Time flies by.

How fast does life go by?

Pretty fast according to James ........

Here's what he said about it. And he said it in the context of talking to businessmen, who were making plans about what they were going to do with their lives and their time.

James 4:13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”;

James 4:14 whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.

James 4:15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.”

James 4:16 But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.

James 5:17 Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.

You notice above, in the last part of James 4:14, that he asks a question about "your life?" He asks, what is it? And, then he answers it, "It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away"

So, two things are said about our lives, and how fast they go by.

1. Our lives are likened unto a vapor. Vapor comes from a word meaning to breathe, and speaks of air. The dictionary defines it as mist, steam, fumes, fog, and smoke. In other words, our lives go by so quickly, just like the morning fog appears, and before you know it, it's gone. Or the steam that you see coming off of kettle of boiling water. It's there for just a moment, not even a moment, and then it's gone. Well, that's what our lives are like with respect to time.

2. Vanishes away. That's what was mentioned in the verse, and the above comment. Vanishes, means, to snatch out of sight. To make unseen, to put out of view. To cause to vanish.

So, that's it. That's how fast our lives go by. But, here's what the Lord said through James about our lives and our plans.

We can live with God's will in mind, and therefore make the best use of our lives, and be the most productive in our lives, and connect our quickly vanishing life here below with eternity above in heaven, forever and ever.

You see, we have the choice of living with God, or without God. What James was encouraging, was to "coordinate" your life here below, with God who is above.

In other words, bring your quickly disappearing life into submission with our eternal God and His will and desires for your life. That's how to live the most satisfying and meaningful life.

It will still go by quickly, but it will be fruitful, fruitfulness that will remain.

Thank You Lord for the wonderful comfort that we derive from Your Word. It's such a blessing to us.

Pastor Bob Grenier

Calvary Chapel Visalia

Application/Promises

1. Life goes by faster then we know.

2. Its sometimes amazing to us how quickly it goes by.

3. People say it goes by faster and faster as you get older.

4. I believe that. I've got the same perspective.

5. Speed does not mean we can't anchor down into God's will.

6. Being in step with God here, means real success in life.

7. Following the Lord now, invests our eternal futures.

How to get out of trouble

The way out of trouble.

That way, is listed and explained in the Scripture passage below. James was writing to people who had actually gotten themselves into a position of being friends of the world, and therefore enemies of God.

This is what he went on to say to them. And, as you will notice, it starts and ends with God's graciousness.

James 4:6 But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: “God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.”

James 4:7 Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.

James 4:8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

James 4:9 Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.

James 4:10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.

Here's what the Lord says...

Receive His grace......Twice in 4:8, we are told He gives grace.

Submit to God........come under His authority.

Resist the devil........or oppose the devil like Jesus did when tempted.

Draw near to God......or approach God, come near Him.

Cleanse your hands you sinners.....through confession, repentance, and forgiveness

Purify your hearts you double-minded......be free from is the idea.

Lament and mourn and weep......be sorrowful.

Let your laughter be turned to mourning....take it seriously, be genuinely sorry.

Let your joy be turned to gloom.....similar to what is above.

Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord...take this lowly attitude within yourself.

There is then this promise given in 4:10, that the Lord will lift you up. He will give you honor. That's what the Lord does in a person's life.

Jesus said, Mt 23:12* “And whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.

Will you pray with me.... Lord, there is no one who has not gotten themselves into some trouble. And, there is no one who has not needed Your help to get out of trouble. We would ask right now for anyone who is either reading this devotional, or knows of someone who needs help, to let You bring them out of the trouble they are in. Thank You Lord. In Jesus name, amen.

Pastor Bob Grenier

Calvary Chapel Visalia

Application/Promise

1. Trouble is not too much for God.

2. He loves the person in trouble.

3. He will help the person in trouble.

4. He will help you if you need it.

5. His grace is more then your trouble.

6. He promises to lift you up.

7. Humility is the only requirement from Him.

God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.

