Blended Family: For the glory of God.

Blended families are becoming more and more common in today’s world, including among Christians. This blog is not to discuss what criteria should be for blended families, on topics such as divorce and remarriage, but I want to help our blended families and those counseling blended families, remember some great, hope-filled, transformative truth from scripture. 

Firstly, I don’t consider to be an expert in understanding the complexity of blended families. Each family is unique. However, I do want to say that God has a high view of marriage and family, whether it is blended or not, and there are great truths to live by in the scripture that provide necessary help. Thus, based on the scripture, here are some general truths about blended families:

• On Marriage:
  • Marriage is a lifelong covenant of companionship between a man and a woman, created in the image of God, that results in unity of purpose for dominion under God.^[i] Marriage, even when two blended families come together (given the remarriage was done biblically), is instituted and ordained by God. Thus, the character of marriage is established by God. When two families blend together to form one family, they submit to God to give them direction and understanding on how to function in marriage. Thus, the sanctity of marriage remains the same. Marriage in a blended family is ultimately to glorify God, just like any marriage. (2 Corinthians 5:9) And so, based on the desire to please God, the blended family fulfills its roles as husband, wife, parents, and children (Ephesians 5:22-6:4). As complex as it is to work out the details pertaining to blended families, who come from different households with different traditions and ways of doing things, the great motivation to fulfill the God-given role in marriage comes from the desire to honor and glorify God. With the goal in mind, a man leads the family with love and sacrifice, and the wife submits to the husband, and they both lead their family in God’s instruction, and in return, the children honor their parents. All for the glory of God.
• On Parenting:
  • The most complex issue when it comes to blended families, from my counseling experience, is in the issue of parenting. Now, one of the mistakes that I see blended families make often is that they jump into setting boundaries and guidelines for parenting and make that a priority over everything else. Matter of fact, most of such marriages are spent in working out the parenting aspect of marriage. Most conflicts arise because the parents don’t agree on parenting. And while the guideline for parenting is important, especially to establish it through God’s Word, one must see the order in which God views family. According to scripture, a family unit is strong when marriage is strong. Our Lord Jesus taught on the importance of marriage and the priority of the spousal relationship in marriage in Matthew 19:5. After our relationship with God, the relationship of husband and wife should take the most priority, and when the marital relationship is strong, it will only benefit the couple in setting good biblical parenting guidelines. A couple in a blended family that prayerfully and submissively works towards strengthening their marriage will work better as a team in establishing expectations as parents. Often times, the not getting along when it comes to parenting or discipline issue is the result of not getting along with each other in marriage. This is true for any marriage. 
  • That said, the role of parents in raising their children with love in instruction of the Lord and discipline remains the same in the blended family. Parents, leading by example through their marriage, are to reveal to their children that God’s way is the best and disciple them in God’s Word. The example of love and godliness from parents will encourage and uplift the children in moving from their own struggles about the blended family to a God-honoring relationship with their parents as love and trust are built. With patience and prayer, parents work towards building a loving relationship with all children to fulfill their responsibility in raising them for the glory of God.
• On Discipline:
  • One of the key disagreements in a blended family can often be on the topic of discipline. Discipline motivated by the love for children that desires to see them honor God is a responsibility given to parents (Proverbs 3:12). Often, inconsistency and partiality in discipline lead to various conflicts within blended marriages. The general principle would be to set up and enforce discipline fairly and consistently for all the children. In most cases, the natural parent might be in the best position to discipline his or her own children, while the stepparents can continue building a relationship, trust, and respect from their stepchildren. Nevertheless, careful planning and consistency are key for parents to enforce fair discipline among children in the blended family. 
• For Children:
  • Often, children have a hard time accepting their parents’ marriage to another person in a blended family. The role of parents is to lovingly teach them and show them with their marriage as an example to help them move past this hurdle, as discussed above. Sometimes, this takes work, patience, and time. Lead them gently. However, by God’s grace, it is possible. Nevertheless, the scripture also sets a role for children, which is to obey and honor their parents (Ephesians 6:1-3). Obeying and honoring the parents is one of the indications of obeying and honoring God. Thus, children in the blended family are to be encouraged to do so towards both their natural and stepparents, as long as parents don’t ask their children to do something that God forbids.
• Last encouragement to parents:
  • I saved the best for last. Those in blended families, one of the biggest encouragements that I can give you through this blog is to focus on your spiritual life. If you are growing in your spiritual life, being filled with the spirit, holding fast to the word of God, walking in the ways that God has established for you (Ephesians 5:15-21), you will already have the right foundation to fulfill your role in marriage and parenting. When our vertical relationship (relationship with God) thrives, our horizontal relationship is bound to thrive as we function with more grace, mercy, love, and forgiveness, which we firsthand experience in our life from God every day.
• This blog does not address all the realities and practicum that come with blended families. And I also recognize the difficulties and hardships that come when two families blend as one. However, God’s Word provides guidelines about what marriage should be and gives us great hope that God is honored when we are faithful and obedient to Him. There is nothing that satisfies a Christian more than realizing that our life brings honor and glory to our God. God blesses faithfulness, and our faithfulness in being spirit-filled through God’s Word and submitting to His instruction to fulfill our roles in marriage and parenting will ultimately be a blessing to our marriage and our family. All for the glory of God.

