Even If i Walk Alone

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

commitment

Spirit of God

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Does it strike you as odd to read of the power of the Holy Spirit throughout the New Testament? Do you ever wish you had a healthy dose of the same spirit today? The same Spirit that permeates the pages of the New Testament, and indeed all of history, is alive and active in our world today. The reason we miss Him is we aren’t looking for Him.

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We’re so wrapped up in our own world and busyness we wouldn’t recognize the Spirit of God if He visibly showed Himself in front of our faces. Somewhere throughout the centuries, we’ve lost our sensitivity to the Spirit. Or is it perhaps we have lost the desire to truly see Him?

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Stay Focused

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The latest book by Francis Chan, “Letters to the Church” is a fantastic and convicting work that compares the modern Western church to the early Church detailed in the New Testament. This will always be a touchy topic because one feels the need to walk the tightrope between offending and convicting. I think Francis does a masterful job of doing this, but much to my delight chooses to err on the side of not worrying what anyone other than God might think.

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Early on, Pastor Chan writes, “The older I get, the more aware I am the end is near. There is no time to care about what I want in the church. There’s no time to worry about what others are looking for in a church. I will be facing Him soon, so I have to stay focused on His desires.” This is a word by which we all should be living.

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Willing to Die

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Are you willing to die for your faith? Have you ever even considered it? Would you hold fast to Jesus if someone had a knife to your throat demanding you choose to deny Christ or die? While it seems like an extreme scenario to many of us, thousands (perhaps millions) of believers live with this as their reality every day. Recently I learned before you can become a member of the church in Iran, you must sign a paper agreeing to lose your property, be thrown in jail, and die for your faith.

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If that sounds radical, consider the Church in Iran is one of the fastest growing evangelical communities in the world. The Church is expanding because they are willing to die. Contrast this with the Western church which is shrinking perhaps more than any other reason because we are not willing to die.

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What Really Matters

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What we live for matters. More specifically, who we live for matters. One day, each of us will die. We’ll face our Creator and be asked to give an account for our lives. We’ll have to answer the question of who and what we lived for. Make no mistake, Jesus already knows the answer to the question before you open your mouth. The truth is, we all know the answer today, and that should scare some of us to death. Life is not about being a “good” person or doing “good” deeds. Life is about God. Period.

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How closely our lives resemble that of Christ’s life has huge implications for where we will spend eternity. Don’t miss this. Don’t stop reading because you’ve heard this before. There is nothing more important at this moment than making certain you are living a life worthy of your calling (Ephesians 4:1-2).

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Consumed

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What would a life completely surrendered and devoted to God look like? We have so few modern examples I’m not sure we know anymore. I think we recognize it when we see it, but what would it mean for you and me to be totally consumed with Jesus Christ? Isn’t that what we want? When we surrendered our lives and will to Him, didn’t we expect to live the rest of our lives serving Him and Him alone?

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The commitment didn’t last. I know this because as I look around the world and at the country in which I live, I see scores of nominal Christians who confess their Creator with their lips but deny Him with their lives. I do it every day.

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