Jesus Fellowship: Submit Yourselves to God. 11/22/15

Day 325

https://www.biblegateway.com/audio/dramatized/niv/Jas.4

James 4

Submit Yourselves to God

4 What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? 2 You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. 3 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

4 You adulterous people,[a] don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. 5 Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us[b]? 6 But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says:

“God opposes the proud
but shows favor to the humble.”[c]
7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

11 Brothers and sisters, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against a brother or sister[d] or judges them speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it. 12 There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you—who are you to judge your neighbor?

Boasting About Tomorrow
13 Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” 14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 15 Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil. 17 If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.

Supplied Life Devotional by Bill Freeman

November 22nd

"Love has been perfected among us in this:that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love." 1 John 4:17- 18
John is describing the nature of perfect love. This kind of love not only casts out fear, but it also gives us boldness in the day of judgment. There is a reason for our having this boldness:"because as He is, so are we in this world." It does not say "as He was" but "as He is." How is He? The Lord Jesus has once and for all passed through Calvary, the tomb, and the grave. His relationship with the Father can never again be characterized by judgment as the One "smitten by God" on the cross (Isa. 53:4). His present relationship with the Father in resurrection is characterized by the eternal flow of love between them. Just as He is enjoying this realm of love with the Father, so are we in this world. Thus, what characterizes my relationship with God is not judgment, condemnation, or fear, but a sweet rest in the security of that love over me in this world-- in my condition-- because God loves me just as I am. We are enjoying Him and we are with Him, just as the Son is.
Our relationship with the Lord is characterized by love- dealings. All our dealings with the Lord are actually love- dealings. Everything is love. The Lord's discipline in our lives is a love- dealing; it is altogether characterized by love. And now we love Him because He first loved us and rid the atmosphere between us of any torment and fear

Pray Until Something Happens (PUSH)

Anna, Ariana, Ariel, Georgie, Linnette, Wes, and Zoe.