Great Faith

James 2:18-24

18 But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.”

Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. 

19 You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.

20 You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? 21 Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? 22 You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. 23 And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend. 24 You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone.

I have read this passage many times throughout the years, plus heard it used as an argument for works in relationship to salvation. The Bible clearly teaches that our salvation is through Christ's work alone, all of our works are as filthy rags in that regard and that's not what James is talking about here. Here he is talking about works that come out of a genuine faith in God and today it really hit me for the first time why he used the examples of Abraham & Isaac, and Rahab when talking about this. The passage became so clear!

Abraham had such tremendous faith and trust in God that he was willing to kill his own son, whom he had waited so long for, in order to be obedient to God's instruction. Abraham loved his son, Isaac, but he loved God more. Without great faith in God, he would have never been obedient to the point of killing his son, the son of promise. He believed so strongly in God's faithfulness that he gathered all that was necessary to sacrifice his son, believing that God would raise Isaac back from the dead or perform some other miracle to save his life, which we know God did in providing the ram at just the right moment.

To use this passage to justify works or to miss the great faith connection is to miss the most important part of James' message - faith, trust, and obedience to God Almighty will result in works, works that we cannot do in our own strength. No one would be able to do this type of work without complete faith in God. This kind of faith will lead to doing the work that God wants done and is calling us personally to do. It is not a one-size-fits-all, but it will all bring honor and glory to God.

James 2:25&26

25 In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? 26 As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.

Then we have Rahab's story. Her "works" could have easily cost her life. She disobeyed the King, lying in order to protect the spies because she believed the Israelite's God was "indeed God in heaven above and on earth below." She feared God more than man. She acted out of her faith in the one true God - believing that He alone could protect her and her family, but she also was not frozen with fear. She acted on her faith.

In both cases, the works came out of a very strong faith, trust, and obedience to God Almighty. Faith produces the works of God. Otherwise faith is dead and works are just works.

Hold On

This dragonfly fascinated me. If you look closely at the photo, you can tell that it was a windy day by the double images of the green blades. He was a tenacious dragonfly who kept holding on to the tip top of that blade even though the winds were blowing all around him.

This reminded me of the passage in Ephesians 4 where it speaks of our growing in the knowledge of the Son of God so that we won't be children any longer and won't be "blown here and there by every wind of teaching". It is so important to know what the Bible says and to keep holding on to the truth that is contained within it. 

However, if we do not read The Word of God on a regular basis and listen to Godly, Biblical teaching, we can easily be tossed back and forth and here and there by all the teachings that sound good or make us more comfortable or politically correct. In order to stand firm amidst the changing currents and winds in our world, we need the firm foundation of the truth that is only God-given. 

Ephesians 4:11-16

So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

Dust of His Feet

Nahum 1:3

The Lord is slow to anger and great in power,

and the Lord will by no means clear the guilty.

His way is in whirlwind and storm,

and the clouds are the dust of his feet.

I enjoy photography. Recently my sister-in-law commented "you like clouds". I hadn't really thought about it, but I actually do take a lot of cloud photos. When I read the above verse this week, it thrilled my heart to think of the clouds as the dust of God's feet and now I like clouds even more. I can just imagine God walking and stirring up the clouds in His wake. It makes me smile.

We often associate clouds with a rainy day, which some people dislike. Or we may say "I have a cloud hanging over my head" when life isn't going well. We tend to view whirlwinds, storms and clouds as negative things. However, if we look at this verse, it tells us that God's way is IN these things. Hmm - that's food for thought. If His way is in storms and clouds, then we should be looking for Him and trusting Him through the whirlwind, storm and clouds. Oswald Chambers writes "If there were never any clouds in our lives, we would have no faith. 'The clouds are the dust of His feet'. They are a sign that God is there." I like that.