Even If i Walk Alone

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

Matthew

Choosing Jesus Over Heaven

by

Why do you follow Jesus? Is it because of what you will gain in the process or because of what you can give? Jesus led a life that had one purpose: to sacrifice His life for others. If we would walk in the way that He walked, this is what we must do as well. If we don’t love Him enough to give up everything for the sake of His mission, then we cannot perfectly follow in His footsteps. We must be willing to love Christ regardless of any reward; we simply follow Him out of our love for Him and our gratitude for what He gave up for us.

Many of us came to Christianity because of the offer of eternal life. It’s a great benefit, to be certain, but would we have been so drawn if the promise of our relationship with God did not include the promise of Heaven? Would the sheer knowledge that the Creator of the universe desired to interact with us be enough if there were no other reward? It’s important to remember that Heaven is the eventuality, not the goal. The goal is to love God with all our hearts and to love and serve those around us. (Matthew 22:35-40). The mission of Jesus was to redeem His people, and our mission is to carry that message to the world.

While He was here on earth, Jesus did not live in luxury. He was constantly on the road in an effort to touch as many people as He possibly could before His time was up. Are we doing the same? My adult life has been spent climbing the ladder of business success, providing a nice home for my family and securing my retirement in the future. None of that looks like Jesus. I suspect you are in a similar situation. This is what has to change. We have been sold a bill of goods in the past few hundred years about what it looks like to be a follower of Christ. We have gotten very good at practicing a Western flavor of Christianity that has very little to do with the life Christ told us to live. We gather in large buildings to worship and devote a tiny sliver of that budget to actually carry out the mission of Jesus as it is defined in the Bible.

I have a challenge for you: obtain a copy of your church’s annual budget and compare it to Matthew 25:31-46, James 1:27 and Isaiah 58:6-10. My guess is you will be mortified. We spend money on heating and cooling costs, lawn and building maintenance, office supplies and holiday decorations. Add up the items that specifically relate to the Scriptures above and see what percentage is being spent on the mission of Jesus. Before you feel too judgmental however, let’s also turn the same mirror on ourselves. Let’s take a look at our own household budget. What percentage of our own money are we dedicating to doing the work we have been commanded to do? Regardless of what our lips may say, the evidence seems to point to the fact that we are more interested in the reward of Heaven than in the beauty of a relationship with Jesus Christ.

Our priorities have to change. If being a Christian is not about following Jesus simply because of who He is, then there is little point. If our faith in Him is not proven by the way we live our lives, then there is a strong question of whether or not that faith will actually save us and bring about the eternal life we are so desperate to achieve (James 2:14-17). Until we are ready to follow Jesus simply because we love Him and desire to be in relationship with Him, we will simply be practicing an empty religion that looks nothing like what God designed for us. We don’t marry for the sake of what we might acquire when the marriage is over; we marry for what the relationship will be throughout the journey. It is the same in our relationship with Jesus Christ; it’s not about what happens when we die, it’s about what happens while we live.

I look forward to spending eternity with Jesus in Heaven; I am definitely eager to obtain the peace and rest He promises. But I don’t want to wish away the years of getting to know Him while I am still walking this planet. I don’t want to miss a single opportunity to serve Him and grow in my relationship with Him. I want to take hold of each moment I have been given to get to know Him better and to share His love with the world around me. This is my aspiration; more than anything else I want to be the hands and feet of Jesus. I want to obey His commands out of love, respect and trust in Him. I want Heaven, but I don’t want to miss a thing between the now and the not yet. So why do you follow Jesus? Is it for what you will gain or perhaps to protect what you might lose? Or is it simply for the sake of knowing Him? Do you struggle like me in maintaining perspective and the proper priorities in your life? I’d love to hear your thoughts and encourage you to leave a comment below. Let’s be real with each other and simply tell it like it is. We are all together on this journey. As for me, I definitely want the reward, but not at the expense of the relationship. Even if there were nothing else, I’d still choose Jesus. I have a long way to go, but this is my desire; He alone is my hope.

Who Do You Want to Be?

by

Remember when we were kids how we had dreams of the person we wanted to be when we grew up? Some dreams were based on what our parents did, some were based on what we saw on television or in the movies, and still others were inspired by our comic books. As we grew older, the fantastical dreams of youth began to fade and were replaced with less imaginative dreams that we deemed possible. Once we entered adulthood our focus shifted to those dreams that would make us the most money or secure the lifestyle we wanted to live. Many of us simply stopped dreaming all together. Our dreams became swallowed up in the drudgery and responsibilities of everyday tasks. Life came calling and we sacrificed the aspirations of our youth on the altar of rational expectations. We became what we were expected to be, rather than who we were created to be.

