Luke’s Notebook

Went to the YMCA yesterday.

I read this the other day:

Matthew 3:8

Produce good fruit as evidence of your repentance.

Just eight simple words, but it really struck me. John the Baptist was basically telling the pharisees that they should prove their repentance by their works. Then later in James 2:14-26, we learn:

14What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? 15Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. 16If one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? 17In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

18But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.”

Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do.

19You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.

20You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless[d>? 21Was not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? 22You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. 23And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,”[e> and he was called God’s friend. 24You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone.

25In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? 26As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.

So what’s becoming more and more evident is that not only do we need to say we believe in God and have good intentions, but we’re actually supposed to be proactive, to be doing something with that faith. I think the specific course of action can vary greatly, but I do think the common denominator is that we’re supposed to be producing good fruit and making it that the things we do day-in and day-out serve as living proof of our love for God.

We had a really good discussion about this during a recent Safe At Home service. What I’m learning more and more is that not only does God want me to trust in Him, but He also wants me to act on that, to show His love to people. Imagine what would happen if everybody who claimed to believe in God would have works to back it up!

If we always were looking to how we could serve God and how we could help others, instead of looking out for our own wants or needs, just imagine what life would be like! Even though I fail and fall short of it time and time again, I want to keep striving for this, so that if somebody were to observe me they would see God’s love and compassion in me, without me even having to tell them that I’m a Christian. It’s something to reach for.

Wow. I am so blessed! My birthday was just wonderful. God has blessed me with a wonderful family and some awesome friends. I have such an incredible amount to be thankful for. It is so humbling.

It has gotten late, and I need to get some sleep, but I just wanted to get this entry in there. But thank You, God!!!

And, by the way, I went to the Y last night.

Made a YMCA visit on a freezing Monday evening.

From 1 Corinthians 10:12-13:

So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.

Isn’t this encouraging? I know I tend to think that sometimes there’s just a boiling point where I have to give in, blow up, or compromise. But to me, it is extremely encouraging to know that in every situation, there is a possible escape route without me giving in.

I just think it’s so neat that God promises us that it is possible to resist anything and everything. Though I’m human and sinful by nature, I don’t want to ever use that as an excuse for screwing up, since it’s clearly stated that, in any situation, I really do have the ultimate decision, even if I sure don’t feel that way sometimes.

So I just think it’s awesome to realize that it can be done. God made us and He knows what each of us are capable of. And it is possible to resist temptation in every situation. Pretty cool stuff.

Something just hit me a few minutes ago, completely out of nowhere. I wasn’t even going to make an entry tonight. But a question just popped up: “How can you spot a counterfeit if you don’t know what the truth is?”

For some reason, that just really hit something in me. It reminds me of so many people I know or see who are well-intentioned but just don’t seem to “get” it. It’s like they subscribe to some other version of Christianity, or they call themselves Christians yet, by their life — what they talk about, what they think about, what they do — it’s obvious that they’re not living with Jesus in their heart, that they’re not “born again.”

Just hearing myself ask that question, it makes things so clear. There are lots of people who are genuinely trying to “do good” in their lives or who consider themselves a Christian, but if they haven’t personally familiarized themselves with the truth, how in the world will they be able to detect a lie? It’s scary to think how dangerous that is, because there are people who are honestly trying to do good, yet it’s very easy to be fooled.

I’m surprised that I find myself writing about this, because I had no intention to do this; in fact, this hasn’t even been on my mind for more than, say, a half-hour or 45 minutes. But it’s like I just realized that this is precisely why so many people might consider themselves to be Christians or moral citizens, but they aren’t taking the time to get a personal knowledge of the unchanging truth. And the simple fact is if you don’t know what the truth is, you are going to get duped.

We can have the best of intentions, but if we don’t take care to study the truth and become well-acquainted with it, we are inevitably going to fall for the imitation. As Christians, we have got to become so familiar with the truth, with God’s promises, His commandments, where we can recognize something in disguise.

So let’s make sure we get the truth from God, from the Bible. The Holy Spirit living in us can do a great job of sniffing out a counterfeit, if only we let it. But in all we do, let’s just make sure that we don’t fall for a half-truth or something that has elements of truth in it. The best way to do this is to draw near to God, to get close to His heart.

It looks like my RSS feed has been acting up a little bit, along with FamTeam Today’s. It seems there are certain characters that throw it off. I’m not sure what’s going on with mine. Usually, the problem is something like an ampersand (&) or using some HTML tags or something. Hopefully I can figure out what’s going on.

This evening, Paul, John, Mark, Jude, and I drove out to Maryville to check out the YMCA there. We had never been there, so we decided to have a workout there. It’s a decent facility and all, but it makes me really appreciate the new buildings we have in Belleville and Columbia. They’re definitely nicer, have better equipment, more space, and such. It’s such a blessing to have several great YMCAs within just a half-hour or so.

Y today.

I realized I could sum up yesterday’s mammoth of an entry in just a few words: Lean fully on God, not on man. Seek Jesus with everything that you have. Don’t rely on anybody but Him to be your salvation, your peace, your joy, or your fulfillment in life. Humans will let you down. God will not.

That was a lot simpler than last night’s entry. This’ll keep me humble.

By the way, quick mention: YMCA visit yesterday (Tuesday). The reason I’m mentioning these and tagging “ymca” is basically for my own benefit, so I can easily keep track of the number of visits. I just click on the “ymca” tag at the bottom of this entry, and it will show me every entry tagged “ymca.” Then I can easily count ‘em up or review them if I want to.