More from the epistle from James

More from James' letter to the dispersed Jewish Christians. The other day we were sitting in the Vancouver I'ntl airport and waiting for our flight that would take us to Fairbanks, Alaska. As I was sitting there, my mind went to the verse in chapter two that says, "as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also." It is true that when the body dies, the spirit of that body goes back to God and the body is truly dead.


James, here has compared the body,first part of the equation no.1 to the faith we all have been given in equation no. 2, and he compares in equation no. 1 the spirit to works in equation 2 , in other words just as the spirit gives life to the body...so works makes our faith come alive. Let me repeat what James is saying here. He is saying that works is the life that faith requires.Think on this for a while and let the Holy Spirit guide you.
Now I would have thought when considering these things that James would associate the body with works and the spirit with faith, (remember the spirit gives life) but he uses this illustration to show us that faith is useless until you put it to work. He says in verse 18, "but someone will say , you have faith and I have works." Remember the old secular song, "love and marriage...you can't have one without the other?" Well that is faith and works, you can't have faith without works....you can however have works without faith and that's no good either. You must have both says James. Abraham had both and he was called the friend of God. Rahab was a hooker and she was justified by her works because she acted in faith when she received the spies. So you need to believe but you need to act on it also. It can be action by prayer. We all say the church needs revival but if we do not repent and if we do not pray earnestly, then nothing happens. James uses another example in chapter 5 and it is just what I am saying....Elijah was a man just like we are and he prayed. We will consider this in a later blog.

Part 2: A BIG GOD
As I said in my last entry, we have a big God and He has lots and lots of grace, immeasurable whereas Denali is measureable, 6.2 million acres , Alaska is measurable, but God’s grace cannot be measured by any standard of measurement known to man. In Alaska, because of it’s rich oil reserves, each resident receives a dividend check every year. God has a dividend for you and I because of the riches of His grace and it is available because of the shed blood of Jesus to everyone. on the planet , but you must ask for it. It seems like a lot of people come to the north for various reasons…perhaps to escape the so-called rat race of the south or for many other reasons, maybe just modern living pressures and Alaska is a big place to sort of hide in and really get away from it all. Some people think they can commit sin and try to excuse their sin using GOD’S grace, but it doesn’t work that way. John says that if we sin we have an advocate with the Father, the man Christ Jesus, and he also tells us that if we confess our sins that He will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That is grace. But we cannot use grace as an occasion to sin, we have to be sincere and forsake sin in our flesh. Maybe James has these thoughts in mind when he talks about faith without works being dead,; when he talks about being doers of the Word and not just hearers; when he talks about being tempted by our own lusts and when he tells us to lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, or the implanted word of God. When he tells us that we need to bridle our tongues. Jesus said to the woman who had committed adultery, “go and sin n more.” FAITH WITHOUT WORKS IS DEAD”

A BIG GOD

We are in Alaska and have just returned from Denali Notional park It is beautiful and it is vast covering 6.2 million acres. It is also untapped. It reminds me of the grace of God....vast and beautiful and untapped by most people. A lot of the people we met here i Alaska are from some other state or country originally. In Newfoundland they call everybody that is not from there, people from way. it seems that an awful lot of people are like that, spiritually speaking far from God..people from away.We were all like that before we met Jesus, before H came into our lives. It's like Denali, until you go there and experience it you will never know just how great it is. That is like the grace of God, until you experience it you will never know how great He really is.

Body or spirit?

While sitting in Vancouver International airprt, my thoughts went to the epistle of James chapter 2 where it says in verse 17, "as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also." It is true what James says about the body, we know that when the spirit leaves the body, there is a death So also it is true what James asserts that just as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead. But do you see the lesson James is giving us? THE COMPARISON? Faith equals body and spirit equals works. Now I would have thought of the body as a likeness of works , but James equates the spirit as works. In other words once works come into the picture and energizes the spirit, life occurs; body without spirit equals faith without works it becomes dead in either case. Jesus said to go and produce fruit that would remain. Faith without works is dead