THE CHRISTIAN WALK

Wednesday, May 8, 2024

WHO DO YOU BEFRIEND?

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

In Christ, Mark

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** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Or do you think Scripture says without reason that He jealously longs for the Spirit He has caused to dwell in us?

James 4:4-5

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

In life, there is one major choice every person needs to make, a choice more important than any other. This decision isn’t really a matter of life versus death per se because it’s a matter of life that can go one of two very different ways.

On one hand, a person can choose to believe in Jesus and accept God’s free gift of everlasting life in Heaven when this earthly life ends, a life that will be totally free from every single affliction that this life brings.

Indeed, in Heaven there will be no longer be sin, physical or mental illness, grief, heartache, financial difficulty, or any other kind of trouble that we might come up against. In its place, we will live in all consuming love and peace, basking in the glory of living with God and Jesus forever.

Conversely, someone can opt to reject salvation through Jesus, snubbing their nose at God’s generous blessing in exchange for enjoying all that the world can offer, a world that is ready to meet one’s every desire, especially the sinful ones.

These people will also live on after death on earth but there eternal life will be one of torment and suffering in the damnation of Hell. There it will be too late to reverse things, no escape after realizing the terrible mistake that was made. It’s a place that no person should ever willingly go to.

It’s this space, the ultimate destinations of Heaven and Hell, that we find James speaking into as we look again at our scripture verses in chapter 4. There he writes:

Read between the lines here and the point is clear. You can’t have it both ways in life, drawing from the world and from God. God made it clear in the scriptures that He is jealous (Exodus 20:5) and will not except anything except the absolute dedication and loyalty of his people. In regard to the Old Testament Israelites, his covenant was simple. He would be their God, bringing to bear His total protection and provision if they would remain entirely faithful to Him. Through the ages since delivering His ten famous commandments, He still expects His created people to be loyal to Him.

Unfortunately, like in biblical times, first in the Old Testament and then in the first century of Christianity to the present, men and women have chosen to be adulterous, a greater friend of the world and its ways than the One who created it all. The creation is worshiped and adored more than the Mighty Creator.

It’s this spiritual infidelity that places a multitude of people in opposition to the most powerful force in existence, an enemy of the Lord God Most High, the Lord who jealously yearns for all people to gladly embrace the saving He offered through Jesus out of love so that they would not perish but gain everlasting life (John 3:16).

All this leads to the question that forms the title of today’s message:

Who do you befriend?

Have you chosen friendship with the world and enmity with God, an enmity that will conclude with an eternal residence in Hell?

Or have you decided to gain and maintain a special, divine companionship with God, receiving and accepting His offer of eternal life through believing in Jesus, His Son, and in doing so, receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit as well as an inheritance of the very Kingdom of Heaven?

My prayer is that it is the latter but if you are reading this today and are not saved, I highly urge you to change your friendship this very moment, saying farewell to the world and hello to the Lord and His blessed offerings. It’s a decision you will never regret in this life or in the one yet to come.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

Tuesday, May 7, 2024

THE DANGER IN WANTING AND COVETING

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

In Christ, Mark

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** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

James 4:1-3

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

The matter of wanting has plagued mankind since biblical times and before I go too much further here, let me clarify that it’s not a sin to want things. Every person has wants as it’s an inherent part of our humanity. In fact, God’s word encourages believers to have strong desires for things, not just everything. The latter is what the world would suggest as Satan seeks to convince people that it’s okay to yearn for even sinful things, things that would draw God’s consternation and judgment.

So part of the problem is wanting is that we can find ourselves craving things we shouldn’t but it also can lead to us doing other sinful actions to get the things we long for, especially if we can’t afford to gain those things on our own or we see something that someone else had it’s better than our own, something known as coveting and God saw this as such a major issue that He addressed it in the Ten Commandments. Here’s what He said regarding the matter of wanting to the point of coveting:

“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.” Exodus 20:17

Here the imagery is looking across the way at your next door neighbor and wishing you had what he does. Note there isn’t anything left out here. A person wasn’t to covet their neighbor’s home, his wife, his slaves, his livestock, or anything else that belonged to him. The things he had were his possessions, provided as blessings by God, and no one else had a right to take what was rightfully his.

