<p><span class="fs-17 fg-mustard bold">For Reading and Meditation:</span><br><span class="italic">     <span class="scriptRef" ref="pr+18:15-21">Proverbs 18:15-21</span></span></p><p>We are seeing that the first step the psalmist took to save himself from falling was stopping himself from saying what was on the tip of his tongue. In other words, he took himself in hand. This is an extremely important issue. What a lot of heartache would be saved if Christians would take heed to this and learn to put a bridle on their tongues. Expressions which convey the idea that the Lord acts unjustly or unkindly, especially if they fall from the lips of men and women who have a long experience in the Christian life, are as dangerous as sparks in a timber factory. Despite his doubts, the psalmist recognised the importance of self-discipline, and that proved to be a saving virtue. People sometimes claim: "It is impossible for me to control what I say. It slips out before I realise what I've said." This is nonsense, of course, for what we say is the result of what we choose to say. Sometimes we may feel as though we have no control over what we say, but that is all it is - a feeling. Dr Lawrence Crabb, a Christian psychologist, tells us: "The loss of felt choice does not mean the loss of real choice." When you give a person "a piece of your mind", as we say, there is always a moment, albeit a split second, when you can choose to speak out or stay quiet. We cannot hide behind the excuse that our tongue is not under our control. What we do is what we choose to do. The psalmist, though beset by many doubts and difficulties, chose to control his tongue - and so can you. </p><p class="center-it italic bold mlr40 mtb20">Father, help me see that the things I do and say are not the result of compulsion but of choice. I am free to obey or free to disobey. Help me to use my freedom in the right way. In Jesus' Name I ask it. Amen.</p><div class="tl-lightgrey mt20 pt20 flexbox-row-wrap jc-around"><div><div class="fs-17 fg-mustard bold center-it">AdditionalVerses</div><ul style="margin-top:0px"><li><span class="scriptRef" ref="jas+3:1-18">James 3:1-18</span></li><li><span class="scriptRef" ref="jas+1:5">James 1:5</span></li><li><span class="scriptRef" ref="lu+21:15">Luke 21:15</span></li></ul></div>

<div><div class="fs-17 fg-mustard bold center-it">Questions to Consider</div><ul style="margin-top:0px"><li>What does James teach about the tongue?</li><li>What are we to ask God for?</li></ul></div></div>

Let a little light into your soul every day with this wonderful devotional from English pastor Selwyn Hughes.

Every Day Light with Selwyn Hughes

"The tongue has the power of life and death " (v. 21) 

<p><span class="fs-17 fg-mustard bold">For Reading and Meditation:</span><br><span class="italic">     <span class="scriptRef" ref="jas+3:1-18">James 3:1-18</span></span></p><p>We continue making the point that we cannot be peacemakers until we first find peace within ourselves. A psychiatrist was interviewing a man full of conflicts. In the middle of the interview the telephone rang, and because the receptionist had put a call through to him when he had given instructions not to be disturbed, the psychiatrist swore. He lost his peace and he lost his patient, for the patient saw that he had little to give except verbal advice. The fact is that when we lose our peace with others, it is usually the projection of an inner conflict within ourselves. A church in the Far East has this statement engraved over the door: "Let every Christian begin the work of union within himself." This is the place to begin - within yourself. For, as the Chinese saying puts it: "He who has peace in himself has peace in the family; he who has peace in the family has peace in the world." A prominent member of a peace movement in the British Isles who said he was dedicated to peace wrote a stinging letter to a member of the British Parliament which was published in the press. As a result, his advocacy of peace was blurred. People said: "This man's idea of peace needs an overhaul. It is simply verbal, and not vital." A missionary said: "God and I are not at peace; we seem to be at cross purposes. And my relationships with others are becoming more and more difficult." Of course - for when we are not in harmony with God, then we are not in harmony with ourselves or others. </p><p class="center-it italic bold mlr40 mtb20">O Father, I long to become so harmonised with You that my life becomes an example of harmony to others. Make me a peaceful and peaceable person. For Jesus' sake. Amen.</p><div class="tl-lightgrey mt20 pt20 flexbox-row-wrap jc-around"><div><div class="fs-17 fg-mustard bold center-it">AdditionalVerses</div><ul style="margin-top:0px"><li><span class="scriptRef" ref="joh+16:25-33">John 16:25-33</span></li><li><span class="scriptRef" ref="lu+1:78-79">Luke 1:78-79</span></li><li><span class="scriptRef" ref="ro+8:6">Romans 8:6</span></li><li><span class="scriptRef" ref="ro+14:17">Romans 14:17</span></li></ul></div>

