NOVEMBER 20, 2023

   “Sever the ties to your comfort zone.

Stretch yourself to see the wonders for you beyond the horizons. 
Get up on your tiptoes
Reach up to the Lord
Great things await only those who see and believe. 
It's only them that can receive.” 
― Manuela George-Izunwa

EZEKIEL 22-23

35“Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: Since you have forgotten me and turned your back on me, you must bear the consequences of your lewdness and prostitution.” (23:35) 

JAMES 2

5Listen, my dear brothers and sisters: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him? 6But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who are exploiting you? Are they not the ones who are dragging you into court? 7Are they not the ones who are blaspheming the noble name of him to whom you belong?

8If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, “Love your neighbor as yourself,”^a you are doing right. 9But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers. 10For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. 11For he who said, “You shall not commit adultery,”^b also said, “You shall not murder.”^c If you do not commit adultery but do commit murder, you have become a lawbreaker.

12Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, 13because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

JOURNAL 

This chapter in James is so rich...in this section we are commanded to remember that we are all sinners and just as God has been merciful to us we are to show mercy and that mercy is far better than judgement.

Also in these verses it is clear that wealth is not the measuring stick of righteousness but actually the opposite. Yet I know in my own heart that there is a preference to gravitate to the wealthy rather than the poor. The reason for this is simply self-preservation and seeking worldly security instead of God. 

What would the Christian faith be like if we honored the poor more than the wealthy? These are challenging thoughts because they go to very core of my own prejudices, fears and insecurities. Yet they also challenge me to seek God more than man...and to err on the side of action rather than passivity.  It also is at the core of doing things that are hard, frustrating, scary etc. Doing those things requires faith and a commitment to something greater than myself. 

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