Even If i Walk Alone

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

Daily Life

Irrelevance

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There is mounting evidence that the modern church in the Western world has lost its relevance. Rapid declines in church attendance in England coupled with college aged students in America leaving the church in droves should be a clear and obvious signal that something is desperately wrong. It is late in the battle and we have done little to stem the tide. We must act swiftly, and in strength, in order to build again the church God desires.

We have lost our way because we have lost our mission. Rather, we have created a new mission, one that is not that which we were called to carry out. We have become consumed with evangelism at the cost of mercy. We have delivered a truth that is devoid of love. In our era of prosperity and mega-churches we have allowed poverty and homelessness to proliferate. We have stood by and watched genocide occur in Africa. It has been on our watch that single parent households have become an accepted norm. The prevalence of AIDS creates millions of new orphans every year. We have become irrelevant because of our silence. When the world needed us most, we were nowhere to be found. When the world needed our hands, they were too busy building larger worship centers for our own people. When the world needed our feet we were too busy running to the latest committee meeting for our congregation.

The modern church has blood on its hands because we refused to act. The screams of murdered children, enslaved teens and hungry parents ring out in accusation against us. We turned our focus inward and forgot those outside the walls of the buildings we built to cater to our comfort. The world at large starves while we indulge in every comfort know to man. There is more bread in our communion plate each week than millions of people will see in a month. We have been blessed beyond belief and we have squandered that blessing.

It’s time to return to “square go”. We must start over and build anew the church that God calls us to be. We need to strip away all that we believe about our responsibilities as Christians and return with vigor to searching the Scriptures in order to reclaim our mission. Let us return to the basics and begin at once to affect change on our world in the name of Jesus. We have food, so we must feed the hungry; we have clothing, so we must clothe the naked; we have homes, so we must shelter the homeless. Silence must no longer be our credo, but rather we must stand up boldly and call out injustice wherever it is found. In anguish we must fall to our knees and repent of our apathy. There is no one else to blame. We are the church, and we have fallen short of our mission and our calling.

These are harsh words and I don’t say them lightly, as I bear the burden of conviction along with each and every one of you who claim to follow Jesus. God forgive us for our blindness, for our lack of action and for our unwillingness to be the body of Christ to a hungry world. It’s not too late, there is hope; but we must begin today, we can no longer delay. Forget what you’ve been taught and everything you know. Return to God’s Word and seek what He would have you to see. Discover what He would have you do to alleviate the pain in this world. Seek Him passionately and allow Him to speak into your life a fresh calling. Feed the hungry and shelter the homeless. Care for the widows, the single moms, and the orphans. Be the hands and feet of Jesus. Reclaim the mission to which you were called. Don’t be content with irrelevance. Repent and boldly reclaim our relevance in a world that needs the Church perhaps now more than ever. Let’s start again and let us boldly live our calling.

The River

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Rivers can be beautiful things. They can be peaceful and calmly flowing or they can rage in a terrifying and uncontrollable manner. The Spirit of God is often compared with water; if the Spirit is within you, flooding you with a river of God’s grace, what type of river are you showing the world? I believe we must master elements of both the peaceful and rushing waters so that we can most appropriately pour the Spirit of God into the lives of others. We must be sensitive to the needs around us, and securely plugged into the overflowing and living water of Jesus to effectively minister to those in need.

When people encounter us they should feel a sense of peace, much like they would when sitting on the banks of a gently flowing river on a cool day. There should be a serenity about us that is immediately transferrable to those who are near. As followers of Jesus, we know exactly who we are and are intimately familiar with our mission. We don’t need to be concerned with finding our purpose in life, because we already know it. We don’t have to be concerned with the direction our life will flow, because we already know that as well. Armed with that knowledge, we can be confident in any situation. Confidence is calming not only for ourselves but for those around us as well. In addition to confidence, we should exude a sense of peace. We follow the One who is called the Prince of Peace; as a result, we should have a great internal peace that we can share with others.

Our love for others must also flow much like a raging river. Love should rush uncontrollably from us into everyone with whom we have contact. No one should be able to stand next to us without being swept away by love. I imagine this is what it was like to stand next to Jesus. When people meet us, they should sense something different and be overwhelmed by our genuine love for them. I know this may sound strange at first. How does one show love to a total stranger? It’s easier than you might think. Picture that person as if Jesus was standing right next to them. Treat them as if you have no other place to be and that you have all the time in the world to talk to them. Genuinely listen to everything they have to say. Don’t simply hear them, really listen and respond in a way that lets them know you understand what they are saying.

Much like a river, we have the capacity to flow both gently and to rage uncontrollably. Both of these aspects of a river, and of the Spirit, should reside within us; they are the hallmarks of a Christian. There will be times when the love of God so overwhelms us that we cannot help but burst with the energy of a rushing river. At other times we may be so consumed with peace that we are as tranquil as a babbling brook. We are responsible to transfer both of these states to those among us who are in need. Some will need to have the love of Jesus violently wash over them, cleansing them, and renewing them; let the Spirit rush out of you and into their lives. Others though can bear no more and simply need God’s peace to soothe them; gently breathe the Spirit within you into their lives.

