Even If i Walk Alone

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

mission

Seize Every Moment

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What do you want out of life, what is it you hope to accomplish? Have you ever taken the time to consider the legacy you want to leave behind or to list the things you hope to accomplish before you die? Many of us float through life oblivious to the opportunities that we have every day. Without a clearly defined purpose we allow life to happen to us rather than impacting the world. As followers of Jesus, we all have a clearly defined goal: to love God and to love people; to serve Him and serve others. While we may all agree with this premise in principle, living it out in our daily lives presents much more of a challenge. The stresses of life sap our energy and the shiny things we’re convinced we need divert our attention. Without passion and focus, our lives will never fulfill what we were created to be.

One of the problems we encounter is that we’ve developed a self-centered view of the world. We see everything as it relates to our lives and in relation to how it affects our comfort and well-being. As long as we are focused on our own lives, we will never be able to follow Jesus completely. If you walk around staring into a mirror, you will consistently crash into things that will knock you off course; if our gaze is always on our own reflection, we will never see the people directly in front of us. We must always be alert, having our head up and our eyes fixed on Jesus. Only then will we be able to see the dangers and the opportunities that are before us.

Seeing an opportunity and taking action on it are two very different things. Most of us walk by potential moments of service every day. We have the chance to reflect the love and character of God, but we deem ourselves too busy or worse yet we are simply too preoccupied to even notice. I can attest that there are few feelings worse than recognizing a missed opportunity to be the hands and feet of Jesus. It stays with you at night and gnaws at your soul. The only way to avoid that feeling is to seize every moment as it presents itself. In all things, both small and large, reflect Jesus and do the things you know He would do. Get into the habit of doing a selfless deed for someone every day and record that action in a journal before you go to bed. After 30 days your life will look very different from the way it does today. By consciously choosing to serve others at no benefit to yourself, you will transform your character to be more like Christ.

Each moment that we let slip by can never be recaptured; it is lost in our history, forever etched into the past. We will never know what effect seizing that opportunity may have had on a person or indeed the entire world. A regular Sunday school teacher seized the moment and led his student to trust in Christ as his Savior. That student, D.L. Moody, went on to lead millions to Christ through his preaching and the legacy of his work continues today. One man seized a moment and had an impact on the world that is difficult to quantify. Jesus asked that the difficult task of the cross be taken from Him if there was any other way; but when the moment of truth came, He seized the moment to do the will of His Father. He seized the divine moment and literally changed the history of the world forever.

We were not created to live aimless and disinterested lives. We were created for passion and for involvement in the lives of others. We have been given the task of continuing the mission of Jesus. Every day there are moments that we can either seize or ignore; our response creates the measure of our character. Our goal should be to seize each moment as it comes and wring out every ounce of life we are able to drain from it. Life is not about what we can achieve, but rather what we can give. Earl Nightingale once defined success as “the continual pursuit of a worthwhile goal.” By that definition, we who have chosen to follow Christ are already successful; we no longer should feel any pressure to prove ourselves to the world. Instead, we should concern ourselves only with proving ourselves faithful to the One we serve. This proof is found in how we respond to the moments of our lives. Ask God to make you aware of the divine moments you encounter every day. Never walk away from an opportunity to reflect His love and to serve others. Seize every moment; live the life He created you to live. May this be our goal, and one which we passionately pursue.

Chasing the Wrong Goal

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Somehow we lost our way. At some point in time we decided that the things of this world were more beneficial than the things of God. We traded eternity for temporal, spiritual for material. Inexplicably we lost our awe of God and in turn became enamored with ourselves. I’m not sure exactly when it happened or what we possibly could have been thinking; I only know that we now find ourselves mired deep in the mess of the results. God spoke, we heard, and we ignored; instead we listened to the siren song of the American dream. We saw that it was desirable and we took of it, just as our oldest ancestors did in the Garden of Eden. We have learned little in the past six thousand years or so, and yet God continues to call us to Him.

Our modern apples of temptation are money and pleasure. We seek to fulfill the longing in our hearts with physical instead of spiritual means. At our core we are created in God’s image which means deep inside we are spirit beings. One cannot fill the spiritual with the physical; it simply will not work. The only way to fill the deep gnawing in your soul is to seek what is important to God, those things that further His kingdom on earth. No amount of wealth, fame or entertainment can satisfy the hunger inside. Only by surrendering to Jesus and living a life of service to Him will we find any peace and comfort for our longings.

