The Offering of Fellowship

The Offering of Fellowship

Way back when, they came with goats, bulls, and pigeons.

Now, we come with our song, contribution, and service.

But has it ever been about the object of sacrifice, really?

Or is it about obedience? Wills aligned with God’s?

Isn’t it really about our hearts? Hearts that commune with His.

We come to worship—to bless our God—out of love and gratitude.

We come to Him—anytime, anywhere—to fellowship with our Lord and Maker.

And yet, aren’t we the ones that seem to be blessed for it?

The newly redeemed Hebrew nation was instructed in the way of worship. And the Levitical Law specified the means of a fellowship offering.

A fellowship offering was offered To . The . Lord .

But do you know who got to enjoy it?

The priests making the sacrifice!

Doesn’t sound like much of a sacrifice, now does it?


“When you sacrifice a fellowship offering to the LORD,
sacrifice it in such a way that it will be accepted on your behalf.
It shall be eaten on the day you sacrifice it or on the next day;”
[Lv 19:5-6a {see also Lv 3:1ff}]


The fellowship offering was given in worship by those at peace with God. By those in a right relationship with God (because of His mercy and grace in making a way to right that relationship). The offering was made to God for that fellowship. The priests were then able to enjoy the offering in communion with God.

God shared the meal offered to Him with the worshiper.

Isn’t that indicative of our generous God?

When He asks that we bring an offering of worship, so often we are the ones truly blessed. And when we offer a sacrifice to Him, we are the ones rewarded (hardly qualifying as a sacrifice at all).

Jesus may have changed the practice of the fellowship offering, but don’t we still have cause to celebrate the peace and fellowship with God that He came to fulfill?

And didn’t He proclaim the practice of a shared “meal” in communion with Him and fellowship with one another because of the mercy and grace of God in making a way for our peace?

The offering for the Christian today is to bring our hearts in worship to the One that secured our peace with God, Jesus Christ. We come celebrating our abiding fellowship with Him—in love, thanksgiving, and praise. And we share that offering—as did God—in fellowship with His people.

Now and then, the mechanics may have changed—but doesn’t the heart of the matter remain ever the same?

Prayer:
We come, Lord, offering our hearts, exalting You in the absolute splendor of Your infinite holiness.

Hannah's Prayer of Thanksgiving

In her joy at the birth of her son, Hannah sang a song of thanksgiving which was a prayer to God. [1 Samuel 2.1-10] A millennium later Mary sang a similar song of thanksgiving that has great parallel significance. [Luke 1.46-55]

Looking at the two songs we see that they run with a similar theme until the last few verses. Hannah finishes with a prophecy about God's purpose, including for the first time in the Old Testament, the fact that the anointed Messiah would be a king. Of course, Israel did not have a king other than God at that time. Mary's song finishes with a declaration that God will keep all his promises to Abraham. No doubt she was aware that Jesus was the fulfillment of Hannah's prophecy also.

An outline of the two songs covers the following points:

Rejoice in the salvation of the Lord

Those of low estate rejoice in His favour

God is mighty and Holy is His Name

The proud are to be scattered

God extends mercy to those that fear Him

God puts down rulers and exalts the humble

The final verses of the two songs are quoted so that the differences can be seen:

‘…the pillars of the earth are the LORD's, and he hath set the world upon them. He will keep the feet of his saints, and the wicked shall be silent in darkness; for by strength shall no man prevail. The adversaries of the LORD shall be broken to pieces; out of heaven shall he thunder upon them: the LORD shall judge the ends of the earth; and he shall give strength unto his king, and exalt the horn of his anointed.’ [1Samuel 2.8-10]

Hannah is making a prophecy about the Messiah. Mary follows the same initial six points but then closes with the words:

‘He hath holpen his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy; As he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham, and to his seed for ever.’ [Luke 1.54,55]

Mary is invoking the promises to Israel spoken by God to Abraham. This was a divine covenant to be established through a descendant of Abraham, through whom all nations of the earth would be blessed. The promised seed was Jesus Christ, Israel’s Messiah and the future king of the whole world.

