James_1

recently i read through the book of james. the next few posts will be the what god revealed to me during that time.
1v5 “if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who give sit all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.”
i was caught by that word REPROACH. so i looked it up and i realized it means to be immature or juvenile..to make fun of or tease/taunt.

which is refreshing, because too often we believe god to play game with us. jump through this hoop. say this prayer. confess this everyday in the morning. you get the point.
god’s not holding the a doggy treat waiting for us to roll over before hooking us up. i believe there is a simplicity to god and the things of his kingdom. there is a depth to them, but not something you can drown in. there is the kind of simplicity where you are accused of being a simpleton, and a kind of simple where you are found to be a genius. god is sheer genius. scripture and the guys who penned it – genius.

there is a condition for us receiving wisdom – ask with some faith. just believe god will actually do it. we make it hard for people to believe sometimes. why? because we create god to be someone with reproach. we make some hoops – some convincing ones too.

if we can get the idea that god is NOT a god of reproach, we won’t have trouble with faith…maybe less trouble. because there is a battle that goes on upstairs – the battle of being double minded. the only reason that is tough is because the kingdom of god has not yet FULLY come. our minds still think in terms of hoops, tricks, and trickery of fine print. [in fact all your problems will fade if you would just give money and time to me…er this ministry.]
the trouble comes when we read truth (no reproach in god) and hear something different from platforms.
before i get tons of emails, i’m not speaking against biblical principles of giving, but i am speaking against manipulation and hoop creating that cause people to become double-minded, and end up crashed and drowned because the deep was too much.

one more thought…sometimes in our attempt to simplify we limit, eliminate, and make incomplete statements about scripture and god.