Even If i Walk Alone

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

priorities

Conformed or Transformed?

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Are you being conformed or transformed? It’s a question I heard a preacher ask not too long ago. The question is both cutting and convicting and should lead to a healthy dose of self-reflection. If we give our lives to Jesus, the Holy Spirit will begin the work of transforming us into the image of Christ.

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However, if we give ourselves over to the pursuits of pleasure, success, and happiness, the spirit of the age will be at work conforming us to the things of this world. Depending on our choices, our lives will reflect either the Holy God or the evil devil. Being transformed leads to eternal life, while being conformed leads to eternal damnation.

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This New Year

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As this year draws to a close, we look back and think of what occurred, what we accomplished, and what might have been. The end of a year brings a mix of thoughts of satisfaction, relief, achievement, sorrow, pain, and regret. There’s something about completing a chapter in one’s life that invokes nostalgia, retrospection, and hope in all of us. A brand new year promises a clean slate for us.

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Goal setting and resolutions run rampant, filling even the weakest of us with resolve and willpower for at least a day or two. Humans are a predictable but interesting lot. This new year, let’s focus less on ourselves and more on what matters. Losing weight, buying a new house, and finding a better job are worthwhile pursuits, but none of them will matter if we die tomorrow. The only thing that matters is what we do for Jesus.

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What Have We Lost?

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As I survey the landscape of the modern church and Christianity at large, I find myself asking, “What have we lost?” I grew up in the church and in a Christian family with Christian parents who continue to love the Lord even in their later years today. My father is a pastor, and church attendance was never an option for me growing up.

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These days, I eagerly look forward to driving to my local church each week. Church has changed a lot from when I was a young boy, and I have eagerly embraced many of those changes. But as I survey where the church is today, it is obvious we have lost a great deal along the way.

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Heading for Hell

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Have you noticed the older you get, the more urgent you become about getting things done? We only get one go-around in this life; only one chance to get it right. For some, this means cramming in as much excitement and enjoyment as they can. For followers of Jesus, it means something else entirely. We have a limited number of days to point people to Jesus.

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Those we don’t reach are heading for Hell. Thankfully, it is the job of the Holy Spirit to save them, but it is our responsibility to share the truth of the gospel of Jesus with them. Hell is a place not to be wished on our worst enemies, yet abandoning them to Hell is what we are doing every time we shy away from speaking the truth of Christ to them.

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What is Sin?

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We see the results of sin in our lives and in our world. It’s a little like the wind; easy to see the effects, but a bit tough to define. Most of us have no trouble pointing out sin in the life of someone else, but have a bit more difficulty seeing it in our own lives. For new believers, the word can be nebulous. Preachers lash out against it, but without a clear definition, perhaps many are still asking, “what is sin?”

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To be sure we’re all on the same page for our discussion, let’s define what sin is. Sin is rejecting God’s order in the world, rejecting His Lordship in our lives, and rebelling against His laws (see our discussion on the “Ten Commandments”). Sin is living as if we are in charge rather than surrendering our will to God.

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