{"id":849,"date":"2018-02-14T07:06:01","date_gmt":"2018-02-14T15:06:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/?p=849"},"modified":"2018-02-14T07:06:01","modified_gmt":"2018-02-14T15:06:01","slug":"devotion-james-119-20-living-epistles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/?p=849","title":{"rendered":"Devotion James 1:19-20 Living Epistles"},"content":{"rendered":"

James 1:19-20\u00a0<\/b>–\u00a0My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry,\u00a020<\/a>because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.<\/span><\/p>\n

This morning my wife gave me a Valentine\u2019s Day card.\u00a0 One line from her card said to me \u201cYou are so loving to me, I don\u2019t deserve how good you are.\u201d\u00a0 Honestly, my first thought was \u201cOh no, what have I done now?\u201d\u00a0 In my mind, it is she who is good to me, who puts up with me.\u00a0 It is me who sometimes misreads the meaning of her words and actions and who speaks before fully understanding.\u00a0 In my mind, with good reason, I accuse myself.\u00a0 I don\u2019t remotely always speak to her and treat her in the loving manner Jesus treats His church. Sometimes (too often) I listen too slowly, speak to quickly and am quick to become angry.\u00a0 Sometimes I think I know what she has intended and don\u2019t like what I think she meant. I understand that at times like these I should communicate better.\u00a0 I should inquire before thinking that she is angry with me, or meaning something that I think is bad (as I view it), I should stop and ask her.\u00a0 But too often (even once a year is too often) I do the opposite of what this verse is saying to me.\u00a0 If I speak back to her in anger, I have failed my wife.\u00a0 She shows me in so many ways how greatly she loves me.\u00a0 She has endured the foolishness of my youthful and immature thoughts, words and actions.\u00a0 She has hung in there with me. Family, she has hung in there with me! That is powerful!\u00a0 And more than that she has continued to love me, even when it was not easy.\u00a0 Often, loving me is not easy.\u00a0 But she does.<\/p>\n

When I am slow to listen, quick to speak and quick to become angry, what comes forth can be harsh words that are inappropriate and are a sin to speak.\u00a0 It is not loving her as she deserves to be loved. Shame on me!\u00a0 Really, shame on me!\u00a0 When I am quick to become angry God is not glorified.\u00a0 When I speak in a manner that hurts her I hurt my God.\u00a0 Instead of being patient and loving with her, I then have wounded her heart.\u00a0 Shame on me.\u00a0 God is not glorified in this.\u00a0 My anger does not bring about the righteousness of God.\u00a0 In fact, it is the opposite of how God wants me to treat her.\u00a0 She is his daughter and before God Himself I hurt His daughter.\u00a0 Oh my goodness, what an awful thing that is.\u00a0 My anger rarely is a \u201crighteous anger.\u201d\u00a0 When I easily become angry I am not like God. When I easily become angry I am not pleasing God at that moment.\u00a0 Oh He still loves me, but I am behaving in a way He does not approve Him.\u00a0 When I hurt my wife I hurt the Lord. Ouch!\u00a0 Yet it is true.<\/p>\n

When I am slow to listen, quick to speak and quick to become angry with anyone, redeemed and not redeemed, I do not please the Lord.\u00a0 God is not happy if I do not show the world, by my actions and words, His love.\u00a0 If my actions and words are not a testimony to the love and righteousness of God, I sin.\u00a0 When I am not treating others as I want God to treat me then I sin.\u00a0 Thank God for His mercy and love.\u00a0 I praise God and am thankful that He does not treat me as I have treated others.\u00a0 Rick Warren wrote in \u201cThe Purpose Driven Life\u201d that we all now EGR people.\u00a0 EGR is an acronym for Extra Grace Required.\u00a0 We all know people like that, starting, too often, with me.\u00a0 May we all be quick to love and slow to hurt.\u00a0 May we all reflect, to the glory and praise of God\u00a01 Corinthians 13:4-8a<\/b>\u00a0\u201c<\/span>Love is patient,\u00a0love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.\u00a05\u00a0It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking,\u00a0it is not easily angered,\u00a0it keeps no record of wrongs.\u00a06\u00a0Love does not delight in evil\u00a0but rejoices with the truth.\u00a07\u00a0It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8\u00a0Love never fails<\/span>.\u201d In doing so, we truly are a living epistle to the beauty and love of God.\u00a0 Praise God!<\/p>\n

Psalm 150:6<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.\u00a0 Praise the Lord!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Micah 7:7<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0But as for me, I watch\u00a0in hope\u00a0for the\u00a0Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear\u00a0me.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Micah 6:8<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0He has shown You, O man, what\u00a0is\u00a0good; And what does the\u00a0Lord\u00a0require of You but to do justly, to love mercy, And to walk humbly with Your God.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

James 1:19-20\u00a0–\u00a0My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry,\u00a020because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. This morning my wife gave me a Valentine\u2019s Day card.\u00a0 One line from her card said to me \u201cYou are so…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192],"tags":[129,1700,94,17],"class_list":["post-849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotion","tag-corinthians","tag-james","tag-micah","tag-psalm"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=849"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":850,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849\/revisions\/850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}