Green & Blossoming

This past week was a busy one in regard to speaking engagements. On Tuesday I spoke to an area pastor's meeting and then taught my photography/injustice class in the evening. Friday night I spoke to a 55+ group, which was a lot of fun, plus it included supper (and it was really good)! Today I spoke at a church in Winnipeg. As I was preparing for these engagements, I came across some Scripture out of Luke 3 where John is baptizing people, but somehow is seems to become a popular thing to do among the people instead of a sincere heart thing. From The Message it says: "'What counts is your life. Is it green and blossoming? Because if it's deadwood, it goes on the fire.' The crowd asked him, 'Then what are we supposed to do?'" And his response really blew me away this week. He did not talk about confessing sins, repentance, coming to Christ or anything that we might expect. John's response was this: "'If you have 2 coats, give one away,' he said. 'Do the same with your food.'" A heart change is vital, and though our faith is not judged on our works, it's so interesting to note (straight from this Scripture), that our faith will be seen in our actions - how do we treat those less fortunate than us?