Wanted: Forget Dead, Only Alive

S - James 2:20-26 (NLT): "Fool! When will you ever learn that faith that does not result in good deeds is useless? Don't you remember that our ancestor Abraham was declared right with God because of what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see, he was trusting God so much that he was willing to do whatever God told him to do. His faith was made complete by what he did--by his actions. And so it happened just as the Scriptures say: "Abraham believed God, so God declared him to be righteous.” He was even called "the friend of God." So you see, we are made right with God by what we do, not by faith alone. Rahab the prostitute is another example of this. She was made right with God by her actions--when she hid those messengers and sent them safely away by a different road. Just as the body is dead without a spirit, so also faith is dead without good deeds."

O - While the good deeds of faith includes how we respond to the poor and to our neighbors it is not limited there. Abraham's "good deed" was taking Isaac up Moriah. Rahab put her life at risk and this is the faith which engaged the righteousness God gives and accepts. Faith, without which we cannot please God, is pervasive, all-encompassing and always required of us (from first to last). It is by grace but not without choice and the choice of faith will always lead to action. Faith, genuine faith (i.e. living faith) will always engage:
1. obedience which puts the command of the Lord above his promise.
2. fierce personal loyalty to the Lord above his greatest blessings.
3. the need to obey today above the hopes and dreams of tomorrow.

Both Rahab and Abraham took their futures (and the futures of their families) into their own hands and believed God. They took him at his word. Faith really is acts of obedience followed by acts of God and if God doesn't act we're COOKED (Romans 1:5).

A - Without acts of obedience faith isn't faith at all. Since everything in God's Kingdom lives (living stones, bread, water, sacrifices, hope) my faith must live too. Faith without deeds is not even existing … the Scriptures identify it as dead, regardless of the information it contains or the truths it affirms. With Abraham and Rahab I am in such a season of intentional activities which require God's acts too. The bouts of apprehension, pain and fear are actually signs of life rather than doubt or unbelief. The dead feel nothing at all. Doubt and unbelief rationalize obedience away to inspire disobedience or a compromise of partial obedience which is not obedience at all (e.g. Saul and Agag - 1 Samuel 15). In spite of how it feels, living faith acts in the obedience which demonstrates the fierce personal loyalty the Lord gives and deserves. Living faith will say with the Shepherd King "the time I am afraid I will trust in him." This is my assignment today, in this challenging season and every day while it is called today.

P - God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Rahab, David and James,

Thank you for being my God too! Thank you for your gift and requirement of faith and for giving me the opportunity to live this out loud in this season of time. Abraham and Rahab demonstrated the faith which results in righteousness by their acts of obedience. Such acts not only confirmed their faith in you but brought about the affirmation of your friendship and secured their future in your awesome will. Lord, for me, my Jan our Jake and Heather and for all with whom we have to do, please let me live out the faith you give and require. I am waiting with you, not just on you. I am welcoming your promises from afar and mixing them with faith. I am asking you for new wineskins, mulberry trees in the ocean and for that which is too wonderful for me. The time I am afraid I will trust in you.

Steve