And nothing has changed since God issued the command to the Israelite people through Moses at Mount Sinai during their exodus from Egypt to the Promised Land of Canaan. Unfortunately, we see the problem prevalent enough in New Testament times that James had to address it. Look again at his words in chapter 4:

Note here how far people went to get what they didn’t have. They were willing to kill others and if they didn’t go that far they were at least fighting and quarreling with one another. James rebukes this behavior and strikes right at the root cause for the reason people were wanting and coveting is that they were chasing after their own desires and not including God, the only One who knows just what we need and when we need it.

Had the Old Testament Israelites or the New Testament Jewish Christians simply gone to God and ask for what He wanted them to have, then prayed for those things, then they would have been content because His desires for them would be the desires they had in life.

In other words, we have wants but our focus should be on our needs. They aren’t the same thing. God will provide what we need to live and serve Him but He isn’t going to give us everything we want. He’s smarter and wiser than that. And when we fully know and understand that God is meeting our needs as He provides what He knows is best for us, then something beautiful emerges out of the danger of wanting and coveting.

For the Christian believer becomes content and satisfied, thankful to God for what He does give, not craving or lusting after what He hasn’t given.

Friends, these opening verses from James, chapter 4 are screaming out at us for attention. They are asking us to examine ourselves to see if we are excessively in want to the point of coveting, and if we are, to reverse course and realize how blessed we are with what God has provided, at peace with what He has done and granted us.

I think the old saying goes something like this, a saying that is “kryptonite” for the problem of wanting and coveting. It goes like this:

“Carefully count your blessings and when you’re done, count them over again.”

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

Monday, May 6, 2024

THE BEAUTY AND BLESSING OF BEING A PEACEMAKER

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

In Christ, Mark

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** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness.

James 3:18

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Look at our world today and you may agree with me when I say that if there was ever a time when we need peacemakers, it’s now. Our communities, states, nations, and world are starving for it and as we see in today’s scripture passage, the Bible encourages it and underscores the beauty found in those who are ever seeking to bring solace and serenity instead of agitation and strife. Look at these closing words found in James, chapter 3:

Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness. v. 18

Here we find an incentivizing for those who would commit themselves to sow peace, those who would seek to plant seeds of calm into every person or situation they encounter. The hope of the peace sower is that those seeds of calm would take root in the hearts and minds of others so to reap a harvest of peacefulness, a peacefulness that would look completely opposite of what we see happening on college campuses across the United States recently.

Note that there is a reward for the peacemaker for through their work of sowing peace, they will “reap a harvest of righteousness”, performing actions that are favorable to the Lord and pleasing in His sight. Indeed, the Lord loves it when His people are living in peace, preferably connected to that peace through Him, the Prince of peace (Isaiah 9:6).

Indeed, Jesus Himself also had something to say about the peacemaker. For at the beginning of His renowned Sermon on the Mount, He said this within the context of what we know as the Beatitudes:

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. Matthew 5:9

Here, Jesus affirms that the peacemakers who reap a harvest of righteousness will be blessed and “called children of God”. This is because the true peacemaker is in and of Christ Jesus first and with Him alive inside the believer, peace becomes a natural behavior. And because the peacemaker is a Jesus believer then they will automatically become one of God’s children. The Word of God found in Romans tells us as much:

You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of His Spirit who lives in you.

For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by Him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Romans 8:9-16

The moment a person professes their belief in Jesus, they receive the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and given they are then led by the Spirit of God, they also are counted as His children. This Holy Spirit will also produce fruitfulness within the actions and attitudes of a Christian, and one of those fruits of the Spirit is...you got it...peace.

“...the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Galatians 5:22-23

Friends, there is beauty found at the heart of every peacemaker because Jesus is working through that heart by way of the Holy Spirit. As Christian believers, let’s all remember that we are all called to peace as we intentionally sow it everywhere that our Father God leads us, His children. For when we do, He will ensure that we will be blessed.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

Sunday, May 5, 2024

WHAT KIND OF WISDOM DO YOU SHOW?

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

In Christ, Mark

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** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. Such “wisdom” does not come down from Heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.

But the wisdom that comes from Heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.

