Even If i Walk Alone

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

John

Are Your Doing What’s Important Now?

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It’s a sad truth of life we spend our time doing things that seem important now, only to discover over time we have missed out on the things that actually are. Often parents discover in the process of working long hours to provide the best things for their families, they miss out on seeing their kids grow up. People pursue careers that bring them wealth and prestige only to recognize they have no friends at retirement.

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And Christ-followers? We spend our days pursuing the American dream, or perhaps incessantly volunteering with our church, only to discover we’ve left Jesus out of the equation. It is a tragedy being played out across our nation and throughout the world. We are spending our finite time in pursuit of things that will pass away instead of focusing on our eternal Savior.

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Counter-Cultural

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In a world that promotes self-aggrandizement and getting ahead, living life as a humble servant is truly counter-cultural. It is to invite ridicule, derision, and condescending pity from the masses. No one chooses to live this way because it is easy or socially acceptable. We choose it because Jesus told us this is the way to live. By His own example, Jesus showed although He was superior to all, He chose to be a servant to all (John 13:3-17). He told His disciples anyone who sought to get ahead would be sent to the back of the line (Matthew 19:23-30).

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In the upside-down Kingdom of God, the way to get ahead is to stop promoting yourself and begin building up others. For followers of Christ, life is not about becoming the best known or loved. It’s about serving others in such a way they might see Jesus in us and come to know Him for themselves.

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Focus and Distraction

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Do you feel as if you spend most of your time simply keeping up with the demands of life, or are you experiencing freedom and fullness? Jesus came to set us free (Luke 4:18-21) and to give us a full and abundant life (John 10:10). Knowing this, why is it so many of us feel stressed out, chained to our jobs, and like we are drowning under the weight of everything we must get done?

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I do believe we can live in the peace of Jesus even in our social media obsessed and frenetic world. But we won’t ever experience the life God intended for us to live as long as our focus is on anything or anyone other than Him.

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Be Unified

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As a people, we love to label, separate, and divide. We might expect this behavior from the world at large, but unfortunately, the Church seems to enjoy it as much as everyone else. This stands in sharp contrast to Jesus’ desire for us to be unified. When He prayed to His Father for us, his emphasis was on our unity (John 17:20-23).

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He prayed we would be unified just as He and His Father were. Do you realize how close Jesus and God the Father are? They are one and the same, flowing in and around each other to the point no separation can be found. As a body of believers, we have rarely experienced a unity anything like this.

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Casual Indifference

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I think we have the habit of not taking sin seriously enough. We all sin every day, but how much does it truly bother us? I was reading in Ezra and observed his reaction to his own sin. It says in Ezra 9:6, he was so embarrassed and ashamed of his sin he couldn’t even lift his eyes to face God. He recognized his sins and the sins of his people were higher than his head and his guilt was as high as the heavens.

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When was the last time you considered your sin like this? We are far too casual in response to our own sin. We know Jesus has paid the price for us, so no matter what we do, we’re covered. Somehow this has led us not into deeper repentance, but into casual indifference.

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