February 21, 2020
James 2:14-18
What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them?  Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food.  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? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
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.
New International Version (NIV)
Faith works.  We can be sure of that.  A friend of mine and I were emerging from a restaurant on a cold morning in Waco.   Just then a woman came to us and talked about how cold her hands were.  Both of us were headed to meetings.  But my friend sent me on my way as he took her into the restaurant to buy food for her. 

I returned to Houston later that day.  We had dinner with Josie, our granddaughter, and her parents.  As we walked down the street a man asked us for help, too.  I went inside to get change and couldn’t find him when I came back outside.  Estimates of food insecurity in our city range from 16 to 26% of the residents. 

What does our faith have to do with all of this?  We believe in Jesus and he forgives us and takes us to heaven when we die.  End of story.  What does the gospel have to do with people in pain?  There is a book of James.   He takes on the issue of favoritism in the church.  Then he calls people as his big half-brother Jesus did to love our neighbors as we love ourselves.

Who are our neighbors?  I know the folks on my street and I’m pretty sure that none of them need my financial help.  But not far from me are people who do.  I have to be careful not to hurt by trying to help.  But there is no good in just telling them they will be fine. 

Dallas Willard says, “Faith is opposed to earning, not to effort.”  Our works reveal the reality of our faith.  If our faith never results in deeds, then it is dead on arrival.  Faith works.  We can be sure of that.  What will our faith lead us to do today?
Pray with me:       
Father, we read about Jesus and all the people he helped.  Finding ourselves among them, we are surely glad.  Open our eyes wide today, Lord.  We want to see you who have gone before us everywhere we go.  We also want to see you in your “distressing disguise.”  When we do something for “the least of these,” we have done it to you.  Put our faith into action today, we pray.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.    
Join us in memorizing the Word.  Scripture for this week:    
Matthew 5:15-16
Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.  In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
Our 2020 Every Day with Jesus readings will follow the Foundations New Testament reading plan.  Copies of the reading plan are available at Tallowood Baptist Church, or download your copy at REPLICATE.ORG 
We would love for you to join us as we read the New Testament through this year, five chapters a week.  In addition I will continue my long-standing practice of reading one Psalm a day through the year.  Use Robby Gallaty’s H. E. A. R. plan to study each chapter (also found at REPLICATE.ORG). Highlight verses which speak to you, explain what they mean in your own words in a journal, apply them to your own life, then respond by doing what God tells you to do.  
Joyfully, 
Duane 
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