Even If i Walk Alone

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

purpose

Fully Alive

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Dead end jobs, contentious relationships and a lack of money; everyday there seems to be some new crisis cropping up that steals our joy and keeps us stressed out and looking to throw in the towel. Far from living the full, abundant life that Christ promised, we live our lives frustrated and depressed, angry and broken. We love Jesus and believe everything He told us, so where is the peace we thought He’d bring? It is at this point that many will actually turn away from their faith or become marginalized Christians who only give lip service to their Christianity. This isn’t what we bargained for, so we throw up our hands and walk away from the kingdom of God in search of the comforts of this life and the promise of the American dream. How tragic; this should not be the way for followers of Christ. We claim to believe in the power of His resurrection and the wisdom of His direction, but we live lives that are dispassionate, weak, and characterized by aimless wandering.

We will find the peace and direction we seek when we return to seeking the object of our innermost desire. We will find rest when we cease striving and purpose when we surrender. Christianity is a great paradox, a dichotomy of perplexing proportions. Put simply, it makes no sense to our common understanding. Therein lies the beauty; we only win when we lose, and we gain only when we release all that we have. As long as we are living for our own dreams and aspirations, we will continue to meet with failure and frustration. When we commit our lives to Christ, we surrender all that we are in order that He might glorify Himself through us, and recreate us in the image He originally designed us to have. Our old ways of thinking and our past activities are now over; we must agree to develop new habits, thought patterns and purpose for our lives. As we begin to seek a life lived fully for Jesus, our true passions will be stirred and fed by His Spirit. Life will begin to take on its full flavor and zest.

The key to a life well lived is to live solely for His purposes. We cannot expect to find joy and contentment by promising our life to Him and then spending the rest of our time on earth trying to wrestle it back. Jesus invites all to come to Him, but He forces no one. If you do not want to follow Jesus, walk away and try things on your own. Let me know how that works out for you. Apart from Jesus you cannot ever fulfill what you were designed to be. You may achieve a modicum of success in your career and live a life that is full of pleasure and possessions, but deep inside there will remain a hunger that cannot be fed. We are spiritual beings created to live in communion with our Spirit Creator. Without an open line of communication with God, we will never find true peace, true joy or lasting happiness.

Following Jesus is not a way to rid ourselves of every trial and problem we face. As long as we live on this fallen planet, the compounding effect of generations of sin will ensure that our life is far from peaceful or without complication. We must recognize that external forces can do nothing to damage our eternal soul. If we will live our lives wholly focused and committed to Jesus, we will find inner peace, a spirit of rest, and a joy that wells up from within and can’t be contained. When you begin to feel stressed out and overwhelmed, it is a fairly good indication that you have lost focus and taken your eyes off of Jesus. The surest way to overcome a bout of discouragement is to focus on Jesus by confessing your shortcomings and thanking Him for His love and the blessings in your life. Another foolproof way to pull oneself out of the doldrums is to get up and go serve someone else for no other reason than the fact that Jesus loves them. We cannot be focused on, or acting in service to, Jesus Christ and continue to be discouraged. He will always grant us rest and give us a sense of purpose. Do you want to live a life of passion and significance? Remember your commitment to God; throw off your selfish pursuits and desires, live your life with the singular purpose and focus of obeying and reflecting Jesus Christ. Without Christ there is no life, there is only death. Only by following Jesus and obeying everything He instructs us to do will we be able to live a life that is fully alive.

First Steps in Following Jesus

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I continue to think about and be bothered by our modern evangelical methods. So many of us have grown up steeped in church culture and tradition, and we neglect our responsibility to test the things we are taught. I believe this has placed many Christians in great peril, in that many who believe they are “saved” are indeed not. We have glossed over one of the most frightening statements of Jesus when He said that He will turn away from many who call Him Lord because they truly didn’t know Him (Matthew 7:21-23). We teach that by simply believing in Jesus and saying a magic prayer that this guarantees our place in Heaven. There is no scriptural basis for this, yet the teaching has perpetuated through the Western church for the last couple of hundred years or so. We need to wake up to the realization that it takes more than a onetime prayer to truly know Jesus and to gain entrance into His kingdom.

To be a follower of Jesus first and foremost requires that we believe in Him, that He is who He claimed to be, the Son of the only God, the Creator of the Universe. We must accept the fact that we could never gain access to God save for the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross where His blood covered all of our sins. We can do nothing to earn our place in the Kingdom; it is only through the grace of God providing a way for us to enter in, that we gain the privilege of eternity with Him. His grace is available to everyone free of charge, but as with all gifts, this grace must be accepted. We accept this gift by allowing Him to glorify Himself through our lives. This is the purpose for which we were created. He glorifies Himself through us by the actions we take that reflect His character and fulfill His mission.

