shawnethomas

     We have a lot of people here at First Baptist Church who are going through different “storms” in their lives right now.  My own current battle with dysautonomia is well-known to most of you.  But I know that I am not the only person in our church who is going through a trial.  Our whole church staff has been hit hard – with illness, deaths in families, family crises. People throughout our church are undergoing trials.  For example, Bro. Kyle told me the other day that just in the choir alone, there are 25 different people who are going through various storms: whether it is cancer, or another illness, or a family trial, or a financial or work crisis – 25 people just in the choir!  In many different families, and in many different ways, our church is going through the fire right now.  I know that many of you would say, “Count ME in that number; I am going through the fire right now too!” 

     That is one of the reasons I am convinced that this Book of James is just the right book for our church right now!  When he writes in his first words of instruction, “Count it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials”, he is writing to people like US!  The first-century Christians James addressed were facing suffering.  There are evidences of that all through the book.  So much of the Book of James deals with how God’s people, those with genuine faith, are to respond to the trials they were facing.  It shows us “What Tested Faith Looks Like”. Continue reading →