The High Cost of Sin

by Frederick Hoehn, copyright 2014, all rights reserved.

Chapter 1

I started college back in the 1960's, but the money ran out, so I joined the Navy.  In the Navy, you meet all kinds of people, but most of my shipmates were young men.

Stationed aboard a Navy aircraft carrier, I overheard part of a conversation where a young man was anticipating going to a foreign port where he would be able to obtain the services of a prostitute.

It's not unusual that a young man is interested in sex with a woman.

But that young man was apparently unaware that "a whore is a deep ditch." (Prov 23:27)

I said that to a young man one time, that the Bible says a whore is a deep ditch, and he laughed, as though I had just told him a joke.  No, a deep ditch is not a joke.

When I lived in Houston, TX, there were ditches along side the streets.  It helps for drainage, I guess.  Houston is sometimes subject to flooding.

But as I was driving into or out of a McDonald's in Houston, I managed to get one wheel in the ditch.  The car was still drivable, but it knocked the front end out of alignment.

If your front end is out of alignment, your tires don't wear right, and you're likely to have to buy tires sooner than necessary.  "The substance of a diligent man is precious." (Prov 12:27)

And that wasn't a deep ditch, just a shallow ditch.

If you fall into a deep ditch, it can cause serious injury, or perhaps kill someone.

If you fall into one, a deep ditch is not a joke.  And if you mess around with prostitutes, it's like falling into a deep ditch, says God in his book, the Bible.

You could get a dozen different sexually transmitted diseases.  A condom might give some protection, but with some of those diseases, a condom can be ineffective.

But more than that, prostitutes often hate men.  They didn't get to have the honorable status of being a man's wife, and they are resentful against men because things have gone badly for them.

Why would you want to be with a woman who hates men, and who is likely to say very nasty things to you, speaking like the Devil, and may also try to steal from you, in addition to what you've paid her?

And the Bible has more to say about strange women.

“To give you deliverance you from the strange woman, even from the stranger who flatters with her words, who forsakes the guide of her youth, and forgets the covenant of her God.  For her house inclines to death, and her paths toward the dead.  None that go to her return again, nor do they take hold of the paths of life.” (Prov 2:16-19)

Notice that it says those who go to her don't come back, and don't take hold of the paths of life.

It's saying that the wrong kind of woman can do you permanent damage.

One time, my Dad advised me to consider the option of using a prostitute, but you see, my Dad was an ignorant man who apparently didn't know that God had said, “A whore is a deep ditch.”

My Dad said he was an Atheist.  And then he died and went to the hell that he probably thought didn't exist, since he thought God didn't exist.

But people in hell know there's a God and that they're in hell because they didn't get right with God during their lives on earth.

My Dad was not ignorant about technology and natural things, but about the most important things, the spiritual things, he was ignorant.  That kind of ignorance comes from not reading the Bible enough.

I don't think I ever saw my Dad read so much as one verse in the Bible.  But he read the newspaper.  He read “Popular Mechanics” magazine.  He read about the things that interested him, but never got interested in God.  He didn't read the main book, the Bible.

People who have no use for God during their lives on earth go to hell, not heaven.

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. (Psa 111:10)  So then, if you don't fear the Lord, you're lacking in wisdom.

Dad had had an unpleasant employment, working for a Jewish man, who wasn't very nice to my Dad.  So Dad came to the conclusion that all Jews are bad.

I would have thought that someone like my Dad, with a higher than average I.Q. would not have jumped to the incorrect conclusion that all Jews are bad.

There are good and bad people in every ethnic group, and my Dad should have been smart enough to have known that.

Though Dad was an Atheist, my Mother was a Christian.  One time, my Dad said to my Mother, “You worship a Jew?”

But that's Dad's ignorance coming through again.

Although it's true that when Jesus came to live in a man's body on earth, he was born into a Jewish family, prior to that, while Jesus was still with his father, God, in heaven, Jesus was not a Jew.

