BE ALL YOU CAN BE

Are you like Chippie? Who is chippie? I met chippie in Max Lucado book In the Eye of the Storm, (Word Publishing, 1991, p. 11.)

Chippie the parakeet never saw it coming. One second he was peacefully perched in his cage. The next he was sucked in, washed up, and blown over.

The problems began when Chippie’s owner decided to clean Chippie’’s cage with a vacuum cleaner. She removed the attachment from the end of the hose and stuck it in the cage. The phone rang, and she turned to pick it up. She’’d barely said "hello" when "ssssopp!" Chippie got sucked in.

The bird owner gasped, put down the phone, turned off the vacuum, and opened the bag. There was Chippie -- still alive, but stunned.

Since the bird was covered with dust and soot, she grabbed him and raced to the bathroom, turned on the faucet, and held Chippie under the running water. Then, realizing that Chippie was soaked and shivering, she did what any compassionate bird owner would do . . . she reached for the hair dryer and blasted the pet with hot air.

Poor Chippie never knew what hit him.

A few days after the trauma, the reporter who’’d initially written about the event contacted Chippie’’s owner to see how the bird was recovering. "Well," she replied, "Chippie doesn’’t sing much anymore -- he just sits and stares."

It’’s hard not to see why. Sucked in, washed up, and blown over . . . That’’s enough to steal the song from the stoutest heart.

“Sucked in, washed up, and Blown over” That about sums up how many of us feel at times isn’t?

James understood what it feels like to be sucked in, washed, and blown over. He realized we will all feel that way in life, that is why he begins his book the way he does. What book is that, you ask, why the book named after him. James.

James has been called by all all a lot of different names. But the one I like best is:

A Practical manual of Christian living

It tells us how Christians are to face life, how to relate to one another, and how to live with compassion..

So, you ask who is giving this advice. Great question. You want to make sure you get your advice from someone qualified to give it.

I am a part-time writer. When I first started writing I listened to everyone. But as I have grown in the craft, now I make sure I listening and reading only people who are successful authors.

Who is James?

The brother of Jesus

Leader of the early church

Bond-Slave of God

Take your Bibles and turn to James 1:1 “James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes scattered among the nations: Greetings.”

James 1:2 NIV

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds,

We don’t need to march to the drumbeat of daily life or analyze its melody for very long before we realize that much of life’s music is played in a minor key. Hurts, heartaches, pain, problems, disappointments, discouragements, sicknesses, suffering, disease, and death form a jarring bass line for what everybody wishes were an upbeat chorus.

How would James suggest you and face face the tests and trials of life?

First, he would say...

BE steadfast.

James 1:2 NIV

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds,

James 1:3 NIV

because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.

James wrote about trails of many kinds. David Plat said in his book exalting Jesus in James.

Exalting Jesus In James God Is Sovereign over Our Trials (1:2–12)

Notice that James refers to “various trials” in verse 2. “Various” includes small trials, big trials, minor trials, and major trials. Sometimes we wonder why the little trials are there, and then when the big trials come, the tragedies and the difficulties that make the everyday trials seem so small, we wonder what James is thinking when he tells us to count all of these things as “great joy.” How can the Bible be serious about this?

Realize that James is not telling us to rejoice in the trials themselves. We are not stupid. Pain is painful. No one wants to experience suffering, small pains, or the large overwheling, wrenching, moments of our lives. Those trials that are just to painful to talk about. No one is saying send me more, I can take it. If you are saying that to God, you need help. Normal people what to avoid trials.

But what James is saying here is that trails will come to us all, the only aspect of them we can control is how to view them.

James is suggesting no, commanding, us to view the trials differently. To stop seeing the negative only, instead to look for how God is planning to use them to shape and form you. Someone has said, every experience will go through in life is preparing for the day we will stand before God, and hear him say, “Well done my good and faithful servant.”

Now don’t misunderstand me, I am not implying God is infecting you with trials and temptation.

James warns us:

James 1:13

James 1:13 ESV

Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one.

Some Trials come from life, while some temptations come from Satan. Just as he tempted Jesus, the Devil is going to tempt and test us, but for different results.

God uses our trials and temptations to grow us as Christians.

Let me see if I can illustrate this. A consumer protection group will test a new car to find its flaws, while the car‘s manufacturer tests a car to find its strengths. Both we put the car through the same tests, but for different reasons. In the same way, Satan tempts us to bring out the bad (James 1:13–18), while God tests us to bring out the good (James 1:1–12).

Nothing tests the perseverance of our faith like our response to temptation.

James 1:3

James 1:3 ESV

for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.

