Practice The Word

In the final episode of our study through the Book of James, we reach James 5:19–20—and discover that James doesn’t end his letter with condemnation. He ends it with restoration.
When someone wanders from the truth, what should Christians do? James calls believers to pursue them with truth and love. It’s a reflection of Jesus leaving the 99 to seek the one and His mission to seek and save the lost.
Throughout this episode, we look back at the practical wisdom James has given us about prayer, perseverance, speech, suffering, forgiveness, faith, works, obedience, and living as true doers of God’s Word.
We also discuss an extraordinary story of forgiveness, the relationship between the teachings of James and Paul on faith and works, and why genuine faith should produce visible fruit in our lives.
James contains 108 verses and nearly 50 commands. Again and again, he calls believers to action.
The Word enters our ears, changes our hearts, transforms our speech, guides our relationships, directs our decisions, strengthens our endurance, and ultimately shapes our lives.
As we finish this series, the challenge isn’t simply to know more about the Bible.
It’s to become more like Christ.
Don’t simply finish the Book of James. Live it.

Chapters
00:00 Welcome to Practice the Word
00:31 Stay in the Fight
00:45 A Mother’s Bold Prayer
03:07 The Power of Fervent Prayer
03:35 Burn the Boat: No Plan B
04:18 The Final Lesson From James
04:42 James 5:19–20 — Restore the Wanderer
05:44 Leaving the 99 for the One
07:00 Are You Actually Practicing the Word?
07:20 Restore With Truth and Love
08:44 The New Testament Proverbs?
09:34 James Calls Christians to Action
09:57 108 Verses and Nearly 50 Commands
10:49 How the Word Changes Your Life
11:18 The Great Commission and James
11:47 Facts About the Book of James
13:09 Obey Without Hesitation
14:04 The Illustrations of James
14:57 Christians and Retaliation
15:20 An Extraordinary Story of Forgiveness
17:17 How Forgiveness Leads to Restoration
18:22 Did Martin Luther Think James Contradicted Paul?
18:55 James vs. Paul on Faith and Works
20:38 Final Thoughts on the Book of James
20:54 Closing Prayer
22:15 A Testimony From Two Young Listeners
22:50 The Final Doer’s Challenge
23:52 Closing

Creators and Guests

Host
Bryan Ford
Host of the Practice the Word Podcast
Host
Veneta Ford
Host of the Practice The Word Podcast
Guest
Allison

What is Practice The Word?

Practice the Word is a Christ-centered podcast for people who are ready to stop sitting on the sidelines of faith and start living the Word of God in everyday life.

Hosted by believers who love Jesus, serve people, and understand the real-world trials of business, family, ministry, hardship, and obedience, this show is for anyone who feels called to step out of the boat and walk with Christ more deeply.

Each episode encourages listeners to read Scripture for themselves, trust the Holy Spirit, serve others with sincerity, and become doers of the Word — not hearers only.

Through biblical conversations, personal stories, interviews with Christian leaders, and practical encouragement, Practice the Word exists to point people back to Jesus, remind them that every day is a gift from the Lord, and challenge them to live fully surrendered to Him.

Whether you are new to faith, returning to God, wrestling through a difficult season, or ready to go deeper, this podcast is an invitation to get off the fence, open the Bible, and practice the Word.

00:00:02:00 - 00:00:20:18
Unknown
Welcome to Practice the Word, a podcast helping everyday believers become everyday doers of the word. Through scripture stories and honest conversations, we'll talk about what it means to follow Jesus with courage, sincerity, and obedience in real life. Let's get started.

00:00:20:20 - 00:00:31:07
Unknown
So we're getting down to the last two verses of this whole thing that we've gone through, this whole this whole thing that James is just laid out to

00:00:31:09 - 00:00:45:01
Unknown
So our pastor told Pastor Debbie Told on Sunday, and because she was talking about staying in the fight, which is what really what James is saying, staying in the fight, staying before the Lord.

00:00:45:01 - 00:01:11:10
Unknown
Don't give up and don't give in. There's too much at stake. You have to stay in the fight. And she's telling about this mother who her three sons were playing on this ice in the winter. The river had frozen and they're playing on it. And the the ice gives way. And the two sons, three sons fell, and they found the two sons, but they couldn't find the third one.

00:01:11:10 - 00:01:35:02
Unknown
And so the two sons were barely going to make it. They called, you know, 911. They came and the fireman said he overheard the commander say, go back and look one more time. And when he went back, that third son was found lifeless, dead. Of course. And so they all, you know, rushed him to the hospital. And the mother has gotten word of this.