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^[i] This definition is from the resource on marriage provided by Sonrise Counseling Ministries, Ozark, MO. 

Having a Christlike Speech

Many years ago, there was a trend that was popular among Christians, many even had wrist bands following this trend, that said WWJD, “What would Jesus do?” The principle was to examine our heart and our actions and compare it with the heart and actions of Jesus and not only compare it but also align it with Jesus.  The goal was to have Christlike behaviors.Today, it seems like many need a reminder of not only WWJD but WWJS, “What would Jesus say?” 

Saturated by God’s word, our words are also to be Christ-like. This calls for an examination of our speech and more so of our heart to see if our words and conversations align with the words and conversations Jesus would have. This is not to presume that we use the same words as Jesus but we ought to use words that are truthful and sincere like Jesus. 

We live in a time and age where there is a great need to be truthful and sincere in our speech. From news to Facebook posts to a simple tweet, we are daily reminded of the reality of the sinfulness of this world by how the truth is abused. Many tend to distort the truth in their favor whereas many tend to use words that are not meant to help or build or encourage but to actually put the other person down. The goal is to elevate themselves. Just look around us, we see truth being misrepresented, and exaggerated, we see promises being made without any intentions to fulfill, we see excuses being made to ignore responsibilities. A quick glance at the social media can reflect such reality but it also calls for the urgency for us believers, who have been transformed by the gospel to this new life of righteousness; to be truthful and sincere.

Christ not only demonstrated with His life but also taught His believers to be truthful and sincere. In His magnificent ‘Sermon on the Mount’, while correcting the false teachers of His time, who were flippantly and carelessly taking false oaths, Jesus encourages His believers by teaching, “Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.”(Matthew 5:37 ESV) While Jesus was not prohibiting or banning the taking of oaths, He was definitely calling upon His believers to be truthful and sincere in everything they say. If we want to talk like Jesus, our words are to be trustworthy and reliable just like Jesus’ words. As Christians, we don’t even need to take an oath, for our words are to be truthful and sincere to such a point that people around us don’t even have to question if it can be trusted or not. Just as an oath binds a person to tell the truth, our gospel transformation, and our goal to be like Christ should bind us to have the reputation of truth-telling.

The Scripture provides ample teaching on how we can trust God and His word to foster the habit of truthfulness in our speech so that we can have a Christlike speech. Here are few ways we can foster truthfulness and sincerity in our speech:

Examine your speech: You know better than anyone else with an exception to God Himself, if you are being truthful or not in your speech. In fact, this might also be a motivation to not speak and stay silent rather than speak in an untruthful and insincere manner. James 1:9 can be our motivation to be slow to speak when the speech is not God-honoring. Moreover, Ephesians 4:29 can be a great source for us to examine our speech. Even when we are being truthful, does our speech include sincerity to build the other person? Does it fit the occasion or is it an appropriate time? And lastly, does it provide grace to the hearer? Imagine how many social media arguments would have been avoided if believers filtered their speech through the lens of the above verse in Ephesians.

Examine your heart: It makes sense biblically that examining our speech should lead to examining our heart. Because our speech is a revelation of our heart? Jesus says in Luke 6:45, “Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.” (emphasis added by me) What is the state of our hearts? Even when we may be speaking the truth, is it motivated by love with the goal of building the other person up. As Luke 6:45 teaches, we are to examine the state of our heart to evaluate if it is a storage of good treasure or evil treasure. Moreover, as our sinfulness of heart is exposed, we are compelled to seek God’s mercy, who alone can change our heart from flawed-ness to truthfulness. If you tend towards being untruthful, repent of your sins and plead with God to change your heart. God is faithful to forgive, and He is faithful to change us. Moreover, this also leads us to ask ourselves “what kind of treasures are we feeding our heart?” Thus, it is very essential that we consume God’s word on a regular basis so our heart becomes a storage of good treasures. And when you take time to read, meditate and submit to God’s word, it will reflect upon your speech.

Saturate your speech with God’s word: One of the things that I have learned from my experience of counseling is that I am less prone to fail with my words and harm others with my speech when I am more dependent on using God’s word in my conversations. While our words are flawed and cannot be fully trusted, God’s word is trustworthy. This is where James 1:9 is helpful again, we are to be slow to speak but quick to listen. While we spend time in God’s word’s we are opening our ears to hear what God has to say, which will impact our speech to be glorifying to God. God’s word warns us not to be quick to speak (James 1:9), to speak the truth with love (Ephesians 4:15), to not speak corruptly but to speak to build the other person up in grace (Ephesians 4:29), and to encourage others gently towards righteousness (Galatians 6:1). 