The record about Hannah and her prayer of thanksgiving forms only a small portion of Scripture, but she was one of those women of faith whose lives were pivotal in the purpose of God. The lesson for us is that God requires faith to be exhibited in our lives too, as we read in the letter to the Hebrews:

‘But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he (or she) that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.’ [Hebrews 11.6]

Children of Promise

 

We are not told much of Hannah and her family after Samuel was born, though we do know that she had three more sons and two daughters (See 1 Samuel 2.21). Mary, the mother of Jesus, also had further children. James, Joses, Simon and Judas are mentioned (See Matthew 13.55). Both Hannah and Mary recognised that their children of promise had a special role in God's purpose. Mary found Jesus in the temple at the age of 12 when he said ‘…wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?’ [Luke 2.49] We do not know at what age Samuel was considered weaned and was taken to live at the tabernacle in Shiloh, but we do know that Hannah kept in touch with him and made him a special garment every year. [1Samuel 2.19]

This reminds us of the special ‘coat of many colours’ made for Rachel's child of promise, Joseph. [Genesis 37.3] That coat may have been a priestly garment as he was Rachel's eldest child. Of course he was not the firstborn of his father Jacob, but he was the first child of the wife Jacob loved most. He was chosen of God and was a type of Christ and he had the double portion of the firstborn through his sons Ephraim and Manasseh. He became the ruler of all Egypt, second only to Pharaoh.

Samuel just like Joseph was the firstborn of his father's beloved wife. Samuel was not permitted under the Law of Moses to be a priest as he was not in the Aaronic line. He was a Levite in the line of Kohath. But Samuel was chosen of God and was a type of Christ. He became the High Priest as well as a Prophet and a Judge over Israel for forty years. We see in these chosen sons that God can overrule the details of the law for His own purpose, just as He overruled the condemnation of Christ when he was hung on a tree.

Jesus also had a special garment like Joseph and Samuel. This robe was made in one piece [John 19.23] and could possibly have been made by Mary. We can only wonder at the similarities of these three men; each had a special garment and each were children of promise. We can rest assured that Rachel, Hannah and Mary were aware that the only covering acceptable to God is a garment of righteousness, but perhaps the garments they made were a reminder to their sons of their special privilege and responsibility.

A Woman of Faith

 

Consider how strong was the faith of Hannah. She prayed earnestly for a child. Her faith made her realise that God controlled her life and it was up to her to accept God's will and to learn the lessons. When her long awaited hope was realised she not only dedicated her son to be a Nazarite but she gave him to the High Priest for the temple. She trusted God completely. As God had given her the promised son, then God would also protect and guide him in the difficulties of his temple service. This display of faith and trust in God is exactly like Abraham who received the long awaited child of promise but was willing to give him back to God as a sacrifice.

This attitude of complete trust in God is really faith in God's ultimate purpose, or a faith in the resurrection, for it makes God's ultimate purpose more important than the transient things of this life. Like Abraham, the father of the faithful, to whom the promises were made, Hannah demonstrated her complete trust in God. No doubt her faith will also be accounted to her for righteousness. Hannah is not included in the list of the faithful recorded in Hebrews chapter 11 but her famous son Samuel who followed her example of service to God is included:

‘And what shall I more say? for the time would fail me to tell of Gideon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthae; of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets.’ [Hebrews 11.32]

Women of faith in general, are however included in this list of the faithful (See Hebrews 11.35). There are many examples of such women, who bore many sorrows in their role of bringing forth the children of God. There was Rachel who was barren for a long time in contrast to her sister Leah. Eventually, in a parallel with Hannah, she gave birth to Joseph who, like Samuel, was also a type of Christ.

In New Testament times there was Elisabeth who was barren until ‘well stricken in years’ [Luke 1.7] before she produced John the Baptist. Then of course there was Mary the mother of Jesus who was Elisabeth's cousin. Both of their wonderful children of promise died at an early age in service to God. Mary was sustained in these trials of her faith by strong belief in the resurrection, as the prophet Simeon said to her:

‘(Yea, a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also,) that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.’ [Luke 2.35]

The thoughts and trials of some of these faithful women will be considered in later articles. When we think of the faith exhibited by women like Hannah, we realise that they indeed held their treasure of truth, in weak earthen vessels that gave glory to God, as Paul reminded the Corinthians:

‘…we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.’ [2 Corinthians 4.7]

They were indeed the weak of this world who were strong in faith.

