James: A Letter to the Faithful - Week One "Counting it all Joy"
This week we are going to be launching a brand new sermon series, a study on the New Testament book of James . James has always been a challenging book. and wasn't actually included in the canon of the New Testament until at least the second century--even though many early Christian communities were reading and studying it. The great reformer Martin Luther couldn't stand James, and argued for it being excluded from the New Testament because of what he described as too much of an emphasis on works and not enough on grace. But when you read through the book of James--at least when you read through it with a Jesus tinged lens--you get a different picture of this complicated and almost in-your-face letter that was written nearly two thousand years ago to Christians who were facing hardship and persecution. Before we go any further, though, we need to answer the most obvious question that you might be ready to pose at this point: Who was James? James was called many...