persevering through difficult circumstances. Patience is more valuable than gold and is an essential component of any long-term happiness. But patience doesn’t come ready-made. It won’t drop out of heaven on us because we’ve prayed for it. Patience needs a foundation, or it will collapse when things get tough.

When I was a kid, Edgar Bergen was the most famous ventriloquist in America. His monocle-wearing dummy Charlie McCarthy enjoyed better name recognition than many Hollywood celebrities. Charlie was always saying things that embarrassed Edgar, but of course everything Charlie said came right out of Edgar’s mouth. Just so, money speaks; in fact, like Charlie, it never shuts up. But what it says comes right out of us. So, what is your money saying?

For some family members, church members, and co-workers, spats and verbal conflicts are a part of life. When things get so bad they can’t take it anymore, they leave – the family, the church, the job. Sometimes they become part of another family, another church, or another workplace, only to see the same pattern emerge all over again. And they don’t know why. Learn what can be done to change conflict in our lives and, even more importantly, what can be done to change us.

Who is wise? Who’s got the answers? Who knows how to live the good life? Before you can answer the question “Who is wise?” you need to clarify which kind of wisdom you are talking about. There are two: the kind of wisdom that helps you get what you want and the kind that helps you become who you are meant to be. The first kind is what many people prefer, even if it destroys their relationships and leaves them empty. The second kind is what all people need. It’s ironic: the people who choose the second kind of wisdom usually get what they want and want what they get. The people who choose the first do neither.

Words are more powerful than we realize. Our words. Other people’s words. That’s the subject James takes on in chapter 3. His teaching there raises a pressing question for us: If our words are so powerful, if they can build up or tear down, what should we do about it?

This passage is one that prompted the great reformer Martin Luther to call James’s letter an “epistle of straw.” What got under Luther’s skin was the plain statement of verse 24: “You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone.” Those were fighting words to Luther, who insisted with the Apostle Paul that “we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified” (Galatians 2:16).

We mustn’t allow our theological musings to cause us to miss James’s main point, which is intensely practical. In James 2 we find three kinds of faith, but only one that “can save you,” as James put it.

Jesus gives us instructions that seem entirely counterintuitive, but our experienced Friend knows what he is talking about.

God, the Bible tells us over and over, does not show favoritism. What’s more, he insists that his people refrain from favoritism as well – it’s a kind of heresy and he will have none of it.

Fred MacMurray’s The Absent Minded Professor had nothing on me – except he was funny! But I’ve been absent-minded since I was a boy. Yet there are some things that I – and you – must not forget: who we are; who God is; what’s he’s done; what we’re supposed to be doing. In this week’s message, James provides a cure for spiritual forgetfulness.