Adult Bible Study

Faith Baptist Church

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Well, good morning. If you don't have a handout, they're on the back and don't let all that data that's on this page scare you.

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I'll be teaching the first four weeks and then it'll finish up the study.

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So, as long as I finish on time in four weeks, we're good. Part of my emphasis when we get to a new book is

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I like to be able to establish context. I feel that that's very important. When we do establish context, the context we need to understand the book as it was written during the time it was written and to the people that it was written to.

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This, James, is a frequently misunderstood epistle. Frequently misunderstood.

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It's not just a nice letter to a bunch of Christians to encourage them, but it is from the heart of a loving pastor, deeply concerned for his scattered flock, and we'll talk about that.

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There are times that James really gets in the face of the folks that he's writing to.

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So, we would say it's not your grandpa's epistle anymore. This is, as we've come to understand it better, there's a lot of teeth in the epistle to James.

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So, as I was preparing for this, I was trying to find something that would really get the overall viewpoint in a sentence or two so that we could get our heads around it.

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So, do you see that really tiny font? Okay. I put it there on purpose so that you would zoom in and look at it carefully.

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This comes from Tozer, and I think this well summarizes what the epistle of James is all about.

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True religion confronts earth with heaven and brings eternity to bear upon time.

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Now, it's interesting how I came across that. Excuse me. For a number of years,

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I've had Tozer's book on the knowledge of the holy. Well, about a year ago, I started looking for that.

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Now, if you've ever been in pastor's office, it is pristine.

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My office is not pristine where I have my books. In fact, sometimes

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I wonder if pastor even does any preparation in his office because there is nothing ever out of place.

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Mine, on the other hand, I have to put a rope around my waist, go in, find, and then use the rope to get back, and my wife is not infrequently encouraging me to clean my office.

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So yesterday, I decided I got a few extra minutes. I'll go in and I'll start on one little corner.

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As I'm going through the shelves, here in the bottom upside down, I flipped over the book and there's

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Tozer's book. I thought, as long as I've got a couple extra minutes, I'll just start reading, and I came across this quote right off the bat, which was

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I think the providence of God because it well states what James is about. That's what

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James is actually. He is sharing with his people what true religion looks like, and encouraging his people to get back to having an impact upon the world.

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That same passion really needs to be a passion of ours. So here we go.

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Epistle of James was written between 45 -48 AD, that's the best that we can do, by the

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Lord's brother. Do you remember that it says in 1

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Corinthians 5 -7, that Jesus appeared to James after the resurrection?

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You say, well, what's the big deal? Was James a believer?

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Before the resurrection, he apparently was not. So catch the significance,

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I would have loved to have been when the two got together. Because all of a sudden as the

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Holy Spirit is working deeply on James' heart, he realizes that all this time, his brother

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Christ was really who he said he was. The reality of it hit him, and as a result of that, he became a

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Christian, had phenomenal spiritual growth, and became an exceedingly influential leader in the early church.

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What a dynamic change. I mean, can you imagine living, walking along with this guy for a long time, in the reality of the truth of what he says hits you like a ton of bricks.

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So when writing this epistle, and this is where we begin to get into some of the problems. In writing this epistle,

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James presupposed the apostolic teaching that we find in the early chapters of Acts.

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In those early chapters of Acts, it wasn't deep theology, it was basically emphasizing a life of faith.

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This letter was written before the sharp distinctions grew up between the

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Christians and the Jewish doctrine and practice which came later, in which Paul addressed.

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So you understand that as Paul is writing his stuff, a lot of new theological problems had come up.

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That's what Paul was mainly addressing. Those were not evident when James wrote his epistle, which was the earliest of the

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New Testament writings. So James wrote this, most of those problems didn't exist.

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So what he covers was almost entirely exclusively different than what

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Paul was covering, and that created some problems with whether James should be included in the canon of the

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New Testament. James wrote his epistle as a pastor in absentia to urge his people to make the changes that were needed in their lives and in their corporate relationships.

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The church in Jerusalem, do you remember the Jerusalem Council? James was a leader, if not the leader in that.

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So the church in Jerusalem was primarily Hebrew Christian, people who knew the

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God of the Old Testament. So stop there. Most of them were Jewish. They understood the

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Old Testament quite well. Now within the teaching of the apostles as that became more prolific, they recognized more and more

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Christ as Savior and Lord. So they take their heavy Old Testament theology, and they add to it the teaching of the apostles, and that is now developing and churning their faith, but they had a significant

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Old Testament understanding. This letter, the epistle from James, is not evangelistic, it is not deeply theological.

