2 Corinthians 3:18

But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.

     The work of any artist is in layers. It is not as if an artist can just come out, sit down, spill some paint and have a masterpiece painted in an hour. Instead there are many stages and steps that must be gone through. In many cases a casual bystander would not be able to see what the artist has intended in the early stages. It will go through many transformations, touch-ups and repainting in order to become a brilliant display. The layers may never even be noticed by observers, but it was there without a doubt.

     We too are being molded by the great Artist. God is transforming us into a likeness of Him. We start out a jumbled mess, unrecognizable and ugly to anyone who was outside watching. Yet God has a plan for us. He knows what He will create through us if we will just let Him. For those who will go along with His plan, they will be turned into His glory, His image. There is no greater work that has ever been done than God’s ability to transform sinful man into godly servants.

     Yet this process takes time. We want our transformation to be immediate. When it does not happen we may grumble at God. We wonder why we are wandering in this unfinished state. What we fail to realize is that God knows what He is turning us into and He knows how to get us there. To the casual eye, and to our own, it may look completely off base. We may not understand why there is suffering or pain in our lives, or why we are still struggling with temptation. We need to remember that the Master is at work, and He can mold us into a great creation if we will just follow Him.

James 5:13

Is anyone among you suffering? {Then} he must pray. Is anyone cheerful? He is to sing praises.

     There is no time that we should not go to God. James tells us that if we have blessings in our lives, we should sing praises to God. We must take the time to acknowledge what He has done for us. At the same time, if we are suffering, we need to go to Him in prayer. After all He is a loving and powerful God. Even if there is no one else we can turn to for help, we can always go to Him. The point James is trying to stress is that we should remember God no matter the circumstances.

     When we have trials and tribulations it is easy to ignore God. Some people try to blame God. The problem with blaming God is that it puts a wall between you and Him. That makes it difficult to talk with Him about what is ailing you. Also, when times get tough, some people want to be independent. They want to fix the problems themselves. All of their attention goes inward, trying to rely on their abilities to receive an answer. We need to remember that anytime suffering hits, our first response should be to go to God.

     When things are easy and we have great blessings in our lives, it is easy to forget about God. Some people will take God for granted in these circumstances. The only time they think about God is when they need something from Him. When life is going well, that need evaporates. So instead of  being thankful to God, they ignore Him. The exact opposite should be true. When we have the blessing of God, we need to offer Him praise for all of the love He has shown us.

Is anyone among you suffering? {Then} he must pray. Is anyone cheerful? He is to sing praises.

Psalm 69:30

I will praise the name of God with song And magnify Him with thanksgiving.

     We serve an amazing God. He is so incredibly powerful.  He created the world by speaking it into existence. He has power over animals. He can control the weather. He even has the power to make the sun stand still. When you look at Jesus’ life, you see just how much power God has. He healed people with all manners of diseases. He did not even need to be in their presence. He even raised people from the dead. All power resides in God Almighty.

     He is also amazing because of His loving-kindness. He does so many things for us. The power that He has, He often uses to watch over and take care of those who faithfully serve Him. He gives us blessing upon blessing. To be honest, we have so many blessings that we take them for granted all the time. If we were to stop and pay attention to the value we have in each blessing, we would not be able to get through our entire day. God has bless in so many ways.

      Because of all of this, He is worthy of our thanksgiving. The fact that we often miss the blessings God gives us means that we can become ungrateful. We starting acting as if the blessings God has given us is our right instead of God’s gift. A lack of thankfulness in the heart can lead us astray from the Lord. We need to remember all of His great blessings and with everything that is within our hearts offer thanks. He is worthy of that and so much more.

1 Timothy 1:16

Yet for this reason I found mercy, so that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might demonstrate His perfect patience as an example for those who would believe in Him for eternal life.

     It is pretty amazing that Jesus died around 5000 years after man’s first sin. Think about it for a second. God has all power. He could have brought Jesus into the world at any time. He could have had anyone offer Jesus as a sacrifice. He did not have to take such a long time for it to happen. And yet God decided that it was better to wait, so He did.

