Year: 2013

  • Bessy’s “Thank You”

    I received this email from Bessy.  You will remember that we as a group helped her after the sudden death of her husband in Honduras. “When I saw the “stuff” I saw that most of it were things of little monetary value, but I know that if I had been the one sorting things I…

  • Fight Club

    But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy.  James 3:17  NASB Reasonable – Is faith reasonable?  In the post-Kiekegaardian era, this question might be answered, “No, faith goes beyond reason.”  But Kierkegaard’s distinction between faith and reason never crossed James’ mind.  Kierkegaard’s…

  • An Oxford Education

    But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy.  James 3:17  NASB Gentle – When I arrived at Trinity College, Oxford as a graduate student, I was invited to dinner with the president of the college.  I assumed that this was a formal…

  • State of Play

    But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy.  James 3:17  NASB Peaceable –  James writes in Greek, but he isn’t thinking in Greek.  The Greek word he uses is eirenikos.  The root is eirene, and in the Greek world this is a…

  • Two Come First!

    But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy.  James 3:17  NASB First – As you may know, the Greek word for “first” is proton.  Not too hard to remember in this age of science and atoms.  As we discovered, James made a…

  • Triple Play

    But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy.  James 3:17  NASB Pure – James, Paul and John agree.  They each use this rather rare Greek word for the same thing – moral purity.  Paul uses it in 1 Timothy 5:22.  John uses…

  • The Order of Righteousness

    But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy.  James 3:17  NASB From above – First let’s straighten out John 3:3.  James uses the same word here (anothen) that we find in John 3:3.  But the Christian evangelical world chooses to translate anothen…