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Ahhh, I just love the book of James… Did I mention that already? Anyway, in James 2 there are some powerful words about faith and works we Christians love to wrestle with. There are some of us who like to believe that faith alone is sufficient. Then there are those of us who think works are necessary for either salvation or proof of a changed heart. My humble opinion is there is more to the story. Verses 17 – 19 bring a lot to the discussion, 17 In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. 18 But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do. 19 You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that–and shudder. Faith alone implies that belief is sufficient and in verse 19 it clearly states that “even the demons believe”. Our faith and our belief should lead us into relationship with God, which in turn should compel us into action and to serve Him. We simply can not take Jesus’ sacrifice and accept it as the end of our responsibilities when He clearly commanded us to be His hands and feet. Remember Matthew 25:44-45?? 44 “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’ 45 “He will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’ If we are not producing action and following His commands based on our faith then as verse 17 says it is dead. For some reason there are Christians who believe that works somehow cheapens Christ’s sacrifice for us. I believe that our actions reinforce the power of a changed heart that can only come from His sacrifice and perfect love for us.
Daily Devotion 
I’m still reading, but I’ve been running out the door early the last few mornings, so I haven’t been able to share all my thoughts. James is such a deep book with so many things, and I don’t want to short change it. Tomorrow, I shall have more time to share:)
OK. So now I have time to comment. But I just read what you wrote, and you said it all. You are right on. This is something that I struggled with for a long time because I was raised in multiple types of churches that put emphasis on the saved by grace with less emphasis on the works aspect. I don’t begrudge them that, because I learned the core truth of the gospel: we can’t save ourselves. No matter what we do, we can’t. But the idea of works pouring out of that relationship was lost. It’s fascinating to me that we get it so screwed up as humans. It seems to be one extreme or another. And I wonder if it’s because we are so into doing things “right” that we have to have a clear benchmark on which to look in order to make sure we are doing it “right”. For the grace only folks, it’s clear to them that their relationship is “right” when they aren’t doing things to win favor. For the works only folks, the fact that they are doing good deeds is “right” and that is easy to see. Living in a relationship with the Lord with an understanding of both aspects isn’t so clear, because it’s different for each person. How our relationship with him reveals itself is going to be very different from person to person. Just like many of us have friends in common, we interact with them differently. Take you, Dino. I can pick on you:). My relationship with you is very different than Tim’s. There are many factors that play into that, but our relationship between one another looks completely different. On the surface, yes, it’s rather the same. We all get a long. We bring wine to each other’s houses etc…:) but there is a different interaction that no one will ever see because they aren’t us. It’s hard to make sure you’re doing something “right” when there are so many intangibles at play…I suppose that’s the purpose of faith and grace. Having faith that God is helping you work out your salvation and the grace to show others that he’s doing the same with them. Actually, you kinda have to show grace and faith to both yourself and others. Interesting thoughts I just had. Not sure if they make any sense, but it’s just kinda what poured out of my fingertips. You guys get to be in on my odd stream of consciousness.
Wow, so much for me having already said it all… 😉 You make a very interesting point. The cool thing about having a relationship with God is that my relationship with Him is going to be different than yours… MIND BLOWN!!! That is so simple that it’s powerful. There are fundamentals about entering into a relationship with God that we all experience, but the changing and growing relationship we have will be unique to each of us. For any of us to look at relationship and say it is being done wrong, is to miss the personalized and unique relationship each of us are to build with our creator and savior. Great point!