The Resplendent Marriage of Works and Faith

     Every Sunday, without fail, I hear Paul's admonition "For by grace ye are saved; and that not of yourselves: it is the free gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast." It should be self evident that the problem lies in the boasting and not in the works rendering Jesus call for laborers to be a contradiction. The pastor that offers up this biblical mandate is one of the hardest working people I've ever known. "For we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath ordained that we should walk in them." The "free gift" Paul is eluding to is Christ's sacrificial work on the cross, through which we gain our redemption. When I hear people stop at the free gift, it makes me shudder. Our society is being immersed in an entitled mindset that creates an illusion that there should be a free paycheck for just existing. God opened the door; that's the free gift; and that at a horrific painful cost. Is there a cost for us, for discipleship? Maybe we should ask a Christian in a Muslim country or maybe take a deeper look at the cost for Christ's apostles. Jesus call was for laborers. When I think about the training and the hardship soldiers may encounter; it occurs to me that for the most part we resemble, at times, children armed with squirt guns. When or how do we grow? When do we take off our costumes and put our hands to the plow? Where does the freedom we have in Christ come to some semblance of endurance and the working out of our faith with fear and trembling.

     James 2:17,18 "Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone." 

     This verse paints a picture that should make one's self uneasy. That picture should conjure up a picture of a scissors with only one blade.  James continues with "Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith and I have works: show me thy faith without thy works, and I will show thee my faith by my works. Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble. But will thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?" I had to take note that the last verse was in the form of a question. I've asked myself that same question. Where or is there a limit to God's expectations? Where does obedience come into play? Be honest! In my mind, I immediately go to, "What could I ever give back to God that he hasn't already given me?"  Well, Jesus told his disciples to go into all the world and make disciples of all men. He's already given us the free gift of life and that of life more abundantly. What responsibility does He impart to us? That would be to do as He does. Easy to say, harder to follow through, and an impossibility without ..... "faith." Life can be easy to be hard; but that can only be true with choice. "Choose this day whom you will serve." I believe it is truly an illusion that faith comes without perseverance and hard work. It is united by a single vision, sealed by God's word and promise, that he's prepared a place for me. The place at God's table requires that the invitation must be accepted and, I believe, received by the resplendent marriage of works and faith.

Mathew 25:31-46 

     "When the son of man comes in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: And before him shall be gathered all the nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep and goats: And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.   Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: For I was hungry and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: Naked and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying Lord, when saw we thee an hungry and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? And the King shall answer and say unto them, verily I say unto you, Inasmuch, as thee have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: For I was hungry, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty and ye gave me no drink: I was a stranger and ye took me not in: naked and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee hungry, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, Ye did it not to me. And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into eternal life.

     I don't believe I'm mistaken in the belief that faith alone, devoid of work, is an illusion fostering serious concerns not only about salvation, but a gross misunderstanding of the righteousness and holiness of my Lord and Savior. We need a realistic understanding that faith and works are inseparable, as are forgiveness and repentance. We desire mercy, but that also is wedded to truth. That's why we fall on our knees; that's why we have to pick up our cross daily. That's why Jesus picked up his cross; to do what we couldn't. I'll never be perfect, but thank God I'm redeemable by the washing of His blood. 

One last question; and one that we should all contemplate: What has been sacrificial in my life? If I'm always employing a two step dance routine to avoid need, physical or spiritual, "I'm not dancing with the right partner." Jesus loves "them" this I know for the Bible tells me so. The path may well be narrower than we understand. The scripture above is one of the scariest, "for me", in the bible.

I need to find something to do! My faith needs something to marry!

Attributive Conscience

     Disputatious mindset may be a better title for this dissertation. It can't be just me and my dismaying observation of redundant and spiraling degradation of character, amidst a devolving ideological foundation of rational principles that disturbs me mainly during the onset of political election cycles. As much as the observation of lacking foresight, rationality and integrity, it is the absence of any reasonable insight or credible debate beyond repetitive programmed response. As reprehensible as AI is to me as a substitute for real educational instruction, what I have observed thru modern media almost makes it a viable alternative. How did we regress to a point so lacking in critical analysis as to be controlled by contrived mantras manufactured by morally bankrupt constituents. How did faceless facts from faceless origin, digressing into mimicry responses, gain credibility just from the sheer volume and repetition, grab hold of the nearly whole of a peoples repertoire?  

