월드미션프론티어

Opposite of humility is pride

1) Pride is like a bad breath every knows you have it except you

2) That’s why we need God’s word as a mirror to reflect our true identity.

I read an article in the China Post (Aug. 3, 2003) entitled, “Mirrors Tarnish Women’s Image.”

“Wall-to-wall mirrors in gyms and dance studios might stop women getting the exercise they need because women get discouraged and feel tired, Canadian researchers said on Friday….Regardless of how they viewed their bodies, women who worked out in front of a mirror felt worse, or no better, and less at peace after 20 minutes of activity. The mirrors made women more self-aware, they think of their short-comings. Things like: ‘I look fat, I should be more active.’

Some of you may hate mirrors, but what would life be like without them--those shiny reflectors that help us transform dirty into clean, wrinkled into well-groomed? Take away the mirror, and you take away the objective picture of what you really look like.

James says don’t be a Passive hearers.

Like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. They are easily deceived by a skewed view of themselves. They imagine that by listening to a sermon is actually doing something religious. They go to church, sit through the service, fold up their halo and go about their business.

James speaks about the "perfect law" (1:25). which means the complete law, including both law and grace to keep it. He calls such a law "the law of freedom." This contrasts with the bondage of a bad temper. Anger is opposite of freedom. Anger ties us in knots making us say and do things that hurt. Anger binds us and eventually controls what we say and do. Yet if we embrace God’s grace and law it frees us to do His will. Those who pay attention to the perfect law of freedom "being not hearers who forget but doers who act--they will be blessed in their doing" (1:25).

James echoes Jesus' words: "Blessed. . . are those who hear the word of God and obey it!" (Luke 11:28). Belief must impact behavior. The word that is learned must link with the word that is lived.

Hear the word, do the word, and . . . .