January 7 - Do Something

        James 1:22-25 - "Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says, is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror, then goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. However, the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it - that man will be blessed in what he does."

        Most of us comb our hair, using a mirror. Why? Because we want to know how we appear when others see us. Or we simply want to make sure that we have groomed ourselves so as not to appear terribly unkempt and ridiculous. When we are finished with the grooming, we rarely need to look again, unless an outside force, or time and gravity, has wrecked our previous efforts. We rarely have to take a second glance to make sure we parted our hair on the correct side; or to make sure that we even addressed it at all before we left the house. Those steps are fairly basic, and would be absurd, if from one hour to the next, we wondered if we ever combed or brushed our hair at all that day!

        So too, is the absurdity of simply listening to a Sunday message, and then not putting it into practice. Or simply reading a chapter in the Bible, just to say that we did so for the day. God doesn't want to see how faithful we are in our religious rituals. He wants to see action, and that from the heart. 1 John 3:18 states, "Let us love not with words or tongue, but with action and in truth."

        Years ago, I had training classes for my job. I was told that the best way to learn anything was to read the instructions aloud, while performing the task, then repeating the process. I was also told that simply reading or hearing instructions with no other action, only gave the learner a 10% chance of remembering what he heard. So if I want to be blessed and understand God's ways deeper, then I must do - regularly.

January 5 - The Great Puzzle

         Romans 16:25-26 - "Now to him who is able to establish you by my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past, but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings, by the command of the eternal God,......"

        The Bible is like a great, complicated jigsaw puzzle. It is obviously a huge book, written by many authors over a period of history approximately 1500 years in length, from c. 1400 BC to AD 90. Its "revelation", i.e., how God reveals himself to different persons and to what extent, is quite varied. That is why it is like a jigsaw puzzle. Some sections may be easy to figure out; some may take a long time.

        God himself kept some things hidden, through the years, from mankind, as the passage in Romans above (and others) states. However, Hebrews 1:1-3 clears up that mystery a good bit: "In the past, God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days, he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word....." Jesus claimed to be the ultimate revelation of God's nature and existence. That doesn't necessarily make everything clear to us humans, but it gives us enough to understand and enough in which to place our faith.

        After all, faith is putting our trust in something that is not quite a reality yet in its fullest measure. There will come a time when our "faith shall be made sight", as the old hymn has stated. I Corinthians 13:12 states, "Now we see only a poor reflection, as in a [ancient looking-glass] mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now, I understand partially; then I will know fully, as I am [already] fully known [by God].