Last night, our men’s small group - 2 Deep - continued working our way through the book of James. It was a significant time for 2 reasons.For one, with the rumor of violence threatening that Black men were going to be targeted by the Mexican Mafia, we prayed. We prayed for God’s protection over Black men, particularly the men in our group at CSULA. And as Jesus’ teaches, we spent time praying for the Mexican Mafia, for God’s mercy to break through. We also prayed against the racial tensions between the Latino & Black communities.

I’ll be honest, I don’t know how accurate the rumors are - but regardless of the veracity, they have uncovered the demonic wall of hostility that exists in our city. If you don’t think there is hostility - read the comments from one site. Disturbing what comes out of us when we open our mouths.

“You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him.” Matt. 12:34-35

After we prayed, we got into the Word - James 3:10-18. Here is what I love: Though we almost cancelled last nights Bible study; instead we didn’t and it was a great time together in the Word. The opening question was: “What does it mean if something is demonic?” The answers were “evil without a cause,” “controlling,” “powerful,” “rebellious,” “contrary, perversion of God’s intention,” “scary, horrific,” “beyond logic or sanity.” As examples, we talked about Hitler, about drugs and addiction, about Enron and greed. Keeping it real.

Then we talked about God’s wisdom vs. what James’ calls ‘demonic’ wisdom. Read the passage. It is really challenging. We saw how the source of true wisdom is not revealed by what we say as much as by how we live, by what our lives ’say.’ We talked about several examples of how we experience empty words without any substance; and also how our “selfish ambition in our hearts” often gets expressed in the ways we cut each other down in order to build ourselves up. Not just in political smear campaigns, but in our everyday relationships. It was an honest and at some points humbling exposure of even the ways that we do this within our Christian fellowship.

As I was leaving, James (not the church father) shared about his own conviction from our time in the word about his own campaign in the ASI (student gov’t) election. He said, “I think I’ve crossed the line - going beyond putting forth my convictions and doing what is right - and going to far in tearing down my opponent. I realize now how I need to handle campaigning differently to stay focused on doing what is right.”