LESSONS FROM JAMES (2)

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 7

“A doer...will be blessed in what he does.” Jas1:25 NKJV

North of Israel and teeming with aquatic life of many kinds, the Sea of Galilee is a beautiful blue. South of Israel is the Dead Sea, and it’s called “Dead” for a good reason: There’s no life in its stagnant water. What makes these two bodies of water so different? First, the Sea of Galilee has an inlet: the Jordan River flows into it. On its southern shore, the Sea of Galilee also has an outlet: water flows through the Great Rift Valley. Like the Sea of Galilee, the Dead Sea has an inlet: the Jordan flows into it. But the Dead Sea has no outlet; it takes in but does not give out. This is the theme of the book of James. Vibrant believers not only take in, but they also give out. They put the word they receive (input) into action (output): “If anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does” (Jas1:23-25 NKJV). James warns us not to become so heavenly-minded that we are no earthly good; that it’s not enough to read the Scriptures, but we must also look for practical ways to put them into practice each day. His message could be summed up in the famous Nike slogan: “Just do it!”