Even If i Walk Alone

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

I Peter

Sin

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Almost all our sins will fall into two categories. We sin because we are trying to make ourselves equal with God, or by refusing to be who God created us to be. Either way, we spend our days in rebellion, as both forms of sin deny God is who He says He is. When we make everything about us, we place ourselves on God’s throne.

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We deny the sufficiency of Christ and fall into sin when our desires overrule our surrender and our wants become needs (James 4:1-3). This has been the story of mankind since the Garden of Eden as our pride and selfishness usurp God’s authority and drive a wedge between us and our Creator (Genesis 3:4-6; Romans 1:21-23).

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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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Be Transformed

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There are many verses and phrases in the Bible that we read, but never take the time to consider what they mean. One example would be Romans 12:2, where Paul exhorts us to not be conformed to this age but to be transformed. I know we don’t understand this verse because simple observation reveals most Christians are living lives of conformity to the world rather than demonstrating any kind of transformation.

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To be a follower of Jesus demands we abandon the way things used to be and embrace the superior way of the Father (Ephesians 4:22-24; Colossians 3:9-10). Transformation is not a one-time decision; it is a lifelong change of direction that requires a 180-degree turn in every area of our lives (Luke 9:23; 2 Corinthians 5:17). We turn from our desires and towards God’s holy plan.

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