In a survey of 710 inventors, perseverance was the most frequently mentioned characteristic needed for success. In line with this result, Nathaniel Wyeth, the inventor of the plastic soda bottle, speaks of how he was able to utilize his initial failures and achieve multiple insights because he persevered:

“You have to have a tremendous amount of patience and not give up easily. Even when a problem has been bugging me for weeks or months, I would go to work every morning with a good, clean slate and feel that I was starting fresh-using my failures and the knowledge of things that wouldn’t work, as a springboard to new approaches. If I hadn’t used those mistakes as stepping stones, I would never have invented anything. I would have said, ‘Well, if it doesn’t work the first time, forget it’” (quoted in Brown, 1988). -- Robert J. Sternberg and Todd I. Lubart, Defying the Crowd: Cultivating Creativity in a Culture of Conformity (New York: The Free Press, 1995), p. 210.

Let me share with you the rules of perseverance.

The Rules of Perseverance

Rule #1:

Take one more step.

Rule #2:

When you don’t think you can, take one more step,

Rule #3 refer to Rule #1. -- (Weyerhaeuser, February 1997, “Health Wise” Vol. XVII, No. 2.)

James would not only tell us to be steadfast and preserve. He would tell is to...

BE wise.

James 1:5 NIV

If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.

The word James uses is...

σοφία [sophia] (4678) or “wisdom”

“Wisdom” has a rich meaning in the Hebrew Scriptures as well as in early Jewish Christianity. Wisdom involves far more than mere knowledge of facts and advances even beyond skillful living or the emphasis on practical virtue seen in Greek philosophy. Rather, “wisdom” in the Christian sense is a gift from God closely associated with the presence and working of the Holy Spirit, producing supernatural discernment and prudence. This explains why God, not human beings, is the ultimate source of true wisdom, which James repeatedly emphasizes (James 1:5; 3:13, 15, 17).

UNDERSTAND Generosity

A wise person understands the limitation of money. I love the story of the little boy who said, "I can carry twenty dollars' worth of groceries all by myself. My dad says that when he was my age, it took five boys to do the same."

A student said. I'd been working on my business degree for about a year when I finally got to take a popular finance course. I went to the bookstore to buy the text and was shocked to find out that it would cost me $96. I asked how much it was worth if I sold it back at the end of the semester.

"You'll get $24," said the clerk.

"This is insane," I protested as I wrote out the check.

"I know," replied the clerk sympathetically. "I've always thought that a person who buys a book for $96 and then sells it back for $24 should fail the course."

Because of the real limits of money's power, scripture speaks of wealth and finances on more than 800 occasions. Jesus himself spoke about money 25 percent of the time. In fact in Matthew chapter 6 he said, you can not serve both God and money.

James 1:10 NIV

But the rich should take pride in their humiliation—since they will pass away like a wild flower.

Proverbs 11:24–25 (GNB)

Some people spend their money freely and still grow richer. Others are cautious, and yet grow poorer.

Be generous, and you will be prosperous. Help others, and you will be helped.

UNDERSTAND temptation

James 1:14 NIV

but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed.

ἐξέλκω

eselko: is the Greek word used by James for, ”Dragged away, or lured away.” What is interesting about this word is, eselko has the idea of initial reluntance. So it is the idea of being drug away after resistance, after putting up a fight.

It is my belief that with each fight, we get stronger, each time we resist Satan e we grow Stronger. and the stronger we get the more we can preserve .

Leo the Great, one of our early church fathers, wrote.

There are no works of power, dearly beloved, without the trials of temptations; there is no faith without proof, no contest without a foe, no victory without conflict. This life of ours is in the midst of snares, in the midst of battles; if we do not wish to be deceived, we must watch. If we want to overcome, we must fight.

Temptation is Satan’s invitation to give in to his kind of life and give up on God’s kind of life. Satan tempted Eve and succeeded in getting her to sin. Ever since then, he’s been busy getting people to sin. He even tempted Jesus (Matthew 4:1). But Jesus did not sin.

So the next time trials and temptations come, remember James commands.

Be steadfast

Be wise

Understand temptation

Ever feel like you are being crushed. Just look at the what [God] has given you:

He has sent his angels to care for you, his Holy Spirit to dwell in you, his church to encourage you, and his word to guide you.…

Anytime you speak, he listens; make a request and he responds.

He will never let you be tempted too much or stumble too far.

Let a tear appear on your cheek, and he is there to wipe it.

Let a love sonnet appear on your lips, and he is there to hear it.

As much as you want to see him, he wants to see you more.…

You have been chosen by Christ.… He has claimed you as his beloved.

Amen