Even If i Walk Alone

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

For the Love of God, Give! Part I

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As we embark on this new year , what plans have you put in place to live a life that more clearly resembles Jesus, a life that is devoted to service to others? If you desire to follow Jesus more authentically this year but aren’t quite sure what that looks like, may I suggest that you start with reading Matthew 25:31-40. Here Jesus lays out in plain language what it looks like to serve Him. If we do the things he tells us to do out of love for Him, our lives cannot help but be transformed more and more into His image.

We are commanded to feed the hungry (Matthew 25:35). Almost every area of our country has a food bank that is utilized to provide food to those who cannot afford it, and giving a gift there can help feed a family. Serving meals at a shelter will bring you face to face with hurting people who are in desperate need of not only food, but also love. Sharing a warm bowl of soup with an even warmer smile can do wonders for someone in need. I know people who make up sandwiches at home and take them downtown to distribute among the homeless. These are just a few of the ways you can feed the hungry right in your city. There are many ministries around the world that provide food for children and adults who are on the verge of starvation. Consider volunteering to work with one of these ministries or supporting them financially. In all these ways we can give the hungry something to eat.

Clean water is something you and I probably take for granted. We think nothing of going to the sink and pouring a glass of water or firing up a hot shower in the morning. Yet nearly one billion people in the world today (that’s 1 out of every 8 people) live without access to clean drinking water. This leads to all sorts of illnesses and fatal, yet totally preventable, diseases. We have the technology and the resources to make sure that every man, woman, and child can have clean water whenever they need it. This planet teems with life-giving water, and it is inexcusable that many have no means of obtaining it. Locally, you can take bottled water to the homeless or help pay the water bill of someone who is poor. Globally you can again volunteer or give to a number of organizations that are working to bring clean drinking water to the nations. Don’t turn away from such a desperate situation that has such an achievable solution. Make it a priority this year to give water to the thirsty.

You don’t have to look far to see the problem of homelessness. In the downtown areas of most cities you will find a community of people that have no place to call their own. More and more we are seeing people standing on the street corners of even the affluent parts of town in search of a helping hand. Broken homes result in children living on the street, tired of the drama in their homes. Single mothers find themselves without the ability to both provide childcare and hold a steady job, and soon find themselves without a place to stay. If the Church will not take in these hurting individuals, then who will? As our homes and places of worship expand, it seems we have less and less room to accommodate and care for the needs of a stranger. I think this is one of the greatest tragedies of our generation. We love to build buildings but have no room to share. Jesus said that if we love Him, we will take in those who are homeless.

In the next post we’ll wrap up our quick journey through Matthew 25:31-40, and look at some additional ways we can begin modeling our lives to look like Jesus. We have been blessed with many resources, and it is our duty as trusted stewards to give of ourselves to that which Christ has called us, or to give so as to enable others to carry out the mission. Ideally we will give of both our time and money. If you are looking for ministries that faithfully carry out the commands we’ve talked about today, check out World Vision, Persecution Project and your local homeless shelters. Give of your time, give of your money, give of yourself. For the love of God, give!

Shaken

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In “The Perils of Ayden”, Erwin McManus wrote, “Do not stand in the center if you do not wish to be shaken. There is always danger when the movement comes.” If you’re like me, these words evoke excitement and rush of adrenalin. What follower of Christ doesn’t want to be shaken by the mighty hand of God? To be shaken is to be touched, and to be touched is to be overwhelmed by love. The love of God is beyond all we could ever imagine; it is passionate and it is fierce. Herein lies the danger; once you have been touched by God you will not, you cannot, ever be the same. You can go so far as to walk away from Him entirely, but you will never forget the feeling of that love and inwardly will always long to experience it again.

Being shaken by God brings an entirely new perspective to your life. The things that once held great importance to you no longer matter at all. The things you could once ignore now break your heart. If God shakes you, you will be changed. There is danger in pursuing His love because it will lead you to places you have never known and through experiences you could not imagine. There is danger in not pursuing Him because He has called you to follow Him; to refuse is to stand against the Holy Creator of the universe. Once God has shaken you, there is danger no matter which way you go. If you follow Him, He will be there to guide and comfort you through the storms that assail your life. If one must be in peril, it is far better to be there with Jesus than alone.