Is this all there is? Is this the abundant life that Jesus promised to those who would follow Him? Where in Scripture are we commanded to pursue the things of this world in order that we might obtain a more comfortable lifestyle? What I see instead is a challenge to live life with a faith so focused on Christ that we don’t worry about what we will eat or drink, or about what we will wear (Matthew 6:31-33); loving God with all of our heart, soul and mind is what drives us forward each day, the beauty that compels us to serve others for His glory (Matthew 22:37-38). We are commanded to love God and love people. Within this context we find all we will ever desire from life. As we set out to serve those around us we rediscover creative means to utilize long hidden gifts and passions. Each of us were created to do good works for the purposes of Christ (Ephesians 2:10). As we fulfill those purposes we find ourselves discovering true abundance in life.

The dreams of our youth were placed inside us to inspire thoughts of what could be accomplished in the world if we would only dare to believe. Too many of us let others talk us out of the possible in order that we might pursue only the probable. There was nothing ordinary about the way Jesus lived His life, nor is there anything mundane about the life He calls each of us to live. We are called to love and to serve in extraordinary ways. The actions in which we engage on Christ’s behalf need not necessarily be some grandiose demonstration; rather, simple acts of kindness and service can have an impact beyond our wildest dreams. A simple smile for one who is normally overlooked can change the course of their life forever. Taking just a moment to make eye contact with a homeless person, to share a kind word or a couple of dollars may convince them there is a reason to go on. It may communicate to them that they are loved by someone and perhaps this would be the catalyst that allows them to encourage others or even to set a new course for their life. One moment, one smile, and you can alter a life forever.

Just as all actions need not be huge in the grand scheme of things, sometimes we must engage in the utterly absurd in order to live out the mission of Christ. Perhaps there would be no hunger in the world if we would simply stop being obsessed with our salaries and 401(k) plans. Maybe it’s time we let go of the things we perceive to be our security in this world, throw caution to the wind and recklessly devote ourselves to an impossibly big challenge just to see what God might do with our leap of faith. Whether we are compelled to deceptively small or extravagantly large acts of service, together we will discover the life we were created to live, and together we will further the mission of Christ.

What dreams have you long ago abandoned in order to live what most would perceive to be a responsible life? What passions have you buried so that you might fall in line with the expectations of culture and society? Jesus didn’t call us to be part of the status quo; He called us to live a life that looks like His. He called us to follow Him. What might become of our lives if we returned to the imagination of our youth? How might we creatively discover fantastic new ways to serve others and reflect His love to the world at large? What have you left behind that should be retrieved and used for His glory?

Our only true responsibility is to become the person He created us to be. I encourage you to let go of the expectations of others, the opinions that confine you in a life of mediocrity. Embrace the work He created you to do; shine with the passion He placed inside you to accomplish all He has put before you. In this way you will find the abundant life; in this way you will discover what it truly means to be His hands and His feet in a world that cries out for the love of Jesus. Rediscover and start living your dreams today. Do it for the world, and do it for His glory.

A Case for Minimalism

by

For the past year or so, I’ve been rolling around the idea of minimalism in my head. It is attractive to me as a way of life and seems to fit well within my desire to be a true follower of Jesus. If you are unfamiliar with the term, one website defines a minimalist lifestyle as a life that “is free of complications, clutter, confusion and distraction.” Minimalists live with only what is necessary for their daily needs. There are some who take the lifestyle to the extreme of almost making a religion of it, but I am only concerned with its usefulness as it applies to living a life that is more in tune with Jesus.

Certainly anyone can see that a life that is free of confusion and distraction would be a lifestyle that would more easily lend itself to prayer and quiet times alone with the Lord. I don’t know about you, but my prayers are often distracted by the countless “mental emergencies” that pop into my head. This year I have endeavored to set aside two hours each Sunday afternoon for quiet reflection, study and prayer. My weeks are rather full, as I’m sure you can relate, so the first two weeks of quiet time with God led to about a forty-five minute exhaustion nap creeping into the beginning of my time with God. I feel like Peter who couldn’t even stay awake and diligently pray with Christ when He asked him to. Too often our attempts at extended times of prayer become frustrating because our minds are so busy that we find it difficult to concentrate on the task at hand; or like me, our lives are so busy that that the body only understands slowing down in the context of sleeping.

Surely pursuing a simpler, less complex life could do wonders for our spiritual growth. In fact I see it modeled in the life of Jesus. After embarking on His ministry, it appears that He had no permanent home of his own, or at least not one He visited very often. Perhaps He left His home and belongings behind to model the lifestyle He would require of His disciples. After all, He was a man in His twenties, so He would have surely accumulated some material possessions by this point. Since He walked everywhere He went, he apparently had no means of transportation. When he sent His disciples out, He instructed them to not even take an extra shirt, telling them that God would provide for their needs (Luke 9:3). Indeed, when he taught about living stress free, He told us not to worry about what we will eat or drink, or what we will wear (Matthew 6:31-33). Yet somehow we have reversed that teaching and now fill our pantries and closets to be certain that we will have enough for the foreseeable future. Instead of depending solely on God for our needs, we have come to depend on our paychecks. We only cry out to God to sustain us when we lose our jobs.

