Day #37

Begin this time in prayer.  Always start with thankfulness and praise.  Next you can move into forgiveness issues and asking for things.  Eventually in the process of prayer, you will want to be quiet for a little bit and try to listen to what He may be communicating to you.  The Holy Spirit is compared throughout scripture as being like a wind… it can be a gentle breeze or a powerful storm.  Ask Him to slow your mind down to listen if it is a breeze today.

Did you get to do your TREASURE HUNTING over the weekend?  If not, we will pick up where we left off at the end of James 2.

Let’s begin!!

Question??  How have you been doing with understanding this “faith apart from works is dead” thing?  Do you understand it?  Reading James 2:4 and the story that follows should help seal it in your brain!

Read James 2:4.

Notice carefully what is says. “… a person is justified by works and not by FAITH ALONE.  This does not say someone is saved by works... it says they are justified by works.  So James does recognize that faith is definitely the first step!!  But, if the person does not produce the fruit of goodworks, then there may have never been genuine faith to begin with.

I know this is tough.  But, now let’s read a cool story.

Read Joshua 2:1-22.

Rahab was a prostitute.  That simply put, is a person who sells their body for sex.  Obviously Rahab had a booming business.  Many men of the city of Jericho must have come to her for her services.  How do we know this?  Because the King of Jericho came straight to her the moment he got word that some Israelite spies were in the city to search out the land for a takeover.  Evidently she was in the know.

I do want to be clear on something very important though.  This story carefully avoids any suggestion that the spies and Rahab had sexual relations.  You see, Rahab’s house was also an inn or a motel of sorts.  So her inn would have also been a logical place for visitors to stay and gather information.

Somewhere in your mind you may be asking, “How could lying about the spies’ location be pleasing to God?” 

At this time we just have to trust that Jericho was a violent city and warfare was taking place.  Deception was a part of warfare.  By God’s command, his people, the Israelites were to take over this city and Rahab had a key part. 

Nowhere is scripture telling us that Rahab’s tactic of lying is pleasing to God, or that her choice was an instruction on how to live.  This story is just used as a great picture of a person being lifted up out of their filth and becoming a follower of God.  As a new believer, she was a person who took action even though she could have been killed for what she did.  Did you know that she eventually marries and actually becomes a part of the lineage of Christ?  In other words, she becomes a distant great, great, great grandmother of our Savior, Jesus.  Crazy huh???!!!  Wow!!

Now read James 2:25-26.

While lying is definitely against God’s commands, Rahab’s faith in God’s saving work for the Hebrews in Joshua 2:8-11 is what changes her life forever.  Her actions of hiding the spies and helping them escape become a model of her faith being completed in her works.

TARGET of the DAY

Be a blessing to people today rather than a burden.  How? Take initiative to look around you and notice things that need to be done.  Do them cheerfully without being asked!  If you can’t do it cheerfully, it will not please the Lord you serve.  Work on your obedience in this way today.