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Mission Impossible? 

Mission Impossible, book of James, Part 1

James, Part 1

James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes who are scattered abroad: Greetings. My brothers and sisters, when you face trials of many kinds, consider it all joy because you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.
James 1:1–3

James, half-brother of Jesus and the first pastor of the church in Jerusalem, wrote a concise “how to” book on what it means to be a Christian. His initial audience was small, just a ragtag group of believers who were on the run from Jewish and Roman persecution, but his message was timeless. Look at the list below–how many of these topics are relevant today?

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Lessons on the way to Gethsemene, Part Two

Lessons on the way to Gethsemene

In the Gospel of John we are given a detailed account of Jesus’s last hours with his disciples before his arrest and crucifixion. Jesus, knowing this is about to happen, speaks to the confusion and uncertainty his departure will create. He tells them in chapter 14, “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.”

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Lessons on the way to Gethsemene, Part One

Discipleship and salvation through Jesus Christ

We live in a time of acute uncertainty, and that is creating all kinds of questions and confusion in us. In John chapters 13-17, Jesus speaks to people in a similar situation, folks whose future is completely up in the air. His disciples have been with him virtually twenty-four hours a day for three years receiving on-the-job-training. Over the course of those years Jesus has taught them many truths. He will now teach them one last time before his arrest and crucifixion, and his focus is the welfare of his wavering and lightly-tested apprentices. He knows that after he is gone, wolves will attack his flock.

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What Jesus taught about financial security, Part 2

Bible verses about money

Money has a way of getting our immediate attention. If you doubt that, throw a handful of twenty dollar bills up in the air while walking down a busy sidewalk and see what happens. And that says a lot more about human nature than it does about money. Some folks quote the Bible as saying, “money is the root of all evil,” but God does not say money is the root of all evil. He says it is the love of money that is the source of trouble (1 Timothy 6:10). Money, in and of itself, is simply a tool and has no good or evil connotation whatsoever.