Do you have the capacity to rage uncontrollably with the love of God, while at other times to gently speak peace into the life of another? The Spirit of God provides us with the power of both peace and force. We must learn how to use His power and to discern the proper usage given the situation we are in. With work and practice, we can learn to fully utilize the power He has entrusted to us. As the old song says, it’s great to have “peace like a river”; just don’t forget to also cut loose and rage like a roaring, turbulent river. To be most effective, we must master the dichotomy of a forceful peace. This is the essence of God; He is an unrelenting, ever flowing, river of love.

Potential Lost

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Each of us has been given a unique combination of gifts with which to further the Kingdom of God. Some gifts are more readily apparent and some are more subtle, but each of us has indeed been given gifts from God (Ephesians 4:7, 8; 11-13). We have been entrusted with all we need to make the kingdom of God a reality here on earth. Indeed, it is our calling as followers of Jesus. Our gifts work best and most effectively when combined with the gifts of others. We were created for relationships and for community. The gifts of one are multiplied exponentially when combined with the gifts of another.

Much like we are to be good stewards of the money God has entrusted us to manage, so too we must be good stewards of the gifts He has given to each of us. Your gifts can be used for good, used for evil, or perhaps most tragically, not used at all. If one has been blessed with a high level of charisma, they can obviously use that gift to influence others for Christ, or they can selfishly choose to use their gift to further their own agenda. I believe there is a special thrill in Hell when Satan convinces a follower of Jesus to use God’s gifts to further their own personal goals. We will have to give an account of how we used the talents God entrusted to us. Just like our time, our money or our words, we alone are responsible for their usage.

Like an accomplished musician, to make full use of our gifts, we must practice and hone their usage. Having a gift is not a pass to allow you to be lazy and never have to work at using that gift. Lack of use will cause a gift to atrophy. We are responsible not only for using our gifts for good, but also for discovering how we might best use our talent, and do so in a way that is unique to us. No two people will manifest a gift in the exact same way. Just as each soul is unique, so is the expression of each gift given by God. We alone can use our talent the way we do. We alone can fill our place within the grand movement of time within God’s plan for our world. It is an awesome and frightening responsibility. Our only chance of success is to give ourselves wholly to God and to be constantly practicing the use of our gifts.

Whether or not we will be able to make full use of our gifts depends on us having a heart purely devoted to God. Only when our hearts are totally given to Him can His power course unimpeded through our souls. Only when we are totally surrendered to Him will we be able to observe the glory of God expressed through the gifts He has entrusted to us. We often remark how sad it is when someone’s life is unexpectedly cut short. Perhaps sadder still is all of the unused potential that dies with that person. We have no idea how long we have left on this earth. Life could end at any moment for any one of us. I don’t want to die with unused potential inside of me. It is our job to work diligently to fully utilize all that God has entrusted to us for as long we are able.

How are you using your gifts? Are you more interested in fulfilling your own needs or the needs of those around you? Are you regularly exercising your gifts or do you simply make use of them when convenient? Finally, are you doing all you can to express every last ounce of usefulness out of your talents? Are you doing your part to advance God’s kingdom here on earth? You have been entrusted with great power and great responsibility; don’t waste it! When your time is done, don’t be caught with potential still inside of you. Burn brightly for Jesus in every way; use what God has given you, use it well, and most importantly, use it up. Don’t leave this world with a hole in the kingdom because of your lost potential.

Throw the First Stone

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Why do we as Christians have such an unhealthy reputation to the world outside of our church walls? It has long bothered me that Christians claim to love others and seek to fill the needs of their community, yet we are distrusted, dismissed and even despised. Something has gone terribly wrong; there is a disconnect somewhere of colossal proportions. How did it come to this, and what can we do to correct the situation?

In John 8 (verses 3-11) we find the familiar story of Jesus saving the life of a woman caught in adultery. The religious people of the day had seized the woman, and dragged her into the place where Jesus was teaching. Beyond this obvious humiliation, these same religious folks were preparing to put the woman to death by stoning her. As they stood there, perhaps with rocks in hand, Jesus calmly knelt beside the woman. He then said some of the most powerful words in all of Scripture: “Let the one with no sin throw the first stone.” When faced with their sinfulness, the people dropped their stones and went away.

Before Jesus changed the dynamics of the scene, the crowd of people was refusing to admit their own sinfulness. Instead of showing grace and forgiveness to the woman, they stood in judgment over her. We tend to do this often because it makes us feel better about our own failures. It’s far easier to condemn someone else than to confront your own weaknesses. I think the modern church still suffers from this affliction. We are so intent on judging others that we overlook our own sins. We refuse to admit that we too have issues and that we too deserve death. We don’t want to appear as anything less than “perfect Christians”; in the process we demonstrate our hypocrisy. This is what the world finds so unappealing about us. We need to show ourselves as broken people, a work in process. Instead of judging the sins of others, we should be pointing out our own failures. When the church at large begins getting real and walking in genuineness, I believe the world will respond. As long as we refuse to admit our own shortcomings and are content to target and judge the sins of others, we will continue to drive a wedge between us and those who so desperately need to hear the message of Jesus.

