Even If i Walk Alone

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

Love

Kindness and Compassion

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As followers of Jesus, one of our hallmarks is to show kindness and compassion to everyone we meet. Jesus modeled this beautifully when He was here on earth. He had compassion on the weak, the sick and the criminal. He showed kindness to the poor, the outcast, and the foreigner. Ephesians 4:32 tells us we should be kind, compassionate, and forgiving of one another. In Colossians 3:12-13 we read that not only are we to show kindness and compassion to each other, but also to be gentle, humble and accepting. Living life in such a manner would be a beautiful reflection of God. We want to live a life that looks like Jesus, so why is it so hard to behave in this way?

Forgiveness is always difficult. Our reaction to being hurt, whether emotionally or physically, seems to always be to respond in kind. It takes great discipline and maturity to restrain from lashing out. Above all, it takes great love to react appropriately. Unless we truly love others, we will never be able to successfully and consistently forgive them. Love is the key and the enabler of forgiveness. Further on in Ephesians (chapter 5, verse 2), we are instructed to walk in love, just as Jesus walked in love. Jesus loved us so much that He sacrificed everything He was for each one of us. This is true beauty. Without love, everything else is useless (see I Corinthians 13). Without love we cannot clearly demonstrate kindness and compassion; you can’t fake these things. When you offer a helping hand to someone, if it’s not genuine, it will more than likely be dismissed. No one wants to be condescended to and few will want your pity. Genuine kindness, however, is a rare and beautiful thing with almost universal acceptance.

What can you do today to demonstrate kindness to someone else? Ask the Lord to burn compassion deep into your heart, so that you may see others as He sees them. As Bob Pierce prayed years ago, beg God to break your heart with the things that break His. When your heart is broken by what you see, don’t weep and pass by; don’t simply become angry at the injustice that surrounds you. Rather, compassionately embrace the hurt that is front of you. Offer and employ genuine assistance out of pure kindness. Do the thing that Jesus would do; touch the untouchable, hug someone who smells of life on the street, and care for the needs of someone less fortunate than you.

Becoming angry at injustice is a good thing if the response is genuine and winsome. We mustn’t respond to injustice with hate, but rather with love. Compassion does not need to be a passive word. Compassion mixed with zeal can rescue children from the horrors of trafficking and can feed hungry refugees displaced from their homes by natural disaster or national genocide. Kindness and compassion require the active verb of love before they can be fully engaged. Without love, our actions are worthless. Without action, our love is hollow and disingenuous.

A simple smile, a small gesture or an out of the blue compliment can do wonders for the outlook of another. In a world filled with pain and sorrow, a little kindness will go a long way. Never become too busy to notice the needs of those around you. Never become so self-absorbed that you become blind to those in need to whom you can show compassion. Discipline yourself to never let an opportunity to be the hands and feet of Jesus pass you by. They will know we are Christians by our love. Love is activated by our kindness and compassion toward others. Make certain you find someone to love today.

Finding Your Calcutta

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I write a lot about poverty around the world, and our duty as followers of Christ to do all that we can to eliminate it. To be certain, it is vitally important to support the ministries doing the work in far away countries, so please do not misinterpret what I’m about to say. It’s easy to write a check to send around the world. It’s clean, it doesn’t affect our own life too much, and it’s a very safe thing to do. To actually go to one of these places on a short term mission’s trip is a little more difficult; it’s dirty, it smells bad and it’s inconvenient. You might even find yourself in a little danger. But it’s all very temporary. Soon you will be back in your warm bed, sleeping soundly in your safe neighborhood. You may be changed forever, or you may soon forget the things you saw there. Those who live and work in those countries and environments are true heroes of the faith. They have taken the call to be the hands and feet of Jesus to its full extent, forsaking their own comfort and safety in order to shine the love of Jesus on those less fortunate than them. The mistake we often make is in not realizing that we have the opportunity to live the same kind of life without ever leaving our own cities.

I live in Indianapolis, one of the largest metropolitan areas in the country. Within twenty-five minutes I can drive from one of the most affluent counties in America onto streets that are lined on both sides with broken down houses occupied by worn out people. If I drive just a few more minutes, I can see underpasses that serve as shelter for those who have no homes. On the streets of my well to do city I see the hollow eyes and hopeless stares of those with no job, no food, no housing and no hope. When asked by others how they might be able to work alongside her, Mother Theresa was often known to respond, “Find your own Calcutta”. Many of us will never travel to another country, and perhaps others will never have the funds to support an overseas ministry. But we can all find our own Calcutta. It’s in the streets of our downtowns, it’s on the rural farms on the outskirts of our counties, and it’s quite possibly in the very neighborhood where we live.

