Devotional 12-10-08

Faith in Action?
Mark 11:27 - 33

Again they came to Jerusalem. As he was walking in the temple, the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders came to him and said, ‘By what authority are you doing these things? Who gave you this authority to do them?’ Jesus said to them, ‘I will ask you one question; answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things. Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin? Answer me.’ They argued with one another, ‘If we say, “From heaven”, he will say, “Why then did you not believe him?” But shall we say, “Of human origin”?’—they were afraid of the crowd, for all regarded John as truly a prophet. So they answered Jesus, ‘We do not know.’ And Jesus said to them, ‘Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.

Are we like the priests/scribes, the pride in knowledge of tradition or of scriptures translates down into beliefs in the congregations. Are we proud of our faith even though many times it is dead?

The passage preceding this one spoke about the radical nature of a living faith in God. One could actually move mountains into the sea if he actually believed. Genuine faith, as James said, is one of action. Faith without works is dead. (James 2:17-18). We find it intriguing that the Jewish leaders – the chief priests, scribes and elders - (what a gang!) would challenge Jesus on the things which He was doing rather than teaching. Though they could publicly only refer to the action in the temple courts, they seem to clearly have had problems with all the things Jesus was doing. His actions were so closely interwoven with what Jesus was teaching and believing, that the miracles, the healings, etc. well portrayed Jesus' ministry.

The world starts getting concerned when the church starts practicing its faith. They can tolerate the dead faith which produces no fruit. Why? Because anytime their faith gets in their way, it can be easily shoved aside. They always compromise. They have not learned how to integrate action with their faith.

Some might wonder whether I am suggesting marches for Jesus, ministering to the homeless, buying computers for the inner city children, etc. As long as we look at these expressions of faith, we have totally missed the picture. The issue is not to try to mimic others but to find what God's Word is saying to us and respond to it. There are an infinite number of ways to do our Father's will. But we need to get intensely close to God to make our faith come alive and life-changing. If we do not get close enough to hear Him, then we will not know what to do. This calls for inner and outer transformation, the former preceding the later.

The Lord does not stop asking us to do things when we are ready. There is no sense for Him to ask if we can't or won't do what He wants. There are already enough commands in the Bible that many of His people totally and purposely ignore. But just like the time the Lord confronted Gideon about tearing down his father's idols, we tremble in our weakness about being able to do what He wants. I have boasted many times, "I will do all you want." But when He speaks, then I tremble. He asks for concrete and specific activities, I fear doing them. Like Moses with his stumbling, I can think of many excuses to what He asks. "Go and evangelize that person over there." "Take care of my children – talk with them, feed them" "Give my children a safe haven and minister to them in a different ways like on a Thursday night." He gives us opportunity for our faith to overcome our fears and doubts.

Jesus knew the leaders were not ready to hear the answer as to who gave Him authority to redecorate the temple yard and help out the desperate. He could not have done it without His Father telling Him to do it. But Jesus wasn't there for publicity. It wasn't a production. Jesus cared about how people disdained His Father's house of prayer. Jesus simply switched the question back to them and confused them.

Jesus had a long list of things He did on earth. John states that the list could fill all the books which were ever written!

And there are also many other things which Jesus did, which if they *were written in detail, I suppose that even the world itself *would not contain the books which *were written. (John 21:25). They did not come to Him with problems about His teaching but about what He did. We are just too content to have church members do nothing but 'believe.' If we are followers of Jesus, then we should also have works that bring the world into confrontation with the holy Creator.

"Is there sufficient evidence by which others could convict you of being a follower of Jesus? Have you put YOUR faith into Action?”

Amy Inghram