Are you serious?

How many times have you been asked this question in your lifetime? How many different kinds of situations have provoked this question? How many different tonal inflections can you ask this question with?

The situation determines how the question is asked:

I just bought one thousand dollars worth of lottery tickets because I had a dream that I would win…
I knew I was going to marry her on my first date…
Two planes just flew into the Twin Towers…

But there is a different way that this question is asked. When someone stops you dead in your tracks, stares into your eyes and asks the question, “Are you serious?” It’s the kind of question that makes you think about your motives. It asks whether you are willing to sacrifice. It asks how committed you are.

James is going to ask us that question this weekend. If you want to read ahead it’s James 2:14-26.

Are you able to trust others with who you really are? Are you able to trust God with who you really are? What would that look like. This weekend, on Father’s Day, I want to invite you to peek inside two different doors. One represents pleasing God. The other represents trusting God. I think these doors might help us to understand why religious people so often wear masks and perhaps lead us to be a community that removes them.

The thoughts this week will be from ideas I have gleaned from a book that has greatly impacted many in our community. It is called, “TrueFaced” by Thrall, McNicol, and Lynch and I’m throwing this link up here because it is worth your time to read.

I’m going to make a simple observation, ask a simple question and then I’m going to ask for your feedback on our website.

James, the brother of Jesus, feels that the things that we see in the world are not the same things that we should see in the community of the church.

If you were to name two or three things that should be common in the community of the church and are not common in the world around us, what would they be? I’d love to hear your feedback.

I hope that you are enjoying our study through the book of James as much as I am. It has been invigorating for me! This week will be no different. The challenge this week is simply this: are you and I willing to look into the mirror of truth and act on it? Or will we be like the man who looks into the mirror and then walks away and forgets what he looks like? What does this mean? How many of us have distorted mirrors that we see ourselves through? How many of us have trouble accepting the truth about how God sees us?

If Scripture tells us the truth about ourselves, what keeps us from allowing it to shape how we see ourselves? Think about it this week and come prepared on Sunday at 10am to take a peek (or a good long look) into the mirror.

Temptation and Evil - now those are some big words with big meaning. How do we understand temptation? How do we understand evil? How do we understand the desires that are at war inside of us? This almost seems too big a concept for us to tackle in one morning - but we’re gonna try! James 1:13-18 gives us a picture of this battle taking place both inside of us and in the world around us. One thing that James is extremely sure of…don’t blame God for the temptation and subsequent consequences of pursuing it.

Last weekend, we took a look at the “Big Picture” of the life of James, the brother of Jesus. It could not have been easy to grow up in the shadow of the PERFECT older brother. If you missed last weekend, make sure that you check out the podcast. (Sorry for the audio quality this week, one cord in the wrong hole makes a big difference.) This weekend, James is going to ask us to take a look at the “Big Picture” of life as we walk through trials and experience doubts. We’ll be reading from James 1:1-12, which is well known for it’s scripture that tells us to “consider it pure joy whenever you face trials of many kinds.” Reading this passage is often followed by the eye roll and deep breath while mumbling, “Whatever.” Can this be real? Can we live life with a view of difficulty that embraces it with joy? James, who lived a life of severe difficulty, seems to believe that it can be done. Let’s dive in this weekend and learn from the brother of Jesus.

“All I am or can be, I owe to my mother.” - Abraham Lincoln

There’s no denying the influence of a mother on someone’s life. Whether it’s your own, or your best friend’s mother that is your “surrogate mom”, we all have been marked in one way or another by “that” special woman.
At Pathways, we value our mothers deeply. This Sunday, we want to do a couple of extra things for the women that will be present at our weekend gathering.

• We want to provide an opportunity for you to have a family photo taken. We will take your family photo, print it, and have it available for you to pick up next Sunday morning. So guys/sons/daughters/husbands, if momma wants a family picture, make her day and just say ‘yes’. We got the rest covered.
• Moms, we have a special gift that we would love to give to you to show you how much we appreciate you. Come early so you don’t miss out!
• The message this Sunday will be directed toward mothers. Guys, don’t check out on me now, it will apply to you too.

GUYS/SONS/DAUGHTERS: Bring your mom to Pathways this Sunday.
HUSBANDS: Bring your wife to Pathways this Sunday. Whether she’s a mother or not, she still deserves to be honored.
MOMS: Come to Pathways this Sunday (and bring your mother if you can).

This weekend you have the opportunity to make a difference in a sign’s life. We have about 13 homeless signs, looking to live out their purpose in life. Many of you found Pathways through these signs that we place out on the streets on the weekends. It’s a GIANT job for one or two people to drive around each week placing and then picking up these signs. So our thought became this…what if we asked many people to adopt one or two signs? They could choose one near their house. Perhaps you know a location where we don’t normally place a sign and want to put one there - let us know. Your sign could direct someone to Pathways.

John Eldridge, author of “Wild at Heart”, teaches in a way that has connected with men and women around the globe. He calls us away from the stuffy and safe confines of religion and into the adventure that is following Jesus. He has just released a new book entitled, “Fathered by God”. It walks you through six stages of a man’s journey, the essential path God has provided every boy and man to take in order to become a man in full.

John will be speaking at Eastside Foursquare Church on Sunday evening, May 17th. We would love to see a good sized group from Pathways attend. If you are interested, contact Perry Rea as he has a block of tickets ($15) for us already.