And that was for probably at least four thousand years of earth time, while Jesus' life on earth was only about thirty three years.

Nor is God the Father a Jew.

But God had made a covenant with his friend, Abraham. So that's how it happened that when Jesus came down to earth, he was born into a Jewish family.

But Jesus is not just the Messiah, the Savior, for the Jews, but also for the whole world, if they will receive Him.

But speaking on the subject of sex, God has provided a way to have sex that is legal with God, and that of course is marriage.  But caution must be exercised in whom to marry.  If you're a Christian, you should only marry another Christian.  "Don't be unequally yoked together with unbelievers." (2 Cor 6:14)

As one of the most important decisions in life, people ought to pray a lot before getting married, because it is so easy to marry out of the will of God.

If you're not a Christian, better first become a Christian, and then look for a Christian woman to marry.

Without Jesus, lives generally go in the wrong direction.  Young people start out full of hope, but without God in their lives, wrong choices will be made.

I know a man who started out as a Christian.  I wrote about him in my book, “Can Christians Lose Their Salvation?”

He and I attended to the same church.  We had gone to Sunday School together.  He learned pretty much the same scriptures that I learned.

In fact, one time he corrected me when a made a minor mistake quoting a passage from the Psalms.

He had a good heart, a giving heart.  For a while there, he probably would have given you the shirt off his back if you needed it.

Now, after these many decades, I'm still a Christian, but he is not.  What happened?  The man got into sin.  There is a scripture that talks about being "hardened through the deceitfulness of sin." (Heb 3:13)

The man wasn't careful to maintain his walk with the Lord.  Christians need to get the word of God every day.  You can read the Bible, or lately, I listen to it being read on CD's.

Christians need to pray every day.  And if you've been baptized with the Holy Ghost, you can also pray in unknown tongues every day, as all Christians should do.

If, as a Christian, you haven't received the baptism with the Holy Ghost, ask Jesus for it.  And when you pray, believe that you receive the things you ask for, and you shall have them. (Mark 11:24)

But that man surrounded himself with unbelievers.  Most of his friends were not Christians, including his girlfriend for twenty years.

The Bible says, “Don't love the world, nor the things that are in the world.  If any man loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.  For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.  And the world passes away, and its lust, but he that does the will of God will live forever.” (1 John 2:15-17)

Toward the beginning, the man talked about making efforts to win his girlfriend to Jesus.  But now it seems that she has won him to going with her to hell.

If you choose the wrong friends, they're likely to help you go to hell.  If you choose an unbelieving girlfriend or boyfriend, they can lead you to hell.

And, by the way, homosexuality is strictly forbidden by God.  In 1 Cor 6:9,10, the Bible says homosexuals don't go to heaven.  In the King James Version, it says the effeminate, which is homosexuals.

Jesus told about a young man.  We call him the Prodigal Son.  A father had two sons, and his younger son asked to receive his inheritance early, instead of waiting until his father's death.

In my opinion, it was not such a good decision by the father, but he did as his younger son asked, and gave him half of the goods.

The younger son went into a far country and squandered the money with riotous living.  Then he began to be in want, and got a job feeding pigs.  A job that didn't pay very much.

The son went back to his father and wanted to ask that his father make him like one of the hired hands.

That young man was very lucky that his father took him back and was nice to him.  But when it came time for inheritance, the estate went to the older brother because the younger son had already spent his.

Why did Jesus tell us about the Prodigal Son?  Jesus doesn't want us to make the same mistake as the Prodigal Son.  He doesn't want us to lose our inheritance with God.  He doesn't want us to miss out on going to heaven.

Riotous living never gets you anything good.  The Bible tells us to be moderate and to be temperate.

The elder brother of the Prodigal Son said to the father that his younger brother had wasted the money on prostitutes.  That was probably an accurate statement.

I guess the younger brother didn't know that God said that a prostitute is like a deep ditch.

