James 2:14-25

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 noting about physical needs, what good is it? The same way, faith by itself is not accompanied by action, is dead. But someone who says, "You have faith, I have deeds." show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do. You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that-and shudder. You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? Was not out ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the alter? Yuo see that his faith and actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. And 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 justified by what he does and not by faith alone. In the same way, was not even Rehab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to spies and sent them off in different direction? As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.


In this passage we see yet another call to living out our faith physically. We are all called to serve God's people in one form or another. How do we study and preach about feeding poor yet do nothing about it? Faith without deeds is dead. The passage tells us that even the demons believe there is only one God and fear him so what makes us different from them? Christ gives us specific directions on serving His children just as He served us. But just as faith without deeds is dead, so is deeds without faith. Do not atheist perform acts of community service to help their fellow man? We should be doing all of our actions through Christ and to serve Christ.
We are all called to serve Christ and his people. Each of us have a unique calling and need to just stop for a few minutes and listening to what God is calling us to do. People always ask, well how do you know where Christ wants me to go? For me God speaks to me and gives me plans of actions, I know they are God callings because they eat away at me, I know they need to be done, they way on me, like Christ telling me that He gave me these plans for a reason, why have I not began to fulfill them? Stop and take a minute to listen to God and see where He is calling you. There are a lot of people out there who are already living out Christ calling and serving other people! Awesome! Then this post might just serve as a reminder, for others maybe it is a call to arms, to pick up your cross and fulfill your duties. Being Christian isn't just sitting in a building and saying you believe in the Christ Jesus. Being Christian is living a life as Christ lived. It is dying to yourself and your sinful nature and living a life through Him and for Him. Being Christian is serving His people. Christ said "The least you did onto my people the least you did onto me." so go out and serve, finding your calling, obey God and goes where he wants you without hesitation,
I challenge you to take some time out of your week for the next month and find a way to serve Gods people. I will invite you again to help serve at Tims House at Mt Olive on Fridays. It is a great place that mirrors the early churches. It is just one of the many, many, many ways you can give back and serve Gods people. What deeds are you going to preform? Will your faith here on here make Christ except or deny you before our heavenly Father? Just food for thought, we do not know the minute nor the hour that we will be called up, there is not perfect time to start serving, the time is now. Are you ready for it?

I pray for you and your walk with Christ.

2 Corinthians 6:14-18-7:1

"Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of the living God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God said: "I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people." Therefor come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing and I will receive you. I will be a father to you and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord almighty. Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God."

In this passage we see our call to stand out amongst the crowd. We are not to be conformers to the society of sin. It ask us a simple question: how can you clump God in with sin? These are not two things that go hand in hand, God hates sin. This fact is plain and simple and is repeated numerous times through out the bible. We are called to purify out lives and our hearts. We are told that we, not a building, not an object, but us are temples of the Lord. If we are to have Christ the Lord in us, should be no be free from sin, would we not want only the best for our God?
We also see other very important, amazing facts in this passage. God tells us that by freeing out lives from our sinful nature we will become His children! We are God children and He is our father, how amazing is that fact alone. So we must therefor rid ourselves of our sinful nature and live in the Spirit.
Our call to live a holy, clean, untainted life free of sin is no easy task. As mere humans this task is impossible. But through the power of Christ nothing is impossible. He guides us, gives us direction on how to follow him and live a life free of sin. We are told though that we need to live a life 100% free from sin, we can not have God up front and a little bit of sin in the back. A great example I heard was while I was a camp counselor at Urban Camp. They preformed a skit where a father made their child brownies that they loved. There was a special ingredient the dad had added and the children guessed and guessed but couldn't figure out what it was, and eventually dad told them there there was just a little bit of dog poop in the brownies. The children were grossed out that there was even just a little bit of poop in the brownies. Now this story might not make sense to the context of the blog just yet but let me explain. Our lives are like the brownies and the dog poop is the sin. (silly I know haha). But just look, just like it is not ok to have even the smallest bit of dog poop in the brownies it is not ok to have even the smallest amount sin in our lives. Just like we would spit those brownies out Christ tells us that He will spit us out of his mouth and disown us before God the father. We are called to die to sin and be born again in Christ. Small things and a few big things I still strongly struggle with. There is still poop in my brownies, and as I grow closer with understanding of Christ and his call for man, I also understand that to have eternal salvation I need to rid my life of these sinful things, so I ask for you prayers.
Is there poop in your brownies? Are you partaking in sinful activities that you know you shouldn't. We are told to always be on the watch for Christ, we do not know how long we have left on earth. We can not wait till tomorrow to stop our sinful deeds we need to act now. I challenge you to challenge yourself with this serious topic. Are you living the life you know you should be? I know I am not and need a seriously spiritual reality check. Do you?

I pray for you and your walk with Christ.

Acts 2:42-47

They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching, and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and good, they gave anyone as they had need. Everyday they meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their numbers daily those who were being saved.

In this passage in Acts we see an example of some of the first Churches. These churches consisted of Christ followers all meeting and devoting themselves to their callings. They all held each other accountable. They were there for each other. They prayed together, they ate together, there was not a single person amongst them who was in need it says. They would meet daily to celebrate Christ, to break the bread together and to pray. These are great examples of what Church should look like.
Often times when we hear the word church we think of the big, pretty building that we attend every Sunday for service. We forget that the church is not the building, the Church is the body of Christ, his people. We need to dig back to the original roots of the church that our brothers and sisters started after Christ death. This past Friday I had the opprotunity to serve the people of Timothy Ministry at: "Tims House". The meeting that I was given the privillage to attend was a great example to me of what church is.
Tims House takes place every Friday and is a place where those who are homeless or in need can come for help. They can come for a meal. They can get help filling out job applications. Most importantly the come together to share the gosple and pray together and for each other. As I sat there watching my new friends talk about their past, and their lives you would think that they would be bitter and angry towards God, but they weren't. They had a sense of joy and understand for Christ that was remarkable. The way they were sharing with each other was great. Although I have only been to one meeting, and know only a glimps of their lives I could sense Christ was amongst them. I continued to hear different stories of how different people were inviting different people to Tims House and that through these invitions people were coming to Christ. God was adding to their numbers daily. Everything that was mentioned in the passage above happened. Let me explain.
As the day progressed people shared the gospel with each other, giving their own interpretation of how that passage applied to their life. We shared a meal together and over that meal their was praise and glory to God and Mrs. Pilar for taking such care and love in preparing their meal. As we prayed the Lord was providing left and right, small miracles were happening. One person got a interview, another person got a call and received the gas money needed to get through their work week. People don't say miracles happen anymore, but just because the seas are parting dosnt mean it's not a miracle and a gracious act of God.
Helping with Tims House was a humbling experience, making me look at my own relationship with God, my life, and Gods people. I challenge you to really read is passage and see what it means to you. Find someone and call or meet with them as often as you can, find out how their doing and if there was anything you could pray for them. I also invite you to come spend some time at Tims House of Fridays. It is at Mt Olive and starts at 10. I know they would love for you to come and hang out!


I pray for you and your walk in Christ.