<div><div class="fs-17 fg-mustard bold center-it">Questions to Consider</div><ul style="margin-top:0px"><li>What does peace spring from?</li><li>Why can we take heart?</li></ul></div></div>

"' those who are peacemakers will plant seeds of peace and reap a harvest of goodness." (v. 18, TLB)

<p><span class="fs-17 fg-mustard bold">For Reading and Meditation:</span><br><span class="italic">     <span class="scriptRef" ref="jas+3:1-18">James 3:1-18</span></span></p><p>We continue meditating on the meaning of the word "meek" as used by Jesus in His third Beatitude. "Meekness," said one commentator, "is essentially a true view of oneself, expressing itself in attitude and conduct with respect to others." If that is so, then meekness involves two things: (1) our attitudes towards ourselves, and (2) our attitudes toward others. The meek person is so sure of himself that he does not need to demand anything for himself. He does not see his rights as something to be rigidly held on to, but follows the spirit of Jesus as outlined in  <span class="scriptRef" ref="php+2:6-7">Philippians 2:6-7</span>: "Who, although being essentially one with God ' did not think this equality with God was a thing to be eagerly grasped or retained; but stripped Himself of all privileges ' and was born a human being" (Amplified Bible). That is the place to which you and I must come if we are to understand the principle of meekness. The Christian who is meek will not be over-sensitive about himself, or defensive; he realises that he has no rights at all and delights to leave everything in the hands of God. When he is called upon to suffer unjustly, he remembers the Word of the Lord that says, "It is mine to avenge; I will repay"  (<span class="scriptRef" ref="ro+12:19">Romans 12:19</span>), and trusts God to work out the situation in His own time and in His own way. The poet Browning put the same truth in these words: "He who keeps one end in view makes all things serve." When that one end is the purpose of God, then indeed - all things serve. </p><p class="center-it italic bold mlr40 mtb20">O Father, instil into me such a spirit of meekness that such things as anger, impatience, irritation, distrust, suspicion and unbelief die within me. Help me to see that only meekness must survive. For Jesus' sake. Amen.</p><div class="tl-lightgrey mt20 pt20 flexbox-row-wrap jc-around"><div><div class="fs-17 fg-mustard bold center-it">AdditionalVerses</div><ul style="margin-top:0px"><li><span class="scriptRef" ref="1pe+2:18-25">1 Peter 2:18-25</span></li><li><span class="scriptRef" ref="mt+11:29">Matthew 11:29</span></li><li><span class="scriptRef" ref="mt+26:52">Matthew 26:52</span></li></ul></div>

<div><div class="fs-17 fg-mustard bold center-it">Questions to Consider</div><ul style="margin-top:0px"><li>What was Peter's exhortation?</li><li>Why was Jesus able to display meekness?</li></ul></div></div>

"' By his good life let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom." (v. 13, RSV)

<p>You are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. § Can you search out the deep things of God? Can you find out the limits of the Almighty? They are higher than heaven—what can you do? Deeper than Sheol—what can you know?<br><br>We speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory. § The mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ; to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places.<br><br>If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. § The wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, wiling to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.</p>

Daily Light on the Daily Path or Daily Light is a Christian daily devotional scripture reading published by Bagster & Sons about 1875. It has been reprinted continually since then. It consists of brief groupings of scripture passages which speak to prominent Biblical themes—two themes (morning and evening) for each day of the year. It appends no commentary, but simply allows scripture to speak for itself.

Morning Daily Light

 To God our Savior, who alone is wise. 

<p>The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth.<br><br>Walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love. § Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you. § The wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. §  Love suffers long and is kind.<br><br>In due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. § Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain. You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.</p>

 The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness. 

