More Highlights: Song of Solomon and James

Wow!  If you have never read Song of Solomon do so.  I had no idea that was in the Bible...a bit racey at times. 

8:6 - Put me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm.  For love is as strong as death, jealousy is as severe as Sheol*; Its flashes are flashes of fire, the very flame of the Lord.

*Sheol - In Judiasm, it's the earliest conception of the afterlife.  It is a place of darkness to which all the dead go regardless of the moral choices made in life and where they are "removed from the Light of God." (from Wikipedia)

Pretty intense!

On to James.  This book has always been a favorite of mine...one I go to a lot!  So I have many highlights from James.

1:2-4 - Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing produces perseverance.  Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

1:12-15 - Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.  When tempted, no one should say, "God is tempting me."  For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed.  Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.

1:22 - Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves.  Do what it says.

2:3-4 - If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, "Here's a good seat for you," but say to the poor man, "You stand there" or "Sit on the floor by my feet," have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughs?

2:10 - For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.

2:17 - In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

3:5-9 - Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts.  Consider what a great forest is set on by a small spark.  The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body.  It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one's life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.  All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and sea creatures are being tamed and have been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue.  It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.  With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God's likeness.

3:13-17 - Who is wise and understanding among you?  Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom.  But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth.  Such "wisdom" does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic.  For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.  But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.

4:3 - When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

4:11-12 - Brothers and sisters, do not slander one another.  Anyone who speaks against a brother or sister or judges them speaks against the law and judges it.  When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgement on it.  There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy.  But you-who are you to judge your neighbor?

4:13-16 - Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money."  Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow.  What is your life?  You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.  Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will llive and do this or that."  As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes.  All such boasting is evil.

5:11- As you know, we count as blessed those who have persevered.  You have heard of Job's perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about.  The Lord is full of compassion and mercy.
(I'm in the process of reading Job...I don't actually know the whole story)

5:17-18 - Blessed is the one whom God corrects; so do not despise the discipline of the Almighty.  For he wounds, but he also binds up; he injures, but his hands also heal.