Hannah's Barreness

 

 

Hannah was barren. As such she considered herself as a failure and this was exacerbated by the fact that her husband Elkanah had another wife Peninnah who had children. The family was God-fearing and faithful and went annually to the tabernacle that was at Shiloh to present their sacrifices. Like many servants of God, Hannah approached God in prayer. She vowed to dedicate her firstborn son to the Lord and the High Priest Eli, promised her that God had heard her prayers. So Hannah received her child of promise and called him Samuel, which means ‘asked of God.’

As a Levite, Samuel would have been eligible to serve in the temple and to be redeemed as a firstborn child by gifts to the temple in the normal way. However, Hannah had promised to bring him up as a Nazarite and to dedicate him completely as soon as he was weaned. This wonderful act of self-sacrifice was eventually rewarded by Samuel becoming not only a Nazarite but also a Judge over Israel, a Prophet and although not in the line of Aaron, the High Priest of Israel.

Hannah - A woman of God

This month we will be focusing on Hannah. She was a woman of faith and did an extraordinary thing of faith when she gave her son Samuel to be dedicated to the Lord. Today is the introduction. Her story is found in I Samuel.

It is evident that in the Bible men and women play different roles. This is in sharp contrast to the present world in which the equality of the sexes is presented as a worthwhile ideal. God has created men and women, their similarities and their differences, in order to teach us about His purpose. In His wisdom, He established male and female and their relationship, to teach us about the relationship between Christ and his bride, the saints. [Ephesians 5.23] Similarly, God arranged for us to have families so that we can learn about Him as our Father in Heaven. Viewed in this light the breakdown of family relationships in the world today is an indication of how far the world is straying from God's way.

In this new series of articles entitled Women of Faith, we will try and see how the examples of women in Bible times powerfully demonstrate the wisdom of God.

Bearers of the Seed

In the beginning, when the most basic fundamentals were established, Eve was created out of Adam as a suitable companion for him. They were therefore of the same substance and nature. We see at once the important relationship between Christ and the saints in so far that they were also of the same nature. When Adam and Eve sinned they came under a similar curse. Adam was to till the ground, to plant seeds and to obtain food to sustain life through toil ‘in the sweat of thy face.’ [Genesis 3.19] From this he learnt that life was a precious gift from God and salvation from death required some considerable effort. Eve was told that she too would have to struggle and that she would bare children from Adam’s seed through ‘sorrow.’ But the life she would produce would eventually provide salvation from death. [Genesis 3.15]

We understand that the seed of the woman that would overcome sin was Jesus Christ although we do not know how much of the future Adam and Eve understood at the time. It is not surprising that great importance was given to the production of children in which the hope of the promises of God's salvation lay. The fact that in the Bible the purpose of God often involved barren women like Sarah, Rachel and Hannah, was not coincidental but is to demonstrate that God's purpose will prevail and to Him alone is the glory due.

The Gift of Age

What does your age really represent? Days and nights spent living your life, coming through a myriad of experiences that sometimes seem mind-numbingly monotonous, only to be interrupted by life-altering surprises and unforeseen tragedies. Your age reflects years of (hopefully) collected wisdom.

Your age also represents mounds of memories. You’ve exchanged some of the energy of youth for them, but the higher the number on your birthday card, the more wealth you have in your little treasure trove of reminiscences.

In our culture, our age is viewed as some kind of disease that, if we just keep treating it, might be defeated or go away altogether. Like we can somehow push back the edges of mortality. The only thing we’re pushing back is the edges of our acceptance of the gifts of time and the physical limitations that make the interior gifts more precious.

So you’ve got a year or two on your friends. So you’ve got a wrinkle or two. So your hair is changing color and your body is giving you fits. No matter. Age is a gift from the hand of God. Any measure of health to enjoy your age is a gift from God. The memories you’ve made along the way are precious and priceless. Thank God for every year he’s given you.