00:01:35:02 - 00:01:59:16
Unknown
And so she's on the way to the hospital. And so she gets there and the doctors have come out and said, look, we think we're going to be able to save your two sons. But the third son, they've tried everything. He was dead for one hour and eight minutes. And she said, the mother come through the hospital. And she said she had been reading this book, praying bold prayers.

00:01:59:16 - 00:02:27:02
Unknown
And she gets back to this son and she yells out, spirit of the living God, come forth. And she said, in about two minutes his heart rate started to beat and that child is living today. Matter of fact, he's an adult today and he's living today with there's nothing wrong with the child. Child is perfectly fine. And that child stayed dead for one hour in eight minutes.

00:02:27:04 - 00:02:47:00
Unknown
Bold prayers and only prayers. They made that into a movie. Yeah. And she wrote a book about it? Yeah. Where? Actually, the doctors in the emergency room. They also in the fire fight. There's actually testimonies of firefighters there. And the firefighter asked his commander. He said, why did you tell me to go back in? The firefighter was an unbeliever.

00:02:47:06 - 00:03:07:14
Unknown
He said, why did you tell me to go back? He said, I never told you to go back. He said, that was the voice of the Lord. You heard. Wow. And so that made him a believer. Yeah. It's a it's a good it's a good read and it's a good movie. So and I will say it just goes back to how important it is that we pray.

00:03:07:16 - 00:03:35:15
Unknown
We pray and, and, and James makes it so clear in 516, the effective, fervent prayer of a righteous person avails much. Right? The key word there is righteous person. If you're in Christ, you're righteous, right? And I think too, also for for new believers. And there was a couple of comments in, in that we've had and they were talking about how they were new believers and they just they can't get past the first step and they can't get past the first step.

00:03:35:15 - 00:03:59:16
Unknown
And Pastor Deb Lanier is a wonderful teacher. I think we'll both agree with that. She's wrote several books, books, and one of her things that that's always stuck with me, and I've repeated it many times to many people, is when you land that boat, being a believer in Christ, you burn your boat. So when you get on the island of Christianity, right, we're believers, we burn our boat.

00:03:59:18 - 00:04:18:16
Unknown
And we also prescribe to the notion there's no plan B, right? There's only plan A, so we move towards right and A sounds for Alpha. That's right. No turning back right. No turning back, no turning back, no turning back. And so now we're getting a song. You want to sing it? No, I did sing it on the way here, though.

00:04:18:16 - 00:04:42:04
Unknown
Okay. And Alison can sing. Yeah. She came and so. So now we get down to the last two verses of our study, and I think it's just it's a wonderful conclusion because James is going through these whole steps, chapters one through five, and we get all the way here. And he's made us examine ourselves. He's he's equipping us.

00:04:42:04 - 00:05:13:16
Unknown
He's kind of pointed his finger, but he's brought us back in again. And now he's going to talk about how do we restore the wanderer. And so if you read that, Alison, so James 519 through 20, my brothers, if one of you should wander from the truth and some would just bring him back, consider this whoever turns a sinner from the error of his ways will save his soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.

00:05:13:18 - 00:05:44:23
Unknown
Wow. So that's one of the reasons I brought up the comments about new believers and how they feel like they're falling back. Or even these could be people that have been walking a while. So James, actually ending this thing would rescue, right? So it's not condemnation? No, there's not an argument. What are we talking about? We're talking about restoration, which is what he just talked about the verses before a believer is wondered and another believer lovingly pursues them.

00:05:44:23 - 00:06:12:02
Unknown
Now who's that sound like? Right is they're not sound like the Christ. This is Jesus, right? Right. He's pursuing leaving the 99, going after the one right in my favorite, and I do. I've gave you little verses here and there that I've loved in James, but I, I just I've outlined this in purple because my favorite we talked about at the beginning, you need a Bible when you're studying your Bible, you need to have certain highlighters and you highlight it for certain colors.

00:06:12:02 - 00:06:36:03
Unknown
Purple is my favorite verses. Purples are verses that speak to me and I write why and I? And I've highlighted this one in purple and it says, whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death, and will cover a multitude of sins that that right there and is in, in, in the key here, this is echo in Jesus.

00:06:36:03 - 00:07:00:03
Unknown
Again you go to Luke 15 and you already said this. What did the shepherd do? He leaves the 99 right to rescue the one right? And how many times did we talked about in the first couple of studies? You know, we go to Sunday sermon, right? We greet everybody, we go to Sunday, we greet everybody, we sing, we hear the sermon, we shake hands, but then we don't practice the word right.