James 3:13-17

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

I don’t think I have ever met anyone in their right mind who didn’t wish to be wise in the decisions they made and the associated actions connected to those decisions. It’s true today and it was definitely an important matter in the Bible. In fact, there is a whole block of Old Testament books that are classified as wisdom literature. The books of Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Solomon all fall under this category.

In the New Testament, wisdom is often found addresses in warnings as Christian churches were often established in places where a premium was put on human philosophers such as in Corinth where the issue was so prominent that we found Paul writing these words:

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written:

“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.” (Isaiah 29:14)

Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?

For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 1 Corinthians 1:18-24

Here we find that true wisdom is only found through one believing in Christ Jesus for through Him, the Christian receives both the power and wisdom of God Himself, the only One who is perfect in all things to include the matter of wisdom. In fact, the Word we just looked at affirms that God causes the wisdom of the world to be reduced to sheer foolishness.

With this truth as a backdrop, we move to another New Testament author who touched on the matter of wisdom as he wrote to his fellow Hebrew Christians. Here’s what we find from James, the brother of Jesus, as he shares this in the third chapter of his letter:

But the wisdom that comes from Heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. Vv. 13-17

Here we find the scriptures teaching us that there are only two categories of wisdom: the wisdom of man and the wisdom of God (aka the wisdom that “comes from Heaven”. The two sources of wisdom are easily definable through the behavior of those who are disciples of it.

Those who subscribe to worldly wisdom will be recognized through their willingness to “harbor bitter envy” and/or “selfish ambition in their hearts”. These character qualities will only lead to “disorder and every evil practice” being carried out. Their behavior will be characterized as “earthly, unspiritual”, and “demonic” as wisdom of the world only comes through Satan, the chief Devil and father of all lies and deceit.

Conversely, the Christian believer who has received the Holy Spirit and committed themselves to live as Jesus did, seeking to always be obedient to God’s will and direction, will be easily identified by the following traits. They will be:

- purity

- peace-loving

- considerate

- submissive

- full of mercy

- a bearer of good fruit, namely the fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23)

- impartial

and finally,

- sincere

Note that these attributes are only found in someone who has received, accepted, and adopted the “wisdom that comes from Heaven”, God’s wisdom.

So all this begs some questions that are associated with the title of today’s message. For when someone looks at you and the way you live...

What kind of wisdom do you show?

Does your behavior reflect that you follow the wisdom of the world or the true wisdom of the Lord?

If the scriptures are convicting you today because you have fallen into the trap that so many other do, a trap laid by the enemy to get you to behave in ways that are counter to what the Lord desires, then know today can be the day that you can change, the day when you can repent of your sinfulness and dedicate yourself to the Lord who not only saves you but shares His power and wisdom with you.

To be in Christ is to gain the same wisdom of the Father that He did. My prayer today that this is the wisdom that will represent your life and all that you do to honor and glorify the Lord who grants it to you.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

Saturday, May 4, 2024

THE POWERFUL TONGUE

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Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

In Christ, Mark

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** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

We all stumble in many ways. Anyone who is never at fault in what they say is perfect, able to keep their whole body in check.

When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal. Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go.

Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.

All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and sea creatures are being tamed and have been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.

With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing.

My brothers and sisters, this should not be. Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.

James 3:2-12

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

After a NBA playoff game the other night, a player, upset by the way things went in the team’s loss and elimination from the playoffs, decided to take it out on a reporter in the locker room. As the reporter tried to hold her microphone in a position to capture the player’s comments, the player asked her to move the microphone before asking is she subscribed to his podcast. When she said she didn’t, he asked her to leave.

It was a petty move, taking out his frustration on a reporter who was just doing her job, and, as is usually the case, the player was forced to apologize afterwards as a firestorm of criticism rained down on him.

Why bring this up?

Because as we see in today’s scripture passage from the third chapter of James, we’re reminded of how our tongues can get us in deep trouble if we don’t intentionally work to keep them in check. And before we get to hyper-critical of this basketball player’s behavior, let’s step back and know that we all have been just as guilty in our lives of saying the wrong thing to someone because we spoke on impulse without self control.

Let’s look again at our verses for today.

We all stumble in many ways. Anyone who is never at fault in what they say is perfect, able to keep their whole body in check.

All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and sea creatures are being tamed and have been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.

