{"id":5672,"date":"2014-10-13T00:37:40","date_gmt":"2014-10-13T00:37:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/?p=5672"},"modified":"2014-11-04T04:55:08","modified_gmt":"2014-11-04T04:55:08","slug":"james-117-good-and-perfect-gifts-are-from-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/?p=5672","title":{"rendered":"James 1:17\u2014Good and perfect gifts are from God"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.\u00a0 <\/em>James 1:17<\/p>\n<p>Three great big truths about God are packed into James 1:17. They are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>God gives good and perfect gifts.<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>God is the Father of lights. <\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>With God there is no variation or shifting shadow. <\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above&#8230;<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Just before this important truth, James wrote, \u201c<em>Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren<\/em>\u201d (James 1:16). He obviously felt that it was necessary to warn his brethren that what he was saying could be twisted or undermined by those who did not rightly divide the Word of truth.<\/p>\n<p>He openly stated without apology that good things and perfect gifts come from God. How could such a clear doctrine be twisted? One method is to twist the word \u201cgood\u201d. Have you ever heard someone say that cancer was good because God used it to teach something? How about a person who lost a loved one being told to view the death as good\u2014God needed \u201canother angel\u201d? Could cancer or untimely death truly be good or perfect gifts?<\/p>\n<p>One of the first sermons I heard as a young believer stated boldly, \u201cGod is a good God; the devil is a bad devil. Good means good; bad means bad.\u201d I learned then that John 10:10 is an excellent standard\u2014even in church\u2014by which to measure information categorizing what is good or bad. This Scripture says, \u201c<em>The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.<\/em>\u201d Is something in your life stealing, killing, or destroying? Then it is from the devil\u2014do not be deceived. When you hear that a bad thing is good, beware\u2014something\u2019s not right. Just because it&#8217;s taught by an &#8220;authority&#8221; doesn&#8217;t make it so. Dive into the Word and pray; the Lord will bring discernment. I have had to stop listening to different individuals who pushed a warped perspective of good and bad.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u2026coming down from the Father of lights\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Last week\u00a0I told you about a counterfeit twenty dollar bill that came into the church when I was on the offering team. I thought something was wrong with it, so I looked at it closely. I felt it. I smelled it. I still couldn&#8217;t tell squat about it. But when I held it up to the light, the truth was revealed\u2014the bill was counterfeit. Likewise, when counterfeit \u201ctruths\u201d are brought before the Light, they are quickly exposed.<\/p>\n<p>James wrote that God is the Father of lights. His Son Jesus is the Light of the world (see John 8:12). His Word is a lamp to your feet and a light to your path (see Psalm 119:105). Therefore, truth and light are in Him alone\u2014not in philosophy, spiritualism, or the multitude of religions that cling to a form of godliness but deny the power. Do not be deceived\u2014there is no other Way, Truth, or Life outside of the One who has come down from the Father of lights. It is His light that reveals the true nature of all things\u2014including every good thing and every perfect gift.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u2026with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Have you ever heard someone say, \u201cYou never know what God\u2019s going to do\u201d? Perhaps you can\u2019t guess the details of how He will work, but you can bet your bottom dollar that He will not violate His Word\u2014ever. With God, <em>there is no variation<\/em>. Yes, God is limitless in depth, and He is multifaceted beyond our ability to imagine, yet He is the same, yesterday, today, and forever. He doesn\u2019t change His ways or His Word to keep up with the times or to fit in with a progressive generation. His standards are timeless, applying to all mankind, forever.<\/p>\n<p>In the Father of lights there are <em>no\u2026shifting shadows<\/em>. Here on earth, shadows appear wherever there is light, but with the Father of lights there are no shadows. Why is that? Shadows occur when light is blocked by another object, creating a darkened area. In the Father, no light blockers can be found; He Himself is the light, and in Him there is no darkness (see 1 John 1:5). Not only that, but shifts are created by changes in position. <em>We<\/em> change position; people and objects around us change positions, but the Father never does. He will not shift in any degree, nor does He need to. He is everywhere present, always bringing light to anyone wise enough, humble enough, or desperate enough to seek. And to everyone who seeks, He will be found (see Matthew 7:8).<\/p>\n<p><em>Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren:<\/em><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>God gives good and perfect gifts.<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>He is the Father of lights.<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>With Him there is no variation or shifting shadow. <\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>And He will remain this way forever and ever.<\/p>\n<p>Dorothy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.\u00a0 James 1:17 Three great big truths about God are packed into James 1:17. They are: God gives good and perfect gifts. God is the Father of lights. With [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-james-1"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5672"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5672\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5689,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5672\/revisions\/5689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}