Even If i Walk Alone

Instructing and encouraging you to live your life as a disciple of Jesus

Archives for June 2010

Christianity is Losing Market Share

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A new book just hitting the shelves compares the eight major religions of the world, and attempts to explain why their differences matter. I haven’t yet read the book, so I have no further comment on the book at this time. However, in an interview given by the author, he made the claim that “Christianity is losing market share”. I’m not criticizing his answer or even his choice of words, but it is odd to think of Christianity in the business terms of “market share”. Regardless, the point is clear. Our world is growing rapidly, and the people in it are finding other religions more attractive to them than Christianity. My only question is, “Why”?

There is no doubt in my mind that Jesus Christ is the truth, and the only way to God is through Jesus. Why then, would so many seek to find an alternate path that Christ has already stated simply does not exist? I believe part of the problem is that Jesus never intended to start a religion, much less one that would become one of the “eight great religions” of the world. He came to abolish religion, to put an end to our striving, our rituals and our piety. He came to replace ritual with obedience and judgmentalism with grace. He came to replace condemnation with love.

If Christianity is indeed “losing market share”, perhaps it is because we who call ourselves Christians are perverting the very message Christ came to deliver. We reek of piety and drip with pharisaical tendencies. Instead of extending grace to all as Jesus did, we have become known for choosing a select group of sins at which to wail and gnash our teeth. Adultery and homosexuality are seen as one way tickets out of the “church”, and prominent Christian leaders have proclaimed that the scourge of AIDS is God’s way of dealing with the sexual sins. Where is the love and compassion of Jesus in that message? The message of Jesus has been co-opted into a man-made religion that bears little resemblance to its namesake.

Jesus came to abolish religious rituals and to promote instead a personal relationship between God and man. No longer did one need to do and say all the right things or dress in a certain manner. Jesus accepted everyone, regardless of their background, occupation or lifestyle. There was no interview process for His disciples. Jesus didn’t spend time getting to know these individuals beforehand. He simply told them to follow Him. He told them to follow Him from the very place that they were, not to get cleaned up first, not to go pray about it. All He said was, “Follow Me.”. Over the years we have added onto this command a plethora of dos, don’ts and rituals. We have perverted the simplicity of His message.

Perhaps worst of all we have ceased to love. We are really good at offering entertainment choices and building beautiful facilities in which to gather, but we have become pathetically lackadaisical when it comes to loving others. People all over the world are starving. Over half the world earns less than $2 per day. Clean water is unavailable to huge masses around the globe. Meanwhile we build comfortable café’s and feature large screen projector screens throughout our churches. We are replete with cash but bankrupt in love. We have become diametrically opposed to the message of Jesus. The greatest commandment of all, as stated by Jesus in Mark 12:30-31, is to love God with all of our hearts, and to love everyone else in the same manner. Membership has become more important than service. Love has taken a back seat to religion.

Is Christianity truly losing market share? I don’t know, but there appears to be some proof to that conclusion. To be perfectly blunt, I’m okay with that. What the world needs is fewer Christians and more people willing to be followers of Jesus. In too many circles, Christianity has indeed become just another one of the religions of the world, one that does little to help anyone. The positive changes are coming from those brave and dedicated souls who are simply following Jesus, who have given their lives entirely to Him, and are living out His mission to the world. These are the people with whom I identify. Perhaps it’s okay to let Christianity wither and decline. Instead, let’s be about doing the things that Jesus told us to do and living a life that looks like His. True followers of Jesus are people who show grace and mercy to all, people who don’t judge others for their sin but accept them as they are. True followers of Jesus care for the needs of the sick, the poor and the hungry. Above all, a true follower of Jesus is marked by love, the greatest commandment of all. If we don’t have love, then we have nothing at all. Perhaps that is the very reason for the decline of modern Christianity. Love is the highest call, and Jesus is the only answer. Nothing else matters.

What Does Success Look Like?

