Don't You Remember?

1James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ,
To the twelve tribes scattered among the nations:
Greetings.
2Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. 4Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. 5If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. 6But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. 7That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; 8he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.
9The brother in humble circumstances ought to take pride in his high position. 10But the one who is rich should take pride in his low position, because he will pass away like a wild flower. 11For the sun rises with scorching heat and withers the plant; its blossom falls and its beauty is destroyed. In the same way, the rich man will fade away even while he goes about his business.
Don’t You Remember?
By: Joshua T. Aitkenhead
Can you recall a time in your life when you were down and out. Nothing was going your way. You had God, family, and you had friends, but you did not have much else and all three of them seemed to get more and more distant as you became more and more aware of your own personal hell boiling into the very core of your being. Isn’t that a pleasant thought for the day? Before I go any further, I’m just letting you know that there will be a chance to respond after this sermon with an alter call. I will be up here and available for you to pray with along with some other people that I have already asked to help me with this. Ok, on with the sermon! I can tell you of a time from my life that happened just before I came to this Church.
I mentioned in my last sermon that I am not from around here. I am actually from Ontario, so I am a long ways away from my family. It’s tough being away from your family, I don’t know how many of you have done it. The thing is, your family changes and grows. I have two nieces, one of which I have not seen yet, and the other is starting to speak. I miss my sisters, I miss my brother in laws, and I miss my parents a lot. It is hard sometimes being so separated by people who have influenced your life so much. So, I am separated from my family.
I have another tale of woe for you. You see, I used to go to another Church here in Calgary. I’m not going to tell you the name of the church, but you’d probably be able to guess the name once I’ve been here for a bit longer. It is a Vietnamese Church in the North East, and I loved the people there a lot. What I didn’t love was the ministry I was involved with there. It got so bad for me, that I had to leave the Church. Now let me set the record straight, it is a good Church with dedicated Christ-followers, but it was not good for me to be there. My vision for the Church, and the church’s vision for itself did not line up. So I am separated from my family, and now I lost my Church family.
For Christmas’ I go to my mentor’s house. He has been like an older brother to me and his family helped me out a lot when I came to Alberta. This year, him and I fell apart. We were a bit at odds with one another, and while I have had the best Christmas’ of my life at his house, this year was different. I felt disconnected and an outsider. I felt like I did not belong. So now I’m separated from my family, I have no Church family, and I am at odds with a person who once was so close to me.
It does not end there, unfortunately. My roommate in first semester tells me it’s too hard for him to be living in the NE, but go to school in the SW, so he says he wants to move. Here’s the issue with that. The apartment we were in had become my home. I loved it and I did not want to leave it before I was done schooling, but I knew that I would not be able to afford the rent on my own, so I leave. I’m separated from my family, I have no Church family, and I am at odds with a person who once was so close to me and now I have left the one place I had known as home here in Calgary.
I was depressed and I felt there was nowhere for me to go. I felt like there was no family for me. No one was looking out for me and I had no one to look out for either. I had nothing but a broken heart and a skewed view of myself. I doubted my calling to be a pastor, I’ve doubted my salvation from God, and I doubted that life was worth living. I will talk more about this doubt later on.
Have you ever felt this way? Have you ever felt lost and without direction of any kind? I hope not but I have a feeling most of you have felt that way or are feeling that way right now. Well, brother’s and Sister’s, let’s see what God has to say about this hopelessness.
I’m going to talk about three things in this passage:
1. Why do we experience hardships in our lives? Do they serve a purpose?
2. How should we approach God, when these things happen? How will he treat us?
3. How can we overcome these hardships? Will we ever find a way to come out of these situations?

