God’s Deaf Ear
Verse 3 details an attempt to ask God for pleasures. The bible clearly states this prayer will not be answered. While James teaches us not to be a pleasure seeker we also get a lesson in prayer: we learn that God does not respond to “Lord, give me a shiny new car so I’ll be happy”. The phone might be ringing but God will not answer. No, God is not deaf, He chooses not to hear for our sakes.
Spiritual Adultery
James, verse 4, uses the words adulterers and adulteresses so we are thinking okay now James is going to talk about what we usually associate with the word lust. Well, no, James isn’t describing the physical act of adultery; he is talking about spiritual adultery. When a man cheats on his wife he commits adultery; when we cheat on God we are committing spiritual adultery. Hopefully when we hear of a man committing adultery we are sickened by it, at least we should be. James wants us to see that when a Christian starts seeking their own pleasures and drifts away from God they are guilty of spiritual adultery. We are either friends with the world or we are in fellowship with God. There is no in between.
Example Time – W.C. Fields
He was born William Claude Dukenfield in 1880. W.C. Fields was hugely successful in vaudeville and burlesque. He eventually moved on to films, mostly for Paramount Studios. It is the films that we will most identify with. The characters he played were often drunks, unfortunately, that was no act.
Wildly successful he lived in a beautiful home in LA, and as the world saw it, he had it made. Unfortunately his love of the bottle eventually caused health issues.
Another actor, Anthony Quinn, married Katherine whose father was Cecil B. DeMille. The famous film maker lived across the street from W.C. Fields. One day the Quinn’s two year old wandered over to W.C. Field’s house seeing toy boats in a fountain. (Fields was a collector of toy boats) The child got in the pool and ended up drowning. The screen image of W.C Fields was one who hated children so the press was not kind.
In early 1946 Field’s health was almost destroyed. By mid-year he left his home and entered a sanitarium. His last weeks were spent in bed often reading a bible. He was asked about it to which he replied “looking for loop-holes”. His last words, according to his mistress, included cursing God and the whole world. He died on Christmas day 1946 at the age of 66.
Until Night,
A Servant
Servants' Journal 
Tom Huff
January 17, 2014 at 4:30 pm
Nice article 🙂
A Servant
January 17, 2014 at 5:19 pm
Thank you. James is a plain spoken man. I love this book.
A Servant
A Fellow Servant
January 17, 2014 at 5:04 pm
Enjoyed this brother. Reminded of God’s words in Isaiah… “Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.” (Isaiah 59:1-2)
A Servant
January 17, 2014 at 5:18 pm
Very good companion verse. We force God to turn away sometimes. That makes us rather foolish.
A Servant
A Fellow Servant
January 17, 2014 at 5:25 pm
Amen. It is foolish to trade the birthright of close fellowship with Him for a bowl of this world’s goods because we miss out on the joy that comes from being in the center of His will. Thanks again. Great post.
Freedomborn ... Aussie Christian Focus
January 17, 2014 at 6:35 pm
Yes very True A Servant, God does not give us our fleshy wants but He does give us our needs and heart desires but these will be according to His will when we are in Christ Jesus.
How wonderful that Jesus does not condemn us like so many others do, He said to the woman caught in Adultery the same as He tells all of us, to go and sin no more, He also knew the sins of those who condemned her, but He did not condemn her. Is it possible not to sin, Jesus would not have said it if it wasn’t and He does not lie, if He tells us He has set us free from sin’s control or slavery, He has and so we are to reckon ourselves dead to sin and not keep saying we will sin. No temptation will be greater than we can bear.
John 8:34-36 Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
1John 3:9 No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in him; he “cannot ” go on sinning, because he has been Born of God.
1John 5:18-20 We know that no one who is Born of God sins; but He who was Born of God keeps him, and the evil one does not touch him.
When we come to True heart repentance which means rejecting evil and seeking to do good by the empowering of The Holy Spirit our flesh is put to death as we walk in His Fruit, no Temptation will be greater than we can bear but if we sin before we are Born again and perfected in Love, which is what we are to aim for, we have an Advocate in Jesus Christ but if we sin it means we are still in darkness until we come to heart repentance.
But we are not to judge anyone’s Eternal Destiny meaning their Salvation even by what is said in fear and ignorance by them, God alone knows their heart and it’s not His will anyone perishes, He knows those who are His and not one of us will be lost to the evil one, God protects our soul.
