Even If i Walk Alone

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

mission

The Church of Jesus

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While waiting for a church service to begin, I overheard a conversation happening in the rows behind me. There was a group of students from a nearby Christian college that was visiting the service I was attending. The person sitting next to them struck up a conversation inquiring about the group. One individual said they were all studying to be pastors, and as part of their coursework, they were visiting nearby churches every week to meet the congregants and take notes on what they liked and didn’t like.

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As the conversation continued, the pastor-in-training asked someone else nearby what had drawn them to the church when they began attending there. This engaged others around as well, and the responses were all similar: the messages, the preacher, and the atmosphere were the prevailing themes. What made me very sad was the one word I did not hear mentioned: Jesus.

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Fight Back

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As countries around the world face great upheaval, we must remember the weapons of our warfare look nothing like those of the world (2 Corinthians 10:3-5). Where I live, righteous indignation often results in violence begetting violence. Christians are angry and want to fight back against the forces coming against them. It’s understandable and natural. But it is natural only in the context of the old self we put away when we gave our lives to Jesus (Ephesians 4:22-23).

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Our new nature looks like Jesus (Ephesians 4:24), so we now must fight back in the way He modeled for us. We fight back by immersing ourselves in the Word of God, praying for our enemies, and loving everyone as ourselves. It all seems counter-intuitive, but this is what Jesus taught us to do.

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Let Us Pray

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I am convicted we who are followers of Jesus are not spending enough time in prayer. We wring our hands about the state of the world and continued attacks on Christianity while neglecting to do the one thing we can do to change it all: pray. Too many of our prayers have become rote and boring. We pray before our meals, before shutting down at night, and perhaps even first thing in the morning.

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But how many of those prayers are for other people, our country, our leaders, persecuted brothers and sisters, or for the lost around the globe? Our prayers are too selfish, too mechanical, and too safe. We need to open our hearts and pour out our cries before the Lord. Let us pray prayers that will move the heart of God rather than bring us more comfort and success.

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Why Don’t They Know?

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So many in the world today have never heard about the love of Jesus. When Jesus left this earth, His last command was that we go into all the world telling people about His love and salvation (Matthew 28:18-20). And yet 2,000 years later, while there are more professing Christians on the planet than at any other point in history, there are also more people than ever that do not know Jesus as their Savior. I have a great burden for those around the world who have not yet heard.

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I also have great admiration for those courageous men and women who leave the safety and comfort of their current situation to go into extreme circumstances to teach the people there about Jesus. Not all of us can go to other nations. Our responsibility is no less than theirs. Because while they are going to unreached people groups, people who don’t know Christ surround us as well. Many of our friends, neighbors, and coworkers have not heard the Gospel. Since we are right in the middle of them every day, I have to ask, “Why don’t they know about Jesus?”

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Unity

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Depending on the source, there are between 1,100 and 43,000 different denominations under the umbrella of Christianity. The best and most agreed-upon definition of what makes up a denomination puts the number somewhere between 9,000 and 30,000. It is important to consider those numbers in light of the last prayer Jesus prayed for His disciples before going to the cross to be crucified for our sins (John 17:20-22). He asked the Father that His disciples would be unified.

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Jesus prayed His followers would be one, just as He and His Father were one. Reflecting on that, how would you say the Church is doing in living out His desire that we would be unified as one? Instead of a vibrant body moving in harmony with one another, we have allowed our petty differences and selfish opinions to divide the body not once, not twice, but over 10,000 times. That’s not unity, and it shows the Church is falling woefully short of what Christ intended it to be.

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