Even If i Walk Alone

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

Discipleship

We Categorize What We Fear

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Fear categorizes. Perfect love casts out fear. Therefore there is no categorization in love. We categorize people we fear. We categorize them as terrorists, homosexuals, liberals, conservatives, etc. When we categorize them, it means we do not love them. When we don’t love them, we are not living in the way Jesus instructed us.

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In fact we are living in a way that is totally opposed to the way Jesus did. That’s a dangerous place to be.  If we love everyone we will fear no one. Love, as God defines it, is indiscriminate and unconditional. The groups of people we are most likely to categorize are also those whom we have the most difficulty loving.
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Imitating Jesus

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The goal of every Christ follower is to live as He did. When others look at us, there should be no doubt that we are imitating Jesus. While I don’t have the data to back it up, I’m confident most people who are truly passionate about Jesus would agree with that. I am just as confident that most of us have no idea what that really means.

imitating Jesus,mission,mission of Jesus,God's character,the truth about God,commitment,discipleship,Matthew 8:20

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I know that because if we did, we wouldn’t be confusing Christianity with the American dream.  Do you really want to know what it looks like to imitate Jesus? It’s all right there in the New Testament of the Bible.
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Countercultural

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In a recent sermon, Greg Boyd said, “You can’t live out the Kingdom and not be countercultural.” Living the way Jesus lived will make you stand out from the crowd. You’ll definitely look weird compared to the standards of your society. Of course, for those of us who have committed our lives to serve Christ, we don’t mind the long stares, awkward conversations, or sometimes outright hostility.

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We understand it comes with the territory and realize the mission of Jesus is far more important than any of that. Still, too many professing Christians want to build God’s kingdom, but they want to build their own along the way.
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Living in Love

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In a recent post (see “When All is Said and Done”) I discussed how it is vital that we live our lives with an eye toward retelling our story to Jesus. This is an important concept to grasp, because each of us will one day have to give an account of our lives to Him (Romans 14:10-12).

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With that in mind, I wanted to look at practical ways we can live to ensure we have a pleasing story to tell. This isn’t a list of “do’s and don’ts”, but rather a motivation that must invade every aspect of our lives. That motivation is love.
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Heavenly Minded

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When I was growing up, you’d often hear people refer to someone else as being “so heavenly minded that they were no earthly good”. The crazy thing is that this was meant as an insult, not a compliment. Yes, there are actually Christians who think that if you become too focused on Heaven that you will actually be useless on earth.

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The way I read the Bible, the exact opposite is true.  As we become more intimately acquainted with the Spirit of God, His power explodes through us and we are able to accomplish far more than we ever imagined. And yes, we do that right here on earth because we are so Heavenly minded.
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