“Words of Thought”
November 16, 2024

Do you believe?

What’s the use of saying that you have faith and are Christians if you aren’t proving it by helping others? Will that kind of faith save anyone? It isn’t enough just to have faith. You must also do good to prove that you have it. Faith that doesn’t show itself by good works is no faith at all—it is dead and useless.

While God was testing him, Abraham still trusted God and his promises, and so he offered up his son Isaac, and was ready to slay him on the alter of sacrifice; yes, to slay even Isaac, through whom God has promised to give Abraham a whole nation of descendants! He believed that if Isaac died God would bring him back to life again. Our father Abraham was declared good because of what he did, when he was willing to obey God, even if it meant offering his son Isaac to die on the alter. So you see, a man who believes and is saved, shows it by not only his belief but by what he does.

The way to identify a tree or a person is by the kind of fruit produced. Not all who sound religious are really godly people. They may refer to God as Lord, but still won’t get to heaven. For the decisive question is whether they obey the Father in heaven. You know these things—now do them! That is the path of blessing.

Below are some scriptures related to this topic. All scripture is taken from the KJV Bible.

Jesus answered them, Do ye now believe? John 16:31

What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him?— Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. James 2:14, 17

By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, Of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called: Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure. Hebrews 11:17-19

Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar?—- Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only. James 2:21, 24

Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Matthew 7:20, 21

If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them. John 13:17

May these “Words of Thought” be a blessing unto you.
Troy Chandler
Chaplain, Army of Trans-Mississippi