Beyond Thoughts and Faith that transforms A Study of James 2:14 26 on the Daily Bible refresh with Dr. Brad Miller hello my good friends.

Dr. Brad Miller here with the Daily Bible Refresh.

Your daily visit into the New Testament of the Bible from a progressing perspective.

We made the reading of the Bible understandable.

We use the Message version relatable.

We give you some points to ponder and applicable.

We give you an action step to follow with a prayer.

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We take the Revised Common Lectionary, which is the daily reading of the Bible.

We're in year C of a three year cycle, the Pentecost season, and we bring it to you.

This is a part of our goal to get the audible word of God into two million years, a million people by 2028.

Here's our reading for the day from James 2:14 26.

Reading from the Message it's about faith in action.

Dear friends.

Do you think you'll get anywhere in this if you learn all the right words but never do anything?

Does merely talking about faith indicate that a person really has it?

For instance, you come upon an old friend dressed in rags and half starved and say, good morning friend, be clothed in Christ, be filled with the Holy Spirit and walk off without providing so much as a coat or a cup of soup.

Where does that get you?

Isn't it obvious that God talk of without God acts is outrageous nonsense.

I can already hear one of you agreeing by saying, sounds good.

You take care of the faith department, I'll handle the works department.

Not so fast.

You can no more show me your works apart from your faith than I can show you my faith apart from my works.

Faith and works, Works and faith fit together like hand and glove.

Do I hear you professing to believe in the one and only God, but then observe your complete complacency sitting back as if you had done something wonderful.

That's just great.

Demons do that, but what good does it do them?

Use your heads.

Do you suppose for a minute that you can cut faith in works in two and not end up with a corpse on your hands?

Was our ancestor Abraham made right with God by works when he placed his son Isaac on the sacrificial altar?

Wasn't it obvious that faith and works are yoked partners?

That faith expression itself in works?

That the works are works of faith?

The full meaning of believe in the scripture sentence Abraham believed God and was set right with God includes his action.

It's that weave of believing and acting that got Abraham named God's friend.

It is not evident that a person is made right with God not by a barren faith, but by faith fruitful in works.

The same with Rahab, the Jericho harlot.

Wasn't her action in hiding God's spies and helping them escape that seamlessly unity of believing and doing what counted with God?

The very moment you separate body and spirit, you end up with a corpse.

Separate faith and works.

Separate faith and works and you get the same thing, a corpse.

Wow, what a profound passage of scripture from the book of James.

And so we're exploring this challenge to us by going beyond performative faith to transformative action.

And here James is addressing really a timeless issue, the gap between religious talk and meaningful action.

And I think his words are particularly relevant in our age of social media activism and the thoughts and prayers that so many people respond to in crisis without doing anything.

Here are some points to ponder.

The violence of empty words.

James doesn't just suggest that empty religious words are ineffective.

He calls them outrageous nonsense.

So when we offer spiritual platitudes to those in need, without tangible support, we're not just being unhelpful, we're participating in systematic violence.

How do our comfortable religious phrases sometimes serve as barriers to real engagement with suffering?

The second point is about embodied solidarity.

The text here presents faith and works as inseparable as body and spirit weaved together.

The scripture says this isn't about earning salvation through good deeds.

It's about understanding that authentic faith naturally manifest in action.

In our current context of all the crisis that we have going on in our world climate, racial injustice, economic inequality, political instability.

How does our faith call us to show up with our whole selves?

Another point is about unexpected prophets.

James here lips up Rahab.

She was a sex worker and a foreigner, and she lifts her up as an example of faith, of authentic faith.

This radically challenges what we often consider in our life faithful today, where we might find examples of authentic faith in action from those in our religious institutions often marginalize or ignore.

What can we learn from activists, organizers and communities which are on the margins?

Here's your action step.

Examine your thoughts and prayers, the responses you may make, which are just platitudes, and choose an issue where you regularly may have thoughts and prayers about and do something about it.

Maybe post about it on social media, or take some action to support some organization financially with time or service.

Research the organizations that are led directly by affected communities and address whatever issue they are trying to address.

And maybe commit a period of time, a month, three months, to somehow support them, not only through your thoughts and prayers, but through your action, through your financial contribution, your volunteer time, or somehow using your privilege or your power to affect change, things you can do to amplify their voices and leadership.

We'll come back and have a closing prayer here in just a moment.

I did want you to know we have a great resource just for you.

It's called the ABC 1, 2, 3 Bible Study Method.

You can pick it up at our website voiceofgoddaily.com it's free to you for your daily Bible study.

Here's our closing prayer.

Oh God, you are a divine agitator and shake us from our comfortable faith that costs nothing and changes nothing.

When we're tempted to offer empty words, push us towards concrete action.

When we try to separate our spirituality from justice, remind us that love without works is dead.

Help us move beyond performative caring into genuine solidarity.

Make our faith dangerous to oppression and life giving to those who suffer.

Transform our prayers into protests, our worship into witness and our belief into being the change.

Amen.

Well my good friends, it's always good to be with you here at Daily Bible Refresh.

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