Even If i Walk Alone

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

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What does it mean to be a Christian?

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Since we talk so much about Christianity here, I thought it might be worthwhile for some to take a step back and define what being a Christian actually entails. Christianity in the traditional sense simply means one who is a follower of Christ. In modern evangelical terms (if you are new to Christianity, you’ll find we have A LOT of terms), a Christian is defined as someone who has prayed “the sinner’s prayer” and accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior. My purpose is not to find fault with either definition, but rather to elaborate on them, with an emphasis on what Jesus commanded of His followers.

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Drive Out Your Idols

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My pastor made a great analogy in his message yesterday which I felt was worth sharing and unpacking a bit. He was talking about how God commanded the Israelites to drive out the people in the Promised Land before settling down there. The reason God gave this command was that the people who inhabited what would become Israel were idol worshippers; they lived promiscuous and evil lifestyles. God knew if these people were allowed to stay, they would tempt His people to abandon the laws of God and partake of their pagan lifestyle. God and evil cannot coexist in the same land. The analogy my pastor (Dave Mullins) made was that our hearts are like the Promised Land. When we invite Christ into our lives, we must drive out the idols in the land.

Flash forward a few thousand years. Not much has changed. We have not yet learned that God and idols cannot exist in the same realm. God gave everything He had, His only Son, for us. In return, if we would follow Him, He demands everything that we have. My experience is that most of us do not completely drive out the idols in our heart before settling down into our “Christian” lifestyle. Sure, we eradicate the more obvious and less painful idols, but we do not complete the job. History has repeatedly shown that ending a war before completely vanquishing the enemy results in an unending series of skirmishes from that point forward. Those that are left standing become a constant source of irritation and pain.

Apply this to your own life. After you accepted Christ, did you complete the assignment? Did you drive out all of the idols in your heart? Did you submit every last area of your life to Him? If you’re like most of us, you quit too soon and kept an area or two for yourself. It’s ironic how we can read the stories in the Bible and shake our heads at the stubbornness of those who disobeyed God. Surely if we had been there we would have made the right choice! Yet every day we are making the same bad choices of those who lived generations before us. We fall for the same tricks and suffer from the same pride and rebellion. It is pride, after all, that causes us to say in full arrogance that we are the exception; we can handle leaving a few idols whereas no one else in human history has been able to do so! It’s time to let go of our pride and do what God has commanded us to do. It’s time to drive all the idols from our hearts; no holding back.

It’s gut check time. Have you permitted idols to remain in your heart while claiming to be a disciple of Christ? Are there areas of your life that you have kept for yourself and refused to submit to him? You are not alone in your failure. Generation upon generation has failed in the same way. Here’s the good news about failure: as Zig Ziglar has said, failure is an event, not a person! Failure is merely an event on the road to victory. Events are temporary and fully recoverable. Failure need not define you. Restart the war and drive out all the idols that remain in your heart. Surrender your entire life again to Jesus, hold nothing back. Turn your failure into victory and begin to walk in the joy that is a life wholly devoted to Christ.

Don’t Be Normal

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So much of what Christ did ran against tradition and cultural acceptance. He touched diseased people, He ate dinner with prostitutes and thieves, and He refused to conform to societal norms. Somehow we seem to have lost this part of His message. Instead we have become a people obsessed with living in a manner consistent with everyone else. We drive the same cars, wear the same clothes and talk in the same manner as those who do not know Christ. Most of us live in comfortable houses in safe neighborhoods, surrounded by people who are just like us. Arguments are made about living among those who need Jesus and in identifying with them. We use this for justification of living a life that looks no different from our neighbors. Where is the desire to follow Jesus? Where is the passion to walk along the trail that He blazed before us? We are not different; we are not living any differently than the rest of the world, and we are certainly not living the countercultural lifestyle of Jesus Christ.

Where did we lose our way and veer from the path that leads to life? When did we decide that it was simply okay to be “normal”? Jesus wasn’t normal! He lived His entire life in service to others. He endured torture and agony, the likes of which most of us will never have to endure. We are a people consumed with temporal pleasures in lieu of eternal joy. Where is the logic in this? Do we realize what we risk by refusing to live the way Jesus lived? We call ourselves followers of Jesus then continue to live our self-centered and consumptive lifestyles.

Look outside your door; take a look at the evening news. Children are starving all around us. Desperate mothers sell their own dignity because it is the only way they can afford to buy food for their children. Mentally challenged individuals struggle to find a place to sleep and a way to survive in a world that grows increasingly intolerant and brutal. Normal people shake their heads at the tragedy of it all. Jesus did not react as normal people do. He reached out, He lifted people up, and He restored hope. He roamed homeless for over three years so He would be unencumbered by the things of this world in order that He would be free to serve anyone and in any place that He saw fit. Jesus wasn’t normal. He was abnormal in every way and we are called to live a life of this same abnormality.

How are you doing? Are you living a normal life? Are you keeping up with the Jones’ while turning away from the homeless? Do you see the sick and dying all around you? Do you tend to the needs of your neighbor and serve others at every opportunity? Are you leading a normal life or a life that is defiantly weird, a life of total abnormality in terms of love and service? I’ve seen and lived what normal is; I don’t want to be there. I want to live a life of fire and passion for the One who created me, loved me and saved me. I want to demonstrate His love to everyone I meet. I want to serve anyone who is in need. I don’t want to look away or be so consumed with myself that I cannot see beyond it. I don’t want to walk on any path except that which Christ walks before me. I simply cannot, I unequivocally refuse, to live my life for any purpose but to follow Him. I don’t want to be normal.

