Real Faith for Real Life Faith Service Worship Vision
There may be times when you find it difficult to reconcile God’s truth to your own opinion or worldview, God’s truth is eternal, it does not change, our understanding of the truth does change as we allow God to work in our hearts and minds. These sessions are not about opinion, they are about learning truth, the truth contained in the Bible, together we are going to focus on how we apply God’s truth, black & white in a grey world. To set godly priorities, grow in Christian character and live according to God’s standards so that we are a living witness to others. Notes from previous sessions are available from the Bible Study Section of www.ashingdonelim.co.uk.
Session 1
15 March 2011
Facing Life’s Difficulties James 1:1-12 Living life in this world is often challenging! We have so many things pulling at us; family, work, relationships, our relationship with God. So often it feels like we are rushing from one thing to the next down the busy streets of life.
How does sitting here on a Tuesday evening talking about faith and believing God, translate to living in the real world? What does Real faith look like in Real Life? This is the first in a series of studies that will look at How to have a Real Faith for Real Life and we are going to be considering the book of James. James is a very practical book that gives us a good insight into what a real faith looks like lived out in the real world.
Do you find living out your faith challenging? Why? What do you find easiest about living out your faith? What do you find most difficult about living out your faith?
James says we can face the difficulties of life for God’s glory and our good.
Background James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes scattered among the nations: Greetings. (James 1:1) We see in this first verse that the book is written by James, the Lord’s Brother. Many Roman Catholic’s are taught Jesus didn’t have any siblings because Mary was a virgin for her whole life, so how could this be the Lord’s brother? Scripture teaches that Mary was a virgin until Jesus was born, there is no Scriptural support for the Catholic Church’s teaching that Mary was a virgin perpetually. In fact Scripture teaches otherwise. Matthew 1:25 tells us that after the angel visited Joseph that he took Mary as his wife but “he had no union with her until she gave birth to a son.” And the Bible also lists other half siblings of Jesus. When Jesus went back to his hometown of Nazareth to teach, the people who knew him growing up, took offense to his authoritative teaching. And they said in Mark 6:3, “Isn’t this Mary’s son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon? Aren’t his sisters here with us?” And Paul tells the Galatians he visited “James, the Lord’s brother” (Galatians 1:19) one of the leaders in the church and this is after James the Apostle had been killed. So it is James the Lord’s brother who is the most likely author of this letter to the 12 tribes scattered among the nations.
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