Living by Faith

James 2:14 NIV

What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him?

How Does Your Faith Look?

One year when our oldest son was just eight, we went camping up in Sequoia National Park.  At the south end of the park the middle fork of the Kaweah River squirms along and near the Buckeye Flats Campground it gathers into a large pool and then works its way down out of the hills.  Our family spent a day swimming there and found two aspects to this pool exiting and fun.  One was the way the river spilled over a giant granite boulder as it poured down into the pool below.  The water had created a smooth groove in the rock that resulted in a sort of water slide that made for an exhilarating ride.  It only took a couple seconds from the top of the rock down into the icy water below but it was hilarious fun.  At the foot of the boulder the water was probably six feet deep so as you dropped into it after your slippery ride down the rock you landed with a great splash into the snow fed water.  Holding in my lap our second son who was only six, we went down together and as we each bobbed up to the surface we both burst out into laughter.  Our oldest son went down the slide too and we all found it a thrilling adventure.  As we sat in the sun together at the edge of the pool getting warm, we watched as a boy a little older than our son along with his dad climbed up a steep path that went up a cliff on the other side of the pool.  They made it to a rock outcropping that was about thirty feet above the pool of water and jumped from it and splashed into the river.  Our jaws dropped at the unexpected sight of them plunging down into the water but they came up safely and made their way back up to the outcropping and dived into the pool again.  Our oldest son was intrigued by this and after the father and boy assured us of how safe the jump was, he decided after I gave my approval to make the same dive.  He asked me to go with him and jump from the cliff but I shook my head “no”.  I had plenty of faith in my son to make the jump but I wasn’t so sure of myself doing it.  Faith is funny that way.  We all pick and choose what sort of faith we will have and when we will practice it.

If you were asked about the kind of faith you have, how would you answer? How does your faith look?  What sorts of actions define your faith?  Is your faith noticeable to others or is it quieter, almost silent?  Do you think there is a universal quality to faith or is it more individual…something each of us decides is faith?  How would it go if you were forced to prove your faith through eyewitnesses?  Who would testify to your faith and what would your witnesses say about it?  We often hear of authors and speakers building a case for faith, for having faith but rarely do we come across those who give evidence for that they themselves have faith.  Faith for most is too personal to talk about, let alone put on display.  And yet doesn’t the Bible tell us to exhibit our faith, show that we have it?

Jesus in His Sermon on the Mount seems to command us to make our faith public.  "You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden.  Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.  In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven. (Mathew 5:14-16 NIV)  Although “faith” is not the word Jesus uses here, it certainly is the fundamental point being made.  Don’t just keep your faith to yourself, let your actions proclaim the sort of faith you have.  The expectation of Jesus is that what you believe about God will show up in what you do.  The book of James insists that faith is an activity and not just a way of thinking about things.  What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him?  Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food.  If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it?  In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. (James 2:14-17 NIV)

Miracles in the Bible almost always were connected to a requirement for action.  Something had to be done by those who were the recipients of God’s supernatural help.  Naaman, the Aramean general was told to dip in the Jordan seven times before the Lord would heal him of his leprosy.  The Israelites, as they began their conquest of the Promised Land had to step into the Jordan River before the Lord would make it part and they could go through it on dry ground.  Before that, in order to leave Egypt, the entire Hebrew nation had to step between the great walls of water piled up on each side of them and trust God not to drown them in the Red Sea.  The crippled man who sat beside the pool of Bethesda day after day for nearly three decades hoping God might heal him unexpectedly was healed but not in the way he could have expected.  Jesus came upon him and told the man to pick up his mat and walk before He would do anything for him.  When he did, the crippled man was healed.  The woman who suffered from bleeding first reached out and touched Jesus’ clothing; then she was healed.  Lazarus’s sisters had to order the stone in front of the tomb to be moved away before Lazarus stepped out alive.  The people of Israel were given by God specific instructions about marching around Jericho before He would make the walls miraculously collapse.

