Even If i Walk Alone

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

Discipleship

Black and White

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God’s Word is not ambiguous. Humans add ambiguity when they don’t like what it says, so they try to twist it to mean what they want it to say. Reading the Bible should make you feel a little uncomfortable. It’s called the conviction of sin. When reading God’s Word, we instinctively know what is wrong in our life. If we keep reading, we will see God has the solution for everything wrong inside us — His Son Jesus.

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But following Jesus isn’t easy in this world. It’s not because He imposes a lot of rules and requirements on us, but because we want to hold on to what the world offers. We want to fit in, to belong. The Word of God is clear on this. You will either serve God or you will serve the things of this world (Matthew 6:24). It’s black and white, with no gray around the edges.

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Time is Fleeting

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In recent days, I’ve again been struck by how fleeting time is and how incumbent upon us it is to make the most of it. I’ve written previously on this topic (see “Time Keeps on Slipping”, “Time is Running Out”, and “Time is Short”) but am compelled to do so again because when I look at my life and the lives of other believers around me, I am convinced we still don’t get it. We are here for only a little while. In consideration of eternity, our lives don’t even register as a blip on the radar.

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James tells us our life is like smoke, appearing for a moment and then quickly vanishing (James 4:14) Most of us, especially when we are younger, think little of death and feel somewhat invincible. Nothing could be further from the truth. Our outlook on time matters when we are endeavoring to live as disciples of Jesus.

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Test the Spirits

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1 John 4 begins with a somewhat curious phrase. John encourages the hearers of his letter to “test the spirits”. First, this implies there are many spirits. In our churches today, it is common to hear about the Holy Spirit, but there is often little attention paid to the other spirits in our world. We ignore these other spirits at our peril. Behind every false teaching, you will find a demonic source.

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Yes, demons are real. They exist and flood the spiritual realm surrounding us. When we go along with false teaching, we are following demons. How’s that for a sobering thought? If we are not careful in examining the teaching we are listening to, there is a very good chance we aren’t being taught God’s truth at all. Instead of growing in our faith, we are opening our minds to demonic influences.

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The Long View

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The world takes the short view of things, but Christians must take the long view. It’s another way of saying followers of Christ must live with an eternal rather than temporal perspective. While we should cherish every moment entrusted to us by God, we must live in such a way as to always be living for what will matter 10,000 years from now, not what will matter tomorrow.

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Life as a Jesus follower should never be about instant gratification or momentary pleasure. We have an eternal purpose and must live accordingly. Don’t get caught up in the things of this world and seek to improve your place in it. Instead, train your desires toward things that last and will glorify God.

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Aliens and Strangers

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We’re aliens and strangers in this world (1 Peter 2:11). When we turned our lives over to Jesus, we became homeless in this world and began longing for our true home with Christ (1 Corinthians 5:1-3). The closer we draw to Jesus, the more we recognize how out of place we are in this world. Our desires do not match those of society. Our actions often fly in the face of earthly logic and common sensibilities.

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There is a constant sense of being different, of not fitting in here. We don’t feel at home because this world is not our home. We only find peace in the presence of Jesus because He is our home. Having our eyes awakened to spiritual reality, the physical and temporal world can never again captivate us. Indeed, we have become a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17).

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