Thursday, July 8, 2010

July 8, 2010

"But someone will say, "You have faith; I have deeds." Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do." James 2:18
Talk is cheap!
Anyone can say anything! But unless you can back up your claims with action your words are empty.
I could say that I can beat Tiger Woods in golf, but until I actually get it done, my words would be empty and my claims foolish.
Saying that I could slam dunk a basketball over LaBron James would be a delirious claim I could never substantiate. Until I would do it no one would believe it.
The writer of Hebrews stated, "Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen."
Certainly, faith has an invisible component, but it also has a tangible aspect. Faith is a spiritual connection with an invisible God that results in visible and tangible evidence. Faith does not deal in wild or fanciful claims. Faith is not delusional.
Real faith, the faith that James talks about, makes an invisible God believable by the visible actions and attitudes that it transforms. When a man who once was a degenerate alcoholic and womanizer suddenly becomes sober and chaste, that indicates something substantial happened. What is behind this incredible transformation? Faith! You cannot doubt this man's faith because his life has dramatically changed.
Faith is a connection between two realities - an unseen spiritual reality and a visible physical reality. While faith originates in the unseen world it is expressed and validated in the realm of sight and sound.
What you think about faith and God are important. What you feel about God matters. But according to James, what really matters is what we do. That is what people see and what people see is what is real to them.
Making faith real - making God believable - is one of the things we are called to do as Christians.
How about you?
Are you talking a good game but not really delivering with the behavior and attitudes? Or is your life indisputable evidence becaue of your deeds, your attitudes, and actions?
Believers are to make faith believable by what they do!