Even If i Walk Alone

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

priorities

Closer to God

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Based on your daily routines and actions, where can you expect your walk with Jesus to be in five years? Growth doesn’t just happen. It must be intentional. Without a plan to draw closer to God, you’ll be – at best – about as close in five years as you are today. Is that okay? Do you think the status quo is what God envisioned when He created you with a unique blend of skills, passions, and talents?

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The Psalmist says we are all remarkably and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14). If God took such care in crafting who He knew you could become, don’t we owe it to Him to fulfill our potential for His glory? God gave His very best for us. How can we give Him anything less?

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Diverse and Eclectic

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Most of us hang around people who look like us, think like us, and share the same beliefs as we do. Being charged with furthering Jesus’s mission to bring the Kingdom of Heaven to earth, I find it difficult to believe Heaven looks like our homogeneous gatherings. No, I think Heaven is the most diverse and eclectic bunch of people we can imagine. If that’s true, why don’t we strive to surround ourselves with similar gatherings now?

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This life is our only chance to prepare for our eternal one. We may as well practice now. Paul encourages us in Romans 15:7 to accept others just as Christ accepted us.  Jesus takes us as we are. We should also accept others as they are without demanding they become like us. God loves them just as they are, and so should we.

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Sleepwalking

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Did you ever wake up and realize you’ve been coasting through life? Suddenly, you recognize while you’ve been living, life has been passing you by. As followers of Christ, we should live soberly and with intention. Our time is limited, and when it runs out, those who have not chosen to surrender their lives to Jesus will be out of options. Their destiny will be eternal separation from God. They will spend eternity in Hell with the devil and his demons.

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We have the truth and a responsibility to share that truth. It has never been more important to break out of the malaise in which we’ve been living because time is shorter today than it was yesterday. If we don’t begin living with urgency, I promise we will one day face a horrific surprise as we discover we are out of time.

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Take Up Your Cross

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Jesus said whoever would follow Him had to deny themselves and take up their cross daily (Matthew 16:24). How many of us are doing this on a day to day basis? How many are willing to deny ourselves the comfort, security, and entertainment the world is telling us we deserve? Isn’t it true we want a version of Christianity that doesn’t involve the cross? We like the idea of being a Christian but dislike the sacrifice it requires.

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The notion of a loving God makes us feel comfortable, but His wrath makes us go another way. There is no victory without struggle, but we want our cake and to eat it too. We want all this world has to offer and a little Jesus on the side. This is not the life Jesus called us to live as His followers.

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Radical Obedience

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I’ve been mulling over the phrase “radical obedience” in my mind of late. Radical means far-reaching or thorough. That describes the type of obedience I long to have with Jesus. In fact, I would say it is the type of obedience demanded by Christ and required of all those who claim Him to be their Lord. Radical obedience is thorough. It is far-reaching. What it is not occasional or situational. Too many follow Jesus when it is convenient or expedient. When push comes to shove, their obedience wanes.

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This type of obedience, which is no obedience at all, runs rampant through our churches and results in an abundance of nominal Christians. Practicing radical obedience should be the rule, not the exception. It is sad the opposite is reality today.

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