Actions speak louder than words...and you are contradicting yourself

This is something that I wrote for my church weekly email.

"Actions speak louder than words... and you are contradicting yourself."

That was my Facebook status earlier this week. It was provoked by thoughts recently of some of my friends, both back home and here at school. These friends have grown up in the church and profess to be Christians. They seem to be good people, but sadly they are in many ways just like my summer co-workers who want to have nothing to do with Jesus. There's little substance to their faith - no fruit, no works, no evidence that the Lord has gotten a hold of them.

James says "Faith without works is dead." (Jas 2:14) Jesus warned the church "I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm - neither hot nor cold - I am about to spit you out of my mouth." (Rev 3: 15-16) I think we should take these warnings seriously.

It is so easy for us to get comfortable in our little bubbles, thinking that we are fine living on yesterday's religion, but in reality we are becoming lukewarm. I can see it in my friends. I can see it in my classmates. And I am concerned.

I am swimming against a lukewarm current and I need others around me, doing the same. Let's pray every day that people will get to know Jesus by watching our lives. I try to leave no question - is she really who she says she is? But I don't want my actions to be glorifying myself, no, instead I desire that the essence left behind by my life is that of the Latin phrase: Soli Deo Gloria - to God alone be glory.

Soli Deo Gloria,
kaitlin