Faith without work is dead
James 2: 14-26 God Speaks Today (DHH)
14 My brethren, what does it profit you to say that you have faith, if your deeds do not show it? Can that faith save him? 15 Suppose a brother or sister lacks the clothes and food necessary for the day; 16 if one of you says to them: "Let them do well; wrap up and eat all you want, "but do not give them what your body needs, what good is it? 17 So it is with faith: by itself, that is, if it is not demonstrated by facts, it is a dead thing.
I want to talk to you about several characters of the bible who acted with faith and activated it with their works.
And his faith was so great that it caught the attention of Jesus and a powerful force came from him and this woman was healed.
Luke 8: 43-48 Reina-Valera 1960 (RVR1960)
43 But a woman who had suffered from blood flow for twelve years, and who had spent all she had on doctors, and none could be healed,
44 came to him from behind and touched the edge of his cloak; and instantly the flow of his blood stopped.
45 Then Jesus said: Who is it that has touched me? And denying all, said Peter and those who were with him: Master, the crowd squeezes and oppresses you, and you say: Who is it that has touched me?
46 But Jesus said: Someone touched me; because I have known that power has come from me.
47 Then when the woman saw that it had not been hidden, she came trembling, and falling at his feet, she declared before all the people for what reason she had touched him, and how she had been immediately healed.
48 And he said to her, "Child, your faith has saved you; go in peace.
Mark 2 Translation in current language (TLA)
Jesus and the paralytic
2 After several days, Jesus returned to the village of Capernaum. As soon as it was known that Jesus was at home, 2 many people went to see him. There were so many people that no one else could fit in front of the entrance. Then Jesus began to announce the good news to them.
3 Suddenly, four people arrived at the house. They had a man on a stretcher who had never been able to walk. 4 Because there were so many people, they went up to the roof [a] and opened a hole. Over there, they lowered the patient on the stretcher where he was lying.
5 When Jesus saw the great confidence that those men had in him, he said to the paralytic: "Friend, I forgive your sins."
Bartimaeus (blind) Bartimaeus, son of Timaeus, a New Testament character, is the protagonist of Jesus' last miracle of healing narrated in Mark 10, 46-52. ... Bartimaeus jumps up and throws off his cloak, leaves his old life, for a new one.
The blind Bartimaeus receives sight - Mark 10: 46-52
"Then they came to Jericho, and when they left Jericho and his disciples and a large crowd, Bartimaeus the blind man, son of Timaeus, was sitting by the road begging, and hearing that he was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout and say: Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me! "And many rebuked him to be silent, but he cried out much more:" Son of David, have mercy on me! "Then Jesus, stopping, sent for him and called the blind man, saying: Be confident, get up, call you. "Then, throwing off his cloak, he got up and came to Jesus, and Jesus answered him," What do you want me to do to you? "And the blind man said to him," Master, recover your sight. " Told him:
Go, your FAITH has saved you. And immediately he regained his sight, and followed Jesus on the road. "
The act of faith of this man although I could not see that he was blind, but he heard about the teacher and maybe he thought and said, if some day I feel like it happens near me I will call his attention and he will heal.
What did this man do? active and put to work his faith before the Lord and was healed and not satisfied with this I leave everything and followed him.
Luke 19: 1-10 Reina-Valera 1960 (RVR1960)
Jesus and Zacchaeus
1 When Jesus entered Jericho, he was passing through the city.
2 And it came to pass that a man named Zacchaeus, who was chief of the publicans, and rich,
3 sought to see who Jesus was; but he could not because of the crowd, he was small in stature.
4 And running ahead, he climbed a sycamore tree to see him; because I had to pass by there.
5 When Jesus came to that place, looking up, he saw him, and said: Zacchaeus, hurry, come down, because today it is necessary for me to have you in your house.
6 Then he came down quickly and received him joyfully.
Zacchaeus is desperately longing to see Christ. This yearning on the part of the publican is a testimony that, despite a life unworthy of the law of God and unworthy of him as a man, he had preserved in his heart a feeling of the true and beautiful, of the measure human being of things, and that this is capable of meeting the divine measure of things. And in his passionate desire to see Christ face to face he encounters two difficulties: he is a man of small stature, for which reason he has to look for the means of attracting the gaze of the Lord; but this medium is going to turn him into an object of ridicule. He is a small man; You will have to climb a tree.
When Christ enters the house of Zacchaeus, he is received with reverence and joy; This consideration of God, this joy in the presence of God, is evident in the life of Zacchaeus in his true conversion, in an act of repentance, of metanoia, which means a completely new direction in his life. Because he has met with God, because this encounter has awakened in him life and joy, because his crippled soul has expanded to the point of being truly human, with all the depth of a human soul at peace with God, Zacchaeus throws his past. He is willing to correct the twisted, longs to start a new life, free of the past, in an act of trust in God, in an act of FAITH. All this is what Christ recognizes when he says: "This is also the son of Abraham": he belongs to the race of those who could believe, not with an act of credulity, but with an act of total surrender. That is why "it was a day of salvation for that house."
This man despite his medium height nothing prevented him from drawing the attention of Jesus and this voltoio to look at him and even visit his home and the privilege he had to attend the teacher and serve as a prince. His act of Faith gave him salvation by being a sinful man.
This four story marks the life of how acts of Faith give miracles of salvation because they activated the work with faith and as they have many characters in the Bible that teach us that Faith without work is dead.