A daily devotional through the recorded words Jesus spoke while He walked alongside us. Our website http://alittlewalkwithgod.com.

Simon, who thought himself better than the sinner cleaned by the power of Jesus’ forgiveness, still looked down on the woman because he couldn’t see what Jesus saw. Simon was repulsed by the woman, Jesus loved her as one of God’s children. Simon was disgusted with her presence, Jesus welcomed her. Simon chastised Jesus for letting this prostitute come near Him, Jesus elevated her action into the annals of history. What a difference in the way God sees us and the way others see us! Aren’t you glad God doesn’t pass judgment on us the way the rest of humanity does?

But maybe we should be taking lessons from Jesus, too. Maybe we should take care when we are quick to judge those around us and label them with all sorts of names. Usually those labels are given just so we can justify our own less than honorable actions. We look down on others so we can help ourselves think we are somehow better than those around us. We are not. We still far so short of God’s standard and need His forgiveness.

What will I do when I get to heaven? I think I will probably fall face down at Jesus feet and sob like a baby, thanking Him for His forgiveness for the first few millennia. After that, I might find enough voice to begin singing His praises.

Read it in a year - Acts 7-8

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A daily devotional through the recorded words Jesus spoke while He walked alongside us. Our website http://alittlewalkwithgod.com.

So now that we have some parameters about debt and where we stand on what the future looks like for us financially, what do you think about Jesus’ words? How would you like the government to suddenly tell you that you don’t have to pay your part of that $17 trillion? Of course in government, the problem is that someone else has to pay it or the lender has to tell us the debt is forgiven, neither of which is a good idea or likely to happen. But what if? How would you feel for all debts to be paid? Everything you owe forgiven?

What about the penalty for your sins? I recently read through Leviticus again. That book of the Old Testament is pretty scary. It gives the punishments God laid out for unintentional violations of His commands. God assumed in His dealings with His chosen people that they would follow Him, so the punishments prescribed and the offerings administered were to atone for those wrongs that someone unintentionally committed. If you’ll examine those Old Testament scriptures, you’ll find that those who intentionally violated God’s laws were put to death.

But now Jesus comes on the scene. Forgiveness is available. When we ask in repentance, He forgives. Remember repentance means turning away from the old life and turning toward Him, though. It means living His way, not ours. But when we ask the debt we owe because of our sins goes away. It is paid in full, forgiven by the only One able to do so.

Now how do you feel? If He has forgiven that debt for you, you should feel the joy only He can give.

Read it in a year - Nahum

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A daily devotional through the recorded words Jesus spoke while He walked alongside us. Our website http://alittlewalkwithgod.com.

Jesus ate with the tax collectors and thieves and rabble of the cities because they needed to hear God’s message of forgiveness. They knew they were far from God and they couldn’t go into the temple and the synagogues because they weren’t accepted there. How were they to find God if they couldn’t get to the altar and hear His message? The religious leaders would have nothing to do with them because they were sinners. They were obviously lost and they were without help from the holy people. So they were without hope…until Jesus came along.

Jesus ate with them. Drank with them. Sang with them. And Jesus gave them a message of hope and forgiveness. One the Pharisees and religious leaders knew was contained in the pages of the scrolls they memorized, but they would never dirty their hands to share it with ‘those people’. But Jesus did. He shared the message God sent to the world. The message of atonement, forgiveness, cleansing from the guilt of sin. These sinners soaked up the message the Pharisees and religious leaders hoarded within the walls of their sanctuaries and refused to share outside the confines of their collective pious gathering.

Is it any wonder Jesus was welcomed by the crowd from the other side of the tracks so often? Is it any wonder He feasted with the tax collectors and prostitutes and obvious sinners? They longed to hear the message the priests refused to share outside the confines of their ‘club of the uber pious’. They needed to hear that they could be freed from the guilt that weighed heavily on their souls. They needed to hear they could be forgiven of the wrongs they committed and weren’t doomed forever with no way to make restitution to man or God. They needed to find a way back into God’s kingdom.