Chapter 2

I heard of a young man who wanted to get some “Red Dog Ale.”  The young man, after I listened to the story, was probably too young to legally purchase alcoholic beverages.

The young man went to one place to get Red Dog Ale, and then to another, and to another.  He was not able to get himself some Red Dog Ale.

In his anger, he spoke some foolish words.  He said, “I'm going to get some Red Dog Ale if I have to go to hell to get it.”

As he was speeding along, he had a motor vehicle accident.  An accident with a truck.  A beer truck.  A Red Dog Ale truck.

The young man died in a puddle of Red Dog Ale, and yes, he probably went to hell.

You don't just accidentally go to heaven.  You go to heaven if God sees you as qualified to go to heaven. You qualify with God to go to heaven by getting born again.

Jesus said, “You must be born again.” (John chapter 3)

You get born again by obeying Romans 10:9,10--

“That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you're saved.  For with the heart man believes for righteousness, and with the mouth, confession is made for salvation.”

The young man spoke those foolish words in anger.

The Bible says, “Anger rests in the bosom of fools.” (Eccl 7:9)

Another scripture says don't be soon angry.

In Proverbs 4:23, we read, “Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life.”

Notice that it doesn't just say, “Keep your heart diligently.”  No, it says, “with ALL diligence.”

When it says “keep your heart,” that includes your emotions such as anger.  You don't have to get angry and do something foolish, or say something foolish. You can rule over your spirit.

But if you're tempted to get angry because of some criminal committing a crime, it's O.K. to call the police. Or citizens have been known to take action to stop a crime in progress, but that can still be done without losing control of yourself.

Prov 25:28 "He that has no rule over his own spirit is like a city that has been broken down, and without walls."

A city without walls is more vulnerable to attack by the enemy.  A person is like that if they don't rule over their own spirit.

Strong emotions get a lot of people in trouble.

When I was in El Paso, a neighbor of mine had a problem with alcohol.  He said that once he started drinking, he couldn't stop.

I told him better not take that first drink, then.

He believes that the reason he did time in prison was the crime he committed that he wouldn't have committed had he not been drinking.

I believe he's right.

People who can't stop drinking once they start had better not take the first drink.  Why should you go to prison?

Another reason some go to prison is simply that they hung out with the wrong friends.  Choose your friends carefully.

"Don't be friends with an angry man, and with a furious man you shall not go, so that you don't learn his ways, and get a snare to your soul." (Prov 22:24,25)

If you hang around with an angry man some of it is likely to rub off on you.  But it's not just anger that can rub off on you.

If you hang out with people who use dirty language, pretty soon, you'll learn to talk dirty.

I had a Christian friend in Houston.  We had met at the Full Gospel Business Men's Fellowship International.

I was away from Houston for a while, and then went back to Houston.  When I spoke to that same man again, I was surprised at the foul mouth he had acquired.  He used a lot of dirty words.

I told him that it surprised me that he had started talking that way.

He explained that he had been hanging out at the auto repair shop, and they talked that way there, so that's how he happened to start talking that way.

“Don t be deceived, evil communications corrupt good manners.” (1 Cor 15:33)

If you hang out with those who use illegal drugs, you're likely to start using illegal drugs.

If you hang out with adulterers, you're likely to fall into adultery.

Jesus was very careful how he chose his friends.  “But Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because he knew all men, and needed not that any should testify of man: for he knew what was in man.” (John 2:24,25)

Someone might then ask, “But why then did Jesus choose Judas Iscariot to be one of his disciples?”

Before Jesus chose his disciples, he spent time in prayer.  Jesus chose Judas because it was God's will.

It was prophesied that there would be a betrayer, and that prophecy had to be fulfilled.

I believe it's fair to say that Perry Como was rather successful in his singing career, by earth's standards, at least.  He even had his own TV show for a while.  There's an Oldies radio station in Omaha that occasionally plays some of his songs.

One of Como's hits was the song, “It's Impossible.”  As Como sang the song, some of the words were, “I would sell my very soul, and not regret it...”

