Thoughts and Musings

Complimentary Faith & Works (A Clarification)

2009-06-04T22:28:00.000-07:00

So, this will be a little bit shorter of an entry than last time. I was reading through the last thing that I posted and I just wanted to make sure that I made one thing clear: our works are not what earn us our salvation. I know that in the previous entry I focused pretty much solely on making sure that we take our faith and put it into action, almost to the point of excluding faith from the picture.

So just to make it clear, our works do not earn us salvation. It’s by grace that we’ve been saved, and not our own grace, but the grace of God at work in us. A good way to try to express what I’ve been trying to get across between this post and the last one can be pretty well summarized in the lyrics of a song by Sanctus Real. The song is called “Deeds”, and its message is that if we’re relying just on our faith or just on our works, then we’re missing out on the big picture. The first verse addresses a works-only mentality, and the second verse a faith-only mentality. The chorus rings loud and true a few times throughout the course of the song: “If you don’t have faith, you have nothing at all, if you don’t have deeds your faith will fall. They can’t be true without each other. You can’t have one without the other.” At one point the words are slightly rearranged, stating “If you don’t have deeds you have nothing at all, if you don’t have faith your deeds will fall…”—both are necessary, and if we try to exercise one without the other, then our efforts can only go so far or be but so effective.

What good are our deeds unless they’re done for a purpose outside of our own self-glorification. It reminds me of when Jesus talked about the Pharisees in Matthew 6, who went out into the streets and said with a loud voice “Look at what I’ve done. I follow God, I give to the poor, and I’m pretty much a great person”—they’re looking for praise from others, and we’re told that they’ve received their reward in full. Honor for the sake of honor does nothing.

Likewise, what good is our faith if we keep it to ourselves? All of the belief in the world won’t bring change in the world unless it’s coupled with action. If we’re only praying, only trusting that God will do something, what’s going to get accomplished? If no one took a stand, nothing would change. And a single person can’t make it happen alone. Since I’m already kind of on the quoting lyrics thing, I’ll use the words from mewithoutYou’s song, “In A Market Dimly Lit”. “What good’s a single wind chime hanging quiet all alone? The music our collisions would make!”

I kind of touched on it a little further up, but our motives are important as well. What are some reasons that we can do what we do? Ultimately it comes down to we’re either doing it for ourselves, for the approval from others, or for the people that we’re coming in contact with on a daily basis. I realize that this isn’t a full explanation of belief and action, but it’s just intended to be a start for your own personal exploration and growth.

If we believe or do actions for our own personal well being, security, or glorification, then we’ve lost sight of our calling and likely, we’ve lost that sense of why we believe. Although belief can have benefits for us personally, if our motives are to save our own selves, then our motives are based on selfishness. Selfishness is sin.

If we do these things for the approval of others, then I’d argue that we’ve really missed the point, more so than if we do things for ourselves. If we believe for the purpose of being accepted by others, or if we do things for people because we want others to see how great we are, then we have cheapened belief to a tool for popularity and praise, instead of having that belief really take hold of us as we embrace it.

Lastly, we can choose to believe or act for others. Now, our faith will not save anyone else, let’s make that clear. We each have to believe on our own in order for it to be meaningful. Our actions, however, should be for others. Some of you may be asking, “but aren’t we supposed to do everything for God’s glory?”. I tell you the truth, whatever you have done for the least of these, you have done for God and his glory.

Faith is necessary. Works are necessary. What’s the faith to works percentage split? Is it 50/50? Is it 30/70? How about 80/20? The two should be so integrally related that the split in reality shouldn’t be a split. It should be 100/100!

So yeah, I just wanted to touch up that last note a little bit. The book that I mentioned does cover both aspects, so just because I relied on some parts of the book for my last entry, don’t let it turn you off to the book. And for those of you who aren’t religious, the ideas in the book can still be fairly universally applied, as we all hold certain beliefs, and as belief is a natural precursor to action. Also, don’t worry, not all of the things I’ll write about will have a necessarily Christian theme—some will be more of a glimpse into who I am, some of my problems, some of my goals, and just how life’s treating me. I can’t say that they won’t be influenced by my beliefs, but if we’re friends, most likely you haven’t minded it too much before.

I love you all.

Chris Walton

P.S. – If you’re reading these as a Facebook note, a Myspace blog, or a blog entry on Xanga, I just wanted to let you know that there’s another way you can follow along if you’d prefer that. I’ve got a blogger account, and you can access these entries along with all future ones at http://xawakentheflamex.blogspot.com – even if I forget to update on some of the previous sites (facebook, myspace, xanga), you will still be able to find everything on the website I just listed.

P.P.S. – Don’t get too excited, this daily blogging won’t last forever. I’ve only got 13 more days at home, then it’s off to camp for the summer, and computer/internet access will be much more limited at camp. Plus, I’ll be busy all day and in the cabin most nights, so I just won’t have as much time to do this.

A Call To Christian Action

2009-06-03T21:16:00.000-07:00

My friends, thanks for reading this note. I hope you're doing well. If you're not doing so well, my heart is with you. Have hope.

Many of you know that I'm not big on reading books. I don't like reading. I don't find it to be that enjoyable, and it takes altogether too long usually. Despite that, I'd like to recommend a book to all of you. I'm only halfway finished with reading the book, but I don't feel the need to necessarily finish it before I suggest that you read it. I will finish it though, even within the week, so if you have questions, let me know. It's called "Starving Jesus", written by Craig Gross & J. R. Mahon, and it outlines one of the biggest problems facing the church today: inaction. To quote them, "We're pretty much resigned to the fact that the church is killing itself. This may sound pessimistic, but not a lot seems to be getting done anymore. Not a lot of love or compassion, and rarely do we see the church reaching into the human gutter of sin and pulling people out. Just a lot of sanctimonious speech and self-righteous indignation, all wrapped up in great marketing and advertising. There's a whole lot of talk, but not a whole lot of action."

