James 4
Hi to everyone who missed this week. Bernie facilitated a great discussion. I know for me it really related to things happening in my life and my thought process. I apologize that because of this I found myself listening more and writing less, and find my notes are a bit stream-of-consciousness. I'll try to summarize in a coherent manner! The overall theme seems to be focused on living a life focused purely on God's plan for us, or God's hope for us, as opposed to the world's ways for us. Here's an idea of what was discussed:

Observations:
A few words that stood out to us: fight, battle, quarrel, speak, judge, double minded, mist/fog, humble...This section focuses on things and customs of the "world." When opposed to the section just before this about peace and compassion, this section seems to show the world as one of quarrelling and bickering about selfish desires.

Interpretations:
We noted that when living according to the world, people seem to fight, quarrel, and do whatever it takes to get what they desire in the world. People fight for status, power, material goods...James calls us to give up this battle and ask God to show us His will instead, to humble ourselves and stop fighting for our selfish desires.

We wondered how to know when we are fighting for ourselves and when we are striving for God's will. A few thoughts were that if your actions are not for your personal gain, but for general good to glorify God or to put God first, that would be a pretty good signal you may be on the right track.

But even at times when we try to humble ourselves yet still struggle to know if we are in God's will, we can remember these thoughts from James: Our actions don't affect God's will in the end. We can strive to do what we think is right, but God's work has already been done in the world all around us. Our lives are just a passing moment, like a fading mist or melting fog. As we seek after him, our decisions should be put into this perspective: our decision is not that important to the will of God being lived out in this world. It is more important that we decide to be humble before God and not strive for self-glory, that we might catch a glimpse of what God's kingdom really looks like. A few members of the group noted how they have caught that glimpse, and feel able to love others just for the sake of loving or serving them, not for any personal gain.

The question came up of what it means to be a "friend of the world" and what that word "world" means for us. One main idea that was mentioned stood out for me- That living according to the world's ways or a worldly system of values means that it is OK to manipulate something good so that is becomes something for self-gain. This creates such a sad image to me...the innocent heart of a child manipulated for an adults' selfish pleasure...the beauty of loving another person manipulated for the other's gain...the beauty of creation and God's creatures misused for selfish power...we all have examples of being misused, and of misusing, the good gifts of God.

So what can we do? How can we live in the world without acting out worldly values? We can bring new thoughts and ideas about how to live in humility, ideas that many people might not hear about very often. We can "fan the flames" of Christ-like living in the lives of non-believers. Affirm any tendency you see in others to live a life as Christ would, and maybe let them know that as a Christian you share those same values. We can be humble in our decisions and not manipulate situations, people, or resources for our personal ambitions. As Bernie pointed out, our closest friends are the ones we spend time with, listen to, talk to, focus on...we should be friends of Christ, not friends of worldly ambitions.