Discover His heart: He reveals Himself through our salvation and our good works
Most of us have encountered the wheeler-dealer, the pitchman, who makes promises but doesn’t deliver. Our dealings with them often result in difficult learning experiences. Years ago we planned a mission’s trip to Paraguay with 200 youth and leaders. A travel agent approached us with the best price on tickets we could find, and more importantly, he was the only agent who found seats on the days we needed to travel. We sent him the money with the understanding he would meet us at the airport with the tickets – lesson #1. And indeed, he met us at the airport on our day of departure, but could not produce the tickets because … well, at that point it really didn’t matter.
There we sat with 200 eager students on a mission with no tickets. Through a series of miracles, and I mean miracles, we reached our five cities of ministry in Paraguay, and those churches we helped to plant are still reaching the lost today. God is faithful when others are not. That travel agent could say he was a travel agent all day long, but until he produced the tickets, it really didn’t matter what he said – lesson #2. We have to put our money where our mouth is, so to speak. James, one of the Jerusalem church leaders, was all over this one.
@ James 2
“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…You say you have faith, for you believe that there is one God. Good for you! Even the demons believe this, and they tremble in terror. How foolish! Can’t you see that faith without good deeds is useless?” (14-19) Show me the tickets!
To prove a contradiction in scripture to James 2, Bible skeptics love to point to Romans 1 where Paul teaches, “‘Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith.’…people are counted as righteous, not because of their work, but because of their faith in God who forgives sinners.” (3,5) Good works do not save us, only the blood of Jesus can do that, but good works are an indicator that we have received salvation. Paul wrote to the Ephesians, “God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.” (2:8-10) Show me the tickets!
God sees our faith, our belief in Him, because He sees our hearts. Man sees our faith through our love and good deeds. Many of us have begun the Christmas shopping tradition and what a great opportunity to show our faith to those without food or clothing. I know a family that first buys Christmas with all its trimmings for a needy family, and then with the money that is left, they buy gifts for each other. I see Jesus all over them. However, our good deeds should reveal our faith to others all year long. We don’t want to be like the useless travel agent who never proved to us that he was a travel agent. Show them our good works!
Moving Forward: I plan to do some good works today because of the great work He did for me when He saved me.
Tomorrow @ Deuteronomy 4-6
Phyllis Benigas 