Even If i Walk Alone

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

commitment

How Desperate Are You?

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It’s easy to get caught up in everything that we do throughout our day. The demands of our friends, families and jobs leave little room for us to breathe. Days blur into weeks, weeks into months and before we know it the years are passing us by. What do we have to show for our time so far? Are we accomplishing all we dreamt and becoming the person we determined ourselves to be? How are we measuring our days to determine what, if any, legacy we are leaving behind?

For me, living in America, it is easy to lose myself in my job and my career. My culture pushes me to work long hours and achieve ever greater levels of financial success. If only we dress and act the part, sooner or later we will achieve the success that society tells us we deserve. Day after day we strive to achieve greatness in our pursuit of the American dream. We are busier now than at any point in history. Our lives are spent connected to technology and awash in cell phones, emails and caffeine. At the edges, we try and fit in the other aspects of our life, yet never seem to have time for it all. On the outside of everything stands Jesus, our Lord and our King. This is the same Jesus to whom we pledged our entire lives. We said we’d follow Him anywhere, but now there simply isn’t time.

If you truly love Him, then you remember moments in your life when you were thirsty to drink of His Spirit. There were times when you simply couldn’t get enough. Your soul ached as you begged for more and more of Jesus, His holiness, and His grace. How long has it been since you felt this way? In our dogged self-reliance, when was the last time we were truly desperate for Him? When was the last time you were so desperate that you were completely undone, that you realized you could not do a single thing apart from His power? When was the last time you were undone, desperate beyond words and on your knees before the God of the universe? When was the last time you slowed down long enough to realize that this world is not about you, but rather about what you can do for Jesus? How long has it been since you put aside your own agenda to be the help for someone in need? I have found it far too easy to see people as distractions and annoyances rather than as deeply valued, wholly loved, co-citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven. If we are not desperate for Him, than we are finished; we have no hope outside of Jesus Christ. Only He can save us from the wickedness of our world and of ourselves.

Nothing matters apart from Jesus; not your family, not your friends and not your job. All else, every single thing in the universe, pales in comparison to Jesus Christ. Anything but Him is useless. We cannot live without Him; we cannot show the world their need for Jesus, until we get the need in our own heart settled. We must reject everything that is not Him. He demands all that we have, so we owe every second of our lives to Him. We must recognize that we are nothing, He is everything and we need Him. He is all that we have, and He is more than enough.

This world will never change until we change ourselves. As long as we insist on leading a life that consists of what society tells us we should do, we will never be able to fully participate in the Kingdom of God here on earth. God doesn’t want our lip service; you can’t fool Him. God wants everything. We must come to the point in our lives where we no longer hold to anything but Jesus. We must drink fully of His Spirit, all the while realizing that we could never drink enough. It’s time to get serious about our faith and put away the things of this world. We are a peculiar people, so why try to be normal? Surrender everything to Him; let it all go. Empty yourself of every thought except for Jesus. Stop striving for success in this world and work for the Kingdom to come. Pray and realize how much you need God; cry out to Him.

Are you living for the praise of man or the praise of God? Everything you so desperately seek on this earth may be yours temporarily, but in the end it will all be taken from you. Only one thing matters now and in the future: Jesus. Do you thirst for Him? Will you forsake everything for Him? How much do you long to be filled with the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ? How desperate are you?

Confessions of a Western Christian

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I have a few confessions to make. I have been a Christian for thirty-seven years now, but it’s only recently that I’ve begun to discover what it means to truly be a follower of Christ. I have bought into the false teachings of Western Christianity and have totally missed the point of what it means to be a believer in Jesus. I have practiced religious rituals that have little or no foundations in Scripture. Worst of all, I have lived a life that is much more about myself than it is about the One who gave His life for me. I am unworthy of His love, and I am ashamed of the number of years it took for me to begin to travel the narrow road that leads to life and glorious light.

The years I have wasted cannot be redeemed. The past has had its say and I stand in judgment without defense. The only thing more tragic than everything I’ve neglected in my past would be if I continued on that same path from this point forward; I simply refuse. Thanks to the teachings of men like Greg Boyd, Francis Chan and more recently, David Platt, my eyes have been opened and I am not going back to the old lies of Western Christianity. It’s not that these men have some new revelation, but rather they (among others) are returning to the roots of the early church. They are casting aside the perverted teachings of the past couple hundred years to uncover anew what a life devoted to Christ really looks like.

This is of paramount importance. Countless men and women are walking around today, convinced that their salvation is secure because they prayed a certain prayer to ask Jesus into their heart. They are convinced that nothing could ever separate them from Heaven or from Christ, and they have a handful of Scriptures they will use to defend their view. These are lives being lived in peril. These are people who are not acknowledging the whole gospel, but rather a gospel of prosperity, comfort and irresponsibility. The teachings of the Bible are plain and they are clear. We are saved because of our faith and acceptance of God’s grace, which is given to us for the purpose of carrying out His mission on earth. We are saved by grace to do the things He commanded us to do. If we leave off the second half of the equation, we become the goats that Jesus refers to in Matthew 25:31-46. We call Him Lord, but we do nothing to give evidence to our claim.

