If Faith Leaves No Footprint, Does It Live

Five minutes can tilt a whole day—and, over time, a whole life. Today we pull on a thread that’s easy to admire and hard to live: moving from hearing to doing. With a pointed line from Frederick Robertson and the steady wisdom of James 1, we explore why action outlasts emotion, how obedience shapes identity, and what it looks like to stand with courage when culture pushes faith to the margins.
I share a candid observation many of us feel: we’re often educated beyond our level of obedience. We know the sermons and studies by heart, but our habits lag behind. That’s where James offers a mirror. Hearers glance, forget, and drift. Doers continue and are blessed.  These aren’t grand gestures; they’re quiet, repeatable choices that add up to visible faith.

Chapters

• 0:00 A Five-Minute Morning Start
• 0:21 Action Over Speculation
• 1:43 Cultural Shift And Christian Boldness
• 2:52 Be Doers, Not Hearers
• 3:32 Study Versus Worship: A Cautionary Tale
• 5:03 The Call To Live Boldly
• 5:33 Closing And Daily Invitation

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:04

Good morning and welcome to Starting Right with Danny Mack. I'm going to be here every Monday to Friday to help you get a great five-minute start to your day. So grab your cup of coffee, sit back, relax, and let me help you start your day right. To begin today, I want to read a quote from Frederick Robertson, who was a pastor at Trinity Chapel in Brighton, England, back in the mid-1800s. He said Christian life is action, not speculation, not a debating, but a doing. One thing and only one in this world has eternity stamped on it. Feelings pass away, resolves and thoughts pass, opinions change. But what you have done lasts. It lasts in you and in the people around you. Through the ages, through eternity, what you have done for Christ, that and only that is who you are and what will last. Over the years most of us have listened to dozens, if not hundreds, of Bible studies and sermons, and we've read many devotionals and and maybe even listened to some podcasts, maybe even from a guy living on the west coast of Canada. The purpose of all of those things, including the times we have our own personal studies, is not only to educate us, but to stir us up to do what the Bible tells us to do. We need to be impacting the world and the people around us, and yet in our current culture, we tend to pull back and hold it to ourselves. I believe that most Christians are educated way beyond their level of obedience. We know a whole lot more than we are actually living out and obeying in our lives, and that's where we fall short. I believe that we are entering into a very important time for our personal faith and for our churches. It wasn't too many years ago that both Canada and the United States were founded very openly and proudly on Christian principles. The Bible was the most important book in our judicial system, in our governments, and even in our schools. I can still remember beginning every day by praying the Lord's Prayer in elementary school. Things certainly have changed. The Bible is no longer even regarded as valuable. In fact, some people are calling it hate speech. Christians and those who value the sanctity of marriage and families and faith are now being attacked. And as a church, we can sit back and just sort of let it happen and hope it goes away, but ignoring it will only create a greater problem. So we need to be aware of what's happening, and I really believe it's time for us to take a stand and not be ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We have the opportunity now to shift our perspective from looking at what we need to now also be able to reach out and to impact other people for Jesus Christ. This is exactly what James was talking about in James chapter one, verses twenty-two to twenty five. He said, Be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror. For he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does. We need to be exactly what James described, doers of the word and not simply hearers of the word. Recently I've been reading a book by Stephen Mansfield, and he tells this story in it. He says, I remember some years ago I was listening to an African bishop describe the wonderful things his churches are doing in a very difficult part of his country. Hundreds of us listened to him and we were deeply moved. And after he spoke, the bishop took some questions, and someone asked what a great many of us wanted to know. Why aren't things like you described happening here in our country? The bishop wasn't a diplomat. I like that about him. And I liked it more after he answered his question. He said, There's a reason you do not have such things happening in this country. You Americans study your God. We Africans worship our God. You get smarter, we get changed, and then we change the world around us. I thought the audience was going to riot. The bishop wasn't finished though. His next words never left me. By doing, rather than merely studying, we create a culture. Newcomers and the young feed on that culture. They watch, they do. They too are changed. Our culture expands. You Americans create a system of thought. The most you ask is that people contemplate new ideas. You might ask them to give or to sometimes attend meetings, but no contagious culture is created. Nothing is offered to newcomers and the young but thoughts and maybe a coffee mug. So they think and they do not do. I really believe that it is time for us as Christians to become better doers. We need to not only stand up for the truths and the values of Scripture and of God and his kingdom, we need to be able to do it boldly, boldness based upon our faith and what we've learned in those sermons and those Bible studies. We need to live and be the people of God so that other people can come to know God. The challenge is before us, and it's up to us to decide if we are going to accept it and to declare God's goodness to this world while there's still a chance. I hope you all have a really good day, my friends. We will talk again tomorrow. Thank you for listening today. And I invite you to join me Monday to Friday right here on Starting Right with Danny Mack.