Even If i Walk Alone

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

The Wild, Wild West

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Most readers of this blog reside in Western cultures, cultures that find Christianity on the decline.   This is a driving factor in our recent posts promoting leaving Christianity for a life of following Christ.  Christianity has ceded to the pressures of the secular world, it has been compromised.  Conversely, following the way of Jesus permits no compromise.  So before continuing on in your life, you must make a decision.  Will you continue to live the life of a traditional western Christian or will you instead choose the radical, love infused way of following Jesus?

Perhaps you are uneasy with a call to turn from Christianity, but take a look at what modern Christianity typically represents:  right wing conservative politics, bitter infighting, large buildings that drive most churches into large debt, comfortable homes in the suburbs, racial division along the lines of worship preference, a hierarchical view of sin (for example the belief that homosexuality is worse than lying, or that murder is more sinful than pride).  I could go on for the entire length of this post, but the list is already sickening enough.  Which items in the previous list (and feel free to add your own) look like the way in which Jesus lived?  Which of these traits demonstrate the love of Jesus?  I hope you begin to see my point about modern, Western Christianity.  It is quite possibly too late to try and redefine the term ‘Christianity’.  Thus, for those of us serious about truly following the way of Jesus, in loving the way Jesus did, we need a new term to help define our mission.  I submit that we bring back the original term for Christians, that of “followers of the Way”.

We need to return to living in community with one another, caring for one another and sharing in the needs (physical, emotional, financial) of one another.  True community is incredibly messy.  It is life altering; it requires us to live outside of our comfort zones and in deference to one another.  We need to say ‘no’ to expensive building projects so those seeking Jesus might be better entertained or more comfortable.  If someone is choosing between Heaven and Hell, do you really think it matters in the slightest whether or not they are making that choice in an air conditioned padded seat or on a park bench?  The modern church has totally lost its bearings and understanding of what is truly important to God, what we as church were really called to do.

No sin is greater than another in the eyes of God, and we are all guilty without the blood and love of Christ.  We need to get over our judgment of others; we need to cross so-called “racial lines” to engage with those of different cultural backgrounds than our own.  We need to share Christ by showing love to those in our neighborhoods and communities.  We don’t need another mega church; we all are already part of the one church, the body of Christ.  Instead of larger places of worship, we need smaller pockets of community.  One church building will never change the world, but the Church can and will if we are simply following the Way!

What’s your take away, what do you do now?  How is it you will choose to live?  Will you go back to your daily life and comfortable church buildings?  Or instead will you take the first steps of turning your neighborhood into a community of followers of the Way?  Will you take the first step in redefining what you will do with Jesus?  Do you want traditional Western style Christianity, or do you want to be a sold-out, burning flame of love as you seek to become a true follower of the Way of Jesus?  It’s a no-brainer for me.  I want to love as Christ did.  I want to follow His way.  I want to so closely follow in His footsteps that I (to quote Shane Claiborne) “get His dust on me.”  How about you?

Fulfilling Our Purpose

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Ephesians 2:10 says “For we are His creation—created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time so that we should walk in them.” (HCSB)  Did you ever pause to consider what this verse means?  I do not believe that God has a massive blueprint of what every step of our life will look like before we are born.  Believing this would be in contradiction to what the Bible teaches us about freewill (For an excellent explanation on this point of view see ‘A Brief Outline and Defense of the Open View’ by Gregory A. Boyd).  No, I think the meaning of this verse is deeper, more subtle and far more beautiful.  Before we were even born, God gave each of us unique talents and had specific purposes in mind for us in which we would utilize those talents.

How beautiful is this?  The creator of the universe and everything in it gave great thought to the purposes He intended us to pursue the moment we were created.  God Himself gave serious thought to the person he envisioned we would become and then gave us the gifts, talents and aptitude to become that person.  Who are we that God should take such care to define a mission for us before we were ever born?  While we may often feel small and insignificant, the very fact that God purposed a life for us flies in the face of such thoughts.

Wow.  How do we possibly respond to such an overwhelming act of love?  I know from experience and observation how we generally tend to respond.  We squander our time on selfish ambitions and pleasures while the very gifts He gave us become atrophied.  He took such time and care in the formation of His purposes for our life, yet we give little time and even less care to the completion of those purposes.

