Growing Your Faith
Growing Your Faith
In the original order of the Bible, Romans doesn’t follow Acts. Before “Saint Jerome” resorted the whole Bible for the Latin Vulgate translation, the books that followed Acts were the “General Epistles”: James, 1 Peter, 2 Peter, 1 John, 2 John, 3 John and Jude.
The reason I prefer the original order is because these books address and encourage new believers. It just makes sense that after meeting Jesus in the four Gospels, and then witnessing the miracles in Acts, we should hear from the disciples who personally walked with Jesus during his entire ministry.
By contrast, Paul’s letters are mostly intended for existing believers trying (and failing) to run their churches.
Best Man at the Wedding
First up is James, brother of Jesus. James was a real guy in the real world who walked the real streets of Jerusalem.
His ossuary, or “bone box”, is the only ossuary ever found that records the name of the brother of the deceased. Many ossuaries have no names, some only have one name, and some include the father’s name (the original two-factor authentication). But there’s only one bone box on Earth that is triple authenticated. It reads, “Ya'akov son of Yosef, brother of Yeshua” or in English, “James son of Joseph, brother of Jesus”.
Archaeologists know the inscription is original because the patinas in the letter groves are continuous with the patinas on the outside of the box.
I don’t understand why churches don’t teach Biblical Archaeology. I didn’t go to Seminary training so maybe they are the problem. Somebody may need to teach the teachers who teach the teachers who teach at church. 🤣
My sincerest apologies to all the teachers I tortured growing up. Okay back to James, the brother of Jesus. Listen to the way James begins his open letter to the chosen people of God.
James 1: 1 James, a slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ:
To the 12 tribes in the Dispersion.
Greetings.
2 Consider it a great joy, my brothers, whenever you experience various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4 But endurance must do its complete work, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.
5 Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives to all generously and without criticizing, and it will be given to him. 6 But let him ask in faith without doubting. For the doubter is like the surging sea, driven and tossed by the wind. 7 That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. 8 An indecisive man is unstable in all his ways.
9 The brother of humble circumstances should boast in his exaltation, 10 but the one who is rich should boast in his humiliation because he will pass away like a flower of the field. 11 For the sun rises with its scorching heat and dries up the grass; its flower falls off, and its beautiful appearance is destroyed. In the same way, the rich man will wither away while pursuing his activities.
12 A man who endures trials is blessed, because when he passes the test he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love Him.
13 No one undergoing a trial should say, “I am being tempted by God.” For God is not tempted by evil, and He Himself doesn’t tempt anyone. 14 But each person is tempted when he is drawn away and enticed by his own evil desires. 15 Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and when sin is fully grown, it gives birth to death.
16 Don’t be deceived, my dearly loved brothers. 17 Every generous act and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights; with Him there is no variation or shadow cast by turning. 18 By His own choice, He gave us a new birth by the message of truth so that we would be the firstfruits of His creatures.
Hearing and Doing the Word
19 My dearly loved brothers, understand this: Everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger, 20 for man’s anger does not accomplish God’s righteousness. 21 Therefore, ridding yourselves of all moral filth and evil, humbly receive the implanted word, which is able to save you.
22 But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23 Because if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man looking at his own face in a mirror. 24 For he looks at himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. 25 But the one who looks intently into the perfect law of freedom and perseveres in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but one who does good works—this person will be blessed in what he does.
26 If anyone thinks he is religious without controlling his tongue, then his religion is useless and he deceives himself. 27 Pure and undefiled religion before our God and Father is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by the world.
James just killed it with this speech. I went to copy and paste James 1:1 so we could discuss that “I am a SLAVE to my brother” comment, but the next sentence was better than what I was going to say so I kept highlighting. And then the next sentence was better than what I was going to say 25 more times in a row. It’s just so good. James 1 is the best thing I could imagine saying to a brand new Jesus follower. #slave
Btw, if any human can write 27 sentences in a row about Jesus that follows the Bible number key where the sentences still make sense, please paste them in the comments below.
