Even If i Walk Alone

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

purpose

Hurried

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We will not run into Satan face to face most days. We meet him in far more subtle ways. In his book, “The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry”, John Mark Comer describes our encounters with Satan this way: “Today, you’re far more likely to run into the enemy in the form of an alert on your phone while you’re reading your Bible or a multi-day Netflix binge or a full-on dopamine addiction to Instagram or a Saturday morning at the office or another soccer game on a Sunday or commitment after commitment after commitment in a life of speed.”

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We are so busy, so hurried, that Jesus is being systematically squeezed out of our lives. And the enemy loves it. He barely needs to lift a finger anymore. Once he got the ball rolling, we did the rest. We’ve made his job ridiculously easy. “The devil made me do it” no longer holds water because we are wholly complicit.

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Love Like Jesus

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Nothing that comes out of Washington or our local government changes our mission. We are still to go into the world sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ (Matthew 28:18-20). We are still to love God with all our heart, soul, and mind (Matthew 22:36-38). And we are still to love our neighbor as ourselves (Matthew 22:39). Whatever else may happen around us, His call remains unchanged. It’s our north star, our constant in a sea of change.

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We do ourselves a great disservice when we allow the cares of this world to drown out the voice of God (Mark 4:18-19). Our purpose here is not to perpetuate the philosophy of any government or to trumpet the social cause of the day. Our purpose is to look like Jesus, live like Jesus, and love like Jesus.

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What do You Want to Be When You Grow Up?

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When you are young, people often ask you, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” Our answers were always filled with the exuberant and innocent dreams of youth. My earliest recollection of answering that question was that I wanted to be Spiderman. That didn’t pan out and I still haven’t had any encounters with a radioactive spider, so like many passing fancies of youth, it’s probably time to let that dream go.

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But the question of “What do you want to be when you grow up” is a good one for all would-be disciples of Jesus. And it can only have one answer: “I want to be just like Jesus.” While my childhood dream of being Spiderman had no basis on reality, the aim of living like Jesus is both an attainable and worthwhile pursuit.

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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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Wholly Devoted to Christ

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The primary goal of my life is to live it wholly devoted to Christ; to become the person He created me to be. My second goal is to instruct and encourage others to do the same. I’ve read and listened to countless exhortations to put God first in your life, or to live a Jesus-centered life. I’ve written those very words on this blog many times.

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What is often missing from these exhortations (and I stand guilty here as well) is an explanation of how to do this in practical terms. How do we center our lives on Jesus and live wholly devoted to Him when myriad distractions are assaulting us every day? How do we live for Heaven and still survive on earth?

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