Faith Without Works [5/8/12]

Hello! kjoosaurus is gone for a while, so I'll be filling in for her today! I want to share my walk in faith and tell you about what's been going on in my spiritual life. My name is...S. LOL. 

(before you read: after I finished writing this I realized it's very looong. so.. I hope u have the patience to finish it :P )

So, I've been going to church..basically all my life.  And up until quite recently, before a youth retreat in March, my faith revolved around...my faith.  And actually, I'm not quite sure if I really had faith.  I was never sure if I was truly saved or not.  I knew that Jesus died for my sins so that if I believed in Him, I would have eternal life.  But I never understood the meaning of it. Why did He do that for us? And so, I was never really able to fully acknowledge Jesus' sacrifice, and I always prayed to God to help me understand it whenever we had communion at church because I just didn't know why we were doing this and because I didn't feel grateful.  I mean, yes, Jesus died for my sins, but what did that mean? It's a big deal, and yet, why don't I feel thankful at all?

Another thing you should know about me is that my so-called "faith" revolved around bettering myself as a person in "Christian" terms.  I tried to be a person that was nice, compassionate, "loving" (which I never really understood how to do..), and in reality, I just wanted to be a person that people liked.  So I went to church with these mindsets every Sunday..At retreats, I'd get these spiritual "highs" that disappeared as soon as I returned home.  And at school and around my non-Christian friends, I was just a completely different person. Looking back at myself now, I see a non-believer.  And it's really sad because at the time, I thought that I was Christian..

But, the youth retreat I went to this year really opened my eyes to the greater things..  I've always thought that there was more to life than what I thought it was.. bettering myself and holding personal (Christian and Worldly) ideologies to try to live up to..and going to church every Sunday to listen to sermons to sustain my "faith".  The pastor at the retreat spoke of a God of all ages; a God of all peoples, and the promise for His people; that He will bless peoples of all nations (Gen. 12:3) through Jesus and His gospel.  It was then I understood Jesus' death on the cross.  God made people to love Him because He truly loved them.  But because of sin, we became a rebellious people and hated God.  So He sent prophets and laws to turn us back to Him. Sadly, we did not.  But God loved us too much..So much that He came down to earth Himself to die at the hands of His own creation, His beloved, as an atoning sacrifice for our transgressions, so that whoever believed that Jesus is the Son of God would be made right with God once again.  How beautiful and mighty is His love for us? That He loved a people so undeserving of His love..enough to die for us.. Realizing this truth, I constantly remind myself of my sinfulness and of God's everlasting love for His people, and it makes me love God more and more. I want to worship Him with all that I am.  

Which brings me to this.. What am I to do, now that I know of God's love for me? Now that I am redeemed in Christ? Am I just to live in thankfulness and belief? No. I mean yes, I should live in thankfulness and continue to believe, but doing just that is not what being a Christian is all about.  We are to follow Christ; to take up our cross DAILY and follow Him (Luke 9:23); to live as Jesus lived.  How did Jesus live? He preached of the kingdom of heaven and that He is the Son of God; He healed the sick, raised the dead, and cast out demons.  His last words were these:  

15He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. 16Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. 17And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; 18they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.”19After the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, he was taken up into heaven and he sat at the right hand of God. 20Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them and confirmed his word by the signs that accompanied it.  (Mark 16:15-18)


The will of God is this: that all nations worship Him, through repenting and believing in Christ Jesus.  Jesus was the first missionary; the first to be sent out to preach the good news and do the will of God. I realize now that if I believe in Him, I must have God's vision because that is what Jesus taught us to do, and continues to teach us through His Spirit.


Missions was never a thing for me. It just didn't seem to apply to me. I was just a "Christian" at church and that was it. But now that I realize what my purpose is, I want to go to the ends of the earth to preach the gospel! At first, I was very faithless. I still am, in regards to missionary work. After hearing stories of missions operations of a friend of mine, it truly opened my eyes to the reality of God's presence and His works! He gives people visions and lets them hear His voice to guide them! This was totally unheard of for me. I've never seen visions, or heard His voice telling me what to do.. Being raised in such a skeptical society, I always thought that those kinds of stories (the ones I read online anyways) were bogus.. but I know my friend wouldn't lie about it. Not only that, but Jesus tells us Himself that He gives us the authority to cast out demons and heal the sick in His name!  I just recently watched a documentary called "Finger of God" (it's an amazing documentary that shows Christians doing missionary work and doing miracles).  In one part, it documents a man walking around a park and praying for people with injuries. He prays for them in Jesus' name to be healed and they are healed! In other parts, there are countless deaf people who are given hearing! All on tape! And testimonies of the dead being raised to life after Christians prayed for them.  Most of these things happen in places that are difficult, like Mozambique.  But other miracles are seen happening at malls in America! This is totally unheard of for me! I did not know that these things really happened.. I had no idea.. And if I were to pray for a person to be healed, I think I would still be skeptical.. 


It makes me question.. Why didn't I know this before? Why haven't I seen people do these things or experienced such things?  Why is it so hard for me to believe still? One common thing these Christians (and my friend) had in common was this: they were out preaching the gospel, and they fully trusted in God's guidance through His Spirit.  In other words, they had faith, and they also did works.  They believed in Jesus, they trusted the guidance of His Spirit, and went out to do God's will.  They truly loved God, and loved people.  I still don't know why I haven't seen or heard of these things before, but I know one thing's for sure: I did not do the works that God had commanded me to do. I've never preached to anybody.. and of course, I've never healed the sick, raised the dead, seen visions, or any of the sort.  And so, my faith, essentially, was dead. It was rotten. Gone to waste because it didn't bear any fruit.  But I really want to live for God, and abide in Him completely.. to not just pray before I go to bed, or when people ask me to pray for them.. but to pray continually, like it was my breathing.  And trust in Him to do His mighty works through me because He abides in me.  Honestly, how could I have not known? This is God's vision for the world.. These are the things we are called to do.. I pray for God to open my eyes, and to simply submit to His will in humility and obedience.  I want to do what our Lord Jesus was all about: loving God and loving others. I want Him to make me like His Son, Jesus, so that I can fulfill His purpose for the world.    This is God's great purpose for His kingdom, which His sons and daughters pray and hope for..and most importantly, work for.. We are workers for His harvest, when all things come to an end.. I pray that we will all live in faith and in works through Jesus, in whom we believe in.

James 2:14-26

New International Version (NIV)

Faith and Deeds

¹⁴ What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? ¹⁵ Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. ¹⁶ If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? ¹⁷ In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

¹⁸ But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.”

Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. ¹⁹ You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that —and shudder.

²⁰ You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless^[a]? ²¹ Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar?²² You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. ²³ And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,”^[b] and he was called God’s friend. ²⁴ You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone.

²⁵ In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? ²⁶ As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.

Matthew 12:33-35

New International Version (NIV)

³³ “Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit. ³⁴ You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. ³⁵ A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him.