Thank you Bob

Scripture:
"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."
(James 1:27)

Many years ago when I was going to Bible College, I had a roommate who was the cook for the college. He was one of those type of guys that did what he thought was right and did not really get challenged much when he did something differently then others. Well I guess there is a part of me that is like that and we were friends for years. In fact, if I could find him now, I am sure we would be as close as if we had never been apart.

Well, anyway, later after he got married and I came back from the mission field, he told me that he had memorized the whole book of James. I was amazed. Bob was not the type who could sit down and work on something that long but he was they type that if he had made up his mind about something he would not let it go. He obviously did that this time and since then I have always marveled that he did this.

Well last night I began studying James again and I started with listening to the first chapter numerous times and begin typing down my thoughts into a journal that I keep online. So far I have only logged about a dozen or so thoughts but one particular thought stood out.

You probably do not know it, but recently Michele, one of our dear sisters in the Lord and a co-author in this devotional blog, was moved from an office she had upstairs, back downstairs and is in the cubical right next to me here at Corporate. Well as you can imagine, there are many moments during the week we get to share in fellowship and yesterday we were sharing together and it struck me how wonderful the Lord is, by giving us a great fellowship in his Spirit.

All of us have our different ways of worshiping or differences in understanding doctrine but we all share a common bond in Jesus Christ, being born again by the Spirit of God and desiring to grow in the Word of God and in the power of the Holy Spirit.

So this morning, when I was meditating on James 1, verse 27 stood out as one of the basics for all of our religions (doctrines), that the "religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." That is, that the works of our faith are to love those that need our love and at the same time protect ourselves from all of the unholiness that is around us.

I still would like to be as ambitious as Bob, memorizing the whole book of James. Anyone want to join me?

Prayer Request:
For the continued healing of our brothers and sisters in Christ here at Avery Dennison that are experiencing health trials and that their hearts would be filled with the joy, peace and power of the Holy Spirit of God.

Prayer:
Father, you desire only our hearts and we surrender ourselves to you. You sent your son to die on the Cross to pay for all of our sins because you loved us so much. Thank you Lord. We desire to me better doers of your Word. Lead us to those how need your love through us and bring to our attention those things that could sneak into our lives from the world.