Balancing Ministry N' Work

If you hang around church or church people long enough you are going to hear about something called prayer. They are going to talk about prayer meetings and suggest you pray about things in your life. Prayer will probably sound like something that is really important. Think about it for a moment, to a non-believer the thought of praying seems kind of odd. Who in their right mind is going to sit there and talk to themselves expecting this God person to actually listen. If you catch someone talking to themselves as passionately as some of us pray, you might question if they are all their, if you know what I mean. Prayer is something that does take a little getting used to. I remember a dear bother in Christ, who had been saved for many years never felt comfortable praying out loud. I remember his son, who was our associate pastor at the time, being really excited when his father volunteered to pray during our Good Friday service. It took him years to feel that comfortable with

When the word 'Real' is put in front of something it tends to get our attention. Marketers use it to sell us things and others use it to try to convince of things. Coke used to be the 'real thing'; real leather is better than fake leather, and they say real men wear pink. This morning we are going to look what James has to say about real faith. We will be looking at James chapter 2, which are probably some of the most misunderstood passages in the book of James, and can be quite controversial. There are a lot of people out there that think they are Christians and really are not. In this passage James, the brother of Jesus, and the man who tells it like it is, talks about the difference between real and counterfeit Christians. The entire New Testament teaches us that we are saved by faith alone. 'By Grace, through faith'. James comes along and says, 'it's not just faith but faith and works.' What is James talking about? Paul teaches faith a