Even If i Walk Alone

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

Discipleship

Personal Transformation

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We all want to make an impact for Jesus in this world. It is a mark of the true disciple. Perhaps you’ve been discouraged by your lack of effectiveness in making a difference for Christ. You wonder what is keeping you from doing more. I think Frank Viola has hit on one possibility. He said, “Our impact for Christ on others will be limited by our own personal transformation.”

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No matter how sincere our desire or intent, we will never exceed our own transformation into the image of Christ. We will never be able to replicate that which we have not yet duplicated. In other words, our impact will be limited by how much our own lives look like that of Jesus.

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Spend Our Time

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I recently came across a concept which resonated deeply with me. The thought, in a nutshell, is to realize we never spend money, only time. What a revolutionary way to think! Most of us work jobs where we spend our time in exchange for money. Every dollar we recirculate is the result of the time we spent beforehand. Charles Spezzano was the originator of this philosophy. He said: “People don’t pay for things with money; they pay for them with time.

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If you say to yourself, ‘In five years, I’ll have put away enough to buy that vacation house’, then what you are really saying is that the house will cost you five years – one-twelfth of your adult life.” Wow. What if we weighed all our purchases in what they cost us in time? In fact, let’s make it even more personal in how it relates to how we spend our lives for God.

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No One Gets a Pass

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I don’t know if it’s the way I’m wired, or I developed into this over time, but I am a driven and goal-oriented person. I believe I’m here for a purpose, not just to drift through life. It doesn’t even make sense to me God would create us to pass through life without intention. The apostle Paul told us we have all been created for specific work (Ephesians 2:10).

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So, even if you don’t consider yourself to be driven or goal-oriented, it’s important to understand no one gets a pass when it comes to living their lives for Jesus. Each follower of Christ is mission-bound to live with purpose and intention. It’s how Jesus lived and how we must also if we are serious about living as His disciple and patterning our lives after His.

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Forsake Everything

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To be a true disciple of Jesus requires us to forsake everything. Nothing can be left on the table. Nothing can remain in our hands. I don’t think most so-called Christians get this. They’ve no doubt heard it, but living it is another matter entirely. And let’s be honest here, we probably don’t do this so well ourselves. I am thankful God looks at the attitude of our hearts over the actions of our hands. He knows we will never attain perfection until we join Him in the next life.

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What He looks for, what He longs for in us, is a relentless pursuit of learning to look like Jesus. While never an excuse to fail, as long as we are following God with all our heart, mind, strength, and soul, He will be pleased. Now back to this idea of forsaking everything…

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Go All the Way

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While apparently never finding truth himself, Buddha is credited with a wise quote I find applicable to our Christian walk. It is reported he said, “There are two mistakes one can make along the road to truth…not going all the way, and not starting”. How tragic it is for anyone who never embarks on a journey of pursuing Christ. I don’t understand it. I can’t even conceive how they get through a single day.

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I find believing in anything but Jesus requires far too much faith and suspension of disbelief. But that is all fodder for a different article. Since I’m assuming most if not all the readers of this blog believe Jesus is indeed the Son of God, I want to focus on those who begin their faith journey but quit too soon.

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