Friday, May 31, 2013

Isaiah 29 - Works Without Faith Is Dead

"The Lord says:
“These people come near to me with their mouth
and honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
Their worship of me
is based on merely human rules they have been taught.
Therefore once more I will astound these people
with wonder upon wonder;
the wisdom of the wise will perish,
the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish.”
Woe to those who go to great depths
to hide their plans from the Lord,
who do their work in darkness and think,
“Who sees us? Who will know?"" (Isa 29:13-15)
 
Sunday morning rituals and then the rest of the week what do we do? On Sunday mornings we praise the LORD with our lips, but how much honor do we give the LORD during the rest of the week? Some of the saddest moments of my life is when I realize someone worships on Sunday morning purely out of ritual or because they think this "act" is the good work that will grant them eternal life. Or, maybe, it's to enhance their political or business life. I assure you, works without faith is useless.

James tells us (James 2:17-19)  "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 my deeds. You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder." 

I know! I know! Martin Luther was not impressed with James. He considered it an "epistle of straw." But, think for a moment... If we have faith - that is a living faith, we will live that faith and it will show in all that we say and do and that goes beyond Sunday morning. Likewise works without faith is useless for our or any one's salvation. Faith, indeed, will produce good works. It is a natural outflowing of our faith and our love of God. Showing up on Sunday morning and not worshipping and honoring God, not living in the Way, the rest of the week is merely a once a week (or month or year) good work.  Maybe we attend this worship service it's because we like the people there or that the people actually do good works. Maybe, it's the preacher you like or maybe you are just paying your dues - just in case - to appease God. Hopefully, the Word you hear during that one hour on Sunday morning will produce the faith you have pretended to have.

You can pretend all you want. Maybe the pretending will become a reality for you. I don't know. There is a 12-step motto that tells us to "fake it 'till you make it." Who knows, it might work. God can accomplish great things through little steps.

But, let us not think that God does not know our motivation? That even though on the outside (on Sunday morning) it looks like we are worshipping; but, in reality we might be just serving self. We might be able to hide it some of the time from some of the people, maybe even all of the people. (Except your Pastor - there's a good chance he/she already knows your motivation) But, you cannot hide your motivation, your plans, from the LORD, ever! He promised to be with you always and He is. Do you think He does not see what you don't want Him to see. Don't delude yourself into thinking that somehow you can hide the fact that there are other things that you put before God during the rest of the week.

Real faith produces good works. It will inspire us to worship and honor God and to feed His sheep, so to speak, the rest of the week.

May God bless the words of our lips, the meditations of our hearts and minds, the work of our hands and every step that we take that all may honor and glorify God, our Creator and Redeemer. Amen
(OK - so I revised that last prayer a little bit)

God's Peace - Pr. J.

P.S. Sorry so late today. The power went off before I could post about 6 a.m.. In the meantime, I planted some flowers and went kayaking. Have a blessed day!

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