Move That Mountain

What good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but don’t show it by your actions? Can that kind of faith save anyone? Suppose you see a brother or sister who has no food or clothing, and you say, “Good-bye and have a good day; stay warm and eat well”—but then you don’t give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do? So you see, faith by itself isn’t enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless. Now someone may argue, “Some people have faith; others have good deeds.” But I say, “How can you show me your faith if you don’t have good deeds? I will show you my faith by my good deeds.” You say you have faith, for you believe that there is one God. Good for you! Even the demons believe this, and they tremble in terror. How foolish! Can’t you see that faith without good deeds is useless? (James 2:14-20)

Faith without actions is not really faith at all, is it? In fact, faith is revealed in action. Jesus never said, "See that mountain - look at it until it crumbles." He said, “I tell you the truth, if you have faith and don’t doubt, you can do things like this and much more. You can even say to this mountain, ‘May you be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and it will happen." (Matthew 21:21) Doubt looks at the mountain and does nothing - faith sees the mountain and sets everything in motion to see it actually moved. That doesn't mean we move the mountain - it means we do what God asks and then see him move on our behalf. Think about the Israelites marching time and time again around the walls of Jericho - God asked them to march, then on the seventh day to praise him with all they had. If they had of just sat there and 'trusted God' to remove the walls, do you think the walls would have crumbled? No, because he asked them to take specific actions and they did! God created us as both physical and spiritual beings - meaning we use all that he created to do as he says. 

God asks for passion, but he also asks for persistence. We persist in prayer, but we also persist in taking the actions he directs until he tells us to no longer take those actions. Lots of us have passion - we get all excited to see something accomplished, but how many of us have the persistence to act time and time again until God is finished accomplishing what needs to be done? We don't act in our own power - we act in his. We are obedient to the things he asks us to do, and we keep on taking those actions, until he tells us to stop. Ever see someone so intent on taking 'good actions', but lacking the relationship with Jesus that should go along with those good actions? Those actions may be all well and good, but they are a little hollow or empty, aren't they? We might think of these actions as 'philanthropic' or 'benevolent'. They are indeed 'good', but there is something missing - faith in Christ. When good deeds are an outflow of this relationship with Jesus, they are never 'hollow' - they are filled with love and grace.

God never focuses on the actions over the heart. He knows the heart innervates the actions, so he focuses on our heart first. When our heart is right with him, our actions are 'faith actions' - they are rich, meaningful, and with specific purpose. God asks us to be mountain movers, but we don't move mountains on our own. If you and I go through life just focusing on doing the 'right things' but neglect the 'right relationship' component of faith, our faith is not really faith - it is religion. Just sayin!

Good meets better

Do you ever ask a simple question of God - one that is quite often a consideration of humankind, but kind of niggles at you until you actually find the answer? Sometimes the questions we ask almost get a little too revealing of our insecurities. Like us asking who it is that God shows favor to - who is it that is welcomed into his presence, made to feel at home, enjoying the very fruits of his rule.  When we hear the answer from God, we rarely record it, but once in a while what we hear may do well to be recorded. David heard from God about those traits that we see in a man or woman of God that make him/her free to move about in the presence of a holy God - something that niggled at his mind and heart enough that he asked God who it was that gets on "God's guest list".

1 God, who gets invited to dinner at your place? How do we get on your guest list? 2 "Walk straight, act right, tell the truth. 3-4 Don't hurt your friend, don't blame your neighbor; despise the despicable. 5 Keep your word even when it costs you, make an honest living, never take a bribe. You'll never get blacklisted if you live like this." (Psalm 15)

Although I don't think this is a literal "guest list", there is evidence in scripture that God has our names recorded in heaven, so it may actually be likened to one. To 'get on it', one has to learn to walk straight, act right, and tell the truth.  Let me just tell you for a fact, we don't do this on our own - it is impossible to do this without the action of the Holy Spirit in our lives. At the moment we cry out to God to cleanse us of our sinfulness, opening the door for the cleansing that comes by the blood of Jesus, we are inviting the Holy Spirit to take up residence in our lives.  It is his purpose to assist us in the revelation of truth - providing for us the enabling to behave in a different manner than we had previously responded in life's moments of making choices. 

Acting right is one of the most difficult challenges we experience in life - it is the very thing that good parents strive to influence their children to do from the moment they are able to first understand the consequence of their actions.   Yet, we must keep in mind that action alone is not what God desires - we can do all the "good deeds" we want to, but apart from a heart yielded to his desires, open to his leading, and abandoned in worship to him, we are only "being good". It is artificial goodness - it pales in comparison to the goodness that God works into our lives through this process referred to as obedience. Not one human being could hit a home run out of the park on each and every one of these listed traits.  We may attempt to live according to these standards a good deal of the time, but we will find moments of compromise in our lives where we stray from the standards we set, no matter how hard we try to live by them in our own power.  It is impossible to be righteous in our own power!  Righteousness comes by one source - the blood of Jesus.  His sacrifice on the cross those many years ago is the only means by which we are viewed by God as righteous.

