One Pastor's Musings

Wednesday’s Musings: Dead Faith Praying

James 2:14-17 (NLT)  What good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but don’t show it by your actions? Can that kind of faith save anyone?  Suppose you see a brother or sister who has no food or clothing, and you say, “Good-bye and have a good day; stay warm and eat well”—but then you don’t give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do?  So you see, faith by itself isn’t enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless.

My Dad and his best friend Alan Enlow used to call each other “buzzard.”  I’m so glad my parents named my brother Alan instead of that pet nickname.  In my view though, the buzzard is an unfairly maligned bird. It has a job and does it.  One of my favorite cartoons was a drawing of two buzzards sitting on a telephone line.  One was saying to the other, “Wait, hell.  I’m going to kill something.”  Sometimes we need to wait and sometimes we need to be proactive and take action.  Too often we wait for someone else to help the needy.  As our scripture tells us, a faith without good works is a dead faith.  This picture speaks volumes about that kind of faith.

Holy God, help us not forget that having faith, and living out our faith through helping others must go hand in hand.  Show us the way to serve you through service to others. In Christ’s name we pray. Amen.

Blessings,
Paige