Fearless and Faithful Life

 Today we are going to talk about faith and good deeds in James 2:14-26. James begins by saying if you claim that you have faith, but you don’t show it with your actions, how true is your faith.  “So you see, faith by itself isn’t enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless.” James 2:17  Good deeds are what God wants from us. Good deeds show our faith by our actions.  If you go to church and tell everyone you are a believer but outside of church you are selfish and only care about yourself, no good deeds are happening.   People can have faith without good deeds and have good deeds without faith.  James says that “it is foolish.”  He says even the demons believe there is one God and they tremble in fear.  They have no good deeds to offer.  This means faith isn’t enough.  “ Just as the body is dead without breath, so also faith is dead without good works.” James 2:26.  As a kid, you can show good deeds by car...

James 2: 1-13 By Brad Ruley        The main point of this passage is that we are called to "love your neighbor as yourself."  James tells a story about a meeting and a rich person walks in and you give him the seat next to you. Then soon after a poor person comes in with filthy clothes and a bad stench and you tell him to sit on the floor. So, what James says in these verses to not discriminate or in my twelve-year-old mind, have favoritism. We shouldn't show favoritism because you can hurt someone's feelings and make them feel left out of things and make them question am I good enough.  This really stood out to me because this has happened to me in my life.  I have been judged unfairly by others.  I remember a specific time on the bus when I was made fun of by an older student who treated others as if he was better than them.  It made me feel angry.   We are all equal in God's eyes.  We all sin and make mistakes.  Ja...

  By Brad Ruley Hold that line!  James 1:19-27   My first football game was on Saturday and it was fun.  Here's a picture of me.  I'm number 74 with the blue cleates.  That's how my Mom finds me on the field.  I'm a guard on defense and offense.  My job is to protect the quarterback, which is my best friend, Max.  My job is also to not let the other team get any yards.  This week in James, I'm going to be talking about guarding our words and actions.  Even as a kid, this is hard at times.  Especially in football!  We can't win games with our mouths and anger, we win by teamwork and following our plan and our actions on the field.  So what about the plays and actions in real life?  Max and I after the game Anger is dangerous and can get really bad at times.  Anger makes us take our eyes off of God and can consume you.  Even myself as a twelve year old.  When I get angry, I don't think about anything...

The Book of James My name is Brad and I'm twelve. I'm going to be writing about the book of James.   The book of James was written by James, the brother of Jesus.  Did you know Jesus had a brother named James?   It was written in AD 49 to Jewish Christians living in Gentile communities outside Judea.  He wrote it because he wanted to expose hypocritical Jewish practices and express his concern for persecuted Christians who were a part of the Jerusalem church.   James 1:1-19  Faith and Endurance: “ When troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy.”  The meaning of this passage is that when troubles come your way we should not pretend to be happy when you're really just mad or sad, just have a positive outlook on the situation. James 1:3 says “For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow.”   I think when our faith is tested we have to learn and grow because they build o...

 One of the biggest things I've learned in the past two years it that I am not always right.  And those words still make my stomach churn as I type them.  As a planner, an organizer, a perfectionist, a leader, and a rule follower.... I like to be right.  What I HAVE learned over the past two years is that letting go has been the best thing I ever did for my family and myself.  And the first thing I let go of was society's views on "how to raise your kids to be successful." Homeschooling has been something I wanted to write about for awhile.  I get a lot of comments and questions about our choices to do things the way we do as a family.  So I'm going to unpack this one thing at a time.  I love and appreciate ALL educators.  I mean, I was a public educator for almost 20 years.  I respect and love them for all they do.  This isn't a debate on which is better.  Only a little information on what worked BEST for OUR family. ...

  Welcome to our family blog!   We decided to start a new page so EVERYONE in the family could share their stories and be able to write.  Part of the kids writing project this year will be blogging about topics they are learning about during school.  We are excited to share things happening on the homestead, in homeschool, in our faith, and in life.   This blog is way easier to keep track of as a family unit than separate social media accounts.  We hope you enjoy following along with the Ruleys!