One of the few times Jesus celebrated someone’s faith was when a Roman centurion told Jesus He did not need to go all the way to his house to heal his servant.  His trust in God generated an action, sending a servant to Christ and telling Him that his servant did not need Jesus’ touch, just the promise of the Lord to save him was enough.  When Jesus heard this, he was amazed at him, and turning to the crowd following him, he said, "I tell you, I have not found such great faith even in Israel." (Luke 7:9 NIV)  It took steely resolve for the centurion to believe that Jesus did not have to go all the way to his house to miraculously heal his servant.  Jesus called that “great faith”; not the message pleading for Him to help but the action of not needing Him to actually touch the servant who was dying.

I saw that a priest of one of the churches bombed by Muslim assassins in Sri Lanka called for the people of his congregation to pray for and forgive those who planned and organized the atrocity.  That is how faith looks.  It has a face; the face of someone who does what Jesus says to do even though it is painfully hard.  A friend asks for prayer that he would get a job.  When he gets that job and begins to take ten percent of his income and return it to the Lord, that is faith.  When a mom who has cancer is healed, what she does with her Sundays will tell us about her faith.  A man I met recently saw firsthand the love and kindness of a family that his mother worked for as a nanny.  These Christian people talked about the Gospel and practiced Christianity at home.  The boy himself became a Christian because of what he saw in this family.  That is faith.  A couple who heard about the terrible condition of orphans in Haiti became convinced the Lord wanted them to adopt one of the children there and although they already had two kids, they took what extra money they had and spent countless hours going back and forth to Haiti until they finally were able to bring one of the boys in an orphanage home to be their own.  That is faith.

We do not hope in a Savior who does nothing.  He took His life in His hands and offered it up on a Cross to die for our salvation.  He believed in the will of the Father and because of that faith He did whatever the Father told Him to do.  If you have faith in Christ, you will show you have faith in Christ by obeying Him.  What will you do today that shows your faith in Jesus?  Will you pray more for others than you have been doing?  Will you help someone who doesn’t deserve your help?  Will you bite your tongue and keep your criticism to yourself?  Will you go visit someone in the hospital and pray over that person?  Will you be more generous in your offerings, pass out Gospel tracts to your neighbors, make plans to go on a mission trip, say something encouraging to someone who has treated you badly?  What will you do today to show your faith in Christ as Savior and Lord?

Battlefields and Storms

Have you gone far enough with God to actually trust Him?  When Peter stepped out of the boat and into the storm, it was a most unhappy outcome for him in some ways.  He was soaked and nearly drowned by the lake and then rebuked for his lack of faith.  But he alone was willing to go out enough after God to risk disaster in his "faithing" and gain through it the "grip of God".  You don't have to look far in the Christian community to find boat sitters who prefer the safety of imagined faith over deadly storm faith.  It has been made popular lately to scoff at David's courage in stepping out against Goliath as if he had some secret weapon or deadly insight into Goliath's fatal weakness.  No one else stepped forward and advanced away from the safety of the battle lines.  Was David the only one who knew how to use a sling?  Was Goliath feeble and clumsy and half blind? Would the Philistines really have been so drunk with contempt for the Israelites to send such a creature out as their champion?   If so, wouldn't someone else among the Hebrew soldiers have seen it too that Goliath posed no real risk?  What David possessed was storm faith.  He would not let his fear stand in the way of going out into the chaos of walking with God.    And that really is the discovery of 1 Samuel 17.  Rare is there such hope in God, a sort of violent hope, that keeps the few strong while the rest hide behind the safety of the battle line and never experience that hope gained as the hot breath of Satan blows upon them.  Are you among the elite who will risk all you have to gain God on the battlefield, in the storm, at your office, school, mission field or home?  Is there a heroic urge to go with God into the fiery blast of the furnace and stand firm there beside Him?  Has God already pointed the way out of complacency and lukewarm faith and do you stand at the edge of the boat, trying to decide if you will be the one to step out into the storm?  Will it be said of you in the pavilions of eternity that when everyone else hesitated, you walked with God even as Satan cast his horrific gale into your face?  You stood and kept your post when all others abandoned theirs and in the moment of despair you found Christ strong and faithful and His courage sufficient for your hour!  Few discover supernatural courage and strength because they never go where it is needed.  What grace there is for those who abandon themselves to the Christ who calls them to come forth from the boat and join Him in the events where legends are made and tales of faith are told forever!

