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 wants all of us to remember the few words Christendom agrees on found in the Apostles’ Creed that has come down to us from the very early days of “The Way” as it was called then. I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.

I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried; On the third day he rose again; he ascended into heaven, he is seated at the right hand of the Father, and he will come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic* Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.

Amen. When we share those words together, we are brothers and sisters. Members of God’s great family.

Read it in a year - Colossians 3-4

see the whole year's plan here

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

Jesus wants us united as His church. He wants us to come together to carry out the mission He gave us before He ascended into heaven on a cloud. He wants us to have that single aim, to go and make disciple, teaching them the things He taught His first disciples. So how have we gotten to where we are today with the divide between all those denominations and branches and Catholic and Protestant and everything in between.

Somewhere along the line, we let that thing called selfishness slip in again. I want my way. Even in building the kingdom. I want to believe the way I want. I want to interpret what Jesus said the way I want. I want to live the commandments the way I think they should be lived. I want to hear sermons that touch me the way I want them to. We get into this selfish mode even in our religions. We pick and choose and establish our faith around our desires and our will and our wants even while trying to seek God’s will.

Read it in a year - Luke 15-16

see the whole year's plan here

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

I wonder how often God gets furious with our silence. As we’ve watched the violence around the world and in our own country the last several days and weeks, I can’t imagine the pain and anger He feels at just how evil His greatest creation has become. How could we stoop so low as to kill each other over the color of our skin or the way we talk or the place we live? How could we get to the point that life means so little that we would kill innocent people because some idiot killed another person? When did it become okay to take vengeance on the innocents because of the guilt of wrongdoers?

God must be furious with us, don’t you think? We were created to love each other and worship Him. He is a God of love and peace and joy. We, in our drive to fill our selfish desires, have turned this world into one of hate and war and sorrow. How can we do that in light of all God does for us?

The answer is found in that word selfish. From the very beginning, Satan tempted Adam and Eve to satisfy instead of God. Everything else stemmed from that first fall. We want what we want at any cost and the cost has been high. Just look around and you see the price we pay every day. Broken homes, racial divide, nations warring against each other over 10 miles of land, civil war, war in the name of God. Would He approve of any of this? No. He is a God of love and peace and joy. But in our selfishness we want our way, not His and so we continue to see others the way we want to see them, instead of the way He sees them.

Read it in a year - Ezekiel 31-36

see the whole year's plan here

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

I think it says there will always be those, even within our organized religions that want to keep us trapped in rules and regulations. Even if there are good things that should be done that disrupt the ordinary, those will cry out against those good things because of the rules they live by. And they will consequently lose great blessings and the joy of following Jesus.

I think it says we will occasionally have opportunities to hear Jesus tell us to come to Him, but we will have to overcome the glare and ridicule of some tough opposition. The opposition might be fierce and even do everything in its power to destroy us, but if we will stand faithful and follow Jesus’ command, the reward will be well worth it in the end.

I think it says we have two choices, we can cower to the influence of those who want to rule our lives with the way things have always been whether right or wrong and find their favor, or we can follow God and find His favor. There are but two choices. Like the man with the withered hand, make the right one.

Read it in a year - Proverbs 10

see the whole year's plan here

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

The Pharisees forgot why the Sabbath came about in the first place. God didn’t get tired and need rest after He brought everything into creation on those first six days. He set aside the seventh day for humankind to rest. God has infinite energy and power. He doesn’t sleep. He doesn’t rest. He doesn’t take a day off. But He knows that we need to stop from our labors and remember who brought all of this into being in the first place.

Part of our problem today is we somehow forgot about taking time off to remember God and His goodness to us. I don’t think it really matters what day of the week it is, we just need to stop and spend time remembering Him. And that hour and a half on Sunday morning doesn’t cut it if that’s all the time we give to Him. We need to stop, slow down, quit our busy-ness, set aside time to meditate on God and the blessings He gives us. We need to remember the Sabbath, not as a day on which we must follow a bunch of dos and don’ts, but as a time to worship and praise our Redeemer.

I wonder what would happen if we started remembering the Sabbath again? I’m not too sure we know how anymore. What if we spent one whoe day in worship and fellowship with our brothers and sisters in Christ relaxing in the company of each other, hopefully safe from the evils of the world as we share in that one day together each week? What if we stopped doing all our household chores and our shopping and our sports and other activities we didn’t have time for during the other six days of the week and spent that whole day on things related to our salvation instead of on things related to ourselves? Would that make a difference in our spiritual lives? Would it change the dynamics of our families? Would it change our churches?

Read it in a year - Psalms 81-83

see the whole year's plan here

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

While the maker of all things is with us, we should not be sorrowful. When we are in His presence, if our sins are forgiven, we can experience incredible, inexplicable joy. That’s what He wants for us and that’s what He gives us. It’s just common sense to follow Him. It’s just common sense to follow His advice about parties and patches and wineskins. It just common sense to ask for His forgiveness of our sins. It’s just common sense to enjoy the peace and freedom from guilt He brings when we follow His commands. It’s just common sense to listen to the Maker of the universe and do what He says to do.

That’s what Jesus is telling the scribes and us today. Just use a little common sense. When we do, the only answer we will find is to follow and obey Him for the rest of our lives.

