Even If i Walk Alone

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

Daily Life

Lessons From the Temptation of Christ

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I am endeavoring to chronologically work my way through the Gospels, reimagining each of the familiar stories through the use of imaginative prayer. If you are unfamiliar with imaginative prayer, I highly recommend reading Greg Boyd’s excellent “Seeing Is Believing: Experience Jesus through Imaginative Prayer” and check out his ‘Animate’ sermon series on the topic as well. Today I am considering the temptation of Christ found in Mark 1:12-13, Matthew 4:1-11 and Luke 4:1-13.

The fasting of Jesus in the wilderness for forty days is a testament to what a person can withstand when their entire focus is on God. It is hard for most of us to imagine going without food for a few hours, much less forty days! I think the key here is that Jesus was so enraptured with being in the presence of God that He truly needed nothing else. We are spiritual beings at our core, and the story would seem to point to the fact that proper spiritual nourishment trumps the physical. When Satan tempted Jesus to turn the stone into bread, Jesus replied that “Man does not live by bread alone”. His fast was on God’s schedule, and He wasn’t going to break it even though He easily could. Satan was obviously not trying to help Jesus, but rather sought to have Jesus take nourishment from the things of this world rather than from God; Satan tried to get Jesus to focus on the temporal, physical side of things rather than the spiritual and eternal. The lesson is that we should always be in diligent conversation with our Heavenly Father, while at the same time realizing our communion with God is infinitely more important than our physical comfort and pleasure. In refusing Satan’s attempts to get him to focus on His own physical needs, Jesus demonstrated a total reliance on the Father.

The second thing Satan tried to tempt Jesus with was power and a desire to have great wealth as the ruler of all of the earthly kingdoms – if only He would bow to Satan. Jesus responded by telling Satan to “Worship the Lord your God and serve Him only”. No power or achievement in our life will ever be worth turning away from Christ. It is far better we be poor and powerless, yet serving God, than to have our fill of this world’s “success”. We need to remove any idols we have in our lives that would keep us from worshipping God alone. Idols can come in many forms: tangible possessions, social status or personal desires. Anything that we value more than God, even for the slightest moment, is an idol. In refusing to worship Satan in exchange for earthly power and wealth, Jesus demonstrated total devotion to the Father.

The final test of Jesus occurred when Satan tried to get Him to step off the highest point of the temple, to test whether Jesus really had faith in God to protect Him. Jesus replied, “Do not test the Lord your God”. We see a couple of principles in play here. First, God blessed us all with the ability to think through the various situations in our life. We need to constantly pray for wisdom, and also seek the counsel of trusted men and women. Acting with wisdom, we can trust that God will walk with us. We can’t simply act foolishly, without thought, and expect God to bail us out. Secondly, avoid sinning simply because you have faith that you will be forgiven. I believe this is also testing God. If we truly love Him, we will want to turn away from sin, not see how much we can get away with. By refusing to “prove” His faith to Satan, Jesus demonstrated a confident faith in the Father; He knew God would always walk with Him through the turbulent times to come.

Career Crisis for Christ?

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I’ve been pretty frustrated with my J.O.B. (it seems like such a dirty word that I feel the need for additional emphasis) for quite some time now. I have a great job that pays well, and hey, let’s face it, in this economy it’s wonderful to still be employed. But there is something vaguely immoral about giving the most productive ten hours of my day to a corporation that does absolutely nothing to further the message of Jesus Christ to our world. As Christians, we have one mission in life: to be the love of Christ to all those around us that they might come to know Him.

I have long heard the pat answers of “just serving God wherever you are” and “perhaps God put you in that J.O.B. for a specific purpose, to witness to those around you”. Well, okay, but isn’t that the exact purpose that God has given to the life of every Christian? No matter where we are we are to be demonstrating and reflecting the love of God to all those around us. It is a lifelong, continuous mission, one that is independent of where we live or where we work. It seems to me more likely that these pat answers come from our Western Christianity growing far too comfortable with the Western ideology for far too long. We now see a J.O.B. as our Christian responsibility, as a sign of how God is blessing us. This is an utterly foreign concept of what I read in the Bible. The followers of Christ worked as they needed to support themselves as they went about telling others about Christ and demonstrating His love. There was no concept of a comfortable career, a nice nest egg for retirement, no concentration on how nicely they could furnish their homes or if they were driving the latest eco-conscious chariot!

I do not mean to imply that Christians should shirk all responsibility and that all jobs are evil. I do intend to point out that most of us, self included, spend the vast majority of our time doing things that have little or no Kingdom value. Each of us was created with a unique combination of gifts and passions, but how many of us are fully utilizing those same gifts? How many of us are fully engaged in our passions? We have become a fat and lazy people, consumed with what society tells us we need to do and have. I for one am rethinking the whole deal; what impact might I have on the world for Christ if I was fully engaged in something I was passionate about, fully utilizing the gifts God has imparted to me and giving the most productive hours of each day to such an endeavor? How might my life be different? How might yours? More importantly, think of the Kingdom impact we would have on our neighborhoods and our world.