As we saturate ourselves with God’s word, it renews our heart through the help of the Holy Spirit to change our flawed heart towards the heart of truthfulness and sincerity, as exemplified and taught by our Lord and Savior. As in every other aspect of our life, our speech is also to be Christlike. Let us remember that everything in our lives and conversation is in His presence and it may indeed be the thing which will determine what others think of Him. We represent Christ not only with our actions but also with our speeches and the heart behind it. 

Dealing with someone who fears falling out of favor from God.

Often counselees come to us with great guilt, that they are having hard time to overcome their temptations. Living a Christian life is not easy. Constantly dealing with our old life of sinfulness and the constant pursuit of the new life of righteousness that Christ has bought for us is the spiritual warfare that every Christians will have to battle. Although our hope for future where there will be no such warfare and there will be no more of sin is certain, there is nevertheless great battle of putting off our old self and putting on the new self that Christians often face. It is very easy and common for Christians to be discouraged during the sanctification process. We put all our efforts and sometimes our flesh is so weak that we give in to the very temptation we are fighting.  

The constant failure in the sanctification process often leads counselees to even doubt their relationship with God. They feel like they have fallen out of the favor of God. They understand their failure in meeting the demands of God and thus, they feel unworthy to be in the presence of God. This happens more often than we think. I have a friend that strives to pursue holiness, but he beats himself down when he fails and more often even doubts his salvation. He thinks that the favor of God in his life depends upon his obedience. While the pursuit of holiness is a Christ-like pursuit, one of the things that my friend neglects is that even as Christians, we still sin. We are not slaves of sin anymore, but we are still influenced by our sin and sins of others. And while Christians do have the ability and the resources available to them to deal with sin, and we should constantly deal with sin and pursue righteousness, we also need to remind ourselves that Christians nevertheless continue to sin. In addition to this, a major truth that my friend is missing is that God does not favor us because of our righteousness. The simple understanding of who God is, a Holy and perfectly righteous God implies that the righteousness that He demands is also perfectly Holy. Thus, any human attempt to race to the perfect holiness demanded by God is going to be met with failure. God demands perfect obedience and none of us sinful humans can match His perfect standard. So, one can notice why anyone who tries to earn favor from God eventually will face the downward spiral of feeling out of favor from God. How do we deal with such counselees? We simply share with them the beauty of the gospel. 

The beauty of the gospel is that what God demands, He also supplies.

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God demands perfect righteousness and while we were yet sinners and could not match His demand, God in His love gracefully supplies perfect righteousness through Jesus Christ. Martin Luther famously explained the Great Exchange that happened on the cross, our sins imputed on Christ and His perfect righteousness that meets the demand of God, imputed on us. So, that is why it is important for us to remember that we are saved by God’s grace, and we have already been favored by God.  The guilt of falling out of favor with God is gone. Through Jesus, we enter an eternal relationship with God. In this Christian life, while we do fail, and we run to God with repentance, we are comforted by the faithfulness of God in forgiving us (1 Jn 1:9), we are strengthened by God’s promise in never forsaking us (Deut 31:16), and we rejoice in the truth that nothing will separate us from love of God (Rom 8:35). Often, counselees that face anxieties and fear over their salvation need to be renewed in their mind with the truth and need to be built up in their faith. Our task as counselors is to give them the truth in love and seek the help of the Holy Spirit to transform their life through the truth.  As the truth of God goes in, the Holy Spirit uses the truth to renew the thinking and strengthen the faith of the believer on Christ and as a result: the fear and anxieties go out. It all begins with recognition that the beauty of the gospel is that what God demands, He also supplies. 

The Gift that stands out: Suffering for Christ’s sake – Is it a burden or a privilege?

We love gifts. We love it so much that gifts have overtaken the reason behind the season during Christmas. There is nothing wrong with loving gifts. In fact, in Christ we have the greatest gift, that is our salvation. Paul writes to Ephesians, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” (Eph 2:8-9). Grace and faith are both gifts of God, as Paul writes to the Romans, it is given to us “through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.” (Rom 3:24-25) We would all love that gift. But along with that gift comes a whole lot of other gifts.  In our salvation, we now have access to the grace of God, we have the guidance of the Holy Spirit in us, we have assurance of the hope of eternity with Christ, and many more spiritually profound gifts that God gives to His elect. But along that line, Paul mentions a gift that seems unusual and stands out among all the other gifts that we have as a believer of Jesus Christ – particularly, when Paul is talking about suffering for Christ’s sake. 

Paul writes to the Philippian church, “For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in Him but also suffer for His sake” These words could not be more clear here. For Paul, suffering for Christ’s sake was a gift of God helping in his walk with Christ making his life worthy of the gospel. (context in verse 27) In fact in the same passage in verse 28, Paul tells us that faithfully enduring suffering for Christ’s sake is a sign of our salvation. We love salvation as gift and rejoice in it as we receive it, but do we receive the gift of suffering for Christ’s sake with joyfulness?

