Keeping it Real…without swagger

I don’t do impressions.  But here are a few impressions I have about James…

I don’t think James was too cool in his culture or that he carried himself with style that drew attention from his peers, or that he had swagger.  I could be wrong.

I think he likely got chided about ‘speaking the truth in love’.  I’m not getting the impression that his peers readily warmed up to his words, though I definitely know and believe that they were spoken in love… at least according to James 1:19.

Final impression.  I think James was a man who kept it real.  He was, afterall, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.  He was a chosen voice through whom God communicated to man, to His church.  He was a man of prayer… the kind of prayer that makes an impression on people.  “It was said that James’ knees became so calloused from prayer that they resembled the knees of a camel.”

P.S. –  One more impression… I don’t think people then or people now like having a ‘reality mirror’ put up before them.  I think James’ letter to the church does that.  I know it does that for me.  And I come away asking myself, ‘am I a doer of the Word or just a hearer only?’

In closing, I’m including a link to ‘What Matters Most’ because I believe it speaks well of another ‘impression’ or perhaps ‘false impression’ many have about following Jesus and seeing His kingdom come… ‘The Kingdom in Reverse’.