That statement is very much inaccurate.  People who sell their souls will surely regret it.

Jesus said, “What shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul, or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Matt 16:26)

You lose your soul if you go to hell.

Hell is a very nasty place where no one who is there is happy about being there.  Jesus said that in hell, there is crying and gnashing of teeth, where their worms don't die, and where the fire is never quenched.

And how does someone sell their soul?  If you let anything, such as the things of the world, or any person become more important to you than the fear of God, you are selling your soul.

You had better darn well grasp the opportunity right now to get straight with God, and then stay straight with God, before the time slips away, and you find yourself in hell.

The Bible says we should "flee fornication."  That means run away from it.  Don't let sex, or anything else, or anyone else keep you from going to heaven.

Whether it's Perry Como, or anyone else who sells their soul, they will very much regret it when they get to hell.  And then, they'll regret it some more.  And then, they'll regret it some more.  Hell is forever, you see.

Now if it were possible to interview Perry Como, he might say, “Well, I was just singing the words to the song, and I didn't really mean that I would sell my soul.”

I believe that it's very much a mistake to say, “I would sell my soul...”,  if you wouldn't really sell your soul.

Things we say with our mouths have a way of becoming reality due to the fact that we humans are made in the image of God (Gen 1:26).

We are made in the image of God who spoke the worlds into existence.  And so, we also have some power to speak things into existence, and we need to use caution so that we don't speak the wrong things into existence.

I know a man who was on a weekly TV program for a couple decades.  He also had his own weekly radio show for a while.  I've been a visitor at his home.

The man started out as a Christian, but later turned to a false religion.  Now how did that happen?

From all that I know about the man, I think he didn't keep his heart with all diligence. (Prov 4:23)

I think he let himself “fall in love” and marry a woman who is not a Christian, and then she persuaded him to change to a wrong religion.

“The man that wanders out of the way of understanding shall remain in the congregation of the dead.” (Prov 21:16)

In the Old Testament, God says don't let the wife of your bosom move you away from Me.

Norvel Hayes has told how when he was young, he managed to marry a woman who was not the will of God for him.

Hayes said to his wife, “Well, I'm going to serve the Lord.”  The wife answered, “Well, I'm not.”

The Bible says, “Can two walk together unless they're agreed?” (Amos 3:3)  The answer is no, and so that marriage ended.

Elvis Presley was very successful, financially.  And it was known that he liked Gospel music.  He recorded a Gospel music album.  I think it sold well.

But involvement with Gospel music doesn't make you a Christian.  I understand that Elvis was something of a Philanthropist, and gave money to people.

But that doesn't make you a Christian.

I never heard Elvis testify about how good it was to be a Christian, how good it was to serve the Lord.

Jesus said, “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they can see your good works, and glorify your Father in heaven.”

I can't see from his life that Elvis was putting Jesus first in his life.

Show biz has sent many to hell, and is probably not a good place for God's people to be.

Albert Einstein was given tremendous insight into the principles of Physics.  But in his personal life, I understand that he was involved in adultery.

I don't think he made it to heaven.

Arnold Schwarzenegger hit the big time with his movies, and became Governor of California.  But how did he manage to cheat on his beautiful wife and have a child by another woman?

That is not Christian behavior.  God can forgive adultery, of course, if there's repentance.

But fame and a lot of money are no substitute for going to heaven.  “What shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?” says Jesus.

The richest man in the world can't buy his way into heaven.  You only get to heaven if you're born again.

You can have your sins washed away by the blood of Jesus, who died on the cross for us.

But if you scorn the Lord, there will be a heavy price to pay.  A price that you will wish you didn't have to pay, and that could have been avoided by a good, healthy, fear of God.

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” (Psa 111:10)

___James chapter 1

1 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes that are dispersed around, greetings.

2 My brothers, count it all joy when you fall into various temptations,

3 Knowing this, that the testing of your faith works patience.

4 But let patience have its perfect work, so you'll be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God for it, who gives to all men liberally, and won't find fault, and it shall be given to him.