Our current economy has turned the world upside down for a lot of people. Those who owned beautiful homes just two years ago find themselves out of work, foreclosed on and wondering where they will find the money for their next meal. Still others have long ago become disenfranchised and now see life on the street as their only means of survival. These are human beings, exactly like you and me. The homeless are not lazy, ignorant or of a lower class. The poor are not poor because they choose to be. If you hold any of these stereotypes, I highly encourage you to study the subject of homelessness and poverty in America. Read books like “Same Kind of Different as Me”, “Under the Overpass”, and “Street Lives”. Take the time to engage someone less fortunate than yourself in conversation; get to know them and understand their life. Poverty is a vicious cycle, often handed down from generation to generation. It destroys the self image and can become its own self-fulfilling prophecy. Those in need are not different from you and me – they are you and me.

Jesus chose to spend the majority of His time with the poor and the sick. Most of us who claim to be His followers spend almost no time with people in these circumstances. While Jesus claimed it was not the healthy but the sick that needed the doctor, we instead choose to only cater to those with little need. James, the brother of Jesus said that true religion, religion approved by God, was to look after the orphans, the widows and those that are in need. Are you a true follower of Jesus or are you simply seeking a ticket to keep you out of Hell? A true follower of Jesus will serve those He served, and live the life He commands us to live. The single mother who cannot make ends meet is our modern day widow. The homeless person, who has no one to whom he can turn and no place to go, is our orphan. The poor, the hungry and the sick are those in need and it is they whom we must serve. Where is your Calcutta? Find it; it’s right down your street.

Note: This article is a part of the first edition of Here’s Life Inner City’s (www.hlic.org) iHope Blog Carnival. For more information and to read other entries that focus on homelessness and poverty, click here!

Kicking the Christians Out

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What are you concerned with in your life? What drives you to get up each day? Who are you becoming? These questions shape our character, the essence of who we are. Over the past couple of weeks I have found myself among Christians, yet I’ve never been so frustrated or heartbroken. Call me naïve, but I used to think that Christians and followers of Jesus were one in the same. That illusion was shattered several years ago, but it has become magnified of late for me. Let me explain what I see as the difference.

A follower of Jesus is one who is passionately in love with Christ, the Son of God. They will go anywhere and do anything for Him. Their hearts are broken by the dependency of the widows and elderly, by the desperation of the single mother and by the hollow eyes of the homeless. Followers of Jesus show compassion and love to everyone they meet, doing so in the name of Jesus. They share the good news of Jesus whenever they have opportunity to do so. A true follower of Jesus is humble, thinks of others first and possesses impeccable integrity. People are drawn to them because of the light that shines from them, a light that is the very reflection of God. This is what a follower of Jesus looks like, because this is what Jesus looks like.

In contrast, a Christian appears to be one who prayed a magic prayer at some point in their life, probably went forward in a church service to proclaim their faith, and more than likely got baptized in some water. If they are a really good Christian, they then become involved in a ministry or two at their church and eventually teach a Sunday school class or become an usher. The really super Christians may even become deacons or elders in their church. Their speech, dress and attitude are always wonderful for an hour or two each Sunday. Catch them during the week, however, and you’ll find a different story. These types of people compartmentalize their life. One compartment is neatly packed with their Sunday life, while another compartment is stuffed and bursting at the seams with their lives outside of church. Even at church you will hear conversations of negativity, jealousy, rumor spreading and disenfranchisement. Ephesians 4:29 states that, “No rotten talk should come from your mouth, but only what is good for the building up of someone in need.” In verse 31 of the same chapter we see that “All bitterness, anger and wrath, insult and slander must be removed from you, along with all wickedness.” Does this sound like the folks at your church? My guess is that it does not because our Western churches are filled with Christians instead of followers of Jesus.

