Even If i Walk Alone

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

commitment

Mediocrity

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mediocre,settling for average,being average,less than your best,giving up,potential

I’ve been struck lately with a preoccupation regarding the concept of mediocrity. It continues to come into my mind as I see evidence of it all around me and within my own life. Jesus gave His opinion of mediocrity when He said that He detested lukewarm faith. Using strong language, He said that mediocre Christians made Him vomit (Revelation 3:16). We’ve bought into a teaching that says as long as we say a certain prayer that Christ will welcome us into His Kingdom with open arms. But Jesus makes it plain that unless we have a “hot” faith, He will spit us out. This is not a picture of the open arms we have been taught to expect.

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Lord of the New Year

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Jesus is Lord,Lord of your life,Jesus first,God first,intentional living,purpose driven life,rick warren,new years resolution,life plan,discipleship

I touched on this a bit before (see “Take Action”), but with the New Year now underway, I think it’s important to emphasize the value of intentional living over the next twelve months. How will you be different and more like Jesus when December rolls around? What will you have done to glorify Him as you look back over this year? One thing is certain, if you don’t plan how you will get somewhere you’ve never been, you will never arrive. Spiritual growth doesn’t happen by accident. You don’t wake up one day and discover you are a disciple of Jesus. Believing in Christ is easy. Becoming the person He created you to be is difficult and requires an incredible amount of work on your part.

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Serving Better

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Jesus is Lord,Lord of your life,Jesus first,God first,goals,one year plan,draw closer to Go,filfill your potential,potential,be all you can be,life plan,personal growth,spiritual growth

How could you better serve Christ in the coming year? In what ways could you intentionally change your life that would allow you to walk more closely with Him? It should be our goal to always be striving to look more like Jesus, to walk more closely in His footsteps. This won’t just happen, we must purposefully decide to seek Him more fully and make a plan for how to do that. If we want our relationship with Christ to grow more in the next year, if we want to live our lives fully devoted to Him, it must begin with a conscious decision and disciplined follow-through.  I’ve got three ideas to help you in this endeavor.

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Inside Out

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life purpose,steven furtick,elevation church,john maxwell,the 15 invaluable laws of growth,greater,character,character development

I read a great quote from Steven Furtick recently: “Sin offers a temporary fix for your pain – while it slowly destroys your purpose.” When the going gets tough, it seems the tough give in to sin. It is a paradox how those of us who know that comfort and peace can only be found in Christ can be so quick to lean on the crutch of sin when something breaks in our lives. Our first instinct should be Jesus in everything, yet instead we run purposefully into the arms of the enemy. This makes no sense and only emphasizes how weak and desperate we are for a Savior to rescue us from our penchant for self-destruction.

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The Crush of Life

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stress,pressure,freedom,free indeed,disciple,living for Jesus

I really wish the Christian life was easy. I wish those preachers telling folks that following Christ leads to prosperity and ease were right. Sometimes bad theology can sound really good. The problem is that it’s wrong. Following hard after Christ is not easy. In fact, some days it can be insanely difficult. I can think of easier ways to live. I could readily enjoy what this world has to offer and relax a whole lot more. But this is not the calling of those of us who have chosen to devote our lives to Jesus. We aren’t committed to ease or wealth. We’re committed to reflecting the love of the One who gave His life so that we could live. Easy isn’t part of the equation, but love is.

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