Let’s unpack James a little. James says go ahead and expect trials in life. It isn’t going to be easy. James says the only way to overcome some of these trials is to ask God for help. If you don’t want to connect with God then why would his Holy Spirit (basically God’s Internet) want to connect with you? You have to ask, seek, and knock.
James says we gotta ask in faith without doubting. Did you notice that in verse 6 (human), that James uses the word “doubter” to mean a person? Of course humans doubt. Every thought we can make has some measure of doubt because our neural networks are based on Bayesian Uncertainty just like everything else in the universe.
In fact, the entire time I wrote this manuscript it was called, “Uncertainty: The Computer Science of Everything” because Everything is a subset of Uncertainty. If you learn more about Bayesian Mathematics or why we have just as much doubt as digital artificial intelligence, check out:
Faith in Science
James says we “doubters” should embrace the uncertainty. It’s not going to get any better and an indecisive person just gets tossed around in the wind.
In verse 9, we see another example of why Heaven is communist. James says the Jesus follower of “low position” should be proud. The New Living Translation reads, “Believers who are poor have something to boast about, for God has honored them.”
In verse 10, James makes his point explicitly clear. When rich people die, they will be humiliated.
@richpeople: I’m a one-percenter so I understand how hard this message is. I also grew up “Jerry Springer poor” in rural North Carolina. Everybody’s life is hard.
James is more serious than you think about not being rich and so is Paul. And so is Acts, because the Holy Spirit makes people instantly drop dead from being greedy. You should be terrified about that story if you believe the Bible is from a higher dimension. James is so serious about people not being rich that he provides another warning to rich people in his final chapter.
James 5: 1 Come now, you rich people! Weep and wail over the miseries that are coming on you. 2 Your wealth is ruined and your clothes are moth-eaten. 3 Your silver and gold are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You stored up treasure in the last days! 4 Look! The pay that you withheld from the workers who reaped your fields cries out, and the outcry of the harvesters has reached the ears of the Lord of Hosts. 5 You have lived luxuriously on the land and have indulged yourselves. You have fattened your hearts for the day of slaughter. 6 You have condemned—you have murdered—the righteous man; he does not resist you.
RICH PEOPLE, HE DOES NOT RESIST YOU.Poor people are dying everyday because rich people pick all the laws. Rich people pick the judges. Rich people assign all the credit ratings. Rich people choose where to invest the world’s capital. Rich people influence who gets into colleges. Rich people pick who gets which jobs. Rich people even choose where everybody lives by hoarding the best real estate. The members at my country club decide what happens in my town just like the members at your country club decide what happens in your town. ⛳️
I bet your grandkids knew what a 1031 exchange was before they could drive a car. 🏡
I don’t know what the right answer is and I’m not a good role model, but my mission for my remaining days is “to create software that empowers the underpowered”. That’s why I wrote this e-book. I think the under-informed are under-powered. My plan is to get as much money as I can possibly get through investment, subsidy, donation, and profit to spend on my mission of lifting up the underpowered. I want to build an Internet for Kids before I die.
My mission might not work for you but if you have a lot of capital, you should strongly consider re-deploying it in ways that help people who can’t help you back. I’m suggesting that for your sake, as your friend. I don’t want you to drop dead like Ananias in Acts 5. Your heirs probably want you to drop dead bad enough already. 🤣
In verse 27 (witness order of God’s plan), James tells us exactly what that looks like. He says, “Pure and undefiled religion before our God and Father is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by the world”.
Those two goals apply to everyone. Even poor people need to look after orphans and widows and try to keep themselves unstained by the world.
Keeping yourself “unstained” is especially difficult for poor people because this world is the “land of addictions”. I think of Life on Earth as just one “level” in the “video game of eternity”. I don’t care if our universe is level 0 of the video game or level 10 million. Either way, we’re all doom-scrolling drug addicts, especially if we include caffeine, alcohol, tobacco, and ice cream.
I’m not judging. I get it. I’ve been addicted to everything and for good reason. When you’re poor, drugs are the only hope you can afford. But you can’t keep talking about getting clean and not get clean. James says you gotta be a doer. That’s the test. My suggestion is to try more 40-day fasts in your life and find a friend who will take those journeys with you.
