Week 8: James 4:1-11~Conflict

RECAP:
Week 1-Polka Dot
Week 2-not letting trials lead to sin
Week 3-not holding your faith in favoritism
Week 4-God's Word
Week 5-Faith and Works
Week 6-The Tongue
Week 7-Wisdom

This Week: Week 8--Conflict

When I prepared for today, I had to fall on my face before the Lord and pray for several hours that he would create in me a clean heart an renew in me a right spirit. I knew without doing so, I could not speak with you on the topic of conflict.

In James 4:1-11, James is writing to Christians and addressing a topic that is common in all of our lives.

From last week, we know what God has put in us when we were in the womb and we have a constant decision whether to live according to that or our sinful nature. In the past few months, however, I have witnessed firsthand just how innate our sin nature really is.

Example: My oldest daughter has twins and they can be the best of friends. One of them does happen to be more aggressive than the other and when she wants something that the other has, she takes time to wisely plot her strategy, circles around and swoops in for "the kill." Then, total chaos ensues. It truly amazes me because no one told them how to do this. They were born with it!

I asked who in the room has conflict? Pretty much everyone raised their hand. Who of you has conflict?

Unfortunately, it is just part of being human and we all encounter it every day.

In this passage we will look at three C's of conflict: CAUSE, CONSEQUENCE and CURE.

CAUSE
A friend once told me conflict comes from the struggle over 3 things:

1. Land
2. Money
3. Power

I asked the ladies if they could think of any others and we came up with quite a list!

• Stubborness
• Love
• Jealousy
• Expectations
• Pride
• Children
• Teenagers :)
• Selfishness
• Misunderstandings

What can you add to this list?

The scripture warns us of such causes.
Pride: Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall. Proverbs 16:18

Death and Destruction are never satisfied, and neither are human eyes. Proverbs 27:20

James says the cause of our conflicts is our own pleasure and it wages war in our soul.

The greek word for "pleasure" is "passion". "Passion" means "desire".
There is a huge trend today that encourages everyone to "find their passion."

I can not help but think when I read this passage that finding "our passion" can be a great source of conflict in our lives. Once we find it, we have to protect it...UNLESS we seek what God has gifted us for and ask what HE wants to use from our lives. Otherwise, we might be finding ourselves sitting in the middle of unnecessary conflict. This can be very wearing! Remember: Passion for passion's sake is not good and will wage war on your soul.

Read Romans 7: 18-23.

Paul talks about wanting to do the right thing but his actions would be something totally opposite. I can testify. There would be times in my life that I would be talking to someone and know that God was making it clear to me to keep my mouth shut but I would just be sitting there and my mouth would open and out would come empty words. So many times when I would do that, the conflict would just go on and on. Praise God that He has given us His Spirit to help us overcome our weaknesses and fleshly desires!

James 4:2 continues to say that our own lust or desire causes conflict. It seems so often that we intentionally take matters into our own hands when we want something so much. We need to pray that the Lord will help us line up our actions with our heart, a heart towards Him.
I Peter 2:11 says lust wages war with our soul. Conflict is caused from being envious, wanting what someone else has. Example: If material things are what we are envious over we will find ourselves in endless turmoil.

CONSEQUENCES
Reason for consequences of our conflicts:

• We do not receive direction because we ask God with the wrong motives. We ask according to what we want so we can lavish ourselves instead of getting on our faces before God and asking what He wants.
• Not having godly friends and being friends with the world instead of God. Who do you want to be friends with? Godly friends are a great support and encouragement and are a must to growing in Christ.
• Lastly, James 4:5 says that a consequence is making God jealous. HE breathed life into you and He jealously looks upon you as His precious child.

CURE
 Submit to God, come near to God, humble yourself before the Lord. In other words, get on your face before Him. In doing that you will resist the devil, He will come near to you and He WILL lift you up! It is a promise.

I have encouraged all the ladies to spend some time before the Lord in prayer this week and to come back and share how it helped in their lives and conflicts. I encourage you to do the same and don't be scared to share it with us! Also, feel free to let us know if there is anything we can pray for you!

Week 7: James 3:13-18~Wisdom!

I apologize that the notes from week 7 are delayed!!!! Nonetheless, here they are. :)

Read James 3:13-18.

Wisdom is mentioned three times in this chapter and we are told that there are two kinds of wisdom.

1. Earthly wisdom
2. Heavenly wisdom

Dictionary definition of wisdom:
1. The ability to discern or judge what is true, right or lasting; insight.
2. Common sense; good judgement.
3. a. The sum of learning through the ages; knowledge.
    b. wise teachings of the ancient sages.
4. A wise outlook, plan or course of action.

James' definition of wisdom is in verse 17:
But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy.

As I studied this in preparation for today, I had to look back over my life and examine the times I've exercised earthly wisdom and the times I've exercised heavenly wisdom. I am going to be transparent and share both with you.

Earthly wisdom- I am a mother and I admit that my motherly instinct is STRONG. My best friend has always told me that when it comes to my children, if something goes wrong, I go for the jugular. This is something I've really had to give to the Lord. One example of my earthly wisdom is when my oldest 3 were growing up and my best friend's child something to one of my children that just didn't go over very well. Frankly, it made me angry. Upon finding out, I immediately picked up the phone and told my best friend what happened. Ten minutes later,she and her oldest were at our door to apologize and work through the problem. Unfortunately, this encounter still resulted in a period of awkwardness on both of our parts for a bit of time afterwards. To this day, I acknowledge that the "the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God" (James 1:20) and I should've prayed and waited before tackling this specific situation.

