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Weekly Devotional

June 23, 2008
 

James 1:1-5  James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes in the Dispersion: Greetings.  ² My brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy,  ³ because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance;  ⁴ and let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing.  ⁵ If any of you is lacking in wisdom, ask God, who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and it will be given you.

            This coming Sunday we are going to try something different in terms of Sunday School.  Rather than starting new material, we are going to try the format that we used for the Thursday Bible Study.  That format will be that we pick a book of the Bible, and dive into it head first. 

            The book that we are going to start studying this coming Sunday is going to be James, which is found in the New Testament.  James is an interesting book for Lutherans.  First off, it is one that is not well represented in the three-year Lectionary that we use.  There are only a few times each year that we hear lessons from James’ letter.  Many scholars claim that the letter of James was written by James, the brother of Jesus.  However, this is probably not the case.  We will dive into this more next Sunday, as we explore the authorship, writing style, and dates that the letter was possibly written.  Third, James has some theologically challenging statements in it, some which may contradict or challenge what we as Lutherans believe.  Which verses you might ask?  Well, come to Sunday School and find out!

            So what will you need to bring for this Bible Study?  How about yourself and your Bible?  Or, you can borrow one of the Bibles we have at the church.  We will go nice and slow, and have plenty of discussion about this book.  If you want to read ahead and come prepared with questions, I think that is a good idea.  We will hopefully get through the first chapter of the letter next Sunday.  Also, if you would like to know about any resources that might be available (such as a commentary, study Bible, etc.), please let me know.  I can get together a list of useful resources for you.

In our prayers:  The family of Margaret Troutman, Linwood, Gail and her mom, Doris’ mom, Deborah Steed.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Judson