by David Gibson<\/p>\n
“You can thank your lucky stars you didn’t get hurt!”<\/p>\n
“With luck like mine, there won’t be a parking place, and I’m late already!”<\/p>\n
Imagine this from Paul: “If my luck changes, I’ll be out of jail by next spring.” Instead, he said, “… for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance<\/em>…” (Philippians 1:19).<\/p>\n Or this from James: “I’m sorry to hear you’re down on your luck.” Instead: “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness<\/em>” (James 1:2).<\/p>\n Christians believe that God, not luck, is the source of blessings (James 1:17).<\/p>\n Does our language betray us? Christians aren’t lucky; they’re blessed!<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by David Gibson “You can thank your lucky stars you didn’t get hurt!” “With luck like mine, there won’t be a parking place, and I’m late already!” Imagine this from Paul: “If my luck changes, I’ll be out of jail by next spring.” Instead, he said, “… for I know that through your prayers and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[1153],"class_list":["post-87538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-luck"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":9694,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/where-does-the-bible-say-that-some-believed-but-would-not-follow\/","url_meta":{"origin":87538,"position":0},"title":"Where does the Bible say that some believed, but would not follow?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 9, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have been trying to find, without luck, the verse that talks about people believing but still not following God. I think it was the Pharisees in Acts. I just remember reading a passage and I was wondering if you knew of it. I am using word searches but\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":38782,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wisdom\/","url_meta":{"origin":87538,"position":1},"title":"Wisdom","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 5, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0What would you consider valuable? \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Money, home, job, a good life? \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Yet there is something more valuable; more important \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0C.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Today we will talk about wisdom II.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0What is wisdom? \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Can you name something that is wise? \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a01.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Many say an owl is. But it is just a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Sermon"","block_context":{"text":"Sermon","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/sermon\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":40771,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-wrong-to-wish-someone-good-luck\/","url_meta":{"origin":87538,"position":2},"title":"Is it wrong to wish someone good luck?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 29, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Is it wrong to wish someone good luck? Answer: Events in our lives do happen at times by chance. \"I returned and saw under the sun that -- the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":24677,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-can-i-go-back-to-being-the-happy-go-lucky-person-i-used-to-be\/","url_meta":{"origin":87538,"position":3},"title":"How can I go back to being the happy-go-lucky person I used to be?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 2, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have gone from the a motivated, enthusiastic, happy go lucky person to a depressed, fearful wretch and cannot seem to recover.\u00a0 I know you will tell me to seek professional help, which I am.\u00a0 I see a doctor and am on medication.\u00a0 I search the Internet and read\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":23500,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-can-christians-gather-and-not-be-the-church\/","url_meta":{"origin":87538,"position":4},"title":"How can Christians gather and not be the church?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 12, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: We have addressed several people on the subject and I went to the computer and found different ones saying the same thing. My problem was I just couldn't figure out how we could not leave the building and still not be assembled.\u00a0 The church is the called out and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":16783,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wouldnt-a-new-testament-church-realize-that-we-are-our-brothers-keepers\/","url_meta":{"origin":87538,"position":5},"title":"Wouldn’t a New Testament church realize that we are our brothers’ keepers?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 6, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: On\u00a0the home page, it says that you really don't participate in community activities, fundraisers, home missions, or anything like that, in the way I interpreted it anyway. Wouldn't a New Testament church realize that we are our brothers' keepers? And that James said faith without works is dead? I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87538\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}