If we are to follow Jesus into Heaven, then we must be willing to follow Him to the ends of the earth and to the end of our own rope. If we are not doing what He commanded us to do, to care for the orphans and the widows, to bring justice to the oppressed and to feed and clothe those in need, then we are in danger of hearing those awful words, “Depart from Me, for I never knew you”. (Matthew 7:20-23) This is not a game. This is not something we can take lightly or put off until later. We have been deceived and we have believed the lie of Western Christianity. A Christian life that looks no different from that of any other is not a life that is devoted to the teachings and the ways of Jesus.

Where do you find yourself at this moment? Have you bought into the lies of Satan and become consumed with a happy and healthy version of Christianity? Are you content to go to church, give some cash and basically be a good person? Or are you dissatisfied with the hollowness of modern Christianity and long for something deeper, something more? A magic prayer won’t get you into Heaven, but a life lived in total devotion to Jesus, regardless of the cost, most assuredly will. There is no more time for contemplation; your life could end today. How will you live the rest of your life? It’s all or nothing. Don’t be satisfied with the lie you have been sold. Choose to abandon everything in order to gain what is more precious than all else combined. No more games, no more lies; no more goats. From this moment on, may you live your life fully for Jesus and for Him alone.

Who Am I?

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There are times, and these are the moments when I am thinking correctly, that I feel infinitely small in this universe. Simply looking around at everything God has created leaves me in awe and in utter awareness of my insignificance within it all. The God we worship is the very one who created the endless arrays of sights, smells and colors that wonderfully permeate our senses every day. This same God posses the immensely vivid imagination responsible for the host of characters that roam the earth; some of his creatures are downright hilarious and I am left with no other conclusion than God has an incredible sense of humor. The ability of the earth to furnish enough food to sustain its every inhabitant, to dispense a seemingly endless supply of water and to provide the abundant oxygen necessary for our very breath is astounding. This was all brought to bear by our Creator God. Man’s intellect and ingenuity would never be able to accomplish these things. Only God has created life from nothing, and only God sustains that life by His power and grace.

Jesus both spoke of and demonstrated His power over creation. He told the winds to be calm, and they immediately fell silent. Others can debate the means by which he did so, but one way or the other He overcame the properties of water which allowed Him to walk atop it. He told us that with only a small amount of faith we could literally move mountains. All of creation is under His control, and all of it defers to Him without question. Jesus gives a command and His creation follows.

There is one exception to this rule, however: humans. Only humans have had the audacity to question God, to refuse to cooperate, to blatantly ignore and reject His commands. Of all creation, only we see ourselves as somewhat superior to God; we elect to do things the way we see fit, rather than in the way He has told us. Who are we to suppose ourselves greater than the One who created us? What right do we have to rebel against the One who not only gives us this life, but holds the keys to our eternal life? How arrogant and thick-headed can we possibly be?

God forgive our lack of reverence and misplaced sense of relevance. We have become a people consumed with ourselves and the comforts we can acquire. We have turned away from the One who loves us and have lost the heart to care for the orphans and widows. We have lost the stomach to fight for justice in our world. How long will we continue to spit in the face of God and carry on our life as if He doesn’t even exist? How is it that we who profess to be followers of Jesus live lives that look no different from those who reject Him? What right do we have to turn our backs on the One who created us, died for us and loves us? Who do we think we are?

Regardless of our answer to that question, we are nothing save the righteousness of Jesus. We are formed from dirt and we are lower than the lowest things on earth. We are wicked and we are evil; we have chosen to turn from the path of life and pursue the road that leads to death. Without the cleansing blood of Jesus, we are wasted, filthy and undone. Who you say you are has everything to do with who you say that Jesus is. If He is not Lord in my life, if I am not fully devoted to Him, then what I am is hopeless. Thankfully there is a better way; there is another answer. I have hope because I have Jesus. I seek Him and I strive to follow in His way. Without Him, I have nothing; with Him, I have everything. Who am I? I am the loved creation of a gracious, patient and forgiving God. I am a follower of His Son, and I am forgiven and free.

How will you answer the question? Ask yourself, “Who am I?” Are you the creation that scoffs and rejects the one who made you, or are you the person that faithfully obeys the commands of your Creator? The choice is ours; again, ask yourself, “Who am I?”

The Little Things

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Following Jesus is a massive undertaking. It’s hard to imagine anything more monumental than dedicating one’s life to following any one person, much less the Creator of the Universe! When we decide to forsake everything to follow Jesus, it is not a trivial matter. This decision is not a momentary whim for true followers. This is an agonizing realization that we are nothing without Him and we can no longer live for ourselves, but rather must expend all our days to glorify Him. In this magnitude of a decision, it is easy to get lost and feel overwhelmed. We can see what the finish line looks like, but we often are clueless as to how to get from where we are to there. The old axiom of “How do you eat an elephant (the answer is – with apologies to my fellow animal lovers – one bite at a time)?” comes into play here. If we try and do everything Jesus commanded us to do in one fell swoop, we are destined to fail. In fact, I think many of our failures arise from our trying to do too much at once and perhaps too much too soon. God’s Sovereign story has been unfolding for thousands of years. There is an element of divine patience woven throughout history. The key movements are in the subtleties of life. Jesus is constructing His Kingdom from the bottom up rather than from the top down. He is building His dominion through the freewill of those who love Him rather than by dictating to those who do not. God is in the little things, the details, of life.

