Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Overlap: temporal meets eternal



It still amazes me how much influence my worldview has on my thinking (yes I understand that this is innate to a worldview). Information goes in one ear, through the lens of my worldview, and then on to my brain where it is processed and filed accordingly (I have a very detailed mental filing system). :o)

Today I was in a community collaboration meeting and someone said something that I found to be so spiritually simple and yet profound.
"It's not about doing more activities but changing minds."

Now of course, she wasn't speaking in ANY way about spiritual things- in fact, while I believe strongly in the pursuit of community involvement, I know that is temporal work. She was simply pointing out that action (including talking and planning) is worthless if it stands alone- apart from a change in the belief that has for so long, driven the wrong kind of action.

This looks to me like a similar (almost mirrored image) of what Scripture says about faith and works in James 2
"What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, 'Go in peace, be warmed and filled,' without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead." (14-17)


The world gets it too. They know that actions apart from the driving belief is worthless. So also, Christians, your faith - the belief that drives you- is worthless apart from action. So go act on your faith remembering all the while that it is the Lord who counts your actions as righteousness. It's His work not yours that matters. Read the rest of James 2 and you'll see it. "You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works;"

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