A Little Walk With God

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

Jesus showed us what we should do, then He did something none of us would probably do if we were God. He entrusted His message to us. He told us to go share His message throughout the world. Can you believe that? God put the message of salvation into the hands of sinners who have felt the touch of His redemptive grace. We were His enemies, but He still gave us the mission of sharing the message that will give people hope and a future.

So who do we take that message to? Do we hold it in our churches and cathedrals? Jesus didn’t. We are to take it to work with us. We’re to take it to school and the grocery. We’re to take it to our neighbors. We’re to take it to the gas station and our mechanic. We’re to take it everywhere we go and we’re to take the message of God’s grace and forgiveness to those who need it most.

Do you remember who needs it most? Everyone. We’re all sinners. Some of us are saved by His grace, if we have asked for His forgiveness. But we all need His message. So share the hope and grace He gives to someone you meet today. Don’t invite them to church to hear the message, share it with them where you find them. It will make such a difference in how they hear it from you.

Read it in a year - 2 Chronicles 6-10

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

Jesus wanted others to know He never lied and had the power to do what He said He could do, though. So He did something others could see, not just hear about. Like my building the pergola, so others could see it when they sit on the porch instead of me just talking about it, Jesus healed the paralytic so the Pharisees knew He could do what He said He could do. He did what seemed impossible. He healed a man who could not help himself, physically or spiritually.

So, like Jesus, when you forgive, do so in a way that others can experience and know you’ve forgiven. Let them see the truth of what you say and not just hear the words.

Read it in a year - Numbers 25-28

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

He says, “Don’t be afraid. I want to restore your relationship with Me. I want to bring you back home. I want to put your life back on track. Don’t be afraid. Come close. I have good news for you and for everyone who will listen. You don’t have to stay estranged from Me. You don’t have to stay mired in your sin. You don’t have to be separated from Me. You can be cleansed. You can be made whole again. You can have your sins forgiven.”

We are so afraid of what other people might think if we go to an altar to ask God to forgive us of our sins. We’re afraid someone might think we are a sinner! Well, guess what? All of us are. None of us escape that title. So the question is really whether you will let someone else’s thought about you destine you to an eternity separated from God or whether you will use some common sense and fall on your face before a forgiving God and beg Him for cleansing from your sin.

It is ironic the response we have when God wants so desperately to bring us back into His kingdom. He created us to worship Him. He created us for a relationship with Him. He even came to live with us in human flesh to show us how much He longs to restore that relationship with us. And when He came, He told Simon and us the same message. “Don’t be afraid. I have a message for you and I want you to give that same message to the rest of the world.”

So will you trust Him like Simon did and do what He says? Or will you continue to do like Adam and hide from Him. As always, it’s your choice. Make the smart one, choose to stop hiding and live for Him.

Read it in a year - Hebrews 1-4

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

You see, it takes a while to really get to know someone. We learn more about our husband or wife each day. We move deeper in love as we get to know each other. I’m afraid most of our divorce problems today are because we don’t appreciate what it means to move deeper into a relationship. We want to stay on the surface. We want to keep that shallow infatuation that brought us together and don’t want to spend the time or effort to really get to understand each other beyond that. That’s one of the reasons divorce is so rampant.

But Jesus invites us to move deeper with Him, too. Get closer, learn more about Him, get to know His habits and idiosyncrasies. He wants us to really know Him. It’s the only way we can really figure out what He wants us to do and what He wants us to be. He has a purpose for each of us and we can find it when we move into deeper water with Him. You never know what you’ll catch when you do.

Read it in a year - Acts 1-2

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

When I was growing up, we had tent revivals, camp meetings, Vacation Bible School, teen camp, childrens camp, all kinds of things that could get you a spiritual high. Remember those? Sometimes those announced two week tent revivals would really get going and suddenly we figure out we didn’t want them to stop, so we go for another week or two. People would run the aisles, pray at the altars, talk about the services during the day at work or at the grocery store. Every night the tent would be full. There would be lots of music and the sermon seldom lasted less than an hour. But no one left.

I’m afraid I haven’t seen one of those kind of revivals in a long time. We get too busy with life and now if we can get people to go to a weekend gathering, it’s like pulling teeth. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen hanky wavers and aisle runners, too. We’re afraid of what someone might think if we let our emotions get out of hand if God really blesses us in a service, I guess. It’s just not done. We’re too formal and we might scare away the visitors if they came to our churches and saw something like that, right?

I’m not sure what started me down that path except thinking about the circuit Jesus made as He taught and preached and healed. He never stayed in one place very long because He had a mission to complete. He also had to make sure His schedule put Him in Jerusalem three times a year for the feasts Moses told the Israelites to observe at the temple - Passover, Pentecost, and the Feast of Tabernacles. So Jesus had an agenda from His Father and it wasn’t to stay in one spot. He didn’t expect people to come to Him.

Read it in a year - Obadiah

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

And what it tells me is that God cares about the outsiders. The Jews are His chosen people. They are set aside for His special purposes, but He hasn’t forgotten the rest of us. He still loves us and cares for us. In fact, He cares for us so much, that during those two incredibly savage famines that swept through the countries surrounding Israel, Elijah and Elisha ministered to people outside their own culture and faith. God directed them to two women in foreign countries that were considered unclean by the Jews. These two men listened to God and determined even the outcasts needed God and His sovereign power in their daily lives.

And that means He cares for us. We are outcasts, outsiders, enemies, yet God still pours out His love and makes it known through His Son, Jesus, that He cares for us immensely. In fact, He cares so much, that He gave His only Son to die on the cross for our sins. All we have to do is believe in Him as the Son of God. Believe in Him for the forgiveness of your sins. Believe in Him for the guidance He will give you each day as you allow Him to live in your life and teach you His ways.