Rather than trying to make great strides in our walk with God each day, we should instead strive for small, consistent steps. As Dave Ramsey is fond of saying, “When I read the story of the tortoise and the hare, the tortoise wins every time!” There is great wisdom in that old story. While it is very important to not only see the big picture but to also keep it clearly in focus each day, it is equally important to concentrate on the small snapshots that make up that bigger picture. Every day we are faced with situations in our life that force us to make choices. Many times these choices will cause us to choose for Christ or against Him. We must choose between lying and telling the truth. We must choose between acting justly or unjustly. We must choose between compassion and selfishness. Each of these decisions and countless more are the details of life. They are the minutiae that form our character and determine the integrity of our devotion to Jesus. While none of these choices on their own appear to be of much consequence at the time, the truth is that it is the accumulation of these choices that ultimately determines whether or not we will live a life of following Jesus.

Never underestimate the weight of little choices. These choices are creating who we will become tomorrow. It is vitally important that we take captive every thought, every choice and every emotion as we determine to follow Christ. Nothing must slip through the cracks. While this is of course nearly impossible in application, it is through disciplining ourselves to monitor the moments that we will develop into the image of Christ. It is by focusing on Him every second of our lives and in every opportunity. Following Jesus is not a onetime decision, but rather a life long journey of countless steps. Each step either brings us closer to Him or it moves us further away. Take care of the little things in life, the details of every day. By choosing Christ in the small, unseen moments, we will mature into a true and devoted follower of Jesus. The big things in life will take care of themselves if we are slowly and steadily building a life that looks like Jesus in the small decisions of our everyday lives.

Awareness

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At some point, I hope someone will be able to explain to me the wisdom of going to the dentist on consecutive days to have work done on each side of my mouth. I figured I was being efficient in getting all the necessary work done quickly so that I could check it off my list. What I have discovered is that the only thing worse than one side of your mouth aching, is both sides of your mouth aching. Nothing really gnaws at you like a toothache; it’s not fun and there’s not a whole lot you can do about it. In the midst of this I opened my email to read of yet another attack on Christians in a foreign country. One of my daily prayer guides today contained a story of a young boy whose arm had been hacked by a machete when Muslim extremists attacked Christians during a church service. I then happened across a ministry that is doing great work in the area of human trafficking. Suddenly I felt very foolish for the petty thoughts of my toothache.

Everyday there are new stories coming out about the suffering of our fellow human beings. Some are our brothers and sisters in Christ; others are waiting to be told about Jesus. All are in desperate need of His love and encouragement. We are the vehicles of delivery for that love. We cannot share love with those in need if we are unaware of their situations. It is very important that we make an effort to read the stories of those who are suffering. It is very important to walk down our streets with open eyes so that we do not miss the obvious needs around us. And it is very important that we ask God for discerning hearts to seek out those He would have us to help. In short, we must be aware of the needs that surround us both in our own cities and around the world.

Many choose to not seek out the hurting because they know it will require some form of sacrifice from them, whether that be in terms of time, emotion or money. We are a people whose lives of luxury have led to a growing aversion to sacrifice. For true followers of Jesus, the term sacrifice is somewhat of a misnomer. Whenever we “sacrifice”, we gain Christ. We give up something in this world, and we receive more of the next world into our lives. We forfeit what is imperfect and gain what is perfect. Where then is our sacrifice? To lose all is to gain Christ. This is not sacrifice; this is reason to celebrate. When we let go of selfishness, greed and pride, we receive back selflessness, generosity and humility. In other words, when we let go of what this world tells us we need, we receive the character of Christ in return.

Our sufferings pale in comparison to what is experienced elsewhere in this world. Every day unspeakable acts of torture are manifested upon believers of Jesus. These are our brothers and sisters that accept this for the love of Jesus. They endure these atrocities while we sit comfortably on our couches in our air conditioned homes. Most of us will never have any idea what it means to truly suffer. We cannot ignore those in chains, those who are being tortured, sold into slavery and killed. This is not someone else’s problem to confront. This is a battle for the saints of Jesus Christ. We all have a responsibility to become aware of what is happening to Christians around the world, and to innocent people of all faiths and nations. Seek out stories each day and pray for those in need. Feed the poor, care for the orphans and widows, and seek justice for those who are persecuted. Think not of what this will cost you, but rather what you will gain. The person you will become as you live out these God-given commands will be worth far more than anything you might lose. Don’t turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to what is happening in the world today. Become aware of the needs of our world and work to bring to fruition the Kingdom of justice and love.