Grains of Sand

Google Images John the Baptist gained fame along the Jordan. People came for miles around to see this eccentric wild man and to hear his message. Some came out of curiosity—and John certainly was a “curiosity.” Others came because they were waiting for the kingdom John announced. Some came to criticize and other came out of conviction. “ Repent and be baptized ” was an “in-your-face” message at the best of times, but what we find in Matthew 3:7-10 would have had the PC police knocking on John’s door (if he had had one!). The religious leaders of the day also arrived at the river’s edge and John pierced them with a steely gaze, pointed a bony finger at them, and declared: “ ‘You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not think you can say to yourselves, We have Abraham as our father. I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every ...

Google Images What you and I do, counts. it’s not a question of gaining salvation or adding to salvation, it’s a question of giving evidence that the salvation that is being professed is real. “ ...faith by itself ,” writes James, “ if it is not accompanied by action, is dead ” (James 2:17). He goes on to give two examples. Abraham took his only son up a mountain and was prepared to sacrifice him at God’s command. It was action taken out of the faith that the patriarch had in his God. Rahab hid the Israelite spies, not out of compassion, but out of faith in the God who had sent them to Jericho. These people, and others like them (Hebrews 11) did the hard things because they believed. Their actions proved the validity of their faith. While the Scriptures tell us not to judge, it doesn’t take much judgment to know that where there is no action that bears witness to it, there is also no faith.