James 1:26 If anyone thinks himself to be religious, and yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this man\u2019s religion is worthless. 27 Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Do you know that exam that men are supposed to get when we get into our 50\u2019s? Yeah, I see James pulling on that latex glove right now and I\u2019m tightening up. This might get uncomfortable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Let\u2019s get some definitions out of the way as we don that gown with no back.
\u201creligious:\u201d No surprise here. Strong\u2019s includes \u201cpious\u201d in his definition and here\u2019s a bit of Webster 1828: 1. Godly; reverencing and honoring the Supreme Being in heart and in the practice of the duties he has enjoined; having due veneration and affection for the character of God, and habitually obeying his commands; religious; devoted to the service of God; applied to persons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cbridle:\u201d The IPD Greek is succinct: to lead by a bridle, to guide to bridle, hold in check, restrain. As in \u201cI restrained my urge to flee when the doc said \u201cbend over.\u201d Oh, wait, wrong orifice but you get the point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cworthless:\u201d KJV uses \u201cvain.\u201d Strong\u2019s implies \u201cworthless\u201d and\/or \u201cidol.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We\u2019ll probe deeper tomorrow. Keeping true to the analogy, I\u2019m going to fast until tomorrow morning. I\u2019m going to pay particular attention to what comes out of my mouth today as I prepare for the exam. Perhaps the preparation will be enough? Will I be able to put the exam off till later?
This might be unpleasant but we know the importance of early detection.
Father, You see inside our hearts every day. Guide us as we self examine. Give us discerning ears to hear what we say and how we say it. Reveal to us the infection and cancer we may be harboring inside of us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
James 1:26 If anyone thinks himself to be religious, and yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this man\u2019s religion is worthless. 27 Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by… Continue reading Exam Time<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devo","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sharp.men\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sharp.men\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sharp.men\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sharp.men\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sharp.men\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=54"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.sharp.men\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55,"href":"https:\/\/www.sharp.men\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54\/revisions\/55"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sharp.men\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=54"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sharp.men\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=54"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sharp.men\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=54"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}