Book: James

We are not very good at being patient. As devout Christians, we really should be wanting Jesus to return, to judge the living and the dead, being patience while living among a world that hates us. What we shouldn’t be doing is wishing for Jesus to wait until after our lifetimes, as if our own plans are more important than God’s plan of salvation! When the LORD comes should not be our concern; it should be how we prepare for the LORD’s return!

Like many holidays in America, the meaning of Thanksgiving has been totally lost by the majority of Americans. Thanksgiving only has meaning when you know what you’re thankful for, to whom you are thankful, and why you are thankful. Christians must be the first to give thanks to God, even when everything in life goes wrong.

God has ordained a profound simplicity in the act of proper gratitude. At its core, God-centered thanksgiving focuses our attention on our eternal reward in Christ Jesus. And from that focal point, every good gift we receive this side of heaven, as well as every misfortune we face due to sin, is put into perspective.

We are running to obtain God’s promises. And the greatest of God’s promises is that He so loved us that He gave His only begotten son, so that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal Life. We for our sin deserve eternal damnation, but Jesus Christ bore that sin on the Cross, and His righteousness is imputed to us if we only trust in Him. But at the point of trusting is where we get mixed up in our understanding.

What is “the wisdom from above”? If there is anything lacking in the world today, it is Godly wisdom and openness to reason. The Rev. Galloway urges Christians to cultivate wisdom by clinging to the only things which will endure: Faith, Hope, and Love. Our neighbors are sick because they have no Hope. And because they have no Hope, they have no Faith. And without Faith, Love cannot abide, and other ideologies rush in to fill the vacuum. May Christians today boldly stand upon the wisdom from above!

American Christians are no doubt incredibly disheartened by the myriad moral shortcomings of their political leaders and the march of the authoritarian state against individual and religious freedoms. But we can take heart, for as the Rector reminds us, earthly leaders will always fall short, but God in Christ will never fail us or let us down.