I've heard blogging described with the phrase: "Never before have so many people with so little to say said so much to so few." In light of this truth, we don't simply want to add our voice to the chaos. Instead, the main aim of these entries will be to help us live out James 1:22-25 "...be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing."
It's easy to think that listening to a sermon or participating in a discussion is life-changing. That's a deceptive train of thought. The blessing of change comes through the faith required for application, so we must be committed to applying the truth of the gospel to the details of life. Living out the good news that we're set free from sin requires us to trust God. We trust Him that His Word is true, trust Him that His plan is perfect, trust Him that His grace is sufficient... and we look to the Cross, where we see all this most clearly. So each week, these blog posts will be geared around a follow-up to our Sunday meeting... and from time to time, we'll try to apply other messages as well.
Let's get started: On Sunday we looked at James 5:1-6, where we saw that the way we view wealth reveals the way we view God. Hoarding our treasure and indulging ourselves only reveals that we don't think God's glory is worth enjoying or that His kingdom is worth investing in. But living with the view that God is greater than the treasure of this world and that God will rightly deal with the injustice of life frees me. In particular, it frees me from wanting to be rich in the world and frees me for the desire to be rich towards God. In light of that, I'm planning on accompanying the Liberatores on their next trip to hand out clothing to those in need. What's one thing you plan on doing to keep pursuing a life of investment in God's kingdom?
