Faith: Book of James 2 & 3

The last few weeks, I have been going to the local Baptist church. This is laregly due to the fact that AJ does not care for the nursery of our home church and the need to go to church as a believer and the effect it has on my behavior after a while, if I'm not careful.

Anyway, the last several weeks, the talk has been on the book of James. This is probably one of my favorite books due to its challenge to believers to live the faith they claim, as well as people who think they are believers, when their life does not show much fruit. It can be a scary reminder that our faith is more than just believing the right things and having "prayed the prayer" many years ago.

Here are a few points that caused me to think and could be a comfort or a challenge to you all as well: (This is a combinatioan of my notes taken for two weeks.- by 2 different pastors)

Jam. 2- Your faith in Christ produces salvation AND evidence. -Our Christian life should be marked not just by salvation, but also to do good works as a result of our salvation. Do we have any fruit that is from God?

---"Faith alone saves, but not faith that is alone." John Calvin

---You say you believe...even the demons believe (and shudder)- Pastor Chris made the comment that "at least the demons were affected by their faith."

---This also led to the point that just because you say you believe does not necessarily mean you are a true believer. This reminds me of what Paul says about working out your salvation in fear and trembling. I often lose my fear that God is WAY bigger than me and I need to be continually drawing closer to Him.

---It doesn't matter if you can quote Scripture; you could and still be on your way to hell.

---Do we get angry when people question our Christianity?--Perhaps we need to examine ourselves.

A challenging week for me and I just wanted to share some of those things. As Greg Koukl often says, "Go out and give 'em heaven."

God bless,

D.B.