All of the “stuff” we accumulate can distract us from focusing on Jesus. We rely on our possessions to provide for our needs. The more we have, the more time and energy it consumes to maintain it. Cars must be washed and repaired, appliances must be cleaned and serviced, and houses must be continuously picked up and organized. Every new thing we add to our list of possessions has ramifications far beyond its purchase in the form of some sort of ongoing time and energy investment. Let me be clear by saying I am not advocating that we all sell our cars, appliances and houses; but I’m not saying we shouldn’t either. I’d honestly rather not own a home than have it become something that gets between me and God. In fact I’d rather not own anything if what I possess distracts me from my pursuit of loving and serving Him. There is probably a happy medium in between somewhere, so that is what I am seeking. I look at those Christians in other parts of this world who are devastatingly poor, yet immensely happy. They have discovered that joy is found only in Jesus, not in their “stuff”. Then I look at all the unhappy, stressed out and defeated Christians in America. We are missing something and I want to find it!

Here’s my challenge to you: take an honest look at your life and see if there are areas where you have come to rely more on your possessions than on Jesus. Begin praying for Him to sustain you each day, and be truly thankful for that provision. Don’t pray over your meals out of habit but rather concentrate on the immense blessing that has been given you. I am embarking on an interesting adventure where I have decided to get rid of five possessions each week until the end of the year. I didn’t count first to see if that is a comfortable or reasonable goal, but I want to see where it takes me and how simply I am willing to live. I want to depend on God each day for everything and nothing else. The Psalmist says that He is our provision. I want that to be true of my life; I want to live a simple life for Jesus, free from distraction and clutter. Following Jesus is simple; it is we who have made it complex. Let’s get back to basics, living a life that depends wholly on Him. Then we can truly be called followers of Jesus.

An Army of Love

by

Every kingdom has an army, so I was thinking about what the army of the Kingdom of God would look like as we endeavor to bring that kingdom into reality here on earth. Certainly this army would not look like the traditional army. Jesus rebuked Peter when he lashed out with a sword to try and defend Him (John 18:10-11), so this would seem to dictate that superior firepower should not be a goal of our army. Christ taught that the meek would inherit the earth (Matthew 5:5), so the tactic of aggression appears to be out as well. Similarly, we are taught that we should not “lord over others” (Mark 10:42-45), so domination and conquest are also out. What then, does the army of the Kingdom of God look like, and how is it that they will achieve victory?

One of the clues is found in the second half of the reference in Mark we looked at above (Mark 10:42-45). Here we find Jesus teaching that if we want to win, we have to lose in the eyes of the world, in the prevailing viewpoint of our society. He teaches that we must become the servant to those around us. Instead of conquering our enemies, we are instead to serve them. This is a counterintuitive battle strategy, but it should surprise no one accustomed to living in the upside down Kingdom of Jesus Christ. The King James Version of the Bible translates 1 Peter 2:9 to say we are called to be a peculiar people, and it doesn’t get much weirder than this. The way we prepare for battle as the army of the Kingdom is to voluntarily lay down our lives in order to serve the very ones who are warring against us. How peculiar indeed.

A typical army is financed and outfitted from the support of the nation through taxation. Supporting the army is not an option, it is rather the law. By contrast, financial support for the army of God is totally voluntary. Those engaging in battle rely on the generosity of their fellow soldiers to provide the means to furnish their supplies. In this way, we are more of a brotherhood than an army, a family that looks after one another. This is a good thing, because unlike the typical soldier who can count on the support of His family, God’s warriors are more often despised by their families for their participation in the war. Jesus told us that He came to bring division not only to the earth, but also within families (Luke 12:51-53), because not all would be willing to accept His mission. Without the support of our earthly families, we must rely on our spiritual brothers and sisters to encourage us on in the fight.

The one area where the army of God is very much like a traditional army is in the arena of battle. Make no mistake, there is a very real and very deadly war being waged in the spiritual realm, and you and I are in the thick of it. People are hurt, maimed and killed as a result of the wounds inflicted in the war in which we are engaged. Satan seriously wants to destroy you and Jesus has set in His heart to redeem you. This spiritual battle is often manifested in physical ways through oppression, possession and redemption. Do not make the mistake of believing that what happens in the spiritual realm does not affect your everyday life. You are being influenced by one side or the other in every moment, and it is up to you which way you will choose.

