Sin Follows Trials

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I’m not sure that I have given much thought to how temptation to sin follows trials. But James sure did. After thinking about James 1:12-18 for the past week, the Lord allowed me to see several moments where this was true in my past.

Here are a few examples:

When I was 19, I played fall baseball at a community college in Dallas, Texas. I played very well, but the coach didn’t feel he had room for me on the roster. It was a significant trial. I knew that my baseball career was over, and after playing baseball for 13 years, it was a life-defining moment. I remember the temptation to slander the coach and berate the other players.
In 2000, we had a beautiful baby girl, Ruth Deborah, who lived for five hours after birth. She was 8-months in utero, but developed anemia from an undetected fetal bleed. The temptation to blame God and others was right at my elbow. It was during this time that a man came to the hospital room and said some ignorant theological things to me. The temptation to anger and a desire to belittle this man was very near.
After a few years of starting the church, some hard things began to happen in our church. I felt blindsided and lost. At the time, it was the most significant trial in church ministry. The temptation to gossip and share information with others was close at hand.

In most of these moments, I failed miserably. Looking back over the timeline of my life, I see the pattern very clearly: trials come, and the Lord desires to use these to produce steadfastness. Right behind the trial is a temptation to sin.

Looking back, I’m grateful to have a clear conscience with those I sinned against. Over the years, I’ve done my best to reconcile any issues I can. But I have great regret for my sin.

But there were also moments when I didn’t take the bait. Jill and I look back on Ruth’s life and death, marveling at God’s steady, powerful grace in keeping us from losing our minds. It could only have been God.

Here’s the point: when trials come, temptation lies close behind.

Can you look back on your life and see this? Doesn’t this truth help you be vigilant?

The Amazing Grace of God

One of the interesting points in James 1:2-18 is the word “steadfast.” We saw this on Sunday.

3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. James 1:3-4
12 Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. James 1:12

Trials (testing of your faith) produce steadfastness, which makes us perfect, complete, and lacking in nothing when it is fully grown. We will receive the crown of life when we remain steadfast under trial.

To receive the crown of life, we need steadfastness. God knows we don’t have steadfastness, so He uses trials (part of living in a fallen world) to produce steadfastness. This is how God’s grace works.

He provides what we lack to give us what we don’t deserve.

To be right with God, we need righteousness. God provides that through the perfect obedience of Christ.
To be forgiven, we need someone to satisfy God’s law. God provides that through Jesus’ death on the cross.
To be given access to God, we need to have peace with God. God provides that through Jesus.
To use our gifts for God’s glory and not our own, we need an empowering of those gifts. God provides His Holy Spirit.
To understand God’s word and have the ability to obey it, we need to be spiritually alive. God provides that by making us alive by Christ and in Christ.
I could go on, but you get the point.

Now, all of this makes me wonder if on the day we meet the Lord and He says, “Well done, good and faithful servant,” will we look back at him and say, “You did it all anyway?”

From the Cheap Seats

The Cowboys free up almost $80mil in cap space to do basically nothing. What’s the definition of insanity? Having Jerry Jones as your favorite team’s owner…
This post reminds me why I’ve spent most of my ministry encouraging Christians not to be weird: https://www.facebook.com/reel/1009695574547417/?mibextid=wwXIfr.
Some of you have asked about the UVC Baseball Schedule. Here’s the link: https://www.osaa.org/teams/61523.