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We live in a culture that is dominated by a success mindset. Advertisers attempt to create one vision of success, friends and family another, and some combination of the two usually takes root within our minds. We spend our lives trying to become successful, whatever that may look like. Generally people answer that being successful means having plenty of money, a big house and nice cars. The more esoteric among us might say that success is happiness and a healthy family. What does success look like to you?

Asking for the definition of success in the Western World and then again in the so-called developing world will yield starkly different answers. Whereas more than half of the world lives in abject poverty, those of us fortunate enough to be born in the West generally have never known true hunger. Most have not gone through even a 24 hour period without access to food of some kind or another. I find it very curious that in all the reading I’ve done, I have never once seen someone in the West define success as having food for the day. Pose this question to someone living in a refugee camp in Darfur, and I assure you that food will be part of their answer to what success looks like for them. Survival would be another part of their answer. Each day for people in their circumstances is a true battle just to live. This is reality, not some cliché statement intended to evoke a response. Whether we choose to care or not, millions die every single day from AIDS, malnutrition and ethnic violence. How often do we remember those facts? More often than not, uncomfortable statements such as these impact us when we read them, but they are quickly pushed out of our consciousness and we hasten to move on to more palatable fare.

What should success look like for those who are followers of Christ? I submit that to be successful we must be making a meaningful impact on the world in the name of Jesus. We don’t have to impact masses of people, but we should be impacting someone. Each one of us has the ability to demonstrate the love of God to another person. We have a fairly short list to help us determine if we are heading for success. Are we feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, caring for the orphans, the widows, the single mothers and people in need? Are we nursing the sick, clothing the naked and providing water for the thirsty? Are we so madly, passionately in love with God that we love Him with our entire being, and do we love others with that same love?

We have piled on so many unnecessary and worthless things onto what our definition of success should be. In truth, success for a follower of Jesus is so basic and so simple. We need to take a step back and strip away everything we are allowing to define what we believe success to be. We need to return to the simplicity of Jesus and His message. He didn’t deliver a complicated message or require a burdensome amount of action from us. When we are doing the work mentioned above, it often does not even feel like work at all. We are carrying out the mission of Jesus; we are being who we were created to be. There is no more peaceful place to be than resting in the comfort of God’s will.

How do you define success? Do you have the standard Western definition? Perhaps you even hold to the definition that someone in less fortunate parts of the world would subscribe to. Ultimately, you will never find success until you define it the way Jesus did. Until we fall deeply in love with Him and are carrying out His mission, we will never be successful. Success means living your life fully surrendered to Christ and sharing His love and mission with everyone you encounter. This is the only definition that matters; this is what it means to be successful.

Relentless Pursuit

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Are you satisfied with your progress as a follower of Jesus? Do you feel comfortable with where you are in your walk? I have to be honest, I am definitely not. I have learned so much in the past few years, and my life has definitely changed for the better. Without a doubt, I reflect Jesus much more clearly today than I did even a couple of years ago. Each day is an opportunity to learn a little more about Him and to affect new changes in my life so that I might look more like Him. But it’s not enough. I’m so far from where I want to be that it almost seems that I’ve made no progress at all.

I will not begin to be content until my entire life is consumed by Jesus and His love. Once consumed, I will be free to love others with the same immeasurable love that God has for me. Once consumed, I will live without fear and act boldly for Him every time, regardless of the cost. My words will no longer be used to tear someone down but rather will only be used to build up everyone around me. My thoughts will be pure and free from evil; envy, jealousy and rage will be foreign to my life. I will forgive as soon as I am offended. I will live only to serve others. I will shine brightly in all situations because the love of the Messiah will reflect off me with an intensity that is unmistakable. This is not the man I am today, but this is the man I aspire to be.

