Like a lot of people in the rural south, the home I grew up in had a parlor. The majority of our house was decorated with well-worn, functional furniture. In fact, I dont think you could even call it decorated"that implies a plan of some kind. I would call the furnishing more along the lines of mismatched with a heavy emphasis on sturdy and functional. This was not the case with the parlor. The parlor had a new carpet, an actual, honest-to-goodness living room set of matched furniture, complete with fancy (for us) lamps and doilys on the tables. The parlor was where company was directed. The family NEVER sat in that room. The rest of the house reflected the real character of my family: honest, plain, functional and sturdy. But the parlor represented the opposite of all that. It was new, fancy and over-dressed. Why did we show one thing to people who didnt really know us but something completely different to friends and family? Friends, I wonder if its not just like this with our faith sometimes? Is our faith something for show that we put behind glass and only break in emergencies or is it something we live with and actually USE? This morning, well take a look at the Book of James and see what the brother of Jesus and an important early church leader has to say about a real faith and what it should look like.