Day 47 - listening to myself

Extreme Faith Workout
www.gbcwestlake.org

Have you ever listened to yourself on tape? Usually, people don't like listening to themselves; and I am no different. And as a pastor, preaching every week, my voice is recorded, and available for me, or anyone else, to listen to at the click of a button. However, I very rarely listen to myself. I am too critical, so when I listen to myself, I keep thinking of all the things I should have said, what I should not have said, or how I should have said something differently. But, today, I am listening to myself because it was the assignment for the Extreme Faith Workout.

One of my goals as a pastor, as a preacher, is that I would learn from God's Word and apply God's Word to my heart and life, before I preach it to anyone else. This gave me the opportunity to come back, after preaching this, and listening in a fresh way, and thinking about how to apply this message, even though it was imperfectly preached, to my life today.

The passage of Scripture was James 2:14-19 and the title of the message was: Are You Dead? This is one of those passages in the Bible that seems contradictory, at first glance. And as I listen to it, I remember the challenge I had to try and explain this passage, communicate it clearly, to a diverse group of people, at all stages of spiritual development.

So, listening to this message, what are my next steps, to apply God's Word, this particular passage of His Word, to my life?
1. Each day, I need to be thinking of how God is asking me to live out my faith. What will it look like, today, for my belief system to be demonstrated by what I do?
2. I need to be sensitive and ready to help those that God brings into my path.