I recently read a quote by Leonard Ravenhill that said something to the effect that we don’t have Elijah’s in our world today because we have no one seeking God like Elijah did. Simply put, we don’t manifest the power of God because we have not fully surrendered our lives to Him. This surrender is not the emotional breakdown we might experience at a worship or prayer service, a concert or listening to a convicting sermon. This is not about a moment in time, no matter how special or amazing that moment may have been. No, total surrender is demonstrated in every breath we breathe and in every movement we make. Total surrender means there’s no more selfishness or self-interest. It means seeking God in prayer at all times, and consulting with Him in every concern. God is present; He’s with us at every moment. The love of Christ is shining all around us. We need simply allow Him to start removing the dirt and grime from our lives so that He might reflect brightly off of us and toward someone desperately in need of the unconditional love that only He can offer.

Living a life wholly devoted to Jesus is not easy. In fact, it is very hard. The rewards, however, are out of this world! I can’t be certain what rewards await us once our time on earth is done. That’s okay; I am at least as happy with the rewards of living for Him right here, and right now. The peace that overwhelms me when I reflect on Him and spend time in solitude just praying to Him is beyond compare. The strength and happiness I feel at the very thought of Jesus is something I would not trade for anything. The knowledge that I am doing the work He created me to do is a feeling that has no equal.

Are you satisfied with your walk? Are you consumed with Him to the very core of your soul? Do you desire Jesus more than anything else? Never stop striving to answer ‘yes’ to each of these questions. I’m not there yet, I sometimes fall. I struggle with the best and sometimes I outright fail. Failure is a fleeting moment, however, and I will not stay down. I will live my life for Jesus and Him alone. I will spend my days in relentless pursuit of the One who gave His life so that I might live. I will not quit, I will not tire; I will not rest until I burn with Holy fire. I am far from satisfied.

Nothing Else Matters

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Today it’s time to take a breather. We have talked a lot about being active for the Kingdom and how salvation is a combination of faith and works. We mustn’t be passive observers on the road of life, but rather active participants in all that comes our way. With all of that said, none of it will matter if we are not doing it for the right purpose and without the proper heart attitude.

Everything we do must be for the reason of making the Kingdom of God a reality here on earth. Jesus prayed that God’s will would be done on earth as it is in Heaven. This is a clear indication that we are not to simply wait around for Heaven, but rather that we should be bringing Heaven to earth. We should be working to provide the paradise experience to all people, right here and right now. Jesus prayed that it would be so and therefore established our mission. Everything we do must now contribute to that mission. This is what it means to follow Jesus. We act because he acted, we love because He loved, and we serve because He served. Jesus modeled ways in which we could begin to make heaven a reality here on earth. There is no injustice in Heaven; there is no hunger, nor sorrow, nor tears. To bring Heaven to earth, therefore, we must work for justice and to eliminate hunger, sorrow and tears. Most importantly we must do all of this because it is what Jesus told us to do.

Our only motive must be Jesus and our only mission must be that which He gave to us. Being a good person for the sake of living in harmony with others simply won’t cut it. While it may look great on the surface, the root of this kind of service is selfishness. Serving others so that you can live in peace finds you at the core instead of Jesus. Rather, when we serve, we must do it because it’s what Jesus would do; it’s what He said to do and it pleases Him. Jesus must be the reason. Jesus must be the motive. In this way, we live honestly and purely before Him. Our hearts are aligned with Him and He will bless what we set out to do.

Being a follower of Jesus means nothing if we are not pleasing Him. We please Him by doing the things He did, and doing them for His pleasure and in His name. It’s not enough to feed the hungry. We need to be broken at the very sight of those in need. We must see them as beautiful creations of God and be compelled to serve them because we love as Christ loved. It’s all about the attitude of our hearts. If our hearts are not broken by the things that break the heart of Jesus then we are living a lie; we are hypocrites. We cannot fully love Jesus until we love as He loves. We must devote the whole of our life to growing into His love and then reflecting that same love to the world around us. As the hands and feet of God, we must be fully aligned with His mission in order to best carry it out. We can’t fake it; if we aren’t doing it for Jesus, we may as well not do it at all.

