Even If i Walk Alone

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

Love

Words that Require Action

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The topics I write about on this blog are intended to prompt action. If they are just words, or perhaps even clever thoughts, then there is no point. Reading how we should follow Christ, if left at simply reading, produces nothing. We are called to movement. We are the hands and feet of Jesus, and hands and feet are both instruments of action; they are instruments of change. Clay gripped by the hands is never the same again; neither is a soul whose has experienced our helping hands. When we walk, we end up in a place that is different from where we were before; so it is when we venture forward in love. Everything changes when we take action. Nothing changes if we simply are aware of what we should be doing.

Just as it’s easy to read and be unchanged, it is also easy to write and be unchanged. It is sad if you read these words and do nothing. It is absolutely tragic if I write the words and leave it at that. With knowledge comes responsibility. We can never claim that we were unaware of what we were supposed to do. If you don’t want the responsibility, stop reading now! Lock away your Bible and burn your books. But if you would follow Christ, if you would serve the one who gave His life for you, keep reading. Then get up and put the words into action. We are indeed the called, and to what are we called? Action! We are called to serve and love everyone with whom we come into contact. We are called to identify with the poor by sharing what we have with them. We are called to care for the orphans and widows by taking them in as one of our own family. To love and to serve cannot be passive events; both require action.

One of my favorite authors, Ken Blanchard, loves to say “None of us is as smart as all of us.” If I may take a small liberty, I propose that none of us is as strong as all of us; none of us can accomplish as much as all of us. Here is my challenge, my desperate request: take what you read here and in other writings like this and apply what you learn. Put action behind the words; be the hands and feet of the message. We desperately need each other. Let us put our hands together to accomplish much, and let us put our feet together to walk further than we ever could alone. You are not alone, and neither am I. Christianity is a team sport; it can be no other way.

Are you willing? Can I count on you? I promise that you can count on me. I will be there, holding high the flame of Christ. We all get tired, but together we can press on. So my prayer is that you will join me in actively pursuing Christ. My prayer is that I will passionately, desperately devote my life to Him and all He is, and do so with utter abandon. I want to love. I want to serve. Are you in?

The Delicate Balance of Faith and Works

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Faith without works is no faith at all. Works without faith are ultimately worthless. Faith demonstrated by works, work driven by faith, is the most beautiful display in all of humanity. Therein lays the delicate balance.

Over the past century, there has been much said about the controversial balance between works and faith. Some denominations pursue a salvation through works theology; others preach a grace only doctrine, while still others endlessly seek the balance between the two. Everyone has scriptures to supposedly validate their particular point of view. As with many issues in the church today, it becomes increasingly difficult to block out the noise and determine what the true answer actually is. And as with many issues facing the church today, we are overcomplicating the issue.

In Ephesians 2:8-9, we are told that our salvation is a result of the grace of God. In Ephesians 2:10 we are commanded to demonstrate our salvation by doing the works Christ commands us to do. In James 2:14-17, we see that if we are not demonstrating our faith by doing the things that Jesus did, and by doing the things that Jesus told us to do, then our faith is not valid! You can not be a true disciple of Christ, a true follower, and not do the things He told us to do. As we have covered many times in the past, the things Jesus told us to do were to care for the orphans, the homeless, the widows, the single mothers and those in poverty. We’re to give food to the hungry, drink to the thirsty, visit those in prison, clothe the ones in need and look after the sick. And lest we forget, we are told to tell everyone about Jesus.

Are you demonstrating your faith by engaging in the activities above? If not, what exactly is the faith you claim to have? James says it’s dead; Jesus sends people away from His presence if they do not engage in the work He gave them to do. It’s not enough to simply know the name of Christ; demons know the name of Christ (James 2:19), proving simply knowing Jesus, simply believing in who He is, is not enough. If you believe that simply knowing Him and believing in His message will guarantee you a place in Heaven, you are very sadly mistaken. Scripture does not support this idea; in fact it warns against it. By the same measure, doing the things Christ told us to do without truly believing He is who said He was will also leave you on the outside looking in.

