Count it all Joy! (James 5:1-6)

1 Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. 2 Your riches are corrupted , and your garments are motheaten. 3 Your gold and silver is cankered ; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days. 4 Behold , the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud , crieth : and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth. 5 Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton ; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter. 6 Ye have condemned and killed the just; and he doth not resist you.

OBSERVATION QUESTIONS:
1) What is the Lord instructing the wealthy to do (v.1)? 
2) What has become of their riches (v. 2)?
3) What will witness, or testify, against the wealthy (v.3)?
4) What has reached the ears of the Lord (v.4)?
5) How have the wealthy lived, while others were in lack (v.5)?
6) What have the wealthy done against the innocent (v.6)?

APPLICATION QUESTIONS:
1) What have you done with all that the Lord has blessed you with? 
2) How have you treated those who are not as blessed as you are?
3) How is the Lord leading you to right wrongs that you may have committed?

LIFE LESSONS:
1) Believers are wealthy with time, talent, spiritual and/or material wealth).
2) God blesses His children to bless others.
3) God will right every wrong committed against those who have been unjustly oppressed and/or neglected by those whom He has blessed.

Count it all Joy! (James 4:11-17)

11 Speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaketh evil of his brother, and judgeth his brother, speaketh evil of the law, and judgeth the law: but if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge. 12 There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy : who art thou that judgest another? 13 Go to now, ye that say , To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell , and get gain : 14 Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away . 15 For that ye ought to say , If the Lord will , we shall live , and do this, or that. 16 But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil. 17 Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.

OBSERVATION QUESTIONS:
1) When we slander a fellow believer what are doing (v.11)? 
2) What is God able to do that we cannot (v.12)?
3) Why shouldn’t we boast about what we will do in the future (v.13-14)?
4) What should we say instead (v.15)?
5) What is boasting about our plans for the future (v.16)?
6) When we know what we should do and don’t do it, what is it (v.17)?

APPLICATION QUESTIONS:
1) Have you ever gossiped or spoken against a fellow believer? 
2) What were the ramifications, if any, of your behavior?
3) How likely are you to boast about your plans to others?
4) Why is all such boasting wrong?

LIFE LESSONS:
1) God is the only Righteous Judge.
2) When we speak against another we are disobeying God’s command to love them.
3) Pride is the root of boasting about our plans without acknowledging God.
4) Willful sin disobeys God even when we know His will for us.

Count it all Joy! (Video Review - Week #4)

Count it all Joy! (James 4:1-10)

1 From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? 2 Ye lust , and have not: ye kill , and desire to have , and cannot obtain : ye fight and war , yet ye have not, because ye ask not. 3 Ye ask , and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts. 4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. 5 Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy? 6 But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith , God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. 7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. 9 Be afflicted , and mourn , and weep : let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. 10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up . 

OBSERVATION QUESTIONS:
1) What is the source of wars and fights (v.1)? 
2) Why does mankind kill or quarrel and fight (v.2)?
3) Why don’t we have what we want, and if we ask God for what we want why don’t we receive what we want (v.2-3)?
4) How do we become enemies of God (v.4)?
5) What is God jealously longing for (v.5)?
6) How does God respond to the humble (v.6)?
7) What must the believer do to demonstrate humility before God (v.7-10)

APPLICATION QUESTIONS:
1) Consider the last argument that you may have witnessed or been a party to, what may have been the root cause of for the strife, according to James? 
2) How do you resist the lures of the world and the devil?
3) How do you maintain humility before the Lord?

LIFE LESSONS:
1) The believer who values what the world values is an enemy of God.
2) The Lord will never grant us what we want if our motive is self-serving.
3) God resists worldly believers because they are prideful.
4) The grace of God is always available to the humble.

Count it all Joy! (James 3:13-18)

13 Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom. 14 But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth. 15 This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. 16 For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. 17 But the wisdom that is from above is first pure , then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. 18 And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.

OBSERVATION QUESTIONS:
1) How do the “wise and understanding” demonstrate wisdom (v.13)? 
2) What are believers not to boast about or deny (v.14)?
3) What is earthly or demonic wisdom (v.14-16)?
4) What are the qualities of divine wisdom (v.17)?
5) What does one sow to reap righteousness (v.18)?

APPLICATION QUESTIONS:
1) Within the last 24 hours, were most of your decisions made in divine or demonic wisdom? 
2) What were the results of most of the decisions you made within the last 24 hours (i.e., confusion or peace, self-serving or merciful)?
3) Within the last 24 hours, how willing were you to do whatever it took to maintain peaceful relations with family, friends and/or co-workers? 

LIFE LESSONS:
1) The wise and understanding are peace loving people.
2) Those who are righteous seek and demonstrate divine wisdom in their relations with others.
3) Believers with divine wisdom are not self-seeking, boastful, envious, rude or proud.

Count it all Joy! (Video Review - James 2:14-3:12)

Count it all Joy! (James 2:14-26)

14 What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, 16 And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled ; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit? 17 Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone . 18 Yea, a man may say , Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works. 19 Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe , and tremble . 20 But wilt thou know , O vain man, that faith without works is dead? 21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? 22 Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect ? 23 And the scripture was fulfilled which saith , Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God. 24 Ye see then how that by works a man is justified , and not by faith only. 25 Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way? 26 For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.

OBSERVATION QUESTIONS:
1) What is the proof of our faith (v.14)? 
2) What example of “dead” faith does James write about (v.15-17)?
3) What is one way that a believer may demonstrate their faith (v.18)?
4) Is belief sufficient to prove one’s faith in God? Why or why not? (v.19)
5) Why were Abraham and Ruth righteous? (v.21-25)
6) What makes faith useless or dead (v. 26)?

APPLICATION QUESTIONS:
1) How do you demonstrate your faith in God?
2) What motivates you to do good deeds?
3) What makes you righteous in the eyes of the Lord? 

LIFE LESSONS:
1) Good works do not prove that one has faith.
2) Simply believing in Jesus does not prove that one trusts in the Lord.
3) When one truly has faith in God, their faith will be demonstrated by what they do as a result of their faith.
4) Righteousness can never be earned by performing good works. Performing good works is proof of one’s righteousness.