So what’s your motivation? Are you seeking to live in harmony for harmony’s sake? Are you caring for others out of a heart that breaks for them or out of a sense of civic duty? Are you mindful of what others might think as you engage in activities of service? Forget everything else except for Jesus and His mission. Remember why He came, how He lived and what He has created you to do. Live a pure life wholly devoted to Him, a life that consults Him first and Him only. You can’t be a true follower of Jesus and have motives of anything other than Him. He demands it all, not just a part. Check your motives; beg for more of His love and to have your heart broken by the things that break His heart. Love and serve in the name of Jesus. He is the only way; He is all we need.

God with Us

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I just finished reading Greg Boyd’s latest book (“Present Perfect: Finding God in the Now“), and I cannot recommend it enough. The book deals with the spiritual discipline of “practicing the presence” of God. Essentially what this means is to keep God first and foremost in our thoughts at all times. I have read Brother Lawrence’s classic, “The Practice of the Presence of God”, and while I loved the concepts he spoke of, I was never able to personally apply them to my own life. Boyd’s work provides plenty of exercises to help you apply this discipline in your own life. I was slightly concerned that the exercises would be “hokey” or that I would feel silly engaging in them, but these fears proved to be unfounded. As I write this I am indeed learning to practice the presence of God in my own life.

Being consciously aware of God at all times is not easy, though the reasons why escape me. We devote our lives to Him, we forsake everything for Him, but we cannot keep our focus on Him? What are we missing, and how weak is our faith that we can’t regularly stay in His presence for an extended amount of time? It makes me sad to realize that had I been with Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. I too would have probably fallen asleep (Mark 14: 32-42). We have become self-absorbed and self-indulgent people. We give lip service to God, but turn immediately back to our own endeavors. We are distracted by the slightest interruption or diversion. It is frustrating to me how I can be absolutely devoted one minute and anything but the next.

Being mindful of God in every moment is both restricting and limiting. The restrictions, however, are both welcome and necessary. Being aware of God’s presence as you engage in conversation with someone else not only restricts the words you say, but also alters your attitude towards the one to whom you are speaking. Seeing that person as someone for whom Christ died, someone whom Jesus loves just as much as you, allows us to put aside our judgmentalism and see that person the way God sees them. People cease to be unwelcome distractions or uninvited interruptions; instead they become divine appointments. In case you were unaware, as representatives of God’s Kingdom, every encounter we have is, by definition, a divine appointment.

The choices we make and the thoughts we think are greatly impacted by being mindful of God’s presence. At last, I am truly learning how to take every thought captive. My initial, judgmental thoughts when seeing someone are immediately filtered as I bring to mind the fact the God is in our presence. When practicing the presence, being aware of God in your midst, you are able to stop a negative thought in midstream and redirect it to a God pleasing and affirming thought. Smiles come easier and stress becomes far less frequent or relevant. Temptations no longer seem so inviting. Imagining God in your midst (for indeed He is) makes it profoundly difficult to choose a sinful thought, word or deed. Once we become aware of God’s presence in our lives on a moment by moment basis, our thought patterns are radically altered. We no longer have the ability to slip into a sinful behavior; instead we must now purposefully choose the sinful path. Once we have slowed down the decision making process to a conscious choice, it becomes amazingly simple to reject sin and choose Christ. This is incredibly freeing and the true beauty of practicing the presence. Not only will our lives look more like Jesus, but we will be filled with the purity of walking in His light.

If you let it, this spiritual discipline will radically rock your life. You will find freedom from patterns and behaviors you had long given up on defeating. We have lost sight of the fact that one of the names given to Jesus was “Immanuel”, literally, “God with us”. By practicing the presence we are able to rediscover the truth that God is indeed with us in every moment of our lives. I encourage all of you to purchase a copy of this book. You can do so by clicking here or going to your favorite bookstore. Once you’ve read the book, I encourage you to come back and leave a comment about how it impacted you, and how you’re doing on “practicing the presence” in your own life. Remember God is with you no matter where you are, or what you’re doing. We need only be awakened to the reality of His presence.