please forgive james

20 responses so far ↓

• Steve & Cindi // December 5, 2008 at 8:47 pm

  Anyone want to try to find a clue tomorrow? Email us…

• Steve & Cindi // December 5, 2008 at 8:48 pm

  Oops, didn’t realize the email address wouldn’t be visible — it’s ctestardi@yahoo.com

• revelatorart // December 6, 2008 at 9:03 am

  hmmmmm….very interesting…the mystery continues

• Dave Miller // December 6, 2008 at 11:52 am

  James isnt a person its Jesus Always Makes Everyone Special. So we can all find Him

• Melissa Beresford // December 6, 2008 at 1:07 pm

  Last Sunday during the sermon I immediately thought “Jesus Always Makes Everything Simple”.
  ( So everyone can understand the heart of God)

• katie // December 7, 2008 at 4:28 pm

  i don’t know who james is – buy my friend trina REALLY needs forgiveness…

• katie // December 7, 2008 at 4:32 pm

  james is… the butler, in the conservatory with the candlestick (?)

• katie // December 7, 2008 at 4:39 pm

  Feel free to vote for one of my last two blogs to become “Blog of the Week” by texting my name and “who is james” to 631-2245.

• Brenna // December 7, 2008 at 5:02 pm

  I think James is someone who littered or did something else detrimental to the environment, only Tri is too nice to say – so he’s getting all of us interested enough to find out what James did without him telling us.

  How’s that for a theory?

• Boone // December 7, 2008 at 7:20 pm

  So what did you find out after you called that number?

• Grace Gambrell // December 7, 2008 at 7:27 pm

  S/he who has ears to hear… James is the church. James has to be the church. If James is not the church, the very title implies that we are standing in judgement against James and convincing ourselves to forgive anyone “other” than a “Christian…” I’m sorry to say that it seems this has deepened the “us” and “them” game we so easily fall into…
  Desperate for peace,
  Grace Gambrell

• Bill Miller // December 7, 2008 at 9:02 pm

  Camille,
  I like your comment that “we have to understand that many, many people have been hurt…”. This is helpful because it turns our thoughts away from ourselves and towards the other person. However, I’m concerned about the implication that the problem is something we did. It’s not about us anymore. Our challenge is how to communicate God’s love in a relevant way in a culture where God is not the center of attention any more. It’s not about us Christians.

  Several years ago I read an article on a Web site sponsored by Focus on the Family that helped my thinking in this area. The author of the article said that, yes, the post-modern culture rejects the supremacy of logic and absolute values. But at the same time this culture is open to a reality beyond logic, willing to consider spiritual truths. This gives the church a unique opportunity to communicate.

  Here are links to the two part article:
  http://www.trueu.org/dorms/stulounge/A000000242.cfm
  http://www.trueu.org/dorms/stulounge/A000000248.cfm

• cheri // December 7, 2008 at 9:04 pm

  I cant wrap my mind around James being Jesus Always Makes Everyone Special, why would that need forgiveness? now the theory of James being the church makes sense to me. We are the church and think of all the people who have been damaged by church and the people in it. We are known to be judgemental, hypocritical, holier than thou types who live the same way as non christians do…. which is why people like Bill Mahar are out to convict us. We, the Church need to be forgiven for not doing the job we are called to do. Of course I dont mean everybody, there are lots of great transparent compassionate believers out there. I just remember what I thought of people in church before I became Christian. I think its important for non believers to see us be transparent. Open about our shortcomings instead of pretending to be perfect. That way people can identify with us and find common denominators. A girl I mentored did not want to be baptized because she was afraid she would wake up as Molly Mormon and didnt want to stop using profanity. I told her she didnt have to, I knew the spirit would convict her and she would desire to stop all on her own. Of course, thats exactly what happened She was baptized two years ago.

• Grace Gambrell // December 8, 2008 at 9:57 am

  Cheri,
  Amen, amen…
  Grace

• Misha Stackle // December 8, 2008 at 11:28 am

  As soon as Pastor Tri mentioned “Who is James?” , my thought was it would have to be the Church. Guess we will see.

• Lorita // December 8, 2008 at 12:54 pm

  Ok now you all have me questioning. When I first saw please forgive James written in church. It hit me that James was crying out to all of us to forgive. Because in forgiveness we love and when we love we don’t judge and when we don’t jugde we don’t need to forgive and if we are still loving we can do no more than uplift each other in our seperate walks, have some accountability and set an example of what God has asked us to do. Simple- love one another and ourselves as we love him.
  And for Bill Maher. What an inspiration to Christians. When, through Gods love, will we be able to show him the wow moments of God through our believing eyes. To me Faith is something that radiates from a heart of God. He repeatedly challenges speakers to show how or why, so when does someone one have answers to every question. And it is not our place to convert him. Maybe it is not the jailer he is after. Maybe it is the 200 people watching.
  Sometimes we have to sit and let God do the work of the potters wheel.
  Love people for where they are at.

• Marcus // December 9, 2008 at 7:33 pm

  Perhaps “Please Forgive James” is an anagram. Unlikely I know, but it is an idea. On the phone he said he had repented, certainly many of us forgive him, but has he forgiven himself?

• Barb Ezell // December 10, 2008 at 6:20 pm

  What happens if we call the phone number?
  Is it James Ryle’s
  LOL

• Marcus // December 11, 2008 at 9:27 am

  Are the daily topics clues to who James is? If so then we know authenticity is the key – that means James is authentic or in otherwords, truthful, sincere, centered on God and the truth, unselfish.
  James is disarming, non combative but embracing.
  James tries to be or is all things to all people and he is a listener. Furthermore, according to John 7:24 we should not judge him by appearances and make the right judgement based on whether his words and actions come from God and are unselfishly motivated or whether they come from selfish desire for self aggrandisement. I have probably missed a few other clues. Is James a symbol for what we should be as Christians, in which case I come back to my early hypothesis – James is me.
  Like the movie Spartacus, when everyone in the crowd got up and said “I am Spartacus”. They took equal responsibility.
  We all have sinned, no not one is righteous we all need forgiveness and we should all forgive each other. Amen

• Dave Miller // December 11, 2008 at 3:00 pm

  Just to add another spanner in the works. What if all this refers to James of the New Testament? William Barclay in his Daily Bible Study takes 17 pages identifying “Who is James”. So it will be hard for us to definetly identify James if a scholar Like Mr Barclay cannot.

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