One hot July afternoon at an Oklahoma Camp meeting, I visited a friend in her tent. Just outside sat my friend’s 13-year-old daughter with a friend she had just met. This was her friend’s first camp meeting. He had come with his grandfather who just became a Christian. He did not know what to think about all the meetings … Continue reading –>
[Thought questions for Faith that Works November 4, 2014] 1. Faith without works is dead. James didn’t mince words, did he? Why did he speak so boldly, so plainly, about how faith is as useless as a dead body in the Christian faith? If the doctor-preacher in the story at the beginning of the lesson had … Continue reading –>
Read James 2:21-24 and compare it with Romans 4:1-5, Rom 4:22-24. How is the faith of Abraham described in these texts, and on what is justification based? Interestingly, both James and Paul quote Genesis 15:6, but they seem to arrive at opposite conclusions. According to James, Abraham was justified by works, but Paul seems, in … Continue reading –>
Key Thought : Faith and works cannot be separated. We can’t be saved by our works, but without them, our faith is useless. [Lesson Plan for Faith That Works November 3, 2014] 1. Have a volunteer read James 2:18. a. Ask class members to share a thought on what the most important point in this text … Continue reading –>
If works are absent, there is only one other way to prove the genuineness of one’s faith: by orthodoxy. If I believe the right things, then I must have faith, right? Read 2 Corinthians 4:2; 1 Timothy 2:4; James 5:19-20; 1 Peter 1:22; and 1 John 3:18-19. What do these verses tell us about how … Continue reading –>
Read James 2:18. What is the main point James is making? How do we show our faith by our works? James uses a common rhetorical technique whereby a potential objector comes forward. In this case, the objector tries to drive a wedge between faith and works by suggesting that as long as a person has … Continue reading –>
What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? (James 2:14, NKJV). How do we understand this verse in the context of salvation by faith alone? Read James 2:15-17; compare Rom. 3:27-28. Faith without works. James gives a vivid illustration of this kind … Continue reading –>
Read for This Week’s Study: James 2:14-26; Rom. 3:27-28;Titus 2:14; 2 Cor. 4:2; Rom. 4:1-5; Josh. 2:1-21. Memory Text: For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also (James 2:26, NKJV). He was a successful doctor and an elder in a high-profile church of several hundred members. He … Continue reading –>
Ismael Serrano As the girls hurried on through the night, they passed three young men. They didn’t look up when the boys pointed fingers at them and made crude remarks, but kept walking as quickly as they could. Then they became aware that someone was following them. It must be one of the three boys, … Continue reading –>
Further Study: Ellen G. White, Facing Life’s Record, The Great Controversy, p. 479-491. God has acknowledged you before men and angels as His child; pray that you may do no dishonor to theworthy name by which ye are called. James 2:7. God sends you into the world as His representative. In every act of life … Continue reading –>
Read James 2:12-13. See also John 12:48; Rom. 2:12-13; 2 Cor. 5:10; Rev. 20:12-13. What do these verses teach about judgment? Nothing is clearer than the teaching that we will be judged by the law based on what we have done, whether for good or for evil. At the same time, too, the Bible is also … Continue reading –>
[Thought questions for Love and the Law October 28, 2014] Love without Liking. Your lesson this week asks you to love even those you don’t like. Wait a minute! Is that possible? What about the marriage that goes bad? Is the wife obliged to love the husband she can’t stand any more? What if he uses … Continue reading –>
