Brother Jim Sunday School 12/9/12

Brother Jim Sunday School 12/9/12

Jas 1:5  If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.

This is the way that God is.  He doesn’t short-change you.  He says, “Ask.”  In another place He says, “You have not because you ask not.”  Even on the railroad, when it is not protocol for you to ask someone for help; if you ask you find that some people are willing to help.  You just have to ask. 

God said that He would withhold no good thing from us.  We want life’s best for our children.  It grieves our heart when they don’t choose to serve God.  A mother hen would give their life for the little chicks.  There are good stories that demonstrate that.  It is the same with God.  He wants heaven’s best for us.

I remember the saints that have gone on.  They were very giving of themselves.  “You need something, I have it, and here it is yours.”  Sometimes you didn’t even have to ask, “Here, It is yours.”  I appreciate our heritage and the example for us in the saints that have gone on. 

We all will lack wisdom, but God will give to us liberally if we ask.  Our goal in life is to win souls.  This is our purpose, our entire purpose.  It is to rescue the perishing.  Younger people have goals, but the number one goal needs to be to see the lost saved.

Pro 11:30  The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; and he that winneth souls is wise.

I know that different ones are praying for a revival, and certainly we need one.  It is all of our desire to see souls saved. 

Jas 3:17  But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.

Jas 3:18  And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.

I want to be found in the place where I am easily entreated.  Sometimes we cause our own problems.  When someone comes to help us see our need, we want to be easily entreated.  Lord, help us here.

Pro 25:11  A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver.

There is a painting of this.  In my mind’s eye I can see it.  Words are important.  Lord, give us wisdom.

Col 4:6  Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.

The word ‘always’ was underlined to me as I read this.  We might think, “Sometimes we can be snippy.”  Everyone likes their seasoning just right.  Some of us add our own kind of seasoning and that does a lot to food. 

Knowing how to answer every man is all a part of wisdom.  The Lord has put a grinder on me a few times to smooth out the rough spots.  I did some welding in the railroad, I didn’t like it that much, but you have to weld when you do some jobs.  When you weld, you have to do the grinding right too. 

You can mess up with seasoning too; too much salt doesn’t work well.  Speech here means something said including the thought and the intent.  Even the thoughts should be seasoned with grace.  Salt here means prudence.  This ties in with wisdom.  We need wisdom when we are speaking.

Our thoughts run on this line.  Sister Karen spoke of working with the residents with words of kindness.  We know some people that are that way, they have a kind word for us and it lifts you up.  A word spoken wrongly can eat on you. 

We had radios on our machines.  Sometimes I used my cell phone if I thought it would be best to get the job done.  We were out there to get production.  It takes working together to create production.  Our crew would break records.  We had a good foreman that did not cheat his employees. 

We ended up finishing up for another crew when they took the day off.  They were not thankful for it.  The road master was tight and I told him that and that I didn’t like how he’d treated my buddy.  He took it because he knew that it was right. 

If we work together than things get done.  In Montana, they appreciated us, they’d cook us lunch on the tracks sometimes and would bring us lunch others.  They let us know that they appreciated us.  We then wanted to give 110%.

Working together is what we need to do.  We don’t want to throw a stumbling block in any ones way.  We want to help each other.  I was a smart-aleck when I was a kid.  I’ve learned some things down through the years.

Pro 21:23  Whoso keepeth his mouth and his tongue keepeth his soul from troubles.

A lot of times we are our own worst enemy.  In life I found that my mouth got me in a lot of trouble.  It took me time to learn.  We want to speak a word in season to him that is weary.  We want to help each other.   We want the older saints to come to us if they see something in our lives that they can help us with.

A wise man learns from his own mistakes, but a wiser man learns from the mistakes of others.  “I don’t need to try that for myself.  I can see from the example of others that, that didn’t work so good.”

I appreciate God’s help in my life.  We want to seek out wisdom.  We want to be doers and not just hearers.  We want to have that unction that the scripture speaks of: an anointing, an earnestness of language. 

Some people have a real way with words.  You run into someone and just with a few words they are uplifting. 

We have the spirit of God to protect us.  When we run into something and it doesn’t look harmful but the Spirit of the Lord says no, then we want to immediately back up.

I don’t want my words to cut and wound, but I want to be an up lift and an encouragement to others.