Even If i Walk Alone

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

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Are You Afraid?

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Are you afraid of what’s going on in the world? The amount of what looks like unrestrained evil does give one pause. Most people are afraid of something: death, financial ruin, assault, business crisis, family conflict, marriage woes, and the list could go on and on. As a whole, our culture is full of anxiety, depression, stress, and mental delusion.

Some days it’s difficult not to be afraid of where this is all leading. Of course, we have confidence that God is in control no matter how out of control the world seems to be (Psalm 103:19; Daniel 4:35). But sometimes that confidence gets a little shaky and seems a bit removed from our day-to-day needs and experiences. There is a solution to this overwhelming fear.

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God’s Abhorrence of Sin

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In Egypt and many other countries, Christian girls and women are vulnerable and susceptible to rape, marriage, and forced conversions to Islam. To think of young girls not over eight or nine years old experiencing such horrors, it is easy to understand God’s abhorrence of sin. Human trafficking has always been a sin that pushes my buttons and engenders heated wrath in an instant.

My guess is we all have certain sins that make us angrier than others. Should it be like that? Shouldn’t all sin be as abhorrent to us as it is to God? Forget the sins of others; every sin we commit should generate the same hatred we feel towards the most horrifying sins.

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Beware of False Teachers

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Matthew 7:15-20

Anyone can talk a good game, but what their life produces reveals what is in their hearts. False teachers almost always live lavish lifestyles, consumed with the things of this world, and attempting to keep one foot on earth and the other in Heaven. This, of course, is not possible (Matthew 6:24; 1 John 2:15-17). What a man says is not a good indicator of who he is. It’s what his life produces for the kingdom that is a good indicator.

Beware of false teachers who attempt to drag you into their deception (Colossians 2:8). They are those who think they know Jesus, but He doesn’t know them (Matthew 7:21–23). Their teaching will leave you even worse off than they are (Matthew 23:15), and no closer to eternity in Christ.

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Don’t Just Listen

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We live in an age of incredible blessing. There are so many resources at our fingertips with which to study God’s Word. There are books, videos, websites, audio programs, and a plethora of churches where we can find God’s Word taught and expounded. Each of us could fill our days watching and hearing God’s Word preached and never run out of programming.

Woman clutching her Bible determined to have the focus and disipline to not just listen to the Word of God but to live out the commitment to obey it in discipleship to Christ through prayer and Bible study

Every one of us has the potential to know God in a deep and rewarding way. But don’t just listen to solid teaching. If you do that, you will go away not much different than you are today. The Word of God should not be background noise, something that plays throughout the day without ever penetrating any further than our ears (Ezekiel 33:31-32; Matthew 13:13-14). How dare we glance at the very Word of God with such casualness?

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Stay Alert

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Complacency is one of the biggest threats to growing deeper in our relationship with Christ. Taking our eyes off Jesus for only a moment can reap disastrous and long-lasting results. Too often we treat our faith with a casualness that belies its eternal significance. Modern evangelicalism has so watered down the gospel to cater to our individual whims and desires that we think of Christianity as a lifestyle rather than the spiritual war it is.

Man determined to stay alert and on mission by setting his focus on discipleship and ordering his priorities around prayer and discipline

Ask any soldier what happens if you get complacent in battle and they will assure you that you will wind up dead. If you want to live a life that honors Jesus, you must stay alert. This isn’t a game. It’s an ongoing battle for the destiny of your soul.

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