Read it in a year - 2 Kings 6-10

see the whole year's plan here

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

Sick people go to see a doctor. Whether a primary care doctor for those routine illnesses, an emergency room for something severe and urgent, or a specialist for something else, we go to a doctor when we’re sick. And usually, if we’re not sick, we avoid those places. I don’t know anyone that enjoys sitting around in doctors’ offices or emergency rooms or hospitals just for the fun of it. They are not built for fun. I don’t have any hospital addresses on my vacation list. You probably don’t either. But guess what? I also don’t know any doctors that make house calls any more. If you don’t go to the place they practice, you won’t get the care you need. House calls are out of the question now days.

Jesus tells the scribes when they complain about the company He keeps that it’s time to make house calls again. He goes outside the temple and the synagogues and reaches out to the tax collectors, the prostitutes, the thieves, the beggars, the lepers, the outcasts of society. He doesn’t wait for the sick to come to Him, He goes out to the sick to shorten the distance the must go to reach Him.

So what does that tell us today? Too often we get comfortable sitting inside the four walls of our churches, temples, and synagogues waiting for someone to come in to hear the gospel. As we sit in the pew and sing praises, we wonder why the world is in such terrible shape. But we refuse to take a step outside the door to share the message to those who really need to hear the good news that Jesus will forgive them of their sins and live in them to help them live the life for which He created them.

Read it in a year - Leviticus 13-15

see the whole year's plan here

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

So how should we view elections? Who should we vote for in these important races? What should we do as Christians as the din of the rhetoric rises around us?

I’m not sure the answer is easy, but it is simple. We need to get on our knees and pray. Ask God for His guidance. Be good citizens and explore the character of the candidates long before going to the poll. Don’t listen to the media. Depending on whether you listen to CNN or Fox, you get a different slant that bends toward the candidate their executives want in office. News networks sell advertisements and entertainment. They are businesses, just like the grocery store down the street. If they can’t sell advertisements, they go out of business. If they can’t lure listeners with the best entertainment, juicy gossip, or twist of the news to what you want to hear, the way you want to hear it, you’ll turn to another station. So research candidates on your own. Search every source you can find to figure out what kind of character they have.

Pray a lot and vote for the person who follows Jesus. But most importantly, you follow Jesus. He tells us to. And when we follow Him, we can’t go wrong. This world is coming to an end. His book tells us it’s coming. Whoever sits in the office next, God allows it to happen. When he or she is God-fearing or God-serving or not, doesn’t matter. It’s still God who allows that person to serve for His purposes. Perhaps our next president will be part of the events that usher in the end of the world. It’s pretty exciting to think we’re voting for that person, isn’t it? So who do you think that might be?

Read it in a year - Colossians 1-2

see the whole year's plan here

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

Is the Bible accurate? Yes. Every time someone tries to prove something doesn’t fit historic facts, archeologists seem to uncover evidence that the Bible, not the historic facts are true. Is it scientific? No. It’s not meant to be. It’s the story of what God does for us and why, not how. Our finite minds can never wrap around the infinite wisdom of God. Just one simple thought to consider to boggle our finite mind: Scientists tell us everything is made of atoms. And atoms are mostly empty space. So much so that scientist tell us that if all the empty space in the universe could be removed and the solid mass of the universe condensed into a single object, some say it would take up the space of a house and some say as small as a basketball. So why can’t we just walk through walls? I know the quantum physics answer, but it does make you wonder about God’s design in it all, doesn’t it? After all, where did those, electrons and protons come from to repel each other in the first place to form those atoms we’re talking about?

So when the Bible tells us proves to be true, then when it says Jesus is God in the flesh, that must be true, too. And we exercise just a little faith in that truth, scripture opens up to us in incredible ways. Just try it. You’ll find He really can forgive sins. He forgave mine and He can forgive yours, too.

Read it in a year - Luke 19-20

see the whole year's plan here

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

Do we get so tangled up in our taboos that we forget the people inside them? I sometimes think that’s what Jesus tries to tells us. The leper He healed that day had only other lepers as friends. Drug addicts end up with drug addicts and dealers as their only friends. The homeless end up with only the homeless as friends. The down-and-out end up with the down-and-out as their only friends. Maybe part of the less Jesus wants us to learn is that we need to break the rules every once in a while and break through with compassion to those who need someone else in their circle of friends.

Before we can be healed of any of those maladies above, we must want to be healed, just like the leper in the scene Mark gives us. But how many of the addicts, homeless, down-and-out finally come to realize they need help, only to find that when they get to the edge of the crowd, no one will reach out and touch them. No one on our side of the divide will dare to break the rules as Jesus did.

To find healing from the diseases the sin this world brings upon us, it takes two willing to break the rules. God in His holiness, willing to reach out to a sinful man and forgive him of the wrongs committed. And this sinful man recognizing the pitiful state I’m in and reaching out to a holy God in whose presence I am not worthy to stand.

When both of us break the rules, healing takes place. He makes me clean and invites me into His kingdom. What a marvelous God we serve. Have the two of you broken the rules yet?

Read it in a year - Ezekiel 25-30

see the whole year's plan here