     I have my own bias or slant; or if you like "opinions. The problem that I've experienced is foundational and is disturbing to my own rationalizing. AI is only what it is fed, just as you and I. I am obliged to fueling my own resolve. My understanding must be guided by my own resolution of say; "revisionist history" as are the programmers of AI. I may resolve this by sourcing origin content to decipher original intent. My obligation to myself and God is a morally guided commitment and has to be answerable as such. History, broken down honestly from written source material in reality are just minute snippets of time to be related to and assimilated with other sourced recordings. This has to be embedded thru a morally anchored lens. Agenda and purpose must be censored and or set aside. I regulate this to what has to be enjoined to conscience. Being right for the sake of any other means would be disingenuous and contrived. A little depth, for sake of argument or rebuttal, will always be resolute in its intent and effective to its end; not to mention obedient and receptive to correction. 

Mathew 24:45-46 Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season?

Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he comes shall find so doing.

     Remember, those seeking office are obliged to servitude not just to the whims of some but to the judicious servitude of their constituents and the constitution of this, their country.

Postscript: If anyone is wondering where my political allegiance lies; I'm independent, non-partisan, and pretty much like George Washington was.  He lamented the possibility of party affiliation because it created factions that serve only themselves. He was the glue that kept conversation and debate alive and vibrant. The idea of party factions he believed would be the ultimate undoing and destruction of our country. Public awareness of the real concerns and issues is reduced to accusation and retribution resulting in being the real embarrassment of our constitutional republic. Voting records are readily available and could easily replace the political postcards filling up your mailboxes and replacing the Pee Wee Herman "I'm rubber and you're glue, what you say bounces of me and sticks to you" monologue. We should be better than this. I've said it before and it bears repeating; the sound of one hand clapping is no sound at all. It does serve one purpose of exposition. Ignorance and incivility are still the canvas we are using to paint our future and to perpetuate our fate and to secure our demise.

Me First? .......?

      My wife bought me Foxes Book of Martyrs. I haven't read this for many years. Mans cruelty to man never ceases to amaze me. What astonishes me the most, besides mans astonishing cruelty to his fellow man, is the base realization of the reasoning behind it. Belief defining and defying and then reviling another belief berthing retribution by means of exterminating competing ideology. As primitive a form of exclusionary and cowardly means of controlling societal conformity, it's usage comes close to being universal even in the most politesse of societies. Ten reigns of terror executed on Christians in the most obscene and horrific demonstration of methods for the preservation of exclusionary conformity to another's realm of totalitarian inclusion. 

     Universalism is one of those words that carry frightening allusions of control to me personally. Another, that carries almost the same aversion to me is reforming. Both contain a versioning alignment of thought that to me will predesignate the same destination of control. Getting past the ten reigns of persecution we end up with one controlling Christian ideology that uses the same horrific tactics of control that the pagan systems employed. They refer to this part of history the "Dark Ages."  Controlling the dialogue seems to be in vogue wherever we land in historical examination. Yet, truth has to reside in and of its self. We may try to control it and define it; modify it to our preference and codify it to advance a defining conditioning goal of our own or submit to it and let it lay us bare. Judgement comes first to the house of God of which we are. Who wants to be first in line? Time won't even be a consideration, only eternity will prevail. I'm starting to sound like a Baptist now. Still, we will all meet the Truth. I'm going to be transparent before it whether I like it or not; but I'm not writing about that now, because now is all we ever have in time. The strangest part of all this is that I can't wait to be there, at His feet, waiting for the cleansing of my soul; not reformation, not universalism, just myself with the Truth, the Word, and the Life.

1 Peter 4:17 For the time is come that judgement must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?

A question to be asked.