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You may be aware that Luther had a significant problem with James. Well, why was this?

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Well, Luther came up in the 1500s with a church that was virtually entirely corrupt.

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They had the indulgences, the theology of the Catholic Church of the day was just heading the wrong direction.

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So that's where the whole Reformation came about as you know, and this is one of Luther's main driving points.

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He was looking for the significant theology of books like Galatians and Romans, to basically take on the

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Catholic Church head on. Well, James is the least next to Philemon.

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James is probably the least theological book. So Luther didn't care for James.

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In fact, he actually kind of fought against it, and it literally before Luther's day,

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James wasn't firmly into the New Testament canon until about 320 AD.

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So there was a lot of time early church, many of the early church fathers didn't want to accept

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James. Luther even in his day struggled with it, didn't like to use it very much, and part of it was a misunderstanding.

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Excuse me. So if we go over and I'll read this for you.

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In James chapter 2 .14, which we won't talk about, this is what James write.

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What good is it my brothers if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?

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They misrepresented that verse, and they felt that James was saying that you needed works to be saved along with the faith.

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Well, that's not what he's saying, but we'll cover that in a future week. So this quote comes from Larry Richards, and I think he does a good job summarizing.

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Essentially, James was concerned with how the new faith in Jesus is to find expression in the lives of the members of that early church community.

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James and Paul were in fact exploring different aspects of a common salvation.

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Paul, the obstetrician, was explaining what happens at birth. James, the practical nurse, was changing diapers and holding the hands of toddlers as they learned to walk.

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Because the setting and the purpose of the two writers differed, a difference in emphasis naturally followed.

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As Calvin pointed out in Luther's day, it is not required that all handle the same arguments.

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Do you see the difference? James was pushing a different perspective, and the reason he was pushing that is because in his day when he wrote it, the problems that Paul eventually addressed were not commonplace in the church in its early infancy.

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So the audience, and this really helps us understand the context. Excuse me.

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The audience were the 12 scattered tribes of Jewish Christians. We get that in the first verse where it says to the 12 tribes in the dispersion.

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These were probably those that were forced to leave Jerusalem during the pure persecution following Stephen's death.

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Go ahead and I'll read from Acts chapter 8. I've given you these references so that as you review this, perhaps you can look at it additionally.

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So we have Stephen's death in an Acts 8 verse 4. This is what we read. Now, those who were scattered went about preaching the word.

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What we're essentially talking about is the Jerusalem church. They undercame great persecution.

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James was their pastor, and when they dispersed, they scattered throughout.

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But notice what they did when they scattered. This is very important in verse 4. Did they go hide in the basements of homes?

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Verse 4 tells us they went about preaching the word. That's an important consideration.

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Now, pastors talked about this. I think it's very evident that we have seen a different receptivity of Christianity in this country over the last 20, 30, 40, 50 years, and I think the slope of potential persecution is going to ramp up.

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So what's going to be our response, brothers and sisters? Are we going to hunker down to weather, or are we going to be busy preaching the word?

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So even in the dispersion, these folks didn't hunker down. They went out and they were preaching the word.

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So those that were scattered from the persecution did massive sowing of seed in many places and bore much fruit.

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If we look in Acts 11 .19, this is what we read.

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Now, those who scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen, traveled as far as Phoenicia, and Cyprus, and Antioch, and other places, speaking the word to no one except Jews.

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Well, why were they speaking to the Jews? Because they were Jewish. So they weren't not speaking to the non -Jews because they thought it was wrong, but they were speaking to their like kind.

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The idea there is they were not hunkering down, they were sharing their faith.

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So that's the audience. The purpose. Difficulties, including persecution, were confronting them.

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We'll read about that in verses 2 -4 of Chapter 1. The ungodly rich were oppressing them.

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We'll get to that in Chapter 5. The religion of some was becoming a superficial formality.

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Discriminatory practices revealed a lack of love. There was bitterness in speech, and attitude marred their fellowship.

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Did these churches, and again, to paint the picture, James, the pastor, the head pastor most likely at the

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Church of Jerusalem, under persecution, the people scattered, and formed multiple little satellite churches to use the term that we would say today.