As we have discussed many times, we glorify God by doing the things Jesus commanded us to do: feed the hungry, provide water to the thirsty, give shelter to the homeless, clothe the poor, take care of the sick, visit those in prison and without hope (Matthew 25:31-46). We glorify God by providing for the needs of the orphans and the widows, and keeping ourselves from the temptations of the world around us (James 1:27). If we truly believe in the person and mission of Jesus Christ, we will glorify Him by working tirelessly for justice, opposing wickedness, and setting free all who are oppressed and enslaved (Isaiah 58:6). Finally, we glorify God by demonstrating our devotion to His son, regardless of the price. We must serve Jesus even if it costs us our home, our families, our possessions and even our own life. (Luke 9:57-62; Luke 18:18-23; Luke 9:23-27). This is a hard road to travel, but it is the only path that leads to the Kingdom of God.

The first step to true salvation is to believe in Jesus and that His death provides the forgiveness of our sins, without which we could never approach the Holy and perfect God. The next and equally important step is to accept His gift of grace by allowing God to glorify Himself through us. This is an ongoing active acceptance, not a onetime act. There are no free rides into Heaven. Jesus loves us beyond measure, but His perfect purity demands total devotion of our hearts toward Him. We demonstrate that devotion by our obedience to His commands and by continuing His mission on earth. If you have bought into the teaching that your place in Heaven is secured by simply reciting the “sinner’s prayer”, I urge you to prayerfully examine the Scriptures and seek out what it truly means to be a follower of Jesus. The time for this is now, we must not hesitate. Believe in Jesus and allow Him to show His glory through your life. Devote yourself to following His instructions and living out His mission. This is the only way to salvation. Don’t miss it and don’t be deceived. Determine today that you will grow to intimately know Jesus, so that you will never hear Jesus say the most chilling words ever spoken, “Depart from me, I never knew you”.

Picking and Choosing

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When determining how to live out our faith in Christ, it seems we can get very selective about which parts of the Bible we will choose to apply to our lives. We relish the parts that tell us how much God loves us, so we’ll definitely emphasize His love in our lives. Everyone likes to be loved, so we’ll even share that love with others. The book of Proverbs tells us that if we keep God first in our life then He will guide our steps. I’ll take that one as well, because who wouldn’t want a little direction? I really like the part where Jesus says that all who come to Him will find rest; He followed that up later by telling us He would send His Holy Spirit to be a comforter and a counselor for us. There is no doubt that these are overwhelming benefits, ones that few would ever turn down. As icing on the cake, we also get to spend eternity with Jesus in Heaven. It’s no wonder that Christianity is attractive to so many, and indeed it is a great mystery as to why so many reject it.

Then there are those other, more pesky passages of Scripture that we’d rather just pretend did not exist. We’re happy to accept the good stuff, the things that make our own lives happier and more pleasurable. But what about the Scriptures that tell us to go out into the entire world telling others about Jesus? We recoil and assume these words are for those odd, super-spiritual missionary types who were apparently born with a slide projector in their hands. We defer to mystical words like “calling” to rationalize away why those passages don’t apply to us. Truthfully, most of us do not even dare to go out into our own neighborhoods proclaiming the glory of Christ, much less into the entire world.

There are other passages that tell us we must take up our cross if we would follow Christ. I don’t normally wake up looking for an excuse to carry around an instrument of torture and death. Those words must be for those in other countries who live under oppressive governments. Being born in America or other free parts of the world, we are happy to believe that we don’t have to endure persecution because of our beliefs. Of course we still have to deal with the parts of Scripture that tell us if we follow Christ we must forsake our family, risk being homeless, and sell everything we own and give the proceeds to the poor. Again, those words are for other folks, not for us. We’re good with the peace, joy and love stuff.

We cannot pick and choose which parts of the Bible we will follow if we are serious about being a follower of Christ. Jesus gave up everything for us, and He demands the same in return. Each one of us is called to forsake our families, to sell what we have to care for the poor, to give up our safety and security, and to endure trials and persecution as we go throughout the world telling others about the love and glory of our great King. To accept only certain parts of Jesus’ teaching is to reject them all. No one is exempt from any part of His suffering, just as no one is overlooked by any measure of His blessing. Each one of us is gifted in different ways, and how we live out our calling will look different from person to person. The calling, however, is the same, regardless of its manifestation. We all are called to suffer, to go and to tell. The goal of our lives, the reason we were created, is so that we might demonstrate the glory of God to others. We cannot pick and choose our way through the Bible. We must embrace it all if we are to grasp what it means to be a follower of Jesus. If we give everything to Him, He will not fail to pour out all of His love, mercy and grace on each of us. He longs to give us all that He is, but this requires that we give Him all that we are. We were created for the glory of God, and if we would receive that glory in full, then we must pour out our lives for Him. There is no half way in total devotion. We are all called to one mission. Let’s live it fully.

Surrender

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We can do nothing without Jesus. As long as we presume that we can, we will live a life of disappointment and failure. Our best effort on our best day will fall short of the smallest thing we can do through the power of Christ. Until we fully surrender every aspect of our lives to Him, we will have no idea what we can truly accomplish.

Most of us have grand designs and dreams for our lives. We are taught to strive to be whatever we should desire. Whatever we might accomplish in this world on our own will be tempered by a gnawing feeling that we are still missing something. Money can buy neither love nor acceptance. For a true follower of Jesus, worldly achievement will never fulfill the deepest desires of our souls. The only way to succeed in life is to surrender all that we are to Him. We have to let Him know that He can have everything that He has blessed us with: friends, family and all the accumulated “stuff”. Nothing means anything apart from Jesus.

