{"id":626,"date":"2011-07-04T15:45:11","date_gmt":"2011-07-04T15:45:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chadstutzman.net\/?p=626"},"modified":"2011-07-04T15:45:11","modified_gmt":"2011-07-04T15:45:11","slug":"nuggets-from-james","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chadstutzman.com\/?p=626","title":{"rendered":"Nuggets from James"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a rel=\"attachment wp-att-629\" href=\"http:\/\/chadstutzman.net\/07\/2011\/nuggets-from-james\/coffee_bible2\/\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-629\" title=\"coffee_bible2\" src=\"http:\/\/chadstutzman.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/coffee_bible2-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" \/><\/a>This morning I spent about a half hour reading through the book of James.  What amazing truth and incredible wisdom.  It was such a refreshing and challenging time that I thought I would share a few nuggets that really brought some renewed focus to my faith.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Compassionate Service <\/strong>&#8211; What a Christian does really matters &#8211; A good bit of James has to do with our actions.\u00a0 How we treat other people, the way in which we listen and speak to other people, the way in which we serve other people.\u00a0 The idea of compassionate service can only happen with a transformed heart.\u00a0 On our own we tend to do the selfish thing, but when we are plugged into God and filled with His Spirit, we can love people unconditionally.\u00a0 James reminds us that we are called to serve others.\u00a0 The measuring stick of our commitment is not our lip service, but our life.\u00a0 Here are a few principles James teaches us:<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<blockquote>\n<ul>\n<li>Selfish motives prevent a servant&#8217;s ministry<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: left;\">Following rules cannot save us, but following Jesus can<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: left;\">A lifestyle that costs nothing is worth nothing<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: left;\">A faith that is only in my head is dead<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: left;\">A worthless past is resolved by a present that works<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/blockquote>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Careful Speech &#8211; <\/strong>What a Christian says matters.\u00a0 The way in which we speak and the words we use reflect what is inside of us.\u00a0 The words we use have great power.\u00a0 James calls it the tongue, and it can dispense both blessing and cursing.\u00a0 Here are some things James shares with us on this idea of taming the tongue:<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<blockquote>\n<ul>\n<li>The tongue is a spiritual meter.\u00a0 If we can bridle it, we can bridle the whole body.\u00a0 It becomes the gauge for our maturity.\u00a0 Our faith will never register higher than our words.<\/li>\n<li>The tongue is like a horse&#8217;s bit, a ship&#8217;s rudder, or kindling wood.\u00a0 It starts things in motion.\u00a0 If we control it, we can guide our lives, just as a bit directs a horse and a rudder steers a ship.<\/li>\n<li>The tongue is powerful.\u00a0 Like a huge fire, it can ruin or bless our entire lives.\u00a0 This power was meant to send us down the rigfht path, not to kill us.<\/li>\n<li>The tongue can reveal what sort of wisdom we harbor inside.\u00a0 A good tongue protects our integrity.\u00a0 James asks:\u00a0 Is yours a good guard or a bad one?\u00a0 Does it create peace or reveal hypocrisy<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/blockquote>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Consistent Growth &#8211; <\/strong>How a Christian changes matters.\u00a0 James calls us to be patient, just like a farmer who patiently waits for his harvest.\u00a0 The farmer knows that if he picks the corn too early, he will miss out on some of the grain.\u00a0 It&#8217;s the same way with us.\u00a0 Spiritual growth is a process, not an event.\u00a0 We grow daily, not in one day.\u00a0 We are either growing or declining.\u00a0 Our goal as followers of Christ should be to grow in our faith, in our character development and in our influence with others.\u00a0 Here are some thoughts about growth:<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<blockquote>\n<ul>\n<li>Growth takes work and effort<\/li>\n<li>Growth means you have to stretch out of your comfort zone<\/li>\n<li>Growth means learning something new or developing a deeper understanding.<\/li>\n<li>Growth takes focus, you can&#8217;t drift or get distracted.<\/li>\n<li>Growth takes accountability, it accelerates when someone is watching.<\/li>\n<li>Growth means learning from the past.<\/li>\n<li>Growth takes action, practicing what you now know.<\/li>\n<li>Growths means gratitude for past blessings from God.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This morning I spent about a half hour reading through the book of James. What amazing truth and incredible wisdom. It was such a refreshing and challenging time that I thought I would share a few nuggets that really brought some renewed focus to my faith. Compassionate Service &#8211; What a Christian does really matters &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/chadstutzman.com\/?p=626\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Nuggets from James&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,4,13,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-discipleship","category-faith","category-service","category-spiritual-growth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chadstutzman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chadstutzman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chadstutzman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chadstutzman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chadstutzman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=626"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chadstutzman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chadstutzman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chadstutzman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chadstutzman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}