Scripture: James 5:19-20
My brothers and sisters, if any of you wander from the truth and someone turns back the wanderer, recognize that whoever brings a sinner back from the wrong path will save them from death and will bring about the forgiveness of many sins.
Thought for the Day: Today concludes 20+ days on the book of James. It has been a good experience for me to reread James with some intentionality for too often I am reading only a small section of a book in preparation for a sermon or study. In these closing verses, James put a lot of emphasis on being instruments of God’s saving work. He is concerned about a path that leads to death. What does James mean by death in this verse. Does he mean that those who wander down the wrong path are all going to die – that is, their hearts are going to stop beating? Well let me suggest that even if you are walking down the right path, your heart is going to eventually stop as well. This is where it is important to look back at how James might have used this word before, and in James 1:15, we read how the growth of sin gives birth to death. It seems a bit odd to speak of a birth of death, but as I reflect more on this idea, I know a lot of people whose cardiologists would give their hearts a thumbs up, yet a part of them is clearly dying. As our lives step further and further away from unconditional love, we find ourselves further away from the Source of Life. My blood pressure and cholesterol might be that of a 20 year old, but I can still be living a life that is dead. The essence of who I am can be so detached from the One who gave life to that essence that I can become void of a spiritual heartbeat. I hope this walk through James has put you on a path that has brought you a bit closer to God, the One whose life-force of love is what it means to truly be alive.
Prayer: Reconnect me to you, O Gracious God. Allow me to draw life from your immeasurable love that defines and powers our identity as the people you created us to be. Amen.
SEE YOU AT 10:30AM
