Part 1: Faith In Action: My Life

Excerpts from James 2: 14 -26: 

Another Way to Look at Faith and Works

Part 1:

Faith in Action: My Life

"What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them?...You see that his(Abraham's) faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did...As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead."

My summary:

If faith without works is dead...than in fact we must take steps of faith for it to be alive. And with each step of faith we take, God confirms His faithfulness. Jesus took the first step when He died for us, as we were still sinners. So we must in turn trust our savior and take the next seemly "first step" of faith, which is in fact just a step of reaction to His faith in us...

This is a broad and profound statement, so let's take a deeper look...

Let's start with Jesus? 

Jesus took a huge step of faith when He died on the cross for us.  We were still sinners; lost and blind and yet He still chose to die for us.  He knew full well that we all would have the choice to believe whether His death was justified or not.  Whether His sacrifice was indeed for us and whether we wanted to accept it. This seems so obvious...but lets put it into perspective for a minute.  

Let us say that you see a little boy playing basket ball in the street.  There is a truck coming full speed right at him and you choose to push him out of the way and get hit instead of him.  Later on after your death, the little boy decides to believe that you didn't do what you did to save him.  That you pushed him because you wanted glory, or because you were crazy, or for no reason at all, it was just a work of life, a random act.  No reason, no meaning, the little boy just now lives, while you are dead.  

This may seem like a silly comparison, yet this is what so many of us in the world think about Jesus.  

Christians know and believe that Jesus died on the cross so that we could live and be free from the power of sin and darkness in the world.  So that we could have relationship with Him and share that love with the world. We know it was no a random act.  Yet so many in the world see it as just that.  A random part of history.  A crazy man put to death.

Jesus knew all of this. 

He knew many would deny Him, mock Him, and hate Him.  Yet he chose to die for them anyway.  He took a step of faith, believing that though many would choose to deny Him, others would choose to believe.  Other's would choose to walk by faith just as He did.  

Now let's look at Abraham:

Abraham was asked to take many steps of faith in his life.  The first being to leave his home and go the place God told him.  With every step of faith that Abraham took, the more He saw God's faithfulness. 

We must understand that if Abraham had not taken the steps of faith that he did, he would never have seen God's ability to follow through.  And if he had never seen God's ability to follow through, He would never have come to know God's character.  And if he had never come to know God's character, he would never have been able to trust God when He was asked to sacrifice his son.  You see because this request of faith was not the first that Abraham had been asked by God to do, Abraham knew that even though the request seemed crazy, scary and extreme; God's character was faithful, just and good.  

Now let's look at us:

The things that God asks us to step out in faith around, can also seem very scary.  We do not pretend that what we are being asked of in this day and age is anything compared to what Jesus or even Abraham went through. And although in some parts of this world, Christians are being asked to deny their faith or die daily, this does not discredit the challenges we face everyday.  It merely gives us perspective.  

Faith walks have many levels and we all face them differently depending on our season and circumstances. 

For some their walk may be unemployment and homelessness.  
For other's it could be addiction, abuse, and fighting a life predestined by the birth of their circumstances.  
For others still, the walk maybe a big move or a career change.
It could be inviting a stranger to church or talking to the homeless man on the street. 

All have their own challenges and can be scary in different ways.  

All of them cause us to look out into an unknown: An unknown that can appear as a raging ocean of waves and winds or perhaps a black hole, sucking us into darkness.   

But whatever the picture is that lies ahead, it does not change the fact that we must take a step of faith if we want our faith to become alive.  

And the longer we stare at our ocean or black hole, the bigger and scarier it becomes.  BUT the more steps we take towards it, the more God reveals His faithfulness. And the more God reveals His faithfulness the more we begin to know and trust His character  

That...
With each step He will calm the waters. 
With each step, He will tame the winds. 
With each step, He will shine light in the darkness.  
With each step, He will reveal the unknown.  

And with each revealing step we take, the more we start to see the truth of the cross.  The truth of our relationship with God.  The truth in His promises: 

God does love us. God does care for us.  And God will make a way!

You see, Jesus and Abraham both knew God's character. They both understood the big picture and they both had taken steps of faith in their life to prove God's character to be trustworthy and good.

Faith with out works is dead; but faith through action brings faith to life and reminds us that Jesus is still alive through us!

Part 2: Faith in Action: Evangelism coming soon!