<p>Get wisdom! Get understanding! § The wisdom that is from above. § The deep says, “It is not in me”; and the sea says, “It is not with me.” § We were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection.<br><br>Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. § [God] made us alive together with Christ … and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.<br><br>Those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland. § Seek the Lord, all you meek of the earth, who have upheld His justice. Seek righteousness, seek humility.</p>

 Seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. 

<blockquote>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>The life-giving power of the Spirit. . . has set us free from the power of sin and death" </strong>(<a id="verse_1632877979279917" href="https://bible.knowing-jesus.com/Romans/8/2">Rom. 8:2</a>, Wms.).</p>
</blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;">The Holy Spirit ministers to our mind via the Word, and He conditions our heart via our daily experiences.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">"A believer may know that he is positionally free, and yet have to mourn the fact that his experience is that of a wretched captive. The freedom is so entirely in Christ Jesus, and the maintenance of our living union with Him is so distinctly and entirely the work of divine power, that it is only as we see that the Spirit dwells within us for this very purpose, and know how to accept and yield to His working it, that we can really stand in the liberty with which Christ has made us free." -A.M.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">"There is no strength or power in ourselves against the law of sin which is in our members. The Father has left us as much dependent upon the Lord Jesus' work for our deliverance from the power of sin as for our forgiveness! It is wholly because we died with Him on the Cross, both to sin and to the whole legal principle, that sin's power for those in the Lord Jesus, is broken." -W.R.N.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">"Have we not often sought, by earnest thought, to enter more deeply into the significance of the Cross? Have we not, as we got a glimpse of some aspect of its glory, gone from book to book to discover what it really means? Have not some given up hope that words like I have been crucified with Christ,' the world is crucified to me,' baptized into His death,' dead unto sin and alive unto God in Christ Jesus' should have become truly intelligible and helpful? Is not the reason of all this that we want to grasp the hidden wisdom of the Father with our mind alone, forgetting that the Holy Spirit intends to work it into the heart and inner life also?" -A.M.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>"The wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable. . . free from doubts and insincerity"</strong> (<a id="verse_1632877979915231" href="https://bible.knowing-jesus.com/James/3/17">James 3:17</a>, Wms.).</p>

A 365 day devotional that will help you in your Christian growth and walk with the Lord Jesus Christ.  This devotional is a collection of quotes from some of the best authors in the realm of Christian growth that has been organized by Miles J Stanford.  This devotional study is divided into 12 sections each containing 31 daily portions.

None but the Hungry Heart

 Mind And Heart 

<p><span class="bible-text "> <sup class="verse-num ">17 </sup>But the wisdom that comes from heaven   is first of all pure; then peace-loving,   considerate, submissive, full of mercy   and good fruit, impartial and sincere.   </span></p>

But the wisdom that comes from heaven<cr>1</cr>  is first of all pure; then peace-loving,<cr>2</cr>  considerate, submissive, full of mercy<cr>3</cr>  and good fruit, impartial and sincere.<cr>4</cr> 

James 3:17

 17 But the wisdom that comes from heaven   is first of all pure; then peace-loving,   considerate, submissive, full of mercy   and good fruit, impartial and sincere.  

From Wikipedia: 

The New International Version (NIV) is an English translation of the Bible first published in 1978 by Biblica (formerly the International Bible Society). The NIV was published to meet the need for a modern translation done by Bible scholars using the earliest, highest quality manuscripts available. Of equal importance was that the Bible be expressed in broadly understood modern English.

The NIV is published by Zondervan in the United States and Hodder & Stoughton in the UK. The NIV was updated in 1984 and 2011 and has become one of the most popular and best-selling modern translations.

OT: Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia; additional sources;
NT: UBS Greek New Testament; Novum Testamentum Graece; additional sources;

New International Version

 But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.

<p><span class="bible-text ">But the wisdom that comes from heaven   is first of all pure; then peace-loving,   considerate, submissive, full of mercy   and good fruit, impartial and sincere.   </span></p>

 But the wisdom that comes from heaven   is first of all pure; then peace-loving,   considerate, submissive, full of mercy   and good fruit, impartial and sincere.  

Bible Verse of the Day

November 29, 2022

James 3:17 NIV

Verse by Verse Bible Study

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