But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. (James 1:22) It is possible to do a great deal that looks like faith and still deceive yourself. Confession can become a religious motion. Communion can become a religious motion. Almost any act of devotion can be reduced to something you perform out of habit rather than something that flows from an actual encounter with the Word. James is not condemning these practices themselves. He warns against

And a certain woman, which had an issue of blood twelve years, And had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse, When she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind, and touched his garment. For she said, If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole. And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague. (Mark 5:25-29) This woma

Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and forever. (Hebrews 13:8) There is a belief circulating in some circles suggesting that miraculous gifts and apostolic ministry ceased after the original apostles died, as though the supernatural aspect of the faith belonged only to a specific window of church history. But this reasoning runs into a problem. Scripture describes apostles as a gift set in the church by God Himself, and the church has not ceased to exist. If the chu