2 truths about God......and 1 about the devil.

God does resist, and He does give. James explains the two things about the Lord right here.

First of all, He does resist, which means to oppose......so, it is that God sets Himself against the proud, or those who set themselves above others.

Secondly, we are told that God gives grace to the humble. Grace is the undeserved, unmerited favor of God, which He gives to the person who is lowly. This is the opposite of being proud, or elevated in your own mind above others, here, to be humble is to be lowly in your own mind. Which is of course the more accurate way to look at ourselves.

In light of the above truths about God, James uses that familiar word, "therefore", or because of, or in light of, or this is what to do now, and that is to submit to God, to come under Him, to yield your life to Him. He also adds to resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

How interesting that if we resist God through pride, He will resist us, but if we give ourselves to Him, we are able to receive from Him. And, if we resist Satan, he will flee, or go away from us. Two different experiences with the Lord and the devil.

To submit then, is place or rank under, and it means to obey. Put yourself in subjection to God is what he is saying. Be submissive to God. Be subjecting yourself to God.

Back to the devil for a moment. How do you resist him? Good question. Here's what Jesus did, and I believe this is our best example and model to follow. When Satan was attacking Jesus in Matt 4, at every turn, Jesus responded with the Word of God. Jesus stayed with the Word, and rejected the words and ideas and suggestions of the devil.

And, that's how we can resist the devil also. Just stay in the Word of God.

1Jo 2:13* I write to you, fathers, Because you have known Him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, Because you have overcome the wicked one. I write to you, little children, Because you have known the Father.

O Lord. Thank You for making Yourself known to us, and helping us to understand who You are, and what Your ways are towards man. Thank You for being gracious.

And, thank You for the power of Your Word as we stand against the devil and his demons. In Jesus name, amen.

Pastor Bob Grenier

Calvary Chapel Visalia

Application/Promise.

1. It's better to be humble then proud.

2. We can change and turn to God.

3. Submission to God is a very good thing.

4. Being proud, means God will resist us.

5. God gives, or bestows His grace to the humble.

6. Question, where am I at today?

7. Proud, or humble?

Are you in a deep pit today?

How much grace do you need right now?

Because, God has more then you could imagine, or need. That's what James says in chapter 4 of his epistle.

James 4:6 But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: “God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.”

James brings this truth up after having described the condition among many of his readers. James 4:4 Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

Many of them had become friends of the world, and had at the same time become enemies of God. They were away from God, and were like women married persons who had left their relationship with their spouses, and were carrying on with someone other then their rightful spouse.

But, to these people James says..... "But He gives more grace" What does this mean? It means, that regardless of the condition a person may find themselves in, no matter how far away they have gone from the Lord, no matter how much trouble they have gotten themselves in, God has more grace for them.

In fact, the Bible says, that " Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more," Rom 5:20

Also we are told who God gives this grace to. He gives it to the humble, or those who recognize their need for God and His grace, and would humble themselves before Him.

So, regardless of how bad things may have become for you, God is able to help you, and wants to help you, and will help you.

Pastor Bob Grenier

Calvary Chapel Visalia

Application/Promises

1. No matter what you need, God is able to help you.

2. Your needs are not too much for God's grace.

3. The only thing He looks for is a humble heart.

4. What a tremendous and comforting truth all this is.

5. Think of it, "He gives more grace"

Why do we fight and argue?

Where do fights, arguments, and disputes come from?

Who does not want to know the answer to that question. Where do fights come from? Why do people break out into fights? What are the causes of disputes and quarrels among people? Why do people argue?

The answers are found right here in the book of James chapter 4.

First of all, they do happen, and no one can deny that. Secondly, they happen from time to time among Christians, in families, between spouses, among siblings, and between parents with their children, and vice versa. They also can happen in churches, and in houses of congress, and on street corners, in neighborhoods, at your place of employment, in fact, just about anywhere you have people, you can, and will have a fight of some type.

