James places our eyes on the return of Christ to show us the ‘precious fruit’, the harvest of our trials on this earth. God is at work in all our trials to conform us to the image of His Son.

In the 6th Commandment, the Lord calls us to promote a culture of life and to acknowledge that He is the sovereign Lord of life and death.

In Philippians 3, the Apostle Paul draws a sharp distinction between those who fixate on the state of the world and all it pretends to offer and those who know that their “Citizenship is in Heaven.”

It is easy to live our lives as if God is nowhere to be found. We do this because the Lord is not visible (it seems) in the places we choose to look, and He does not act in the ways that we want Him to act.

The Fifth Commandment is God's provision for us to respect authority and to honor our parents.

This prayer should orient our thinking about God’s sovereign rule in the world and our lives.

We must remember that our Lord Jesus Christ did not come to earth and become man so that we would have better governments, more efficient economic systems, or even a more united society. He came to redeem sinners and to establish His Kingdom.

Jesus is the one who defeated death – He rose from the grave and lives forever. And His risen life has an explicit purpose, even as His life of ministry did.