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And from a distance, in absentia, James was so concerned about these folks that he penned the

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Epistle of James. And this got carried from church to church to church in all of these areas and regions in town that the church had scattered because he became aware of the difficulties that were beginning to grow up among them.

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We hear on occasion, we've read on occasion of the heart that Paul had for his people.

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I would submit to you that James had the same heart, but I've never heard anybody preach on the heart of James.

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I've heard many preach on the heart of Paul, but I would say that James had just a big of a heart.

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For whatever reason, he did not do a lot of traveling. Of course, Paul did, but it was through this letter primarily under the inspiration of the

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Holy Spirit that James was seeking to address the issues that were beginning to spring up in some of these satellite churches.

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This is written by D. Herbert, and I think it goes ahead and states well the intensity of writing that we'll discover in this epistle.

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This epistle sternly insists upon Christian practice consistent with Christian belief.

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It heaps scathing contempt upon all the empty profession, and it administers a stinging rebuke to the reader's worldliness.

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Its stress upon the gospel's ethical imperative makes the epistle as relevant today as when it was first written.

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The presence of this practical epistle in the New Testament canon is a magnificent monument, to the moral sensitivity and concern of the

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Christian church. James wrote this epistle to challenge his readers to examine their faith to see if it was genuine saving faith.

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He gives more than 50 imperatives, that is, he didn't suggest, he commanded.

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So, this is a significant epistle. Again, it's more in their face or now in our face than we used to believe.

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Again, so many commentators, earlier commentators and lay people, oh, it was just a nice little guideline for how we get through life.

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It's significantly more than that. One of the books that we're using for this study is entitled

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Radically Whole. It's written by David Gibson, and this is what he says in the next quote.

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The fundamental problem of the human condition is not primarily what we say or do, rather it is who and what we love instead of God.

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James is occupied with the theme of wholeness. It is a letter written to churches in danger of dying, not a lovely letter full of how -to tips and nice simple rules for life.

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That is a contrast, and that's really the thought that inspired to a good degree,

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David Gibson to write this book Radically Whole, which then became the precipitator as pastor came across this book to go ahead and jump into the study of James.

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So, Gibson points out in Chapter 1 verse 4, let me read that verse, you need not look there, we'll be there in just a couple of minutes.

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In James 1 .4, he says, and let steadfastness have its full effect that you may be perfect and complete lacking in nothing.

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That's a pretty high bar, wouldn't you agree? To be perfect and complete lacking in nothing.

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Seven times in the short epistle, James uses similar verbiage.

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So, that really is kind of an overarching theme. If we're divided on the inside, we will have divisions on the outside.

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So, church problems back then, church problems today are primarily a failure to live what we have professed to believe and secondarily worldliness creeping in.

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So, what were those two again? Failure to live what we profess and secondarily to let worldliness creep into the church.

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Spiritual maturity is one of the greatest needs today. Warren Wiersbe, one of my favorite authors, this is a guy who had profound theology, but he also had a wit about him that he could put in writing.

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This is what Warren Wiersbe says, too many churches are play pens for babies instead of workshops for adults.

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Well stated. So, what I have next for you is a, this is a

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SOM stands for? Sermon on the Mount. So, this,

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I don't know who figured all this out, but I sure didn't. I just put it in here because I thought it might be a good study for you to do independently.

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These are some verses out of James, and the next column to it are the parallel or very similar verses in the

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Sermon on the Mount. Of course, how profound is the Sermon on the Mount? Very.

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So, it might be fun for you this week or in the next few weeks to just do a comparison between the

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Sermon on the Mount and James. Very similar in content. Then the outline that follows, and if you've read many commentators, virtually every commentator will do an outline.

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This is an outline that I feel really does a great job of getting our head around the

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Epistle of James. So, James wrote his Epistle to challenge his readers to examine their faith, to see if it was a genuine saving faith, and this outline is structured around these 13 tests.

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So, I'll be using that for the weeks that I teach, and we'll see what Ed does when he gets down to his weeks, but we'll be looking today at the test of perseverance in suffering and the test of blame in temptation.

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Is life a test? It is. So, my question to you rhetorically is, how do we do?

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How do we do on these 13 tests that James seems to present to us?

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So, we're ready to start with the verse by verse. If you'd join me over in James Chapter 1.

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Again, the overarching theme of James is probably the wholeness and perfection of God's people, and it certainly is true of the first 18 verses.