The answer to where they come from has to do with inside of a person, or in their nature if you will. God explains to us that they come from our "desires for pleasure that war in our members"

James 4:1 Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members?

These desires, or lusts, meaning to please yourself, they are at war in your members. There is an internal conflict that goes on, on the inside of a person's life. Here's a little more explanation about this warring within.

James 4:2 You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask.

James 4:3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.

You lust, and do not have, you murder, ( or hate within your heart ) and you covet, are jealous, and you cannot get what you want. You fight and war. But, James says, you do not have because you do not ask. ( that last statement is a partial explanation as to how to avoid fights and arguments )

Some must have been arguing that they were praying, they were asking God for the things they wanted. But, James explains that they were not asking or praying in the right way. They were praying for God to give them what they wanted, so that they could do what they wanted, to spend it upon their pleasures.

However, the purpose of prayer is not to get God to give me what I want, but rather to find out what He wants. "Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven" Matt 6:10 as given by Jesus about the Lord's prayer, explaining to us how to pray. So, the misuse of prayer is another reason that is connected to this whole matter of why ( christians fight )

Another glaring reason is given in the next portion of James.

James 4:4 Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

James was describing these believers as spiritual adulterers. They had left their loyal relationship with God and had taken up with a lover, in this case, "the world" Or everything apart from the ways of God. By the way, the world is described in helpful detail in 1st John 2.

But, being a friend of the world puts you at odds with the Lord, it makes one an enemy of God. So, James says, if you want to be a friend of the world, one of the consequences is, that you at the same time become and enemy of God.

So, each action in this case, has an additional action, or consequence.

That's plenty for today. We will pick it up tomorrow, and start looking at the solution to fights and wars among ourselves. Let's pray.

Lord Jesus, You never did what we do. You never fought with anyone, and in You, are the answers to our problems. You are the God man, who wants to make us act more like You, and behave like You.

Thank You for the solution to our problems, our sins, and our mistakes, being in You.

Application/Promise.

1. Do not sink into condemnation if you have been fighting.

2. God knew about your sins and problem when He saved you.

3. God saves imperfect people, and He works to change them.

4. God Himself and drawing near to Him are the answers.

5. Please read the rest of this 4th chapter in James.

6. Get ready for grace to be given to you.

7. Grace is what we need.

8. Grace is what He will give you.

God does give wisdom

How to recognize God's Wisdom

The Epistle of James, chapter 3:17-18 explains it to us. He gives us 8 specific's. And then makes a statement about the fruit of righteousness, how it is sown, and who it is sown by.

James 3:17 But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.

James 3:18 James 3:Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.

1. It is from above, that is from God.

2. It is first pure, or undefiled.

3. Peaceable, or courteous, considerate, gentle.

4. Willing to yield. That is to reason.

5. Full of mercy, or compassion.

6. And good fruits. It is wholehearted, and straightforward.

7. Without partiality. Or impartial.

8. Without hypocrisy. It is unfeigned.

As to the fruit of righteousness, meaning, when conforming to God's will in our thinking, and our deeds. This comes about by those who work for and make peace in themselves and in others.

That peace, means there comes about a harmony, agreement between people and, that it has an un-disturbedness, in a peaceful mind. One that is free from fears and agitating passions and moral conflict.

It's amazing how the Lord can put so much into just a couple of verses, but this is a good example of it.

One of the things that is said here, is that we need to work hard for peace. Sometimes, in fact, many times, peace does not just come right away. It has to be worked at. But, there can come that harmony between people.

This is a tremendous section of Scripture that really helps us understand when we can see God's Wisdom, and or see it in ourselves.

God will give us wisdom. He promises to do that when we ask Him. He is Wisdom, and He gives us wisdom through His Word, and the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

Pastor Bob Grenier

Application/Promises

1. There is wisdom to be had.

2. It's identifiable

3. Jesus is like the wisdom described in James 3

4. We can have that wisdom.

5. Lord, thank You.