Living Faith – Bobby Cruz Jr
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Thursday June 8, 2016
It is our belief as Christians, that our Heavenly Father put our soul inside of our bodies. We also believe, that when a soul is separated from the body, even if it is kept alive artificially, the only thing that remains is a corpse that is non-responsive, in a vegetative state. The problem with this is that we have no way of knowing at what point God separates the soul from the body. I have read numerous accounts of people who were in a coma for long periods of time who suddenly regained consciousness. However, when God separates the soul from the body, even if the body is kept alive artificially, for all functional purposes that body is dead and not able to perform even the most basic functions.
James 2: 26 NIV
As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.
We have a tendency to read the Bible as though it was a religious book and for this reason, we fail to receive the full impact of its words. However, when I read this verse written by James, his illustration is so extreme I can only guess that it must have been offensive to the original readers back in the first century. It does not matter how you dress them or how much make up you put on them, there is nothing attractive when it comes to dead bodies. Again, this is extreme because James in essence is saying that there are people in the church all dressed up and adorned with faith. However, because they do not put that faith into practice, they are in the practical sense, just like dead bodies, non-attractive and useless.
As followers of Jesus, our Heavenly Father has not given us His word, the word upon which we build our belief system, for our consideration. No quite the contrary, God has given us His word so that we may apply it. Believing without applying is like a body without a soul, it is dead. What makes Christianity attractive is the application of what we believe. Furthermore, what makes Christianity successful is not what we believe; it is living out our faith.
Political Gravity
This Sunday, June 12 @ 11:00 AM
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What would it look like if we filtered our politics thru our faith and not our faith thru our politics.
Robert Cruz Jr.
Bobby Cruz Jr. became Senior Pastor of CDA Miami in 1999, continuing the work that his father, Bobby Cruz began in 1980. Bobby Jr. is an engaging speaker whose passion is to lead people in a growing relationship with Jesus. He has five children and he lives with his wife Ana in Doral, FL.