"Of His own will begat He us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures." James 1:18 (KJV).

Salvation, regeneration, being born again are all expressions of the same event. It is a sovereign act of God to save. No one can on their own decide one day that they are going to be regenerated, and trust God forever. That is the act, the sovereign act of God alone.

There is not one person who can of their own volition see that Jesus is the Christ the Son of the living God. On this matter Jesus told Peter, "Blessed art thou, Simon bar-jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but My Father which is in heaven." (Matthew 16:17). Jesus also said, "No man can come to Me, except the Father which hath sent Me draw him…" (John 6:44).

There is so much emphasis in many religions of doing good works in order to please God and entering His presence when we die. There is not enough good works which you and I can do to please God. The Old Testament prophet Isaiah said, "But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away." (Isaiah 64:6). These filthy rags are said to be likened to the menstral clothes of the women of the day. We could liken them to the rags that are sometimes used to clean up vomit from the floor of our homes from a sick child or adult. I don’t mean to gross you out, but that is how God views our attempts to gain His favor, and I want you to understand how gross it is to attempt such a thing.

It is solely the sovereign work of God. It is His will to save, to regenerate the unregenerate. He has made it possible through the blood of His own Son Jesus. He bled and died on that old, cruel, rugged cross. His blood poured down that cross onto the ground, and was collected on the altar in heaven for the redemption of all who will believe. This blood sacrifice is sufficient to save the whole world, but is only effecient to save those who will believe. This is solely the work of God. God will open the eyes of those whom He pleases, and darken those whose heart is hardened by self-righteous acts.

When is the right time to believe? At that moment when God shows you that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God; and that He died for your sins, was buried carrying your sins away - as far as east is from west, and cast into the depths of the sea - and that He rose victoriously from the grave and ever lives to make intercession for those who are His.

"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning." James 1:17 (KJV).

Have you ever met people who were always "tight fisted". They always have their hands in the fist formation. That seems to me to be a sign of a defiant character. They always are desiring to hold on to what they see as theirs.

What if God were "tight fisted". If that were the case we would be in really, really bad bad shape. It would be even far worse than what we think it is at times. If our Creator were of this type of character, there first of all, would probably be no creation to behold. We would not be existing. There would be no beautiful sunrises or sunsets. There would be no rainbows, or rainfall. There would be no mercy, and there would certainly be no grace. That would mean that there would be no cross, no burial, and no resurrection. There would be no you or me. Unless, of course, you believe that everything just appeared by coming up out of a primordial sea. What a miserable existence that would be.

God, however, is not "tight fisted". He is in fact the God of the "Open hand". I think that title fits Him well. He gives us all things to enjoy. Since He is God, and cannot be tempted to do evil, nor, does He tempt us to do evil; then, we can know that all things good come from Him. The "good gift" and the "perfect gift" are from His "Open hand". Let’s think about what the good and perfect gifts are.

Some of the "good gifts" are life itself. He gives all life. Every beat of the heart is given by His hand. Every breath we breathe is given by His hand. Do you want to think of Him as "tight fisted" now? I sure don’t. Every meal we eat comes from His hand. These and a multitude of other things like this are the "good gifts" which comes from His "Open hand". The "Perfect gifts" are things like the sending of His Son Jesus to die for our sins. You cannot get any more perfect than a perfect Son, who came to take away our sins. Included in that perfect gift would be the carrying away of sin, the resurrection, His ascension back to the Father. He has also left us promise that He would return and take us to Himself forever. The "perfect gift" is seen also in the person of the Holy Spirit who is our "earnest" until He comes. We are also recipients of the inheritance of Jesus Christ. We are joint heirs with Him. Read Ephesians 1, and Romans 8.

"Do not err, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning." James 1:16-17 (KJV).

"An act of God" - that is what the affects of a tornado, hurricane, earthquake are called by most insurance companies. It seems that what is meant by that is that the events, and catastrophe’s that happen through things which are unpreventable by human means are that; an act of God.

"The devil made me do it"; a phrase which became popular by a commedian by the name of Flip Wilson was used long before Flip made it possible. We are a society who likes to place blame on others for our misfortunes. God and/or the devil are two of the most popular blame-ees for our chaos, catastrophe, pain and sorrow. We are also prone to blame a fellow human being if it is convenient to do do.

When it comes to sin and its consequences, however, there is truly no one but ourselves we can blame. James, tells us above, "Do not err, my beloved brethren." Do not err by blaming God for your sin and temptations. That is actually what Adam did when he sinned in the garden.

Let’s look at what Adam actually said, "That woman whom Thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat." (Genesis 3:12). Do you note that he blames God for giving the woman. He is blaming the woman, but the actual blame is directed back to his Creator. "Whom Thou gavest to be with me…" So this thing of blaming God is certainly not new, nor is that of blaming others.

What is the way we should respond to realizing we have sinned. Confess it, repent, ie., turn from the sin to Christ Jesus, and believe in the atonement of the death of Christ; and that He was buried - carrying sin away, and that He rose again, and ever lives to make intercession for us.

"Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death." James 1:13-15 (KJV).

Oh, how important it is for the Christian man and woman to guard their minds. We sin due to lust that forms in our thoughts. Lust is merely the desire of something which takes away from our normal God given life. It can even be called covetousness, or greed.

In the New Testament it is even called idolatry. "Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry." Colossians 3:5 (KJV). Paul was instructing the Christians to put these things to death in our lives. The Christian must fight against the onslaughts of sin and evil in our lives every day.

Evil begins taking place in our minds when we are drawn away from our place with God; when we are drawn away from Walking With God, and begin to entertain thoughts of evil. How can I obtain that new car? How can I obtain that new home? How can I obtain that other man’s wife? and these things begin to control our thinking. We become obsessed with the thought of obtaining things and pleasures and comforts - drawn away into immorality. I believe that Martin Luther the reformer is given credit for saying, "You may have a bird fly over your head, but you will not allow it to light and build a nest." Allowing the evil, sinful thought to stay, "build a nest" is lusts conception, and when lust is conceived it brings forth sin: and sin, when it is finished brings forth death.

Christians are people of life; and in particular; new life in Jesus Christ. When we allow sin to come and roost in our hearts and lives we begin losing our desire for God, prayer, the reading and study of His Word; and certainly living for Him is the farthest thing from our minds. Oh, that every Christian reading this today would check and examine their hearts, and the thinking of their minds. What is the foremost thought you have at this time? I would imagine that right now if you are reading this you are next door to coming home or are already there.

As Christians we are ministers of righteousness, and ministers of reconciliation. If we are not Walking With God we can not be either one effectively. For the Christian to continue in sin is deadly. The Christian cannot become spiritually dead, but we can have our physical life cut short due to sin. The MACARTHUR STUDY BIBLE note, "Sin is not merely a spontaneouos act, but the result of a process. The Gr. words for ‘has conceived’ and ‘brings forth’ liken the process to physical conception and birth. Thus James personifies temptation and shows that it can follow a similar sequence and produce sin with all its deadly results. While sin does not result in spiritual death for the believer, it can lead to physical death (1Cor. 11:30; 1 John 5:16)." p.1927.

"For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep." 1 Corinthians 11:30 (NKJV). "If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin which does not lead to death, he will ask, and He will give him life for those who commit sin not leading to death. There is sin leading to death. I do not say that he should pray about that." 1 John 5:16 (NKJV).