As we end this year and approach a new year let us give thanks for the wrinkles. Yes, I said give thanks for those wrinkles. With each comes a lesson, a love story and perhaps even a blessing. We have earned them. We should not shun them or hide our face from Him. He made us the way we are...and we are beautiful in His sight.

Lord, I thank you for all your gifts and blessings. You are so good to us! Even in our worst times you are there for us. Help us not to look down on our age but to be able to step up and share our wisdom and give you all the glory. Help us to teach the younger women to know that You are our God!

Even to your old age and gray hairs I am He, I am He who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you. —Isaiah 46:4 _NIV

Inner Beauty

Alicia Durden spoke at our Ladies Day yesterday, Sept 21st on Inner Beauty and it was a truly wonderful time to be together for women of God. She really touched all who were present with her spiritual look at beauty. God did not create us to be timid or shy...He made each of us beautiful!

“No matter how plain a woman may be, if truth and honesty are written across her face, she will be beautiful.” 

― Eleanor Roosevelt

Worship the Lord

Worship is an act of religious devotion usually directed towards a deity. The word is derived from the Old English worthscipe, meaning worthiness or worth-ship—to give, at its simplest, worth to something.[1]

Evelyn Underhill (1946) defines worship thus: "The absolute acknowledgment of all that lies beyond us—the glory that fills heaven and earth. It is the response that conscious beings make to their Creator, to the Eternal Reality from which they came forth; to God, however they may think of Him or recognize Him, and whether He be realized through religion, through nature, through history, through science, art, or human life and character."[2] Worship asserts the reality of its object and defines its meaning by reference to it.[3]

An act of worship may be performed individually, in an informal or formal group, or by a designated leader.

Matthew 4:10
Jesus said to him, "Away from me, Satan! For it is written: 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.'"

Here I am Lord, Send Me...Isaiah 6:8

Softly and Tenderly-Music Video

Click on the title and go to see a beautiful video of a mission in Africa.

Labor Day - A History Lesson

Labor Day: How it Came About; What it Means

Labor Day, the first Monday in September, is a creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country.

Founder of Labor Day

More than 100 years after the first Labor Day observance, there is still some doubt as to who first proposed the holiday for workers.

Some records show that Peter J. McGuire, general secretary of the Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners and a cofounder of the American Federation of Labor, was first in suggesting a day to honor those "who from rude nature have delved and carved all the grandeur we behold."

But Peter McGuire's place in Labor Day history has not gone unchallenged. Many believe that Matthew Maguire, a machinist, not Peter McGuire, founded the holiday. Recent research seems to support the contention that Matthew Maguire, later the secretary of Local 344 of the International Association of Machinists in Paterson, N.J., proposed the holiday in 1882 while serving as secretary of the Central Labor Union in New York. What is clear is that the Central Labor Union adopted a Labor Day proposal and appointed a committee to plan a demonstration and picnic.

The First Labor Day

The first Labor Day holiday was celebrated on Tuesday, September 5, 1882, in New York City, in accordance with the plans of the Central Labor Union. The Central Labor Union held its second Labor Day holiday just a year later, on September 5, 1883.

In 1884 the first Monday in September was selected as the holiday, as originally proposed, and the Central Labor Union urged similar organizations in other cities to follow the example of New York and celebrate a "workingmen's holiday" on that date. The idea spread with the growth of labor organizations, and in 1885 Labor Day was celebrated in many industrial centers of the country.

Enjoy your Labor Day Weekend! Hope to see you at church.

Back in Session

Back in Session

Who of us is not affected by school being in session? I know I am but then again I work for the public school system. But even if we do not work in schools or even work we are all affected by it. We have to deal with much heavier traffic in the mornings and the afternoons and we all have been caught behind a school bus that seems to stop every 30 feet! 

We all get so busy during the school season. We have football games, basketball season, soccer etc... You name it. All of our children were in the marching bands. If you think you are busy now...just wait. So, with all this busyness, I want to remind you to take a little time for yourself and stop to reflect on our great God. He is in charge of all of our busyness and when we forget Him...well we have total chaos. 

