Gary Gleans

Do not speak evil against one another, brothers.     The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge.     There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor? We tend to have a very clear picture of what we think others should do but suddenly become unclear when it comes to observing our own actions and attitudes.  It is easy for us to recognize when someone hurts us because we feel it deeply.  However, we are slow to see the way our words and behaviors hurt others.  Self-awareness can be developed as we learn to follow a few basic principles. AVOID BEING CRITICAL OF OTHERS: Evil speech has no place in the Christians mouth.  Gossip, dishonesty, slander, swearing, yelling, and perversity are all examples of evil spe...

But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”     Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.     Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.     Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.     Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you. Grace is one of God’s greatest gifts to humanity.  He lavishes us with grace upon grace and then gives us even more grace.  God’s grace is made readily available to those who recognize their need for it.  Those who trust on their own strength or think they have no need of His grace will not experience this great gift.  We can enjoy the experience of God’s grace in our lives by pursuing these habits. TURN FROM ...

What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?     You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask.     You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.     You adulterous people!     Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.     Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”?  Broken relationships are a common reality in far too many lives.  Families, neighbors, churches, ministries, communities, and nations seem to constantly be at odds with one another.  Why is there so much brokenness in our world?  Th...

Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom.     But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth.     This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic.     For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice.     But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.     And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. Wisdom can take on many different appearances based on its source.  What seems wise to a believer will likely seem foolish to an unbeliever.  God is the ultimate source of true wisdom because He alone is all-knowing.  James gives...

How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire!     And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell.     For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.     With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God.     From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so.     Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water?     Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water. Medications come with warning labels about negative side effects they might cause...

Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.     For we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body.     If we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well.     Look at the ships also: though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs.     So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. Taming the tongue is a lofty and all-important goal.  Unfortunately, it is an impossible goal this side of heaven.  None of us can completely control our tongue but that should not prevent us from striving to do so.  James informs us about our tongues in an effort to help us grow in our ability to ...

Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless?     Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar?     You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God.     You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.     And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way?     For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead. Genuine faith that produces works is illustrated in the lives of two people that represent extremely different ends of a spectrum.  Abraham is a man who was chosen by God to be the fa...