Plenty of questions are raised in the book, including things like "Why do we only see Christians on Sundays?", or "Why are we stuck in the pews?", or even the question that seems to trouble us so much that we push it aside as a mere unavoidable human problem: "Why is everyone such a hypocrite?"

So often, I hear Christians get defensive when others refer to Christianity as a religion. I've thought long and hard about this, and I think I've even posted another note on facebook concerning the question, but I'm not sure. Why is it that Christians get so up in arms when others label them as "religious"? What is it that we're so afraid of? Being in relationship with Christ is one of the biggest aspects of Christianity. Believing in God is a crucial part of the Christian religion, and listening to God is paramount to knowing his will for us, but one specific charge given to us resonates throughout the Bible: the call to religion--the call to putting our belief into action.

A good tree will bear good fruit according to its kind, will it not? A good apple tree will produce good apples. It will not give bad apples, good pears, or bad pears. If it brings forth any of those things, it is not a good apple tree. So it is with Christianity. We are a sort of "Christian tree" if you will allow the metaphor. Our faith in Jesus is what defines the Christian nature of us, and our actions are the fruit of our faith. A tree that bears no fruit is useless, and will be cast into the fires (Matthew 7:19). This is how the world will know that we are disciples of Christ and that we love him, if we obey his commands (John 14:15, 21, 23, etc).

"Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does. If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless. Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world" (James 1:22-27). How often do we ignore this instruction, myself included? So many of us wander through life wondering what God's purpose is for us, wondering what his call is for our lives, and not doing anything while we're waiting, for fear that it may not be God's will for us. If I may be so bold, I'd like to suggest that this is his call specifically for your life. "Do not merely listen to the word.... Do what it says." Just because we don't have that one thing that we feel God is leading us towards doesn't mean we can be active for Christ and for his kingdom until we do find that one thing.

Jesus instructs us in Matthew 5, "Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven." "What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him?" (James 2:14). Later on we're told "Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with action and in truth" (1 John 3:18).

"John got it. Get up, shut up, and do it. We don't care what it is. Just take some action. Anything short of sin should be the rule. Give to the poor. Feed the hungry. Evangelize on a city street. Help a kid with cancer. Join the fight against pornography. Give your time to the elderly. Love your neighbor. Give your time to a little kid. Make yourself available to a teenager who needs a mentor. Fix someone's car. Paint a house. Talk to a homosexual about their faith. Pull a drunk out of the butter and get him something to eat. Give the homeless guy a place to crash. Bring the hooker to church. Spend the afternoon talking to an inmate at the local jail. You get the idea. Bottom line: get off your butt and do something.... Be in the world, not of the world. We love to screw this up. We automatically assume we should check out and pay no attention to the pop culture radar. Forget about the people who are led astray. Build a bunker in the backyard, cover the kids' eyes and ears, and hope all your willpower and energy will be enough for the world to stay away. The problem with this behavior is when you follow Christ, you will be asked to serve those who are of the world" (Gross & Mahon, pp. 7-9).

The book has so much more to say about this than I can really go into at the moment (and if I keep quoting large parts of the book, I may start getting into copyright trouble). What I've shared here from the book really only comes from the first couple of chapters, and subsequent chapters start to focus on the question of "What does it look like to be a disciple of Christ?" among other things. I'd really encourage you to check it out. It's a really easy read, only 8 chapters (125 pages) long. Take fifteen minutes, read a chapter a day, and pass it on to a friend at the end of the week. It's not a book that caters to those who are afraid of being convicted towards action, but then again, it may be the perfect book for those people (of whom I find myself to be time and time again).

So I'd like to leave you with a few simply asked, but difficult to answer questions, and I'd love it if each and every one of you who read this (regardless of if you're tagged) would honestly answer them, to yourself, if nothing else. If you'd like, feel free to answer right here in the form or a reply or comment, to be publicly held accountable or to spur others on to action. If nothing else, answer #1 and #7 to me, as I'd love to rejoice with you, mourn with you, and pray for you.

1 -- How are you doing? How's your day/week/month/etc?
2 -- In what ways are you seeking God, personally and/or corporately?
3 -- What are some practical ways you can set out to love your neighbor tomorrow? (If you answer this, do those things!)
4 -- What are you currently doing to help out and love "the least of these" (Matthew 25:33-40)? If you aren't already, what could you do? Do those things.
5 -- Who is/are your enemy/enemies? How can you show them love (Matthew 5:44)? Do those things.
6 -- What aren't you doing #3-5 more often? What obstacles get in your way, and how can you overcome them?
7 -- Is there anything that I can personally pray about on your behalf, regardless of its relation to this topic?
8 -- Any chance you'll read the book I suggested, "Starving Jesus", by Craig Gross & J. R. Mahon?

To everyone: know that I love all of you. Every single one of you. I value the friendship that I have with each of you, although I probably don't value it enough. Or love you enough, for that matter. I'm working on that. More importantly though, remember that God loves you, regardless of what you've done, and he loves you more fully and more perfectly than I could ever hope to do. He sacrificed himself for you, gave up his own life for you. What sacrifices are you willing to make for him? God bless.

Chris Walton