James 1:2-3

"Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance."

Nothing great has ever happened without pain and trials of the ones who accomplished it. Trials of many kinds bring us closer to Christ, and almost force us to depend wholly on Him and no one else, including ourselves.

Endurance is required to reach our goal of bringing the Kingdom of Heaven here. We must run our race with endurance. Without endurance, it's a sprint, and, while it may have great results, we don't want to be disqualified ourselves.

What trials are you facing? I know we're facing some big ones. Thank God today for your trials, not because of the pain, but because of the long-term result, which we may not see for a very long time.

James 1:1a

"James, a bond-servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Chris,"

James declared himself a "bond-servant." What is that? A servant is one who serves (duh!), but a bond-servant implies something a little different.

When a servant or a slave had worked long enough to pay off a debt (or if the time limit on debt had run out...Jewish culture had such an awesome way of dealing with debt), he could make the choice to go out on his own as a free man, or he could stay with his master, because he loved his master, and was then a bond-servant.

A bond-servant doesn't serve because that's his job or because he's paying off a debt or because that's the position he was born to. A bond-servant serves because he loves his master. James declared himself a bond-servant because he served Christ out of love for Christ, not out of obligation to repay the enormous debt which all of us who have accepted Christ's salvation have been relieved of.

Are you a bond-servant, or just someone trying to work to earn the salvation you've already been given?

Acts 1

"And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, "which," He said, "you have heard from Me; for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now."
- Acts 1:45

Jesus did not tell His disciples to do anything. He told them to wait: to wait to receive the Promise of the Father. Why do we hurry into doing things "for God" when sometimes He just wants us to stop and wait on him? Go when He says "Go." Stay when He says "Stay." Proceed when He says "Proceed." Wait when He says "Wait."

Meet Charlotte

Here's Charlotte! We got her from my parents last Sunday. She's a cockapoo (half cocker spaniel, half poodle). She's seven weeks old, and she's loads of fun.

Birthday Fun

So, today was my birthday, and it was a most excellent day.

Sarah and I started the day off going to Beach Church and got to worship with our Lifegroup and a whole bunch of other Christ-followers (always good times).

After lunch, I got to open my presents from Sarah. Yes, I said presents. My wife tends to go all out, and she definitely went all out on this. She'd been saving her blow money (see Dave Ramsey if you don't know what that means) for months. She bought me a table saw AND a router, both of which I've been wanting for a while, but I don't possess the discipline to save my blow money long enough to get them. Here's a couple pictures.


After an afternoon nap, Sarah started work on a homemade cheesecake (which we will be eating shortly). Then, we went out to Travinia for dinner and went to Barnes and Noble.

To top off everything my awesome wife has done for my birthday, I've received numerous text messages and facebook wall posts wishing me happy birthday, and phone calls from two of the closest friends from my past, Christof and Nate. Thanks for everything.

And now, back to the regular world (where my wife is still awesome, and I get to eat cheesecake).