Archive for category: GAMEtime Sharing

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is James 4:11-17.  Let’s go!

James 4:11 (ESV) 
11  Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge.

On verse 11:  How is it that when I bad mouth someone and judge them I am bad mouthing God’s law and judging it?  It’s because when I bad mouth or judge another person, I am acting not in accordance with God’s law which tells me to not slander my neighbour and to love my neighbour as myself; rather I am acting in accordance with my own made up law which says, “JB is the judge and jury”.   When I bad mouth another person and break God’s law to not slander others, I send the message that God’s law at least in this case is not worth following and that instead I should follow my own law.   So by railing and ranting against people who we think have disobeyed God’s law, ironically and hypocritically we break God’s law ourselves and speak evil of the very law we think we’re holding other people accountable to.

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is James 3:13-18.  Let’s go!

James 3:13a (NIV) 
13  Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life…

On verse 13a:  Earlier James told his readers to ask God for wisdom (James 1:5).  Now James addresses the question: How do you know if a person is truly wise or not?  Here in verse 13 we learn that wisdom is not so much shown in what facts and figures a person can recite.   Rather, how much wisdom a person has is shown by the way that person lives and by the decisions that person makes.  Wisdom and being book smart are not the same thing.  Some people are book smart and can tell you all sorts of facts and figures, but when it comes to making life decisions, or handling relationships, time or money, they live very foolishly.  God calls us to be wise and understanding in practical ways that matter the most.

James 3:13b (NIV) 
13  …by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom.

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is James 2:14-26.  Let’s go!

On verses 14-26:  What a powerful and hard-hitting passage.  How do you reconcile this passage with other famous passages in the Bible like Ephesians 2:8 which clearly teach that “it is by grace you have been saved, through faith…not by works so that no one can boast”?  Is James saying here that you can earn your way to heaven by your own good works?  No.  Is he questioning whether faith in Jesus can really save you?  No.  Rather, here James is defining what real saving faith in Christ looks like.  If someone has real saving faith in Christ, that faith will express itself through action.  Anyone can say, “Jesus is my Saviour”, but whether or not that person truly believes that Jesus is their Saviour will become evident in how that person lives. 

James is not saying that you need to live a perfect Christian life before it can be concluded that you have true saving faith. (As James will later write in chapter 3, “we all stumble in many ways” (James 3:2)).  

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is James 1:19-27.  Let’s go!

James 1:19-20 (NIV) 
19  My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, 
20  for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.

On verses 19-20:  Jesus came to give us life to the full (John 10:10), especially in our relationships.  If we want to experience the full and “righteous life that God desires” for us, we need to follow God’s way of handling relationships.  That includes being “quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry” (v19).  Often it is our failure to manage our anger in appropriate and healthy ways that causes destruction in our relationships.

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is Esther 9:20-10:3.  Let’s go!

Esther 9:20-22 (NIV) 
20  Mordecai recorded these events, and he sent letters to all the Jews throughout the provinces of King Xerxes, near and far, 
21  to have them celebrate annually the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month of Adar 
22  as the time when the Jews got relief from their enemies, and as the month when their sorrow was turned into joy and their mourning into a day of celebration. He wrote them to observe the days as days of feasting and joy and giving presents of food to one another and gifts to the poor. 

On 9:20-32:  It might sound incredibly trite and obvious to say, but I’ll say it anyway: when we don’t take a moment to remember, we forget.  That is, when we don’t take the time to recall and celebrate the great things God has done in our lives, we can just as easily forget that He did anything for us at all.  That is why here in these verses Mordecai and Esther use their influence to require every Jewish family in every province and city and in every generation to take the time to remember and celebrate how God turned the Jews’ sorrow into joy when He protected them from Haman’s genocide plan.  This two day festival would become known as the Jewish Feast of Purim.