Your Support System

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We were not meant to walk this path alone. As Christ demonstrated by engaging a band of friends to walk with Him, so we also must surround ourselves with those with whom we can share the journey. Sometimes it is hard to admit that we need help, and we attempt to go it alone. Indeed, there are times when none will go with us, but that is merely an opportunity to meet new friends who are already further along the road than we are. Remember, the goal is to model the life of Christ, and He chose to walk with a group of friends. Having established this, we must be very careful and intentional about whom we will choose as travelling companions.

It is very important that we select friends and role models that have a positive outlook. I’ve talked much about a positive attitude recently, but that only underscores the importance of having such an outlook. We live in a fallen world; evil and despair surround us. We are besieged every day by negative input from others and from our own experiences. When we are discouraged or depressed it is vital to be able to turn to those who can provide some clarity to our situation and help us walk through the minefields. We have more to look forward to than any other people on earth; we know how this ends, and it ends in the arms of Jesus. Therefore we need positive, faithful and Christ loving friends to help keep us motivated and to restore our perspective when we become lost.

Don’t choose to travel with those who are content with mediocrity. Jesus is the standard of excellence, and we must strive to reach the bar He has set for us. If your friends are the types who believe doing something “good enough” is indeed good enough, then you need new friends! Imagine building a house for someone who is homeless and deciding to build it just “good enough”. That is not the standard of service to which Jesus calls us. Jesus demands our all… all the time. Do everything you do as if you were doing it for Jesus Himself. Would you really cut corners or settle for “good enough” if you were doing something directly for Him? No, of course you wouldn’t. Besides, whatever we do for anyone in need, it’s the same as doing it for Christ. Keep this in mind as you go throughout your journey.

The Christian life is hard, and we will face many trials and defeats. Failures are merely the lessons of success. Don’t run from failure, but rather rejoice in it because with each failure you are one step closer to success. Since we are victors in Christ, failure is not a valid reality. Don’t focus on your failures. Learn from them, certainly, but do not linger too long in their midst. Instead, at regular intervals recount your blessings and the successes God has brought to your life. This was the Israelite tradition in the Old Testament. They would often gather together and tell the stories of the various trials God had brought them through and rejoice in the victories He had given them. There is no failure in Christ, only victory. We cannot focus on Christ and failure at the same time; they are polar opposites.

Find some companions with whom to travel as you follow the path set before you by Christ. Choose them wisely. Choose those who will encourage you and help you through the trials. Don’t accept or associate with mediocrity, but rather serve mediocrity with excellence. Be excellent for Christ, do everything with the knowledge that you are doing it for Him. Make a habit of looking back over the road you have travelled. Praise Him for the success He has given you, and thank him for the lessons of what, at the time, looked like failure. Surround yourself with like minded followers of Jesus. Stay focused on Christ; enjoy the adventure of walking together in the footsteps of our Savior and our King.

True Surrender

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In Christianity there is much talk about the concept of surrender. Indeed, acts of surrender are the foundation of our faith. God surrendered absolute control when he gave freewill to his creation; He surrendered His own Son as a means to save that same creation from themselves; Jesus surrendered His life so that a humanity destined for Hell might live. While He walked on this earth, Jesus implored those who would follow Him to surrender everything to do so. That same call remains today.

So what exactly does true surrender look like? With Easter nearing, many Christians are celebrating a season of Lent. During this time it is customary for them to give up or surrender something they cherish, usually expressed as a certain food or activity. Is this what true surrender looks like? Or perhaps surrender means simply abstaining from the traditional “sins” of modern Christendom: smoking, swearing, dancing or gambling? Is this surrender? What of those Christ followers that do not subscribe to the aforementioned beliefs, are they lacking in some way so as not to be surrendered to Christ?

I believe a life lived in true surrender is a life lived in reverent awe of our God. Traditionally this has been referred to as “the fear of the Lord”. I read an absolutely outstanding definition of what it means to fear the Lord in the notes of my study Bible (since the actual author of the note is not identified, I will source my study Bible in full, The Apologetics Study Bible). There it is defined as “The worship of, and respectful submission to, the authority of God in every area of our life”. I believe a life lived in this manner will be a life lived in total surrender to God. It is a life in which we hold nothing back. Whatever we were or may have become has now been replaced with a life that honors God, a life that allows others to see Jesus through us.

Are you ready for this kind of surrender? Can you honestly say that you will put everything aside for Him? If not, what’s holding you back? What is it about your life that you don’t want to give up? Ask yourself, “is this thing more important to me than Jesus?” If you had to choose between that which you do not wish to give up and Jesus, what would your choice be? That may seem overly harsh or dramatic, but Jesus did not consider such a choice too great or dramatic for us. Are we followers of Christ or merely observers? Are we imitators or admirers?

We must each choose which path we will follow in life. If we should choose to follow Christ, the path is too narrow to allow baggage of any kind. That is why Jesus tells us we’ll have to give it all up and place it on Him. Only He is strong enough to shoulder the load on such a narrow way. Are we willing to surrender everything we have, all that we are in order to follow Jesus on the road He travels? The choice is ours, but it must be made. Are you ready to surrender every area of your life to Him? If not, why not? Will you remain a wishful admirer of Jesus or are you ready to imitate Christ in all you do? He demands true and total surrender; what is your response?