The only way to Heaven is by accepting the grace of God through His son Jesus and then to go out and live the life Christ intended for us. We must have this balance if we expect to see Him again. He has given us much, and He asks for the same. Follow Him and you will have eternal life. Following someone is not a passive activity. To follow is to pursue. To pursue requires a choice to do so, and focus. So where are you? Do you have faith in God but are doing nothing to demonstrate that fact? Are you doing everything that Christ told His followers to do, but doing it because you think He was simply a fine teacher and man of peace? Or have you found the delicate balance between faith and works? Do you love Him and follow that up with service to Him because of your love for Him? Prayerfully determine to which camp you belong. Don’t wait until it’s too late to be about your mission. The grace of God has redeemed you to do incredible things for the kingdom. Bask in God’s grace as you cheerfully and humbly do the work He has for you. Discover the delicate balance and live.

Is Your Life Loud Enough?

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I have a prayer calendar for the persecuted church, positioned in such a way that I see it several times each day. The calendar is put out by The Voice of the Martyrs, and each day has a prayer request for someone in a country that does not allow freedom of religion. Some of the requests are heart breaking, but all remind me of the courage of the believers in these countries. It is often hard to know exactly how to pray for these brave men and women. I am tempted to pray for total freedom of religion in their country. Then I remember that here in America we have religious freedom and the church is withering. The same is true for England, although withering is too kind of a term for what has happened to the church there. Yet in the countries without religious freedom, Christianity is thriving, growing at an incredible pace. How can this be? Christianity has a rich history of persecution. It is always through this persecution that the message of Christ spreads. The way these believers have endured trials you and I can scarcely imagine has spoken volumes to those involved in persecuting them. To pray that these countries would obtain religious liberty is to perhaps doom them to the fate of the Church in the Western world. So I generally pray that the believers there would be strengthened with the power of Christ, that they would be courageous and bold, and above all, that their love would shine so brightly that others would be blinded by it. I pray that the leaders see the positive effect that Christians are having on society and that their message continues to spread. Through it all I am uncomfortably aware of how loud is the love of these faithful believers. They are not allowed to tell others of Christ, yet their lives are lived at such a volume that others cannot help but to experience the love of Christ.

How is your volume? When you walk into the room, do people turn and look because the love of Christ is blaring through your pores? Are they blinded by the light of God that shines through every inch of you? How is it that Christians who are not allowed to gather together in countries that are woefully poor continue to have a larger impact than the wealthy, free church of the West? The difference is they love out loud. They are not passive. They don’t wait for the right moment to serve or until they have enough extra to give. They love out loud and our love is barely a whisper. When we are called to give an account of our lives, will God be able to hear our love and all the ways we demonstrated that love to others? More likely than not, our love will be a barely audible whisper and we‘ll have little to show of its use. The good news is we have the ability to amp up the volume of our love. Every time we reach out to help someone in need, our love gets a little louder. Every time we smile at a stranger or offer an encouraging word, our love gets a little louder. Conversely, every time we hesitate, we turn the volume down a notch. Every time we walk by rather than lending a hand, the volume of our love gets that much quieter.

How loud is your life? Does it blare with the love of Christ or does it whisper the sound of selfishness and busyness? Are you willing to crank it up a notch, willing to start sharing the love of Christ every second of every minute of every hour of every day? We are called to love, period. Do you want to be a follower of Jesus? You must love everyone more than yourself. You’ve got to live out loud. You’ve got to put away everything else you’ve been living for and replace it with love for others. So many are passing away without ever believing in Jesus; it’s time to stem the tide and show them a better way. Put away your selfishness and fear. We have no guarantee of tomorrow. The time is now. Turn up the volume of your life so that others cannot help but see Jesus through you.

What Breaks Your Heart?

