5 weeks in the book of James for a more complete marriage
This all begin on a night I didn’t want to be in the same house with Megan. My bag was packed. I was waiting for her to get home so the kids wouldn't be alone and I was planning to leave.
That night a friend texted me from the other side of the world and said she’d had a dream about us… about our family in a new place of completeness, reading the book of James together. She told me, plainly, “You’re not leaving tonight.”
Megan got home. I didn’t leave. And Monday morning I sat across from my wife, opened my Bible, and read out loud: “Consider it pure joy when you face trials of all kinds… let it finish its work so that you may be mature, complete, and not lacking anything.”
I was still angry. My heart was still hard. But I can say this honestly: God met us there, and He began to do a slow work in me. Complete, not defeated.
James isn’t a book about marriage. Or is it?
Some will say it’s “out of context” to apply James to husbands and wives. But Jesus and the apostles show us what it looks like for Scripture to be alive on our lips… truth spoken in one era, applied with faithfulness in another.
Can Scripture be twisted? Absolutely. If we use God’s Word to misrepresent God’s character, we have overstepped.
So let me be clear: this is not about excusing sin or staying in danger. This is about true repentance, forgiveness, and redemption.
Watch the longer video below
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What The James Challenge is
The book of James is five chapters.
Here’s the challenge: start on a Monday morning and read one chapter of James together with your spouse before the noise of the day. Do it Monday through Friday. Rest and reflect on the weekend. Then start the next chapter the next week.
Week 1: James 1
Week 2: James 2
…and so on. Five chapters. Five weeks.
This is not about fixing your spouse. It’s about letting Scripture do its work in you.
Two Ways to Take a Next Step
Option 1: Join the Farm Hands
Right now I’m guiding a small, private group through this while it’s being formed. That group is my paid subscribers: the Farm Hands.
If you join, you’ll have access to the current weeks of The James Challenge behind the paywall, and you’ll be walking through it with us as it’s taking shape. If you catch an error or have feedback, you’re not interrupting me… you’re helping refine it. I'm here as a guide.
Option 2: Join the Email List (and wait for the public release)
If joining the Farm Hands isn’t for you, that’s fine. I still want you to have a simple way to stay in the loop.
If and when this guide is finished and I decide to make the full challenge available publicly, the email list will be the first place I announce it.
Whatever you choose, I’m grateful you’re here.
And if you’re in a hard season right now, I’m not minimizing it.
I’m simply asking the question James forced me to face:
What if the trial isn’t meant to defeat you… what if it’s meant to complete you?
God is for you and so am I.
Warren Barfield
[LINK: YouTube video]