Every Good Gift - Memory Monday

I heard about one of the LifeGroup's class yesterday. (That's what we call Sunday School at our church. Long story - but a good reason why we call them LIFE Groups.) Anyway, they are studying Beth Moore's study about the ascension Psalms - I can't think of the name of it - and yesterday they were talking about God's blessings. This particular group couldn't think of too many things other than the usually - family, home, health, food...

But James tells us in his book, James 1:17 that EVERY good gift is from God.

17 Every good thing given and every perfect gift is ³⁴from above, coming down from ³⁵the Father of lights, ³⁶with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.

So the list is endless. If something is good or perfect it is from God: music, food, paintings, grass, trees, roses, air-conditioning and heat, friendship, love, literature...

"Wait a minute" you might say, "What does God have to do with giving me air-conditioning or beautiful art to look at?" The AC man fixes my air when it's out and I've seen a lot of 'art' that I'm sure God had nothing to do with.

OK. I'll give you a little for that, but in reality, if we have something good it is from God. God gives us the knowledge to figure out how AC works. He is the ultimate Creator and great art and music are possible because we are made in His image and He gives us the skill to create. Yes, we have to work at being good friends to have good friends, but in the end it is when we are like Christ that we have deep meaningful friendships.

Is this a stretch? I don't think so. Leave a comment and tell me what you think.

Memorize James 1:17 and spend some time meditating on it and I think you'll see more and more gifts from above.

I suppose this picture probably gives a more literal and perhaps a more accurate idea of the good and perfect gifts from above - grace, forgiveness, the Holy Spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control... (you can add to the list) These are the true good and perfect gifts from God. But I still say that other things in our life that are good are from God.

Memory Monday - June 7

Since it is VBS week I'll post the VBS memory verse for our verse to memorize this week. This has always been a favorite verse of mine. I suppose it became a favorite when I was much younger - like early 20s - and was trying to be the best Music Minister/Worship Pastor I could be and I realized that at such a young age (and I suppose even now that I'm old the same thing is true) that I really needed God's wisdom to be able to help shepherd His flock and to be a leader in a church, etc. I prayed this verse a lot and I know that God answered my prayers. Not to say that I have arrived or know all of the answers to the deep mysteries or even the shallow puddles of life, but I do know that many times in my ministry, God has given me wisdom when I needed it - which has been often.

James 1:5 says,

But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him.

What a fantastic promise. Here's part of the really cool thing about this promise. It's made to all of us!

Look at the verse in conext.

Jamese 1:2-6 Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind.

Later in that chapter James says 17.Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.

Oh, and here is some good advice that adds to wisdom

19.This you know, my beloved brethren. But everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger ;


20.for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God.

21.Therefore, putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls.

22.But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves.

23.For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror ;

24.for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was.

25.But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does.

26.If anyone thinks himself to be religious, and yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this man's religion is worthless.

27.Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this : to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.
 
You know? You should probably just memorize this entire chapter. Get busy... That's a lot of verses to learn (and do!)