Faith without Works is...

I just picked up a book this morning entitled "Irresistible Revolution" by Shane Claiborne and already made it through about half of it. He talks about literally being the hands and feet of Jesus here on earth. I'm going to post a rather lengthy quote that jumped out at me from my reading today. In the book, Claiborne quotes Soren Kierkegaard, the 19th century Danish philosopher, saying this:

The matter is quite simple. The Bible is very easy to understand. But we Christians are a bunch of scheming swindlers. We pretend to be unable to understand it because we know very well that the minute we understand, we are obliged to act accordingly. Take any words in the New Testament and forget everything except pledging yourself to act accordingly. My God, you will say, if I do that my whole life will be ruined. How would I ever get on in the world? Herein lies the real place of Christian scholarship. Christian scholarship is the Church's prodigious invention to defend itself against the Bible, to ensure that we can continue to be good Christians without the Bible coming too close. Oh, priceless scholarship, what would we do without you? Dreadful it is to fall into the hands of the living God. Yes, it is even dreadful to be alone with the New Testament.

Church and small groups and other fellowship with believers is great, but only insomuch as it strengthens our resolve to not only preach the gospel but to LIVE IT!