You can more read about my addictions and addiction management in:
The last thing to point out about James is that Jesus was his older brother for his whole life. Just think about that.
James had more opportunity than anyone to know if Jesus was a fraud. James would have known if Jesus was fighting other kids at school or “zapping them” with his magical powers. James would have known if Jesus was disobedient to his parents, which was a law of Moses. James watched his brother die and come back to life and then wrote a letter to everyone claiming that his own brother was his GOD and called himself his brother’s SLAVE.
That’s crazy.
Do you have siblings?
Would you ever call your sibling your Lord and Master if you didn’t believe it?
The Rock
Peter lived an amazing life. Peter somehow knew he lived in the Matrix. Peter watched Jesus bring people back from the dead and then was crazy enough to attempt it himself in Acts 9. And it worked. I guess you can never know unless you try.
Peter writes two letters which he says are meant to shake us into thinking straight. His letters are similar to James because Peter wants to harden the faith of young believers. In the beginning of his second letter, he discusses the progression of a young believer’s faith.
2 Peter 1, “5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7 and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. 8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins.”
That’s the recipe for growing your faith: goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, mutual affection, and the love. “Godliness” in the original Greek comes from root words meaning “well” and “pay homage to”. Do you FEAR God enough to pay homage to him? That’s godliness. Do you LOVE God enough to pay homage to him? That’s godliness.
That’s why the Bible always says “Glorify the Lord”. The English word “glorify” comes from the Greek word for “adding weights to a price”. If you want to glorify the Lord, you need to add some weight to the price you're paying. If you’re a Christian, and you don’t tithe 10%, how is the church supposed to pay its bills? You are the problem, REGARDLESS if you are rich or poor.
Why would God trust you to tithe on $5M if he can’t trust you to tithe on $5,000?Adding “weights to the price” means you need to sacrifice something: probably porn, drugs, or alcohol based on average statistics. Grow your self-control. It’s terrible, but the perseverance is worth it. If you can learn to sacrifice all that you can achieve the highest level in the “video game of eternity”: LOVE.
Love doesn’t mean love. 🥰
Love, agape-love, means SACRIFICE. Love means to prefer another person over yourself. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus explains that this is God’s plan for the Kingdom. Here’s Matthew 7 (God’s plan): 12 (Kingdom), “Therefore, whatever you want others to do for you, do also the same for them—this is the Law and the Prophets.”
How is that not free-will communism?
@americans: I get that you probably hate this message. Communism isn’t in our DNA. The first peoples to colonize our country had less than a 50/50 chance of surviving the sea voyage, starvation, diseases, and the previous inhabitants. That’s how independent our ancestors were. They would rather die than pay taxes. 🤣
If you’re Christian in America, how else can you read the Bible? It’s inviting us all to invest in each other.
In America we have a saying, “If you’re not Democrat when you’re young, then you don’t have a heart. If you’re not a Republican when you’re old, then you don’t have a brain.”
When I was younger I didn’t have a heart. In my 20’s, I was an early “netizen” with “Ayn Rand” libertarian ideals. I didn’t want anyone getting in my way or slowing me down. But the more I read the Bible, the more that all changed. The more I learned, the more I fasted, the more I survived in life…the more compassionate I became towards others. Life is tough y’all. There are people out there who are wolves and snakes. Today, I think about that “heart and brain” quote almost in reverse:
If you’re not GREEDY when you’re young, then you don’t have a brain. If you’re not GIVING when you’re old, then you don’t have a heart. Have some heart old people. Right now, old people in America are not giving at all. In fact, our country is investing more than half of all its money on old people. Take a look at this Federal Budget spending pie chart:
Just look at how much we invest in WAR versus EDUCATION. Can we please stop bombing Arab countries?
How dumb are we to only invest 1% into all of Housing?
How dumb are we to only invest 1% into all of Energy?
How dumb are we to only invest 1% into all of Science?
How dumb are we to only invest 1% into all of Labor?
I’m not making these federal spending numbers up. They are ridiculous. Like, they are worth ridiculing.