God longs to shake you; He desires to envelop you in His arms and fill you with His love and spirit. He needs radical followers who will go into the entire world telling others about Him. He needs fanatical lovers who will touch the sick and feed the hungry. He needs you and me. I want to be shaken by God; I want to be in the center of what He is doing in this world. Standing on the sidelines or cowering in the back is no way to serve the Lord. I want to be in the front row with a bird’s eye view of all that He is accomplishing. Watching a smile cross the face of a bitter man or wrapping your arm around a broken woman; this is the stuff of life. Coming along side of someone in need, just as Jesus did for us, is a high call and it is the command of Christ. You can’t carry on His mission from the seat of a spectator. You have to get in the game, and if you become involved, you will be shaken!

If you have ever been in an earthquake, you have experienced a shaking from outside yourself. You have felt the ground tremble and experienced the disorientation this can cause. When God shakes you, He shakes you from the inside out. You will not be able to pinpoint the source of the shaking; you will just know it is happening. Instead of becoming disoriented, you may become euphoric. The love of God is awesome and it is majestic. To feel the shake and warmth of His touch is momentarily debilitating but permanently motivating. How can one keep silent once they have felt the touch of God; how can they not share His love with anyone who will listen?

Ask the Lord to shake you and you will be changed. Ask Him to plant you in the center of His mission and attack it with a vengeance. Only when we are surrounded by His love and carrying out His commands will we find peace; and in the midst of that peace we will be shaken. How incredible to experience God from the inside out. We have long been taught to ask Him into our heart, but once there we expect Him to be quiet and bring us rest. To the contrary, if we are true followers of Christ, He will begin shaking the house as soon as He arrives and will continue to do so as long as we pursue Him. I want to shake the world with the love of Jesus because He first shook me. Have you been shaken by the love of Jesus? I’d love to hear your story and encourage you to share it with others by commenting below. Jesus did not come to quietly express His love for the world. He came to violently shake the nations with His message of peace and hope. We are to carry on that mission. Filled with His love, let us move out to touch the weak, the lost and the weary. Let’s shake this world together.

Enough

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When is enough, well, enough? In a society that bombards us with messages telling us we need more and more, where do we draw the line? As followers of Christ, what is the appropriate amount of “stuff” we should own? Some people teach that the blessings of God results in material wealth and the more things we possess, the more we are blessed. At the other end of the spectrum are those who teach that Christians should not own anything but rather live life in a state not far from destituteness; the more we suffer, the more we are blessed. As I have found with most things, the truth more than likely falls somewhere in between these two extremes.

I confess to leaning a little closer to the side of those who say to refrain from owning anything in this world. To be certain, we cannot be possessed by that which we do not possess. It is far too easy to succumb to the trap of finding our identity in what we own or earn. In the Western world in particular, we are judged by our occupation or the size of our home or what model of car we drive. As we strive to achieve acceptance among those around us, we tend to buy more and thus be known for what we purchase. It would be better to own nothing and be identified by what we believed instead of what we owned. Better still, live simply and let your life define you. Jesus didn’t command everyone to sell all they had, but he did make it clear that it was at least an option. When we are consumed by our stuff that is when it is time to sell it all.

I am generally repulsed by the teaching of the so-called “prosperity gospel” which is the other of the two extremes. I have always wondered how people in very poor countries felt when they see satellite broadcasts if preachers telling them that if they aren’t wealthy then they have too much sin in their lives; if they were truly following God they would be leading a lavish lifestyle. I find no basis in Scripture for this teaching, and in fact find Jesus teaching a message that is exactly the opposite. Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor”. He commanded a rich young man to sell all of his possessions. When Christ called the twelve disciples to follow Him, He required that they leave everything behind. The Bible does not teach a gospel of prosperity but rather of earthly poverty that will be exchanged for heavenly glory. Don’t get caught in the trap of the “health and wealth” preachers. I’m not certain of their motivation, but I am certain of the devastation of their false doctrine.