The life of Jesus was all about serving others. There’s little glory in service and it generally requires us to humble ourselves to do things that we consider to be beneath us. It’s far more appealing to stand in judgment over someone rather than to serve under someone in support of their life. Yet this was the mission of Christ. He did not come to condemn the world, but rather to redeem it (John 3:17). If we would follow Him, this must be our mission as well.

To change how we are seen by the world, we must change how we interact with our world. We must return to doing the work of the mission of Jesus Christ. It’s time to drop our shields, remove our masks, and admit that we need the grace of Jesus every bit as much as everyone else. We must genuinely love and empathize with others. Judgment must be left to God; this is not our calling. Instead of condemning the sins of others, let’s learn how we might serve them in such a way that they can rise above their destructive behaviors. In turn, we just might learn how to rise above our own failings. When each of us begins to love with openness and honesty, when we stop condemning and start serving others, then the world will take notice and their attitude toward the message of Jesus will turn from repulsion to curiosity. People don’t need contempt and judgment; they need healing and forgiveness. This is the mission of Jesus. This is the message of all who would follow Him.

Gratitude

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Following Jesus is hard. The way of Christ demands courage, perseverance, patience and integrity. It is both exhausting and exhilarating. We are not guaranteed peace, material wealth, food or shelter. We can wind up in difficult circumstances and still the call remains the same. We are to follow Him unwaveringly while continuing to love and serve others regardless of our own situation. The burden of life can become overbearing if we try and shoulder it ourselves. We are promised to never receive more than we can carry, but think how much more we could manage if we put the burden on Jesus himself! How does one maintain a positive and loving mental attitude though the trials of life? The answer can be summed up simply in one word: gratitude.

It’s virtually impossible to be negative in the midst of being grateful. To say each day is a gift may sound a bit cliché, but it remains true. Some days everything just seems to go right, everything comes up roses and you fall asleep just grateful to be alive. Others days, well, not so much. Perhaps though, the purpose of that day is to be a gift for someone else. Perhaps in your despair you have the opportunity to touch the life of another. Then, just maybe, because of your act of love they too will be thankful just to be alive. So each day is a gift; it’s either a gift you give or one you receive.

Before bed each night, or upon waking, run through your gratitude list. To help you get started, here are a few suggestions I’ve picked up over the years:

Possessions – Grab a notebook and pen and start walking around the place you live making a list of all your possessions. Make sure you have plenty of paper, as this is always a long and humbling experience. What I find generally happens is that I quit after filling a couple of pages. You become overwhelmed and perhaps even a little ashamed by the sheer quantity of all we possess. We may at times feel like we don’t have enough or at least not as much as our friends and neighbors, but the truth is if you are reading this blog, there is a very good chance that you are incredibly blessed. Look again at the “Global Rich List” web site to determine your level of wealth in the world. Don’t compare yourself to those who you perceive to be wealthy by the world’s standards; compare yourself with those who are wealthy by God’s standards. If you are still not convinced, try volunteering at a homeless shelter or local soup kitchen. We are immeasurably blessed and should wake grateful of this fact each day.

Health – All over the world, hundreds of men, women and children die every second from preventable diseases. Malnutrition and dirty water wreak havoc on the bodies of millions resulting in the inability to work and permanent damage to the basic functions of their minds and their bodies. The ravages of war strip away the dreams of youth as injuries change the lives of the afflicted soldiers forever. Meanwhile our biggest health concern is the choice between the smaller or larger piece of cake. If you are breathing clean air, drinking clean water, and have food in your cupboards, your health exceeds that of nearly half of the world’s population. We all have our aches and our pains, but these are petty annoyances when compared to the plight of poverty stricken nations. Check out the work being done by ministries such as World Vision and Persecution Project. Learn about the needs of the least, the lost and the last. Flex your muscles, breathe deeply and enjoy a glass of water in gratefulness for your blessings of health.

Relationships – Nearly all of us have someone in our lives for whom we can be grateful. Whether it’s a friend, spouse, child or family member, most of us have the privilege of caring for or being cared for by another person. Even for those who truly are alone in this world, if you have a relationship with Jesus, you are truly never alone (if you do not have a relationship with Jesus, or are confused about what that means, please see “What does it mean to be a Christian?” or email me to discuss it). Millions of people around the world have absolutely no one with whom they share a relationship. Young children orphaned by the scourge of AIDS find themselves with no parents, no family, and no hope. They need someone to come along side of them; they desperately need Jesus in their lives. When you feel lonely, when you have been badly burned in a relationship, when you’re at your worst, would you trade places with these children? Of course not, because you still enjoy and experience the love of other relationships. Humbly thank God for the blessings of others and more importantly of Himself, in your life.

We have much for which to be grateful. It is easy to get caught up in our selfishness and self pity. Make a regular habit of noticing all the blessings in your life. Adopt an attitude of gratitude and you will find it virtually impossible to be depressed. After recognizing all of your blessings, consider passing them along. Help those in need and bring hope to those in despair. Thank God for His love, mercy and blessings. Be humble and live in a manner that reflects your gratitude.