by Matt Fuller

I got this devotional book from my pastor a few weeks ago. Sort of a graduation present, I guess. Anyway, I came across a devotional thing that caught my attention. Real big at the top of the page was printed, "No plan is worth the paper it's printed on unless it starts you doing something." Then underneath that was a verse, James 1:22 to be exact. It says, "But be ye doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves." It got me thinking about what being a Christian means. So many people, myself included, are just content to go to church and sit for an hour or so and listen, that is of course if the pad of paper and those little pencils in the pew aren't more interesting. What that verse is saying is that we have to do more than just go to church or flip through the Bible. We need to act on what we heard and apply it to our everyday lives. It's a trap we all fall into. I've heard the stories; the loaves and the fishes, Noah's ark, Moses and the Israelites, Daniel in the lions' den. I can easily live my life thinking all those stories say is to be good. It's more than that. Jesus wasn't just some "Good Guy" or just another prophet. He was the Son of God on earth, an example of how we should live our lives if we wnat to go to heaven. I can't just be a nice guy and expect to go to heaven. Neither can anyone else, no matter who they are. We need to apply those stories in the Bible to our lives. We need to pay attention in church, take what we've heard with us, and pass it on. Are we hearers only or also doers?