Even If i Walk Alone

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

Matthew

Do You Love Me More Than These?

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Many of us know the story of Jesus restoring Peter to fellowship with Him. We find the story in John 21:15-19, and much has been written and taught about this passage. The first question Jesus asked Peter was, “Do you love me more than these?” He may have been asking whether Peter loved Him more than the other disciples did, or perhaps if Peter loved Jesus more than he did his fellow disciples.

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Another option is Jesus may have been asking Peter if He loved the nourishment of God over bodily nourishment (they were eating breakfast after a night of hard fishing). While people teach the first two more often, I’d like to focus on the third option. I think “Do you love me more than these?” is a good question for us all to ask every day.

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Jesus is Better

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Jesus is better than anything for which you’d live. No amount of success, money, or fame compares to the richness of knowing Christ. Fame is fleeting, success dies with you, and money always winds up in the hands of someone else. Jesus is everlasting, life with Him is just getting started when we die, and He will never leave us (Deuteronomy 31:6). By every measure, Jesus is better. We spend our lives searching for some place to call home and for some experience to bring us happiness at last.

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A house, no matter how splendid, will not necessarily make you feel at home, and happiness is not the same thing as joy. For those who serve Jesus, to be away from here is to be at home with Christ (2 Corinthians 5:6-8). In His arms, we will find true joy, something exponentially better than momentary happiness. And we will find worth and purpose that transcends our circumstances and what anyone else might think or say about us.

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The Parable of the Wedding Feast

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I’ve read the parable of the wedding feast more times than I can remember. When we become so familiar with a passage, it’s easy to lose its significance. We must always guard against a casual reading of the Bible. Every word has the power to impact our lives. After all, it is the very Word of God. We should always read with reverence and awe. When we do, God reveals fresh insight and application of His story.

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This happened in my recent reading of the parable of the wedding feast. I’d always perceived those who refused to come to the feast as the Pharisees and the nation of Israel. All those who claimed to love God but refused to see Him in their midst. As is too often the case, I identify who Jesus was talking to while conveniently leaving myself out of that audience.

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Surrender to God

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God is not calling us to impurity (I Thessalonians 4:7). Nor is He calling us to be fearful (II Timothy 1:7). Why then do we spend so much of our time pursuing sinful things and living in fear? Is it we do not understand our calling or do we just not care? I’m not convinced there is a third option, and neither of the choices is good! This thought alone should drive us to our knees.

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If we are not living for Jesus, for what then are we living? Perhaps a better way to ask this is if Christ isn’t worthy of our lives, who or what is? Why are we not living our lives running away from sin and full of courage? Both are possible if we would only surrender to God.

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The Persecuted

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For many in the West, it is uncomfortable to talk about the persecuted Church around the world. While we may face ridicule and discrimination to one degree or another, we have no reference point for the brutality inflicted against our brothers and sisters in far-off countries. Much like the television commercials depicting starving children or animal shelters, the images are hard to look at so we close our eyes, mute the sound, or change the channel.

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We know these things exist but we would rather not think about them. But our discomfort does not change the reality of what is happening to our brothers and sisters. Imagine if it was your flesh and blood sibling who was enduring such things. Would you not keep them in the front of your mind and do everything in your power to help and encourage them? Then why are we so reluctant to discuss and bring attention to the plight of our brothers and sisters in Christ?

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