2:253 – Being and Doing

#faithbites #faithjourney #RedLetterChallenge Being

Today is Day 1 of #RedLetterChallenge. This is the start of 40 days of reading, learning, and living the actual words of Jesus Christ. This challenge isn’t easy, but one we are all taking as a group.

Today’s message was about Being. We need to know Christ to follow him. We follow Him through our actions. You can’t have one without the other. Actions without Christ turn the attention to us. Christ without action is dead faith.

So we begin the journey with our foundation on Christ, the rock.

Scripture

• What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. – James 2:14-17
• “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.  And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.” – Matthew 7:24-27

Reflection

These two passages set the tone for this challenge. First, the James passage, where we see that if you are in Christ, you must show that through actions. In the book, The Red Letter Challenge, he gives an example of telling his son to clean his room. If the child comes back as says I know how to say, “Clean Your Room”, has he done what the dad says? If he says it in Greek, has he done it? What if the child and his friends get together and talk about what it means to clean his room, has he done it? The answer is no. Until the child cleans the room, he hasn’t put it into action.

Similarly, we need to have a solid foundation. We need a rock, our savior, Christ. If we don’t start with Him as our foundation, we are doing works that may be good but point towards us and not him. We are also doomed to stray from the path he has set. We need His words and our actions. Just like we need the Law and the Gospel.

So with a solid foundation and a plan to act, we begin the Red Letter challenge. I hope you will join me on this.

Challenge

Begin your 40-day challenge. It can be reading the Red Letter Challenge Book, it can be reading your Bible, or even following along here. Do it with a friend. Together see what Jesus does in your life.

Prayer

Lord God, you have given us your words to live by. We have fallen short of your grace. Imagine if all of us followed you daily, what a wonderful world we would live in. Help open the hearts of all to follow along and begin their own Red Letter Challenge. Allow us to fully immerse ourselves in your love, your words, and your plan for us. In your name, Amen.