“Are you thankful you didn’t have to be good enough to receive salvation…
Our faith cannot be barren orthodoxy… a hollow agreement on ideas… but it must transform us…
Our salvation is found in faith alone… but it’s more than mental assent…
We’re to let our light shine in real life practical ways…
Real faith works in love… a “loveless faith” doesn’t save, it cannot help our neighbor, just as it cannot help us… James is talking about laws of love…
Love is the fruit of the trees of God… if we’re not bearing that fruit we must ask ourselves what kind of trees are we…
Paul never says we can just forget the moral law… God’s moral law reflects His character…
“A man is justified (declared righteous before God) by faith alone, but not by a faith that is alone. Genuine faith will produce good deeds, but only faith in Christ saves.”
True faith cannot help expressing itself in our actions…
What saves us must change us…
If we are not careful we can mistake knowing facts about God with knowing Him, knowing His truths with being transformed by them…
Works do not give life to faith, but faith gives life to works, and is perfected by them…
Think about the men and women of faith the you respect the most… there words and teachings matter, but was it simply their words that stand out, or the actions of their lives… you see their actions ‘perfected’ their words…
By saving the spies and putting her family at risk, Rahab not only stated her belief in God, but it inspired her to act in faith that the Jewish God (her God) would vindicate her and was more powerful than the pagan god’s of her culture…
Every day we either choose to “sanctify the Name of God” or to “desecrate the Name of God”
This life where our thoughts and confessions match up with our actions and love is truly a joyous life… this is God’s desire for you…”