Even If i Walk Alone

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

Archives for October 2016

Stress

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In the beginning, we were created for and lived in perfect peace and harmony with God. Then we gave it all away for a stupid grab for an inconceivable “more”, something better than community with God. It was of course something which did not exist because dwelling in the presence of our Creator is the greatest form of happiness, fulfillment, and joy we can ever know.

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Still, we reached for something else. We were deceived to believe there was more we could desire than God Himself. From this one horrible mistake, stress was born. From that moment, stress has become a favorite tool of Satan to continue to keep us from God.

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Obedience to God

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At its core, this blog is about discipleship. It’s about living your life wholly devoted to Christ so you can live out the life He created you to live. What this looks like in practice will vary from person to person, but the one thing all disciples have in common is obedience to God.  By definition, obedience to God implies you have to do something in order to be His disciple. This isn’t a works based salvation; it’s works because of salvation.

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As A.W. Tozer once said, “Salvation without obedience is a self-contradicting impossibility!” Many people have bought into the teaching of salvation through grace alone to the exclusion of any responsibility for works of obedience. That’s a cheap and easy salvation never put forth by Jesus.

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Doesn’t Matter

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I wrote a recent post about the upcoming Presidential election (see “Trump or Hillary?”), and I don’t want to belabor the point. Or maybe I do. The fact is Christianity is on the decline in America because people who call themselves Christians have misplaced their focus and lost their direction along the way. The upcoming election doesn’t matter. Your 401(k) balance doesn’t matter.

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The size of your house or the price of your car doesn’t matter. Your kid’s athletic participation doesn’t matter. Even the size of your church or your level of activity in it doesn’t matter. The only thing that matters is Jesus and you living a life He would find worthy of one of His disciples.

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Honor Belongs to God

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John 5:44 reads “How can you believe? While accepting glory from one another, you don’t seek the glory that comes from the only God.” Commenting on this verse, A.W. Tozer said, “If I understand this correctly, Christ taught here the alarming doctrine that the desire for honor among men made belief impossible.” Certainly there are a few ways one could read this verse, but Tozer presents an interpretation which is at best sobering and at worst terrifying.

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We spend much of our lives seeking and accepting honor from others. In our Western culture, life is all about moving up and getting ahead. Even a casual look at our Facebook and Instagram feeds proves people are consumed with presenting their best and brightest moments while seeking validation from others.

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Trump or Hillary?

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The Presidential election in the United States is winding down to its final couple of weeks. It’s difficult to look at a newspaper or a website without being bombarded with headlines of “Trump or Hillary”. Certainly I have friends and family with strong opinions on both sides of the question. I have my own preference and sometimes even a feeling of dread if the contest should swing one way rather than the other.

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I was praying about this and came away with a renewed and refreshed outlook on the election results. At the end of the day, the Trump or Hillary question shouldn’t matter at all to disciples of Jesus. Our allegiance is to Jesus and His Kingdom, not to any flag or Country.

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