As he was talking with them, Goliath, the Philistine champion from Gath, stepped out from his lines and shouted his usual defiance, and David heard it.     1 Samuel 17:23-24 NIV

Full Effort

Philippians 3:13-14 NIV

… straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

What has your full attention?

The other day I was at a very nice restaurant with a good friend and we had a great time together.  The food was delicious and honestly I ate far too much.  I gained a full pound just having lunch there.  As we were leaving, the Lord prodded me to go to a couple with a newborn child and start a conversation with them.  I was not sure why He wanted me to do it; I didn’t know them and it could have seemed odd to the couple but I was certain the Holy Spirit was pushing me to approach them.  Now it could have been that this was just something I wanted to do…they had a cute baby and perhaps I was happy for them and wanted to let them know I was happy for them.  Maybe I just wanted to try to sell the young couple on our church; I am a pastor and that is my job.  It might just well be that it is my personality to talk with people I don’t know and start conversations at random places.  I know anyone who was watching me could have made any of these same deductions.  But I was sure that the Lord in some way that is beyond my ability to explain or prove wanted me to approach the couple who were busy enjoying their lunch and their baby and visit with them a minute or two.  What outcome there might be, I did not know nor did I have any idea what the Lord wanted me to say actually.  So there I was, about to leave the restaurant, with the Lord’s insistence that I stay just a bit longer and inject my life into the lives of two people who were perfect strangers.

Is it true that we each are being moved along by an unseen hand of one who has designs upon us that we may or may not know or care to know?  Do we have a purpose to our lives, a reason why we are here?  Is it to get an education, to work hard and do well in school?  Are we here to be successful in some career or at least make a good living at what we do?  Are we here to buy a house, get a car, pay off our debt?  Is there a purpose to our lives?  Are we here to gain US citizenship, make sure our kids get a quality education, pass along what we have learned to the next generation, aggravate people, watch as much TV as possible, find a husband or wife, develop an addiction, look good when we are old, stay healthy?  What is our purpose here?

There is an interesting account in the Bible that gets at an important consideration if we do think there might be a reason why we are on this planet for a certain period of time.  Most of are not under the illusion that we are going to stay here one hundred years or more and certainly are not going to have thousands of years to get everything done that we think we need to do before we die.  So there is a certain level of urgency each of us faces when it comes to doing what we feel we should do.  David, who already was king of Judah, was invited by the northern tribes of Israel to be their king also.  Their previous king, Ish-Bosheth had been murdered, and so the popular choice to replace him was David.  David eagerly agreed to the offer but the armies of the northern tribes had to sign off on the deal as well. It was not long before nearly three hundred thousand men came to meet with David, soldiers representing all twelve tribes of Israel, and pledge their support of him as king.  In fact, they were fiercely decided on this. They came to Hebron fully determined to make David king over all Israel. All the rest of the Israelites were also of one mind to make David king.  (1 Chronicles 12:38-39 NIV)  “Fully determined” implies an unwavering sense of direction or purpose.  They came to David’s camp for a reason and intended to accomplish the task they had decided upon before leaving.  The army was full of purpose; it was not a spontaneous excursion so they didn’t treat it as such.  They were in Hebron to make David king over Israel and and they did it.