00:07:00:04 - 00:07:20:19
Unknown
And this is exactly how James is ending this, right. Are you willing to leave those? I'm not talking about to leave the church, but I'm talking about if you see one of your fellow believers out here struggling there floundering, are you reaching out to him, or are you leaving your comfort to go do that right? Believers are called to restore those who have wandered.

00:07:20:19 - 00:07:43:17
Unknown
And you know, in Luke 1910, it does say bringing up Luke again to Son of Man came to seek and save the lost. So or not, we supposed to do that? You know, we don't celebrate when someone falls. How many times you see someone fall and you maybe you celebrate it within your soul. But God sees that. And we're not called to celebrate when people fall.

00:07:43:22 - 00:08:08:11
Unknown
We restore with truth and love. And the church is not a museum for perfect people. It's a hospital where Jesus heals broken souls. Right? He he is ending exactly how Jesus always ended his stuff. Seek love. Restore right. Seek love. That's right. And a lot of times, Veneta wrote a book. A lot of times people don't want to seek.

00:08:08:11 - 00:08:29:17
Unknown
They don't want to love, and they don't want to store people that they don't relate to that, that that doesn't look like us, that that doesn't talk like us. We prescribe to our clinics and we can't do that. Right? Right. Because what you're getting ready to see and and James is doing this obviously James is staying in Jerusalem during this time.

00:08:29:17 - 00:08:44:12
Unknown
But the other disciples, where are they going? They're going places where these people don't look like me. They don't talk like me. Their culture is not like me. They don't eat what I eat. Right. And but what is he doing there? Spreading the gospel.

00:08:44:14 - 00:08:52:23
Unknown
I would call James the book of James the New Testament proverb.

00:08:53:01 - 00:09:11:16
Unknown
And that's what it is. How many times do we see in chapters one, two and three? It's almost he's using Proverbs, and it's because it focused on practical wisdom. We we don't like practical wisdom because a lot of times we hear it, we're like, yeah, we probably should do that, right? We should be doing that. But we don't do it right.

00:09:11:17 - 00:09:34:09
Unknown
We only like to be able to tell other people to do it. But we need to be, you know, what's calling us beyond ourselves and beyond our current circumstances, into the way of the kingdom, and to walk like Jesus walked, right? So when we see this last verses 19 and 20, he's calling us to do what Jesus did, which is restore.

00:09:34:12 - 00:09:57:14
Unknown
He's calling us to be doers and people of restoration. Yeah, that's a great point, because what is he calling us to do? He's calling us an action. We got to be action oriented. So here's a cool fact about James. So there's a 108 verses in James, right? 50 or commands almost one out of every two verses is action.

00:09:57:16 - 00:10:29:02
Unknown
He's commanding us from what Jesus he learned from Jesus to do. And, and and again, James is echoing the sermon on the Mount. Go back to Matthew five through seven if you want to see it. Chapters five through seven. He's echoing it. Proverbs, Leviticus, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Amos. And rather than quoting long passages, James assumes his readers already know the Old Testament, and he weaves these themes throughout his letter.

00:10:29:02 - 00:10:49:16
Unknown
So what he's doing and what we love now, because this is all the we got to put it in context, we got to put he's putting in context for the Jews right here. So we talked so much about the Bible not necessarily being prescriptive. Like we need to extrapolate what is what is the context, what was going on in that time.

00:10:49:18 - 00:11:18:20
Unknown
And it's like James just took all of those verses and put them together and said, here you go, folks. Right. Right. New Testament church, here you go. Yeah. That's good. And I wrote down some of the stuff we all said during this study. You know, the word enters your ears, changes your heart, transforms your speech, guide your relationships, directs your decisions, strengthens your endurance, and ultimately shapes your entire life until Christ returns.

00:11:18:22 - 00:11:47:08
Unknown
That is pretty much the prescription James is writing in the book of James. You know when he says, whoever turns a sinner from the error of their way will save them from death and cover over a multitude of sins. You know, that is like the Great Commission go into all the world and preach the gospel. So he that's his last verse saying, you know, go be fishers of men.

00:11:47:09 - 00:12:11:13
Unknown
Wow. Wow. Well, you know, in James, some of some of the cool things, just the facts in James that we're looking at, you know, it's dated somewhere, they think, but somewhere around 44 to 49 A.D.. So it prescribes as one of the earliest New Testament books. That's hard to believe. So, in other words, James got to it real quick and wrote it.

00:12:11:14 - 00:12:36:19
Unknown
I mean, he wrote his no trail quick and his scribes real quick on it, and that was a lot faster than some of the stuff Luke put out. I mean, I mean, it's pretty, pretty neat. And he also wrote it to what's called The 12 Tribes in the dispersion. And and those were primarily what we call Jewish Christian scattered outside of Judea, right, the Judea area.

