Faith and Works

James 2:14-20

Yet another great reminder today from James that true faith will be seen through our actions.  It's not enough to listen or even talk the talk, we must act.  Does this means our actions can save us?  NO!!!  Salvation is a gift from God, not something we can earn with our works.  ""We have cause to celebrate because the grace of God has appeared offering the gift of salvation to all people."  (Titus 2:11 VOICE)  Salvation is a gift of God.  When we accept this gift of God we naturally want to act and follow God's Word.  I think this is what James means when he talks about "Without actions, faith is useless.  By itself, it's as good as dead."  (James 2:17 VOICE)  If we say we have faith, but don't do anything different, has our heart truly been changed?  Have we truly accepted the gift of salvation?  We all know hypocrites who act one way at church on Sunday and are totally different during the week.  Our actions should be the same every day.  Our focus on God should remain the same no matter the day of the week or the time of the year.

The Lent devotion from the Church of God from yesterday talks about this better than I can.
http://www.chog.org/sites/default/files/documents/Focus40/2013Day04-HeFirstLovedUs-srl.pdf
I John 4:19 says "We love because He first loved us." (NIV)  If we truly accept His love for us, we can't help but have it spill out of us onto those around us.

What do you think?  I know this is a hard passage to digest and I'd love to get a conversation going.  We can all learn from each other as we struggle through these passages.


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Thanksgiving for today
527.  Frost covered trees
528.  Online radar
529.  Planning ahead
530.  Hubby grilling steak for dinner.
531.  Storm taking longer than predicted