"Future glory shall be heightened by the temptations of this present time, which have been bravely met and successfully resisted. ... And thus what Satan intended for your hurt shall be converted into a source of everlasting profit." - William Henry Green
For an explanation of why the change, go to this article.
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 19 August 2009 )
Time to (*gulp*) make the plunge
Written by Pastor Rick Klueg
Saturday, 15 August 2009
I use an open source (read: "FREE") content management system named Joomla for our church website. Our missionary Todd Marshall and his partners from ServanTek helped me get it going a few years ago. It works great, but as with all things technological, you have to expect change and progress. The good people at Joomla have developed Joomla 1.5, which has a number of great improvements over the Joomla 1.1 we have been using. Not only is it better, but as time goes on, poor 1.1 will become less and less supported. So, for the past couple of months I have been working on a "shadow website" in 1.5. If I were smarter, I could probably migrate all the old content over from our 1.1 website. Since I am not up to that, I have set the new site up at an entirely different URL:
James 1:1-4James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes scattered among the nations: Greetings. Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
When James was writing this letter, he was talking primarily to other Christians. The trials he spoke of here can better be understood as tests, the type of tests that make us better Christians, stronger and better suited for service.The whole idea of joy during the testing has always been a bit puzzling though.Most school students don’t look forward to quizzes, college students aren’t generally anxious to take final exams (except to get them over with), and few among us look forward to any test of any type.
Here are some great photos shared by Laura and Chaddick Mohon, of their beautiful newborn Aniya Renaye! God is so good. Aniya was born August 11, weighing 7 lb. and 1 oz., and 20 inches in length. Everyone is doing fine, for which we praise the Lord. We join Grandpa Ted and Aunt Andrea in rejoicing over this wonderful gift of His love.
So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be alert and self-controlled.
Comments: The other night, my wife hit me. I guess that makes us even, because I hit her a good one a few years ago. The circumstances were the same both times: We were sound asleep and having a dream. In my dream, I was involved in a fight with someone, and I punched her on the arm in my sleep. In her dream, Barb said it was something about a giant snake she had to fight off. In both instances, the victim did not take anything personally. You cannot hold anyone responsible for an action taken during sleep! Speaking spiritually, however, God warns us to not be like others, who are asleep!
This verse challenges us to be alert and self-controlled, in contrast to being asleep. The issue is not physical sleep, but this is being used as an analogy for one’s spiritual stance. When someone is asleep, he is unaware of his surroundings. Once I fall asleep at night, I am usually “dead to the world.” I sleep through thunderstorms, sirens, and just about anything else. That is a blessing as far as getting proper rest, but it would make it easy for someone to assault or rob me.
The Greek word used here (the name “Gregory” is derived from it) means to keep awake and be watchful. When I worked as a night watchmen at a boys’ detention center, it was my responsibility to stay awake so that the boys would not escape. We, likewise, need to be spiritually watchful, aware of all that is going on around us. We dare not let Satan find his way into our lives unchallenged. We need to be alert.
A second characteristic of sound sleep is that the sleeper is not in control of his or her actions. I am horrified at the thought of punching my wife, but during that dream I was not able to think and process my actions properly. Sometimes sleeping youngsters will hurt themselves as they roll out of bed. Others damage their teeth by involuntarily clenching them during sleep. They would not think of doing such things if they were awake, but those who are sleeping do not have complete self-control.
Interestingly, the word translated self-controlled is a Greek word that originally referred to being sober, free from the debilitating effects of alcohol. The idea is that there are certain conditions in which a person can be “out of it,” not able to think and act normally. Unlike those who do not know Christ, we are to always maintain a conscious, deliberate control over our actions. Overuse of alcohol is one way to lose that control, but it may be lost any number of other ways, from self-indulgence to apathy.
In a world filled with evil spirits and worldly temptations, and in an age when our Lord could come again at any time, we cannot afford to fall asleep for a moment!
Biblical Doctrine: Soteriology – Although we are securely “in Christ” by our justification, we need carefully to maintain a constant, conscious relationship with our Lord.
My Responsibility: Do not let the world, the flesh, and the devil lull me to spiritual slumber.
Question: Would you say that most Christians today are a bit on the “sleepy” side?
Prayer: Lord keep me awake, fully alert to all that is happening around me, and fully in control of my actions and reactions.
When James was writing this letter, he was talking primarily to other Christians. The trials he spoke of here can better be understood as tests, the type of tests that make us better Christians, stronger and better suited for service..jpg "Image")
The Greek word used here (the name “Gregory” is derived from it) means 