You are not randomly placed where you are without direction.  There is a point to who you are and why you are what you are.  Each of us faces a moment when we realize we really are sinners.  It is not that we have done a few things wrong; we are sinners through and through and we cannot fix that about us.  Some of us then discover that Jesus Christ alone gives us a way out from our sinfulness.  When He died on the Cross, Jesus took into His own body our sins and when Jesus physically died, those sins and their permanent effect died with Him.  To be forgiven of your sins, you must believe Jesus did that, He took your sins into His body and they died with Him and after that, three days later God raised Him from the dead.  Nothing about your sinfulness changes in your life until you decide this is so.  Your sins remain your death, they separate you from God and in the end you are without hope.

But when you by faith accept the work Jesus Christ did in dying for your sins, something astonishingly supernatural occurs.  Christ physically becomes a part of your life.  He enters you and joins you in all you do.  He empowers transcendent life changes that mark how you do things.  You change in ways noticeable and discreet.  Every Christian experiences this, a new life with Jesus Christ in the totality of life.  Jesus called it being “born again”.  If your life doesn’t change, then perhaps nothing is different with you.  You are not born again and not living with Christ in your life.  But if you have been remade by God through faith, then there is a different you in place, a “you” that includes Jesus Christ.

The Apostle Paul put it this way regarding the union of Christ and any true Christian.  We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.  For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body. (2 Corinthians 4:10-12 NIV)  Jesus Christ crucified becomes part of us, who we are, what we think and what we do.  Not only that, the life of Christ is there in us too.  What this does for us is make us dead to sin…sin no longer controls us like a slave master.  Christ crucified makes sure of that for our sins were killed in His body.  But because Christ alive lives in us too, His vibrancy and power are always ready to spring from us, show themselves in us.  We become alive with the personality and will and ability of Jesus Christ and that Christ-part-of-us will not remain dormant.  It like a seed planted in soil will eventually poke out of the ground and you are the soil where that seed is planted.

We have in the book of Acts a case study of what happens when Jesus Christ crucified and alive lives in you and becomes a part of your decision making, will and behavior.  In Acts 4: 13 is an interesting aside regarding the Christian people.  When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus. (NIV)  There is something tangible, something different about those who have become intimate with Jesus, who live with Him.  The ones observing it may not be able to put a finger on exactly what they see but it is recognizable.  Sprinkled throughout the book of Acts are some examples of how Christian people who are living with Christ in them look.

In Acts 7: 59-60 is the terrifying account of Stephen who was martyred for his faith crying out for God to forgive the very ones who were murdering him.  While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit."  Then he fell on his knees and cried out, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." When he had said this, he fell asleep. (NIV)  To use a metaphor that could make some squeamish, Jesus Christ was seeping out of Stephen as he faced his death squarely.  That mercy he had for his killers was not his own, it was the nature and will of Jesus Christ living within him.  As you are being crushed by skull shattering stones, what you are comes out of you, not an imitation of something.  Stephen felt pity on his attackers because of the one living within Him, Jesus sincerely loved them.

When Paul, on his way to Damascus to arrest Christians, was converted by the personal work of Jesus Christ it was no small matter for the Christian Ananias to approach Paul and offer to baptize him and pray over him.  The prejudices he held were legitimate and based on factual information.  Paul was a real threat to him and his family.  To overcome this fear, Ananias had to possess Jesus Christ living in him who was fearless.  We know Ananias was afraid because he protested the demand of Christ that he go see Paul. "Lord," Ananias answered, "I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your saints in Jerusalem.  And he has come here with authority from the chief priests to arrest all who call on your name."  (Acts 9:13-14 NIV)  Ananias the man felt the very natural panic at the mention of Paul’s name; Ananias with Jesus Christ unafraid living in him went courageously to Paul and prayed over him.

