05.08.09
A display of Faith
8 May 2009
Dear Friends:
You are looking at some of our NHUMC staff, but probably what might capture your attention more is the picture of faith before us. All those tulips (and there are more all around them!) signify that faith is an action word. Those tulips were planted as bulbs on a cold late November (Bachman’s sold them to me, while they were putting up their post-Thanksgiving Christmas lights). 24 hours later a cold snow came upon them, and they lay in the ground for an extended stay. Now they have sprung forth in May to boom out a circus of color and beauty.
Faith, if not acted upon, is not a faith. A faith should lead us to action…whether it’s caring for and feeding the homeless, caring for the orphans and widows, ministering to the hurting. James, in his New Testament book, asks the question, “You say you have a faith; show me then the fruits of your faith, show me the works of your faith, show me how your faith results in coloring the world with beauty and making it a better place in which to exist. Show me how your faith honors God.”
Our faith was never meant to be some private, filed-away-deeply-in-the-bottom-of-our-mind kind of thing. It was meant as an action verb to be actively engaged and in the open as we daily seek to honor God and care for God’s world. How’s your faith? Would I see it if I walked with you for a minute, an hour, a day? My prayer for you: that your faith might be a visible display of a strong and ongoing belief in a wonderful and awesome God.
Stop by. The coffee’s fresh and the lights are on. If you’d like a Bible, let me know.
Your friend, Pastor Don
