Even If i Walk Alone

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

Matthew

Trust and Obey

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It’s impossible to get away from John 14:15. Jesus says if we love Him, we will obey His commands. We’ll live as He told us to live. Otherwise, we risk hearing the Words He warns us about in Matthew 7:21-23, where He sends away those who professed Him but never actually knew Him. They didn’t know Him because they didn’t love him.

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We know they didn’t love Him because they lived their lives the way they wanted to, rather than obeying the commands of Christ. How close are we to suffering a similar fate? Readers of this blog are by and large professing followers of Christ. But do we really love Him? Are we proving it by obeying His commands?

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Devoted to Christ

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There is a word in the Bible that causes much controversy these days because of its modern English connotation. The word is “slave” and depending on what translation you read may also be translated as servant or bondservant. Given the tensions of our day, the term servant is more palatable than the word slave, but we must recognize when the Bible uses the word, it often does not mean the same thing as it does to us today. For example, in Philippians 1:1, Paul refers to himself and Timothy as slaves of Christ.

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This is not to be construed as anything negative, but as something to which we should all aspire. The Greek word for slaves here is δοῦλος (douloi), which means “pertaining to a state of being completely controlled by someone or something”1Louw, J. P., & Nida, E. A. (1996). Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament: based on semantic domains (electronic ed. of the 2nd edition., Vol. 1, p. 471). New York: United Bible Societies.).. Given that definition, I definitely want to be a slave to Jesus. I want my life to be devoted to Christ.

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    Louw, J. P., & Nida, E. A. (1996). Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament: based on semantic domains (electronic ed. of the 2nd edition., Vol. 1, p. 471). New York: United Bible Societies.).

Seek God

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One day, this life is going to end. When it does, everything we’ve accomplished will cease to matter. Just like that. Society teaches us to spend our lives pursuing our goals, becoming successful, and accumulating as much stuff as possible. And none of it will matter a bit. Only what we do for Jesus will remain.

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So why do we spend so much time, money, and effort learning how to manage our time, build our companies, and elevate our profile? None of this has any place in the life of a believer. It’s all idolatry and much of it is sinful. We’d never call it that, but the fact remains. We can ignore and run from the facts now, but when we die, the truth will be laid bare in a way none of us wants to face.

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The Long Slow Slide

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I’ve always aspired to not be an alarmist in my writing. There are plenty of places around the web where you can get that sort of thing. Now I’m wondering if that’s been misguided. Isn’t a large part of the reason our world is in the mess it is because Christians haven’t been alarmist enough? If we had been more diligent in holding fast to the Word of God and adhering to His commands and standards, I doubt we would find ourselves where we do today.

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History is an excellent teacher, and looking back over the past 250 years, we see the state in which we find ourselves is not so much because of any sudden or recent developments, but rather the result of a long slow slide.

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Desperate

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Would you consider yourself desperate for God? Does He consume your thoughts and days? There is no shortage of distractions vying for your attention. We live in a busy, chaotic world designed to fracture our attention and keep us from meaningful conversations and relationships. That’s not the way God intended it to be. In the beginning, there was only God and man (and soon, woman). They walked together every evening, just enjoying each other’s presence.

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Nothing was pulling at their attention. They were content to just be with one another. Adam was in the presence of God and He recognized the privilege of conversing with His Creator. He spent his days marveling at all God had created. I imagine he was in a constant state of worship. How could you not be as you worked and played in the middle of paradise?

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