So What?

"Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says." James 1:22

When I first moved to Texas, I was 12.  My family had left a very strong, Bible-teaching church in another state.  You would think that moving to the Bible belt would make church seeking easy.  But my family visited 20 churches before we landed on the place that we would call home for 9 years.  We had this test that we gave each church when we visited.  My dad called it the "so what test."  After we would leave a church service, we would sit down as a family to discuss the "so what" from today's sermon.  Or in another words, "what did we learn that we can apply to our life today?"  It was important to my family to find a church that would teach us how to live as Christ followers.

I'm very thankful for my current pastor who does focus on applying God's Word to our lives.  There's always a "so what" to his messages.  This means that after I hear a sermon and how to apply it to my life, it's my responsibility to take action.  Just going to church on Sundays and filling my head with Scripture isn't enough.  I need to seek how to live the Scripture I'm taught.  I'm so blessed to be surrounded by Christians who want to "do" what Scripture says.

It's not enough to just study the Bible.  It's not enough to hear a good sermon every week.  And it's not enough to just be around other Christians.  Once we have put ourselves in a place where we can listen and hear what Scripture says, we have to take the next step and live it.  We should know the "so what" and we should follow Nike's advise and "just do it."  James says that the man who does what he learns "will be blessed in what he does (vs. 25)."