With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing.

Out of all the parts of the body that one would consider strong, no one would intuitively include the tongue on the list. Anatomically, it’s considered a voluntary muscle which means a person chooses to move it. Given that, it is like the muscles in one’s fingers, arms, or legs but unlike the heart.

This means the tongue only activates when we want it too and therein is the problem at hand. We underestimate the power the tongue possesses and that underestimation ends up being our downfall, especially because the tongue is such a critical part of our speech mechanism. Too often, we don’t understand the significance of exercising proper control over this voluntary muscle until it’s too late.

How dangerous is the unchecked, unbridled tongue?

The Word of God tells us that it can end up being “a world of evil among the parts of the body” able to corrupt its host and set “the whole course of one’s life on fire”. Calling the tongue a “restless evil”, the Lord goes on to say it is full of deadly poison that can not only harm the person it dwells in but the people impacted by the evil words it speaks.

As this isn’t harrowing enough, we also learn one troubling, sobering truth from this passage. For no one has the ability to “tame the tongue”. It’s impossible for any person to do on their own.

This is why people need to believe in Jesus. For not only does He bring them the promise of eternal life but the gift of the Holy Spirit as well. And when the Holy Spirit enters the Christian believer, then and only then can they produce the fruits the Spirit brings and one of those is self control, control over all actions to include the divine-provided strength to rein in the powerful tongue.

You see, just as we can voluntarily use the tongue muscle for evil, we can also use it for good. For through the influence of the Holy Spirit and submitting to his leading, the Christian believer allows their words to be their own but rather of the Christ who is alive within them. And when His words are spoken, they will always bless the listener and be pleasing in the sight of God the Father.

Are you finding yourself in constant trouble over saying the wrong things to others, reflective of your tongue spewing out the evil it’s capable of?

Today is the day to fix that problem. Surrender your words to Christ Jesus. Allow His words to be Your words. Give in fully to the guiding of the Holy Spirit and gain the gift of self control.

Trust me when I say, you’ll never regret making these changes nor will the people you open up your mouth to speak to.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

Friday, May 3, 2024

A GREATER ACCOUNTABILITY

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

In Christ, Mark

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** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.

James 3:1

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

I have been very blessed to have received the gift of teaching by the Lord and every day, I try to make sure I use that gift to His glory through my writing, my church, and my life. As I have always said to people, don’t be the third servant, referring to Jesus’ Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14-30) where the mentioned servant failed to provide a return on his master’s investment and was cast out “into the darkness” where there was “weeping and gnashing of teeth”. Yikes!

Now, we need to remember that the Lord hasn’t given everyone the same gifts but I know I can say with absolute confidence that He doesn’t create anyone who doesn’t have a gift to use and share in accordance with His will. I also know that if we use one gift well, the Lord can also grant us additional gifts (refer back to the parable and the rewards gained by the servants who made the most of what the master had given). In addition to the gift of teaching, He has blessed me with the ability to write, sing, and preach as well as lead and manage ministries.

The bottom line is that when a Christian is all in to serve the Lord, they will always be full time employed with lots of overtime. This you can count on.

Going back to the matter of teaching in the name of the Lord, we see that this calling isn’t for the faint of heart. For the word of God assures us that there is a higher level of accountability on those who proclaim the scriptures and then convey their meaning and practical application to others. Look again at these words of James from the first verse of chapter 3:

Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.

I believe that Biblical teaching is one of the highest honors a Christian believer can be called to for the teacher, by way of complete interaction and partnering with the Holy Spirit, gets to be a spokesperson for the Lord Himself. And with much responsibility comes greater accountability, or at least this is what I have learned after many, many years of being a leader in the military and the church.

Everyone faces God’s judgment when they willingly choose sinful disobedience, violating His commands and their associated expectations of righteousness, but a Christian teacher who chooses to misrepresent their Lord should fully expect to “be judged more strictly” as they are literally misleading His people and disrespecting Him in the process. These are the sheep in wolves clothing that Jesus warned about during His ministry on earth (Matthew 7:15).

How can Christian teachers ensure they don’t fall into sin through that work and suffer the harsher penalties God promises through His Word?

First, they should never speak from a place of opinion.