What if we pulled ourselves out of the pool of selfishness we have been bathing in and begin to pursue the purposes He intended?  We are all as equipped as we have ever been.  We may have to shake off some rust and flex our gifted muscles, but the purposes of the living God still reside inside.  They are bursting to be released and shared with a world in desperate need of what we alone can uniquely provide.

Do you ever feel like you were meant for much more than your current life?  Do you have dreams and passions that you buried long ago out of fear or a lack of self-confidence?  Most likely those feelings are driven by the purposes that God built into each one of us.  In our very make-up, we are indeed intended and equipped to fulfill certain objectives.  Not pursuing these purposes leaves us restless, frustrated and dissatisfied with our lives.  We must let go of anything that is preventing us from fulfilling our true purpose in life.  It is our calling, our destiny.  God placed those purposes in you and you will never exorcise them.  When we embark on the path of our purpose we will find rest and joy.  Don’t fight your purpose; rather embrace all that God intended for you.  Surrender everything to Him today and take hold of His purposes for you.  Now embark on the adventure of the life you were meant to live.

Of Sheep and Dogs

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One of my pastors delivered a message based on John 10:1-6 this week.  As I reread the passage over the last couple of days, I was struck by something that had never occurred to me.  This passage is the prelude to the story of Jesus being the Good Shepherd.  What usually sticks out to me in this story is how Jesus says that His sheep will know his voice.  This has always been comforting to me.  As I’ve prayed and recognized the voice of Christ in my heart over the years I have relished the fact that I did indeed know the voice of my Shepherd.

But this time through it was the second half of the verse that caught my attention.  When the sheep hear the voice of a stranger, they don’t recognize it and they run away.  Now I admit to not knowing a whole lot about sheep, but I’ve been surrounded by dogs my whole life, so I know a lot about them.  I can tell you that when the master gives a dog a command, they recognize that voice and they obey immediately (well, usually they do, but more on that later!).  So when I tell one of my dogs to sit, they look at me and sit.  However if you came over to my house and told my dog to sit, guess what they would do?  They would not recognize your voice and they would do anything but sit!  They would run away or attack in fear because a stranger is in the house.

This is exactly how we should behave in our spiritual life.  When God gives us a command, we need to turn to Him and obey immediately, no questions asked.  We do this for the same reasons my dogs obey me.  We do this because we love our Master, we want to please Him and we know He has our best interests at heart.  However, when Satan calls our name or tries to draw our attention to something that is not of God, we should react like my dogs react to a stranger:  get away from that situation as fast as possible!  We should not listen to that voice at all; ignore and flee should be our strategy.

If only this were the way things were.  Instead we are like certain stubborn dogs that I have known over the years.  They know full well that it’s my voice giving the command; they just choose not to respond.  Oh they’ll obey on occasion if it suits their mood, but they are just as likely to stare blankly at you or simply turn and walk away.  I’ve known other dogs that will run to any stranger who calls them, or join in any activity that looks like fun (which usually involves a ball).  Most of the time we resemble these stubborn or careless dogs more than we do the disciplined, loyal companion.

So if you’ll excuse my replacement of sheep with dogs in my analogy, which type of dog are you?  Do you look forward each day to the call of your Master and eagerly jump to do whatever He asks of you?  Or do you listen only when it fits your schedule or you can’t find anything better to do?  Do you serve Him trusting that He will provide for your needs or do you expect Him to give you what you want whenever you want it based on your desires?

I don’t want to ever respond to a stranger’s voice.  We learned as children to never talk to strangers, but we have lost that basic foundational understanding as adults.  Run away from the stranger’s voice; take no part in what he says.  Instead, run to the arms of Your Master and take refuge there.  Obey His voice, flee the stranger.  Live the life He has intended for you.

Following the Way

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Regular readers of this blog know we talk a lot about love.  We talk a lot about following Christ.  It’s easy to say we love people, and perhaps easy even to think we are following Christ, but what does this really mean?  What does following Christ look like in the daily grind of our lives?

