Following the Leader

There should be a link but there isn't one showing up so do it the old fashioned way. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42F9FAnKA6E

I keep watching this clip. Over and over. It's convicting, no? I know I am convicted.

"Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says." -James 1:22

"...faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead." -James 2:17

I have more free time than I know what to do with. It's a blessing and a curse. I have been using it to develop disciplines such as a daily quiet time and reading. It's been great. I've felt strengthened and revived. I get this feeling though that it's not enough. I do not mean that I need to earn anything but that I'm not living what I am reading. I'm not "following the leader". I read something, hear a convicting sermon, or even hear God calling me to do something and I freeze. I memorize and study it, maybe discuss it with some friends but I fail to follow through. My faith, left unaccompanied by action, is dying.

As I write this I realize that I do my fair share of "living my faith". I can list off all the "good things", or deeds, I do but is it enough? Again, I'm not saying I want to earn anything. There's just a long list of things I know I need to work on. Gosh, again I am not trying to push salvation through works.

Here's some of the stuff I want to be working on:

"Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective." - James 5:16

"Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” -Matthew 28:19-20

"What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith." -Philippians 3:8-9

"Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?" -Matthew 16:24-26

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him." -John 3:16-17

Getting the picture?