I just love it when my pastor uncovers new truths from the Bible which are blessings to my waiting ears! A major benefit for a Child of God is to sit under the teaching of a Man of God who pours his life into the study of the Holy Scriptures, who then breaks open the Bread of Life and serves it to his people on a weekly basis. This is a TREMENDOUS blessing and that’s what happened to me this past Sunday.

We just wrapped up going verse by verse through the entire book of James in the New Testament, and finishing up we came to the below two verses closing it all out. This portion of Scripture is often used to teach that a person, once Saved or Born Again, can lose their salvation! Admittedly, when you look on the surface of the text it’s not too hard to come to that conclusion.

¹⁹ Brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the truth, and someone turns him back, ²⁰ let him know that HE WHO turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins. (James 5:19-20)

The “new truth” to me, which my pastor powerfully proclaimed, was that in the New Testament God never refers to Believers as sinners! That is because after conversion, after a person is Born Again in Jesus, God sees them as “In Christ”, no longer a lost sinner! Not sinless mind you! We still do that, but from the day we are converted we should be sinning-less, as they say, as we grow in our newfound faith.

So back to James…

I’m sure you can identify with the fact that many people darken the door of a church, some making a profession of faith, some hanging in there months or even longer, some even following in the sacraments of the faith, but then “poof, they’re gone”! Sure, some may have just been on a search for a church that met their needs, but some just fall away! It’s like the parable Jesus taught, the seeds of their faith having fallen on hard ground, stony ground, or in the briars, dies out from lack of nourishment.

So here’s where the “HE WHO” comes in. Who in the world is the “HE WHO”??? Well, YOU ARE! That is, if you are a Born Again child of God growing in your faith, you are the HE WHO. It’s up to us, not just the pastor, to reach out in love and compassion to those who have struggled or fallen by the “wayside” in their faith journey. Only GOD knows what was going on in their hearts in the time when they may have thought they were doing business with Him. But a true living Faith grows, matures and multiplies and if that’s not happening then we who are “HE WHO’s” should, as the text says, endeavor to “turn them back from the error of their ways” with true love and compassion.

A person in my life who was an expert at this was my brother, Evangelist Larry Wolfe who on this day last year went to be with the Lord. He ministered as Chaplain to hundreds of people in a truck stop on I-85 in South Carolina. He faithfully sat in his booth in the McDonalds with an open Bible on the table and it was like a magnet. People approached him from all walks of life and all manners of faith, and he was an amazing “HE WHO” giving counsel, answering questions and turning many to true repentance and belief in Jesus.

He’s my “HE WHO” hero! Let’s all commit to be a “HE or SHE WHO” hero!

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