Word for Today, Fri, 08 Sep 2006, Faith and Works Go Together
Posted by: masinick <masinick@...>
Dear friends,
The other day, I thought I prepared a message to go along with the one
from Larry Ollison and his devotional message series The Cutting
Edge. In a recent series, Larry wrote about faith. The immediate
thing I thought about was, "Yes, he's right, faith is of the utmost
importance. I know that the Bible says that faith comes by hearing
and hearing by the Word of God". So I wrote a message about the fact
that if you really have faith, your actions should match your faith.
James says that "Faith without works is dead". The book of Romans
also says "Be ye doers of the Word, not hearers only, deceiving
yourselves".
Well, Larry must have been thinking along those same lines because one
of the next messages in that series touches on these very points, so I
would like to share that message with you this evening.
Again, I urge you to get into the Word all the time, every day. Once
you have done that for a while, you will start to put the pieces of
the Bible together like that yourself and the stories will come to
life. That is why the Bible also says that "Faith comes by hearing
and hearing by the Word of God", as we've already discussed.
May we live by faith and turn to God, then respond to Him in obedience
in the things that we do - not to save us, for it is by grace we are
saved, but as tangible evidence of what we SAY we believe.
Yours in Christ,
Brian
Faith Requires Corresponding Actions
by Larry Ollison, Ph.D.
I love to talk about faith! Why? The reason is simple. Faith is
required to please God. Faith is required to be saved. Faith is
required to get healing. Faith is required to live without sin,
because the Bible says that anything that is not of faith is sin.
Also, according to James 1:6, faith is required to get our
prayers answered. Faith is definitely important and I love to
study and talk about faith.
However, faith is not just believing. Faith is also doing.
James 2:14 says, "What does it profit, my brethren, if someone
says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him?"
James 2:17 says, "Thus also faith, by itself, if it does not have
works, is dead." Later in the same chapter it says, "But do you
want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead?
Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered
Isaac his son on the altar? Do you see that faith was working
together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect?"
How does a man have faith without works anyway? Well, he hears
the Word but does not do it. And, according to the Bible, a man
who hears the Word and does not act on it does not truly have
faith.
Sometimes good people who want to please God unknowingly deceive
themselves. Because they hear the Word of God, they convince
themselves that everything is okay. However, the reality is that
everything is not okay. They just think it is. Therefore they
have deceived themselves. Thinking you have faith does not please
God. Having faith pleases Him.
In Matthew 7:24, Jesus tells the story of two men who built
houses. One man, a wise man, built his house on the rock. When
the storms came, his house withstood the storms. The other man, a
foolish man, built his house on the sand. When the storms came,
his house was destroyed. Jesus said the man who built his house
on the rock was like someone who hears His sayings and does them.
He compared the foolish man, who built his house on the sand, to
a man who heard His sayings and did not do them.
We must not deceive ourselves. Hearing the Word of God without
acting on the Word can be deadly. God didn't give us His
Word just so we could be highly educated. Education is good.
It's a good thing to read and study God's Word, but
without action it profits us nothing. That's what the
scribes and Pharisees did. Because they did not put the Word into
action, Jesus rebuked them for their hypocrisy.
We've all known people who can talk real well but never seem to
deliver. Our words are important. Our thoughts are important. Our
faith is important. But we must not just believe. We must act.
Only then will there be faith.
We must act on God's Word. Only by hearing the sayings of Jesus
and doing them, will our houses be built on the rock. Only when
we build on the rock will we survive the storms.
Remember this. A doer of the Word is someone who prays for the
sick. A doer of the Word is someone who forgives. A doer of the
Word is someone who loves those who don't love in return. A doer
of the Word is someone who not only says he has faith but he has
the corresponding actions to prove it.
All rights reserved. Used by permission.
This article may be reproduced for teaching purposes but not for
commercial resale. The Cutting Edge Devotional by Dr. Ollison is
a daily feature of http://www.CFAITH.com
The Cutting Edge Devotional - PO Box 880, Osage Beach, MO 65065
USA
When writing about this devotional, refer to devotional #153
http://www.walkonthewaterbooks.com
--
Brian Masinick, masinick at yahoo dot com
Home page: http://www.geocities.com/masinick/
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