Word Count: 710

Contact Jerry Ousley

A Garden Full of Dirt

by Jerry Ousley  
2/23/2008 / Christian Living

There's a story that goes something like this: Chuck considered himself to be a real gardener. He had purchased a program for his computer that allowed him to lay out a beautiful garden. It was full of exotic trees, bushes, and shrubs. It was adorned and decorated by colorful varieties of flowers from around the world. There was a rock path that wound around through his garden that allowed visitors to view all the magnificent plant life and was full of butterflies attracted there by its richness.

He had printed it out on paper and anytime he would have visitors Chuck would pull out his drawings and diagrams and show them his beautiful garden. He was certainly proud of that garden let me tell you, and it was a beautiful thing to behold.

There was just one problem with Chuck's garden; it was all on paper. If you took a look out the window where he intended to put his garden all you saw was an empty lot full of piles of dirt covered with ugly weeds. There was no rock path, no butterflies and to be honest with you I'd be afraid to walk out in that patch of ground without being careful of snakes.

Chuck talked and talked about his garden year after year but never stepped foot out of his house to begin work on it. On paper and in his mind it was a wonderful garden but it never became anything more than a garden full of dirt.

James 2:14-17 says, "What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, 'Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,' but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead." This verse hits fairly hard doesn't it? James is not for a moment promoting the false doctrine saying that our works determine our salvation. When he asked, "Can faith save him?" he wasn't questioning salvation by grace. In fact he was speaking not about our Christian salvation but of rescuing a person in need. He was asking, "Can his faith alone preserve his physical life?" There's no doubt that faith is important. But faith requires action.

When God shows us something that needs to be done for the Kingdom He doesn't reveal those things for us to hand off to someone else. Our job is to help with what we have. Perhaps we don't have the money to bail someone out of trouble. But we can do what we can. There is always something. Otherwise God wouldn't have sent them our way.

What if someone came to us saying, "I have no food." Would it meet their need if we just patted them on the back and told them, "there, there; don't be sad be happy. Go on your way and I hope you are warmed and filled," would that accomplish anything? I'd say not much.

Did you know that the book of James was almost not included in the Canon of Scripture in the early days of the Church because of his teaching about works? But I agree with James. Only faith can save us. Only by the grace of Jesus Christ do we have hope of escaping the curse of death. But once we are saved, once we have given ourselves to Jesus Christ, once we know Him as our Savior, then we should want to do something for Him. In the Gospels we constantly read about Jesus having compassion for the people. He did something about it. As Christians Christ-like people, we should also have this desire. It should be a natural thing once we come into salvation that we want to do good works. They don't save us. They don't determine our standing with God. But they are the natural results of being a believer in Jesus Christ. If we do nothing about it then we talk a good talk, but we walk in a garden filled with nothing but dirt.

Jerry D. Ousley is the author of ?Soul Challenge?, ?Soul Journey?, ?Ordeal?, ?The Spirit Bread Daily Devotional and his first novel ?The Shoe Tree.? Visit our website at spiritbread.com to download these and more completely free of charge.

Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com-CHRISTIAN WRITERS

If you died today, are you absolutely certain that you would go to heaven? You can be! Click here and TRUST JESUS NOW

Read more articles by Jerry Ousley

Like reading Christian Articles? Check out some more options. Read articles in Main Site Articles, Most Read Articles or our highly acclaimed Challenge Articles. Read Great New Release Christian Books for FREE in our Free Reads for Reviews Program. Or enter a keyword for a topic in the search box to search our articles.

Enter comments below. Due to spam, all hyperlinks posted in the comments are now immediately disabled by our system.

Please type the following word below:

Not readable? Change text.

The opinions expressed by authors do not necessarily reflect the opinion of FaithWriters.com.

Hire a Christian Writer, Christian Writer Wanted, Christian Writer Needed, Christian Content Needed, Find a Christian Editor, Hire a Christian Editor, Christian Editor, Find a Christian Writer