Even If i Walk Alone

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

Discipline

Everybody’s Preaching

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I listen to a lot of sermons, and some people tell me they couldn’t listen to that much preaching. The truth is, you are being preached to all the time. No matter what you listen to or what you watch, you are being preached to. The airwaves are full of voices pushing their ideas and influencing the way you think. Everybody’s preaching, so it comes down to what kind of preaching is flooding your mind.

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What is the character of those you are allowing to preach into your life? We have to evaluate who’s preaching to us on the websites we visit, movies we watch, music we listen to, and news we consume. This includes the social media “influencers” you might follow. As a side note, you will find the only influencers worth listening to in God’s word. Jesus alone has the words of life (John 6:67-68).

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Focus and Discipline

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The continuing decline of morality and abandonment of God in our culture and churches highlights the need for focus and discipline in our lives. We need to reorient our minds to embrace a complete focus on God while disciplining our actions and endeavors to reflect our devotion to Christ. Otherwise, we are no different from those who don’t know Jesus.

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We are called to be different, to live lives that are set apart from the world (Romans 12:2). As we observe the downward spiral of humanity, we gnash our teeth and shake our heads and fists, but we never see ourselves as part of the problem.

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Through the Lens of Christ

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What if we lived our lives viewing everything and everyone through the lens of Christ? What if we saw others the way Jesus sees them, and only engaged in activities Jesus would engage in? How might our lives be different, and how might we impact the world for the sake of the gospel and the glory of our King? Every day, we do things to further our goals and desires.

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Humanity is nothing if not self-absorbed. From the time we wake each day, we are thinking about how we look, planning what we’ll do, and talking about ourselves to others. We live our life through the lens of what we want and we do it without even thinking about it. What if we got a bit more intentional about things and kept Christ front and center?

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Secondary Issues?

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If you hang around Christians long enough, you’ll no doubt eventually hear them talking about the difference between primary and secondary issues. Various denominations and individuals will agree on the “primary” issues like the Trinity, incarnation, resurrection, and the authority of Scripture. They may disagree on what are called “secondary” issues such as modes of baptism, eschatology, and the sign gifts (in case you are unfamiliar with any of those terms, I’ve linked to some more details on each).

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More and more, we’re seeing modern “Christians” and pastors trying to place a lot of social topics into the category of secondary issues. Any time you try to justify sin by minimizing it, you are on dangerous ground. Not only will this lead many astray, but those perpetuating such nonsense are begging to have the wrath of God poured out on them.

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High Places

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As you read through the history of the kings of Israel and Judah in scripture, the first thing said about most of them is whether or not they served God. The next thing you read is what they did about the high places in the land (2 Kings 18:4, 23:8; 2 Chronicles 14:3, 31:1). These high places were where the Canaanites worshipped their pagan gods before Israel took possession of the land God promised to Abraham. To keep these places of worship intact represented rebellion and a lack of faith in Yahweh.

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Often the people would erect Asherah poles atop the high places to worship Asherah, the supposed god of fertility and nature. Both the high places and Asherah poles were detestable to God, so the best kings tore them down. Lesser kings let them stand and they became stumbling blocks for the nation. There is more than a history lesson in all this, but also a stark warning for each of our lives.

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