10 Seconds to Obedience

The 10 Second Rule, by Clare Degraaf is an interesting read. Received it in the mail a couple of weeks back from our homeschooling curriculum company and it has challenge some assumptions I have had about following God's will. That's because I'm indecisive. And so in my indecision I really make a decision: "I'm not going to do anything." So, I've got this really long string of "do-nothings" to my credit that have made my account in my obedience chart a negative.  OK, OK. I know some members of my vast reading public, who are Christian, will read that and think, "This sounds like some works trip." (For those of you who don't know, works refers to this idea that a person can earn their salvation--it's like do good and get paid back eternal life)

Let me explain what I mean. Last night I was talking with friends about a passage in the Bible, in particular James' letter, chapter two.  "You see," he wrote, "a person is justified by works and not by faith alone." Now that's an interesting statement.

"Really, James. You don't mean that, do you?" I ask.

"Why wouldn't I mean that," he replies. "Isn't that what I wrote."

"Hmm..."

"Well, think about it this way." (Here's the part where my sanctified imagination kind of takes over) "You see, There was this harlot named Rahab. She didn't dilly-dally. When the spies left her apartment, she immediately put out that red chord outside her window. Don't you also think that the people who knew her--thinking about the prostitute thing, here--probably wondered what she was doing hanging a red chord out her window which happened to be on the outside of the city wall? She did. She was acting immediately because of this knowledge that something was about to happen and it would effect the rest of her life."

I thought, "Well, yeah. It did, didn't it?" The story goes that "chance" encounter with two spies altered the course of history. Jesus who was also called the Messiah was a direct descendant. Amazing. Amazing God.

The other thing is, faith and works go together like peanut butter & jelly, or chocolate and peanut butter, or bacon and eggs, or Starsky & Hutch, or...sorry out of similes. The idea is that of telios or completion. Think about Adam without Eve. Faith and Works are friends, true friends. Faith by itself is "useless" (ESV), or "dead" (KJV). It's not really faith at all, right?

But then some may ask, "Dave, What about the thief on the cross? He didn't 'do' anything. And according to your definition here, he didn't really have faith."

One answer is: he did have "works." And I believe that it is true because he did challenge the other thief on the cross (Luke 23:39-43). No matter the time and location faith has to have feet. So many of us forget that. I do, for sure. I very often choose to forget to love my wife--more than tell her, "I love you."

I'm understanding this more and more. I can say I believe in one thing and everything else I do screams more loudly that I don't really believe in that at all. Oh God, help me!

So, I guess what I'm trying to point out is that I need to be more "impulsive" in doing good for others. According to Graaf that is how you grow in obedience and faith at the same time.