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    Treasures from James: GEMS for You from the Epistle of James
    Treasures from James: GEMS for You from the Epistle of James
    Treasures from James: GEMS for You from the Epistle of James
    Ebook76 pages52 minutes

    Treasures from James: GEMS for You from the Epistle of James

    By John Zehring

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    About this ebook

    Treasures from James takes the Book of James and mines from it twelve gems that apply to your daily life today. It is not quite the same as a bible study, nor is it a sketch about James. Rather, it is a devotional springboard for you to enrich your faith, deepen your relationships with others, discover new heights to your faith and leap further into your closer walk with God. Your life will be enriched by dozen gems. Reading the book of James is like dancing with your cousin. No matter how attractive she or he is, there is no romance. There is no tingle, no hope of it evolving into something more and no excitement as your bodies brush against each other. On the other hand, there is a bond. You are family. Blood is thicker than water. You view each other for who you are down deep inside rather than by mere appearance. You share a heritage, a history and a legacy. The Epistle of James beckons because of that kind of bond. Pass over the parts which do not connect to your experience to discover powerful inspirations for you to grow as a person of faith.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherJohn Zehring
    Release dateMar 9, 2017
    ISBN9781370189151
    Treasures from James: GEMS for You from the Epistle of James
    Author

    John Zehring

    John Zehring has served United Church of Christ congregations as Senior Pastor in Massachusetts (Andover), Rhode Island (Kingston), and Maine (Augusta) and as an Interim Pastor in Massachusetts (Arlington, Harvard). Prior to parish ministry, he served in higher education, primarily in development and institutional advancement. He worked as a dean of students, director of career planning and placement, adjunct professor of public speaking and as a vice president at a seminary and at a college. He is the author of more than sixty books and is a regular writer for The Christian Citizen, an American Baptist social justice publication. He has taught Public Speaking, Creative Writing, Educational Psychology and Church Administration. John was the founding editor of the publication Seminary Development News, a publication for seminary presidents, vice presidents and trustees (published by the Association of Theological Schools, funded by a grant from Lilly Endowment). He graduated from Eastern University and holds graduate degrees from Princeton Theological Seminary, Rider University, and the Earlham School of Religion. He is listed in Marquis' WHO'S WHO IN AMERICA and is a recipient of their Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award. John and his wife Donna live in two places, in central Massachusetts and by the sea in Maine.

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      Book preview

      Treasures from James - John Zehring

      Treasures from James:

      GEMS for You from the Epistle of James

      Smashwords Edition, License Notes

      Thank you for downloading this eBook. This book remains the copyrighted property of the author and may not be redistributed to others for commercial or non-commercial purposes. If you enjoyed this book, please encourage your friends to download their own copy from their favorite authorized retailer. Thank you for your support.

      John Zehring

      Copyright 2017 John Zehring

      Introduction

      Reading the book of James is like dancing with your cousin. No matter how attractive she or he is, there is no romance. There is no tingle, no hope of it evolving into something more and no excitement as your bodies brush against each other. On the other hand, there is a bond. You are family. Blood is thicker than water. You view each other for who you are down deep inside rather than by mere appearance. You share a heritage, a history and a legacy. The Epistle of James beckons because of that kind of bond.

      Consider what James has going against it.

      First, we do not really know who wrote it. Legend attributes its authorship to Jesus’ brother. If that were really the case, we would hang on every syllable. We would want to know this insider’s point of view to see if we might learn something new about Jesus. Ironically, Jesus’ brother James did not believe in him during Jesus’ lifetime. For not even his brothers believed in him, says John 7:5. At the beginning of the Book of Acts, James is present with Mary and his other brothers along with a group of Christians and later James became the leader of the Jerusalem Church, so something changed him from his growing up years. In one of the resurrection appearances, Jesus appeared to James: Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. (1 Corinthians 15:7). But, there were many named James who could have authored the epistle and nowhere in it does it proclaim that the brother of James was the writer. It could easily have been another and early church fathers disagreed about who wrote it.

      Second, the letter of James made it into the New Testament canon by a thread. By the way, it is referred to as the Book of James, the Letter of James, the Epistle of James or simply James. The canon is the approved list of which books are authorized to be in the New Testament. There were many others, including other gospels which were not accepted into the New Testament. Early on there were serious reservations about including James in the New Testament. Protestant reformer Martin Luther held serious doubts about James and would have eliminated it from the New Testament.

      Third, the Epistle of James mentions Christ only twice and there is nothing in the epistle about the Passion, Resurrection or Spirit of Christ. It lacks the early fervor of Peter or Paul in emphasizing the pre-eminence of Jesus the Christ. This was a significant problem for Luther, although it was not such a problem to Jesus himself. In his teachings, Jesus of Nazareth did not point to himself but he pointed to God: He did not say pray like this: Our Jesus who art in heaven. He did not propose that the greatest commandment was To love the Lord your Jesus with all your heart, mind, soul, and might. He did not encourage his followers to Seek first the Kingdom of Jesus. He did not come to preach the good news of the kingdom of Jesus. In Luke 4 (43) Jesus declared that he came to preach the good news of the kingdom of God... for I was sent for this purpose. About God. Not about me. It’s not about me, Jesus would have said. It’s about God. Considering the Jewish audience James wrote to and what he was trying to accomplish, perhaps James leaned more toward the theology of Jesus than the theology of Peter or Paul.

      Fourth, speaking of James’ audience, he defines it in the first verse: To the twelve tribes in the Dispersion. This is a two-thousand year-old letter written to a Jewish Christians who had fanned out into the world from the epicenter of Jesus’ life and times. James had no intention of sitting down at the keyboard to compose a book of scripture meant to endure for all eternity. He was writing a letter to a specific group of people written for a specific purpose thousands of years ago. Very little of the letter’s content excites or seems to apply to us today. It is, in some ways, like dancing with your cousin. But then, the bond, the heritage and the legacy beckons us to dig deeper.

      Therein lies the adventure. If you thrive on discovering treasure in unexpected places, this book is for you. That is what we will attempt, to mine gems from an unlikely source… gems that speak to your needs and your faith today.

      This is not a bible study nor a biographical sketch of the author James. As a letter to specific people for a particular purpose, it was not intended as a book of the bible to endure forever nor as a work of literature. Rather than delve into the original context or culture, Treasures from James lifts up what you can use to inspire you, strengthen your faith, challenge your thinking and lead you to grow in your love and knowledge of God.

      And while we do not benefit by dwelling on the authorship of James, we

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