But they couldn’t find a way…until Jesus became their friend and shared the joy of knowing sins can be forgiven for the asking. The chains of sin can be broken for the asking. The slavery to Satan can be redeemed by the blood of the spotless One when we accept His atonement for our sins. We can be made free once again when we live for Him instead of living for ourselves. We can find freedom in Him.

But how will those who don’t darken the door of our churches and synagogues and temples knows that message unless we befriend them and tell them?

Read it in a year - Proverbs 29-30

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A daily devotional through the recorded words Jesus spoke while He walked alongside us. Our website http://alittlewalkwithgod.com.

Did John fully understand the message He shared with those around him? I’m not sure he did. I stand on this side of the cross’ history. You and I have knowledge John and Jesus’ disciples didn’t have when they received the message John shared. I share the message of repentance and Jesus’ forgiveness often. I try to share it with you in this podcast every day. But do I fully understand the message I share? Not on this side of eternity’s curtain.

There is so much I will not understand about how the triune Godhead works, yet I still believe it is true. I do not understand how Jesus’ blood, shed 2,000 years ago, acts as the payment for the sins I commit today, yet I believe it does when I ask for his forgiveness because I feel the burden of guilt lifted from my heart. I do not understand how God can extend His grace to me when I was His enemy, yet I know He did because I feel His presence in my life every day.

There is so much about the message I will not understand until I can sit as Jesus’ feet and ask Him about it. But that doesn’t mean I don’t believe His message isn’t true. I know His message is true. I’ve seen His hand at work. I’ve felt His presence in my own life and watched Him work His miracles in the lives of others. I know He is God and forgives sins when we ask. I know He can help us live the lives He purposed us to live when we give Him authority over us. I know He can make us greater than we can ever be without Him.

What made John so great? He shared the message unfaltering to a world who needed to hear it desperately. Can Jesus make you great as well? You bet He can. Just share what He has done for you. That’s the message we are to share with others. He commands us to be His witnesses. So go ahead and start today.

Read it in a year - Psalms 119

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A daily devotional through the recorded words Jesus spoke while He walked alongside us. Our website http://alittlewalkwithgod.com.

Jesus asks us to look at the evidence. Read His word. Let Him forgive your sins. Let Him act in your life and see how He acts in the world around you. Recognize His handiwork around you and weigh the evidence of what you see. Your heart will tell you the truth about Him. You can try to cover it up and say He is not divine. That’s what the Muslim religion does. They recognize Jesus as a great prophet who said good things and could perform great miracles, but they don’t recognize Him as divine, the son of God.

Many of those around Jesus didn’t accept Him for who He was. They saw the miracles, but didn’t believe. The Pharisees, Sadducees, and other church leaders didn’t accept Him as Lord. They looked at the evidence, but didn’t put it together. It’s all there. We must just exercise the faith necessary to know it to be true. How much faith does it take? As much as it takes to believe your light will come on when you turn on the light switch. As much as it takes to believe the car will start when you turn the key. A much as it takes to believe the sun will rise in the eastern sky in the morning. Just that much faith and you can know that Jesus is the Son of the living God.

When you know Him as Lord, you will be blessed beyond anything you can imagine. Not in this world, perhaps because this world doesn’t know Him or understand Him. But there is coming a day when everyone will bow to Him and those who live for Him now will continue to rejoice with Him forever.

So look around at the evidence. Do you know Jesus is the long awaited Messiah? It just takes a little faith to be sure.

Read it in a year - 2 Chronicles 16-20

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A daily devotional through the recorded words Jesus spoke while He walked alongside us. Our website http://alittlewalkwithgod.com.

So how should we live knowing that God wants life for us and not death? How should we approach every day if we understand that God intended death never to be part of what we experience, yet we face it every day just the same? Is God unjust because death is here even though He didn’t want it to be? Should we blame God for the predicament we’re in having to face death?

Certainly, we can’t blame God for something that is our fault. We brought sin into the picture. It is our self-centeredness that is at the heart of every sin. We want what we want instead of what God wants and that’s the beginning of every sin. So when God tells us what the outcome will be when we don’t make Him first in our life, can we blame Him for the result when we don’t put Him first? I don’t think so. He tells us the rules and even shows great mercy and grace and forgiveness when we ask.

