Non-producing faith

Happy Monday y'all. It was quite the weekend for our family - Saturday alone included two different kid-based parties with a total of 10 kids over (4 of them overnight), campfire, ghosts in the graveyard, soccer, painting, game cube, etc. Saturday also included my trying to do an on-line conference call at perhaps the worst possible time... as the girl party was ending at 4, the boy party was starting at 4, and my conference call was at 4.... it was quite interesting (especially for the parents who saw me tucked away in the corner of the kitchen talking into a headset while staring at a computer trying to ignore the sugar-induced screams and balloon popping). Very interesting day.

On Sunday, Pastor Bill really brought home that our faith, if kept personal, is dead. James 2:14-26 talks about this - that faith without works is dead. The word "dead" does not mean that faith doesn't exist, but what it means is that faith is "barren, useless, idle, non-producing."

The last verse of that section says, "As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead." If dead means the same thing in each case, then our body without the Holy Spirit is also "barren, useless, idle, non-producing. Is that true? I know people that haven't accepted Christ that are very productive. Perhaps what James is getting at is productivity in the kingdom of God?

James says, "What good is it...if people claim to have faith but no deeds? (v.14)" I think we would argue that the "good" is for our personal salvation.... however, if we are talking about our productivity in the kingdom of God, the rhetorical question hits home: it's no good.

Interesting topic to dig into further. You all have an AWESOME week! Let's be people that walk across the room and show our faith through our actions; let's put the needs of others before the desires of ourselves.