The God who stays the course.

James 1.16-18. In verse 15, James used a pregnancy metaphor to describe how one’s own desires conceives and gives birth to sin. In these verses, he kept up the metaphors. God’s like the planets and moon, only unlike them, he doesn’t go through phases and retrogrades. And we’re like the firstfruits, the crops the Hebrews took their tithes from. James 1.16-18 KWL 16 Don’t be led astray, my beloved fellow Christians : 17 Every good gift, every perfect present from above, came down from the Father of heavenly lights. There’s no phase, no seasonal shadows, with him. 18 His will birthed us by his truthful word, for us to be one of the firstfruits of his creation. “Don’t be led astray” connects with the previous idea: God isn’t the source of temptation and sin. We are. Determinists regularly make that mistake, figuring if they were almighty like God, they’d let nothing out of their control, and project that view upon God. Even though God clearly, regularly objects to