"By Implication"

 "Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am." (John 13:13 KJV) 

  "What good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but don't show it by your actions? Can that kind of faith save anyone? Suppose you see a brother or sister who has no food or clothing, and you say, "Good-bye and have a good day; stay warm and eat well" - but then you don't give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do? So you see, faith by itself isn't enough. Unless it preduces good deeds, it is dead and useless." (James 2:14-17 NLT)

 Before you start to judge what this might be about, I need to share some of what I was confronted with yesterday morning. God was really speaking to my heart about some very serious issues, most of all, was the fact that I frequently fail to really trust Him. 

 Pastor Holden was sharing a testimony about what it means to trust God. The main topic of the message was about hearing God's voice, and how we should know whether or not it is His voice that we heard. In this, he had heard God say, "Holden, go to Nineveh." The words were very clear, but the place or thing was not; so he looked it up, discovering that it was an ancient city in Iraq. 

 Long story short, after several months of struggling to determine if it really was God's voice that he had heard, he went. After arriving in the Bagdad airport, he ended up being arrested because he had no Visa; and because he was an American, he was receiving no mercy. In that moment Holden had figure that it wasn't God's voice he had heard, and that he was going to die in prison. 

 As he was being taken to a holding cell in the airport, above the area where the cell was there were two signs; one pointing to the left, which had a name for some termina; and the other, pointed straight ahead, saying, "Nineveh Terminal." Inquisitive, but still feeling foolish, he asked for God to forgive him for the assumption, and for being foolish, thinking that God has some grand purpose for him to be there.

 Not long after being secured in his cell, a very high-ranking Officer opened to cell door and told him to come with him. After being, seemingly snuck through the airport, he ended up at the Jordon Terminal, where he was safely on his way to get back home. After sharing that, he said he prayed later for that Officer, who had most likely placed his life on the line, or at least his high-ranking job.

 It was pretty clear that Holden was not there to do anything for God, but the God wanted to show him how to trust Him, enough to obey! Besides, I feel pretty certain that the Officer was sent by God, and most likely went back from where he came. The main point in this was very much like the joke about the guy holding onto the root at the side of a cliff. When Holden realize he was about to die, he gave the whole situation to God, thereby, letting go of the root. 

 I realized that my biggest problem in trusting God, stems from not letting go of the root...

"You say that you have faith, for you believe that there is one God. Good for you! Even the demons believe this, and they tremble in terror. How foolish! Can't you see that faith without good deeds is useless? Don't remember that our ancestor Abraham was shown to be right with God by his actions when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see, his faith and his actions worked together. His actions made his faith complete. And so it happened just as the Scriptures say: "Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith." He was even called the friend of God. So you see, we are shown to be right with God by what we do, not by faith alone." (James 2:19-24 NLT)