Kansas City, Missouri, United States - Reflecting God – Embrace Holy Living - "Pure Religion" – Saturday, 25 October 2014 - Scripture: James 1:19-27

Kansas City, Missouri, United States - Reflecting God – Embrace Holy Living - "Pure Religion" – Saturday, 25 October 2014 - Scripture: James 1: Act on What You Hear
19-21 Post this at all the intersections, dear friends: Lead with your ears, follow up with your tongue, and let anger straggle along in the rear. God’s righteousness doesn’t grow from human anger. So throw all spoiled virtue and cancerous evil in the garbage. In simple humility, let our gardener, God, landscape you with the Word, making a salvation-garden of your life.
22-24 Don’t fool yourself into thinking that you are a listener when you are anything but, letting the Word go in one ear and out the other. Act on what you hear! Those who hear and don’t act are like those who glance in the mirror, walk away, and two minutes later have no idea who they are, what they look like.
25 But whoever catches a glimpse of the revealed counsel of God—the free life!—even out of the corner of his eye, and sticks with it, is no distracted scatterbrain but a man or woman of action. That person will find delight and affirmation in the action.
26-27 Anyone who sets himself up as “religious” by talking a good game is self-deceived. This kind of religion is hot air and only hot air. Real religion, the kind that passes muster before God the Father, is this: Reach out to the homeless and loveless in their plight, and guard against corruption from the godless world.
"Pure Religion" by Jerry D. Porter
James, the brother of our Lord, reminds the Church that holiness is more than living free from this world’s sinfulness–it is evidenced by justice and acts of compassion toward the needy. “Believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favoritism. Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in filthy old clothes also comes in. If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, ‘Here’s a good seat for you,’ but say to the poor man, ‘You stand there’ or ‘Sit on the floor by my feet,’ have you not discriminated among yourselves?” (James 2:1b-4a)

The church must be careful to not organize events (for students, women, couples, etc.) that exclude the poor. We often want events to be “self-supporting,” but in so doing, we are guilty of favoring the wealthy that can afford to attend. Practical compassion in the church means never excluding anyone from any event because of their limited resources: “All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need” (Acts 2:44-45).

Hymn for Today:

"Your Love Compels Me" by Doug Holck copyright 1982 by Pilot Point Music (ASCAP), Box 419527, Kansas City, Missouri 64141 United S. All rights reserved.
1. Your love compels me Lord 
To give as You would give 
To speak as You would speak 
To live as You would live 
Your love compels me Lord 
To see as You would see 
To serve as You would serve
Thought for Today:

“When we receive Christ mercy on us. . .we should reach out with the love, mercy, and compassion we have received, 'Freely you have received. Freely give."(Diane Laclerc).
Prayer Needs:
That many people in Guadaloupe and Neis will come to know Jesus the Christ, Yeshua the Messiah, and receive the fullness of the Holy Spirit.
____________________________
WordAction Publishing Company
Beacon Hill Press
Nazarene Publishing Company
2500 Troost Avenue
Kansas City, MO 64108 United States[
Embrace holy living…visit reflectinggod.com.
____________________________