Heavenly wisdom-  Since the death of my son and over the past 5 1/2 years, I've been weakend and grievous on my face before the Lord. At one point, the Lord strongly impressed upon my heart through his word that I am to enjoy my children and my grandchildren and He will take care of me. He's also shown me a lot about the beginning of heavenly wisdom. Consider this scripture:

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom;
A good understanding have all those who do His commandments... Psalm 111:10

The beginning of wisdom is spending time in the Word (His commandments) so we can understand HIS wisdom.

Back to James' definition in verse 17:
There is a beautiful picture of the word "pure" which means "sincere." When they would make pottery in biblical times, they would put wax over any crack in a piece of pottery. When something was sincere, it had no cracks...therefore, no wax. What a picture of how our lives can be when we live according to heavenly widsom...sincere and without cracks!

On the contrary, earthly wisdom results in division, death and separation.

Remember: Yes, some people have been given more natural abilities in exercizing wisom but if we ask the Lord for His wisdom, anyone can benefit and receive it! Heavenly wisdom does not intentionally do what God has clearly said not to do.

Example: Read Genesis 3:6. Eve was told not to eat from the tree of understanding. She and Adam did not need that tree. They just needed God. BUT she took matters into her own hands and did what God had clearly told her not to do.

Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb;
you taught me wisdom in that secret place. Psalm 51:6

He was putting His wisdom in us even before we were born! This was His design vs. our earthly wisdom of deciding to follow our own desires. When you've realized you've operated in earthly widom, ask Him for forgiveness and remember He's already put His wisdom in you!

Proverbs 2 tells us a lot about His wisdom. See verses 1, 2, 6, 10, 12 and 16.

Remember: To have wisdom, we must ABIDE in Jesus! That is the beginning.
The word "abide" means to "stay with."

Question: Is there anything standing in the way of you having a FULL relationship withthe Lord?

Pray: Open the eyes of my heart so that I may see the deep things of God.

Attributes: We made a list of the the attributes of heavenly wisdom according to the scriptures we read. Pray that the Lord would grow these attributes in you:

• Peace loving
• Considerate
• Submissive
• Good fruit
• Impartial
• Sincere
• Peaceful
• Full of mercy

I'm praying for each of you!

Love,
Glenda

Service and Outreach

Hey ladies!

We only have two weeks left and Imogene and I just wanted to spell out very clearly what service and outreach opportunities are still in the works for our two remaining weeks of mom's H2H. We know it's quite a few things and everybody can't do everything so please just pray about where the Lord wants you to contribute.  The bright side is we definitely have plenty of opportunities to bless people and be the hands and feet of Jesus! The items in red are especially important over the next couple of weeks.

SHERRY K.- Sherry K. (mH2H member and small group leader) is having surgery today (Mon.) on a brain tumor the doctor's discovered last week. Her family is in need of meals in the coming weeks. The web site to sign up for bringing Sherry and her family a meal is www.takethemameal.com. Please comment here if you are interested in blessing them in this way and we will email you the password to sign up take a meal. Please especially be praying for Sherry and her family.

Meal Mamas-our church has a meal ministry and is alway in need of homemade meals for the freezer so that they can bless families in need. Each Wednesday, we have pans provided for you to package your meal if you would like to participate. You can see the approved recipes and other details here on the Meal Mama blog. You can bring your meals to Bible Study on Wednesday and put them in the freezer in the Nursery Building. This is a continual need that you can be part of throughout the year!

Food Bank-our church's food bank is another continual need in which you can participate throughout the year to help families in need. As the holidays are approaching, the food bank needs our help even more. You can see the needed items and guidelines here. The Food Bank bin is located outside of the Discipleship Center. If it happens not to be there, you can bring your food to Bible Study and Amy A. will see that it is delivered to the appropriate place. This is also a great way to get your children involved in outreach. If so, we'd love for you to get creative and take a picture of your kid's w/ your food bank items and send the pictures to us so we can share them!

Nursery Worker's Gift- last week, we began passing around a card to sign and an envelope for small contributions (even as little as a dollar) to go towards a gift for our 4 Wednesday morning nursery workers. If you have children in nursery care, please keep this in mind when you come to study this week. It is the last time we will collect money because we will be presenting them w/ the gift on November 16 (the following week).

UPDATE and Change of plans:
Adopt a Family-Each Christmas, our church hosts an Adopt A Family program for families in need. Mom's Heart to Heart was going to adopt a few families as a service project this season. Unfortunately, the wish lists for our families will not be available before our study ends on Nov. 16. Therefore, the program has requested that we collect toys over the next couple of weeks in lieu of fulfilling the family wish lists. The program will use those toys to supplement and fill in gaps amongst ALL of the families. Sooooo....over the next couple of weeks if you could bring one toy (or whatever the Spirit leads), we will collect them and they will be donated towards this year's Adopt a Family! It is exciting that these toys will reach not just a few families but many!

If there are still questions, please let us know so we can clarify!

Look forward to seeing you on Wednesday!
Imogene and Hannah

Weekly Update and Photos from Food Bank Service Project!

Here are our pictures from our service project this semester. You have all been little nuggets of joy in my day when looking at these little angels doing God's work.





Thanks to all the moms that came last week and we missed those of you that were not there. We had a couple of things take place that we want you to be aware of.

First we collected dollars for baskets to give to the childcare workers. If you would like to contribute you still can next week.

We are also going to be having a holiday potluck over our break at my house. We will be selling the tickets next week. So you can get them online or you can purchase next Wednesday.

http://www.centralchurchofgod.org/events-seminars/details.cfm/event_id/811