James is saying that we consider it pure joy when we face these trials. Joy is the expression of patience. How do you know if you are accessing the joy God has given to you? The answer is found in how patient you are. We can be joyful in our patience when we know that what we are going through is not forever.

What does it mean to be included in the family of God? Does anyone know what it’s like to be an outsider? Tamar was an outsider. In Genesis 38, we learn about Tamar’s story.

Proverbs says that our thoughts have the power to define who we become. For this reason, our enemy, the devil, uses fear tactics against us that are planted below the surface in our minds.

God made humanity to know no shame. The devil’s goal is to get you to feel so bad that you want to hide from the presence of God--because in the presence of God, chains break.

When Jesus told the thief next to him on the cross, “Today you will be with me in paradise,” we often miss the point of his statement. We focus too much on the “paradise” part, and we miss the “with me” part.

We often like to think of Jesus as a meek, mild-mannered man with a lamb around his neck who told us to love our neighbor. However, there are other things that Jesus claimed about himself that were far from meek.

Change is a two-sided coin: out with the old, and in with the new. Sometimes we ask God to do something new, while we keep doing the same old thing. We want God to change our circumstances while we do nothing at all.

Today is Missio Dei Sunday, and we are believing God for more. He is at work in our world, and we celebrate that by inviting him to do more in us and through us.