Part two//
Forgiveness; faith….an act…. I was going to say…an act of the will but I think it best to leave it alone for just a little while. And the reason I say that is because faith is an act…it is action. Take your Bible and read the second chapter of the epistle of James. It says that faith has to have an action in order to be alive, in fact verse
17 says that “ faith by itself , if it doesn’t have works, is dead.”
Now I am going to say it is an act of the will. Sometimes that is all you can do, act by willing a thing to be. And that requires faith…like forgetting a hurt (yesterday’s theme) but many times, probably most times we can exercise faith in a tangible way. And James gives us an example here in chapter two. A rich man comes in to our assembly and we seat him in a good place, a poor man wearing dirty clothes comes in and we seat him in the back seat in the corner, he might even have to use the service entrance. James says we by our actions have dishonored the poor man and if we say to that man, “be warmed and filled but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit?”
In this chapter here in James epistle he somehow treats these two themes of partiality and faith without works as one. He lets us know that in both cases we have sinned.
I know a family who sold their home and left the comforts of this great land to relocate in the Philippines where they have instituted a feeding program, helping the poor, even built houses for families and their son who is a young teenager raised the money along with giving his own to build a boat so that a fisherman could provide for his family. All this is preceded by the preaching of the Gospel. And to add to all this, it is an extremely dangerous area, sometimes a war zone with militant Muslim activity…they are proving their faith by their works, I talked to them just yesterday. The church family that we are a part of has been giving out groceries to those in need for a long time, along with the gospel message. These people make up an entire congregation if only once a month. It takes people to administer these tasks and they are showing their faith by their works. These are examples of showing our faith by our works. The task before us is enormous but if we show our faith by our works we can be assured that God will provide. The most important thing we can do by far is give out the message of the cross of Jesus Christ and then expect God to answer. But if a man or woman or a family is in need and we address that need then we’ll get their attention. James uses the example of Abraham offering his son Isaac on the altar as a sacrifice in verse 21. He knew that God would provide a sacrifice and that he would not have to kill his son, but if he did the Bible says in the book of Hebrews that God would raise him up. Chapter 11 verse 7-9
“By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, Of whom it was said, “in Isaac your seed shall be called,”
Concluding that God was able to raise him up even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense.”
Now God doesn’t ask anyone to do something like this today, in fact Abraham was the only person that God has ever tested in this way and Abraham proved just how much he believed God and trusted Him and this was putting his faith into action and he came through with flying colors. His faith was counted unto him for righteousness. He proved his faith by his works.
When we were in Grenada doing short term missions last winter, I saw this sign on the outside wall of a school building, it was displayed so that all could read it. It said, “vain or empty is knowledge without God” And James is saying “vain or empty is faith without works” Remember faith is an act…even if it is an act of the will…. Perhaps that is all you can do as I said in the previous blog…will to forgive…will to forget as an act of faith. Is this becoming clearer? If you have read this today, let me know by commenting or just drop an e-mail and say yes I have read it. My e-mail is atlmiss@nbnet.nb.ca
Naida has requested that we make this an interactive blog, but it all depends on you and leaving your comments.
Forgiveness; faith….an act…. I was going to say…an act of the will but I think it best to leave it alone for just a little while. And the reason I say that is because faith is an act…it is action. Take your Bible and read the second chapter of the epistle of James. It says that faith has to have an action in order to be alive, in fact verse
17 says that “ faith by itself , if it doesn’t have works, is dead.”
Now I am going to say it is an act of the will. Sometimes that is all you can do, act by willing a thing to be. And that requires faith…like forgetting a hurt (yesterday’s theme) but many times, probably most times we can exercise faith in a tangible way. And James gives us an example here in chapter two. A rich man comes in to our assembly and we seat him in a good place, a poor man wearing dirty clothes comes in and we seat him in the back seat in the corner, he might even have to use the service entrance. James says we by our actions have dishonored the poor man and if we say to that man, “be warmed and filled but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit?”