Where is It?

It’s Gotta Be Here Somewhere

By Martha Bolton

Do you realize the average person loses up to six weeks every year looking for things that he or she
has misplaced at work—files, pens, computer disks, the boss.
We lose things at home, too. We misplace our glasses, car keys, slippers, remote control, checkbook,
wallet, hairbrush, pens, and pencils.
When we finally find the missing item, it’s often in the strangest of places. Like when we discover we
put a cucumber in our purse and our cell phone in the vegetable drawer of the refrigerator.
And has this ever happened to you? You’re in the middle of looking for something when you forget
what it was you were looking for. Now, you would think that this would take the stress off finding the lost
item. After all, if you can’t remember what you lost, it stands to reason that you would no longer worry
about having lost it. But that’s not how it works. Forgetting what you’re looking for only makes matters
worse. You stress even more because you know you lost something, and the longer it takes you to find it,
the more valuable you’re sure it was.
When you figure we’re wasting six weeks of our lives looking for articles we lose and work and at
least that much time looking for things we lose at home, maybe we should try to do something about it.
Maybe we could all benefit from signing up for one of those memory seminars. Haven’t you wondered
what goes on at them? Do they serve ginseng-spiked punch and sit around playing Pin the Tail on the
Whatchamacallit?
I saw a helpful product in a catalog recently. It was an electronic locator. It came with four different
pagers that would send a beeping sound to whatever item it was programmed to find. Pretty ingenious. I
bought two sets. One set to use for the four items, and another set to locate the pagers for when I lose
them.
I’m sure you’ve done this, too—gotten into your car, driven off, and totally forgotten that you had set
something on the roof. That’s always exciting, isn’t it? Soda cans, your briefcase, mail, pizza. You don’t
realize it until you’re on the freeway going seventy miles per hour and you see someone passing you
waving their arms frantically. By the time you figure out that those lips being whipped in the wind are
mouthing “Pizza on the roof,” the pepperoni is already sliding down your windshield.
Memory loss isn’t all bad, though. There are some positive things that can come out of it. If you can’t
remember your outstanding bills, you have a lot more spending money. If you can’t recall people’s
names, you have a whole bunch of new friendships to make and enjoy. And if you can’t remember your
embarrassing moments, what’s to keep you from the fun of making more?

Excerpts from Sharing a Laugh. © 2007 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.

His love endures forever!

Summer Time is Here!

For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven. Ecclesiastes 3:1

I can't speak for everyone but summer is my favorite time of year and it has always been that way. Now that I work for the school system it is like a bonus that we get to take off a few weeks every summer to relax. Whether you head for the beach, the mountains or just the backyard it is a blessing to be able to time off from our usual routines and go on a vacation. Just a friendly reminder, God has blessed us with this time off and we should not neglect to give the glory to Him that he is due. Have a blessed summer!

This blog will resume when summer ends. 

Great is your Love...

Lessons from James - 5

There are so many great lessons in the book of James that you really ought to take time to study it for yourself. Every time I go through it I find new ideas and thoughts. I started to share a different idea from James and when thinking through it one more time I decided to focus on James 5:16.

Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results. NLT

I have to admit that this verse seems hard to me. The idea of opening my secret thoughts and telling them to someone is quite scary. What will they think of me? Who might they tell? How do we know who to trust? 

Clearly, James tells us that we should confess and pray for one another. Pray for a close friend and someone who will be a good confidant. This verse promises us blessings of wonderful results when we trust the Lord and confess and pray. 

You have Loved...

Lessons from James - 4

The 4th chapter of James focuses on worldliness. What is worldliness? According to the dictionary it is:

• 1. Of, relating to, or devoted to the temporal world.
• 2. Experienced in human affairs; sophisticated or worldly-wise: "an experienced and worldly man who had been almost everywhere"

Ok, now we have a better understanding of that word but what kind of worldliness do we need to be concerned with?  Listen to what James, the brother of Jesus says:

What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions^[a] are at war within you?^[b] 2 You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. ³ You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. ⁴ You adulterous people!^[c] Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. ⁵ Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”?

