Walking the Talk

I was very blessed yesterday. My friend cooked and brought me a large pot of rich herbal chicken soup and hand-made noodles (cooked as a pancake and cut into slices to put into the soup). She even brought cut spinach for the noodle soup, parsley and home-made chilli sauce. We had earlier arranged to have lunch together in my house, but she was so thoughtful she brought extra portions for dinner so that my sisters and nephew could sample the tasty noodle soup. Yummy, yummy .....

Indeed, God has been good to me. He has brought me other friends in the past, who blessed me with their cooking. Deep in my memory is the "chap chye" that a friend so graciously and unexpectedly cooked and delivered to my home some years ago when my mom was seriously ill. So, I had 2 dinners taken care of, at a time when I was struggling to put a meal together with hardly any culinary skills or experience. On another occasion, after I had a major surgical operation, another friend went marketing, bought fresh ingredients and came to my house to cook stir-fried beef slices and yu-sheng (fish) slices to help me replenish my blood and aid healing. There was also a friend who cooked and brought me brown rice cooked with dried fruit and nuts as this was healthy food for my weakened body.

I am grateful for the friendship and love of the brothers- and sisters-in-Christ that God has provided me in my times of need. Good and perfect is the gift that comes from our heavenly Father (James 1 : 17).

From the Christian perspective, caring for one another fulfills "the law of Christ" (Galatians 6 : 2). This law is summed up in the single command: "Love your neighbour as yourself" (Galatians 5 : 14, Romans 13 : 10). And it is because of the love that God gives us that Christians have the love to serve one another, to carry each other's burdens, to do good to all people. "We love because he first loved us." (1 John 4 : 19)

Being a Christian is not just going to church, praying and studying the Bible. We need to walk the talk. The first commandment is to love God, the second to love our neighbour. How? Giving someone (like me) a good feed, providing a listening ear, or just being "there" for a friend in need. When Job lost all his children, possessions and health in disaster after disaster, his 3 friends came and just sat with him for 7 days and nights without saying a word to him (Job 2 : 11 - 13).

Doing good comes with faith. Good works is the fruit of faith and it is God who enables us. To quote the Apostle James:

"15 Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. 16 If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? 17 In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. 18 But someone will say, "You have faith; I have deeds." Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do."

(James 2 : 15 - 17)

May the good Lord help us to persevere in showing our faith by what we do.