Though we may lack traditional firepower, we possess the greatest weapons of all: faith and love. The Bible tells us that faith can move mountains (Matthew 17:20) and can extinguish every attack of the enemy (Ephesians 6:16). Love is the ultimate weapon in that it can diffuse discord, counteract hate, and turn an enemy into an ally. Jesus said that the greatest expression of love was to lay your life down for another (John 15:13). As we seek to carry out the mission of Christ, we must daily be looking for opportunities to serve others to the point of giving our lives for them. We must invest ourselves authentically into everyone we meet. As we demonstrate the love of Christ to others, we win victory after victory for Christ. Every act of kindness and servitude brings His Kingdom on earth one step closer to fruition. Together our selfless acts of love combine to amass a movement of love that cannot be stopped. This is what the army of God looks like; this is how the war will be won. Not by acts of violence or through weapons of force. God will rule the day by beating back the darkness with His unstoppable light. As we join Him in the battle we will find victory through our acts of service and mercy. We are His army, an army of love.

The Curse of Affluence

by

Blessings from God are often measured in terms of material wealth. It has been so throughout most of recorded history, and it remains the prevailing thought in much of Christendom today. Whether that wealth is measured in flocks and herds or money and cars is irrelevant; possessions are seen as a harbinger of the blessings of God. Indeed an entire subculture has sprung up around this teaching, the so-called “health and wealth” theology. Subscribers to this thinking believe that the Bible actually guarantees that if you will follow Christ with all your heart you will become rich and experience an abundant life. This teaching is of course in direct contradiction to Jesus’ teaching of forsaking your earthly possessions and that the poor would be blessed, not the rich (Matthew 19:16-28; Luke 6:20; Luke 16:19-25).

What if we have it all backwards? What if instead of our possessions being a blessing they are actually a curse? The more material things we own, the more we have to lose. The greater our collection of stuff becomes, the harder we work to keep it all. Suddenly we wake up one day and realize that instead of being the lowly and humble servant of Christ we intended to be, we have become the rich young ruler who cannot let go of his possessions. Before we go further, let me be clear that I am not saying that wealth and possessions are necessarily a curse or even inherently bad; just humor the thought for a moment and open yourself up to think about this in a different way. Ultimately whether or not the goods entrusted to our care are a blessing or a curse depends on our attitude toward them and our willingness to release them for the service of Jesus.

When we are generous with our resources I believe it becomes easy to get lulled into a slumber where we dream we are not controlled by money. Meanwhile, regardless of how extravagant our giving may be, the probability is that we continue to pad our savings account and add to our retirement funds. We give much away, yet we also store away considerable sums for ourselves. But what if we stopped being concerned with saving for ourselves and instead poured all of our resources into building the Kingdom of God? What if we kept only enough money for ourselves to cover our food, shelter, clothing and transportation? Simply doing that would still place us in the top 15% of the richest people on the planet. Yet if we would so simplify our lives, how many more resources could be released to feed the hungry, care for the sick, and take the message of Jesus into places that have never heard? It is a challenging and difficult concept to ponder, and I will tell you up front that I don’t have the answer to this paradox; it remains a burden on my heart about which I continue to pray diligently.

No longer storing away for a rainy day or our own retirement comes with great risk. What if we lose it all? Who will care for our needs? But isn’t losing it all exactly where Christ said we would find true life? Didn’t He say that we must forsake everything to follow Him? When did we determine that those words did not apply to us? Perhaps we in our affluence have molded Jesus into a God of our choosing rather than choosing Jesus for the God that He is. The message of Christ has not changed; His message and mission are the same today as they were when He walked the earth. As Jim Elliot once said, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep, to gain that which he cannot lose.”

We have been numbed and blinded, and now we are in the precarious position of trusting our possessions more than we trust God. Don’t believe me? Try this test: by the end of the week, withdraw all your money from the bank and cash in any retirement and investment funds you might have. Take all of that cash, drive downtown and distribute it all among the poor. Please leave a comment below and let me know how you did. Is that ludicrous? Is it irresponsible to take our earthly wealth and use it for the things Christ told us to do? The only reason we find this to be a crazy idea is that we have become comfortable in, and seek assurances from, our wealth. What we may have perceived as a blessing is now a curse and an anchor because it stands between us and God.

Again, I do not have the answer to this dilemma. I confess that I have not fully liquidated my assets and given it all to the poor. I am haunted by my own lack of faith and selfishness, and am seeking God’s answers and strength in this matter. How about you? Are you at the place where you can give absolutely everything away for His purposes? Have the perceived blessings in your own life become a curse, something that stands between you and God? I think it’s worth pondering this to determine just how tightly we hold onto our possessions, and to examine how ready we are to totally rely on God to provide for our needs. Let us boldly and prayerfully seek God and give serious consideration to what He would have us do with our resources. Praise Him for all He has provided; glorify Him in all that you do with those gifts. Hold loosely to your material possessions so they do not come between you and your faith in God. Don’t allow your blessings to become a curse.