Friendship of the world has to do with trying to walk that line...you know the one, the line that lets us put one foot in the world and the other in the Lord/church. Well, it will not work. We cannot be a friend of the world and be acceptable to God.

James says we have to "humble ourselves before the Lord and He will lift us up."

Love Never Fails

Lessons from James - 3

Wisdom from Above

In the 3rd chapter of James we read about the tongue and James closes with a few remarks on wisdom. 

¹³ Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom.¹⁴ But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. ¹⁵ This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. ¹⁶ For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice.¹⁷ But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. ¹⁸ And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.

How can we tell who is wise? James says it will be evident by their works. Not by their words or their abilities to teach or talk a good talk but by their works. These are sobering thoughts. Wisdom is from above. I refer you back to the 1st chapter of James...

⁵ If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.⁶ But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. ⁷ For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; ⁸ he is a double-minded man,unstable in all his ways.

Are you seeking God's wisdom or wisdom from the world. As I have been reading in I Corinthians this month I am reminded that Paul says the wisdom of the world is folly to God. (I Cor. 3:19) Whose wisdom are you seeking?

It’s All Good

Then God said to him in the dream, "Yes, I know that you have done this in the integrity of your heart, and it was I who kept you from sinning against me. Therefore I did not let you touch her.” 

[Gn 20:6 ESV]

Now that’s a rather intriguing verse, don’t you think? Mind-boggling, to say the least. But what encouragement! To know that the Omnipotent God is for us—to keep us from sinning. He is not some hardened ogre watching and waiting for us to mess up. Especially when we don’t mean to. He wants to keep us from sinning; for when we sin, we sin against Him, The One most hurt and offended.

 Here, Abraham had deceitfully claimed his wife Sarah to be his sister (for the second time!). Abimelech, king of Gerar, was not aware that she was another man’s wife. God approached this pagan in a dream, warning him so that he might then choose to do the right thing and be spared judgment.

 There are two aspects to this verse that encouraged me. First, there are times when there is more to a situation than meets the eye. We approach it with “integrity of the heart”, unaware that it will lead us to sin. Thankfully, God sees our heart. That is when, I believe, the Holy Spirit convicts us, pricks our conscience to heed and change our course of direction. 

And the second is the fact that God is willing and able to help us in our weakness to avoid sin. As He said to Abimelech, “It is I who kept you from sinning against Me.” The Great I AM, Creator of the Universe, Parter of the Seas, Sovereign Warrior is . for . us !

“Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak.”

 [Mt 26:41]

Jesus taught us to turn to God when tempted to receive power to overcome. He showed us what a holy life looks like, that our main line of defense is prayer. Calling upon the name of the Lord invokes the power of the Holy Spirit in order to defeat temptation. His brother James wrote that when we submit to God the devil flees from us. (Could that be where we get the saying, “run like the devil?”) 

May this thought encourage you to be empowered in your walk today, dear one. Whether in times of trial when we are vulnerable or times of plenty when we are comfortable. The tempter is always on the job--so is God. Turn to I Am in those times of tempting into deliberate sin and those times we become aware that we are unintentionally about to sin, when there's opportunity to choose to turn before it’s too late, that we may avoid hurting the God we love.

Lessons from James

I have faith and I am sure that you do too. But does it always show? How can you tell I have faith? James says that our faith is shown in our works. So, it is not just good enough to claim to have faith or to be a Christian. We must show it by our good lives, by our actions and by our deeds. 

James goes on to give us two examples or Old Testament people who were judged faithful not by what they said but by what they did. Look at Abraham. He did not just say he would obey the Lord. He actually prepared and set out to sacrifice his son because God had asked him to do it. Whew, I am glad He didn't ask me to do that!

Also Rahab. She was not even a Jewish woman...in fact, she was a prostitute, a woman of the night or even a "ho."  Whoa, James put her in his chapter on faith? Yes, check it out...
²⁵ In 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? ²⁶ As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.

Get out there and show God your faith!