{"id":10141,"date":"2022-05-07T05:37:05","date_gmt":"2022-05-07T10:37:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/devotional-on-james-3\/"},"modified":"2022-04-29T13:47:29","modified_gmt":"2022-04-29T18:47:29","slug":"devotional-on-james-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/devotional-on-james-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Devotional on James"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_16302\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-16302\" style=\"width: 960px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/PHOTO_20140809_201019.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-16302\" src=\"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/PHOTO_20140809_201019-1024x578.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"542\" srcset=\"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/PHOTO_20140809_201019-1024x578.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/PHOTO_20140809_201019-300x169.jpg 300w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/PHOTO_20140809_201019-768x433.jpg 768w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/PHOTO_20140809_201019-1536x866.jpg 1536w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/PHOTO_20140809_201019.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-16302\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">2014 &#8211; Nicolaus, CA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Taming the tongue<\/p>\n<p>James 3: You can tame a tiger, but you can\u2019t tame a tongue.<\/p>\n<p>A person can live a good life, honest and sensible, committed to doing good things and yet still have a tendency to say things that aren\u2019t very Christian. One problem is that we see sins of speech as less serious than sins of action. People who would never dream of robbing anyone of anything will thoughtlessly gossip about another, thereby robbing them of their reputation. Sins of words are slippery, hard to pin down. A person might say something that\u2019s absolutely innocent. The listener, though, misunderstands the meaning, hearing something that isn\u2019t there at all. Another person might say the same thing but intend it to be hurtful in some way. In one case it\u2019s just a misunderstanding. In the other case it\u2019s sin. James emphasizes the fact that no one can win the battle of the tongue. Try as I might, in and of myself, my words will betray, humiliate, and condemn me. On the surface, it appears James leaves us in this sorry state of affairs. However, a different picture is painted as I read these words in the context of the passage. James says, \u201cMy friends this can\u2019t go on.\u201d A few paragraphs later he describes the Christian community as a place where people are treated \u201cwith dignity and honor.\u201d On one hand, I can\u2019t control my tongue (or my thoughts, or, sometimes, my actions). The only hope I have is to surrender my tongue to the Lord. As I give it, and my whole self, to him, making him Lord of my life, he goes to work transforming me into the person he wants me to be. It\u2019s a more than one time surrender. In fact, I may have to bring my tongue back to the Lord on a regular basis. As I do that, he takes control doing for me what I can\u2019t do for myself.<\/p>\n<p>Take Away: \u201cI surrender all\u201d is a song that needs to be sung repeatedly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Taming the tongue James 3: You can tame a tiger, but you can\u2019t tame a tongue. A person can live a good life, honest and sensible, committed to doing good things and yet still have a tendency to say things that aren\u2019t very Christian. One problem is that we see sins of speech as less [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1503,1428],"tags":[1364,516,1054,1161],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10141"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10141"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10141\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16304,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10141\/revisions\/16304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}