Episode Details

“Consider it pure joy” is one of the hardest lines in the New Testament to take seriously, especially when life is genuinely frightening. From a barn at Farm Fellowship near Preston, we begin a book-by-book Bible study of the Book of James with Richard Bewes, Paul Blackham, and our wonderfully international guest Robin Langford, whose gospel work has taken her from Argentina and Paraguay to Sudan and Afghanistan.

We start at James 1:1 and ask the grounding questions: who wrote James, when was it written, and why does it sound so direct? Robin walks us through the strong early-church case that the author is James, Jesus’ half-brother, who became a key leader in the Jerusalem church. Paul then unpacks James’s opening address to the “twelve tribes scattered among the nations”, not as a closed club but as a daring, inclusive picture of God forming a global people in Christ.

From there the passage turns practical: trials, perseverance, wisdom from God, and the danger of being double-minded. Robin shares what “pure joy” can look like in real pressure, including poverty where believers have little left but prayer, and the quiet nearness of Jesus when you feel abandoned. We also look at James’s warning about wealth and status, and the two roads a person can take when tested: trusting God for wisdom, or blaming God and being pulled by destructive desires.

If you care about Christian discipleship that is honest, grounded in Scripture, and shaped for real life, come and study James with us. Subscribe, share with a friend, and leave a review, then tell us: which line from James 1 do you find hardest to live out?

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