We have been conditioned to believe that happiness is based on what we achieve and acquire. Jesus taught instead that true meaning is found only through how we serve and sacrifice. Instead of hoarding for ourselves, we are to share with anyone in need. Rather than do whatever it takes to get ahead, we must humbly put others before our own desires and dreams. This is the only goal worth pursuing, because this goal leads to the life found only in Jesus Christ. We can’t achieve our way to Heaven, nor can we reach there by climbing up our pile of stuff. The way to Heaven is the way of Jesus; His is the way of humility and service to others.

We all have dreams, passions and abilities; it is not that we must put these aside, but rather we must use them to achieve the purposes of Jesus rather than our own aspirations. Of course, it is a beautiful thing when our dreams align with His. This is where our life begins to resemble that of Christ; we begin to want what He wants, and to act and love as He does. We are all uniquely gifted and prepared for accomplishing good works for God, but we will not live out our calling as long as we continue to pursue the wrong goal. The goal is not the American dream but rather the mission of Christ. The goal is to give rather than get, to serve rather than be served. This is what it looks like to follow Jesus; this is the mark to which we must all aspire.

We have a lot to unlearn. All our lives we have been taught to grab all that we can, to chase after all we deserve. As a reminder, the Bible teaches that what we deserve is a life spent separated from God, an eternity in hell. Do you really wish to chase after what you deserve? By the grace of God we have an alternative way; we can choose to follow Him and obtain a life that is far beyond what we deserve, a life filled with His love and mercy. It is not an easy life, but it is one of infinite worth and satisfaction. Turning your back on the American dream will be difficult; you will be ridiculed and perhaps even cut off from your friends and family. No longer will you want what others want; no longer will you live life for yourself. The reward is beyond words. Only when you let go of all you think you want will you truly find what you’ve been seeking.

Are you ready to pursue the mission of Christ? Can you let go of the goal of the American dream, the seeking of wealth and entertainment? Jesus said there was much work to be done but few willing to engage in it. We have been squandering daylight and the night is coming. Darkness continues to invade our world and we must fight back with the light of the love of Jesus. We must pursue Christ at any cost. Our mission is straightforward and clear: love God and love people; serve God and serve people. Are your goals in line with God’s? Are you pursuing things of eternal worth? Or are you seeking that which you cannot keep, clutching to what you must leave behind? Jesus is the only way to peace and fulfillment. Pursue Him with all that you have; make Him your sole focus. This is the only goal worth achieving.

Missions vs. Mission

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Many of us grew up with the perception that missions was the work of a select few who would work among the people in foreign countries and tell them about God. These missionaries were a group of super-Christians who marched to the beat of a different drummer and somehow seemed to always have a slide projector in their back pocket. Daron Earlewine, one of the pastors at my fellowship, recently said something I found quite challenging. He said that we have gotten it all wrong, and that we need to drop the “s” off of missions so all we are left with is the word “mission”. This is not for a select few; there is no such class as a super-Christian. For too long we have sat idly by watching others carry out the great commission, going out into all the world while we have sat huddled within the glow of our televisions and the warmth of our homes. If we would be followers of Jesus, we must walk out our front door and into the world. We must tell people about the love of Jesus and invite them to receive the baptism of His Spirit into their lives so they too can experience the love of Christ and join in His mission.

Everyone has a mission field; everyone is called, but few respond. The usual objection is that there are enough hurting people around us, so we do not need to go to foreign countries. Jesus said to go out into the entire world, and it’s true that your street is part of that world. The question then becomes, how are you carrying out the mission of Jesus in the place in which you live? If we grant that we don’t have to go into the diverse places of the planet, that we need to serve those in our immediate surroundings, then much is expected of us right where we are. It has been my experience that those who say they don’t need to go out because there is so much work to be done all around them, never seem to get to doing that work. Once satisfied with their excuse, they are content to once again insulate themselves from the very need to which they drew attention. We are all called to tell everyone about the love of Jesus; no exemptions have been granted. There are no exceptions to serving others in His name. It’s true that we all have different gifts and abilities, but every one of us can be a reflection of the love of God. Every one of us can point others to Christ.

Jesus came to earth with the mission of redeeming a sinful and flawed people. He came to serve those who were proud, to touch those who were sick and to feed those who were hungry. He came to show compassion to the weak and suffering, to bring justice to the abused and outcast. This is the mission of Jesus, the one He commanded His followers to continue to carry out when He ascended into Heaven. Two thousand years later we have relegated His command to a select few out of selfishness and convenience. We have convinced ourselves that it is the work of someone else to go and share the love of Christ to those who have never heard his name. Meanwhile we stew in our affluence, bathing in our own self righteousness, convinced if we will simply write a check every so often that we have fulfilled our duty before the Lord. God does not need your money, He needs your life. When we gave our hearts to Jesus, we surrendered our life to Him; we gave up all our dreams and aspirations so that we might pursue His plan for the world. At some point we turned away from our convictions and have decided that the American dream is more worth pursuing than the Kingdom of God; how foolish, and how ridiculous is that to actually admit? Are we seriously convinced that anything on this earth is worth more than the smallest piece of Heaven?

