FAITH AND WORKS

"But someone will say, 'You have faith and I have works.' Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works."  (James 2:18 ESV)

In my intellect, I may divide [faith and works], just as in the candle I know there is both light and heat; yet put out the candle, and both are gone.

-- John Selden (1584-1654)

#3920

ASSURED OF IT

The Bible says that each one of us will face death.  It's inevitable.  But as Christ-followers know, death is just the stepping-over into eternal union with God, if we so choose.  John 3:16 has become rote for many people, but its message continues to shake life's foundation: God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that anyone who chooses to believe in Him would not perish but would have eternal life.  You can have it, you can know it, you can be assured of it, and you can be completely confident in it.

I wonder if you know anyone who needs that level of assurance today.  If so, then find a way to give it to them!

-- Bill Hybels in Just Walk Across the Room

#3919

DON’T JUST READ IT… DO SOMETHING

A businessman known for his ruthlessness, arrogance, and religiosity once told Mark Twain he intended to visit the Holy Land before he died, in order to climb Mount Sinai and read the Ten Commandments aloud.  “I have a better idea,” Twain said. “You could stay here in Boston and keep them.”

We would rather cogitate on what we do not know than actually do the things we know we ought to do.

Organizations often suffer from inertia.  A company may know they need to improve quality control, so they discuss it, listen to presentations about it, read books, look at state-of-the-art systems -- but never actually get around to doing it. Their problem is one of knowing too much, but doing too little.

Be doers of the word, and not merely hearers.” (James 1:22 NRSV)

-- John Ortberg in The Me I Want To Be

#3918

DARKNESS AND LIGHT

"God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil." (John 3:19b NLT)

Grace is a gift offered to each individual by God. Imagine Christ moving toward us, stretching out His arms to embrace us. Then Christ stops and waits for us to move into the embrace. The invitation is clear. Christ has made the first steps toward us. Yet, no one is forced into the embrace. Only when we step forward and accept the offered relationship does it happen.

God loves us enough to allow us to reject His love. Part of the mystery of humanity is why people choose darkness over light, hatred over love, sin over holiness, and separation from God over salvation. But they do.

-- Scott J. Jones in The Wesleyan Way: A Faith That Matters

#3917

THE WORLD IS OUR PARISH

I want to suggest that the cutting edge of mission in our time, especially for churches in North America, is to reclaim John Wesley's vision that “the world is our parish.” Wesley came by it naturally, because Christianity is a world-embracing religion.

+ It is a faith founded on the presuppositions that God created the whole world and pronounced it good.

+ It is a movement whose call is understood in terms of the call of Abraham and Sarah to be a blessing to all the nations.

+ It is a community of moral discourse centered in the prophets who reminded the Israelites and who remind us that justice and righteousness are at the heart of what God calls us to be about.

+ It is a faith centered in John's announcement that God so loved the world that He sent His only Son (John 3:16).

+ It is a witnessing fellowship centered in Jesus Christ who gave us the Great Commission to go into all the world and to make disciples of all nations (Matt 28:16-20).

+ It is a church, born at Pentecost, only when people are gathered together from every language and tongue and nation.

+ It is a faith community that sent the disciples out to turn the world upside down for the Gospel (Acts 17:6).

-- Clifton Kirkpatrick in Perspectives, February 2005


#3616