Last Sunday, along with our Fall Kick-Off, we began a new sermon series in the Book of James. All we did was look at the life of James as context for his letter. Now we begin the body of the letter, and James doesn't waste any time getting into it. "Count it all joy when you meet trials..." Joy in suffering? Is James a masochist? No, he takes it as a given that you will suffer. Yet most Americans spend much of their money and energy attempting to deny that reality. And here is what we miss: the fruit that only comes through suffering. James is not calling us to celebrate suffering, but to see a God so good that he can and will use our suffering. How can we do that? And what do we lose when we don't see that? Let's talk about "A Blessing We Dread" (Jas.1:2-8).
