Lazy Faith

Several days ago I was talking to my sweet cousin Sister Pants (I'm keeping her name anonymous because she doesn't know I'm blogging about our conversation, but I'm confident she wouldn't care, but then I thought "what if other people are afraid to talk to me because they think I'll blog about our conversations?" ... Be.Very.Afraid) So I made her name anonymous. 
You're welcome Laurie! 
We were talking about how tough life can be. It was actually perfect timing for the conversation because I had just finished reading this passage: 

Jude 3-4 Dear friends, I’ve dropped everything to write you about this life of salvation that we have in common. I have to write insisting—begging!—that you fight with everything you have in you for this faith entrusted to us as a gift to guard and cherish.

 Have you fought lately? 
I'm only asking because up until rediscovering the aforementioned (I am totally rocking that word!) verse, I would have described my faith as lazy on many occasions. Like the kind of lazy that allows me to sit sideways on my comfy chair while eating Hostess Cupcakes with Jesus (those are His favorite). 

So I pondered and chewed on that verse for a while. Which is totally biblical! Ezekiel ate a scroll. So.

Speaking of lazy faith. Several of my next door neighbors and I have been getting together for a bible study. Recently, we scratched our regular book discussion to watch a video about Jesus' command to take an offensive stand against the powers of darkness (by Ray Vanderlaan) instead. How befitting of this discussion! Evan had supreme use of the tv downstairs so we went upstairs to the bedroom to watch the video. And thus I present to you:
Lazy Faith:

HAHAHA Carol! You know I'm kidding! Carol decided to make herself at home in my bed while Jane opted to sit on the floor and I took pictures which makes me the least lazy of all because I was standing. So. We missed our other neighbor Christy on this day. She was probably actually at home asleep. Totally messing with you Christy! 
And that's the reason our bible study disbanded. 
Because I called them lazy in this blog post.

 Onward ever onward, I happened to come across this priceless jewel:

James 2:14-17 Dear friends, do you think you’ll get anywhere in this if you learn all the right words but never do anything? Does merely talking about faith indicate that a person really has it? For instance, you come upon an old friend dressed in rags and half-starved and say, “Good morning, friend! Be clothed in Christ! Be filled with the Holy Spirit!” and walk off without providing so much as a coat or a cup of soup—where does that get you? Isn’t it obvious that God-talk without God-acts is outrageous nonsense? 18 I can already hear one of you agreeing by saying, “Sounds good. You take care of the faith department, I’ll handle the works department.” Not so fast. You can no more show me your works apart from your faith than I can show you my faith apart from my works. Faith and works, works and faith, fit together hand in glove. 19-20 Do I hear you professing to believe in the one and only God, but then observe you complacently sitting back as if you had done something wonderful? That’s just great. Demons do that, but what good does it do them? Use your heads! Do you suppose for a minute that you can cut faith and works in two and not end up with a corpse on your hands?

I really like that one because it has the word "corpse" in it. I think I might use that as my next blog title to reach more sadistic readers for the gospel. 

Let's focus okay? The point is, I don't want to have lazy faith. I want to fight. I lift weights y'all. So I feel like there are 2 things necessary to do this. Yay! A list!

1. Fight for my faith. This means when I'm a celebrity and I have anti-fans who are harassing me, I can't stop living for Jesus in order to join them. Okay. That's a joke. Sort of. If you're a celebrity and you're reading this, you should show Christlike behavior to your entourage, k?  Really, it just means if you have a faith and you've given up on it, you haven't tried. You haven't fought. You're lazy. You're a lazy bum. Fix it!  This portion doesn't apply to me at this moment. I just haven't felt recently like I have a need to fight for my faith because nothing is challenging it. Does satan read my blog?
2. Act. Simple as that. Get out and share the gospel. Feed the hungry. Help the widow. But don't do any of that without LOVE. Here's the perfect way to apply what I'm saying:

Ephesians 5 :1-2 Watch what God does, and then you do it, like children who learn proper behavior from their parents. Mostly what God does is love you. Keep company with him and learn a life of love. Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn’t love in order to get something from us but to give everything of himself to us. Love like that.
Love requires action. If I'm lazy I'm not in action. If I'm lazy I'm waiting for the poor, the widow, the fatherless and the hungry to come to me. If they did, you can be certain I'd share my Hostess Cupcakes. 

Allow me to share one more verse to sum it all up:
James 1:22-24 Don’t fool yourself into thinking that you are a listener when you are anything but, letting the Word go in one ear and out the other. Act on what you hear!

So there you go. You now have permission to call me out if you want to get punched feel I qualify for lazy faith.