Verse of the Day 3/5

   Through the Bible - Deuteronomy 1-3, Mark 11:15-33

 

Good morning,

 

Have you ever heard of Elijah McCoy? " He was born in 1844 to former slaves who had escaped Kentucky to Ontario via the Underground Railroad.  His parents sent him to study in Scotland, where he earned a degree in engineering.

Working for the railroad, McCoy invented an lubricating cup that automatically dripped oil.  He patented it, and it was installed on locomotive.  His invention greatly increased engine oil efficiency, and soon, everyone wanted one of the "McCoy" cups.  So many inferior copies were made that train engineers began to demand "the real McCoy", the genuine article."  -from Today in the Word

 

For today's verse we'll go to James, a very practical book which talks about what it takes to be a "genuine Christian".

 

James 1:23 Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror 24 and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.   NIV

 

In my job I get involved in investigating quality claims regarding our fabrics.  Some complaints are justified while in other cases people have used someone else's product making a claim that it is ours.  Sometimes there is something that leads me to doubt a complaint that comes in.  When this happens, we can run several tests on the fabric, we break down a sample of the fabric and run tests on it to prove whether it is "genuine" or an imposter.

 

Sometimes it is not visisble on the surface.  Just yesterday I was handling one of these complaints.  A microscope confirmed that it was not our fabric, not the genuine article, it was an imposter which had failed in the field.

 

When you read verse 25 below, it says "looks intently".  They didn't have microscopes back then, but the idea is the same.  When we read God's word we should read it intently.  When we do so it will act like a microscope upon us revealing to us whether we are "genuine" or not.  It will show us what needs to be changed and worked on .

 

Take some time today and every day to "gaze intently" on His Word.  May it prove that your faith is genuine.

In Christ,

Mike

 

James 1:22-2:1

22 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 23 Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror 24 and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25 But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it — he will be blessed in what he does.

26 If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless. 27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

NIV