And the question of how should we live? That depends on whether He is Lord of your life. If God is not Lord of your life, death is real and continues. The cessation of this physical life means eternal separation from God and eternal punishment for the sins you’ve committed. Real death begins. If He is, death holds no power over you. You have the assurance that the cessation of heartbeats and breath just passes you from this physical world into the presence of God, but life goes on. It is in a different place, a different body, a different environment that we cannot yet understand, but life continues with God eternally. We cannot understand or imagine what it will be like. But life continues.

Jesus knew what the Father intended and showed us by raising the young man to life again. His hope is that all of us will choose life, which means choosing Him as Lord. It’s the best way to live both now and forever.

Read it in a year - Numbers 33-36

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A daily devotional through the recorded words Jesus spoke while He walked alongside us. Our website http://alittlewalkwithgod.com.

there is only One who teaches from a foundation that is absolutely rock solid. In fact, He made the rock He stands on. He is the foundation. He is the singular point from which everything else begins and ends. So when we build our character, our faith, our purpose, our very being on Him, we get it right. We can stand through the toughest storms life can throw at us, know that we will not just survive the storm, but come through it victoriously.

Some of the Florida and Georgia coast builders who put their names on their creations will lose a ton of money and their reputations as a result of the storm crushing the buildings they said would stand the stress of the winds and waves. Those who put their trust in those false credentials will find their houses in rubble or with roofs torn off and the contents spread over miles of territory. In building homes and other structures in hurricane prone areas, it pays to do your homework on the builder and know their reputation before the first shovel goes into the ground and the first form for the foundation is erected.

For building your character, it is equally important to know the reputation of your teacher. To know the one who give you instruction has the credentials to lead you down the path you need to go for a sound and secure future, not just for the few years you have in this physical space and time, but for eternity. My teacher inspired the book that has been the best seller in almost every language for centuries. I hope you’ve adopted Him as your instructor, too.

Read it in a year - Hebrews 8-10

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A daily devotional through the recorded words Jesus spoke while He walked alongside us. Our website http://alittlewalkwithgod.com.

Sometimes I think it’s a little unfortunate that most of our kids have never been to a working farm. They don’t understand the nature of life and death as well as past generations. They don’t understand the cycle of life that begins with a tiny seed, goes through the growing season, produces a harvest, and provides seed again for the cycle to begin again. They don’t know the work it takes to put food in the markets where we push our carts around and pick the vegetables and fruit we want to consume. We’ve lost a lot of the wonder of nature because of our urban and suburban lifestyles.

So do you want to learn about Jesus’ words and really put them to heart? Go visit an orchard. There is probably one not too far from where you live. Make a day trip of it one weekend and learn about growing fruit. Find out from the grower the process of taking care of those trees and find out the story behind that bushel of fruit he sells. Then with that knowledge in mind, let God the perfect gardener help you produce the best spiritual fruit you can.

Read it in a year - Acts 5-6

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A daily devotional through the recorded words Jesus spoke while He walked alongside us. Our website http://alittlewalkwithgod.com.

So what do we do about it? How can we stop the cycle that seems almost impossible to stop? First, a good rule to adopt is the one my grandmother taught me that I’m sure you’ve heard before. “If you can’t say something nice about someone, don’t say anything at all.” That will stop the criticism.

Second, let Jesus become Lord of you life. He will begin to show you the things you need to change about you. But He won’t just point them out, He will help you fix them. He will transform you and make you more like Himself. He will help you bear fruit like love, joy, peace, patience, kindheartedness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. He will make you better than you could ever become on your own.

Third, when Jesus is Lord of your life, you will begin to see others the way He sees them. Jesus always seemed to see others the way He created them. Remember what God said about everything He made at creation? It’s recorded in Genesis 1. And God saw that it was good. So He finds the good in His creation because He made us and know why He made us. He knows we can be redeemed from the sin infested world in which we live. When He lives in us, we can see others through His eyes and see the good in them.

Read it in a year - Micah

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