Doing

TITLE: Doing
DATE: December 14, 2019
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Christ is risen. He is risen, indeed.

TEXT: James 1:22-27 – ESV - But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing. If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless. ...

As far as I can tell, there are three unchangeable laws which are applicable to every home:

• LAW #1 – If you have a home with children, you probably have a home filled with people who “want a puppy.
• LAW #2 – In order for children to receive said puppy, they are willing to promise anything, including “I promise I will feed the puppy, walk the puppy, and, without being asked, take the puppy out for ”rest” breaks.” Further, I will make sure the back yard is picked up weekly and returned to its Eden-like, pristine condition.
• LAW #3-Three weeks after the new puppy has  been brought home Mother begins to question her sanity It seems that she was the only one who can remember any of those promises. And when she asks ,“Whose turn is it to let out the dog, pick up the yard, feed and water the dog, the replies are always the same: “It’s not my turn.”  

There is a church in Strasbourg whose leadership would disagree.

During the Second World War, the church in Strasbourg was bombed and then burned.

Nothing remained but a heap of rubble and broken glass. At least that’s what the congregation’s membership thought. But, when they began clearing away the masonry, they found a still standing statue of the Savior, Jesus. In spite of all the bombing, and the burning  the statue was unharmed except that both hands were missing.
Eventually, the church was rebuilt.

One day, a sculptor saw the damaged figure of Christ and offered to carve new hands. The church officials met and considered the kindly offer. Their reply said this: "With gratitude for the gesture, we are forced to reject it. Our broken Lord touches the spirits of men. Our broken statue reminds us that Jesus had no hands to minister to the needy or feed the hungry or enrich the poor except ours."

Over the year there have been times when I thought that replicas of that statue ought to be placed n all our congregations. That is especially true where there is a preponderance of members who believe when the Holy Spirit brought them to Jesus their responsibilities were at an end.

Like the family with the puppy, it is always someone else’ s responsibility to do the jobs which need to be done.  Quite frankly, I see nowhere in Scripture which describes such an uncommitted form of discipleship.

The truth is those of us who call Jesus, "Lord” dare not think we are done making decisions.

We can decide to let other hands do Christ's work. We can decide to let other men's feet lead people to Jesus. We can decide to let other men's tongues speak of the joy we have in the Savior. Yet, I cannot believe that those who have seen Jesus crucified, our hearts will not let us make such poor decisions. When we see His defeat of Sin, Satan and death for us with His love that has no equal, we will respond to Him.

THE PRAYER: Dear Lord, let me hear and respond to Your calls to action  In Your holy Name I pray it. Amen.

The music which introduces and concludes our devotions was written by Guy Baumann. He along with three of his brothers perform on the album: The Baumann Brothers which may be ordered here: http://thebaumannbrothers.com/index.html