Just Not Doing It

I wanted to follow up on yesterday's post about living out our faith by doing what the Bible says rather than just hearing it. In more than one place, scripture instructs us to take what we hear on Sunday and put it to use. We're not supposed to just soak it all in and that be it, we're also supposed to use that instruction and do something with it.

James 2:14-20 says:

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.
But someone will say, "You have faith and I have works." Show me
your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.
You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!
Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is
useless?

Those are some pretty strong words for those of us who like to take the easy road with our communities. In our world today, many Christians and their churches have taken the easy road of talking of caring for the congregation and the community. But, that's just giving lip service to the problem, not hands and feet.

Yesterday, we focused on James' words in chapter one where he spoke of doing something with what we hear in church, not just taking it all in and doing nothing.

That reminds me of a message I heard Herbert Cooper, a pastor from Oklahoma City, preach one time. He was speaking on a similar topic of Christians sitting in churches each week, wanting to be fed. They want to go deeper, and want more of the word. They go to services Sunday morning, and evening, Wednesday night and any time the doors are open for service. They take all this teaching in, but then never do anything with it. He described them as constipated Christians.

A constipated Christian is someone who has a lot of input of God's word, but little to no output. Eventually, they get cranky and irritable, largely because the Holy Spirit is convicting them, but they refuse to do what God's word says.

Friends, as a Christian, there aren't many things more freeing and liberating than living out God's word through helping people in need. I challenge you and your church to do something to end poverty, disease and the other ails of this world. And, do it in the name of Jesus, so that He gets the glory.

Will it be easy? No. God never promised us that the Christian life would be easy. In fact, he told us it would be difficult. But, we should never shy away from a challenge, because of the difficulty. We should tackle these big problems in our world by teaming up with other Christians and churches around the globe. As The Church (that's all of us as Christians), we can band together through our local churches to tackle the problems our world faces -- the problems Jesus told us to tackle -- one problem at a time.

That being said, I encourage you to not wait any longer. Get started today. Don't know where to begin? Ask a church in your area that is actively involved in meeting community needs. Join them in their effort, and learn what you can from them. Then, work with another church or organization. It's not so important that you get all the steps right, or have the perfect plan. The Bible simply instructs us to "do." So, get out there and start doing whatever God is leading you to do. Just do something.