I write this because this is such a foreign concept in the western world. Somewhere along the line, instead of enduring the suffering and embracing it as God’s gift, we tend to doubt and question God’s sovereign purpose over our suffering because somehow we have started to desire ease and comfort more than God in our lives. This is such an alienated mindset when I read the scripture. When I read about Stephen standing firm in His faith and being stoned for sharing the gospel, when I read about Paul who has his whole list of suffering and trials he went through for Christ but never moved from his stance of being joyful in Christ, I am convinced that these guys found it a tremendous honor and privilege to suffer for Christ’s sake.

Paul is not the one to just write about rejoicing in the Lord but he himself rejoiced in the Lord always amidst all his sufferings. 2 Cor 11:23-28 paints a picture of the sufferings that Paul went through, “Are they servants of Christ? I am a better one—I am talking like a madman—with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death. Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one.  Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers;  in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches.” And in midst of all that is Paul’s attitude as he himself writes in Romans, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” (Rom 8:28) How can a guy with so much suffering be the most joyful person? How can Paul see the unfair treatment and injustice he was facing in the world for faithfully proclaiming the gospel of the Creator of the world and still rejoice in the Lord always? How can Paul consider his dire circumstances to to be joy in the Lord?

The answer is found in the above verse in Phil 1:29, Paul considered all the suffering for Christ’s sake to be a privilege given to him by God Himself. This is the kind of attitude that would turn the world upside down as Paul was accused in Acts 17.  As we boldly make Christ known, we must stand firm as united body of Christ in midst of the opposition.   And yes, as we shine the light of the gospel to the dark world that is being blinded by the gods of this world, there will be resistance, suffering, and trials, but we endure it.  In fact we embrace it knowing that all of it is sign of our salvation and in truth is from God, as Paul writes, “This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation, and that from God.” (Phil 1:28) We embrace the suffering because we know that in the end, eternity with Christ means that it was all worth it.  Christ is worth living for and He is worth dying for – and in all that, He is definitely worth suffering for. Just like we have the privilege and honor to share the gospel to the world as His ambassador, we also have the privilege and honor to suffer for Christ sake and endure it faithfully.  So as we extend God’s grace to many people, lets embrace earthly suffering that comes along with it, knowing that suffering is inevitable, but eternity with Christ will be proof that it was all worth it.

” So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.  For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” (2Cor 4:16-18)

The hope, that death of a friend gave me. The hope, which I couldn’t give for death of a family member.

Recently, one of my friends passed away. Her name was Corrin Linkowski. She lost her life in a car accident. Obviously it is a tragic moment for both her family and her friends and there has been a lot of weeping and mourning. But in midst of all that, there has also been a lot of considering it joy like James says in chapter 1:2. There have been a lot of prayers and praises to God in the midst of this suffering. While the family is grieving that Corrin is not with them on earth anymore, they rejoice in the fact that she is with God in heaven. That kind of hope only comes with the assurance of salvation through Jesus Christ.

I met Corrin for the first when we hosted Thanksgiving Party here at Riverdale Baptist Church back in November 2018. I met Corrin and her sister Genavieve and our first conversation was how we all preferred Lecrae’s old music better than the new.  Not making a controversial statement, it was just a preference. Soon, we talked about seriousness of the word of God while preaching (my point) and seriousness of  the word of God while singing/writing the songs (sisters point). I walked out thinking that these sisters are serious about their faith and word of God.  Then, I had the opportunity to join few of my friends from Bethany Baptist Church, where the Linkowskis are members of, in our trip to CROSS conference in Kentucky. Corrin and Gen. were there too. We were all challenged that week to make our life count for the gospel sake. I am still processing some things from that week. Soon, there was another opportunity to equip us in understanding God’s missions through Perspectives, a 15-week course that helps shape our perspectives for World Evangelism.  The sisters were part of the class and Corrin would lead us into worship alongside my friend Zac every week. She used her talent/spiritual gift of singing (both sisters have beautiful voice) to praise God, serve His church and point people to God. In fact, the Saturday before Corrin’s accident, she was there leading us into worship alongside Zac. The few times I spent with Corrin, she has showcased that her desire in this life was to glorify God, with her life and death.

Now one might look at her death and would wonder why would God allow something like this to happen? We may not know why God allowed this but we know that God has a purpose and His purposes for our lives are better than ours even if it is a short-lived life. When I look at Corrin’s life, its not a tragedy but it’s a life well spent. Many today remember her as a faithful Christian who used her spiritual gift to always praise God.  The local news remembered her as someone who is caring, loving.  At a very young age, Corrin was able to impact many lives with her faithfulness and it didn’t, just end there, she was also able impact many lives for God’s glory even in her death. I cannot do justice to this blog without mentioning the faith that the Linkowski family showcased during this time. They wept, they prayed with faith for healing but in all this, they sought God’s will. They were okay to give their temporary goodbyes to Corrin if it meant for God’s will to be done. It takes faith and God’s work in their heart to have that attitude. Anyone that visited them would come out crying for Corrin but also praising God for His goodness. One can only have this hope if you have faith in Jesus Christ.

