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Today’s Life Journal Reading is from:

James 1,2,3,4,5

Scripture

 ¹ My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment. ² For we all stumble in many things. If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body. ³ Indeed, we put bits in horses’ mouths that they may obey us, and we turn their whole body. ⁴ Look also at ships: although they are so large and are driven by fierce winds, they are turned by a very small rudder wherever the pilot desires. ⁵ Even so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things.
See how great a forest a little fire kindles! ⁶ And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell. ⁷ For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and creature of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by mankind. ⁸ But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. ⁹ With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God. ¹⁰ Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so. ¹¹ Does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening? ¹² Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Thus no spring yields both salt water and fresh.   
¹³ Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom. ¹⁴ But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. ¹⁵ This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic. ¹⁶ For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there. ¹⁷ But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. ¹⁸ Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. (James 3:1-18, New King James Version)

Observation:

*****Updated****

A friend just posted this great quote that I wanted to share; I think it goes well with today’s reading:

While we are never to put God to the test, we should certainly ask Him to test us. In surrendering to this examination, we are tried and often refined during the process.

` “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” ~ Psalm 139:23-24 (NIV) quoted by Laurie of “A Magnolia Heartbeats”.

James is a great book to read but it’s also a humbling book to read, because it seems to focus a lot on how we interact with others and how we use our words.

Honestly, whenever I read James, it makes me stop and do a major evaluation of how I use my words, be it here on the blog, on Twitter, on Facebook and in real life and how we present ourselves can make or break our testimony.

We live in a world that well, seems to be anything goes and sometimes prey on the exploitation of others for the rising of oneself. This is just a personal observation, and just a personal thought, but it sometimes, feel like, we revel in hurting or using our words to tear down others to build ourselves up, versus working on encouraging and lifting each other up.

When we speak, how does our words reflect ourselves, our spouses, our friends and more than anything our Heavenly Father?

Does the words and actions we portray, lift them up to the greater gloryof our Heavenly Father, or are they designed to just lift ourselves up?

I pray and hope that the words I speak and write would be in worship and praise our Heavenly Father and serve to lift His name up and to glorify only Him and not me, because me…well…I’m just really a small dot in the bigger picture of things.

Him; He is the beginning and He is the constant foundation that never changes and it’s always with prayers and hopes that this blog is in service always to Him.

 

 

 

Application:

James 3: 9-16,stays with me and will be something I will mull about over the day:

⁹ With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God. ¹⁰ Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so. ¹¹ Does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening? ¹² Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Thus no spring yields both salt water and fresh.   
¹³ Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom. ¹⁴ But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. ¹⁵ This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic. ¹⁶ For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there. ¹⁷

It’s a good reminder to take throughout the day, to remember and to ask oneself, where-ever we speak and where-ever we speak our words…who are we speaking about and for and how?

We can speak in such a way that even in gentle love and constructive encouragement, it can still glorify our Heavenly Father, but we can also speak in a way, that doesn’t show us to be followers of Christ, but follower’s of self or of  other.

A fine line to walk and something to remember throughout the day, when people see us, are they seeing us, or can they see our Heavenly Father in us?

My prayer and hope that when we speak, we speak in a way that will encourage and challenge and give strength and righteous conviction to refine not to judge and to condemn.

This is both an easy and a difficult passage to go over, but then again, if we seek to grow and mature, don’t we tell our children that sometimes it means having to face what is not easy and to persist through and from those lessons, we can grow and mature?

Yes, I will be hitting the commentary and re-reading this passage and well, just these chapters more later today, but it’s a welcome encouragement to understand and to apply further our Heavenly Father’s words and ask the difficult questions.

When people see me, will they see Him or do they see just me?

Prayer:

Heavenly Father, Thank You for Your loving strength and Your loving guidance and I pray and hope You keep challenging, encouraging and convicting what needs to be challenged or refined or matured as I follow You,Heavenly Father.

I pray You will guide my heart and words as I seek You and that I reflect You in and through me, so it’s always about You, never about me.

Lord, I thank You for Your welcoming hands for the days that I stumble or stray and Your gentle reminder to go back on the path that I was on and not off into the wilderness, far from You and Your word.

Help keep my heart open and willing, teach me discernment and taming the tongue that it may always speak words that reflect Your work and love.

Thank You Father, Thank You.

Amen

 

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****Purpose of this post****

Gentle Readers, There are days that I will read a verse or passage and just feel pulled to share here, but there are days when I will read something and just feel, I need to spend the day, in personal contemplation of what is being convey and may just post via Twitter, what passages I have read that day and post nothing on here.

That is what bible reading is about; It’s not about having to write something down everyday; There maybe days when you are reading say, Numbers and it’s just lineages, but other days, you may find yourself dealing with a “powerhouse verse” of the moment and have to just go “WOW” and seek God in personal time and prayer to understand what He is sharing.

I will try to post daily, but particularly on weekends, if I’m sick or I’m just completely in awe of what I’m reading or maybe I am trying to understand what I am reading, I may not post here, I may just write in my Life Journal (hardcopy), because I will find myself having to seek His Word and/or the Commentary and just seek in prayer to understand what our Father in Heaven is seeking to reveal.

Either way.

Reading His Word, is about getting to know Him better and developing your Christian growth and maturity. Do what is right and good for you.

If you do use the Life Journal and participate in the daily readings, I would like to hear from you and your perspective on each day’s reading, when I do have a post up, or feel free to comment on a previous “Daily Bible Reading post” or send me a quick email.

Please feel free to join in the linky that I post below, so others too, who uses the Life Journal/or SOAP method to read the bible can participate.

Don’t feel obligate to have to blog about each passage to be read, but if anything, feel free to share those passages that have the most impact on you that day.

There maybe some days that you may read your daily reading and find nothing to jot down in your journal or on your blog and that’s okay, but there maybe other days, that you will find yourself inspire.

This is about you being encouraged to have a personal relationship with our Heavenly Father, and spending each day with Him, You and Him.

It is my prayer and hope that this will be an encouragement to establish a personal daily reading as well.

To find out more about using the S.O.A.P. method, here’s a link to an ehow article and here’s the link to the Life Journal to find out more what it is, and how you can use it for your own daily bible readings. If you don’t want to order the journal or if it’s not available through your local church, another method is simply, buy a journal or notebook or even blog about your life journal readings.

Disclaimer: I am not personally affiliated with the church that the link goes to, but merely share it as a resource of what the Life Journal is, how to order it.

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