A child asked his father, “How were people born?” So his father said, “Adam and Eve made babies, then their babies became adults and made babies, and so on.”

The child then went to his mother, asked her the same question and she told him, “We were monkeys then we evolved to become like we are now.”

The child ran back to his father and said, “You lied to me!” His father replied, “No, your mum was talking about her side of the family.”

The father in this bit of humour makes the joke that his wife’s side of the family came from monkeys. Sometimes our references to others can border on stereotypes or even hidden racist views.

Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego we’ve all heard the story, but let me paint a fresh picture for you. Three handsome young Jewish men, heads shaved, dressed in the finest robes the Babylonian world power afforded the government officials, stood, while a desert plain of people bowed before a twenty seven meter high gold covered idol.

At stake wasn’t just a reprimand or a ‘written’ warning from the boss, but a law demanding that everyone who didn’t bow before this idol was to be thrown into the furnace. Top marks to the Babylonians on the creative use of a furnace, but the message from the king was clear, ‘I am the law’.

What was even clearer was the message these three young Jewish men communicated to the king Nebuchadnezzar,

James 3:1-12
One small spark is all it takes in the right conditions to set alight tinder. soon enough it can engulf branches and leaf litter. Before long you can have a full on forest fire where mature trees ignite into tongues of insatiable fire. All just from one tiny spark.

​James was a younger brother of Jesus. James found himself transition from unbelief to believing that his older brother was the long awaited Jewish Messiah after seeing him die on a Roman cross and then meeting Jesus alive, just days later a risen Saviour (1 Corinthians 15:7).