Words and Deeds

Okay, so this week, we will be in James 2:14-26.This passage of Scripture just happens to be one of my all time favorites for a number of reasons, but the biggest reason is that the message contained therein is so appropriate for the church in America in these last days. So often we are big on the talking about prosperity, God's love, and the all of the cushy benefits of following Christ. But the truth of the matter is that we are called to live broken lives, persecuted lives, lives that look more like Jesus in His sufferings than His majesty.

The fact of the matter, church, is that we are promised two things in this life as we follow Jesus. We are promised His majesty, but not here and now. We are promised His majesty when we see Him face to face in His glory in Heaven. That is the promise we have...His presence with us forever and ever.

Francis Chan has illustration where he pulls out a huge rope that goes on and on out the door of his church, and on the end of the rope that he is holding is a small one inch section colored red. And he makes this connection. The church in America is all about living in this one inch space, not realizing that the whole rest of the rope is ours to be with our Lord, to find our rest and to have our reward. The insignificant amount of time that we spend here on this blue ball called "Earth" is so short in light of eternity, and yet we live to make this short time more important and more comfortable than the rest of eternity.

Yes, we are promised peace and paradise and rest and reward, but not here...not now. That all comes in the future, and we can be assured of it.

The second thing we are promised as followers of Jesus Christ is trouble. Jesus said, "In this world you will have trouble..." Paul said in one place, "I want to know Christ and fellowship in His sufferings." To Timothy, he writes, "In fact, everyone (not some, or a few, but everyone) who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be (a guaranteed fact) persecuted." (emphases added)

Now look, I know that this isn't popular to say nowadays, and I know that this particular blog post won't bring people flocking to follow my posts, but I can't help it...it's true. And we have to remember, folks that as followers of Jesus Christ, we are called to suffer. And I'm not talking about, "Oh! The girls at school mock me because I've chosen to keep myself pure, and I'm still a virgin," or "The guys at work think I'm a prude because I don't laugh at their dirty jokes." No, I'm talking serious hatred for us because we have chosen to be identified with the King of kings. It's coming sooner than we think, so I want to challenge you as we get ready for this week's message:

Do your words and deeds match up? Are you living like you say you believe? If you aren't, then you need to take stock of what you are doing and saying, and then make sure they line up.

Comment below about a time that God had you suffer for doing what was right, or a time that you've seen someone else do it. And we will see you on Sunday!