00:12:36:19 - 00:13:09:07
Unknown
And as as we get into studies, we can we're going to do a study on the the map from the Old Testament to the New Testament at some point. So, yeah. So James misses Jesus by name only twice, only twice. And that was in the first two chapters, only twice, as he mentioned him. And but he, he saturates his entire letter, all five chapters with his teachings, which that is remarkable.

00:13:09:09 - 00:13:37:10
Unknown
And I think he's so indwelt in Jesus. And Jesus is so indwelt in him. He's speaking as if he was, you know, Jesus is right beside him. I wrote in my notes. God is still calling a people who will stand without compromise, pray without ceasing, love without hypocrisy, and obey without hesitation. And I think, James, is that that that's who James is, is, is that, you know, is that person that God is calling us to be.

00:13:37:10 - 00:14:04:21
Unknown
James is that person. And so, yeah, I mean, he he was definitely prescribed with the Holy Spirit. And and you can see it, I mean, look at the illustrations he uses. It's almost as it's just Jesus in his parables used great illustration, I mean, perfect illustrations that are timeless, right? Because we can always do like this. The the sword of seeds, I mean, perfect, I mean, when can you not use that?

00:14:04:21 - 00:14:37:05
Unknown
Where do we build our home? Right? So, you know, in these he used I counted 30. There are maybe 28 there, maybe 32. I counted 30. And I mean he used waves, mirror flowers, bridal ships, fire springs, fig trees, farmers, rust, rain. Elijah. I mean, he just kept on with these illustrations and like, you know, I could see where James could captivate like James could a famous term we use in eastern North Carolina.

00:14:37:05 - 00:14:57:08
Unknown
As we can get you told James could get you told in a way, and you didn't really know. You got told and you got thinking about about two hours later. He's like, yeah, he's got a good point. Yeah, he told me he got me so and so. While we're talking about that, if you're practicing getting someone told, then you already have the spirit of retaliation in your soul and you need to repent, right?

00:14:57:09 - 00:15:20:01
Unknown
Because God has not called you to retaliate. He's calling you to be quiet. You know, when Jesus went to the cross, he said nothing. They beat him. He said nothing. When he got on the cross, he never complained, not one time. And that was all for you and me. And so we have to be aware that when people do cruel things to us, it would be easy for us to, you know, get them back.

00:15:20:01 - 00:15:48:15
Unknown
But God has not called us to get. We are set apart. And so, you know, we we saw a situation the other day. I don't know where it was, but this woman had killed the daughter, the her, her two daughters, these these parents. A drunk driver had killed the daughters of these parents to two daughters. They were leaving church.

00:15:48:16 - 00:16:26:22
Unknown
They were leaving church. This drunk driver hit them and killed their two daughters. And the parents lived. And it took them seven years, but they obviously the driver went to prison. But it took them seven years to really forgive this lady who had hit them and killed their two daughters. So they adopted. They went to the prison and adopted the the girl as their daughter forgave her, forgave her and adopted her as their daughter.

00:16:26:22 - 00:16:55:09
Unknown
And you talking about forgiveness, where is your line of forgiveness now? They go all over the United. Now they go all over the United States and tell that story. And they adopted the girl that killed their daughters. And then it's something and I've. Because we, our pastor gave us. I don't know if I could do that. I mean, yeah, it might take me 700 years, but but to to expound on that story a little bit.

00:16:55:10 - 00:17:17:15
Unknown
Their first year, their first Christmas was horrible. They were arguing. They're not sure they were going to get through the marriage. It was just horrible. You can imagine. I mean, you've lost your two children, only two children. And they go through what James is talking about. They go through a restoration part, they go through, they're going to forgive.

00:17:17:17 - 00:17:43:22
Unknown
And the forgiveness already is. Is Jesus healing them all the way to the point where they can walk into that prison? Forgive that young lady, right? Not only just because that could have been enough, right? They could have walked out and started just moving on. Right? But instead they used it as a total 180, right, for the purpose of Christ.

00:17:43:22 - 00:18:22:05
Unknown
And now Vinita wrote a a beautiful book. And in the book is basically about your enemy. And would you pray for your enemy? Would you reach out to your enemy? Would you do things for your enemy? And you know, Jesus is the perfect example of that, because everybody, he died on that cross for that, that drove nails, that tortured him, that torment in that spit on him, that put a spear through him, that that is not symbolism, that is actual things.

