You Are Not Alone

Do you feel all alone? If you are Christ-follower you are not alone!

Why? You are not alone because of two Bible truths:

01. The Lord is always with you!

This is part of the beauty of a relationship with the Lord—He is ALWAYS there.

“Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the LORD your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you.” (Deuteronomy 31:6 ESV)

One day our families will be gone when we die, unless we leave them first. But the wonderful truth is that, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.” (Psalm 23:4 KJV)

02. God’s people are around you and with you.

Do you remember how even after a miraculous work of God, Elijah felt all alone?

He complained, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.” (1 Kings 19:10 NIV)

The truth was he was not alone. In fact, God spoke to Elijah and said, “Yet I have reserved seven thousand in Israel, all whose knees have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.” (1 Kings 19:18 NKJV) 

But was he alone? Not at all—there were 7,000 others standing with him! It was an emotional illusion.

So much of our aloneness is just an emotional illusion.

As I write today I have just said goodbye to a group of friends that will not be seeing each other again regularly. I feel a little sad and a bit alone.

But it is an emotional illusion because the Lord is with me and other friends are all around me.

So what am I to do? I am to speak the truth of God’s Word that “you are not alone.” God is with me and fellow believers are with me. Big time!

Twisting Scripture

Doesn’t everybody do this?

Twisting Scripture is easy. It’s quite simple to twist the Bible to have it say whatever you want it to. All you do is take a phrase out of context and apply it to your situation. For example, Jesus wants us to love others, right. Thus someone might say that they can “make love” with whomever they want whenever they want to for whatever reason they want.

This is essentially what one cult called the “Children of God” practiced from 1974 to 1987. They called it “flirty fishing.” What was flirty fishing? It was evangelistic religious prostitution—they encouraged females to have sex with guys to draw them into their cult.

Recently the Anglican fellowship put the Episcopalian Church in America on 3 years probation for their promotion of same-sex marriages.

Other denominational groups are also twisting Scripture, or even ignoring them, to bend to the norms of society.

Another denomination put a post on its Facebook page says “God is transgender” and another with a photo of two men kissing quoting a verse from 1 John saying “God is love.”

How can “Christian” groups justify practices such as these which are so contrary to Scripture? Answer: They twist Scripture to say what they want it to and ignore the clear teaching of the Bible.

The problem is of course that with no reference point, Christianity becomes anything anyone wants it to be. And if it becomes anything anyone wants it to be, it begins to become nothing. This is why the liberal mainline denominations are declining rapidly, while Bible-believing denominations grow.

So what are Christians to do?

Here’s the answer right from the Word of God: “Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” (2 Timothy 2:15 KJV)

Christians are obligated to study the Bible and carefully, without twisting Scripture, determine what it says and obey. It’s as simple as that. 

What can you do if you are part of a church whose leaders who might or might not be “rightly dividing the word of truth?”

The answer is to do what the people in Berea did: “Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.” (Acts 17:11 NIV)

Note in this verse that checking what the Apostle Paul said against Scripture was not questionable, instead it was “noble!”

Every believer has the responsibility to double check teaching to make sure it is indeed what the Scriptures say, no matter who is saying it! 

No matter how great, respected and renowned a teacher might be, even if it is the Apostle Paul, it is “noble” to examine Scripture to make sure what is being said is what the Book says.

In our day, there is major twisting on the issue of homosexuality. So I wrote some articles titled “What Scripture Says About Homosexuality: Uncut, Uncensored and Unedited” and “Can a Christian Support Gay Marriage.”

I also wrote an article about twisting Scripture titled “Have You Written Your Own Bible and another titled “Beware of Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing.”

But how do we know we can trust the Bible? To find out, check out these articles and podcasts:

• 4 Reasons You Can Love and Trust the Bible Today

• How Digging in the Dirt Proves the Bible is Reliable

• Where do dinosaurs fit in the Bible?

• Podcast: How do we know we have the right books in the Bible?

• Podcast: Why do some Bible versions omit certain verses?

Note: There are many ministries I can enthusiastically endorse. For a list, see my Recommended Resources page.

Video - The Great Commission Is For ALL Christians

No Christ Follower is Exempt

It’s my privilege to serve the Lord as a full-time missionary. Maybe you don’t have the same calling. But even if you don’t, the Great Commission is for you because the Great Commission is for ALL Christians.

What is the Great Commission? It is given in 5 books on the New Testament including Matthew 28:19-20 “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (NIV)

Jesus told us to “make disciples.” A disciple is a devoted follower of Jesus.

Some people have suggested that all roads lead to heaven and therefore we don’t have to worry so much about the spreading the Gospel. If you wonder about this, I’ve also written reasons that is not true that all roads lead to heaven.

Others don’t believe that the Great Commission is for ALL Christians, they believe in the Great Country Cub is for them. They’re happy to sit, soak and sour in their church. That is a sad situation and contrary to Scripture.

So how can you share your faith?

• You can do so by sharing this link about Salvation on Facebook or other social media.

• Here’s a phone app called “How to Share Your Faith”

• Here are several resources from the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association

• Here are some great resources from Cru (formerly Campus Crusade for Christ)

As you share the Gospel, remember that Jesus promised, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (Acts 1:8 ESV)