     We do not know the mind of God, so it is hard to know exactly why He chose the plan He did. It makes sense that He would allow time for the Mosaic Law to set in place the knowledge of sin. It also fits that He would use His relationship with Israel as a teaching tool. We know more about who God is and what He does because we can read about His relationship with Israel. The timing of Jesus was convenient as well because of the advances in technology that the Romans had made and the very common language of the Greeks.

     Whatever His reasons may have been, God waited til the fulness of times (Ephesians 1:10). He had the infinite wisdom to know the best way to carry out His plan. But in order to carry it out fully, He had to use patience. He needed to wait until the time was right. We can learn from His example. When the wisdom of God commands us to do something, it often times does not work with the timetables we think best. It is tempting to rush it and enjoy what we want now. Instead we must be like God and be patient according to the plan God has given.

Yet for this reason I found mercy, so that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might demonstrate His perfect patience as an example for those who would believe in Him for eternal life.

James 4:3

You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend {it} on your pleasures.

     Motives matter. We see this in everyday life. For example, a lot of famous, rich people support charities and try to help the communities. Some people do it just to be helpful. They do not desire the limelight. The only reason they are associated with something publicly is so they can use their influence positively. Others do it for their own benefit. They get recognition and appreciation. It may even lead to more exposure which in turn may give them more money down the road. They help others so that they can help themselves.

     Which of these motivations endear us to someone? It is always pleasant to hear about someone doing something nice for another person when it was not meant to be advertised. On the other hand, if we think they are just in it for themselves, we are disgusted by the efforts of others. In this we see that motives do in fact matter. Whether or not a persons good deeds has righteous motives determines how we view them.

     God desires righteous motives in us as well. There are times that we may go to Him and ask Him for things. What is our motivation when we do so? Is it so that we can be happy? While that is not always a bad thing, it becomes bad when we ask for things for our selfish and worldly desires. We go to God in prayer and ask Him to give us things that fulfill our worldly lusts. Prayer is a good thing, and it is right to ask God for things. However we must always check our motives and see if they are pure.

You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend {it} on your pleasures.

Romans 6:23

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

      Now that the holiday season has come upon us, there is a flurry of parties. One of the increasingly popular party games is the “White Elephant” game. It is a new way of handing out gifts. Everyone buys a gift and then they are all gathered together. Then numbers are drawn and whoever has the correct numbers gets to start by picking the present.

     This is where the mean twist comes in. After the first person comes person two. That person now has a choice. They can either pick a new gift from the pile or steal the first persons gift. The one who is stolen from now has to pick another gift. This can be rather depressing if the person got a gift they really wanted. What they originally thought they were getting turns out to be someone else’s. Their excitement was short lived.

     People have this happen to them in the emotional and spiritual realm all the time. They are searching for the meaning to their life. They go after money, fame, power and worldly relationships. When they finally reach their goal, they become overjoyed at finding such happines. However that excitement is short live too. The happiness that they thought they had chosen winds up being ripped from their hands. They will only get to keep the gift by choosing the right way to true happiness: a relationship with God.

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 2:4

Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?

     There are times when someone in authority shows leniency to those in their domain. Take a teacher for example. A student breaks an important rule, one that means she will be sent to the office immediately. The teacher decides to be kind today to this student and gives her a reprieve. When this happens, the student can respond in one of two ways. The first is thankfulness for mercy. The second is to transgress the rules more often feeling like the teacher has given them a free pass.

     It is a shame when the students take the second option. They teacher actually is punished for showing kindness. The same thing happens with God. God, in His infinite mercy, has decided not to strike each one of us done as soon as we sin. He could do so, and has done so in the past. Instead He gives us another chance. Sadly, many people use this mercy as an excuse to continue in evil. Some even go so far as to mock God to punish them if their acts are truly wrong.