As I have said before, I have no corner on the truth but I will share what I believe is the proper balance in answer to the question of, “How much is enough?” I believe if we will live humbly before God and seek to live a life that is patterned after His that we will be able to discern what the right amount of “stuff” is for us to own on this planet. We are called to care for the needs of those in poverty, to feed the hungry and give water to the thirsty. If we will make these things the top priority for the money with which we are entrusted, I think the rest will take care of itself. We should live a simple lifestyle so that we can free up as many resources as possible to devote caring for those around us. As God blesses us with more and more, it is our duty as His servants to take that money and use it in His service, for His glory. We should always think of the needs of another before our own. I see no issue with taking care of our needs; it’s when we cross from “need” to “want” that we must be on guard as to how we spend the money we have been given.

Seeking first the Kingdom of God should be enough to settle the money issue. Everything we have has been entrusted to us by God so that we might use it to further His mission. When we utilize our resources to serve others, to demonstrate kindness and mercy, we do what we have been commanded to do. As you look around your residence and consider the material things you own, examine whether you are taking your identity from any of it. If so, it’s time to get rid of those items. If you determine that you have far too many extra items in your possession, consider giving away those things to someone who does not have what you do. How many clothes, dishes or televisions does one person really need? Go through your house a room at a time praying over your belongings and asking God what He would have you do with them. Ask Him to show you much is truly enough. Hold loosely to anything that is of this world, and cling to that which is eternal. Live simply and donate all you can to the hurting in our world. Don’t grieve over what you give away; only Christ can truly bring you joy. Every possession we lose in this world gains us another piece of Heaven to hold in our hands. Repent of holding tightly to that which you can never keep. Rejoice in gaining what you can never lose.

Glorifying God

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Our purpose in life is to glorify God. This is not a part-time purpose or one we fulfill once and move on to the next task. Glorifying God is our life-long pursuit and the way in which we will fulfill the mission He has given us. The thought of constantly glorifying God is daunting at best; is it even possible to live one’s life in this manner? I know that it is; I am confident because I have had moments in my life where I have achieved the goal of glorifying Him. It may have only been for a moment, but here’s what I know: if you can do something for a few moments, you can do it for minute; if you can do it for a minute, you can do it for an hour; if you can do it for an hour, then you can do it for a day. If we can glorify God for a day, then surely we can string those days together to make a lifetime. It all starts with making a conscious choice in a single moment of our lives.

Our attitude is the differentiator in how we will live. We can choose to pursue the life of the American dream because we are of the mind that it’s what we “deserve”, or we can instead live a life of intentional service to God. Most Christians get irreparably stuck in the middle somewhere, living an ugly and ultimately ineffective hybrid form of life. True followers of Christ will opt to live their lives wholly devoted to God. We will seize the moments we have been given and use them to further His kingdom. Jesus lived every minute of His life with the end in mind; He knew who He was and was keenly aware of His purpose. This is the life we are called to live, one which glorifies the Father.

Plan your day around divine appointments; schedule time with God just as you would any other appointment on your calendar. Recognize that the time you have set aside for Him cannot be moved and must be honored. One of the great aspects of prayer is that you can do it anytime, wherever you are. You are never somewhere that you cannot pray, and you are never so busy so as not to have an open channel. I spend a good majority of my day in prayer, having an ongoing conversation with my Creator. There are specific times though when I get alone and engage in less casual conversation, times when I can shut out the world and focus solely on Him. I suggest you find some time each day to do this, whether before going to sleep each night, or perhaps getting up five or ten minutes earlier to steal some quiet in the morning. You will find the time alone with God to be some of the most refreshing moments you will ever experience.

Get excited about knowing Him better and plan ways to accomplish this. Right now I’m in the midst of charting out what the next year of my life is going to look like. I have goals in many areas, but none more significant than those regarding my spiritual life. I’m looking forward to praying for the entire world (not as impossible as it seems, see the “Operation World” project) next year. Starting my day off by focusing on the needs of others around the world promises to be enriching, educational and invigorating. Determining new ways to experience the Word of God is another way to improve your walk and draw closer to Him. Next year I’ll be listening straight through a dramatized reading of the Bible with my wife, while reading it through chronologically on my own. You certainly do not need to read the Bible through in a year to get closer to Christ. I do know that it won’t hurt however, and the more you are in the Word, the more you will understand and marvel at His holiness and love.