Jesus died for your sins and for mine; He suffered for you and for me. We – each one of us who have accepted Christ – have chosen to follow Him and to do the things He told us to do. If we are serious about following Jesus, then our life is no longer our own. We are now His hands and His feet, and our passion is solely for Him. To follow the instructions of Christ must be our driving passion; it’s what makes us come alive. Jesus said to take the message of His love into the entire world. This is more than just missions work for a few; this is the mission for us all.

Facing God

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As followers of Jesus, we do everything with the end in mind. Our words, acts of service and expressions of love are all done so that God might be glorified and that His Kingdom would manifest itself on the earth. There is very little we do for today, rather we are tomorrow workers and future thinkers. We work today so that tomorrow might be better. It’s an invigorating yet exhausting way to live. Many people have worked a lifetime for Christ only to die without ever seeing the fruits of their labor. But the harvest does come in; sometimes days or even years later, but their work is rewarded in a way that brings glory to God. We must never lose sight of tomorrow as we work through today.

As we gaze toward the future, it is inevitable to think about facing God at last. One day we all will die and receive that which we have worked so hard to achieve: perfect communion with Jesus Christ our Lord. When we reach that day, what will God say to us? Will it be that He will say “Come on in, you are blessed; come in and share in the Kingdom” (Matthew 25:34)? If I could only hear those words, I would fall to my knees in thankfulness and awe at His unending mercy.

At the opposite extreme, will He say to us, “Depart from me, because you are wicked and did not do what I told you to do” (Matthew 25:41-46)? I shudder at the thought. Those words have eternal consequences; we can’t get this wrong, as there are no second chances at that point. I believe there will be many Christians who hear Him pronounce this horrific judgment on them; how I pray to not be one of them. He has laid out in plain language what we must do to avoid such a pronouncement: feed the hungry, give water to the thirsty, clothe the naked, take in those with no place to go, care for the sick and minister to those in prison. It’s not simply a matter that if we do these things then we will be allowed entrance into heaven; rather it is the attitude of our heart as we profess our love for God.

You cannot love Jesus and refuse to do the things He told us to do. There are some whose circumstances do not allow them to physically participate in these activities. But you can still pray. Prayer is the most powerful and effective weapon we have; it is music to the ears of God. I imagine Heaven constantly buzzing with the prayers of believers; this is where the battle is fought and won. If you are able to physically carry out the commands of Christ, then you should do so, and not use prayer as an excuse for inaction. We all have a duty to carry out the instructions of Jesus to the best and full extent of our abilities.

David Platt said in his book, “Radical”, that he is pretty sure that when we face God He will not say, “I wish you would have kept a little more for yourself.” God is not interested in the kind of car we drive or the balance of our retirement accounts. God is not excited about the square footage of our house or how well manicured our lawn is. What God is interested in is that we are demonstrating His love to everyone in need, that we are keeping ourselves pure and undefiled by the world, that we are sharing all the blessings He has given us with others. (James 1:27; Luke 12:48)

Don’t make the mistake of living your life for the dreams of America or anywhere else on this planet. As followers of Jesus, our allegiance is to Him and Him alone. Our nationality rests only in Christ and our goals should be only those that reflect His glory to a dark and dying world. When we face God, we will have to answer for how we lived the life He entrusted to us; we will have to account for how we made use of the gifts we were given. How will God judge you? Do you love Him with all of your heart, your soul, and your mind? If you do, then you will dedicate your life to His service and in pursuit of His mission. A simple prayer followed by living out the American dream is not the life God is looking for us to live. The life He finds Holy and acceptable is this: to care for the orphans and widows, to fight for justice, to care for the poor. (James 1:27; Isaiah 58:6-7) This is the life we are called to lead, and this is the life for which we will be judged. The question we all must ask ourselves is simply this: when we face God, based on what we have done for Him, what will He say to us? May we all pursue His glory and His mission out of a devoted love for Him, and an unwavering faith in Him. If we will only do what He has told us to do, His grace will sufficiently cover us when we at last face our Creator and our God.

The Curse of Affluence

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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.