Introduction to James and Our Schedule

This is it!  We are officially starting!  Today I will offer our schedule for the rest of the year and a short introduction to the book of James.

As I mentioned in one the first posts, if you look at your calendar – you will have approximately 5 weeks left in the year.  If you read one chapter of the book of James each week, you will have finished an ENTIRE book of the Bible before the end of 2015!  Once you’ve read one book, others will come more easily!

Some Bibles are more easy to read than others and you are free to use whatever Bible you have.  The King James Bible has a lot of Thee’s and Thou’s and “eths” – Cometh hereth – just teasing – but it can be difficult to understand the meaning of the passages if you are having to parse out language you don’t understand first.  On the other end of the spectrum, you have The Good News Bible, which is written in what is considered “normal” speech.  If you’ve never been to church, never read the Bible – this might be the one for you.  I use either NIV or ESV.  My mother bought me the NIV when I graduated from high school (a million years ago) and it has writings in all the margins – so I really like it.  But a few years ago, my husband and I bought a new ESV and I like it too, so I use both.

Today you can read my introduction to the book of James and then get started on reading the first chapter.  James is located in the New Testament (Old Testament comes first and then the New Testament) and is almost at the end of the Bible.  You can look at the index for a page number or start thumbing through the end.  James is sandwiched in between Hebrews and 1st Peter.

The first chapter of James has (in my version at least) 9 paragraphs – everyone should be able to read 9 paragraphs in a week.  Once you’ve finished your reading, you can come back here and read up on the interesting facts and discussion I will post.  Please feel free to post questions or AHA moments (those moments when your read and think, WOW this is exactly where I am now!) down below.  I do believe that you must sign in to WordPress to be able to comment.  So, without further ado . . . here we go.

The author of the book is thought to be James, the brother of Jesus and not one of the apostles James (remember no last names here – sometimes the Bible will use names like ____ bar _____, the “bar” means “son of” – but we don’t have that here).  James (brother of Jesus) was not overly active in the church during Jesus’ lifetime.  Perhaps, James felt some sibling rivalry.  While he recognized Jesus as Christ the Lord, one part of him had to be constantly saying, “But he’s my brother!”  Are you thinking about your own siblings right now?  Can you imagine how James might have felt?

He is identified only as a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.  James was the leader of the Jewish Christian community in Jerusalem whom Paul (we will learn all about Paul later) acknowledged as one of the “pillars” (Galations 2:9).  In Acts, he appears as the authorized spokesman for the Jewish Christian position in the early church.  In the end, (according to the Jewish historian Josephus), James was thrown from the temple but did not die; he was then stoned to death by the Jews under the high priest Ananus II in A.D. 62.

There has been great controversy as to whether the book of James should be included in the New Testament.  One of the greatest critics was Martin Luther.  Luther felt that the “works” requirements found in James directly contradicted Paul’s writings that faith alone was required.  Most theologians consider James writings compliment rather than contradict Paul, particularly since Paul referred to him as a “pillar.”  James reiterates the necessity of faith and urges that “works” naturally flow from obedience to God.

The key words that will sum up the book of James is “Faith is not the same as belief – Faith is belief in action.” In other words, you cannot “earn” your way into heaven by your good works, however if you have faith then you believe that Christ died for your sins and you give your heart to Christ and because of that you want to live a Christ-centered life – doing those things that Christ said we should.

Now that you have read my few paltry words about who we think the author is and a little about the man James, it is time to dive into God’s Word.  As you read, don’t worry if you don’t understand everything.  That is perfectly normal – the more you read the Bible, the more you will understand.  Also, if you have a study Bible don’t feel like you must read every footnote, cross-reference every Scripture and pour over every map.  Take this at a pace that will allow you to finish the chapter each week.  And now a quick prayer for each of you before you stat Chapter 1:

“Heavenly Father, I ask that you stand with each of us as we read through your Holy Word.  Open our hearts and minds so that we might understand the life you want us to lead.  Let this not be an academic journey, but a spiritual one, so that as we finish each chapter of each book, we would not simply have more information, but we would lead changed lives.  In Jesus’ name, Amen.”