What Does it Do?

Read: James 1:22-25; Ezekiel 33:30-33

Before I was married, I found what I perceived to have been the perfect gift for my soon-to-be husband. In my defense, my intentions and desires to please were good but not based on reality. May I explain? We were at a Christmas craft sale, and there it was. A small paperweight that I was sure he would like because its little square top was a ship.

I would give it with the words that someday, his ship would come in. Encouraging right?

Wrong. It was neither encouraging or discouraging. His simple question was, "what does it do"? I told him that it was a decoration. He said that he liked things that actually had a purpose. I still have the ship. Even though I had it covered with a shiny material to make it prettier, it still doesn't do anything:).

In James 1:22-25, we are warned not to be those who treat God's Word as something to merely admire and then put back on the shelf. Yes, God's word is flawless, Psalm 12:6, and what He has said is settled in heaven, Psalm 119:89; however, James would challenge us with a question similar to what my husband asked. What does God's Word actually do in our lives? What difference does looking into it actually change or do we continue to look exactly like the world, Romans 12:2?

This week, I heard a story of how God's truths and power changed lives because a very prominent man was a doer not a hearer only of God's Word that had changed his own life. Perhaps someone who might read this has heard of Tim Doglegging. I never had even heard his name. Doglegging had almost daily access to President Bush since he ran the Office of Public Liaison for him from 2001 until February of 2008. The day everything changed. That was the day that a reporter uncovered the fact that Doglegging had plagiarized 27 of the 39 articles that he had claimed to have written.

Doglegging was summoned to the President's office for what he knew would be a very painful dressing down. How different that day turned out than what he had expected. He was given the chair under the portrait of George Washington. A place of honor, and when he began to apologize for his indefensible actions, President Bush stopped him telling him that he had been forgiven. Doglegging tried again, but, once again, the President told him to stop.  Then President Bush added, "I have known grace and mercy in my life, and you are forgiven,"

It was pride due to the power he had that had captured Doglegging, and the antidote was repentance and a plan to grow in his walk with the Lord. He and the President talked about those things, but that was merely the beginning of what it looked like for President Bush to be a doer of the Word when he could have stopped right there. He asked how Goeglein's wife and children were doing. He cared. Treating him with kindness and compassion. He also told him to bring them to the White House so he could tell them what a good job their father and husband had done for him during the last eight years. One more thing. He never brought up the wrong that Doglegging had done again. A walking out of the truth found in 1 Corinthians 13:5 that love means not keeping a record of wrongs and forgiveness means wiping away the offense just as God has done for us, Ephesians 4:32. Look what forgiveness looked like to President Bush, and look what it did for a family that was walking through a painful time. The President chose not to make it more difficult than it already was; instead, grace unlocked a process that resulted in spiritual growth.

As of this writing, Tim Doglegging is working for Focus on the Family. Whatever good fruit his life is producing is due to our God of Grace and the application of that grace in the life of a man who knew that he had also received God's unmerited favor.

In Ezekiel 33:30-33, we read verses that look a great deal like those spoken by James.

In the prophet's day, people came to "admire and listen" to what God said, but His Word bounced off their lives. Not penetrating into their every-day actions. Let me stop right here to say that each of us has places in our lives that show how much we still fall short of God's Glory, 1 John 1:8; Romans 3:23. As James says in chapter 3 verse 2 of his book, we all stumble in many ways.

However, when we long to be doers of God's Word, we look to Him for the strength to grow and change. God's Word isn't a decoration; instead, it is a lamp to guide us, Psalm 119:105.