The"American Wisdom Series"
    presents
Pamphlet #5125 KCJames3-2

Would you like to know what our Father sees as "pure religion" and worthy of His blessings?

And now, if you are ready to be quiet and receive the word with readiness, then our Father through His servant James has something very important to tell us.

James 1:22
But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.
How do you deceive your own self?

The answer lies in how you answered the question we began with, "How do you SEE yourself?", and then, "What do you do as a result of what you see?"

[23] For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass:
Examine yourself real good.

That is what "behold" means.

Do you see yourself as a child of God, as one of His servants?

[24] For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.
This verse is usually taught in the negative sense to mean that you look in the mirror and see what a sinner you are and then you go away and do nothing about it as you continue in your sins.

And at the flesh level, to the natural face, that is OK because James just told us to "lay apart all filthiness", etc., so if the shoe fits wear it.

But there is a much deeper message that he has for the 12 tribes of this generation and it has to do with being a "doer of the word", which would apply to someone who sees himself or herself as "a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ!"

The looking glass, the mirror that we are to look into to see our spiritual faces, is the Word of God, the perfect law of liberty!

Why does James use this terminology, "the perfect law of liberty"?

Because if you are one His servants and have ears to hear and receive the engrafted Word, then you know that you are liberated from the bonds and penalties of the law through Jesus Christ.

That does not mean you are free to sin, God forbid, but free from the death penalty which the transgression of the law carried before Christ paid the price through His shed blood, for those who will receive Him.

So once again, when you look into the Word of God the question is, "How do you see yourself?"

James 1:25
But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.
What is "the work" James talking about?

What "deed" is a person going to "do" that shall cause him or her to be blessed by God?

Well for one thing he or she will "continue therein", i.e. continue looking into the perfect law of liberty, God's Word, learning to discipline his or her tongue while hearing the truth and learning to "get real", as in being honest with oneself and God.

Otherwise he is just playing church and is as a double minded man, a hypocrite, a phony, one void of wisdom from the Word of God, a real play actor indeed.

James 1:26
If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain.
So you can claim to a be Christian and wear the label and talk church and the traditions of men all day and all night in the name of the Lord, but if you don't constantly look into His Word and check things out, i.e. continue in His Word, and learn the truth, as it is written, before you begin to spout off with an unbridled tongue, your religion is VAIN, which means its empty and null and void.

Worse yet, you promote "iniquity" in the name of Lord with your unskilled, unbridled tongue, which is a clear violation of the third commandment in Exodus 20:7, "Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain."

Perhaps you were taught by some preacher with an unbridled tongue, who doesn't do much looking into the perfect law of liberty, that this commandment just meant not to swear using God's name.

Have you not read that many shall come to the Lord when He returns and say "Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?" (Matthew 7:22).

His reply will be "... I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. (Matthew 7:23)

They took the Lord's name in VAIN, didn't they?

You see, the Living Word of God was all the while in the Written Word of God and yet Jesus never saw their faces looking therein!

Would you like to know what our Father sees as "pure religion" and worthy of His blessings.

Here is what it means to be a "doer of the Word"!

James 1:27
Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.
Again, our minds tend to always want to read God's word as being about the flesh, and on that level, yes, a Christian should always reach out to help others and keep themselves out of worldly troubles.

But how long have you looked into the perfect law of liberty, God's Word?

Did we not just read that a person can do all those things, even in the name of Christ, and still deceive themselves?

Then that alone cannot be pure religion, can it?

Do you know who the "fatherless and the widows" are that are being afflicted at this very moment with the famine of the end time, which is not for bread but for the hearing of the true Word of God (Amos 8:11).

Can you see our people being afflicted with "pestilences", which are all sorts of social ills and perversions of morality and justice caused by that famine as our nation is being drawn further and further away from His Word?

The fatherless are the "orphans" of Israel who were scattered abroad and the "widows" (the Greek word "chera" means one "lacking a husband".) are those who have estranged themselves from their true husbandman.

They are our Christian brothers and sisters of the US* and Canada and England, etc., i.e. the 12 tribes who were scattered abroad.

That's us and our families and our people!

Have you visited any of them with the truth or do they still follow the unbridled tongues of the MANY who would come in the name of Christ and deceive MANY (they are here right now)?

To visit the "fatherless and the widows" you must continue to look into the mirror or truth and if you see any worldly spots or traditions of men spots, get rid of them!

Stick to His Word and "continue therein".

And concerning our adversaries, it is written in the "Song of Moses" in Deut. 32, which is the victory song that the overcomers will be singing in Rev. 15 when the true Husbandman returns, that "their spot is not the spot of His children.

They are a perverse and crooked generation" (vs. 5).

So continue checking for spots on your tongue!

In conclusion, consider the question one more time, "How do you see yourself when you look into the Word of God?

Are you a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ?"

I pray that you are, and if so, "Don't you have some work to do?"

"Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who are His servants who will stand tall?"
* If you don't know where the 10 so-called lost tribes of Israel are located, then log unto Pamphlet #1064 or Pamphlet #1020 under Table of Contents "Wisdom" on the this American Wisdom Series site.

To study the Bible is the noblest of all pursuits; to understand it, the highest of all goals.
We pray that with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, you accomplish both.


1 Corinthians 10:11 Now all these things happened unto them {the ancient Israelites} for ensamples, and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.

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