If we would truly follow Christ, one of the biggest shifts we need to experience is the way we see events unfolding around us.  Instead of blaring our horn and cursing the driver who just cut us off, we need our first instinct to be to pray for that driver.  Pray for their protection and others as they drive erratically.  Pray for the person themselves… perhaps they have had a horrible day and that’s why they are behaving as they are.  Perhaps they need someone to love them; pray God would send someone into their life to show them love.  Instead of driving by someone who has car trouble, we need to instead see what we can do to help.  Watch for people in the grocery store for whom you might be able to buy some groceries.  Take a walk around your neighborhood.  Are there lawns that need mowing, any obvious outside repairs you could assist with?  All of these random acts of love come at a cost; some may cost us financially, but all will cost us our time.  All will require sacrifice and unselfishness.  To put it another way, all these acts will require love.

Therein lies the rub.  Most of us would agree that we want to be the people who do the acts described above.  But how many of us take the time to be that person?  How many of us discipline ourselves to think before we act or before we speak?  How many of us are willing to put our own agendas aside to truly be the hands and feet of Jesus?  When it comes down to it we still struggle with our own self importance and selfishness.  We would rather love ourselves, so to speak, rather than give that love to others.  Jesus showed the perfect example of a selfless life.  Look at how often He interrupted His day to take the time to touch someone in need.  This never disturbed His agenda, because His agenda was love.  Until our agenda becomes one of showing love to others, of serving others in ways big and small, we will continue to see people as an interruption.  People were not an interruption to Jesus, they were His mission.  If we are to follow the way of Jesus, they will be our mission as well.

Are we willing to give up our plans and dreams to follow Christ?  We cannot claim to be a follower of Christ and have a mission that is different from His.  Our own dreams must be able to exist in parallel with loving and serving others or those dreams must be put aside.  If the heart and purpose of our dreams is not loving and serving others, then we are not followers of Christ.  We will be like those mentioned in Matthew, where we say “Lord, did we not prophesy and cast out demons in Your name?”, and He will say those crushing words: “Depart from Me, because I don’t know you.” (Matthew 7:13-23)  Knowing who Christ is is not enough.  Believing in Christ is not enough; even demons believe in Jesus and know who He is (James 2:19).  We must follow Him with all that we are, and that means taking every opportunity to love and serve others.  Check your mission today.  Is it in line with the way of Christ?  If not, begin correcting your course immediately.  Realign your life and schedule to be in sync with God’s mission.  Seize every opportunity to love and serve those around you; make that your agenda in life.  Do this and you will truly be a follower of Christ.

Press On

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When is enough, enough?  When can we cease all our work and let someone else pick up the slack?  As workers for the Kingdom, we are not allowed the concept of quitting.  We are to work until our King returns or brings us to join Him.  For me, the purpose for my writing is the hope that I may touch another with the love of Christ.  I can never stop writing, because there will always be the possibility that I may yet touch another.   We can never cease to love because we will ever have the opportunity to love still another.

Following Christ can be both exhilarating and utterly exhausting.  We have to be on our game twenty-four hours a day.  We cannot afford to relax our standards or forsake our mission for even a minute, because that may be the very moment someone needs to see a difference in us.  As I have stated before, we make decisions every second of every minute of every hour of every day.  We choose to follow Christ or not.  We choose to love or not to love.  We choose to serve or not to serve.  Our second by second choices add up to define our lives.  Fortunately (or not in some cases) we have the opportunity to start redefining our life every single second.  Determine right now to start making the right choices when life comes at you: follow Christ, love and serve others.

The brilliant dichotomy of this exhausting challenge is that as we do these things we will be overwhelmed with a peace and rest that we could never achieve on our own.  God renews us in the most amazing and pure way.  If you are feeling run down and exhausted, chances are you aren’t making the proper choices in your life.  When you start loving and serving others you lose your self-centeredness, and this selfishness is perhaps the most exhausting element in our lives.  I have found that it is far more tiring to try and make my life comfortable and easy than it is to serve someone else.

We aren’t called to comfortable and easy, we are called to a life of serving others.  We are to serve others just as Jesus served us by humbling Himself and ultimately laying down His life for us.  Who do you love with a love like that?  Anyone?  Jesus loves everyone with that same amazing love.  He never stops, He never quits.  We can do no less.  The next time you grow weary, instead of resorting to your usual forms of comfort, try looking around and showing love to someone else instead.  When you feel lonely and in need of help, try serving someone else.  You will find the most illogical yet most exhilarating peace you have ever known.  Remember that there will always be someone else in need of love, there will always be someone else we can serve.  We must not quit, we must not tire.  With a set and limited amount of time to share love with others, we can’t afford to waste a second.