Aren't Christians supposed to be happy all the time? If you are happy all the time you will not be comforted by the Lord.

Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. (James 4:8,9—NIV)

Jesus by inference commands us to mourn. James directly commands us to mourn. Every commandment issued by the Lord Jesus can be found in the Epistles, if I am not mistaken.

Look at these wonderful commandments!

Come near to God.

Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

James is addressing Christians.

Grieve, mourn, and wail.

Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom.

If we ask God to help us keep these commandments He shall. Then He will comfort us, and the comfort of God far outweighs in value any gloom we experience.

I am not suggesting weird behavior at this point. It is, however, a wise and righteous person who shuns the levity and foolishness that so often abounds in the Christian churches. We are living in serious days and we need to be watchful in prayer at all times lest we be deceived by the enemy.

There is nothing wrong with being serious, and the Lord Jesus is commanding us to keep ourselves in a sober frame of mind, always ready to weep with those who are being afflicted.

The Christians of the early centuries had many opportunities to grieve, mourn, and wail. Let us keep in mind that our nation is filled with behavior that is abominable to God, and Divine judgment cannot be far off. Let us always remember this and not conduct ourselves in a frivolous, silly manner. Then we will not be knocked off our feet when disaster strikes. Also we will be able to comfort others. When someone is hurting they do not wish to be approached by gleeful people but by those who weep with them and comfort them.

This is what the Lord is commanding.

Will we be comforted because we are being "saved by grace"? No, we will be comforted because we are mourning.

"Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth." (Matthew 5:5—NIV)

By inference the Lord Jesus is commanding us to be meek. Meekness is patience, humility, gentleness, submission to authority and teaching. The opposite of meekness is impatience, pride, harshness, and resistance to authority and teaching.

Who will inherit the earth—those who have "taken the four steps of salvation"? Numerous people who have taken the four steps of salvation and fill the Christian churches are impatient, proud, harsh, and resistant to authority and teaching. Their number is legion.

The question is, "Who will inherit the earth?" The answer God gave us is: "the meek."

Here is the mammoth Christian misunderstanding. We are looking to Divine grace to provide an alternative to meekness so we can be impatient, proud, harsh, and resistant to authority and teaching and still inherit the earth.

Now I ask you, do you really believe God gave us grace through the Lord Jesus Christ so proud, haughty, arrogant, unteachable believers can inherit the earth?

If you believe this with all your heart, join the majority of Christian people.

Do we realize we are making the words of Jesus Christ of no effect by our traditions? Do we even care this is so?

To be continued.