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So, as I meander through these verses, if we get through all of them, and if not, we'll pick it up again next week.

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Verses 1 -18, the theme is probably perfection. So, here's the test of perseverance in suffering, the first 12 verses.

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We'll do this a verse at a time. James 1 -1. James, a servant of God and of the

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Lord Jesus Christ, to the 12 tribes in the dispersion, greetings.

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So, again, what I've done in your handout is I put bold words. Those are actually found within the text.

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Servant. One of the more recent translations of the

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Bible uses the word bond slave instead of servant.

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Understanding, and we've talked about this before, it's been several months, but a bond slave was a person essentially in the day, back in the day when the

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New Testament was written, a person who was deprived of all personal freedom and totally under the control of his master.

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Now, you say, that doesn't sound fun. Well, in today's culture, it's totally antithetical to what we would appreciate.

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But if we go back to the time when James was written, the New Testament era, a lot of folks that were in that culture voluntarily became bond slaves.

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The economy back then was quite difficult. There were a lot of very poor people, and on occasion, what would happen if a person knew of a person who was very reputable, and kind, and fair, and loving, they would actually become a bond slave to that person.

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So, yes, they were under that person's total control, but if the master was kind and benevolent, then that individual and perhaps his family was well taken care of.

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I would submit that that's the context that James is using here. He was a bond slave.

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His master was Christ. Can you think of a more gracious master?

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But yet, he realized that he was under the total control of Christ. Then we get to verse 2, and actually, we should have

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Mike up here teaching this first. We just can't get away from these methods.

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You didn't know so much math was in the Bible, did you? So, count it, or consider, or evaluate.

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Well, let me read the whole verse and come back to it. Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds.

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Now, first reading, and I don't know if you remember the first time you read James, and you got to verse 2, and you looked at this, and you said, this guy's nuts.

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Well, what James is saying is this. When you go through trials, your natural response, your natural inclination is to not go ahead and be happy.

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We don't want to use the word happy because happy is conditional. It's based upon our circumstances.

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But most of the time, when I think about trials, I don't think about joy. That's why

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James says what? Whether we use the word count it, which is a math term, consider it, or evaluate.

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James is really saying, every time we go into a trial, we have to stop and think about it.

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Because those trials have come to us through the filter of God's grace for our benefit.

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Even if we're mature Christians, when a new trial comes along, don't we sometimes have to do that?

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Don't we have to stop and say, okay Lord, I don't have this one figured out.

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We certainly know that's true about Job. He didn't have it figured out. But he stopped, he thought about it, he wrestled with it, he evaluated it, he counted it, he considered it, and he realized that there was benefit for that trial for his life.

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Every time we go through a trial, we need to do the same thing. So, then we get to the word when.

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When doesn't say if, when says when, which means these trials will be inevitable.

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Consider it or count it all joy when you meet. Meet is the word that means fall into.

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Do you remember the Good Samaritan when he fell into the robbers?

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Yeah, that's a little more aggressive than just happenstance. These guys were laying in wait for him.

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So, these trials will come. What does the word trial mean? To assay.

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Now, that's not a real common term much anymore. But if you were back in the gold rush days, and I don't think anybody in here, no.

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In the gold rush days, you would take the nuggets that you found or the soil samples, and you'd take them into the assayer, and he would test them to check the percentage of gold, to make sure that you are not peddling fool's gold or something worthless.

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So, these trials assay or prove. Trials are external, and they can be grounds for pure joy.

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It is, and this is important, it is our attitude about the trials, and our response to them that reflect our spiritual condition.

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Our values determine our evaluations. You may want to underline, that is really the problem.

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So, when we go into trials, if we respond negatively to them, then our values are wrong.

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So, again, that line, our values determine our evaluations. Our loving

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God brings such tests to prove and increase the strength and quality of our faith and to demonstrate its validity.

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Now, again, folks, I think theologically, we all understand that. If you're not going through a trial, you can say, yeah,

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I get that. But when those trials come, we have a short period of time to think about it, to consider, to evaluate, and what is our response going to be?

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Do we raise a fist, so to speak, in the face of God, or do we say,

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Lord, thank you for this trial, give me the strength, so that your good work can come out of it.

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So, trials work for the believer, they work for us, they don't work against us. Some trials we go through just because we're humans, right?

