My New Horizons

With the kids starting back to school in a week summer is drawing to a close and so is our study through the book of James.  On our end, the Hinton summer has been busy and at least one of my kids is ready to start back to school. (Yes, my kids are a lot smarter than I was)  Wow, the past two months have gone fast.  What were some of your favorite memories of the summer?  Yesterday we finished up James chapter four where we were challenged to daily chose to follow Christ.  “A Faith That Works” has been the theme for this series and we have been challenged by it.  Authentic Christianity is our coming to God by His grace through Jesus Christ.  God is Holy and we can never earn his love and our salvation through good works and deeds.  But if our relationship with Christ is real, God will produce good works in us.  Paul noted in Ephesians that while we are saved by grace through faith, our salvation is for good works; or God’s ‘Workmanship’. (Eph. 2:9-10)  In a recent post, MS prayed that his life would “preach.”  I like the way that he put that.  It is the message of Christ that will change people.  But people also watch us as Christ followers.  That also mirrors what James said about “faith without deeds is dead”.  (James 2:26)  In reality, our faith is to be seen and not just heard.  So we will be continuing that theme as we begin to conclude our time in James.  I just haven’t decided if I want to tackle the whole of chapter 5 this next Sunday or break it down into two studies or not.  We’ll see.  From your experience, what are some ways that we can show our faith in our world today?