A Little Walk With God

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

I think Jesus is telling us appearance doesn’t count. You can look good and sound good, but that’s not what He’s looking for in a life of faith. You can go to the right places and sing the right songs, but so what? You can pray long flowery prayers and even serve on church boards and teach Sunday School classes, but all those outward appearances don’t amount to anything in His book.

Jesus looks beneath the covers. He looks past the leaves and looks for the fruit. What am I talking about? Paul lists some of the fruit Jesus expects us to grow in Galatians chapter five. Remember those? Unconditional love, joy, peace, patience, kindheartedness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. He expects to see those attributes blossoming in our lives. He expects to see more than just outward tapestry and habit. He wants to see our character transform as He takes control of our lives.

When He does, when He is Lord of our lives, you can’t help but see the fruit bloom. He guides us into areas that make that fruit evident to others around us. He puts us into situations that stretch us and fertilizes those parts of our lives so that our circumstance let Him transform our thinking into His thinking. He changes our character and let us bear His fruit. And what happens if we don’t? Just a word, and the fig tree withered where it stood. I don’t want to hear those words from Jesus when He comes, do you?

Read it in a year - 2 Timothy 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.

Sometimes it would be nice to know more of the details, but we can surmise that the disciples who went to carry out Jesus directions did so with the confidence that it would happen just like He said it would. Or maybe not. Maybe Jesus sent a couple of His disciples that still had some doubts about who He was and what He could do. Maybe He sent a couple of His disciples to see that He had abilities that could not be explained by ordinary means. That He really was the Son of God.

We don’t know how all of the events and actions surrounding this little colt transpired. We don’t know how much trouble these disciples had getting an unbroken colt back to Jesus. It’s not always easy to lead a colt that has never been ridden. They sometimes don’t want to be led anywhere. We don’t know if it decided to stay where it was or whether it followed meekly or whether they pulled and dragged and pleaded with the animal to get it from the owner’s house to the crowd where Jesus waited. We do know Jesus was about to ride an unridden colt into a city crowded with people. Now that is really brave. No one rides and unbroken colt into a crowd! Someone is about to get hurt.

What does all this mean for us? Jesus will sometimes give us some crazy sounding tasks to do for Him. They may sound ridiculous to us and almost impossible to carry out. But Jesus makes a way. I’m not sure those disciples knew they could make it happen when they went into the village, but Jesus did. And when He gives us a task to do, He make it possible for us to complete it. No matter how hard it may seem, He make the impossible possible.

Read it in a year - John 10-12

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

I think more than anything else, Bartimaeus wanted to see Jesus Himself. Here stood the Son of the living God. Here was the one who could do what no other person could do. Here was One who some said could make new eyes out of dirt, make the lame walk, raise the dead to life, make the deaf hear and mute talk. Here was God incarnate. Bartimaeus wanted to see God.

So what about you? What do you want when you come to Jesus in prayer? Have you thought about it? Do you really know what you want when He asks, “What do you want of Me?” Has it occurred to you that He wants to grant your request? It is worth some time thinking about that question. What do you really want from God? When we ask in Jesus name, in alignment with His will, He says He will give it to us. But first we have to ask ourselves the question and then answer it, “What do you want from Me?”

Read it in a year - Hosea 8-14

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

As Christians in the work force, we need to remember Jesus’ words. Whoever would be great among you must be a servant of all. Remember that the further up the ladder of what the world calls success you might progress, the more important to serve those others might say are beneath you. They are not. They are the ones you hold up so the missions can be completed. They are the ones you lift with your encouragement, your enthusiasm, your resources, so their job can be done and your objectives achieved. You are their servant to make sure they have what they need to do the job you asked them to do.

From Jesus’ perspective, the ones the world thinks are great are not so great. He measures people from the perspective of God. No one measures up. So if you think you are climbing high and about to reach the pinacle of success, just think about where you are compared to God. He owns it all. How much gold has yet to be mined on this planet? How much more is out there in the rest of the universe? How do you measure God’s net value? How many diamonds does God own? What is the value of His real estate? Get the picture? When we compare ourselves to God, no matter how great we might think we are, we are nothing. Yet He loves us enough to come and live alongside us for a while, die for our sins, and give Himself to us to guide us in His truth every day.

We are nothing compared to God, but important enough to Him that He gave His very best for us. Just imagine!

Read it in a year - Proverbs 19

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

Jesus promised His followers we would suffer in this world. But He also promised He has already overcome the world. He made this place and all that is in it. He has dominion over everything here. One day, all of creation, all of us, every person created will bow before Him and acknowledge that He is God and worthy to be praised. But until then, if we follow Him, expect to be immerse in the same baptism of hatred, suffering, persecution, that Jesus faced.

When you expect to face the worst and He allows you to escape from some of the persecution and suffering His Apostles and our early church followers endured, we can stop and praise Him for His protection and comfort. But remember, the church thrives under persecution. It grows exponentially as people see how God’s children face the transition from this life to the next, all the while with a heart full of forgiveness for those that act without understanding the nature of the evil they commit at the bequest of Satan.

Do any of us want to face the kind of suffering Jesus faced? No. And none of us will face that kind of suffering. We may die for our faith. We may lose everything for Jesus. We may carry our own cross and walk beside Him in carrying His message to a lost world. But He carried all our sins on His shoulders. We will never suffer the way Jesus did. We can rejoice that He set us free from the worst Satan has to offer. Death didn’t hold Him and He’s promised a resurrection for us, too, if we will follow Him.

