Boasting and Bragging or Serving and Trusting?

This week we will read James 4: 13-17

It says, “Now listen, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.’ Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are just a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.’ As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil. Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.”

Wow! That’s a tough verse for those of us planning for retirement. Never mind the last part about knowing what is good and not doing it . . . the previous part about making plans and having dreams for tomorrow seems to fly in the face of what it means to be a responsible person in out culture. James is almost downright un-American!

Yet, James is not so down on making plans and carrying them out as he is about rich people dreaming (or even boasting) about being richer . . . as opposed to dreaming (or even boasting) about serving God. As rich people we should take this as a stern warning. (That’s the tough part.) But as God’s people who have access to the resources that we have in our nation and in our community, we should take it as a charge to boast about the right stuff. We don’t know what will happen tomorrow, but we do know that whatever happens, we have given our lives to the God who is in charge of tomorrow.

Mark

Resurrected, Returning

Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”

Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”

Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
John 20: 26b-29

Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshipped him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.
Matthew 28: 16-20

When he had led them out to the vicinity of Bethany, he lifted up his hands and blessed them. While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into heaven. Then they worshipped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy. And they stayed continually at the temple, praising God.
Luke 24: 50-53

Jesus said to them, “ . . . At that time men will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory. And he will send his angels and gather his elect . . . “
Mark 13: 26, 27

Fruit

God’s spirit living in us does something to us . . .*

You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. ~James 2: 22

I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. ~John 15: 5-8

A young boy approached an evangelist after a revival tent meeting. He inquired about answering Jesus’ knocking at the door of his heart. The conversation continued:

The evangelist squatted down so he could look the boy in the eye. “Did you ask him in?”
“Well, I’d like to,” the boy said, shuffling dirt with the toes of his shoe before returning his gaze to the evangelist. “But I got to figurin’ . . . I’m so little and Jesus is so big—he’s just gonna stick out all over!”
“That’s the point, son,” the evangelist said with a smile. “That’s the point.” **

Let’s get connected to the Vine so that we start bearing fruit . . . Let’s start loving in such a way people can point at our lives and say “I know who you are!” Or better yet, “I know whose you are”—because they see our Lord and his love in us.***

*Mark Moore, Springfield Church News, April 2, 2006
** , *** Joanna Weaver, Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World, 2000, 2002

Decaffeinated Faith

Most of you know I drink espresso in amounts that are probably unwise. As far as I can tell, the caffeine doesn’t bother me so much. However, if my wife were to ingest as much as I do, she might not sleep for days. Occasionally I have mixed up the coffee at our house and given her a cappuccino with caffeine, and she lies awake that night for hours. Marnie doesn’t decide to be wired when she drinks my coffee; the coffee makes her wired. In other words, it’s not her will; it’s the will of the coffee. Any resulting flurry of activity that results is from the coffee in her system. God’s spirit living in us does something to us . . . something far more powerful than caffeine.

When James tells us “Faith without works is dead,” he is, in effect, saying, “If we have REAL faith pumping through our systems, that faith produces good works.” To will ourselves into working harder is comparable to a person deciding to be energized by caffeine. No one “decides” that; it just happens. If it does not happen, perhaps we need to re-examine our caffeine source. (Not a perfect analogy. Caffeine doesn’t affect everyone, but the Spirit of God does.)

One extra sneaky way Satan works is to prompt people to get annoyed and discouraged when phony faith doesn’t affect their lives. He loves that because then they pitch the faith in the trash and say, “That was all a lie anyway!” Remember the lying pharmacist we talked about Sunday? He removed all the power from the drugs, and people taking the useless cancer meds died.

Everyday people like you and I are clueless as to whether coffee is really caffeinated or if drugs are potent. So how can we know if faith is real? Only scientists and chemists could give a report on substance properties . . . yet God is kind. He doesn’t ask us to seek theological experts to determine real faith; he builds it into our systems. James reminds us of that: “If good works are being produced, then we have a real faith.” (Remember this is very different from “If you work real hard, you have real faith.”) Perhaps it’s time to have an honest conversation with God and admit if our faith has been based on some intellectual decision, or fear of hell, or something other than a desire to be transformed by his will and his spirit.

With all that said, if you are like me, your good works are sorely lacking. That’s why we turn to God and say, “Lord, I know you are in me, and I know you have saved me; now, make me more aware of any work you have for me to do.” Pray it daily. Pray it hourly. He will answer.

Mark