Good morning. Back to
James: after saying that if the person has committed sins they will be forgiven
him - therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so
that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish
much. The prayers of those who are not righteous are not effective. They just
bounce off the ceiling. Do we have an example of a righteous man whose prayer
was effective? I'm glad you asked. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours,
and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain; and it did not rain on the
earth for three years and six months. (I would not want him to be mad at me.)
And he prayed again, and the sky poured rain, and the earth produced its fruit.
Remember: believe that you have received what you asked for, and it shall be
granted you. If any one of you strays from the truth, and one turns him back,
let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his
soul from death, and will cover a multitude of sins. When one strays from the
truth, it is not easy to turn that person back. It also affects the soul. The
longer a person goes before turning from the error of his way, the harder it is
to get him to do so. That is the end of the book of James. Father thank You
that the reader is righteous, and his/her prayers are effective - accomplishing
much.
Therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me
Good morning. Paul then gives a list of a lot of things that he has gone through as an apostle. I do not write these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For if you were to have countless tutors in Christ, yet you would not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. There could be many people that you listen to either in church or through the Internet or other means; but there was only one person (as a general rule it was a person) that lead you to Christ. Therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me. He was saying that just like a child imitates his or her father, they were to imitate him. He says that again seven chapters later. Since it is easy to forget some things about people we have not seen in a while, Paul says that he sent Timothy to them to remind them of his ways which are in Christ, just as he taught everywhere in every church. Some have become arrogant, as though I were not coming to you. I shall find ou...
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