All right team, this week’s devo is going to smack some folks upside the head. The week has brought forth a lot of reminders concerning this devotion and I just felt it needs to be said. (Of course my wife telling me I should write on this subject was a pretty good hint.)
Again this week I heard NBA players attributing their success to the fans in their home arenas. It has been very difficult for teams to win on the road in the playoffs.
Recently I even drew reference to this as a parallel to the body of Christ being supportive and encouraging. Yet in the “game of life” I am seeing far too often that Christians are perfectly content to just be “fans.”
Over and over Christians will make promises to pray for others, commit money to efforts, and will make sure they are at “practice” (church) on Sundays – at least somewhat regularly. The problem is that it is time to get off our butts and get in the game!
This past week I had personal reminders of this problem. Our ministry planned a rummage sale at the new gym facility we are going to use. My wife spent 35 hours in the gym sorting and pricing goods. (She put on over 2000 stickers and still didn’t get everything priced.) Then we spent all day Saturday with the help of one friend, her daughter and daughter’s friend, and our family. Many people donated items (as evidenced by the number of price stickers) and I know it was a holiday weekend, but come on!
This was just one day in our lives but it is a common occurrence. That is why the rule of thumb is that at best 20% of the people will do 80% of the work. I am often told of people’s intentions and then how things just came up to keep them from following through. Can I tell you lovingly that we are all busy? We are called to sacrifice in our lives.
The other reminder I had of this was in our passage for Sunday’s message – James 2:14-26. This passage is written to believers as a rebuke to those that are not active in good works. We know works do not save us when it comes to our eternal destiny. But as you will see if you study this passage closely, they do save us from something. A great way to make sure you are looking at this in context is to ask a simple question: “save from what?” It is clear here that the threat is God’s judgment on believers! Yes the Scriptures promise chastening to unfaithful believers. If you look at the context James is telling the unfaithful that they are doing no better in reaching the world than demons do.
Basically we have God calling our numbers for service and we often just sit there on the bench and ignore the call. NO MORE EXCUSES – GET BUSY!
James 2:18 “…I will show you my faith by my works.”
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