6 But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering.  For he that wavers is like a wave of the sea driven by the wind and tossed.

7 For let that man not think that he'll receive anything from the Lord.

8 A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.

9 Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted,

10 But the rich, in that he is made low, because as the flower of the grass he'll pass away.

11 For the sun has no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withers the grass, and the flower of it falls, and the grace of the fashion of it perishes, so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways.

12 Blessed is the man that endures temptation, for after he's been tested, he'll receive the crown of life, that the Lord has promised to those who love him.

13 Let no man say when he is tempted, "I am tempted by God," for God can't be tempted with evil, nor does he tempt any man,

14 But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away by his own lust, and enticed.

15 Then when lust has conceived, it produces sin, and sin when it's finished, produces death.

16 Do not err, my beloved brothers.

17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, nor shadow of turning.

18 He chose to father us with the word of truth, so that we would be a kind of first fruits of his creatures.

19 So, my beloved brothers, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger,

20 For the anger of man doesn't accomplish the righteousness of God.

21 So, lay apart all filthiness and the unnecessary naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.

22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.

23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like a man seeing his natural face in a mirror,

24 For he sees himself, and goes his way, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.

25 But whoever looks into the perfect law of liberty, and continues in it, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.

26 If any man among you seems to be religious, and doesn't bridle his tongue, but deceives his own heart, this man's religion is for nothing.

27 Pure religion and undefiled before God the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

___James chapter 2

1 My brothers, don't have the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons.

2 For if a man with a gold ring comes to your assembly in fancy clothes, and a poor man in dirty clothes comes in also,

3 And you have respect to him that wears the fancy clothes, and say to him, "Sit here in a good place," and say to the poor, "Stand there, or sit here under my footstool,"

4 Aren't you then partial in yourselves, and have become judges with evil thoughts?

5 Listen, my beloved brothers, hasn't God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him?

6 But you have despised the poor.  Don't rich men oppress you, and bring you before the judgment seats?

7 Don't they blaspheme that worthy name by which you're called?

8 If you fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, "You shall love your neighbor like yourself," you do well,

9 But if you have respect of persons, you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as sinners.

10 For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.

11 For he that said, "Do not commit adultery," also said, "Do not kill."  Now if you don't commit adultery, yet if you kill, you've become a breaker of the law.

12 Speak in such a way, and do, as those who'll be judged by the law of liberty.

13 For he shall have judgment without mercy, that has shown no mercy, and mercy rejoices against judgment.

14 What does it profit, my brothers, though a man says he has faith, and doesn't have works?  Can faith save him?

15 If a brother or sister needs clothes, and lacks daily food,

16 And one of you says to them, "Depart in peace, be warmed and filled," but you don't give them the things that are needed for the body, what good is that?

17 Even so faith, if it doesn't have works, is dead, being alone.

18 Yes, a man could say, "You have faith, and I have works, show me your faith without your works, and I'll show you my faith by my works."

19 You believe that there is one God, you do well, the devils also believe, and tremble.

20 But don't you know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?

21 Wasn't Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son on the altar?

22 Do you see how faith worked with his deeds, and by works faith was made perfect?

23 And the scripture was fulfilled that says, "Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness, and he was called the friend of God."

24 You see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.

25 Likewise also wasn't Rahab the prostitute justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way?

26 For like the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.

___James chapter 3

1 My brothers, don't be many masters, knowing that we'll receive the greater condemnation.

2 For in many things we offend all.  If any man doesn't offend in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body.

3 See, we put bits in the horses' mouths, so they'll obey us, and we turn around their whole bodies.

4 Look also at the ships, which though they're so large, and are driven by fierce winds, yet they're turned around by a very small helm, wherever the captain wants.

5 Even so, the tongue is a little member, and boasts great things.  See how great a matter a little fire kindles!

6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of sin, so is the tongue among our members that it makes dirty the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature, and it is set on fire by hell.

