Talk without works is...

Well the election was a bit of a funny one, wasn't it?

5 days on, and there's nothing doing in terms of a new Government. All talk and no action.

Some might say that's a good thing. Some might say they didn't vote for party X so they shouldn't be in Government. Unfortunately, the headline answer to this one is "shut up!" We've had our say, and the results came out as they did...we didn't vote for the Prime Minister, just 649 individual MPs.

Now 640-ish of those MPs get to choose what the next Government will look like (the Speaker doesn't have a say, and Sinn Fein MPs refuse to take the oath of loyalty to the Queen, so can't come to Westminster).

In times of uncertainty in life, it can be tempting to witter on about this, that an' t'other, but really, what shows up as being worthwhile and constructive is getting stuck in.

I would encourage you all to get to the HBC website, and listen to Sunday morning's sermon by Mike Chesterton of Tearfund [here]. Or even better, stick the link there into your iTunes, and get it to download them automatically every week.

Mike talked about faith without works being dead - a great quote from the Book of James (I won't tell you where, because it's such a good read, you should read it all) - "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."

Now you can write to your new MP, congratulate him/her on his/her (re-)election, and say what you expect him to prioritise. Even better if you've heard him/her promise something good...remind him/her of that.

But even more, you can live the life Jesus would want you to live - following his example, his teaching, and the example of other who strove to be like him in the early Church and beyond [Try Paul, Peter, St. Augustine, Mother Teresa & Tony Campolo out for starters].

Abraham (had many sons) was justified not by faith, but by his actions - let that be a challenge to you and to me in the coming months.

As an action point from this, why not encourage & build each other up by targeting one or two things you want to do to show your faith (wearing a WWJD bracelet doesn't count), telling a friend / mentor, and asking to be held accountable to that over the next three months?