James 1:12-15

The Blessed Man

Compare to beattitudes

“Trial”

“Test” (What is the test?)

“Crown of Life” (When is the crown of life?)

Holy Crown of Stephen returned by Jimmy Carter to Hungarians in 1978 https://hu.usembassy.gov/return-of-the-holy-crown-of-st-stephen/

Who receives a crown? What do you have to do?

Is it symbolic that we share the crown of Christ

Christ had two different crowns (thorns and glory)

Crown of Empress Eugenie (Wife of Napoleon’s grandson) dropped and drooping after thieves left it behind in the Louvre robbery https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn40ev200yjo

“Temptation”

“Desire”

If you can envision the crown of inheritance you can change your desires.

“his own desire”

The Death of Desire

The Death from Desires

Don’t villanize desire I think, but the perversion of it is what Satan uses to provoke us into sin

Sin places the crown of life out of reach for those without Christ