James says the follower of Christ is to be characterized by humility before the Lord. That's pretty hard for a people who have learned, from day one, to compare and compete with others to "prove ourselves" as the best in the bunch. Lord, it's hard to be humble! In fact, it always has been, since the Fall into sin.

We fail yet another test of "True Religion" as we cannot even control the small muscle of our tongues in our body! Listen to how we need an older brother, as Jesus was to James, to control the tongue for us, even setting up camp in Gehenna for 3 days to free us of our guilt and shame of tongue failure.

In the Bible, the "Beautiful Life" is a simple life, a faithful life and a well-lived life as God defines it, according to the Gospel. Our culture persuades us that we must me sophisticated, very busy, over achieving and performance-driven. Which have you found to be true?

Fall 2014 series at the Barn

James exposes the human heart and how each of us fails the "test of True Religion". He is driving us to a conclusion: Someone must pass the test for us. And, He has! Mercy triumphs over judgement as salvation has come to the poor, through the Poor One.

James 1:22-27

James 1:123-15, 19-25

First Barn of Fall 2014 and introduction to our series in James on a hot 93 degree evening at the Barn!