Something we have talked about before popped up in the Christian community that first few years after Christ ascended to the father.  Spontaneously and without coercion or any sort of Church direction, Christians started selling off their property and giving the proceeds to the work of the Church.  They weren’t pressured into doing it.  They weren’t even asked.  They just gave generously and sacrificially and it had a stunning effect upon other Christians as well as the community where they lived.  All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had.  With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all. There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need. (Acts 4:32-35 NIV)  The reason why this was such an established practice is not because of the strategic training and pressure tactics in the Church; it occurred because the resurrected Christ lived in these people and His nature came out of them in tangible ways.  When Jesus Christ lives in you, your will moves in the direction of generosity and away from a drive to acquire possessions and gain for yourself stuff to hold and keep.

The point is that if you are actually Christian you have Jesus Christ, who suffered the Cross to take away your sins and rose from the dead and is not bound by the constraints of this world, living in you and undoing the constraints of your common thinking.  He makes you aware of the miracles that are possible. He opens you up to blessing people who hurt you and take from you and use you.  He gives you a determination to give up what you have to bring God glory.  He makes you courageous and confident and willing to die if you need to die for the Lord’s honor.  Jesus Christ living in you gives you the ability to quit judging people, quit deciding you don’t like them or won’t trust them or don’t want to have anything to do with them and gives you the determination to bless and pray for each person you encounter.  This does not come from you; it comes from Christ living in you.

We waste a lot of time and make ourselves miserable trying to fight off what Christ resurrected is in us.  Essentially we war against ourselves when we act selfishly, react angrily and refuse to love someone we dislike.  Because Christ resurrected has become a part of us, part of our personality…that is who we are.  The most miserable people in the world are those who war with themselves, who will not let Christ resurrected come out of them, show Himself in what they do.  Non-Christians can be perfectly content avoiding mean and irritating neighbors and co-workers and family members but Christians who have Christ resurrected living within them will be miserable if they try to be that way and the same is true when it comes to keeping too much for themselves and being afraid to trust God in stressful situations.  If you want to be unhappy, cranky and discouraged, then do your best to avoid who you are…Christ resurrected living within you.  If you want to be free of care, contented and courageous in your life with God, then let Christ resurrected have His way with you in what you do.  You cannot be at peace if you fight against who you are…but you will have perfect peace if you let Jesus Christ have complete sway within your personality.

Spend a week praying for God’s blessing upon someone who has treated you badly or someone you just don’t like.  Let Christ seep out of you.  Buy a sandwich for someone you don’t know and who doesn’t deserve your generosity.  Let Christ resurrected show Himself in you.  Do something nice for someone and never tell that person it was you who did it.  Let Christ resurrected show up where you are.  Announce your Christian faith in Christ where it isn’t known and see what God does with your courage.  Somehow find a way to give Christ resurrected room to live through you this week.

At What Cost?

My brother is a hero. His friend friend and partner Ian Leong is a hero. And so is Paul Starzyk, who lost his life a hero. All three are police officers in Martinez and while eating breakfast together they received a dispatch that there was an emergency situation at a hair salon. Felix Sandoval, estranged from his wife and locked in a bitter divorce dispute, filled with rage went after his wife, who owned the salon. With his hand, Sandoval smashed the plate glass window and forced his way into the locked salon demanding the patrons and workers there tell him where his wife was. Sandoval's own teenage daughter was working at the salon and begged him not to go after her mother. Unbeknownst to Sandoval, his wife had locked herself in a closet at the salon, trying desperately to hide from him.

Spying his wife's cousin who had tried to convince Sandoval's wife to leave him because of his erratic and violent behavior slipping out the back door with a customer, Sandoval went out the back after her. His daughter tried desperately to stop him but Sandoval would not be held back. Spotting the cousin in an apartment above where she had forced her way in to hide, Sandoval raced up the stairs with his gun, broke into the apartment and found his wife's cousin there. Inside the apartment was a mother and her three children. The kids were hiding in a bedroom and their mom along with the other two women faced the crazed Sandoval as he stormed into the apartment. Sandoval shot and killed his wife's cousin and then realized the police were coming up the stairs.

