Even If i Walk Alone

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

Matthew

Living in the Kingdom of God

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Jesus is Lord,Lord of your life,Jesus first,God first

Most Christians feel confident that when they die, they will then enter Heaven and find joy everlasting. This is, after all, what they believe they have been promised in Scripture. What they do between now and then is of little consequence to the final result. Once they accept Jesus into their hearts, they are then guaranteed a peaceful and secure eternity. Nothing they do – or don’t do for that matter – can disqualify them from their promised rest. I don’t know about you, but this seems like a strange plan for a God who desires nothing more than to be in relationship with us. There is an inconsistency in thinking we could say a prayer once and gain His eternal favor even though we ignore Him with the rest of our lives. How do we reconcile these things?

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Life is Short

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wasting time,live with passion,urgency,purpose driven life

Most of us, save for the most morbid, don’t sit around thinking of how short life truly is. I submit that there is value in contemplating this very thing. If we maintain our health and are genetically blessed, we have at most 90-100 years on this spinning ball of dirt. In the United States, the average lifespan for a man is 75.6 years, and a woman is 80.8. For all of the advances in Western medicine, that still leaves Americans curiously low at number 36 on the list of lifespan by Country (Wikipedia). In the grand scheme of things, 75-80 years is not a lot of time. Take away from this the fact that our first handful of years is not especially productive, and we wind up with less than 70 years to make a difference in our world.

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Converts vs. Disciples

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serious commitment, discipleship

When I was growing up, there were several movies around that I think were designed with the sole purpose of scaring the daylights out of young people. These weren’t creations of Wes Craven, Stephen King or any of the well-known masters of the horror movie genre. Rather, these were Christian filmmakers and organizations producing movies depicting the end times as they interpreted them from the book of Revelation. Films like “A Thief in the Night”, “A Distant Thunder” and “A Burning Hell” (apparently all Christian movies of this genre had to begin with the letter ‘A’). The scenes in these films ranged from creepy to utterly disgusting. The shock value, however, fulfilled the purpose of the producers to scare many young adults (and quite a few not so young adults) into repentance and surrendering their lives to Christ. I wonder what happened to all those who gave their lives to Jesus? If a large number of my generation truly committed their lives to Him, why have we seen so little progress in spreading the truth of Christ in the years that have followed?

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Cover My Eyes

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human trafficking,slavery,sex trade

My wife and I were out recently with another couple who brought up the topic of human trafficking. They were asking about the problem and where it was most prevalent. As I began to answer the questions and reveal some statistics, one of them brought the conversation to a quick close. She said whenever she see’s reports about trafficking on television, she just closes her eyes and turns away because it is too disgusting and horrible to even think about. For too many, this is the default response. Even among those who profess to be Christians, it is far easier to cover our eyes than to look at some of the horrors of this world.

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What is the Measure of Your Success?

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christ centered life, sacrifice, following Jesus

How do you define success? Is it the amount of money in your retirement account or perhaps the cash you have at your fingertips? Is it the car you drive or the house in which you live? Maybe you would define success by the job you hold, the company you keep or the possessions you own. The more altruistic might say their success is reflected in their family or friends. As Christians we might shake our head and acknowledge those to be ways the world defines success, but not ways in which we would ever describe it. Yet when I look at my life and that of fellow believers, I cannot help but wonder if we are any different at all; in what ways are we truly setting ourselves apart from those who do not choose to follow Christ?

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