obeying & complete

James 2:22 (Abraham) was trusting God so much that he was willing to do whatever God told him to do. His faith was made complete by what he did - by his actions.

That's the long & short of it, isn't it? "...he was willing to do whatever God told him to do."

I've heard it said that one of the  major reasons Jesus picked the men he did as His disciples was not because they were wealthy, influential, or wise. he picked them because He knew (being God) that they would obey Him.

He knew that in their heart of hearts, for all the bad & good they were, that in the final analysis, if He said "Go to India," Thomas would go. (He is traditionally said to have been killed by the people there by spearing.)

He knew that after the resurrection & infilling of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost,  all of them would do whatever He said, no matter what.

That "whatever" may mean trying to connect with that person everyone hates at work, or everyone loathes that lives aross the street from your house.

It may mean getting up each morning to read the Bible.

Or lose X amount of pounds.

It may mean go back to school, or leave school.

It may mean do something completely off the chain, something completely outside your comfort zone.

"No matter what" appears in 2 of the 5 scripture passages He's given me for 2010.

He may want you to move to X and be & do something for Him.

Just remember (and remind me of this frequently these days) that God never directs us to do something that we can't do without Him.

But often times, He will lead us to be & do things that WE think we can't do.

For Lynn & I right now, Blairsville is one of those things.

The only thing that keeps us from just throwing our hands up in the airis the constant fact that we believe God led us there - iow, this was all His idea.

And if it's His idea, then He must have some sort of plan.

It may not be fleshed out in a paradigm consistent with "the American Dream."

It may not make any sense.

It may seem impossible.

It may scare us to death.

It may not even be a "success" in the eyes of the world, including everyone close to us.

But if we are servants, that means we, like Abraham, will do "whatever He tells us to do."

So what happened when Abraham did what he was told?

James' epistle says "his faith became complete."

Iow, something in his relationship with the Abba Father & within his own self intrinsically was brought to full fruit. He became something & someone to God that he had never been before.

And we become more of the person our Abba Father dreamed us to be when He created each of us in His mind a gajillion years ago.