As I write these words, the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day, I hope you had a Merry Christmas and that your New Year will be a joyful one!

But what if 2026 brings trials?  It most likely will, to one degree or another.  It’s just the nature of life in a broken world.  So how can we face trials with joy?  Is it possible to experience trials and experience joy at the same time?

This is what the beginning of James is all about.  On this first Sunday of the New Year, we’ll look at James 1:1-4 and talk about “Facing Trials With Joy.” 

This will be the first message in our Living Faith series on the Book of James.  Over the next few months, we will walk carefully and prayerfully through this incredible book of the Bible, verse by verse. 

James is one of the most popular books of the Bible, for obvious reasons:  It is both practical and powerful.  James has a masterful way with words.  He uses illustrations and metaphors that penetrate and pierce the mind and heart.  He is soaked in both the Old Testament and the teaching of Jesus.  He has incredible depth of insight into the relationship between faith and life.  He gets into subject after subject that we face every day as we seek to live for Christ, and he teaches us how do respond with faith…living faith.  I’m SO EXCITED about walking through this amazing book with you!

Be reading James, over and over.  It will enhance our experience on Sunday mornings.  For this Sunday, pray over and meditate on James 1:1-4.  It is rich.  I’ll see you on Sunday, as we dig into it together.  Invite a friend to join you.