To me that sounds like a very special gift from a father that loves his children on this planet. The crown of life. What would you do with eternity? This next four verses 13 - 16, has something very important to say. Now I want you to pay extra special attention to this. The Holy Spirit has worked through me for many years telling this message to everyone I know. And here it goes: verse 13, let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man; verse 14, but every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Verse 15, then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth fourth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. And James here showing great love for his brethren and man kind, as did his teacher, Jesus Christ, in verse 16, he stated, do not err (or error) my beloved brethren. The scriptures were quoted from King James Bible. I've got to tell you , it's not as easy as it sounds. There are so may things in our world today, of a tempting nature. Some examples: some of us are envious of movie stars, musicians, and others around us. Here is what some scripture says about being envious, it's also one of the ten commandments, to not covet. I'll give you one scripture and you'll have to look up the rest. For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work and this is in James 3:16. Now, these other scriptures are important, you should look them up and read them. Here we go; Deut. 5:21, James 4:5, Galatians 5:26, Psalm 10:3. Proverbs 3:31 &14:30 & 27:4, I Cor. 10:24, Psalm 37:7, Eccl. 4:4, Proverbs 24:1, James 3:14, Proverbs 23:17-18, and finally Luke 12:22-23. We can see here in just one way how hard life can be with temptation all over the place.
Another form of temptation is being tempted to fear. This is one of the bigger ones, and I'll tell you why, because it means you have little faith or lack thereof. Mark 4:40 says, and he said unto them, why are ye so fearful. How is it that ye have no faith? Jesus spoke those words and if you look up the scripture, it's in red letters, meaning spoken by Jesus. Here's scriptures on fear; Luke 12:32, Isaiah 41:13, Matthew 10:28, II Timothy 1:7, I Peter 3:12-14, Proverbs 29:25, John 14:27, Psalm 23:4-5. We'll talk more about temptation another time.
- The Connection -
Holy Spirit from within
giver of my spiritual gifts,
guiding me with my pen in hand
allowing your words to come from my lips.
My mind is filled with loving thoughts
my heart pounds with excitement,
your loving wisdom never stops
desiring to get the message sent.
J D Poore