You see what gave comfort to Corrin’s family was hope in Christ. The Bible says that, if you are a believer of Jesus Christ, to be absent from body is to be present with the Lord. 2 Cor. 5:8. Corrin’s favorite verse was Phil. 1:20 where Paul writes , “as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death.” Her goal was to honor Christ with her life, which she did, and was to honor Christ with her death, which she continues to do.  Paul in that same passage writes that it is a gain for him to die because of what it meant and what it means for believers., “ My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.” This is what gives us hope and joy in midst of suffering, especially when a believer dies, the presence of the Glory of God, our beloved Jesus Christ. I am sure Corrin is singing praises to Jesus and is happier than she has ever been.

I learned from Corrin’s life to make every day count. I learned that we are created for a purpose, and we ought to use the spiritual gifts that God has given to us to make His name known and bring glory to Him. Corrin’s death gave me hope that there is a better place for us believers and this is not our permanent home. Corrin’s life and death gave me hope that can only be found in Jesus, which comforts our heart and results us to praise Him even in the midst of tough suffering.

Last year, my grandma passed away. She would not believe in the gospel. She had been a devoted Hindu all her life. She did her part,; offerings, sacrifices and all the rituals hoping that her good Karma would liberate her soul from cycle of reincarnation but she died without any assurance. Even on her deathbed, she had no idea what her after life would look like. As a believer of Jesus Christ, I did. The bible is clear about the eternal destination of those that don’t believe in Jesus. I am not writing this out of arrogance or ignorance but out of grieve and regret, I had no hope to give to my family when she passed away. I cried and cried and wept and wept. I couldn’t rejoice the way Linkowskis rejoiced. I couldn’t praise God for her life like Linkowskis did. It left me empty for her but also taught me the value of hope we have in Jesus.  If you are a believer in Jesus Christ and you have a family member, friend that needs to hear the gospel, I am writing this for you so that you may not feel the emptiness for them just in case something tragic like this happens. Go share the gospel with them, pray fervently for them, and cry out to God for them. If you are reading this and you do not know your eternal destiny, you may know it through the gospel. You need to get the gospel right. Visit my other blog   http://www.kghimire00.wordpress.com/2018/09/07/what-is-the-gospel/

I have gone on detail to write about what the gospel is.

We live in this world where neither life nor death is certain. Life is far from simple. It’s a complex mixture of events, people, relationships, situations and circumstances upon which we have little or no control. Often, when someone close to us passes away it compels us to look at our lives and take steps in our lives to make it count, whatever it may be. The Bible teaches us that this earth is not our permanent home. James writes that Life is just a vapor. Compared to eternity life is short-very short and Eternity is long-very long. One day we are all going to stand in front of God and give accounts for our lives, what will we have to say? What report will we have for Him? Whom will we say we lived our life for? For Christ or, for ourselves?  We shouldn’t waste our lives; we have to make it count. You don’t have to do a lot of things to make a difference for the Lord in the world. You only need to know a few things that are great, from above and be willing to live for them and die for them. Which is why, anybody here, if you are a believer can make a difference in this world for the Lord. But the sad reality of our culture is that there are some of us here today who do not want our life to make a difference. All we want is to live this life and pass on.  Finish school, go to college, get a job, have a family, nice house, nice car, good vacation, grow old healthy, get a good retirement, die happy, and in between we go to church on Sundays to avoid hell and that’s all we want. And we don’t give a rip if we are fulfilling God’s will in this life and if our life counts for eternity.  Is this how we want to spend our life before we die and stand in front of God and give account of our lives? What are we going to say to God? That’s a tragedy in the making. Corrin’s life was not a tragedy, it was a life well spent. CT Studd once wrote, “Only one life, twill soon be past;Only what’s done for Christ will last” That’s what Corrin’s life and death has taught me.

 

 

” Brothers, Listen to me….” -Introducing Pastor James

Acts 15 is the premises, there is a council held in Jerusalem. Early Christians were mostly Jewish but God’s gospel had now been spread among the Gentiles and God’s grace have had it’s effect in their lives. Thus, arises a big question among the Jewish early Christians. Gentiles are not circumcised, they do not keep the Mosaic law (laws of Old Testament) that Jewish kept, how could they be saved ?  From the context, it seems like even Paul wanted to have clarity in the topic so he travels to Jerusalem with Barnabas to raise the question among the councilmen. These councilmen consisted of some elite Early Christians. Some of them protested that they cannot be saved unless they are circumcised and follow Mosaic Law whereas Peter defends the position that they can be saved through faith without circumcision or Mosaic Laws, through Holy Spirit. Paul and Barnabas further urges the council of God’s desire to save the Gentiles by reflection on God’s wonders among them. Believers from both sides debate and put their sides. Sounds much like some theological debates I heard amongst my colleagues in the Bible college. Thus, an ongoing debate awaits a decision and a conclusion to be made. So, stands James, with the authority given to him as leader of the church in Jerusalem and replies to all, “Brothers,listen to me…….”(v 13) He further gives his final judgment on topic in verse 19. Everyone listens and submits to his God-given authority. Paul listens, Peter listens. Barnabas listens, all the other believers with opposing views listen, This is who James was, leader of the assembly in Jerusalem, in our modern day terms, Pastor of the largest congregation at that time of the church in Jerusalem. Who was James who would speak and even apostles like Paul and Peter listened. What were his characteristics that made him the leader, what’s his story? If Paul, Peter and Barnabas listened to him, he is definitely worthy for all of us believers to listen and learn from. But first, lets learn about him,  so lets dive into the letter that he wrote inn the Bible, the Letter of James.