As you plan to get to know Him better, His life will begin to reflect brighter and brighter through you. As He shines from within, you begin to glorify Him without even trying. People will take on added significance to you and you will begin to treat each of them as people highly valued by God. Traffic jams will become opportunities to demonstrate patience and allow you the opportunity to speak to God in prayer. Your job can now be seen as a mission field and it is up to you to establish the ministry of Jesus in that place. Every day, in every way, we have the ability to affect those around us. When we choose to honor them with love and respect, we glorify God. When we humble ourselves to serve others, we glorify God. When we forgive without receiving anything in return, we glorify God. A life spent devoted to Christ is more that a possibility; it is our duty and our calling. Choose right now to devote the rest of your life to His service. You can live a life that glorifies Him every step of the way; it only takes a moment to choose, and that moment is now.

Urgent and Reckless

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When considering your Christian life, would you classify it as urgent and reckless? Would you say that you are urgently doing all that you can to tell others about Christ? Is your life marked by a spirit of recklessness, one that pursues the kingdom at any cost? If our heart does not literally break with the thought of millions, even billions dying without the love and knowledge of Jesus Christ, we need to seriously evaluate our commitment to Him. If we are not leading a life easily identified by urgency and recklessness, then I have to question if our hearts are truly broken by the things that break the heart of God.

Jesus said to go into all the nations telling the people there about His love and His mercy. This is our call and our mission, the very will of God for our lives. He has not blessed us to be in America so that we might live a life of comfort and ease. He has blessed us to be in America so we will take the vast resources entrusted to us and give them to a world so desperately in need. Parents all around the world are wasting away and their children lay dying at their feet. HIV and AIDS runs rampant because we simply have not yet heeded the call to go and educate the world about the facts of this disease. Communities drink filthy and contaminated water because they lack the resources to drill proper wells to reach the water that would bring life and vitality to their village. Half the world lives on less than $2 a day while we think nothing of spending twice that amount on a daily latte.

We lack urgency and we crave safety rather than recklessness. How can we claim we are doing all we can for the lost and dying when we can’t even get out of bed on a Saturday morning? How dare we say that we have given all we can give to help others in need while we sit in warm houses with full cupboards and a couple of cars parked in the garage. We’re not doing all that we can, and we’re not giving all that we can. We are doing just enough to present a good picture to our friends and neighbors and we are giving just enough to salve our consciouses. This isn’t urgency, this is apathy.

Until we cease pursuing first our own selfish comforts, we will never make a marked difference in this world. Until we let go of the safety of our corner of the world, we will have no idea what it means to live with reckless abandon. We have become accustomed to living in the manner of this world instead of seeking first the Kingdom of God. How can we sleep at night with the knowledge that we have a closet full of shoes while millions of people have nothing on their feet? We live in excess while they dwell in squalor. Jesus told us that we were not of this world, so why do we insist on living as if we are? When will it be time for us to stop living in selfishness and begin to release everything we have in service for God’s kingdom? How much longer will we refuse to live the lives for which we were created?

If the thoughts of the hungry around the world do not bring tears to your eyes and an ache to your heart, beg God to break your heart for the lost and the least of these. If you are not urgently seeking ways to serve the dying and the poor every minute of your life, pray that God would give you a fresh dose of zeal to further His mission. If you are not living recklessly, forsaking everything to pursue justice and serve the needs of the hurting, cry out and ask the Lord to instill His passion within you. With each breath we run closer to the end of our race; we are losing time and it cannot be regained. Who will not hear the name of Jesus because we were content to stay under the covers for ten more minutes? Who will die without Christ because we were too busy watching TV? How many children will go without food or water today because we refused to sacrifice what we have?

Each of us knows the score; each of us is aware that while difficult to hear, these words are true. It’s your turn now; it’s my turn too. Will today be the same as every other day? Will tomorrow be one more entry into a life poorly lived? This is a call to action. Change begins with you and it begins with me, and it must begin now. We have no more time. Will you choose to continue pursuing the American dream, or will you forsake everything to be the hands and feet of Jesus to a world on the brink of disaster? This is our time; this is our call. What will you do?