I watched a local Baptist minister on television this Sunday morning. He is a ‘fill-in’ for the man who previously was the pastor of this church, but suddenly disappeared with no reason given. This replacement comes across as an over-polished hired hand for the Baptist Convention, where his presentation is so plastic it seems he was a straight A student in seminary homiletics class.
The last few Sundays he has been reading and preaching about the Book of James. Today, he stayed on that topic and pointed out some very important things James wrote … missing the deeper points of what James meant. Today, he read from James 1, the verses that had James write:
"But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing." (James 1:22-25)
The whole time I watched and listened to this man (I call him a ‘slick Willie’), I heard him coming through just like Jesus heard the Pharisee boasting in the Temple, making the publican (tax collector) feel deep sorrow. The Pharisee is the model for all who stand in front of crowds preaching, while missing the deeper points of Scripture that are intended to be taught.
The publican felt deep sorrow because he knew everything the Pharisee was talking about. Both were reading from the same scrolls, having their brains contemplate the same words. The Pharisee acted like he had everything figured out, simply because he thought God had rewarded his ‘faith’ by putting fancy robes (or sports coats) on him, so he could walk to the top step of the Temple and preach. The publican was equally wealthy, but he didn’t want to flaunt it. His sorrow was due to him hearing the words that say, “Faith is being a doer.”
Nobody was telling him HOW to do all that righteous stuff that is written in Scripture.
The Pharisee, like the slick Willie on TV, acted like he DID everything just the way God wants; but Jesus whispered to the disciple next to him, saying “The publican is closer to Salvation than that slick Willie.”
It is easy to know what is right to do. It is no so easy DOING that which is right.
James was not a slick Willie. James was not even James. James was a Saint, which meant the brother of Jesus (who never really liked the older brother who was rarely home) had given up being who he was. Being James was not DOING that which is righteous. Therefore, James (just like EVERY Apostle and EVERY writer of Scripture) was self-sacrificed to Yahweh and reborn as His Son. That means everything James DID was what the soul of Jesus within his own body, beside his own soul told him to DO.
This Baptist minister made it seem like Yahweh and Jesus were palls of his, who sent him blessings (measurable in dollars) that voiced their approval of his selfish acts in his life. He made it seem Yahweh and Jesus were proud of him bragging like the Pharisee, while doing nothing that expressly taught those listening the truth of the Word. He simply told everyone there listening and watching, as well as me at home (and whoever else was like me listening and watching him on TV), “If you become a doer, then you will be righteous.”
That kind of preaching makes those sinning, because the world makes it awfully difficult (if not impossible) to not sin, beat their chests and silently scream out, “How do I stop sinning? When will someone teach me how to do only righteous DEEDS? I’m sick and tired of these slick Willies preaching the ‘I’m better than thou’ message, never sharing how can I be better also.”
One of the quotes from James that the Baptist minister put on the screen and read aloud said the proof of DOING BY FAITH is going to visit the “orphans and widows.” He then commenced to make it seem that James wanted everyone who could truly call himself or herself “Christian” to do charitable things. He said we need to see everyone as our equal, not one above the other.
The reality of the deeper truth to that written by James (aka Jesus resurrected in flesh) is the “orphans” are all those of humanity that are Fatherless, who do not have a close, personal relationship with Yahweh. An “orphan” is then a soul in a body of flesh that has not married Yahweh and received His Spirit of Anointment (the Greek word for that is “Christ”). The “widows” are those whose spiritual husbands died, leaving them without that spiritual guide.
This has nothing to do with old ladies (i.e.: every soul is feminine when in flesh, no matter what sex organs their flesh has, so all souls need to marry a higher spirit, in order to survive in the world). Therefore, “orphans and widows” are those lost souls in need to marrying Yahweh and being reborn as His Son in the flesh, making them reborn wives to the Husband that also is their Father.
That is then James DOING what he wrote; or, practicing what he preached. James was in ministry as Jesus reborn. The only way to be a DOER OF FAITH is to let one’s self (a self is a soul) step aside and allow one’s holy brother – Jesus – get back into ministry saving lost souls (the name “Jesus” means “YAH Saves”). There were not many Jews following James around, when Jesus was in ministry. When the soul of Jesus was released to serve Yahweh by entering the souls-bodies of His new spiritual brides, letting that one most holy soul be resurrected countless times, again and again in souls transformed into Saints, then Jesus was again ministering to the needy (orphans and widows), DOING the WORKS of Salvation. James was in the name of Jesus. James had become Anointed by Yahweh (a Christ by Baptism), as a former widow newly married to the Most Divine.
Only the soul of Jesus can preach the deeper truth of the Word. Only Jesus can make a soul trapped in a body of worldly flesh DO what is right. Only those reborn in his most holy name KNOW JESUS personally, thereby find FAITH from their ACTS being caused by Jesus having become their personal Lord.
If one is going to stand in front of a bunch of people silently beating their chest, sorrowful because their beliefs cannot overcome their human frailties, then the true measure of that one being closer to the kingdom of Yahweh is found in how many listeners get up from the pews and themselves go stand in front of people teaching them the truth, as Jesus reborn in flesh. The slick Willies of the world want a captive audience, one that is always willing to pay cash for someone to tell them, “Don’t worry. God love you equally.”
When the Baptist minister was talking about that equality stuff, in my mind's eye I could see Jesus flipping over the vendor tables at the Temple. I could hear him telling goats their Judgment would be the outer darkness, where a lot of gnashing of teeth would last an eternity. The only equality is in Saints or sinners. The two are separately equal. You are either equally a DOER OF FAITH (all in the same name of Jesus) or you are equally a lost sheep that has no shepherd (both the Pharisee and the publican, the humans whose souls are orphans and widows). A DOER OF FAITH becomes the Good Shepherd reborn, teaching the truth of Salvation.