Thought of the Day !!

What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If 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? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
James 2:14-17

I heard the local preacher on television last night say something very disturbing. He was talking about how our God wants relationships, and how that is what's truly important. With this I totally agree. But the thing he said that disturbed me was that God doesn't want our works. Sure, our works don't get us into Heaven, but many folks have an understanding of salvation that comes by a one time event of being saved. If this is all that's important, then why did Jesus tell us in Matthew 25 that those who didn't do for others would be separated from those who did and be sent into the fire?

Remember that faith is only real when accompanied by works. James is basically telling us that if we claim to have faith (and therefore salvation) but we don't have works, then we don't have the faith we think we have. And so we should reevaluate it.

True faith is what we are given by God when we accept Jesus. And as Paul states in Ephesians, we were created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God already had planned for us.

In the love of Christ,
greg