Focus

Experience silence in the midst of your busy day. Take some time to relax into a time to be with God.

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Read

James 2:14-26 (NRSV)

What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,” and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.

But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I by my works will show you my faith. You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder. Do you want to be shown, you senseless person, that faith apart from works is barren? Was not our ancestor Abraham justified by works when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was brought to completion by the works. Thus the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness,” and he was called the friend of God. You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. Likewise, was not Rahab the prostitute also justified by works when she welcomed the messengers and sent them out by another road? For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is also dead.

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Reflect

I have never liked hearing the Book of James referred to as the “epistle of straw.” The label implies that there is little substance to James’ letter, that it is too simple to have been included in the same book as the epistles from deep thinkers like Paul. Personally, I prefer ten words about whose meaning I have no doubt to a hundred that leave me wondering. Keep it simple. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind and love your neighbor as yourself.

If it’s so simple and obvious, why are we still arguing about it? Because it is easier to engage in hermeneutics (seek hidden meaning in a text) than to feed a homeless person. And a lot less risky.

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Pray

God, we have nothing to offer you that is worthy of acceptance, except love. You show us more honor in the acceptance than we can in the offering. Thank you for the privilege and honor of that. Would that we could be called the friends of God. Amen.

Go with God.