Faith that Works

I was in Colorado Springs most of this week, equipping and encouraging the church planters in our denomination. On Thursday morning, we took all the guys and their wives who wanted to join us at “Garden of the Gods” to watch the sunrise. This is one of the most beautiful places on earth. You walk into this area that has these huge stone monoliths that seemly just broke the surface of the earth, like a tooth from a gum, and they just stand there, towering about the earth in their majesty. The unique thing about them is that the rock face is flat and just soars straight up. When the morning sun coming over the rise begins to hit these mostly flat rock faces, the colors are dazzling.As I pondered the people that were at this retreat, I thought, “There must be forty church planters here, in various stages of launch. To get all these churches launched, it will most likely cost almost 20 million dollars! Twenty million! Is it worth it? Why invest so much money in new churches? And what kind of sacrifice from the hundreds and thousands of people who will help fund these new outposts of heaven?” The reason “why” is simple—Jesus is worth it. Or according to our text this week, he is worth it to some. The people and denominations that will spend this kind of money planting new churches typically have a high view of the Bible as God’s word and believe Jesus’ work on the cross is all that is necessary for the salvation of men and women, boys and girls. On the other hand, churches that do not have a high view of the Bible and do not think Jesus is the only way of salvation, will not sacrifice or spend money on planting new churches.I say all that to get to what we will talk about on Sunday: faith—works. A true faith in Jesus does work. Works are the fruit of saving faith. Good works do not cause faith but they flow from faith. As James says, “Faith without works is dead.” Join us Sunday as we look into the Wisdom of James.Blessings,Jim