And Finally, Love Others and Pray For Each Other!

Friday greetings!

Before I go, I wanted to leave you with a couple more important thoughts. Be careful, you who are wealthy: Take some lessons in mourning because a difficult path may lay before you. Your wealth is rotting away, and your fine clothes are riddled with holes from moths. Your cash and credit cards have become worthless. Your greedy luxuries are a cancer in your gut, destroying your life from within. This wealth you have accumulated will stand as evidence against you on the day of judgment. Listen! Hear the cries of the day laborers you have cheated of their pay. The wages you held back cry out against you. The cries of those who cut your lawn and clean your house have reached the ears of the mighty Lord.

You have spent your years on earth in luxury, satisfying your every desire. But all you'll have to show for it is a fatter than usual corpse. In fact, what you've done is condemn and murder perfectly good persons, who stand there and take it.

Meanwhile, friends, be patient as you wait for the Lord’s return. Consider the farmers who patiently wait for the rains in the fall and in the spring. They eagerly look for the valuable harvest to ripen. You, too, must be patient. Take courage, for the coming of the Lord is near.

Friends, don't complain about each other. A far greater complaint could be lodged against you, you know. The Judge is standing just around the corner.

Take the Old Testament prophets as your mentors. They put up with anything, went through everything, and never once quit, all the time honoring God. We give great honor to those who endure under suffering. For instance, you know the story of Job, a man of great endurance. You can see how the Lord was kind to him at the end, for the Lord is full of tenderness and mercy.

And since you know that he cares, let your language show it. Don't add words like "I swear to God" to your own words. Don't show your impatience by making up promises to try and hurry God. Simply say yes or no. Just say what is true. That way, your language can't be used against you.

As I see the news every night, there seems to be one story after another of people being laid-off, losing their homes, going through hardships. Are any of you suffering hardships? You should pray. Are any of you happy? You should sing praises! Are any of you sick? You should call for the leaders of the church to come and pray over you, anointing you with oil in the name of the Lord. Such a prayer offered in faith will heal the sick, and the Lord will make you well. And if you have committed any sins, you will be forgiven!

Make this your common practice: Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you can live together whole and healed! That is so important! You know, the prayer of a person living right with God is something powerful to be reckoned with. Elijah, for example, who was a human just like us, prayed hard that it wouldn't rain, and it didn't—not a drop for three and a half years. Then he prayed that it would rain, and it did. The showers came and everything started growing again.

And finally, my friends, let me leave you with this last thought. If you know people who have wandered off from God's truth, don't write them off. Go after them. Get them back and you will have rescued precious lives from destruction and prevented an epidemic of wandering away from God.

Thank you for letting my guest blog these last few days. I wish you all the best and pray that God be with you all!

James