James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes in the Dispersion: Greetings (James 1:1 ESV)

While it is just one verse, I think this verse reflects James’ character and how far he had come in his spiritual life. Furthermore,   brief study of his past gives a fascinating redemptive story of a rebel, who is transformed through the resurrection of Christ and is changed boldly for His gospel sake which led to the point where James starts the letter with such introduction. I was first challenged to think about the verse few years back in one of my classes in Baptist Bible College, as my professor broke down this verse. The humility shown by James, which we will further discuss below fascinated me and challenged me too swallow the pride that I have about myself. Knowing about James encouraged me towards the servanthood and submission to our God for His glory. I attempt to write this letter with prayer and hope that you may find encouragement and humility through life of Pastor James which may lead you towards the servanthood modeled by Jesus and imitated by James.  In this blog I shall introduce who James is and than I will write another blog about his characteristic based on James 1:1. So lets begin by breaking down the verse.

“James,………” v. 1

James is the author of the book James (obvious). John MacArthur in his commentary claims nth probable span of his writing to be around A.D 44-49, which makes it the first book in the New Testament to be written.  The author of the book, James is also half brother off  Jesus Christ. Jesus was born to a virgin (Mary) conceived by an angel and Mary and Joseph were his earthly parents. Now there are many people that will claim that James is not half brother of Jesus. The three theories about the relationship of Jesus and James as prevalent today are:

1. Jesus and James were step brothers: Joseph had a marriage prior to Mary and James was his son. There is no evidence in the scripture about this so its not probable.
2. Jesus and James were cousins: Its possible but not probable. the Bible talks of events where Jesus’ brothers and sisters frequently visited Him and made an appearances often. If it were Jesus’ cousin, its not probable that the authors Ould recognize them as Jesus’ brothers and Sisters.
3. Jesus and James were half brother: In my opinion, this is the most consistent position from the scripture. Jesus was born in a way as mentioned above and than Mary and Joseph went on to have a normal marriage where they had multiple children. James was one of them along with his other brothers and sisters. Matt 13:55, Mark 6:3 gives an account of his brothers and sisters.

One needs to understand why people hold the previous two position when it comes to James. Well, incomes from the teaching and belief of Ever Virgin Mary. A lot off early Christians and present Roman Catholicism believe that Mary was ever virgin and she never had any type off intimate relationship with Joseph and hence, never had any children . This is still taught in Roman Catholicism today. Even some Christians and theologians from the past have had dilemma in recognizing James as the half-brother of Jesus. Examples include: Martin Luther and John Calvin. In my opinion, the Bible is consistent that Mary and Joseph had kids after they had Jesus and they lived a normal married life like anyone else. The Bible gives plenty of reference about Jesus’ mother and brother. (Matt 12:46-47, Mark 6:3) Not only that, even Paul explicitly calls James “the Lord’s brother” (Gal1:19). Thus, I conclude that James is the half brother of Jesus.

Surprisingly. although Jesus’ family grew with Him, and saw Jesus grow in wisdom and stature (Luke 2:52), they never believed in Jesus during his ministry on Earth. In fact, the Bible records that Jesus’ family though that he was crazy and out off His mind. The went as far as t seize him (Mark 3:21), modern day, we call that an intervention from parents. Before we get too harsh on Jesus’ family, how many of us have. siblings and if our sibling posts on facebook that He/She is god, than your first thought would be, “He//She has gone crazy”. Jesus is a grown man and is beginning his public ministry, the family is not with him all the time but they come in here and there. Jesus proclaims that he is God and he created heavens and earth and he goes around and tell people to repent and he is the savior. And His family who grew up with him, his mom Mary who knew of whoo he was through the angel, still doesn’t believe in Him and think that he is crazy. The Bible is real and it accounts the history as it is. Even Jesus came from a broken family where even his loved ones did not put their trust in him. he mentions the sadness of that in Mark 6;4. Jesus family were devout jewish and its was hard for them to believe that Jesus was Lord. In fact, they never came to believe in Jesus throughout his ministry on Earth,  There are many people in the world today that think that Jesus is crazy for claiming to be God. It ok to start there, Jesus’ family thought the same too.