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Bob Pierce, the founder of World Vision used to regularly pray “Let my heart be broken with the things that break the heart of God”. What an amazing attitude to seek to achieve. When we see people less fortunate than we are, what is our attitude toward them? Are you thankful that you are blessed and don’t have to live in those circumstances? Do you quickly look away before they catch your gaze and in some way obligate you to do something about their plight? Or do you perhaps say a quick prayer for them and then carry on with your day? I must admit that, at one time or another throughout my life, I have experienced all of the above reactions. On occasion, thankfully more often than not these days, I am deeply moved by their condition. I sincerely want to help, yet often find my hands and feet are slow to move and reach out to them. How different would it be if we truly saw them the way God sees them? We know from Scripture that poverty breaks the heart of our God. We know that Christ loves with the deepest of passion and that He weeps with a soul-aching sorrow. I believe His heart is broken and He weeps whenever He sees one of His creations in poverty, struggling just to get through each day. How I want my heart to break in the same way. When I see those in need, I don’t want to pass by or just be thankful that I am not in that condition; I don’t want to stop at a quick prayer or with a burdened heart. I want my heart to break apart in agony as I see one who is loved by God, and yet is hurting in our broken down world. I want to ache so badly for that person that I will give them a smile and a kind word, wrap my heart around them and discover ways I might help them. I want my heart to break for the things that break the heart of Jesus.

How about you? What is it that breaks your heart? Do you find yourself aching for those in need or is it easier to avoid those people? In James 1:27, we are told that true religion is found in caring for the widows and the orphans. In Isaiah 58:7 we are told that true fasting is to share food with the hungry, give the homeless a place to stay and clothe those who are in need. These are the things that we must do if we are to be true followers of Jesus. Look again at the things that break the heart of God: widows (as I’ve pointed out before, I believe this includes the single mothers that are so numerous in society today), orphans, those who don’t have enough to eat, the homeless and those who live in poverty. These things all break the heart of God! Do these same things break your heart? What are you doing today to help those in need? What are you going to do tomorrow? Will we continue to walk by the very ones that God is aching for us to help? We are the hands and feet of God. We are the called. We are the servants of Christ. There is no one else to do this job. How will we respond? Let us pray that our hearts would be broken by the things that break the heart of God.

Reverse Your Message

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We talk about love on this blog, and we talk about it a lot. In fact my goal is that every reader would become a love extremist. Nothing will deter us from our mission of spreading love to each other, our neighbors and the world. Love is the central tenant of Christianity; we love others because Christ loved us and commanded us to do the same to others. We are committed to following Christ and living as He did. Therefore, we are committed to love.

If Christianity is all about love, why then are Christians so hated, and Christianity so reviled around the world? I believe it is a matter of the message that we present to that world. For many years, we have presented a message of what Christians DON’T do. If you’ll excuse the generalizations, realize that many Christians do indeed do these things, and also realize that none of them prevent a person from being a Christian, I offer this list of things we tell the world that Christians don’t do. We don’t drink, cuss, do drugs, gamble, sleep around, engage in homosexual activity, lust, lie, cheat, steal, commit adultery, look at pornography, gossip, or get jealous. And oh yes, we also don’t associate with anyone who does these things. Thus, we present Christianity as an exclusive, intolerant, holier than thou club. God forgive us.

We need to reverse the message. We need to get over ourselves, our ego and our piety, and begin telling the world the list of things Christians DO. We care for the sick, provide clothing for the needy, feed the poor and take in the orphan and the widow. In other words, we love. We are a body of imperfect, but loving and wholly accepting people. We need to deliver a positive message of hope, a message of what we as Christians believe and do. As we tear down the walls of injustice and intolerance, others will be able to better see the hope in the love of Jesus.

I am not enough of an historian to tell you how it is we got to where we are today. How did we go from the first century church that shared all they had with any in need and accepted all who came, to the modern church of greed, apathy, indifference and condemnation? We turn away those who look different, dress different, or engage in lifestyles we deem inappropriate. We turn our backs on those who have had abortions, cast out those who were unfaithful in their marriage and turn away those desperate for a meal. What have we become? We’ve become a people with a list of things we won’t do at the sacrifice of things that we should do.

What is your message? Who are you telling the world that you are? Who are you telling others that Christ is? If you are delivering a message of don’ts, reverse your message. Let people know who you are and what you do because of what Christ did for you. Put aside your prejudice and tradition and exchange them for a life devoted to living out the love you have received from Christ. We are Christians. We love as we are loved. This is who we are. This must be our message to the world.