James 1:2-4
If you could ask one question of the Lord right here, right now, what would you ask? Paul Tripp wondered, “If there's a riddle of your own faith, your walk with God, that you would like to present before your Redeemer, what is that?” Maybe you don't understand why your life has had so much difficulty in it, and you thought that the life of a believer was a life of blessing.
In his study on the letter of James, which he calls, ‘Street-level Christianity’, Tripp begins by asking several pointed questions:
“Or perhaps you think that there are these moments in life where you just lack wisdom, and you know that your Lord is the ultimate source of wisdom, and you don’t understand why you have these moments where you lack wisdom. Or maybe you recognize that there is way too much anger in your life, that you experience way too much conflict, and you don't understand why.
Or maybe you know that God's sovereign; yet you know that you’re supposed to plan, and you struggle with that balance between what is your responsibility and what you can entrust to God. Or maybe you really struggle with getting the best out of God's Word; you love the preaching of God's Word, but when you have the Bible yourself in the privacy of your own devotions, it just doesn't seem like the Word of God speaks to you.
Or maybe there are moments where you feel like the most insignificant, unrecognized member of the body of Christ, and you feel like you could slip in and slip out, and no one would ever notice you. Or maybe there are moments where you wonder if your prayer makes any difference at all.”
Why these questions? Because these are exactly the questions that James looks at. The beauty of the book that we’ve just begun is not that it's this amazing exposition of the theology of the Gospel, that's Romans; “James is Christianity at street level” (Tripp).
He concludes his introduction stating, “In all of its confusion, in all of its messiness, in all of the struggles, there is not a person in [church] who hasn't struggled with his faith in some way. And the message of James is that the Gospel is so expansive and sturdy, and the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ is so powerful, that we need not avoid the hard issues of life. Praise God! We can look at those issues in the face; we don't have to run from the questions of life; there’s a real way in which James is a portrait of a struggle, the struggle of faith in this broken and fallen world.”
So, in these questions, where do we begin? Join us this coming Lord’s Day as we look at the opening directive of James to “count it all joy… when you meet trials of various kinds…”. You didn’t see that coming, did you? How can you count trials joy? You will want to join us to learn how to live life like that. See you Sunday.
Praise God from whom….,
Pastor Wayne
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