Even If i Walk Alone

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

Discipleship

A Scared World

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When the modern world seems overwhelming, it’s always good to look back on the giants from our past for a little wisdom and perspective. A. W. Tozer once said, “A scared world needs a fearless church.” I’m sure there have been periods in the last couple thousand years where this was truer than today, but it is timely and necessary wisdom we should heed. At least in my lifetime, I’ve never seen the world be more scared.

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Suicide rates are climbing rapidly. Turning on the news will only leave you frightened and depressed (I recommend you turn it off!). Fear is everywhere: fear of a global pandemic, fear of rioting, fear of job loss, fear of economic ruin, fear of government… the list goes on and on. We are living in a scared world in desperate need of hope.

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Dying to Live

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Disciples of Jesus know they must take up their cross daily. But do you understand what that means? No one survives the cross. Not even the physical body of Jesus. The cross is an unequivocal representation of death. To pick up our cross daily necessitates that we die each day. Every day we must completely surrender what we want to do. All our hopes, dreams and ambitions are dead to us. Every relationship is dead. The cross spares nothing.

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As you die to self, the cross strips everything away. We can hold on to nothing. It all goes. Every day. I’d wager few of us live like this. How many of us even pick up our cross? At best, we give it a casual glance before continuing with our plans. Very few of us are dying to live each day. If this is as true for you as it is for me, we are a long way from being able to call ourselves disciples of Jesus.

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Redeem the Time

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Getting older proves to be a diligent reminder of how little time we have on this earth. Despite youthful delusions, we are finite and will all die. For followers of Jesus, this is not a morbid thought but a cause for celebration. At the same time, it is a sobering realization that there is much work for us to do and little time in which to do it. It is also a call to action.

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Our time has never been our own, but we live as if it were. Every breath has been given to us by our masterful Creator, and it is our responsibility to steward it well. Time is short and growing shorter. The mission is urgent. If we do not redeem the time for God’s purposes, we risk dying with our work unfulfilled, our service wasted. This need not be the way it goes.

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The Life of a Disciple

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Every day we must choose whether we will follow Jesus. There are so many things that pull at us as we go throughout our day. Things we enjoy, things we’d like to purchase, and various ways to relax. Life is hard, and sometimes we just want to zone out and not do anything. But this isn’t an option in the life of a disciple. We are to live our lives like that of Jesus.

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We don’t get days off, and we shouldn’t want them. Every second of our lives, time is ticking down. Time is running out to tell others about Jesus. If we don’t act today – and every day – we could be responsible for someone not hearing about Christ.

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A Higher Standard

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Maybe it’s just me. You won’t find it explicitly in the Bible, and I will be the last to add anything to the Word of God. Still, it appears it is at least implied that disciples of Jesus should live their lives held to a higher standard. After all, our model is none other than Jesus Christ. How could we help but live dramatically different lives than those around us? It’s what He did.

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We too easily surrender to the malaise of Western Christianity and forget the purpose of our lives. Our mission is to tell everyone the good news of Jesus. It’s to look after the orphans, widows, sick, impoverished, and imprisoned (James 1:27; Matthew 25:31-46). And we are to do these things with excellence (Colossians 3:23-24).

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