If I were to ask everyone reading this, “Do you have faith?” nearly everyone who peruses this religious page would probably say “Yes.” Whether you think your faith is strong, weak, or almost non-existent, please read on and put it to the Biblical test.
James, writing to an audience of people who had decided to follow Jesus, said, “What good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but don’t show it by your actions?…. Can’t you see that faith without good deeds is useless?” (James 2:14,20) James does not mean that we are saved by works, but that works are the evidence of true saving faith. We are not saved BY good works; we are saved FOR good works.
This past Sunday at LECC two prominent members with very different church backgrounds told about having their faith tested and turning away from God. Eric didn’t choose to attend church until he married Amanda and was baptized at age 34. “For years after my baptism, the world just always seemed much more appealing,” he said, “but my downward spiral happened when my mother passed away eight years ago. It took me further away from God and made me more upset at Him.”
During his mother’s last five years, she was at the hospital, nursing home, or rehab center more than she was at home—fighting diabetes, staph infection, shingles, thrush, and other physical ailments.
“The blessing that came out of that time was Pacey, my daughter,” Eric recalled. “But personally, I was still struggling, not just with my faith, but then with addiction to cope.” He had spurts when he felt compelled to go to church, “but the feeling would ultimately fizzle out. Serving God and doing works for God’s kingdom weren’t really on my radar.”
God also dropped from Beth’s radar when she was an 18-year-old senior in high school. She had been baptized at age 11 and followed Jesus faithfully until her father—her role model—passed away, and her bi-polar mother went manic. “She went through long periods of extreme depression, dysfunction, and went from extreme stages where she would be out spending all of our money, to where she didn’t get out of bed for six weeks or more,” Beth said. “Every responsibility fell to me.”
Her mother ran her off from caring for her, and Beth went to college. Her mother called her on Christmas Eve, told her she’d remarried, stored all of Beth’s things, and rented the house she could no longer come home to. Beth recounted, “I felt like God didn’t exist anymore, and I turned cold toward Him because I felt like He had taken my dad, my mom, and my home.”
Both Eric and Beth had their faith restored. Eric’s came back when he thought maybe church could help him as much as it seemed to be helping his son and daughter. So, when his daughter made him promise that he would come with her to church, Eric began attending regularly. He found that a relationship with Jesus, and a loving church family was exactly what he had been needing all along. Not only did his faith grow as he began to study the word, but his service to God’s kingdom was ignited in a powerful way.
Beth’s faith was restored when she was speeding down a narrow country road and screeched her brakes to keep from hitting a calf in the middle of the road. If that calf hadn’t stopped her, she would have crashed into the riverbed below because the bridge had completely washed out. Knowing God put that calf there to save her, “That was my cometo- my-knees moment,” Beth said. Not only was her faith restored, but she was filled with joy at the thought of living for Christ. “He saved me. I can never thank Him enough. I will love Him and serve Him for the rest of my life.”
Both Eric and Beth lovingly show and share their faith with good works too numerous to itemize, but if you visit LECC you’ll see them in action every week. Please visit us at 415897 Highway 9, Eufaula for small group Bible study at 10 a.m., worship at 11 a.m., and Wednesday night all-age events. Come whether or not you passed the faith test. Let Jesus take you from apathy to action.
God Bless You!
Jeremy Little, Minister