The "good deeds" that we do are only behaviors that are exemplary of the work of the transformational power of God in our lives - they are not of our own doing.  Try  as we might, we will find all these particularly "good" behaviors rather unrewarding without the empowering of the Holy Spirit within. So, if we are desirous of experiencing God's presence, being welcomed into his throne-room, not as guests, but as members of the Royal Family, we must be "in Christ".  As we come to Jesus, hearts open to his redeeming work, asking him to be Lord of our lives, he brings us into the family. The outflow of that life leadership change is the exhibit of the most right kind of behavior in our lives. We begin to look out from ourselves, seeing others in a new way, and look beyond how the events of life affect just us, seeing how there is an impact of each of our behaviors on another.

A promise to us - he who does these things will never be shaken.  Want to live a life that isn't always on the verge of collapse, shaking each time something doesn't seem to be going as well as we might have liked?  Reach out to Jesus, welcome him as your Savior, and watch the life transformation of being welcomed into the family of a holy God. Then you will know what it is like to be on a solid foundation - unshaken by life's challenges and welcomed into the presence of God. Just sayin!

You faking it?

Have you ever wondered why it is that some people just get "found out" when they do something wrong and others seem to be very clever at concealing their mistakes, often avoiding any type of discovery?  I think we all have at one time or another simply because we wonder how we cannot get away with the same stuff!  We may not come out and admit it, but we definitely are thinking it!  Get caught holding a smoking gun and it is hard to deny you fired the shot.  When it all comes to said and done, all sin is sin and will eventually be "uncovered" - the timing may be different for some, but it all comes out in the wash.  

The sins of some people are blatant and march them right into court. The sins of others don’t show up until much later. The same with good deeds. Some you see right off, but none are hidden forever.  (I Timothy 5:24-25 MSG)

We hear the argument all the time about individuals thinking they are not "evil" or "sinners" - as a matter of fact, they see themselves as "good" because they don't do "bad" stuff.  They pay their taxes, look out for the poor, and even take care of widows.  They don't drink, chew, or run with those who do.  They have never murdered anyone, nor have they been unfaithful to their spouse.  So, how could they be considered "sinners"?  They equate the "good" they do with the absence of a sin nature.  That which is part of our nature cannot be "undone" just by doing "good stuff".  Jesus elevated this idea to the forefront of thought when he shared stuff like:

If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them.  (Luke 6:29 NIV)

You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’  But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.  (Matthew 5:27-28 NIV)

In essence, what he was saying was that our good or bad deeds go beyond the actual deed - they stem from a source much deeper - the heart.  Man has been born with a heart easily deceived - if not by external forces, at least by his own imagination!  The truth is what sets us free; imaginations hold us captive until they are finally submitted to the inspection and authority of Christ.

To really get at the heart of the matter, we have to allow the "heart" to become what matters.  Mind, will, and emotions - rational thought, perceptions, reasoning - all must be inspected, aligned, and submitted.  Until this occurs, we will continue to be deceived into thinking some of the stuff we don't "think" is really based upon a sin nature is just part of being human and not able to be controlled.  We "excuse" our nature - in turn, we excuse our sin.  Jesus had a challenge for the Pharisees one day - it was that of having the first one who had no sin of his own throw the first stone at the woman caught in adultery.  If you recall the story, none were left to cast a single stone!

Some sins are more blatant - that is what Jesus was showing us.  Some are "easily surfaced" and get us noticed for our short-comings almost immediately.  These are probably easier for us to deal with because they are "open" for others to see.  Those which are buried a little deeper are often the ones we struggle with for what seems like a lifetime.  In some religious circles, they refer to these as our "secret sins" - those we hope we are keeping under raps pretty well.  Eventually they will be revealed, so even the most cleverly disguised sin is never going to remain secret.  We don't take our secrets to the grave, because even the grave has a way of revealing them at the Judgment Seat of Christ.

No one is without sin (Romans 3:23).  Likewise, no one is without a means of having their sinful nature replaced with a new one in Christ Jesus (Romans 3:24).  There is an "exchange" which must occur - our "best goodness" must be exchanged for the "true goodness" which only comes when there has been an exchange of our "goodness" for the "grace" of God.  One means of redemption exists - the blood of Jesus.  One "exchange" is required - our nature for his.  Only then will the heart be affected.  Sin has a deeper root than what we see on the surface in our lives.  To trust in what we allow to come to the surface as the means by which we believe we will be declared "worthy" or "good enough" is simply risking exposure as a fake!  Just sayin!