Even If i Walk Alone

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

works

Busy Until He Comes

by

What are we doing with our lives? What are we pursuing during the short time we live in these bodies? Perhaps even more telling, does what you are doing look any different from what your unsaved friends and neighbors are doing? It’s easy, and even expected, to get caught up within the cultures in which we live. After all, we don’t want to be those “weird people” down the street, do we?

But shouldn’t we be those very peculiar people? Peter tells us we are called to be different; called to stand out. (1 Peter 2:9; 1 Peter 1:14-16) We can’t do that if we waste all our time fitting in with everyone else and pretending we aren’t living on borrowed time. If we want to live the life Jesus commands us to, we need to be busy until He comes, making preparations for that day.

[Read more…] about Busy Until He Comes

Made for This

by

Brothers and sisters, we were made for this: to live every moment of our lives for the glory of Christ and no one else. (1 Corinthians 10:31; Colossians 3:17) We do not live for the praise of men or for any self-satisfaction. (Galatians 1:10; John 5:44) God created us in His image (Genesis 1:27) and it is our duty to spend every ounce of life in this world learning to look like Him. (Romans 8:29; Ephesians 5:1)

You will never live the life God intends for you until you stop pursuing your desires and ambitions. (Luke 9:23) You will never understand God’s will for you until you stop making it about yourself. (Proverbs 3:5–6) God made you to love Him, serve Him, and share His gospel with everyone you meet. (Matthew 22:37–39; Matthew 28:19–20) That should be the sum of any life surrendered to Christ.

[Read more…] about Made for This

Hear and Do

by

We must do more than consume the Word of God. I’ll be the first to admit that I would rather spend all day, every day, studying God’s Word and spending time in prayer with Him. To some, that will sound like boasting, and for others, it will generate an aspiration to be the same way. But the reality is, as wonderful as bathing yourself in the Word of God is, it isn’t enough.

Even if we have more Bible knowledge than anyone else, and spend more time in prayer than the holiest of men, it all means nothing if we don’t do what the Word says. It’s not enough to read and hear; we must hear and do. It is in doing what the Bible says that we prove our love for Christ and demonstrate the genuine transformation in our hearts from death to life (James 1:22–25; 1 John 3:24).

[Read more…] about Hear and Do

Following Jesus Is Hard

by

Let me state the obvious: following Jesus is hard. If you think following Jesus is easy, my bet is you aren’t following Him in the manner His Word prescribes. It’s easy to say you follow Jesus. It’s even easy to place your faith in Him. None of that requires anything on your part, and you can take it back whenever that decision becomes inconvenient.

following Jesus is hard,commitment,discipleship,discipline,salvation,surrender,works

The difficult work comes in living for Christ every waking moment of your life. As people born into sin, we all have an innate and outsized portion of selfishness that dominates our motives and desires (Romans 7:18). Keeping that alone in check often takes what feels like a Herculean effort. There’s nothing easy about living a holy life, so there’s nothing easy about following Jesus.

[Read more…] about Following Jesus Is Hard

A High Bar

by

One recent afternoon, I was conversing with a close friend of mine who is not a follower of Christ. I would peg him as agnostic, but he is a thoughtful and intelligent man, so while he disagrees with my faith, we can have civil and rational discussions about it. In the conversation, he surprised me with a comment that was both blunt and telling. He said his problem with Christianity was the forgiveness issue.

high bar,salvation,commitment,discipleship,eternal life,lordship,works

He said he could never sacrifice his own son, and his feeling is that instead of forgiving mankind, God should raise the bar and demand more from us. I thought he was going to say he struggled with forgiveness so couldn’t conceive of God forgiving us, but he went another direction. He considers a high bar a better solution than a merciful gift.

[Read more…] about A High Bar