When I was a kid, there used to be “Insane Asylums” for people who failed to thrive in life for whatever reason. Unfortunately, America defunded most mental institutions during the “Reaganomics era” and now most of those people have to scratch out a life under bridges, in prison, or in tents on the sidewalk.
Where’s your heart politicians? 💗
Those people didn’t choose to be born into those bodies. What if you were born in one of their bodies during this “level” of the video game? Shouldn’t America invest more into our weakest citizens than we invest in leveling Islamic countries or buying new hearts for old people who ate cheeseburgers and milkshakes their entire life?
Look at the Federal Budget differentials. 👀
@trumpsupportingchristians: Why are you supporting a leader who has never treated another person better than himself a day in his life? Ever. Donald Trump’s name literally means “conquerer” of “putting yourself first”. Trump is the definition of Conspicuous Consumption. It’s painted on the side of his Boeing 757 airplane with the gold toilets. 🤑
The letters from James and Peter are telling us that we need to judge ourselves by our Conspicuous Production instead. “Conspicuous Production” basically means we should be proud at how much we help other people.
So pick a better leader—one who wants to help people in need. You may not want to hear it, but Democrats, even the “super-abortion-y” ones, treat their neighbors better than Republicans. 💯
@womeninamerica: I have been in enough budget fights with men to know that they will always serve themselves, no matter what. I can’t see any way we will ever improve America unless we get men out of Congress. The reason my house is run so well is because we all listen to the lady of the house. There’s a system for the kitchen, a system for the laundry, we over-invest in housing and education, and nobody is allowed to make war. It’s not that complicated.
I think the only way America improves is if we steal an important strategy from my favorite television show, “Survivor”. Our family has watched the last 30 seasons together, we know all the players of the game, and we talk trash all their strategic moves. Life is “Survivor” and “Survivor” is life. Every “Survivor” fan knows that tribes always need to worry about an “all-girls alliance”. Girls are smarter than boys, so if they ever unionize, the boys will lose virtually 100% of the time.
So I’m begging you for an all-girls alliance at the election polls. We need an alliance that basically lasts forever because I don’t see how this strategy can go wrong. Who cares if some small percentage of women disagree over abortion rights…the women on both sides of that argument would still agree that we need to invest more of our federal budget into housing and education. America wouldn’t have people living under bridges if women were in charge, I know it.
So FORGET DEMOCRAT AND REPUBLICAN. Those parties are only giving us bad options any way. Instead, we need all you women out there to save our country by boycotting the addition of any more men to Congress.
America desperately needs you to #votegirl
*Same logic applies to corporate governance.
The Christians in America are so poorly aligned with the Christian values in the Bible. The Bible doesn’t have a preferred political party. The Bible only provides the preferred way of treating other people and a perfect example of how to do it.
Let’s wrap up the discussion of Peter by reading a few more lines from 2 Peter 1.
2 Peter 1: 10 Therefore, my brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election. For if you do these things, you will never stumble, 11 and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 12 So I will always remind you of these things, even though you know them and are firmly established in the truth you now have. 13 I think it is right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of this body, 14 because I know that I will soon put it aside, as our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me. 15 And I will make every effort to see that after my departure you will always be able to remember these things.
I like Peter’s quote, “I live in the tent of this body”. It’s pretty cool that we can read a letter from Peter, who experienced all these amazing adventures during his lifetime. It’s kind of amazing actually—the guy walked on water and brought a person back to life. And we can still read his words.
John and Jude
The three letters from John are pretty similar to Peter. He’s like, “I was there. I saw it with my own eyes, it’s for real.” My favorite quote is from 1 John 2.
1 John 2: 15 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. 16 For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. 17 The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.
Whatever your addictions are, this world has already found them. The last letter of the “General Epistles” comes from Jude, who is also a younger brother to Jesus. Jude also calls himself a “slave” of Jesus. Jude’s letter is and mostly focuses on teaching new believers how to recognize fake believers. There’s a bunch of them—way more than you think.
The coolest part of Jude is his quote from the Book of First Enoch. 1 Enoch is even crazier than the Bible and you can read a lot more about it in:
Continue reading
➡️: Governing as King
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