Father, I know the path you have placed before me. I thank you for the passions and gifts you have placed within me. May I set aside the things of this world and focus solely on Your kingdom and on loving those around me. Strengthen me for the road ahead. Thank You for Your love and for this life You have given me; may I use it all for Thee.

Are we giving our all?

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There’s nothing like meeting a new group of people to spark the flames of thought, and I have had the pleasure of meeting an amazingly interesting group of truth seekers over at the Bridge. A thank you to everyone over there for jumpstarting my fingers to start blogging again.

One of the interesting discussions over there concerned an individual having problems with truly feeling like they were “giving their all” to follow Christ. After reading through that discussion, I read a quote from A.W. Tozer today that dealt with our “Isaac” moments. These are our moments of testing. The time will come when it is only us and God… and the test before us. There will not be a handful of choices as to what to do. Rather, there will only be two choices – God or not God. It is in these “Isaac” moments we discover much about ourselves. We discover whether or not we are indeed willing to “give our all” to follow Him; we discover where our heart truly lies. As Christians, as true believers, our choice in the deepest reaches of our soul must be to choose God… always. We will fall and we will fail. Fortunately, the grace of God is never-ending and we will be forgiven. With that forgiveness though, do we ache with repentance? I believe someone who has chosen to follow Christ should absolutely be horrified at each failure. Personally, I get angry and fell like punching the nearest wall. I’m so distraught that I would choose anything over Jesus Christ, and it will often take quite some time to calm down (please hold the calls for counseling!). The point is God sees our hearts he knows our deepest intentions.

I believe as Christians must come to the point when we are indeed able to say we are desperately trying to “give our all” to follow Christ. It was for this we were created. It is what Christ commanded us to do. He told his followers that they would have to leave everything behind for Him. This isn’t a onetime event. As we come upon our Isaac moments each day, we must be willing to leave everything behind to follow Him. There is really no other choice for those who love Him. Can we honestly say that today we have given our all for Him? Have we chosen Him in our Isaac moments? If not, why not? It’s time to dust ourselves off and determine now to leave it all behind and choose Him in every aspect of our lives, every choice that comes our way. We must indeed be desperate for the One who loves us beyond measure. He asks nothing more and nothing less.

Father I am desperate for you; forgive me when that desperation fades and renew the urgency of surrender in my heart.

Endless Love

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By obedience to the truth, having purified yourselves for sincere love of the brothers, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again —not of perishable seed but of imperishable—through the living and enduring word of God. – I Peter 1:22, 23 (HCSB)

I have often thought of the”imperishable seed” as speaking only of our eternal life with Christ. Taking a fresh look at the passage above, it appears there is more to it than this. Peter says that we are to love each other from a pure heart, born of an imperishable seed. There seems to be an implication that we are to love each other with the same eternal love that Christ loves us. Few would doubt that Christ’s love for us is eternal, without measure or end. Having His seed in us means that we also should love without measure or end. It is easy to “love for a little while”, but then to stop when the object of the love continues to be unresponsive to that love. But just as we are to forgive someone seventy times seven times (Matthew 18:21-23), I believe we are to love them seventy times seven times as well. Ironically it was Peter who asked the question about how many times we should forgive someone; now he writes about how we should love one another. Perhaps his conversation with Jesus was on his mind. Regardless, the principle is clear: we are to love everyone without motive and beyond measure.

It is admittedly much easier to love those to whom we are closest; it is much harder to love our enemies. Harder still, it seems, is to show this patient, unconditional love to complete strangers. Yet we are commanded to show this love to the homeless, the hungry, the addicts, the poor, the murderers. For Christians, demonstrating this kind of love is not optional. If we belong to Christ, this love is the seed within our very soul. It isn’t that we should love in this manner, it is that we must. Let us approach each day with eyes wide open to the needs of everyone around us, and let us fill those needs with the love of Christ.

A Heart of Love

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I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will place My Spirit within you and cause you to follow My statutes and carefully observe My ordinances. – Ezekiel 6:26, 27 (HCSB)

If we are truly followers of Christ, there will be evidence of a change in the way we live. God tells us that He will give us hearts that love. No longer will we be able to coldly look at the poor and homeless around us; we will have a heart that breaks for the injustice around us. We have a new heart, one full of compassion and mercy.

In the same way, God has given a new Spirit to guide us. Above all we will desire to follow all that Christ has told us to do. Again, what He has told us to do is to feed the hungry, care for those in need and free those who are oppressed in any way. Our implementation of these desires is often lacking but the point is that, above all, these are our desires.

God instills this new heart in all of His people. Having this new heart does not instantly transform us into perfectly loving people; as God has made us creatures of free will, it is still up to us to utilize the gift He has given us. For those of us who find it difficult at times to show love to others, we should be greatly encouraged to realize that love is our new nature. God has embedded His love into our core. If we truly love Him, if we truly seek to serve and live for Him, we will relentlessly strive to unleash that love onto the world around us.