Psalm 97:9-11 For thou, Lord, art high above all the earth: thou art exalted far above all gods. Ye that Love the Lord, hate evil: He preserveth the souls of His Saints; He delivereth them out of the hand of the wicked. Light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart.
Not many realize there is a crossing over from earthly life to Spiritual life or Spiritual death, even after we are dead physically. Jesus talked about this with the girl who was dead and who he raised to earthly life again and also with Lazarus and with those who will escape the flames but their works will be burnt up.
When we have crossed over there is no way back as confirmed in Scripture but till we have we can be restored to earthly life again and many can testify to this and it is confirmed in Scripture as I shared before and some will have dreams and visions during this time that they will remember when they wake up in their earthly bodies again.
Christian Love from both of us – Anne
A Servant
January 17, 2014 at 6:44 pm
Very thought provoking. You are being obedient to God’s command for us to challenge and encourage one another, not to me only but for all those who will visit the site. Thank you my sister in Christ.
A Servant
Freedomborn ... Aussie Christian Focus
January 17, 2014 at 8:44 pm
Wow A Servant what a beautiful encouragement for someone who has known a lot of rejection but I do understand why this happened and do not hold resentment against anyone. There is much confusion today because of error that has been propagated by Satan through Cults, Wolves in the Church or False Teachers and those who have been deceived by them but as you shared before Jesus’ Truth will cut it all away.
One Truth I want to make very clear is I do not Teach or preach in Authority over Men, it is not a woman’s role, we are to always be under the Authority of those Men especially our Husbands who God has chosen to be in Leadership over us. We are to lean in silence, which means to learn without arguing about what is confirmed by God in His written word and understood by the empowering of The Holy Spirit as shared by Godly Men who are in Authority over us, instead we are to submit to their Leadership as to The Lord.
1 Timothy 2:11-14 Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a Woman to teach, nor to usurp Authority over the Man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.
As Christian woman we can share God’s Truth under His Authority as Deborah did but not just by what we think or have been told by others, unless confirmed in Scripture, Jesus our Teacher will lead us into all Truth and it will always be confirmed in the Scriptures or in Creation, so no one will have an excuse.
Spiritually we are one with Men in Christ Jesus, so we can have all the Spiritual gifts like Men have including the gift of Evangelism, which I have but they are to be expressed within our role,, we can teach in Authority Children and other Woman. And in our role as Helpmates to our Husbands which is physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually, we are to support and encourage and always uplift, this is the same in the Church with men in Godly Leadership.
We can also as Christian woman warn, rebuke sin and correct error as confirmed by Scripture but we are not to be Ordained, where we will be in Authority over men as we Preach or teach but how wonderful that God tells men they are to cherish us and sacrificially Love us putting us first. Both roles are a High calling and can only be fully fulfilled by the empowering of The Holy Spirit, as we choose to Trust and Obey.
There is a lot more Scripture Brother A Servant, that confirms this Truth which I will be happy to share if wanted and I will explain further why woman who are in Authority leads to error but both you and Garry are in Authority with your Blog so I will wait on you because there will be those who will reject this Truth as I have found out before.
Christian Love from both of us – Sister Anne
A Servant
January 17, 2014 at 9:10 pm
God has ordained the order of the home. If men truly loved their wives as Christ loved the church our homes would be a place of sanctuary instead of, as I so often see, a battlefield.
A Servant
Freedomborn ... Aussie Christian Focus
January 19, 2014 at 7:54 am
Very True A Servant, fleshy wordly love does not conquer all, only God’s Love does.
I have never seen a marriage end for any reason where the Wife is Loved and cherished as Christ Loves the Church and her Husband considers her needs first and appreciates her as his Helpmate physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.
Or have I seen it end when a wife Loves and willingly submits to her Husband respecting his role as Spiritual Leader and so having the final decision in all matters of importance in the Spiritual welfare of the family and when both honour their marriage vows to remain committed through the good and bad, to keep the marriage bed pure, both physically and in their thoughts, to not withhold physical contact, to always consider each other as people of worth and to forgive continually and not focus on weaknesses and shortcomings but each others strengths.
Can we do all these things in the flesh, No it must be put to death and to find each other we need to find Jesus first, only He can empower us to live the Christian Life and so have a good Marriage too.
Christian Love from both of us – Anne.
A Servant
January 19, 2014 at 8:44 am
Very well put. Strong families create a strong church; neither is possible without the love of Christ.
A Servant