Even If i Walk Alone

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

I John

Who is Your Master?

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No matter how independent we might like to think we are, each of us serves one master or another in this life. The only question is, who is your master? Peter teaches we are all slaves to whatever defeats us (2 Peter 2:19). We all have our vices and are subject to them at different points in our lives. Perhaps it would be better to ask, “What is your master?”

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But we can always trace the “what” back to a “who”. We know that all good things come from Christ (James 1:17) and that every lie finds its source in Satan (John 8:44). If we are slaves to certain lusts, desires, and passions, then our master is the devil (1 John 3:8). But if we keep ourselves pure and hold true to the gospel of Jesus, then He is indeed our Lord and Master (John 14:21; Romans 6:22).

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Get Ready

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Jesus is coming back and we better get ready. Scripture makes it clear that His coming will be unexpected (Matthew 24:36). It’s going to shock everyone because we aren’t living our lives in eager anticipation of His return (1 Thessalonians 5:2-6). Since you got out of bed this morning, how many times have you thought about the fact that this could be it? You might see Jesus in the very next minute!

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Most days, we would have to answer that we have given little thought to it at all. Sure, on an intellectual level we recognize the possibility He could come back today, but that’s a far cry from eagerly anticipating it (Philippians 3:19-21)! Why are we not more excited about the coming of our salvation? Is it because we’ve become enamored with this world?

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Be Holy

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Never underestimate the wisdom of those who came before us. Today’s messaging is slick, and the messengers are even slicker, but most of what passes for wisdom these days is fluff and void of any scriptural moorings. There is great value to be gleaned from those voices from the past. Consider this from the writings of J. C. Ryle:

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“Sin never announces itself to us with its full intentions. It never says, ‘I am your deadly enemy and I want to ruin you forever in Hell’. It shows its pleasure but hides its pain; shows its sparkle, but hides its death.” None of us is immune from sin’s deception. To survive, we must heed the Lord’s command to be holy, just as He is holy (1 Peter 1:15-16).

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Outside Influences

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When monitoring the outside influences in your life, it’s easy to concentrate so much on things like entertainment and secular activities that we forget one of the most common avenues Satan uses to trip us up comes from within the church. When I was growing up, the list of preachers with world-wide recognition was short. It began and ended with Billy Graham. There were traveling evangelists that were well known in certain regions and countries, but on a global scale, there wasn’t a long list.

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Today, we have a phenomenon known as the celebrity pastor. These are pastors of large churches who have leveraged social media, the internet, and books to build a platform for themselves. Notice the platform they are building is amplifying their name, and that doesn’t always translate into glorifying God’s name. The result is we now have many preachers who are world famous.

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Make No Plans

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Studying the second half of the book of Romans this month, one verse keeps poking me when I read it. Romans 13:14 says, “But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no plans to satisfy the fleshly desires.” It’s convicting because how often do we make plans to satisfy those very desires of the flesh the Lord admonishes us not to?

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We are always making plans to do something, go somewhere, or become someone. How many of those plans center on bringing or giving glory to God? If you’re like me, not many. We design almost all our plans to fulfill the desires of our flesh rather than to further the Kingdom of God. There are exceptions, of course, but that they are the exceptions should tell us we have a problem.

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