Assumptive Consumption

     Sometimes I awaken with a thought that leads me on a sort of rabbit trail chase with hopes of catching some sort of resolution. Idolitive creedal worship bordering on the fringes of fanatical reasoning for the sake of exclusion of reasonable inclusion seems to be more of a marketing ploy that employs somewhat intimidating tactical methodology while betraying objective reasoning. Pick and choose this day whom you will serve. A person or group will often  radicalize to employ a means of marginalizing competing ideology; many times to the point of dying for. I can find myself definitively saying there are beliefs worth dying for, but with the obvious implication that this implies the obverse. I've seen that this will steer many people to simply employ an "I'm not religious stance", all the while betraying their position with religious zeal. This also manifests itself in politics now as to be the norm and not the exception. This raises all sorts of questions apart from how we arrived to this debacle. While all don't always search for a peaceful reconciliation; we all should long for it; but how can we achieve it? When do we pick up the sword and when do we lay it down? Is there ever a point when being right can be blinding reason all along, or to be right for corrective rationale, or just right for elevating an ingratiating ego? When does motive dominate or interfere with objective rationale? Can being right for a wrong reason still be justifiable? 

     We've all heard the transparency word thrown around a lot lately. The thought of it landing at our front door, so to speak, is somewhat frightening and rarely a consideration for strategic gain. The thought that we're already transparent before God is considerably more concerning or it should be. A fig leaf has already been proven a poor cover. My desire is to be right. One of the major roadblocks is assumption where it doesn't belong. A conclusion derived and conceived, aided by an assumption, may make for a tantalizing consumption, but can deliver undesired side effects to a persons ethical constitution. If there's a hill to die on, and many have already died on, don't make it on an assumption. I can't just assume I'm alright, when I know I'm not. I need the substitutionary atonement that Jesus provides, so I want to be right. That's my desire, but more importantly, I want to be right with God. That's the hill I'll die on. 

     I'm assuming you've been consuming an assumptive remedial tactical revolutionary conceptualizing epiphany now from my morning ramp. Time for a nap.

A Country Dance

Achieving this their end, 

They create a cause, 

Berthing thoughtless thoughts

They arm their aim

Mindless vessels to create, 

A voice, a role, clueless debate

Rebuttal defined, awaits it's prey, 

Roaring chorus secured in the fray

A rage to ensure, a position, a stance 

A tuneless tune to which they may dance

Bend-less roads that seek to ease

Or circular travails that feeds disease

Blinding, blindness never sought

An inviting host so easily got

And this we say to our dismay 

I thought, I think, We found our way

  

 

 

 

Conjunctive Unity

     It's not uncommon for someone, nowadays, to ask if you are a believer. I don't have a problem with that at all. It does seem to to be somewhat cryptic even though there's nothing necessarily misleading about the query. It is somewhat amusing in that there's an almost never ending list of things a person might believe. I'm obviously a Christian but for me that's more than a belief or even a creed. There are times when reading the Bible that you see a repetition of words that are linked together such as mercy and truth. The implication would seem to be that one is conjoined to the other. Mindless mercy could easily go astray bereft of benefit without an acknowledgment of corrective or behavioral truth; just as truth without ministering mercy would be obstructive to life altering renewal. As far as belief takes us, I can't but wonder if our belief, on its own, is enough to substantiate a cohesive ground, sufficient enough to stand on. Will the faith to fuel my belief be enough to sustain it. After-all, believe systems reside in our creeds, our politics, denominational alliance, and several different religions, all at odds with each other. Yet, they all claim authoritative supremacy. The only constant in each consistency lies entirely in the claim. 

     Where does the authority reside? This isn't just a modern day enigma. We have historical insight all the way back to Adam and the commonality of differential precedents take root from the beginning. God was right there. Christians will say; you need Jesus. If that's  true, I still have some reservations. Just as mercy and truth, belief and faith, are bound together through mutual necessity, I believe the same has to be true of a defensible bedrock for Christianity. Jesus when He teaches us to pray begins with; "Our Father who art in heaven". Jesus prays to his Father in Gethsemane; Jesus makes intersession on our behalf, of our prayers, which are, in turn, prompted by the work of the Holy Spirit's presence in our lives after our surrender to God. Sometimes my thinking leads me through strange avenues of quandary. I'm not a theologian. I do endorse C.S. Lewis' analogy of another disputation concerning faith and works. Trying to discern which is of greater importance is like deciding which blade of a scissors is most important. For me, there has to be a conjunctive unity between aspects of Christian truth that can survive a severance of functional reality, whether it's belief and faith, mercy and truth, faith and works, or most importantly the trinitarian person  hood of the one true God that makes a cord of three as one. 

