"James, A Slave of God," poetry

First Edition: LukivPress (Victoria, BC), 2022.

Introduction

James, disciple and half brother of Jesus, writes the letter James for two fundamental reasons:To encourage Christians to stand up firm in faith as trials test their endurance, andTo realign brothers and sisters influenced by disturbing, fleshly forces within congregations.

Why stand firm? James writes at 1:2, 3, "Consider it all joy, my brothers, when you meet with various trials, knowing as you do that this tested quality of your faith produces endurance." Whether these trials amount to persecution, economic hardship, discouragement, grief, or conflicts between members of the same congregation, faith will keep a Christian from giving up. In fact, faith will help an individual fulfil Matthew 24:13: "The one who has endured to the end will be saved."

This faith, and the endurance it promotes, encourages peaceful relationships in congregations, even when fellow Christians allow fleshly traits, such as a tongue that slanders, gossips, maligns, criticizes, or boasts to infect good speech with spiritual ugliness. James warns, "the tongue is a small part of the body, and yet it makes great brags. See how small a fire it takes to set a great forest ablaze! The tongue is also a fire. The tongue represents a world of unrighteousness among our body members, for it defiles all the body and sets the whole course of life on fire, and it is set on fire by Gehenna." (Jas 3: 5, 6).

Aside from self control-keeping the tongue in check-James provides a remedy: "Wisdom from above is first of all pure, then peaceable, reasonable, ready to obey, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial, not hypocritical. Moreover, the fruit of righteousness is sown in peaceful conditions for those who are making peace." (Jas 3:17, 18)

This book, full of poetic imagery, still incites Christians to serve their God Jehovah in the spirit of peace, mercy, impartiality, and kindness.

The author

Dan Lukiv, published in 19 countries, is a poet, novelist, columnist, short story and article writer, and independent education researcher (hermeneutic phenomenology). As a creative writer, he apprenticed with Canada's Professor Robert Harlow (recipient of the George Woodcock Achievement award for an outstanding literary career), the USA's Paul Bagdon (Spur Award finalist for Best Original Paperback), and England's D. M. Thomas (recipient of the Cheltenham Prize for Literature, Orwell Prize [biography], Los Angeles Fiction Prize, and Cholmondeley award for poetry). He attended The University of British Columbia (creative writing department), the acclaimed Humber School for Writers (poetry writing program), and Writer's Digest University (novel writing program).