Food for thought

I've been re-reading this Oswald Chambers devotional over the past few days and it still hits me hard. Especially the last sentence. I'm going to need to chew on this one for a while.

August 29

Every time you venture out in the life of faith, you will find something in your common-sense circumstances that flatly contradicts your faith. Common sense is not faith, and faith is not common sense; they stand in the relation of the natural and the spiritual. Can you trust Jesus Christ where your common sense cannot trust Him? Can you venture heroically on Jesus Christ's statements when the facts of your common-sense life shout--"It's a lie"? On the mount it is easy to say--"Oh, yes, I believe God can do it"; but you have to come down into the demon-possessed valley and meet with facts that laugh ironically at the whole of your mount-of-transfiguration belief. Every time my programme of belief is clear to my own mind, I come across something that contradicts it. Let me say I believe God will supply all my need, and then let me run dry, with no outlook, and see whether I will go through the trial of faith, or whether I will sink back to something lower.

Faith must be tested, because it can be turned into a personal possession only through conflict. What is your faith up against just now? The test will either prove that your faith is right, or it will kill it. "Blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in Me." The final thing is confidence in Jesus. Believe steadfastly on Him and all you come up against will develop your faith. There is continual testing in the life of fatih, and the last great test is death. May God keep us in fighting trim! Faith is unutterable trust in God, trust which never dreams that He will not stand by us."

- Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest

Actions speak louder than words

As I was reading 1 John 3 last night, verse 18 reminded me once again of the importance of making sure that what we do backs up what we say.

"Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth."

There are a myriad of Scripture verses and quotes that I could support this with, but there really is something to the old saying, "Actions speak louder than words."

What good are our words if our actions don't reflect the same ideas? They are absolutely empty and worthless.

Throughout the Bible, and repeatedly in the books John wrote, we are told that if we truly believe in God, if we really mean what we say when we claim to be followers of Christ, we'll love one another. Which means loving everyone with the love of Christ. I try, but wow, I fall so short. God, help me to love as you love.

And I think it's interesting that John points out the need for us to love in truth. False affection doesn't work. Nobody likes to be loved insincerely. People usually aren't fooled for long (if at all) when someone puts on a loving facade.

Sometimes loving with the truth hurts; the old "tough love" situation. And honestly, I think there needs to be a lot more tough-love truth dished out today than there is. Especially as believers, if we see our friends, especially our brothers and sisters in Christ, in trouble or slipping away, we have an obligation to be bold enough to say something, even at the risk of the person's anger or the loss of the relationship. If we just stand by and watch, then we are only contributing to their fall. Scary thought. To any of my friends reading this, please don't ever hesitate to speak the truth to me in love! If I'm off track somewhere I want to know.

James brings up an interesting concept as well when he discusses faith in chapter 2.

"What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

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.

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

You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? Was not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. 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. You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone.

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? As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead."
- James 2:14-26

Faith without action is nothing. Actions really do reflect what's truly in the heart and the mind.

Wow. If I'm really trying to live a life of faith, my actions should back up what I claim to have faith in. If I believe that God is who he says he is, then every part of my life, which includes my words and my actions, should reflect that. Our actions prove our true feelings, no matter what we may say.

I could keep going with this topic, but I'll stop for right now. This post is long enough. ;) There are so many different directions this discussion could go in that I might come back to it at a later date.