Conjunctive: Closely united; serving to unite.                                    Unity: The state of being one; oneness

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. James 1:17

Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: show me thy faith without thy works, and I will show thee my faith by my works. James 2:18

For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels: and the he shall shall reward every man according to his works.  Mathew 16:27

And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which sees the Son, and believes on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day. John 6:40

Verily, verily, I say unto you,The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he sees the Father do: for what soever things he does, these also does the son likewise. John 5:19

 After this manner pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.  Mathew 6:9

Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. Mathew 10:33

Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bound them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart. Proverbs 3:3

All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth unto such as keep his covenant and his testimonies. Psalm 25:10

 

Judicious Judgement

      We've all heard it.  [ Mathew 7:1]"Judge not, that ye be not judged."Still, it always seems to be that, there is a bit of judging hanging on to the shirt-tails of that statement that targets the import of what your intent may have been. Every believer, non-believer, cat or  dog in  your little world is well adept with its inception. Jesus used it and so it has to be. This will be a challenging quandary to explore; exacting ideologue of an obviously judicial statement about judgement without being judgmental. How does one facilitate the retrieval of an acceptable facet while still arriving shy of the facetious. Contextual scrutiny has to be the avenue to be explored. 

     Consider starting at Matthew chapter 5 and ending at chapter 8.  Although this has nothing even close to our original dilemma, one may want to examine the style of teaching used for centuries. I'm not attempting to rabbit trail but to establish foundational footings. When reading the exhortations of Jesus you'll be subject to a whole litany of sayings, jumping from one subject to another. This is almost like reading Solomon's proverbs, or Confucius sayings; wisdom literature amassed in nonstop progression. Matthew, being a tax collector at one time, would have be the perfect vessel for transcribing these sayings we read being adept at a form of shorthand common to that vocation; not to mention the only gospel for several years after the crucifixion of Jesus. Understanding that we have some responsibility in the separation of themes might lead one to be logically responsible to the inclusion of verses tied to the aforementioned verse. Whatever empathizes conditional understanding can't be selectively ignored or side-stepped to ingratiate your defensive posturing. "Judge not", for me, immediately raises questions. I thought we were supposed to be wise as serpents. [Mathew 10:16] How do we go through life or even a single day without making judgments? I know He's referencing people, and you can't go out the door in the morning without encountering them. As a father and husband I have to be in the judicial role as a part of my parental role. Still,there has to be a line somewhere that can't be crossed. My best guess is that there is point of crossing over into God's role where I don't belong. We've all crossed that line at some point. What's beyond our understanding, which is limited as to most of our encounters, God only knows. We're clueless of what circumstances made people what they appear. Yes, appearances are deceiving. Being judicious in our judgments should always tempered by grace. People may be raising their own eyebrows while making there own assessments while scrutinizing some questionable straits of your own. Once again, God only knows. Consequential assessment sometimes may be a sad adornment you will have to wear if you transcend into or on to God's turf.

     For with what judgement ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. 

      "For with what judgement ye judge". Not that's a fearful consideration. One would hope that bias, prejudice, and motive might not have played a part in a reciprocal judgement. Thought provocation may be a revelation of intent. I'm not saying judgement isn't a necessity of living. Just going through an ordinary day always involves judicial thinking on our part. The collusion of bias and assumption presupposes our decisions, impairing any chance of non-prejudicial judgement leading ones action into expository episodes of revelatory delusion. Foot extraction from mouth could easily be avoidable with judicious thinking before hand on our part. Jesus just wants to save us from the same retribution that we have just invoked on others. And with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. Silence is golden .... or not? I would invoke a bit of grace before speculation reveals on my part, the revelating and owning of my own ignorance. We know not what we do? That, I'm guessing, is just a bunch of bull. Being vindictive shouldn't be a conditioned response. 

     And why beholdest thou the mote the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but consider not the beam that is in thine own eye? 

      There's a question that we often sidestep while others are oftentimes musing about. If there's a blindside to our thinking; why not think about consideration on our part to affected parties. Clothing ourselves with judgmental malfeasance is never an attractive apparel and is hard to forget. Opinion belongs to opinionated people that, more often than not, need to seek a better opinion. I apologize for that, I've got this mote in my eye keeping me up at night. I have to leave you with this.

"Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all theses things will be added unto you." Mathew 6:33 

"Judge not, that ye be not judged." But, be judicious in your own walk and let the real Judge do His work. Be a vessel He can use for others.