Even If i Walk Alone

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

Archives for April 2012

God’s Will for Your Life

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blueprint,direction,decisions,God's plan

It seems so many Christians are desperately seeking to find God’s will for their lives. From my observations, perhaps no other question causes more stress in the life of a believer than this one. I’ve seen far too many Christians paralyzed over not being able to figure out the exact path God wants them to walk. Instead of doing something that would further the mission of Christ, they become frozen in the fear of doing anything outside of God’s perfect will for their lives. As one of my favorite authors, Greg Boyd, reveals in his upcoming book, “The Myth of the Blueprint”, Christians have allowed secular influences to color the way we understand the will of God. We’ve twisted the message of what God’s will is for the Church and narrowed it down into seeking what His will is for our individual lives. That’s not in the Bible; it’s only in our own selfish and short-sighted interpretation.

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Finding Peace within the Storm

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Calm, grace under pressure, peace through Jesus

In Mark 4:35-40 we read of Jesus calming a storm. If you grew up attending Sunday school you are probably familiar with the story. The disciples and Jesus got into a boat to cross a lake. They had been ministering all day and were looking to get away from the crowds for a little rest. In the middle of the night a fierce storm sprung up, with the wind and waves buffeting their boat. The disciples panicked and felt certain they would capsize and drown. Meanwhile Jesus was sleeping through the whole thing. In desperation the disciples woke Him and asked if He even cared they were going to die. At the climax of this story, Jesus simply got up and told the wind to stop and the waves to be still. Immediately all was calm. Crisis averted; Jesus saves the day. It was a common theme in the lives of the disciples.

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Can You Really Follow Jesus?

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Jesus,cross,crucify,crucifixion,Good Friday

I will make the assumption that if you are reading this blog you have a desire to follow Jesus. I wonder how many of us are willing to take that desire to the next level of actually pursuing Him, of walking in His footsteps. In the book of Matthew, the author records several stories of people who came to Jesus declaring their willingness to follow Him, yet turned back when Jesus revealed what the cost would be (Luke 9:57-62). Tomorrow we recognize the crucifixion of our Lord, so it seemed good to asses our willingness to follow in memory of His sacrifice for us.

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Converts vs. Disciples

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serious commitment, discipleship

When I was growing up, there were several movies around that I think were designed with the sole purpose of scaring the daylights out of young people. These weren’t creations of Wes Craven, Stephen King or any of the well-known masters of the horror movie genre. Rather, these were Christian filmmakers and organizations producing movies depicting the end times as they interpreted them from the book of Revelation. Films like “A Thief in the Night”, “A Distant Thunder” and “A Burning Hell” (apparently all Christian movies of this genre had to begin with the letter ‘A’). The scenes in these films ranged from creepy to utterly disgusting. The shock value, however, fulfilled the purpose of the producers to scare many young adults (and quite a few not so young adults) into repentance and surrendering their lives to Christ. I wonder what happened to all those who gave their lives to Jesus? If a large number of my generation truly committed their lives to Him, why have we seen so little progress in spreading the truth of Christ in the years that have followed?

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