Now lets fast forward. Jesus died on the cross and has resurrected. He commands his believers to go make disciples and he ascends to heaven. There are only few Christians at that time and they gather to pray. Acts 1:13 gives an account of forming of first church where the believers are gathering in one accord in prayer and in verse 14, there is Mary, the mother of Jesus and is brothers praying to Jesus with them. Something has happened between Mary and Jesus’ brother that includes James from rebelling giants Him and claiming Jesus to lose this mind to Praying to him as savior. what could have happened? Ho did Jesus redeem their lives to help them recognize Jesus as their savior. Well, the same way her redeems our souls today, through His resurrection. Paul gives the answer in 1 Cor 15:7, I can only imagine what it would be like for James, who rebelled against Jesus thinking Jesus was crazy and than to meet Jesus in his resurrected body. We do not know how it as but we do know what affect it had in James’ life. No longer does he doubts Jesus’ diety but submits to it.  James is changed hereafter, his life is transformed and now he is bold in his faith, in fact after the day of Pentecost he becomes key member of the church in Jerusalem eventually becoming the key leader of the congregation. (Gal 2:9-12). He was the person that even Apostles reported to (Acts 12:17). The resurrection off Christ is still changing souls today and is able to breakdown any rebellion and strongholds we have against him today just like he did with his own brother James.

Lastly James was also known as James the just because of his righteous life, he was martyred. They had to kill him. On all this I think of Mary, how horrific it would have been to bury your firstborn Jesus than to burry your other son James, But also, what an incredible family she turned out to have/raise. One of them is the savior Jesus that God trusted on he to be the mother, the other one is a Pastor of the biggest congregation and the writer of one of the books in the Bible. her other son Jude also ends up writing a book in the Bible. History records that, James brother became the leader of the congregation of Jerusalem after he was martyred. One can’t stop admiring this family and the members of. this family. But Jesus, James, Jude, Mary, they don’t want us to just admire this family, they want us to join them. just like Jesus taught in Matt 12:42. If you are reading this and do not haver relationship with Christ, you may also have the same spiritual relationship with Jesus like James had by believing in his birth, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus just like James did.

What is the Gospel?

As a believer, the gospel of Jesus Christ is a life changing news that has changed my life in a completely new way. Hearing the gospel of a God who loves us so much to give his only son for sacrifice and to hear about God who not only died for us but conquered the death after three days so that we may also receive the eternal life through the grace of our living God is the reason why most of us put our faith in the gospel and become Christians. But, I also believe that among us believers, we really do not take much time in understanding and dwelling in the importance of the gospel. Most of us forget the gospel after we become belivers.

What is the Gospel of Jesus Christ? DO we truly  understand it? We must understand what the gospel of Jesus Christ is because we are standing under that truth and putting our faith in it.

The gospel of Jesus Christ has to start with the one who created it, the one who planned it, has to start with the one who gave and the one who came. The gospel does not start with you or me, it is not centered around us, it is centered around God himself. And thus, we need to understand who God is, what are His characteristics. But first thing first, we need to understand why the gospel was given to us, why did Jesus have to come and die on the cross? Well, the generic answer to that would be “We are all sinners” which is not a wrong answer but I believe that it is not an enough answer. That’s not really understanding God’s character and I think that if we truly understand who God is than we will have a better understanding of the gospel and its impact in our life.

GOD IS HOLY

The gospel of Jesus Christ starts with the God and that God is a holy God. The Bible says that God is Holy, which means that He is without blemish. Our greatest idea of perfection and God is a step above it. He cannot be corrupted or sin cannot ever entice him. In fact, God hates sin and abhors it and abstains everything that is evil. God’s character and holiness is beyond the whiteness of snow. The Bible tells that Moses could not even look at God in fullness because His holiness would have killed Him. That’s how Holy God is, it is the only attribute that the Bible talks about three times at once; “The Bible says that God is Holy, Holy, Holy.” and the holiness of God is how we must start off in understanding this gospel.

GOD IS JUST

God is Holy and God is also just. God is just  because He is holy. If somebody is holy, he must also be just. A just God must judge everything that is not holy because it will maintain his holiness. Thus, in order to maintain His holiness, God has to judge everything that is not Holy and that is you and I. We are not holy and just at all and God in order to maintain his holiness has to judge us because if he did not than he would no longer be holy. Again a question arises, “We are not perfect and God should know that.” Yes God knows that nobody’s perfect but that does not and should not stop God from judging the evil. For example: If a murderer standing on the court in front of the judge with all the witness and evidence against him is released because the judge realizes that nobody is perfect and everyone makes mistakes, we would look at that judge and say that you are as much of a criminal as that murderer himself. You see those who are given opportunity to issue justice do not issue justice, they become as corrupt as the criminal themselves. If God did not judge you and I,  God did not judge everything that is evil and sinful, God would become corrupt like you and I and God is not able to be corrupt or do evil, its against His character. God’s justice makes Him good/Holy. Now some might say, I am a good person. My good deeds outweigh my bad. Let me give an example to those that think this way: Just imagine if your Facebook was really able to read “What on your mind?” and post it automatically what we are thinking; or even make a video of our thoughts and post it online; all the lustful and evil thoughts that goes in our mind, that nobody can see inside. What id they were all exposed in Facebook, we would probably do two things, we would delete the Facebook and secondly, we would never want to see anyone that have seen our Facebook because now we know that they know about who we really are. And the reality of who we really are is that we are criminals not victims. We are criminals before our holy God and He is going to judge us. Now what is that judgment going to look like. Its not so popular now days to talk about that but God’s judgment is a holy judgment. The bible says that ” The wages of sin is death” and that death is not just our physical death. Yes, every breath we take is a breath closer to our death but the sin in our body also means a spiritual death. We shall stand in from of God and give accounts of our life and God in His absolute perfect Holiness will judge  us and cast us into a place call Hell. And He will take all of His Holy wrath and pour it on us rightfully and justfully for all of eternity. It will never stop, 100 years still going, 1000 years still going. I am not writing this to make us feel bad but I am writing it to paint a picture of reality of who God really is.
Now “How is that just? I have only sinned for 70 years and I am being punished for eternity.” Its like saying “It took me 20 seconds to kill someone so I should only be punished for 20 seconds.” That’s not how justice works and its not only about the time frame but also about whom the crime is committed against. A person who killed someone in the street may not have the same severe punishment as someone who killed the president of the country. Our sin and evil is committed against a holy infinite God and thus our judgment is also going to be holy, infinite. Every single one of will face his Holy judgment.