When I was younger, churches and towns had “revival meetings” every so often. For the uninitiated, these were generally week long meetings held in churches or tents where an out of town speaker would visit and bring a message of repentance. I must be honest, as a youngster I dreaded being dragged along to these meetings. The purpose of the meetings was to shake the local Christians awake, to remind them of their true calling, and I think, to scare the daylights out of those in attendance. Perhaps we need to start having these meetings again. Christians in our churches are in such a malaise that it’s about time that they were shaken awake and scared back to the reality of the seriousness of their choices. We need to rekindle the flame of passion for loving God and telling others about His love. We need to repent of the religion of Christianity and turn to a life of following Jesus.

Let’s kick the Christians out of our churches. Let’s not be afraid to see our numbers drop until all that’s left are true followers of Jesus. Just as He stated in Matthew 12:30, we are either for Him or against Him. A religious life of platitudes and bickering is not a life that is for Jesus. It’s not why He came, and it is not a life to which we’ve been called. These are the salt that has lost its savor; these are the lukewarm. Do everything you can to never fall into that lifestyle. Instead, renew your commitment to Jesus today; determine from this moment forward that you will follow Him wherever He goes, and that you will imitate whatever He does. God has no use for meaningless religion and neither should we. Repent, follow Jesus, love God and serve people. Surrender all that you are and become a true follower of Jesus.

Humility, Patience and Love

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Humility is a hard thing in a selfish world. As the old saying goes, “It’s hard to be humble when you’re so great!” The entire world around us is conditioned to self-centeredness, and we have bought in fully. To be certain, humility does not come naturally. We like to be the center of attention and to receive credit or recognition. As long as we see ourselves as the most important person in the world, we will never achieve humility. The key to being humble is to see others as more significant than you. True humility occurs when you see yourself as the servant to all, not just to a select few. Jesus was humble beyond belief. He who had more power than anyone who ever walked this earth was not too proud to wash dirty feet, touch filthy sores or to remain stoic in the face of false accusations. As with all things, Christ is our model. If He could be humble in every circumstance, then so must we.

Patience is incredibly difficult for some, and I often struggle with it. We have grown up in a world that has become increasingly “instant”. My generation has seen (so far) the advent of the personal computer, the microwave oven, the internet, the iPod, etc. I could go on and on. Every new invention seems to be geared to providing instantly what once took considerably longer to achieve. We no longer need to wait for food, entertainment or answers; they are all at our fingertips. Advertising has become a blur of images made to match (and quicken) our pulse. The world is frenetic, somewhat chaotic and ever changing. It is everything except patient. I don’t know if it was easier for earlier generations to be patient, but it certainly seems like it would have been. I have often yearned for a simpler, slower life. It seems as if this world will no longer allow it, yet still some seem to achieve it. What is the secret? How can we learn to be patient? Jesus, again, is the answer (are you sensing a theme?). He taught us to take the long view of things, to keep everything in perspective. This is the key I believe. Things that we must wait for are always sweeter than something acquired in an instant. Without patience there is a lack of appreciation. There is no bar to achievement so there is little keeping us from later easily discarding the very same thing we once “had to have”. I believe that something truly worth having is something worth waiting for; we will then have a greater appreciation for it, and we will cherish and care for what God has entrusted to us. We rarely think of impatient people as attractive; on the other hand, patient people are beautiful. They have a quiet grace about them. I believe this is why we are instructed to model this trait.

Loving one another is an old subject for those of us who have chosen to follow Jesus. We must be careful not to simply gloss over the word. Jesus said we are to love Him with all of our heart and soul. This is the same love we are to give to others as well. Its one thing to give total devotion to our Lord (though if we are honest, we must admit we fail far more often than not); it is quite another thing to love a total stranger with the kind of love that dictates you would die for them. Yet this is central to being an authentic follower of Jesus. Without love, our words are useless; our actions are futile. God is beautiful because He is love. We are to reflect the glory and beauty of Christ. We can only do this if we model His love to others. Without love, you may as well not even strive for the other areas of Christ’s mission. Without love, all else is wasted and useless. Judging others is something we all do far too frequently. Jesus told us not to judge, but rather to love. Never look at anyone else as something less than yourself. Accept everyone just as they are: beautiful creations of God. Each one of us was created for a purpose and to bring glory to God. We are invaluable and priceless, each one of us. Not one soul has any more worth than another; nor do they possess any less worth. We are truly equal in God’s eyes. Show love to one another; accept every person recognizing what a marvelous creation they are. By accepting and loving others, we bring glory to God. We love as He loves.