Read it in a year - Psalms 99-101

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

You know when Jesus spoke these words, I expect His last words didn’t even register with His disciples until Mark was recalling the conversation. I expect they were so numbed by His prediction of the abuse He would take from the religious leaders and His impending death, they probably didn’t even hear Him say He would rise again on the third day. I expect it was only later they remembered His words as they just couldn’t believe they were marching toward Jerusalem to His certain death and perhaps their own.

Was this really happening? Could they continue to follow Him? Were they dedicated enough to follow Him to the cross as He said they must do if they were truly His disciples? Did He have to talk so much about death and the cross and giving up your life for Him?

I’m glad we get to hear these words from this side of the cross. I’m glad we can look back over the centuries and remember the promise He made that on the third day He would rise again. I’m glad we can know the outcome of that awful, wonderful, terrible, glorious week. I don’t know for sure if I could have heard those words like the disciples did and followed Him to Jerusalem. But I’m glad they did. I’m glad Mark recorded His teachings for us. I’m glad they stayed true to Him so we can have the story today and know that Jesus was indeed the Messiah and what He said He would do happened. I’m glad He rose again and lives forever so we can live forever, too.

Read it in a year - 1 Chronicles 10-14

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

If you listen to God’s word, you know there is something after this seventy or eighty year lifespan during which we occupy this piece of dirt. You know the things we accumulate here are temporary but there is something beyond. God’s word talks about it. He tells us about a new heaven and a new earth that’s coming. If you listen to God’s word, you know the treasures stored here will disappeared, but treasures stored in heaven last forever.

Is the sacrifice worth it? Absolutely. Besides, God is God! He deserves our worship. He is God, He demands it. He is God. Nothing and no one else comes in a close second to Him as worthy of praise and glory and honor and majesty and power. Is it worth following Him? Absolutely. We owe Him everything we have and everything we are. He created us and allows us to enjoy everything we have. He enables us to breathe and exist within the span of years we have here and then on into eternity.

Jesus made a bold promise that many only want to remember only half. They want to remember only the good parts. They want to forget the promise of persecution, of the hatred the world will level against us, of misunderstanding and disapproval by the world if we choose to follow Him. But if we will listen to Him and follow Him, the rest of His promise is also true. In the world to come, we will have eternal life. Isn’t that worth it all? Sounds like a pretty good deal to me.

Read it in a year - Numbers 5-8

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

How much do we stifle our children by trying to mold them into something the world says they should be? How much do we crush their spirit by trying to make them into what we want them to be? I’m not saying we should let our kids just run wild and always do what they want and live carefree without discipline and always do what they want. That would be irresponsible and negligent as a parent. But God made each of us different and we forget that children are inquisitive by nature. We should encourage that curiosity and help them learn and absorb all of the beauty of God’s creation around them.

We should teach them self discipline. We should teach them about God’s love and His will for all humankind. We should help them explore His goodness, grace, and mercy. We should emulate children in their trust and love and acceptance of all people.

Don’t get in the way of the children. The kingdom of God is all about them, their behavior, their curiosity, their innocence, their love and acceptance. Jesus says, get out of their way and instead follow their example. So go find a two year old and learn from him.

Read it in a year - Hosea 1-7

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

God allows divorce just like He allows sickness and disease and sin and death. Does He want those things in the earth? Absolutely not! But He allows them because we choose not to abide by His law. We fail to follow Him and so suffer the consequences that come with it.

Our society is suffering the consequences of forgetting what Jesus said in these few verses. We have taken marriage vows lightly. We jump into marriage without taking seriously the responsibilities and commitments that come along with the vows we took. We let Satan lure us into thinking relationships don’t matter. And so we see the rise of divorce and the dissolution of families. Our children and their children pay the price. Those broken homes permeate our society and result in the broken lives that just continue the cycle of disruption in the home, the school, the workplace, everywhere you look.

Divorce affects everyone. It have never been God’s plan. We need to turn this ship around in our society and make marriage the important institution God intended it to be once again.

Read it in a year - Proverbs 17-18

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

Jesus told His disciples, those who followed His teachings, they were the salt of the earth. They seasoned their environment. They made the world good. They made it a place that was no longer mundane, distasteful, unattractive, blah. As the salt of the earth, we are to be that universal ingredient in God’s creation that acts as that spice everyone wants. We are to be that seasoning that causes people to be like my wife, something you just can’t get enough of. Someone you want around you all the time and in every situation.

As I write these words I’m reminded of my very good friend who passes away unexpectedly a few days ago. He was that kind of person. He was the salt of the earth. Loved by everyone, a friend to everyone. He called himself just a package car driver as a UPS driver for 43 years, but in that time, his life touched thousands of people with his humor, compassion, and genuine love for people. You were his friend whether you wanted to be or not. Gery understood what it meant to be salt and he sprinkled the seasoning of God’s love everywhere he went.

Salt within us. Seasoning to sprinkle on those we meet and make their lives just a little better because we touched them in a way that made their day just a little brighter or a little richer or brought just a little more joy into their life because we were there. That’s what Jesus is talking about. Just a UPS package car driver? No, Gery was Jesus to those he met every day. And on a rainy Monday morning in the middle of the workday, there was standing room only at his memorial celebration as friends and family paid tribute to his life, remembering the impact this package car driver made on the community he served.

So what does that tribute and Jesus words mean for you and me? Just a package car driver? No. Just a clerk? No. Just a nurse or a doctor or a soldier or a CEO? No. We are not just a…name what ever you might do as an occupation. If you are like Gery, and do what Jesus tells you to do, you are Jesus to everyone you meet every single day.

Read it in a year - Psalms 96-98

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