Ephesians 3:7 By God’s grace and mighty power, I have been given the priviledge of serving Him by spreading the good news.
Jeremiah 20:9 But if I say I’ll never mention the Lord or speak in His name, His word burns in my heart like a fire. It’s like a fire in my bones! I am worn out trying to hold it in! I can’t do it!
I’ve been silent for too long.
I’ve read and reread Gods word. I’ve felt Him convicting me. I’ve heard Him give me words to speak, and yet I have remained silent.
Just like that verse in Jeremiah says, I am worn out trying to hold it in! I can’t do it!
I can no longer hold this in. It’s eating me alive.
There are too many people I love who haven’t truly grasped what the good news truly is.
If I’m honest, it’s taken me a very long time to get it myself and trust me, I am still not perfect by any means. This letter is to myself just as much as it is to you.
Let me start this letter out with a prayer. A prayer for the both of us.
Lord God, I ask You to open our ears, open our hearts, and let Your word take root. Father, show us the way you want us to live. Let your Holy Spirit speak to our hearts, convict us, and change us from the inside out. Don’t let us keep living in the in between. Keep pulling us closer to You. Show us how to walk more in Your ways each day and give us more and more love for one another. Abba, we ask this all in the name of Jesus, Amen
Recently I’ve been digging into a bible study with my team in the book of James. If you’ve read James before, you know He doesn’t pull any punches. He gets right up in your face with words that act as a mirror. This mirror can be pretty ugly at times. There are things that you read and when you use those words as a mirror into into your life…well let’s just say you quickly realize you need a good bit of cleaning. I know I do!
In James 1:22-25 It says “ But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says, otherwise you are only fooling yourselves. For if you listen to the word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror. You see yourself, walk away and forget what you look like. But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don’t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it.
OK so we are actually supposed to read Gods word and let it change us. We have to choose to do what it says. We have to choose to remember. Then God will bless you. Don’t you want to be blessed by God? Of course you do! OK so holding onto this truth, we press on.
James 2:14-20 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, “ Goodbye, 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 some 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?
Do you feel like you just got smacked in the face with this? I sure do!
Faith – works = dead
Works – faith = dead
The only way to truly be alive in Christ is to have both! Faith + works=ALIVE in Christ
In verse 26 He says it like this. Just as the body is dead without spirit, so also faith is dead without good works.
If you don’t have a change in your life through the Holy Spirit and through God’s word, were you ever really saved? The faith you have in Jesus Christ should change you from the inside out and compel you to do good works.
There is a very delicate balance between grace and works. Trust me I know that. It’s not that you earn salvation through your good works. No, it’s just how you keep it breathing.
Ephesians 2:8-10 God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done so none of us can boast about it. For we are God’s masterpiece (or workmanship). He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.
Did you see that? He created us for a purpose. He saves us for a purpose. SO WE CAN DO good things. WE. We can do good things! What a privilege!
You are so special that God himself, the creator of the heavens and the earth planned you. Do you know that? He knows everything about you. Everything.
I am constantly amazed by this.
The same God who spoke the universe into existence, knows me.
He knows you!
Psalm 139:13-16 You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous – how well I know it. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment laid out before a single day had passed.
This is what I know about you, about me.
You were not an accident. God planned you.
You are His marvelous workmanship!
You were made to be loved by the God of all creation.
You were created to place your faith and trust in Jesus Christ, to be saved, set apart.
You have a purpose, to do His work here on earth! His good works!
How amazing is it that the same God who breathes stars into life, has trusted you to carry out His good works? The question is, are you willing to do it?