This passage opens with a greeting from James. He is addressing the 12 tribes scattered among the nations. Now there is some speculation as to who exactly the 12 tribes are (they could be the Jews themselves, or the Christians), but because the book of James seems to reference the Old Testament more than the new, I will say that James is talking to the Jews. I want you to keep this in mind as it is very important.
He then goes into the first part of what I am talking about. Hardships, why do we experience them and what is their purpose? The first question as to why we experience them isn’t even in the question. It says ‘when’ you experience trials of various kinds. When, is the keyword. It is a fact of life, you will experience hardships. Expect them, because it will happen. We live in a world of sin. Our sin is caused when we don’t love one another with as God would have us love. I mean Jesus did say that the greatest commandment was love the LORD your God, with all your heart mind and soul, and to love one another as you would yourself. Because we don’t love one another, we have hardships. It happens.
I don’t want to talk any more on this because it’s pretty straightforward. We will experience hardships, so we have to be prepared for them. Now, what benefit do these hardships hold? Well, according to James, hardships build up our perseverance, so we are complete and not lacking anything. In other words, trials help us to be perfect.
During school, I was living in residence. In res, there were an abundant supply of movies, video games, and awesome people. I loved living in residence! There was a problem with me living in residence, though. The problem was that there were all these things at my fingertips ready for me to waste my time with! There were more than a few nights that I stayed up far too late in order to complete an assignment that I could have completed days in advance. You know, laziness is a sin. I’m not saying that we shouldn’t have days when we’re just relaxing and having a good time, but if you have a job that needs to be done, then do it. It is your responsibility and Jesus does say ‘let your yes be yes and your no be no’. It’s one of those things I struggle with sometimes. I don’t know if you’ve ever been in this situation, but when I’ve spent the whole day playing video games or watching movies, I think to myself, ‘how can I be so dumb, wasting my time again’? I’m sure you all have at least one sin like that in your life where you wish it would just go away and stop bothering you. Even Paul had that one thing. He once said, ‘three times I prayed for this thorn to be removed from my flesh”, but it wasn’t removed. How awesome would it be if we did not have to struggle with that one reoccurring sin that we commit?
In this passage, it says we can be perfect, that it is attainable, but we just got to go through a lot of garbage first. Why do we have to go through this garbage? What is the benefit? Well, for that, let’s look at the word, ‘Persevere’. Actually, the Greek word probably more so resembles the word, ‘endurance’. Endurance means to last. It means to be able to last in tough situations. A track runner who runs the race on a 40 degree day while wearing weights has a lot of endurance if he is able to last through the entirety of the race. What this means for us is that for us to endure, we need to be able to last until the trial or hardship is over. This is a really hard task, but there is a way to do it. We need to learn what our mistakes were and try to avoid the things that tempt us. When I need to get down to an assignment, I turn off my computer and go to the Library. I cannot work near my computer seeing as it is more a source for fun than anything else. To endure, we need to separate us from what is keeping us from our goal, and in my case, it is my computer.
Another secret to enduring is encouragement. One time for a youth event, me and my youth group climbed Sulfur Mountain. Well, I’ve never climbed a mountain before, so this was tough for me. I was about to quit when I was almost at the top when my friends who were just before me shouted to me, ‘it’s only a bit further. You can do it’! At that, I sucked in a good amount of air and I hiked that mountain to the top! Friends, there is a reason the disciples went out by two’s. There is a reason the early Church were together almost 24/7. There is a reason why we meet at least twice a week, and sometimes more! We need one another. If we are going to endure trials and hardships, we need each other’s strength to pull us through! God put us together in community for this purpose.
Alright, so my first point, Trials will happen and they do serve a purpose. With trials we will get closer to perfection. We will cease doing the sins that we have done in the past. All we have to do to get to this reward of perfection is endure.
The second point, how should we approach God, when these things happen? How will he treat us? God asks us to approach Him. He wants us to question Him on this stuff. James puts it this way: “If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him”. God knows you. God loves you. God even likes you and who you are. So because he loves you, He wants you to come to Him and ask for wisdom. He wants you to figure this stuff out! That’s the answer to the second question in this point, How will God treat us, but what about the first question? How should we approach Him? Well James says we need to approach Him without doubt! We should have faith that He will help us out. Where do we get this faith? Well, again, let’s look at who this letter is to. It is addressed to the Jews who are not in Israel. They are out of the Promised Land and are therefore without a home. I can relate to that. I know what it’s like to feel homeless. The Jews must have been going through a really tough time with all of this stuff. This isn’t the first time that this has happened to the Jews. In fact, I want to draw on something that Joshua from the Old Testament said to the Israelite community. When Joshua had taken the Promised Land with the rest of the Israelites, He gathered them together and told them about their dark history with the Egyptians, and reminded them of their time wandering in the desert. Even through all that, God was faithful! The Jewish history is filled with times of darkness and God being there to help His people out! In fact, I would describe the Old Testament as a love story between God and His people. He was always coming to the rescue! Did you ever hear the saying, to get respect you have to earn respect? Well God earned respect time and time again! Take a look at your own life. God’s rescued you, right? Has He acted in your life as powerfully as He has mine? God is the God of saving, can I get an amen on that? When you face trials and you approach God, remember what God has done for you in the past and know He will deliver you from what your experiencing now!
So point 2: Ask God with full faith that He will help you, and He will help you! At this point I want to say something else. Just because He will help you endure, and just because He will give you wisdom, it does not mean He will deliver you from the hardship. Remember, the hardship serves a purpose. It gives you endurance which is used to make us perfect!
Point three: How can we overcome these hardships? Will we ever find a way to come out of these situations? Guess what? I’ve already answered this question in point one and two! To overcome hardships, you need to endure. Two good ways to endure is to separate yourself from what causes you to stumble, and also to surround yourself with people who will help you out! The other way to overcome hardships is to ask God for help. When you ask God for help, you need to first believe that He can and will help you! To help your unbelief, look into your past. What has God done for you in the past to save you, and how will He deliver you now?
Now I mentioned a story from a few months ago where I felt like I had no family and no way of coping with my disastrous life. Do you remember the story? Well, I failed to mention a few things. You see, even though this hard time was upon me I was practicing what James taught. I endured, and I endured by separating myself from the thoughts that were bringing me down by confronting some of the people bringing me down. I surrounded myself with people who built into my life and were willing to help me out. I remembered all the things God had done for me in the past. In fact, whenever doubt entered my mind, I would pray, ‘but God, you brought me to Calgary and you have brought me through tough times, will you help me out again?’ Friends, I will tell you this, God wants you and wants you to live life through the fullest. Just because you will go through tough times, it does not mean God wants you to stay like that. Now I mentioned at the beginning of the sermon that there would be an alter call, and so I’m asking the worship band to come up and play one more song, and I am also asking a few people to come up to pray. What’s your story like this morning? Are you going through your own personal hell? Are you faced with problems to big to deal with on your own? Are you scarred? If you want, we can pray for you! Please, come forward for prayer. We are the community of Christ, and we need to be here for one another, so don’t be shy. If you want to come up, then please do!