00:18:22:09 - 00:18:55:14
Unknown
He understood that we didn't fight against flesh and blood. That's right. He knew that. But the pain, the physical pain is always prevalent. The suffering is prevalent there. Yes it is so yes. The thing and I and I do want to bring up one more thing before we end for prayer and the doers challenge. Somebody had brought up Martin Luther and not Martin Luther King, but Martin Luther, and was talking about how James was referred to as the Epistle of Straw, and that James contradicted Paul.

00:18:55:15 - 00:19:22:16
Unknown
Now, I've I've noted this a couple of times, and I'm not of that of that I don't I don't obey to that thinking. I think they were complimentary to one another. Actually, I think they're very much they're, they're 99% complimentary with each other. And why? It's because Paul teaches that were justified by faith apart from works. And that's in Romans three four.

00:19:22:18 - 00:19:55:05
Unknown
James teaches that genuine faith inevitably produces works. James two they work together. They're almost like a puzzle that just fits into one another. And in, in, in. How do we come to that? Because the same reason that I can read Luke and Mark and come up with sometimes a differing viewpoint of how something occurred, but it's still the fact that it occurred just one way.

00:19:55:09 - 00:20:25:07
Unknown
Right. So that's the way Paul and James are teaching. Paul was teaching that faith, apart from works. Right? Teaches that justified by faith, right? That's almost what he's getting to. It's apart from works. But James is teaching the genuine faith inevitably produces works. In other words, it if we're believers and we have this faith that what's it doing?

00:20:25:09 - 00:20:38:18
Unknown
Philip the Mitchell often says it produces for root. That's right. So it's a it's a symptom of our belief. And that's what James is saying.

00:20:38:23 - 00:20:52:15
Unknown
So this is our our ending for the book of James. We hope that it has compelled you to move out of your comfort zone and into just being challenged before the Lord. Do you want to give a challenge?

00:20:52:17 - 00:20:54:05
Unknown
Yeah, I could do a challenge.

00:20:54:06 - 00:21:07:14
Unknown
okay, well I'll pray and then you challenge. Challenge. Lord, we thank you for the book of James. And we thank you for James being your half brother and diligent man of the Lord. Lord, we need you in this.

00:21:07:14 - 00:21:31:20
Unknown
So, Lord, I ask you right now to we would you would Holy Spirit bring all things to our remembrance with the book of James, help us watch our mouth and help us to be pray over the sick and anoint with all. Help us to call for the elders of the church, and help us to be leaders and not followers, and help us to go get wanderers that are that are that are in sin and bring them back to you.

00:21:31:20 - 00:21:50:08
Unknown
Lord, all the things that James compelled us to do, Lord, we need to do it and do it well and do it in excellence. So, Holy Spirit, we thank you that you're with us doing this. We thank you that you put your spirit in the sight of us to do what God has called us to do, in the mighty name of Jesus we pray.

00:21:50:09 - 00:22:15:03
Unknown
Bless your people today, Lord. Bless the ones watching and listening. Bless them, oh God, for your glory. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen. So this will be our be our last doers challenge. And I do want to I want to preference something real quick. I'm not going to name names or who they are, but we got a testimony.

00:22:15:05 - 00:22:40:21
Unknown
It was earlier this week. Yes. Two young ladies or teenagers that that have followed the podcasts. They saw us through TikTok there. They saw us through TikTok and they have done each to her challenges. They seen it through and they've practiced each one, and they've talked about how it has really impacted their life. So we try to not make these doer challenges really hard.

00:22:40:21 - 00:22:50:08
Unknown
What we try to do is give you an action, just like James is doing, and to move towards it to to strengthen your faith in your walk.

00:22:50:08 - 00:22:58:18
Unknown
our doer challenges are final one for this series. And this series has never been about gaining more Bible knowledge.

00:22:58:22 - 00:23:27:08
Unknown
It's been about becoming more like Christ. And this week, don't simply finish the book of James. Live it. Ask yourselves these questions. Where is God calling me to obey instead of merely agree? Is there someone I need to forgive, encourage, or restore? Is my speech building others up or tearing them down? And I patiently trusting God or trying to control what only he can?

00:23:27:10 - 00:23:52:04
Unknown
What is one Pacific act of obedience? I will put into practice today? Right? That one action down. Pray over it, then do it. Because James has told us from the very beginning that God's blessing is not found in hearing His Word alone. It is found in putting it into practice.

00:23:52:06 - 00:24:11:05
Unknown
Thank you for listening. To practice the word. Our prayer is that today's conversation encourage you to open Scripture. Follow Jesus more closely and live as a doer of the word. If this episode blessed you, share it with somebody who needs encouragement. Subscribe to the show and leave a review so that more people can be reached with the truth of God's Word.

00:24:11:05 - 00:24:13:02
Unknown
And till next time, don't