God’s Word is complete and fully adequate. Nothing needs added nor is conjecture needed. There are things of the Lord that will ever remain a mystery and with that, we know that we’re not going to fully understand everything until that time when we are ushered into eternal glory to abide with Him. Until that time, we trust His Word and the leading of the Holy Spirit which should always drive the words of the Christian teacher.

And this leads to the second action all Christian teachers should adopt to remain in God’s good graces. For the teacher needs to make sure that they are allowing the face-value, totality of the scriptures and the counsel of the Holy Spirit to drive what they put down in preparation to teach and then say on the day of instruction. When a teacher refuses to deviate from this, they can always be assured they are teaching in right and righteous ways, ways that are pleasing in the Lord’s sight.

Finally, Christian teachers should always implore their students to always validate everything against the scriptures and the moving of the Holy Spirit within their own lives. The surest way to protect one’s self from a false teacher is to know the scriptures yourself and allow the Holy Spirit to impart understanding of those scriptures. In concert with one another, the Word and the Spirit will always expose inappropriate teaching.

Friends, I love this verse and fully endorse and embrace it. For I invite scrutiny when I am representing the Lord while teaching His Word, using this wonderful gift He has granted. I want to please Him in every way and I pray you are blessed by the end product as I share words He imparts on me daily all the while seeking to honor and glorify Him every day.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

Thursday, May 2, 2024

INSEPARABLE MATTERS

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

In Christ, Mark

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** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.”

Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.

You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless?

Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar?

You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend.

You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone.

In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction?

As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.

James 2:17-26

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

In life, there are just some things that are better together than they are apart.

Peanut butter and jelly, for example.

Or maybe macaroni and cheese, cereal and milk, a burger with fries, strawberries and cream, or bacon and eggs.

We also could consider other twosomes like watching a movie while eating freshly popped popcorn, using soap with water to wash your hands clean, getting tacos on Tuesday, or having a pen to write on a piece of paper.

And then there are famous entertainment duos.

It just wouldn’t seem the same if you had Tom without Jerry, Abbott without Costello, Snoopy without Woodstock, Romeo minus Juliet, Holmes without Watson, Batman without Robin, Bert without Ernie, or Scooby Doo without Shaggy.

You get the point. In living this thing called life, we encounter many things that are seemingly inseparable when we consider them. One would just not be the same without the other.

In regard to our spiritual lives as Christians, we see in our scripture passage for today, drawn from the closing verses of James, chapter 2, that there are two things that are seemingly inseparable: faith and deeds. Look again at these words here:

In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.”

Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.

You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless?

Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar?

You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone.

In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction?

As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead. Vv. 17-26

We know that James, a converted Jew, is writing to his brother and sister Hebrew Christians in this letter and it’s obvious that there’s a disconnect in regard to their faith and good works, aka deeds.

In yesterday’s message, we saw a clear message from God’s word, a demand that Christians not just acknowledge a problem when they see it such as someone who’s in need. Rather, the Jesus follower is to follow in the footsteps of Christ and take action, to do something and aid the person who needs help.

In today’s verses, we find a continuation of this urging as James uses Old Testament references to drive home his point to His Jewish Christian readers.

Abraham didn’t just show his faith and trust in God without displaying it. Rather, he went all the way to actually sacrificing his one and only son on an altar before God intervened and provided a ram instead. Through the inter-workings of faith and action, God praised Abraham and credited what he had done as righteousness before labeling him a friend.

And then there was Rahab, a prostitute who lived in Jericho. When two Israelite spies were spotted in the city, it was Rahab who took them in and hid them before providing a false witness that they had fled so that the Jericho forces would pursue, opening up the opportunity for the spies to escape unharmed. In return for her faithful deed, God considered what she had done as righteous and He spared her and her family when Jericho’s walls collapsed and His people conquered and claimed the city.

God’s point was clear and concise.

One couldn’t have faith absent of associated good deeds. It was true in the first century A.D. and it has remained true through the ages up to present times.

A living faith produces good works and every day the Lord provides rich opportunities for Christian believers to put that faith into action.

How did you do it today...and how will you do it tomorrow, the next day, and every day the Lord blesses you with while here on earth?

That’s a question we all need to answer before a Lord who has high expectations for us to carry out His will and way.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.