When we surrender everything to Him we will begin to see the world in a new way. The things we used to find interesting or important will no longer have any hold on us. We will start to see the world as Jesus does. Instead of selfishly devoting our time to things that bring us pleasure and satisfaction, we will become people who take pleasure in doing things that bring glory to God. We are called to glorify Him in everything that we do. This daunting task is possible only to those who have surrendered their lives to Him. Surrender means no longer living for ourselves in any way. Everything we do must be with Him in mind; no more self-serving endeavors, no more mindless drifting, no more wasting time. As Thoreau wrote, As if you could kill time without injuring eternity.” Indeed, any time not spent serving Christ is time that another soul potentially dies without knowledge of Jesus. The world is dying all around us; we have no time to waste. If we don’t show them the love of Christ, then who will?

We have to let go of the lie. We have to realize that we have no control of our life. We are either ruled by Christ or led by Satan. Jesus didn’t leave room for any sort of gray area. We are for Him or we are against Him. If we are truly for Him then we will fully surrender to Him; this is what He demands. For too long we have been content to give lip service to our devotion to Christ but live our lives as we see fit. Time has run out for Sunday morning Christians. What the world needs are Christ followers who have surrendered their lives fully to Jesus, people whose sole purpose is to reflect the love and glory of God to the world. We are called to be the Kingdom of God here on earth. We cannot be the Kingdom until we let go of all that we hold dear; we must drop everything until all we have left is Jesus and His power.

By surrendering to Him and admitting that we are powerless without Him, we will begin to live the life we were intended to live. Let us seek His power to first change ourselves and then let His glory shine through so that we might demonstrate His love to everyone and positively affect change in our families, our neighborhoods, our cities, our state, our country and ultimately our world. It all begins when we surrender our own lives to Him. From that small choice, that one conscious decision, we begin to fulfill our mission. Through His power we will change the world.

Who Am I?

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There are times, and these are the moments when I am thinking correctly, that I feel infinitely small in this universe. Simply looking around at everything God has created leaves me in awe and in utter awareness of my insignificance within it all. The God we worship is the very one who created the endless arrays of sights, smells and colors that wonderfully permeate our senses every day. This same God posses the immensely vivid imagination responsible for the host of characters that roam the earth; some of his creatures are downright hilarious and I am left with no other conclusion than God has an incredible sense of humor. The ability of the earth to furnish enough food to sustain its every inhabitant, to dispense a seemingly endless supply of water and to provide the abundant oxygen necessary for our very breath is astounding. This was all brought to bear by our Creator God. Man’s intellect and ingenuity would never be able to accomplish these things. Only God has created life from nothing, and only God sustains that life by His power and grace.

Jesus both spoke of and demonstrated His power over creation. He told the winds to be calm, and they immediately fell silent. Others can debate the means by which he did so, but one way or the other He overcame the properties of water which allowed Him to walk atop it. He told us that with only a small amount of faith we could literally move mountains. All of creation is under His control, and all of it defers to Him without question. Jesus gives a command and His creation follows.

There is one exception to this rule, however: humans. Only humans have had the audacity to question God, to refuse to cooperate, to blatantly ignore and reject His commands. Of all creation, only we see ourselves as somewhat superior to God; we elect to do things the way we see fit, rather than in the way He has told us. Who are we to suppose ourselves greater than the One who created us? What right do we have to rebel against the One who not only gives us this life, but holds the keys to our eternal life? How arrogant and thick-headed can we possibly be?

God forgive our lack of reverence and misplaced sense of relevance. We have become a people consumed with ourselves and the comforts we can acquire. We have turned away from the One who loves us and have lost the heart to care for the orphans and widows. We have lost the stomach to fight for justice in our world. How long will we continue to spit in the face of God and carry on our life as if He doesn’t even exist? How is it that we who profess to be followers of Jesus live lives that look no different from those who reject Him? What right do we have to turn our backs on the One who created us, died for us and loves us? Who do we think we are?

Regardless of our answer to that question, we are nothing save the righteousness of Jesus. We are formed from dirt and we are lower than the lowest things on earth. We are wicked and we are evil; we have chosen to turn from the path of life and pursue the road that leads to death. Without the cleansing blood of Jesus, we are wasted, filthy and undone. Who you say you are has everything to do with who you say that Jesus is. If He is not Lord in my life, if I am not fully devoted to Him, then what I am is hopeless. Thankfully there is a better way; there is another answer. I have hope because I have Jesus. I seek Him and I strive to follow in His way. Without Him, I have nothing; with Him, I have everything. Who am I? I am the loved creation of a gracious, patient and forgiving God. I am a follower of His Son, and I am forgiven and free.

How will you answer the question? Ask yourself, “Who am I?” Are you the creation that scoffs and rejects the one who made you, or are you the person that faithfully obeys the commands of your Creator? The choice is ours; again, ask yourself, “Who am I?”