Faith and Works

I have recently put some time into reading James and this is the section I have been studying:

¹⁴What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? ¹⁵Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. ¹⁶If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? ¹⁷In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

¹⁸But someone will say, "You have faith; I have deeds."
Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do.

¹⁹You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.

²⁰You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless^"? ²¹Was not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? ²²You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. ²³And the scripture was fulfilled that says, "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,^" and he was called God's friend. ²⁴You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone.

²⁵In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? ²⁶As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.

Have you ever caught yourself thinking,"As long as I go to church, tithe and help the homeless God will let me into Heaven." None of these things are inherently wrong to do and are actually very righteous things to strive to consistently accomplish. While good deeds can be seen by those around you and may lead them to God their purpose is much more than to impress the fickle hearts of men but to be living sacrifices to the Creator and our Savior.


As James states faith without works is dead and the reverse is also true. Blasphemous celebrities give to the poor children in Africa, Colombian drug lords give tithe, politicians can visit widows and orphans but you can't earn, buy, or steal the eternal salvation that God wants to freely bestow on you. Imagine if an Albanian woman only stopped at having great faith in her God and never went out and did as Jesus commanded all believers to do, many children in Calcutta would have never been saved by the person they knew as Mother Teresa. She wasn't great for what she did but for who she did it for. James knew that no one could come to the Father without accepting his Son and you can't accept his Son if you are too concerned with trying to do the "Christian" thing to do.

They go together hand-in-hand and can never truly be seperated.

My Wife

I married Casey on November 14th, 2008. We have now been married little over 6 months and have enjoyed sharing our lives together. She is a huge blessing in my life of industrial work and children's church. Casey will always be my one and only love in this life. Thank you for putting up with my faults and seeing my virtues when I could not. Today, Tomorrow, Always!

Weekly Bible Verse

Romans 13:1-7 (New International Version)

1Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. ²Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.³For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and he will commend you. ⁴For he is God's servant to do you good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword for nothing. He is God's servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. ⁵Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also because of conscience. ⁶This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God's servants, who give their full time to governing. ⁷Give everyone what you owe him: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor.

Charley's Freak Out!

Well tonight was our first experience with Charley and Lightining. Let's just say the two do no mix very well.

We had just arrived home from small group and my wife, Casey, was concerned with how Charley would react to the lightining we had viewed on our drive home. As we opened the door to the back yard we found him running through the yard, under and over bushes barking at the flashes of light and the clangs of thunder. Now Casey is deathly afraid of lightining and thunder so I know it was hard for her to go outside to calm Charley down.

After a while trying to calm him down we decided to just bring him inside and wait it out until we could put him outside where he would not be victim to a stray electric bolt. We bribed him with dog treats, deli ham, bread, chicken then finally we got out the Kong toy. For those that do not know what Kong is just equate it to cat nip for dogs.

After about an hour of hushing and bribing the storm had passed so we let him out to relax and see that all was still well.