I love how Jesus’ half-brother, James, described faith.  He basically said faith without works is dead faith.  A belief that doesn’t result in changed behavior is not really belief at all.  In fact your true belief is demonstrated by what you do.  That’s why it’s important to have an informed faith.  Faith in God is not a blind faith.  It’s an informed and grounded faith.  There is so much evidence for who Jesus is and what he did in history, that we can have a faith based on reality, and from there our faith helps us to do all the things that Jesus commanded us to do.

PS. I’m sorry about the sound quality on this one.  It’s pretty terrible.  You can hear it if you crank the volume, but it’s not recorded well at all.

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Jesus.  There’s something about that name.  To some it’s a name to be honored and respected.  To others, it’s fodder for cursing.  Lots of people claim to know who Jesus is, but there are tons of different opinions about him.  So how do you figure out who’s right?  How do you filter through all the opinions and get to the real Jesus?  And when you do, what difference does it make to you?  Does knowing the real Jesus make any difference to your everyday, real life?

PS. This talk is, kind of, a response to another talk that I had already come up with.  But I shared this talk (the second talk) first.  That’s why it’s labeled “part 2 – kind of.”  And I’ll post the first talk that I came up with next time.

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