Even If i Walk Alone

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

priorities

Draw Closer to Jesus

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It’s been fifty years since I accepted the gift of salvation through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. You would think I’d have the Christian walk figured out by now. Sadly, you would be wrong. I’m still learning, failing, and growing. Our finite minds will never comprehend all there is to know about God, and our fallen humanity can never walk in perfection with Him.

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But we must never cease striving to live our lives in obedience and surrender to Him. His Word compels us to do so, and our love for Him keeps us ever-yearning to serve Him better and please Him more. Until that glorious day when He calls us home to be with Him, the best we can do is to draw closer to Jesus every day we live.

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The Cost of Following Jesus

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Many Christians seem to be confused about the cost of following Jesus. I blame the watered-down preaching that has invaded our pulpits over the last century. Particularly in the age of the celebrity pastor, the truth of the gospel and all it implies has been distorted, perverted, and sometimes outright ignored. Know that following Christ will cost you everything. It won’t require you to give up a few things but to abandon everything (Matthew 16:24-26).

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You cannot follow Jesus without cost. If living for Christ does not result in a radically different life, you aren’t following Jesus. If serving Him costs you nothing, you aren’t serving Him. You are fooling yourself for any number of selfish reasons because the cost of following Jesus is noticeable, and it is significant.

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Our Perspective

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When Jesus is our Lord, our perspective on time, resources, career, marriage, and money changes. We want to represent Jesus well in every area of our lives. If we don’t have this desire, then Jesus is not our Lord. Contrary to some popular teaching these days, when you surrender your life to Jesus, everything changes. To make Jesus your Lord is to reject every pleasure and desire we have ever known.

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Everything becomes about Jesus. All things become new (2 Corinthians 5:17), not just some things. Life as we have known it ceases to exist. This is why Jesus explains few will enter through the narrow gate (Matthew 7:13-14). Most people will insist on carrying so much stuff from their life before Jesus that they cannot squeeze through the narrow path leading to eternal life.

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Saturate

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As the world grows ever darker, the light of Christ must shine ever brighter from within us. The news and culture will weigh on us heavily and make it seem as if they might smother us. These days, I find myself driven deeper into God’s Word and having an irresistible desire to spend more and more time with Him. We need to constantly saturate our lives with God and His Word.

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We need to flush out the things that are not of God until all we have left is Him. When we fill our minds, ears, eyes, and mouth with His praise, the suffocating pressures of this world will become light afflictions we can bear in the strength of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 4:17).

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A Devoted Life

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There are times you encounter things in life you just can’t shake. As I exited the church I was attending recently, the pastor and a man who had identified himself as the head elder were standing at the door, ostensibly to say goodbye to people as they were leaving. As we approached, I heard them conversing somewhat passionately about… the NFL playoffs.

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That may seem innocent enough, but it has been gnawing at me ever since. I suppose it was their way of letting off steam after putting in their obligatory sixty-five minutes of church for the week. To me, it was a picture of everything wrong with Christianity in a five-second window. We are so enraptured by the world that we no longer understand what it means to live a sacred and devoted life.

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