The Message

<div class="version vid97 iso6393eng" data-vid="97" data-iso6393="eng">
   <div class="book bkJAS">
      <div class="chapter ch1" data-usfm="JAS.1">
         <div class="label">1</div><div class="p"><span class="content">  </span><span class="verse v1" data-usfm="JAS.1.1"><span class="label">1</span><span class="content">I, James, am a slave of God and the Master Jesus, writing to the twelve tribes scattered to Kingdom Come: Hello!</span></span></div><div class="s1"><span class="heading">Faith Under Pressure</span></div><div class="m"><span class="verse v1" data-usfm="JAS.1.1"><span class="content">  </span></span><span class="verse v2 v3 v4" data-usfm="JAS.1.2+JAS.1.3+JAS.1.4"><span class="label">2-4</span><span class="content">Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don&#8217;t try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.</span></span></div><div class="p"><span class="verse v2 v3 v4" data-usfm="JAS.1.2+JAS.1.3+JAS.1.4"><span class="content">  </span></span><span class="verse v5 v6 v7 v8" data-usfm="JAS.1.5+JAS.1.6+JAS.1.7+JAS.1.8"><span class="label">5-8</span><span class="content">If you don&#8217;t know what you&#8217;re doing, pray to the Father. He loves to help. You&#8217;ll get his help, and won&#8217;t be condescended to when you ask for it. Ask boldly, believingly, without a second thought. People who &#8220;worry their prayers&#8221; are like wind-whipped waves. Don&#8217;t think you&#8217;re going to get anything from the Master that way, adrift at sea, keeping all your options open.</span></span></div><div class="p"><span class="verse v5 v6 v7 v8" data-usfm="JAS.1.5+JAS.1.6+JAS.1.7+JAS.1.8"><span class="content">  </span></span><span class="verse v9 v10 v11" data-usfm="JAS.1.9+JAS.1.10+JAS.1.11"><span class="label">9-11</span><span class="content">When down-and-outers get a break, cheer! And when the arrogant rich are brought down to size, cheer! Prosperity is as short-lived as a wildflower, so don&#8217;t ever count on it. You know that as soon as the sun rises, pouring down its scorching heat, the flower withers. Its petals wilt and, before you know it, that beautiful face is a barren stem. Well, that&#8217;s a picture of the &#8220;prosperous life.&#8221; At the very moment everyone is looking on in admiration, it fades away to nothing.</span></span></div><div class="p"><span class="verse v9 v10 v11" data-usfm="JAS.1.9+JAS.1.10+JAS.1.11"><span class="content">  </span></span><span class="verse v12" data-usfm="JAS.1.12"><span class="label">12</span><span class="content">Anyone who meets a testing challenge head-on and manages to stick it out is mighty fortunate. For such persons loyally in love with God, the reward is life and more life.</span></span></div><div class="p"><span class="verse v12" data-usfm="JAS.1.12"><span class="content">  </span></span><span class="verse v13 v14 v15" data-usfm="JAS.1.13+JAS.1.14+JAS.1.15"><span class="label">13-15</span><span class="content">Don&#8217;t let anyone under pressure to give in to evil say, &#8220;God is trying to trip me up.&#8221; God is impervious to evil, and puts evil in no one&#8217;s way. The temptation to give in to evil comes from us and only us. We have no one to blame but the leering, seducing flare-up of our own lust. Lust gets pregnant, and has a baby: sin! Sin grows up to adulthood, and becomes a real killer.</span></span></div><div class="p"><span class="verse v13 v14 v15" data-usfm="JAS.1.13+JAS.1.14+JAS.1.15"><span class="content">  </span></span><span class="verse v16 v17 v18" data-usfm="JAS.1.16+JAS.1.17+JAS.1.18"><span class="label">16-18</span><span class="content">So, my very dear friends, don&#8217;t get thrown off course. Every desirable and beneficial gift comes out of heaven. The gifts are rivers of light cascading down from the Father of Light. There is nothing deceitful in God, nothing two-faced, nothing fickle. He brought us to life using the true Word, showing us off as the crown of all his creatures.</span></span></div><div class="s1"><span class="heading">Act on What You Hear</span></div><div class="m"><span class="verse v16 v17 v18" data-usfm="JAS.1.16+JAS.1.17+JAS.1.18"><span class="content">  </span></span><span class="verse v19 v20 v21" data-usfm="JAS.1.19+JAS.1.20+JAS.1.21"><span class="label">19-21</span><span class="content">Post this at all the intersections, dear friends: Lead with your ears, follow up with your tongue, and let anger straggle along in the rear. God&#8217;s righteousness doesn&#8217;t grow from human anger. So throw all spoiled virtue and cancerous evil in the garbage. In simple humility, let our gardener, God, landscape you with the Word, making a salvation-garden of your life.</span></span></div><div class="p"><span class="verse v19 v20 v21" data-usfm="JAS.1.19+JAS.1.20+JAS.1.21"><span class="content">  </span></span><span class="verse v22 v23 v24" data-usfm="JAS.1.22+JAS.1.23+JAS.1.24"><span class="label">22-24</span><span class="content">Don&#8217;t fool yourself into thinking that you are a listener when you are anything but, letting the Word go in one ear and out the other. </span><span class="it"><span class="content">Act</span></span><span class="content"> on what you hear! Those who hear and don&#8217;t act are like those who glance in the mirror, walk away, and two minutes later have no idea who they are, what they look like.</span></span></div><div class="p"><span class="verse v22 v23 v24" data-usfm="JAS.1.22+JAS.1.23+JAS.1.24"><span class="content">  </span></span><span class="verse v25" data-usfm="JAS.1.25"><span class="label">25</span><span class="content">But whoever catches a glimpse of the revealed counsel of God&#8212;the free life!&#8212;even out of the corner of his eye, and sticks with it, is no distracted scatterbrain but a man or woman of action. That person will find delight and affirmation in the action.</span></span></div><div class="p"><span class="verse v25" data-usfm="JAS.1.25"><span class="content">  </span></span><span class="verse v26 v27" data-usfm="JAS.1.26+JAS.1.27"><span class="label">26-27</span><span class="content">Anyone who sets himself up as &#8220;religious&#8221; by talking a good game is self-deceived. This kind of religion is hot air and only hot air. Real religion, the kind that passes muster before God the Father, is this: Reach out to the homeless and loveless in their plight, and guard against corruption from the godless world.</span></span></div>
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I, James, am a slave of God and the Master Jesus, writing to the twelve tribes scattered to Kingdom Come: Hello!

Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.
If you don’t know what you’re doing, pray to the Father. He loves to help. You’ll get his help, and won’t be condescended to when you ask for it. Ask boldly, believingly, without a second thought. People who “worry their prayers” are like wind-whipped waves. Don’t think you’re going to get anything from the Master that way, adrift at sea, keeping all your options open.
When down-and-outers get a break, cheer! And when the arrogant rich are brought down to size, cheer! Prosperity is as short-lived as a wildflower, so don’t ever count on it. You know that as soon as the sun rises, pouring down its scorching heat, the flower withers. Its petals wilt and, before you know it, that beautiful face is a barren stem. Well, that’s a picture of the “prosperous life.” At the very moment everyone is looking on in admiration, it fades away to nothing.
Anyone who meets a testing challenge head-on and manages to stick it out is mighty fortunate. For such persons loyally in love with God, the reward is life and more life.
Don’t let anyone under pressure to give in to evil say, “God is trying to trip me up.” God is impervious to evil, and puts evil in no one’s way. The temptation to give in to evil comes from us and only us. We have no one to blame but the leering, seducing flare-up of our own lust. Lust gets pregnant, and has a baby: sin! Sin grows up to adulthood, and becomes a real killer.
So, my very dear friends, don’t get thrown off course. Every desirable and beneficial gift comes out of heaven. The gifts are rivers of light cascading down from the Father of Light. There is nothing deceitful in God, nothing two-faced, nothing fickle. He brought us to life using the true Word, showing us off as the crown of all his creatures.

Post this at all the intersections, dear friends: Lead with your ears, follow up with your tongue, and let anger straggle along in the rear. God’s righteousness doesn’t grow from human anger. So throw all spoiled virtue and cancerous evil in the garbage. In simple humility, let our gardener, God, landscape you with the Word, making a salvation-garden of your life.
Don’t fool yourself into thinking that you are a listener when you are anything but, letting the Word go in one ear and out the other. Act on what you hear! Those who hear and don’t act are like those who glance in the mirror, walk away, and two minutes later have no idea who they are, what they look like.
But whoever catches a glimpse of the revealed counsel of God—the free life!—even out of the corner of his eye, and sticks with it, is no distracted scatterbrain but a man or woman of action. That person will find delight and affirmation in the action.
Anyone who sets himself up as “religious” by talking a good game is self-deceived. This kind of religion is hot air and only hot air. Real religion, the kind that passes muster before God the Father, is this: Reach out to the homeless and loveless in their plight, and guard against corruption from the godless world.

گوێگرتن لە James 1