We don’t have to be outsiders anymore. Jesus made a way for us to join the party.

Proverbs 25

Read it in a year - SCRIPTURE

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

A verse or two taken out of the context of the whole Bible can let you do just about anything you want to do. There is justification in God’s word for all kinds of things. There are stories of violence, murder, vengeance, sex, adultery, theft, embezzlement. Pick a vice or crime or just about any sin you want to commit and it has been done and is recorded in God’s word. Just pick a few of the verses around that sin and you can figure out how to justify whatever you want to do. But that’s not God’s will.

So what is God’s will? What does the Book really tell us? It’s the story of God’s plan for our redemption. It’s His will that everyone would come to Him for the forgiveness of sin and follow His commands. It’s His will that all would recognize that He is the one and only true God and would worship Him as such. It’s His will that we would love Him with our whole heart, soul, mind, and strength; and love our neighbors and we love ourselves. That’s the message of the Bible.

It’s pretty simple. Sometimes not so easy to do, but pretty simple to remember. Just love. That’s it. Jesus showed us how. He didn’t let Satan distract Him from that simple mission or the simple message His Father gave Him to deliver to the rest of the world. Satan tried his best, but it didn’t work. Why? Because Jesus understood the message of the Book. He wasn’t about to let Satan use one little piece of it to persuade Him to do something that contradicted the message of the whole Book.

Read it in a year - Psalms 111-113

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

Our problem is two-fold. First, we don’t look for those ways of escape. We don’t look for the exit signs. We don’t try to get away from the temptation or do things to keep from getting into those situations in the first place. We too often just let Satan beat on us with those same temptations and think we can stand there and take it for as long as he can dish it out. We can’t. Remember, Satan knows which buttons to push. He knows our weak spots and those are the ones he will go after.

But sometimes, we just can’t find an exit, or there isn’t one. There wasn’t an exit for Jesus in the desert that day. He was there. Satan was right there in front of Him. Satan was doing his best to push Jesus’ buttons and get Him to take a shortcut, skip over the tough parts of His Father’s journey for Him, take the easy road to success. Jesus saw that He couldn’t leave that desert place quite yet, so He did the next best thing. Did you get it? He rebuked Satan with those very precious words that we just don’t use enough, “Get out of My face, Satan!”

So what do you think would happen if the next time you faced a really tough temptation you did what Jesus did and yelled, “Get out of my face, Satan!” I bet if you’re not alone, you’ll get some pretty strange looks, for one. But I also bet that whatever is going on around you will take a quick stutter step and give you an opportunity to get out of there pretty fast. It’s amazing what happens when you call a spade a spade. People don’t like the truth sometimes and when you’re in the middle of something you know is wrong and call it what it is, it’s amazing how many others you will help by lending them your strength and keeping them from going down that path, too.

Jesus teaches a great lesson for us, today. When the tempter comes, get ready with your response, “Get out of my face, Satan!” With Jesus on your side, he will.

Read it in a year - 2 Chronicles 1-5

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

How do we find real life? By doing what God says in His word. You say, “but that’s too much. How can we follow all the rules God gives us in scripture. How can we even know what He said. There is so much there.” I’d beg to differ with you, though. Most Bibles are about 1500 pages and most of those pages are not rules, but stories of God’s redemptive love. Have you ever read the tax code? I think the last version is about 20,000 pages. You’re expect to follow that and it’s just one part of our law. Then there are all the other laws and codes and bills and regulations you obey everyday. We don’t seem to have a problem keeping those and they constitute a whole library full of text.

So why do we think it is so hard to keep God’s laws? There really aren’t that many and Jesus sums them all up in two commands. Love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength; and love your neighbor as you love yourself. So if we can just keep those two rules in mind and do those two, Jesus says we’ve done all the rest because all the rest are based on those two.

So what will it be as we look toward the beginning of another season of new zombie programs hitting the airways. Are we going to be part of that crowd and go around pretending to live like zombies do but without any real life? Or are we going to follow the words that come out of the mouth of God?

Once again, we get to make the choice. For me, I never did like those zombie shows. I’ll take real life every time.

Read it in a year - Numbers 21-24

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

No doubt Jesus was in trouble for the worry He caused. No doubt He didn’t get to run ahead or play with His friends on the rest of the journey home. I expect if they could have done so without raising too many eyebrows, they would have put a lasso around Him and kept Him tied to one of them. So the lesson in these scriptures is not to run away from your parents. That’s not a good thing. Even for Jesus, that was not a good thing. He probably got some fairly hefty punishment for the scare He caused and His failure to leave with the family, even though He was doing something very good at the time. He really needed to tell His parents what He was doing before He scared them to death.

But the other thing we learn from today’s words is that scripture was important to Jesus from a very early age. Remember we closed the book of Mark talking about just how important scripture was to Jesus. We talked about the fact that many of His last words on the cross came from Old Testament Psalms. How was He able to recite those verses under such extreme duress? Because from the age of twelve, whenever you couldn’t find Jesus, just look in the temple or the synagogue or with a group of rabbis or scribes. You’d find Him learning scripture. You find Him reading the ancient texts, learning the prayers of David and Isaiah and Daniel and Moses.

Jesus was a student of His Father’s words as handed down through the writers of our Old Testament. He used them often in His preaching and teaching, in His confrontations with Satan and his minions, in His times of greatest joy and deepest sorrow, and even on the cross. If scripture was so important to Jesus, the perfect Son of God, don’t you think it should be important to those of us who are so imperfect? Pick it and read it today and every day. It will do you good.

Read it in a year - Philemon

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