By modeling the traits of Jesus, by incorporating His habits into our own lives, we will glorify Him and reflect His light to others. These three traits – humility, patience and love – will go a long way toward transforming your life into one that looks like Jesus. Determine to begin to work on each of these areas in your own life. Speak the words to yourself as you go throughout your day, especially in times when you are tempted to respond in a way that is contrary to these attributes. Choose to respond as Jesus would. Repeat daily. As you pursue Jesus and the life He lived, you will find that demonstrating humility, patience and love become wonderful habits in your life. In this way you will glorify God and prove yourselves worthy of the calling you have received (Ephesians 4:1, 2).

Christianity is Losing Market Share

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A new book just hitting the shelves compares the eight major religions of the world, and attempts to explain why their differences matter. I haven’t yet read the book, so I have no further comment on the book at this time. However, in an interview given by the author, he made the claim that “Christianity is losing market share”. I’m not criticizing his answer or even his choice of words, but it is odd to think of Christianity in the business terms of “market share”. Regardless, the point is clear. Our world is growing rapidly, and the people in it are finding other religions more attractive to them than Christianity. My only question is, “Why”?

There is no doubt in my mind that Jesus Christ is the truth, and the only way to God is through Jesus. Why then, would so many seek to find an alternate path that Christ has already stated simply does not exist? I believe part of the problem is that Jesus never intended to start a religion, much less one that would become one of the “eight great religions” of the world. He came to abolish religion, to put an end to our striving, our rituals and our piety. He came to replace ritual with obedience and judgmentalism with grace. He came to replace condemnation with love.

If Christianity is indeed “losing market share”, perhaps it is because we who call ourselves Christians are perverting the very message Christ came to deliver. We reek of piety and drip with pharisaical tendencies. Instead of extending grace to all as Jesus did, we have become known for choosing a select group of sins at which to wail and gnash our teeth. Adultery and homosexuality are seen as one way tickets out of the “church”, and prominent Christian leaders have proclaimed that the scourge of AIDS is God’s way of dealing with the sexual sins. Where is the love and compassion of Jesus in that message? The message of Jesus has been co-opted into a man-made religion that bears little resemblance to its namesake.

Jesus came to abolish religious rituals and to promote instead a personal relationship between God and man. No longer did one need to do and say all the right things or dress in a certain manner. Jesus accepted everyone, regardless of their background, occupation or lifestyle. There was no interview process for His disciples. Jesus didn’t spend time getting to know these individuals beforehand. He simply told them to follow Him. He told them to follow Him from the very place that they were, not to get cleaned up first, not to go pray about it. All He said was, “Follow Me.”. Over the years we have added onto this command a plethora of dos, don’ts and rituals. We have perverted the simplicity of His message.

Perhaps worst of all we have ceased to love. We are really good at offering entertainment choices and building beautiful facilities in which to gather, but we have become pathetically lackadaisical when it comes to loving others. People all over the world are starving. Over half the world earns less than $2 per day. Clean water is unavailable to huge masses around the globe. Meanwhile we build comfortable café’s and feature large screen projector screens throughout our churches. We are replete with cash but bankrupt in love. We have become diametrically opposed to the message of Jesus. The greatest commandment of all, as stated by Jesus in Mark 12:30-31, is to love God with all of our hearts, and to love everyone else in the same manner. Membership has become more important than service. Love has taken a back seat to religion.

Is Christianity truly losing market share? I don’t know, but there appears to be some proof to that conclusion. To be perfectly blunt, I’m okay with that. What the world needs is fewer Christians and more people willing to be followers of Jesus. In too many circles, Christianity has indeed become just another one of the religions of the world, one that does little to help anyone. The positive changes are coming from those brave and dedicated souls who are simply following Jesus, who have given their lives entirely to Him, and are living out His mission to the world. These are the people with whom I identify. Perhaps it’s okay to let Christianity wither and decline. Instead, let’s be about doing the things that Jesus told us to do and living a life that looks like His. True followers of Jesus are people who show grace and mercy to all, people who don’t judge others for their sin but accept them as they are. True followers of Jesus care for the needs of the sick, the poor and the hungry. Above all, a true follower of Jesus is marked by love, the greatest commandment of all. If we don’t have love, then we have nothing at all. Perhaps that is the very reason for the decline of modern Christianity. Love is the highest call, and Jesus is the only answer. Nothing else matters.