A thought about the book or epistle of James (I think we say "epistle of James" when we want to impress people with our knowledge of "Christianeze".) Please forgive me for straying. I was reading in James today because that's where the Lord seems to lead me frequently. I need a lot of help from the Holy Spirit in the Book of James apparently. I was wondering, while knowing that the Holy Spirit is the author, if James was being moved to write out of his own experience. Was James double minded? Was his tongue set on fire of hell? Are these things he overcame in the power of the Holy Spirit? These are problems that I have faced. Double minded? Sometimes I wonder if I'll ever be single minded. The Bible says the double minded man doesn't receive anything. I know my tongue has been set on fire of hell a few times, that was right before I had to extract my shoe from my mouth. Mayby yelled at my kids. Said something in a gossipy way about someone (that killing people with your tongue is about as nasty a habit as you can have.)
Tongue set on fire of hell, contrasted with tongues of fire symbolic of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Fire is a powerful symbol in the Bible. What do we know. Controlled fire is good. For we Christians, we are supposed to let our tongue be controlled by the Holy Spirit. When I first knew this, I thought it was just not cussing. That was good because when I gave God control over my tongue, he took all cussing out. But there is always a deeper work that the Holy Spirit wants do, with our tongues, it's to cut off that link to hell. We have to link up our tongue to the Holy Spirit. That means a disconnect from the tongue connected to the fires of hell. It means discipline in edification & exhortation. Speaking blessings and not cursings. Speaking in tongues as the Spirit gives utterance. Uh oh, there's that extreme thing that passed away. No, it didn't pass away, because perfect has not yet come. Perfect is on His way, but we have work to do and that is helped along if we can totally disconnect our tongue from hell and turn it over to the Holy Spirit. So, did James live this out before he wrote it out? I think there's a good chance he did. Blessing on you today through Christ Jesus my Lord and Savior.