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Life has those. Some, because they're Christians. Now, you've probably run into Christians that think that every trial that they go through is because they're a

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Christian. Well, it's not true. When you have a flat tire, it's probably not because you're a

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Christian, because Michelin doesn't know that you are or aren't. You know, just life happens.

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And notice again that when these folks back in Jerusalem church were scattered, they weren't sheltered.

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As we, once again, potentially face increasing amount of persecutions because we are

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Christians, I hope we don't sequester or seclude ourself, or shelter ourself, that we are even more bold in our faith.

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Back to verse two, I want to read it again, along with verse three. Count it or consider it all joy or pure joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds.

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For you know, or you should know, that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.

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Know there means full understanding. Steadfastness in active endurance or perseverance, like standing in a storm.

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Now, my wife is not going to be happy that I share this story, but I'm going to share it anyhow.

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So, because it points to my stupidity, which is easily validated, but a number of years ago we were traveling out east and we were in our little camper and we were out in Maine and we had a limited time period to see what we wanted to see in Maine.

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And there was a mountain in the area that just, I read about it and I said,

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I got to get to this baby. So, we drove out in the rain. In fact, it was the leftover tail end of a hurricane that it had made its way up the coast.

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So, I threw on my raincoat, which was really an all -weather type of coat. It wasn't rain proof.

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You know, hunkered down, got out of the camper and I said, you coming? And she said, are you nuts? I think that was a direct quote.

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But I just, I wanted to see this thing. It was, are you nuts, dear?

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I'm sure that's what it was. But anyhow, I got out and I started up this and the wind was blown and the rain was horizontal and I slowly made my way to the top.

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And of course, as you get up towards the top of the mountain, is it getting really windy? And it was kind of flat on the top.

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So, even with the trees, you could kind of make your way all the way around. And as I got to the one side, man, that wind was there.

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And you literally didn't walk normal. You kind of had to walk like you were, what's the word? Steadfast.

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Come on, get scriptural, pastor. You had to walk with a steadfastness.

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What I didn't tell her, I am direction challenged. So, I walked around about three times around the top of this before I found the trail that went down.

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Oh, you know that. She knows me better. So, that's the idea of steadfast.

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In other words, you are taking careful steps to make sure that you don't fall.

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That's the picture that James has in verses three and four for us. So, let's go on to verse four.

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And let that steadfastness have its full effect. Stand your ground.

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That you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

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Let that sink in. That is a promise from James, from the Holy Spirit.

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God says we lack in nothing. So, persevere. Be steadfast.

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When you're on that mountaintop experience, not spiritually, but physically, and you're coming up against the blowing winds and the difficult and the treacherous footing, we lack nothing, folks.

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So, remain firm in the Lord. Now, Paul doesn't really change thoughts when we get to verse five, even though we have a new paragraph.

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He's basically saying this. Okay, I've told you that when you go through these trials, consider it pure joy.

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Now, I'm paraphrasing dramatically here. James is saying, so you don't think

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I'm nuts, he writes verse five. If any of you lack wisdom.

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In other words, if you don't understand that, if you don't understand why you're going through that particular trial that God has brought into your life, if you're lacking wisdom, what do we read?

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Let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.

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So, back to our notes. An important means to perseverance and suffering is a believing heart which requires

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God's wisdom. Amen to that? How many trials have come into your life and you just say,

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I don't get it, God, I don't get it? Well, if we don't get it, what does James say?

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Ask, ask, and God will give you wisdom. His wisdom will give us the right perspective so the opportunity of the trial is not wasted.

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Not my words. I love what this author wrote. The opportunity of the trial is not wasted.

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Do you see the perspective on that, folks? Rather than looking at a trial as, oh,

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I gotta do this for God, this is my cross in life to bear. No, every trial is an opportunity.

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We don't wanna waste them because what do trials do for us? They help us along the trail of perfection and completeness so that we lack nothing.

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Let him ask is a divine command. In context, wisdom is understanding the nature, the purpose of the trials and knowing how to meet them victoriously by the wisdom contained in the pure and peaceable absolutes of God's will that is revealed in his word.

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When we hit those trials, big or small, if we're not up to the challenge,

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God, I need your wisdom on this, I need your wisdom, and he will give us what we need to persevere and to be victorious in that trial which will make us more mature and complete as we pursue perfection.

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Verse six, but let him ask in faith with no doubting for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.

