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No Labels

No Labels

Words of Faith 5-7-2020

Dr. Jeffrey D. Hoy © 2020

Jeff.Hoy@faithfellowshipweb.com

Faith Fellowship Church - Melbourne, FL

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James 2:25-26

     In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.

 

        Do you remember the story of Rahab?  God had given the land of Canaan to the Hebrews.  They finally were ready to take the land, but Jericho stood in the way.  Joshua sent two spies in to check things out.  They would have been caught and tortured except for a pagan woman, a prostitute named Rahab.  She hid the spies based on her faith!   She professed before them, "...the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below" (Joshua 2:11).  

        But this was more than simple fear or even a verbal affirmation.  Rahab hid the spies and misdirected the King so they could get away.  Because of this, she was spared in the conquest of Jericho.  Later lists in the book of Judges show that she actually was grafted in as a part of the nation.  

         Just what does such faith do for you?  James uses the word "righteous.”   The Greek word means to be rendered innocent.  It is interesting that in every place that Rahab is mentioned in the Bible, including the book of James, Rahab carries the label: "Prostitute.”  In every place... except one.  Rahab is listed in the lineage of Jesus in Matthew's Gospel, but with one difference.  In that list, in the linage of Jesus, in Jesus, grafted into that line, there is no label.  That is what faith does.  It puts us into Jesus, where are no labels.   

         By faith, we are grafted into the same lineage but as progeny rather than ancestry.  Faith that trusts and obeys puts us into the line of Jesus and removes the labels of life that attach themselves to us. 

         Do you have a label?  Something someone put on you or that stuck from a long time ago? Labels are a terrible and cruel thing.   Poor, dumb, no-count, smart, failure, nerd, divorced, single, no good, old, young, unwed, bad, loose, cheap, unemployed?  On and on they go, these modern labels.  The faith of Rahab that trusts and obeys, recognizes God and responds, is what grafts us into Jesus where there is no label. Paul put it this way:  If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! (2 Cor. 5:17) Celebrate that today.

 

       Lord, Jesus, today I want to be in You, grafted in and part of Your ongoing lineage.  I understand that no one in the lineage has any labels.  There are no tax collectors or sinners. Lord, I want to walk in You today. Teach me to trust and obey. Make me a new creation.  May the old pass away and the new come!  In Jesus Name, Amen.

 

 

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© Jeffrey D. Hoy 2009, 2020

Dr. Jeffrey D. Hoy - Faith Fellowship Church (EFCA)       

2820 Business Center Blvd.

Melbourne, Florida 32940 (321)-259-7200

Jeff.Hoy@faithfellowshipweb.com

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The Words of Faith devotion is published five days a week by E-mail excluding Federal holidays. Please feel free to forward this devotion to a friend who might be blessed by this devotion. Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture is quoted from the New International Version (R) of The Holy Bible. Copyright (c) 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved. Words of Faith (c) 1997, 2010 Jeffrey D. Hoy. All rights reserved. Permission is granted to forward this copyrighted material or use portions of it with appropriate notation of the source for non-profit purposes.