we are
finishing 2011 here on the front porch with what james in his nt letter has to
say about cleaning up some of the hurts in our relationships through mercy and forgiveness.
clean up the
past and now look to the future. james
here in chapter 4 shows us how to face the new year, 2012, how to face your
future. he says there are some mistakes that are commonly made and that we should
be made aware of.
he illustrates the first mistake with a
typical conversation between a couple of business men. one guy has his mba from the university of
jerusalem and the other is a ceo of a tel-aviv 500 company. and we drop into their conversation here in
verse 13 as they’re talking and discussing their plans.
(msg), today—at the latest,
tomorrow—we’re off to such and such a city for the year. we’re going to start a
business and make a lot of money.
the bible doesn’t condemn making a
legitimate profit. the bible talks a lot
about planning too. these men have
planned everything; their purpose, the place, the progress. they’ve got all the bases covered. so what’s wrong?
james says the first common mistake we make is we plan without GOD. there is not a single mention of GOD in the
entire business plan. they knew what they
wanted, they knew how to get there but they didn’t check it out with GOD first.
don't misunderstand. the bible talks about planning. no man goes out and builds a house without
considering how much it’s going to cost.
and the book of proverbs says over and over
again that if i don’t plan i’m a fool.
it’s wise to plan. he’s not
talking about planning; he’s talking about presumption without GOD.
it’s great to have dreams, it’s great to
have goals – as long as you include GOD. as long as you pray about it. there’s nothing wrong with what they did – all
of these things are fine. it’s what they
forgot to do. they forgot to include
GOD. their attitude was one of
self-sufficiency.
just a thought from the front porch…
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