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So we must ask in faith a request backed by genuine trust in God's character, purpose, and promises.

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If you wanna go back a couple pages to Hebrews chapter 11, verses 39 through 40.

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Hebrews 11, 39 through 40, and this is what we read.

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By all these, of course, the faith chapter, that's what we're looking at here. In all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised since God had provided something better for us that apart from us, they should not be made perfect.

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So even if we don't realize the promise right now,

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God's timetable is different than ours. Or we can go back to the very familiar passage back in Romans 8 .28,

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Romans 8 .28, and we know that for those who love

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God, all things work together for good, including trials. For those who are called according to his purpose.

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So verses seven and eight. For that person, the one who's asking for wisdom, but is doubting, for that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the

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Lord. He is a double -minded man, unstable in all his ways.

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A request that does not take God at his word, that doubts either

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God's ability or his trustworthiness is presumptuous and worthless and is an affront.

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In Hebrews 11 .6, just let me read that for you. In without faith, it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

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Do you know any local churches that have that word in their name? Faith is so important for us, folks.

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It is so important. So when we ask, we must have the faith in him. And this is one of the many advantages of being in God's word, because as we're in his word, we understand and know better the

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God of the Bible. And it's easier to have the faith because he proves himself time and time again.

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The word double -minded that we see in verses seven and eight literally means double -souled and they're unstable in all their ways.

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So although this person claims to be a believer, his actions question his words.

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And you say, well, what about the guy back in Mark chapter nine, the father of the child that had the unclean spirit?

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Remember what he said? I believe, help my unbelief.

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There's a difference. Here was someone that didn't come arrogantly.

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They came humbly and said, Lord, I've got this much faith, but I wanna have this much faith.

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And God gave it to him. Whereas the double -minded man just says, I don't believe,

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I don't believe. We've all run into situations either in our own life or when we're talking with a person who's going through a terrible trial.

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I remember a situation where a guy in the church, their son was killed at a fairly young age and he just couldn't accept it.

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And he basically walked away from the church. We prayed for him, talked with him, but he just refused to believe it.

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There was a double -mindedness there and it was really so sad. Okay, let's go just a little bit more.

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Verses nine through 11. Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation and the rich in his humiliation because like a flower of the grass, he will pass away.

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For the sun rises with scorching heat and withers the grass. Its flower falls and its beauty perishes.

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So also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits. The lowly brother here most likely represents many of the scattered persecuted

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Christian or Jewish believers that had to leave their possessions behind. So again, the persecution starts.

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Here's this nice church in Jerusalem. James most likely the pastor. Persecution comes up and they have to scatter.

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This is for their lives that they're in flight. And as they went off to these other regions in small groups and clusters, many churches were started.

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They were to persevere in this trial by maintaining a humble spirit and boasting or glorying in their exaltation.

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Well, they lost, most of them lost all of their financial belongings. What could they exalt in?

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Well, they could exalt in their spiritual riches. They could exalt in their high position as a child of God.

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To endure persecution for Christ's sake lifts the believer to a position of honor that more than offsets his poverty.

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So to put it another way, would you rather have spiritual riches or physical riches?

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Well, I think for most of us, if not all of us, we would say we do the spiritual stuff.

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But some days when things come along, we don't act that way. For those who still had their wealth, which was a distinct minority, they still had their rich, they should boast or glory in their humiliation.

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That is, they should rejoice when trials come for they teach him, they teach us the transitory nature of material things.

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If you get a chance, read the billboard. Their inability to give satisfaction, especially spiritual help.

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Verse 11 is a constant reminder of our transitory nature. So rather rich or poor?

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The poor, glory in God's riches. The rich, glory in humiliation that you aren't putting your trust in physical things, but in spiritual things.

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Some big challenges. These evidently were problems in the various churches that had sprung up from the church at Jerusalem.

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This was heavy on James' heart, and he realized he need to address them. Some commentators even said some of these churches were potentially heading for extinction.

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So James wanted to reach them with solid reminders before they went too far.

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So good words for us today. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for James and just the wonderful truths that came, that were penned by him through the inspiration of the

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Holy Spirit. Father, may you apply these to us, help us to have humble, receptive hearts as we see the similarities and parallels to our own church and churches today across the country and across the world.

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Help us to be a rejoicing people no matter what, and a people that look to you for wisdom and strength that we may persevere.