People Change and it's Awesome

To those who read my blog,

I thought it necessary to talk to you today about one person in particular. This person treated me harshly in the past. In fact, I was given the choice to live with him, but I turned it down because I was sure he'd treat me the same. I've come to a place in my life where I will only really surround myself with people who will speak positively into my life and not treat me like garbage. I didn't need that again. Just having him on the floor made me a little uncomfortable.

Well, sometimes you just have to ignore what the past holds, though that is a lot easier said than done. In fact, it took a breakdown on my part to actually see the love that this guy was going to share with me.

The person's name is Josh Jacobs. For those who know me personally probably also know him, but for those who don't know who he is, let me tell you one thing: I felt so much better about this guy coming into my life in the way that he did that I spent good money so he would go to a social event our school is putting on.

I tend to hold grudges, which is never good, but I like it when I get a chance for my grudges to be blown to pieces. Josh did that for me when he cared for me in my darkest time. The best part was when he admitted wrong for what he had done and was willing to make up for it. I had long since forgiven him, but I was happy he was willing to admit his mistake.

Well, I hope this helps you in some way. Maybe it's time for you to let go of some stupid grudge. You might need to reconcile with someone. I know I do in a few areas. It would be good to do that. Don't be like me and wait until a crisis point. Take advantage of today!

- Joshua

A Little Honesty Goes a Long Way...

To those who read my blog,

Today, I was interviewed by two girls about my life and what I thought about it. I decided beforehand that the best course of action was to be completely honest with them. That meant that they knew about things I never felt comfortable talking to girls about before and as I talked to them, I started having a bit of a reaction. I got excited about something for once.

Hold up for a sec. To understand this, I have to explain my illness. I recently have come to terms with a sickness that runs in my family. It is an illness that leaves me too tired to wake up in the morning, and also unable to do the simplest of things. I have gotten very far behind in Greek because of this illness. It has been hard these last couple of days, but this conversation perked me up and put me in an excited mood. I feel better about things for the time being and actually want to get things done.

Anyways. That's enough ramblings for one day. Hope you're all having a good day where you are. Please keep me in your prayers.

- Joshua