7 For every kind of animals, and of birds, and of snakes, and of things in the sea, gets tamed, and has been tamed by mankind,

8 But no man can tame the tongue, it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.

9 With it we bless God, the Father, and with it we curse men, who are made after the likeness of God.

10 Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing.  My brothers, these things ought not to be.

11 Does a fountain send out at the same place sweet water and bitter?

12 Can the fig tree, my brothers, produce olive berries?  Or a vine, figs?  So no fountain can yield both salt water and fresh.

13 Who is a wise man, possessing knowledge among you?  Let him show out of a good lifestyle his works with meekness of wisdom.

14 But if you have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, don't glory, and don't lie against the truth.

15 This wisdom doesn't descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish.

16 For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.

17 But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be reasoned with, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.

18 And the fruit of righteousness is planted in peace by those who make peace.

___James chapter 4

1 Where do wars and fightings among you come from?  Don't they come from your lusts that war in your members?

2 You lust, and don't have, you kill, and desire to have, and can't obtain, you fight and war, yet you don't have, because you don't ask.

3 You ask, and don't receive, because you ask wrongly, so you can consume it on your lusts.

4 You adulterers and adulteresses, don't you know that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God?  Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world is an enemy of God.

5 Do you think that the scripture says for nothing, "The spirit that lives in us lusts to envy?"

6 But he gives more grace.  So he says, "God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble."

7 Submit yourselves therefore to God.  Resist the devil, and he'll run away from you.

8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.  Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double minded.

9 Be afflicted, and mourn, and cry, let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.

10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he'll lift you up.

11 Don't speak evil about each other, brothers.  He that speaks evil about his brother, and judges his brother, speaks evil about the law, and judges the law, but if you judge the law, you're not a doer of the law, but a judge.

12 There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy, who are you that judges someone else?

13 Go on now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we'll go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and make a profit,"

14 Actually, you don't know what will happen tomorrow.  For what is your life?  It is a puff of steam, that appears for a little time, and then vanishes away.

15 For you ought to say, "Lord willing, we'll live, and do this, or that."

16 But now you rejoice in your boastings, all such rejoicing is evil.

17 Therefore to him that knows to do good, and doesn't do it, to him it is sin.

___James chapter 5

1 Go on now, you rich men, cry and howl for your miseries that shall come on you.

2 Your riches are corrupted, and your clothes are moth eaten.

3 Your gold and silver are rusted, and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh like fire.  You've heaped treasure together for the last days.

4 See, the wages of the laborers who have reaped down your fields, which you've kept back by fraud, shouts, and the shouts of those who've reaped have entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabbath.

5 You've lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton, you've nourished your hearts, like in a day of slaughter.

6 You've condemned and killed the just, and he doesn't resist you.

7 Be patient therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord.  See, the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, and has long patience for it, until he receives the early and latter rain.

8 You also be patient.  Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is getting near.

9 Don't grudge against each other, brothers, so you won't be condemned, see, the judge stands at the door.

10 Take, my brothers, the prophets, who've spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience.

11 See, we count them happy that endure.  You've heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord, that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.

12 But above all things, my brothers, don't swear, not by heaven, nor by the earth, nor by any other oath, but let your yes be yes, and your no, no, so that you don't fall into condemnation.

13 Is anyone among you afflicted?  Let him pray.  Is anyone merry?  Let him sing psalms.

14 Is anyone sick among you?  Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord,

15 And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up, and if he has committed sins, he'll be forgiven.

16 Confess your faults to each other, and pray for each other so you'll be healed.  The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man is does a lot of good.

17 Elijah was a man subject to the same kind of passions that we are, and he prayed earnestly that it wouldn't rain, and it didn't rain on the earth for three years and six months.

18 And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit.

19 Brothers, if any of you strays from the truth, and someone converts him,

20 Let him know, that he that converts the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.