GOD IS LOVE

But this is when the gospel comes in. This is when the good news kicks in. Because, yes, the Bible does say that God is Holy, the Bible does say that God is just but the Bible also says that God is Love. And in His love, He sent Jesus Christ to the earth. He became a man; conceived by the Holy  Spirit and born of a virgin. He fulfilled God’s law and obeyed His commandments. Jesus was the only person on earth ever to live a holy perfect life. You can take all of Jesus’ thoughts and put it on Facebook and it would be alright. Jesus started his earthly ministry, went around and served people, healed people, taught people to repent and than what happened, the only innocent man to ever live was arrested, trialed as a criminal, he was beaten, he was stripped, he was mocked, he was spit on and after all that they put a 300 pound cross that he carried all over Jerusalem up the big hill and they nailed him to it. This was all done in Jesus’ will and because of God’s love for his people. And when on cross, Jesus took all of our sins, the Bible says that ” He who knew no sin became sin.” The Bible says that Jesus looked up to heaven and said “My father, my father, why have you forsaken me?” I have always thought why Jesus said that, but at that moment, Christ took all of our sins and since God is always separated from sin (Habakuk 5:13), at that moment God was separated from Christ and Christ took the fullness of God’s judgment and God’s wrath that was due us upon Him. And Christ who knew nothing about sin becomes the very thing, the curse and takes the fullness of the wrath of God that was due for us sinners and releases His spirit as He says “It is finished” and dies. They take His body and bury Him but that’s not it. in third day, Christ rises from the death. The one who became sin conquers it, The one who died conquers death so that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but also receive eternal life through the blood of Jesus Christ.

If you are reading this and you do not have a relationship with Christ, and God is stirring your heart for the gospel than, make sure you take care of the business and make it right between you and God. Do not waste one more day of your life without God being present in your life.

Believers, if you have believed in Christ at some point, now what. The gospel should stir us to do three things:

1. To remind us of the cross daily and repent of our sins:

Every sin that you commit, Christ paid the price for it on the cross. The gospel should stir your heart to repent. Change of mind is what repentance is. If there is no change in your life, no repentance or evidence of it that I am sorry you might want to check and evaluate if you truly believe in the gospel. Example: from Paul.

2. To glorify God by being obedient to Him:

As we repent and are sanctified in Christ daily, we need to find what the ultimate goal of the gospel is. Why do you believe in gospel? Let me ask you a question, Why do you want your sins to be forgiven, why do you want to go to heaven?

Would you be happy in heaven if God were not there?

Heaven is not going to be a place to meet with you friends and family, it is going to   be a place where you will be in the presence of God and you will worship and praise his name singing God you are “Holy Holy Holy” like those angels sang in Isiah and you will be consumed by His glory so much more that you will even not care who else is in heaven with you.

Some of us we do not honor God on earth, we do not worship Him, we do not put Him, His Church, His commandments first or as a priority. Heres a reality for you guys, you guys will be bored in heaven. That means you wont be in heaven.

We try to do this and that for salvation but forget the main motivation and goal for the gospel that is the glory of God. That’s why you were created for His glory and that is our life purpose.

“Whether therefore you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:13).

“Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him” (2 Corinthians 5:9).

“Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: fear God and keep His commandments, for this is man’s all. For God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil” (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14).

“Everyone who is called by My name, whom I have created for My glory; I have formed him, yes, I have made him” (Isaiah 43:7).

“If you love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15).

3. To share it with the world:

God has given us a wonderful honor, privilege to be an ambassador of His message, 2 Cor 5:17-20, more so he has commanded us to go into the world and share the gospel. The fact that you possess the message that is life changing, the message that is bigger, greater, more effective, and more applicable than anything else that one can hear or experience should stir our hearts to share that message to whoever comes our path. Are you going to share it or just keep it to yourselves? I believe that we have a message that is more powerful than a cure of cancer,  that is more life changing than any miracles one may desire and that is the means that God has chosen to further His kingdom down here on earth. Do we believe in this Gospel?