Sgt Paul Starzyk was the first up the stairs. Wearing a bullet proof vest, he came down the hallway toward the apartment with his partner Ian Leong coming from behind. Sandoval, hiding behind the apartment door, shot his arm out and fired down upon Sgt. Starzyk, hitting him in the neck and severing his carotid artery. Although dying from the wound, Starzyk fired back and shot Sandoval several times before he collapsed to the ground. Officer Leong courageously stood in front of the dying Starzyk and protecting him with his own body, shot into the door and the walls and at Sandoval himself, pinning him back so that he could not shoot at his friend anymore. This hallway of horror was where Leong remained, throwing down his own life in order to hopefully save not only his friend lying on the ground but also those held hostage in the apartment. My brother by now was up the stairs with his police dog and his dog shot out after Sandoval and attacked him. Seeing him move, and still perhaps a terrible risk, my brother also fired upon Sandoval and the killer was dead.

What makes courage so amazingly subtle and shockingly lovely is that courage is not forced and cannot be imitated. It springs out of a character honed to give away, even to the point that it costs your life. I hear stories of the common bravery of the men who stormed the beaches of Normandy and without cover, lost their lives without much thought at what was happening to them because they loved more than they wanted and it is too big a thought to adequately ponder. My brother and his friends are the fabric that makes a people noble and terribly lovely. Their courage was not exemplary, it was mundane...mundane in the sense that they did not ratchet it up, they simply did what was instilled in them. Protect, lay down your life, do not flinch.

Christian faith is not lovely because of what good is in believers. Christian faith is lovely because it is instilled by Jesus who knowing the brutality and horror of the Cross pursued it and would not flinch at it's crushing blood lust. Jesus died, knowing He was giving up on a future that He could hold to if He wished but longing more for a future He could give away. Jesus died as the ultimate Courage, killing off the deadly brutality of sin by staying hung on the Cross until His heart was busted open and His life ripped from Him.

And then He conquered.

I can never be thankful enough for Jesus dying for my sins and my meager statements of gratitude will not ever be much because I cannot comprehend in the least the immensity of what Christ has done for me. Eternity awaits us all and because of Jesus, faith in Christ holds a certain promise of joy forever with God. The Grace of God is not measured, it is too sweeping to mark. We live within Promise but not a promise far off, rather it is close, close enough to spot. The blood on the ground at the foot of the Cross holds the Promise too big for us to grasp, we can only faith it.

Glenn, Ian and Paul have blood on their hands, their own blood and it marks courage that cannot be measured. Courage like theirs is too big to pin down, it is the stuff of heaven and bigger than the human heart.

Core Values--Courage

Ps 91:5 NIV
You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day,


There is a divine purpose every person possesses that makes the coward courageous and it is this. God makes our most feared moments have eternal value. Jesus died we all know for one reason. His death rescued us from the brutality of death brought by the sins we each have cursed God by committing. Nothing we do matters a whit if Jesus does not that moment rescue us from Hell. Everything dies with us and nothing lives that we do, think or say. But if we put our faith in Christ for our everything eternal, then something new emerges. A purpose for everything we fear to do. One example and then we decide what to do with this. Last week I thought about asking the manager of Wal-mart if she would let me sell my book at her store. I dreaded the conversation. My self-esteem was pretty shot, my conviction that anyone would buy the book was pretty low and I was not at all certain I had a good reason that could convince her that she should put it on her shelf. The book after all is a religious book, it is not bound yet so it looks worse than plain and I have no publisher to back what I am doing. But one thing was certain. I had to bring my book to her. So, as I was driving down to the store, one thought kept coming to me. What if this one store manager actually read the book and it convinced her to follow Jesus fully? Would then my conversation with her matter? That is the point. What if the things that frighten us are in fact crucial to God’s plan and key to getting done what must not be stopped! Courage is not bucking up my emotions and doing what I dread doing. It is having a purpose that screams past this life and doing what the Enemy makes seem the worst of outcomes. I die to self and live for Christ. That is courage.