Visible Faith

 

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. James 1:22

 

I remember when I was young and my mother taught me that religion was a personal thing. Her point was usually that we didn’t need to talk about it outside of our home. The result of that for me was that I just didn’t talk about it all.

We were church-goers on a pretty regular basis. We said grace  before dinner every night and prayers before bed. That was the extent of God in our lives. Most of my friends lived pretty much the same, we just went to different churches on Sunday.

I did learn not to take the Lord’s name in vain or get pregnant before marriage. These two things plus “The Golden Rule,” were the extent of my Bible knowledge. Living by these “rules” made me feel like I was a pretty good person.

You can imagine my confusion when I first heard that, “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” I asked God to show me if that was true.

He. Showed. Me.

It. Is. True.

Fast forward several years. I have learned that not talking about my faith is sin. In fact, we are to proclaim the truths about Christ to all of creation (Mark 16:15). But, I am coming to an understanding that the simple teaching to be quiet about my faith has caused me to be a timid Christian even though I have learned to speak about my faith to people who want to hear about it.

What I continue to fail to do is speak the truth to those who disagree with me on vital issues. The biggest of these being the deity of Christ, which includes the truth that He is the only way to heaven (John 14:6).  Is it sin for me to leave people I know with their misinterpretations of scripture? Should I speak up?

Someone recently told me (in different words) that I take the Bible too seriously. She is a professing Christian. But she believes that because someone is a nice person, says they believe in Christ, and can talk about the scriptures, that she is going to heaven. All of this in spite of a lifestyle that God says is an abomination.

We disagree. I think you can’t take the Bible too seriously.

Nonetheless, disagreements make me examine my own life, first. Is what I say I believe (that the bible is the inerrant word of God) affecting the way I live? Do my faith and actions line up in the eyes of the woman who meets me, reads what I have written, or who’s heard what I have said about the Lord and His work in my life?

Christ consistently lived what He taught and He did whatever His Father asked Him to do. Do I? Do you?

On this issue, my Mom was wrong. Our faith is to be heard in our words and seen in our actions.