     Our attitudes should be just the opposite. We need to recognize that God’s lack of judgment is not because He will not or cannot punish us. It is because He has chosen for a time to be merciful. Rather than take advantage of that, it should make us love Him more. We should desire to serve Him with all of our hearts because we know what He could have done but chose not to. Instead of mocking His great love, we should praise it with all of our hearts.

Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?

James 3:15

This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic.

     Wisdom is an important characteristic for God’s servant. In essence God demands wisdom. Wisdom is taking knowledge and applying it through action. God desires for us to take His word and actually use it. For example, it is not enough to know that we are to love our neighbors as ourselves. We need to know what it means to love someone else. What do we do in our lives that is loving towards others? Wisdom helps us to see that.

     It is a suprise then that James says that wisdom can be earthly, even demonic. Yet like all things that God desires, wisdom can be perverted. Some people take the knowledge that they have and they apply to selfish ambitions. They use it to cheat those around them. They manipulte others. They use wisdom to get out of doing the work that God intended them to do. By using “wisdom” for selfish gain, they profit nothing.

     We need to constantly be evaluating ourselves. As we get older and grow both in life and in our Christian walk, it is expected that we will acquire wisdom. What is it that we are doing with this wisdom? Are we using it to serve God? Or is it used to justify our own ends? Wisdom is a powerful tool that can do great things for the kingdom of God. We must make sure that we are not the ones who are perverting it.

This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic.

1 Peter 1:13

Therefore, prepare your minds for action, keep sober {in spirit,} fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

     While watching a football game with a group of friends, we noticed that the quarterback was struggling mightily against the other team. His throws seemed off a majority of the time. He threw the ball to the other team repeatedly. One pass was thrown so poorly, the official thought that the ball had been tipped before the throw. One of the big problems that we noticed is that his feet was not set.

     The most noticeable action that a quarterback has when throwing the ball is the arm movement. Just as vital as the thrown is the footwork before the thrown. If the quaterback does not properly set his feet in preparation for the thrown, the pass will struggle in many ways. The ball will not have has much strength because there is not a power base for hip movement. The throw will not be as consistently accurate because the body is moving around so much. You can see then that a quarterback needs to take the time to set his feet before he throws.\

     In the same way, we need to make sure that we do not focus on the “throwing motion” in our Christian lives. When we come upon a trial, the most noticeable thing is how we react to it. However, a big part of what will help us is taking the time to prepare before we have the trial. It will allow for a better reaction. We need to spend time in God’s word and in prayer. We need to roleplay, planning ahead for different outcomes. We will be a lot more successful throwing the ball (reacting to trials) if we plant our feet first.

Therefore, prepare your minds for action, keep sober {in spirit,} fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Acts 8:18

Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was bestowed through the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money,

     Simon was a newly converted Christian who used to be a sorcerer. Considering his previous profession, it is really no suprise to see that he was impressed with Apostles power. It seems as though there is a stark contrast between what he used to do and what the apostles were now doing. When he sees their great works he offers them money in order to be able to pass on such gifts. Peter then offers him one of the harshest rebukes in the Bible.

     Simon’s problem was not that he wanted spiritual gifts. Paul tells the Christian’s at Corinth to pursue and even to diligently desire spiritual gifts (1 Cor. 14:1). No, Simon’s mistake was the he was after the gifts of God for financial gain. Having previously profited on much lesser gifts, you can almost see his eyes line up with dollar signs as he sees these great gifts. After all, one who would purchase the gift would have no problem selling it to those who also desired it.

     It was these wrong motives that caused him to earn such a stinging rebuke. This teaches us a very valuable lesson. We can desire and run after spiritual things and still sin against God. We need to make sure not make fleshly gain the reason for seeking after godly things. The goal of biblical fasting should not be to lose weight. The goal of preaching the word should not be to make a profit. The list could go on and on. Instead of using spiritual things for earthly gain, we should desire the things of God for their spiritual benefit.

Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was bestowed through the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money,