In this chapter here in James epistle he somehow treats these two themes of partiality and faith without works as one. He lets us know that in both cases we have sinned.
I know a family who sold their home and left the comforts of this great land to relocate in the Philippines where they have instituted a feeding program, helping the poor, even built houses for families and their son who is a young teenager raised the money along with giving his own to build a boat so that a fisherman could provide for his family. All this is preceded by the preaching of the Gospel. And to add to all this, it is an extremely dangerous area, sometimes a war zone with militant Muslim activity…they are proving their faith by their works, I talked to them just yesterday. The church family that we are a part of has been giving out groceries to those in need for a long time, along with the gospel message. These people make up an entire congregation if only once a month. It takes people to administer these tasks and they are showing their faith by their works. These are examples of showing our faith by our works. The task before us is enormous but if we show our faith by our works we can be assured that God will provide. The most important thing we can do by far is give out the message of the cross of Jesus Christ and then expect God to answer. But if a man or woman or a family is in need and we address that need then we’ll get their attention. James uses the example of Abraham offering his son Isaac on the altar as a sacrifice in verse 21. He knew that God would provide a sacrifice and that he would not have to kill his son, but if he did the Bible says in the book of Hebrews that God would raise him up. Chapter 11 verse 7-9
“By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, Of whom it was said, “in Isaac your seed shall be called,”
Concluding that God was able to raise him up even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense.”
Now God doesn’t ask anyone to do something like this today, in fact Abraham was the only person that God has ever tested in this way and Abraham proved just how much he believed God and trusted Him and this was putting his faith into action and he came through with flying colors. His faith was counted unto him for righteousness. He proved his faith by his works.
When we were in Grenada doing short term missions last winter, I saw this sign on the outside wall of a school building, it was displayed so that all could read it. It said, “vain or empty is knowledge without God” And James is saying “vain or empty is faith without works” Remember faith is an act…even if it is an act of the will…. Perhaps that is all you can do as I said in the previous blog…will to forgive…will to forget as an act of faith. Is this becoming clearer? If you have read this today, let me know by commenting or just drop an e-mail and say yes I have read it. My e-mail is atlmiss@nbnet.nb.ca
Naida has requested that we make this an interactive blog, but it all depends on you and leaving your comments.
posted by Randall | 6:52 a.m.
3 Comments:
blessings Randall'
I just read your blog and i do agree with you. With out faith we can not please God.Faith is to be our standard way of life as a christian;Itis not enough just to say I have faith and do nothing when we see a need .We are called to act !!!When we see a brother needing a coat and we have two do we not have the responsibility to give him one ?
Snowball
Faith: Do we know how much we really have ,do we ever even give it a thought, not likely.
Every little thing we do depends on faith we could do nothing, nothing at all unless we had complete trust that whatever I do will get done…..put the key in the car….car starts….step on brakes…car stops…..go to bed at night…get up in the morning just the kind of things we expect every day. Now what do you say ,want to think a bit about this expect a lot don’t we .
Faith: we have so much more than we could ever imagine , we expect it done and its done.
What happens when it comes to GOD and Faith seems now we have to go by a whole different set of rules. Its time to wake up….Faith is Faith there is no difference ,how can you put your trust [faith] in a key or a set of brakes and not in GOD.
Faith in action; always .
Coffee
Acting on our faith,
If we say we have faith in God and in His promise,how can we not act on them.
God told us to take His word to all the world and He would give us
the words {by the Holy Spirt} that
we would need at the time,but if we
don't"act" and start to talk to someone how can God do His part.
God tells us that He will always
help us if we give Him the chance
but once again we have to act first.
We can act on our faith in all kinds of ways,
beliving that our prayers are already answer,
living through the storms as if you have no storm,
giving a hand to someone in need,
visiting the sick,
the list is endless.
Sometimes you just have to jump in and start doing, beliveing that God is there and He will help you.
If your are asked to do something,
don't say I can't, trust that God is there with you and he can.
C.M.
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