When we were young, we used to say, “Sticks and stones can break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” But is that true? Lots of us still feel the pain and carry the scars of words others have said to us. One day, a dad came home from work tired and grumpy, and…
Read MoreSeries: A Handful of Studies from James
Watch Your Mouth, part 2 – Be positive!
Our words matter. When our kids were little, they weren’t allowed to say the word “stupid.” One day, my wife was at a crowded grocery store on the same aisle with some of our church members. The girls were sitting in the grocery cart, or, as we call it in the South, the buggy, when…
Read MoreYour Desires that Battle Within You
We’re looking at some lessons in the book of James, one of the most practical books in the Bible. We’ve talked about both the damage and the good that our mouths can do. One of the things we said is this: what comes out of the mouth reflects what’s in our hearts. If we have…
Read MoreHow to Win the War Within You
The Bible says that each of us is in a constant state of battle. This conflict is within us, and it’s a battle between what God wants for us and what we want. It’s a battle over whether to submit to God or our selfish desires, over what we want to do and what we…
Read MoreFrom the Archives: Trials and Cozy Coupes
Note – The following is a re-post of one I wrote in May 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. Since we’ve been looking at passages in the book of James, I thought it might be fun to pull it out and take another look. Sometimes, you read something that sounds ridiculous. When our kids were little,…
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