A Servant for Christ

Silver-spotted Skipper

For the past week, I've been reading through the Book of James and trying to get the deeper meaning from it. James was very confusing when I first read it because it seems like he was contradicting many of the teachings that Paul wrote earlier. One verse that caught my eye was James 2: 14-16, " What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says " Go in peace, be warmed and filled," without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead." (ESV). When I first saw this, it confused me because it contradicts what Paul says in Ephesians 2: 8-9 ( For by grace you have been saved through faith... not as a result of works). However, this is a different kind of works that is a result of Jesus entering your heart. Once a Christian, you  have this feeling of wanting to do works for God's glory and not works to save your soul (because those works, no matter how many you do in you life, will never get you to heaven. Only the free gift of Jesus will allow you to see Him one day).
Being a servant for Christ doesn't have to be extreme as in doing missions work overseas. Something giving back to the community or volunteering is great too! Me, I try to give up time to hang out with new freshman within my campus community or help them by providing rides to church or Wal-mart. At home, I try to go to a PADS program at a local church to set up beds and hand out food to the homeless. I also volunteer to help God's creation through restoring native ecosystems with Citizens for Conservation or helping injured migrating birds with Chicago Bird Collision Monitors. Some of my Christian friends up here in Platteville go to the senior home to hang with and love seniors who don't have family anymore or their family doesn't see them anymore. My mom volunteers at a thrift store in Naperville once a week. What we all have in common is that we give up our time in our busy lives to humble ourselves and serve our Savior! Not for our own prideful self to make us look good to the world.  I do these things so that people may see God in my soul. Matthew 5: 16 says it perfectly, " In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your goods works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven."

If you are wondering, I do take the pictures that I put up on my blog