Jas 2:14-26
4 Faith and Works
What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, " Go in peace, be warmed and be filled," and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? 17 Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself. 18 But someone may well say, "You have faith and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works." 19 You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder. 20 But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless? 21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up Isaac his son on the altar? 22 You see that faith was working with his works, and as a result of the works, faith was perfected; 23 and the Scripture was fulfilled which says, "AND ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS RECKONED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS," and he was called the friend of God. 24 You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone. 25 In the same way, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? 26 For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead. NASU

When one is living the life in and from the heart, there is no need of a defense. When one has to continually defend a "church" because of impropieties from one or more individuals or groups within, where is the true "Faith"? One begins to defend sand and tries to shore up the very "sands of impropiety" and thereby rebuilding the very thing that needs to be destoyed.

2 Co 6:16-18
For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: "I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people."
17 "Therefore come out from them
and be separate,
says the Lord.
Touch no unclean thing,
and I will receive you."
18 "I will be a Father to you,
and you will be my sons and daughters, (NIV)

It is hard to separate from those who play in thier sand boxes and join those who cling to the "Rock". Three decades ago I had one of the first of many dreams (still have them now), very real and pointed.
In this dream I was walking with many "christians" along a dirt road in a valley with the full sun shine on us, between two long ridges full of dry grass. I wanted to see where everyone was going to and climbed to the top of the ridge to my right. When I got to the top and looked to where the crowd was going I was supprised to realize it was towards the edge of a precipice with a deep canyon of darkness. No one seemed to stop at the edge, they just walked off it. I understood that this was not the way to go and turned and looked from the top of this ridge to look in the opposite direction and saw a lush green valley. A river was flowing through it and along the edge of this river were trees and other green plants. I found myself drawn to the other side of the river and to what I came to realize was my house. The outside of this house was all neat, freshly painted and proper. When I went inside I discovered my wife trying to make up our bed. As I wandered around the inside of my house, I also realized how dusty, dirty and full of cobwebs all of the furniture and belongings were.

It is still interesting to me the reality that that dream gave to me today. I can still vividly recall even the smells from the dry grass, the green valley, the river and even the dust in my house. I have found how many lend themselves to extroversion and introversion, rather than to introspection on matters of "Faith". The principal of the "beam and mote" come readily to mind, those individuals that you have reminded us of must have removed much of their "beam" and thereby allowed their lives to remove the "mote" from the eyes of others. I will continue to clean my house as the Lord points out those "spots of flesh", those grains of sand from my sand box playing days.