A Little Walk With God

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

Don’t you just want to shake the disciples sometimes? They seem so dense when we look back and listen to the questions they have for Jesus. Explain your riddle. Tell us what your parable means. Why do you make your sermons so hard to understand. And Jesus spends time slowly going over what He’s just told the crowd. He puts things in terms kindergarteners can understand. Still they ask their questions and we sit back and shake our heads at them.

But…should we be so quick to chastise them for their ignorance? We live on this side of the cross. We have heard Jesus’ explanation of all those parables. We know the answers to the questions the disciples raised. We have centuries of writings from the apostles, early disciples, and theologians that tell us the meaning of Jesus’ words. These guys heard these words for the first time with no other background except His words.

Read it in a year - Jeremiah 12-16

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 think about what we do in our services sometimes and wonder if we have reduced our worship routine to just a ritual. We used to talk about the service being three hymns and a sermon with an offering thrown in there somewhere. We’ve gotten rid of the hymns, but most churches have a pretty set routine for that hour and a half people spend inside their walls. You can probably recite your routine for me without much trouble.

And so it goes. We come to church, spend our time in mindless rote without even thinking about the words we sing or the scripture we read. We listen to the pastor pray a few words and give a nice sermon. Then we walk out the doors and do the same thing we did last week. We don’t let God intervene in our lives. We just go on day after day assuming we are okay with the Creator.

Read it in a year - Job 27-28

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.

We sometimes decry Peter for his lack of faith and taking his eyes off Jesus. We preach sermons about his looking at the storm around him and failing to keep his eyes on the prize. We talk bad about Peter’s faith sometimes. But if you really stop and think about it, there were at least twelve disciples in the boat. All of them saw Jesus out there. All of them heard the conversation. The boat wasn’t that big that they could avoid what was going on. All of them heard Peter’s request and Jesus’ reply.

All twelve of the disciples had an opportunity to step out of the boat that night and do something no one else had done. All of them had an invitation to come out and see what it was like to walk on the surface of the sea. But only one really acted like a disciple that night. Only Peter decided he would be like his Master and stepped out of the boat. He longed to be like Jesus so much he dared to put his foot over the side and onto the stormy sea.

Read it in a year - Psalms 39-41

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.

It is so hard sometimes to stop and be still. It is hard to stop churning and doing and fretting and working to just look out into the fog and see who it is that is coming through all that mist and spray that seems to surround us. With everything pouring in, it’s hard to stop and take the time to look over the bow and focus on the figure blurred by all the commotion and noise and lightning and thunder to see that He is walking toward our rescue.

That’s what He tells us to do, though. When we are in the middle of our greatest storm, it’s sometimes best to stop and focus on Him.

Read it in a year - 1 Samuel 16-20

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.

We don’t admit that we can’t handle the problem. We don’t admit that a task is too hard for us without God’s help. We plow in headstrong and find ourselves with mild concussions after beating our head against that wall that just won’t budge. Still we don’t come to the source of power. We keep trying to plow through.

Jesus says to us today, take what you have and give it to Me. Then watch what I will help you do with it. You’ll be in awe and those around you will, too. Give what you have to Me then get ready to work because God things are about to happen.

Read it in a year - Exodus 1-4

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.

What can we learn from Jesus' words to His disciples? First, expect the unexpected. Second, expect to work. Third, expect to help people. Finally, expect miracles.

The disciples were astonished at Jesus’ words. On this side of the cross, we can learn from them and listen for Jesus’ words expectantly. Listen for Him to speak to you and watch His miracles work around you.

Read it in a year - 1 Corinthians 11-12

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.

Maybe today is a good time to just stop and think about what your siblings have accomplished in life. Maybe it’s time to give some praise to those who love you best even when things are tough. Maybe it’s time to take inventory of good that comes from your family and share it with the people outside your family circle and give some praise for the family that surrounds you. Maybe it’s also time to let your family know how much you admire them and the accomplishment, the successes they have.

Jesus couldn’t do much in his home town because his relatives, those who grew up around Him, couldn’t see past their family relationships to see what He had done. What a difference He could have made in their lives if they had just given Him a little credit for what He had done! How about giving some credit and some praise in your family?

Read it in a year - Mark 7-8

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.

If you really want to learn, there are two kinds of teachers you want to avoid, those that have the “we’ve never it done it that way” attitude, and those that chase after every new idea that comes along. Both will lead you down the wrong path.

The first will hold you back and make you think progress is terrible. Only the old ways are God’s ways. There’s a problem with that kind of thinking, though. God gave us a brain to use it. He enabled us to progress. He gave us the intelligence to build cities, make machines, discover the science behind things. If He didn’t want us to discover and use that knowledge, He would have hid it from us. There is nothing wrong with progress.

Conversely, the teacher who jumps at every new idea and throws out the old is bound for problems. You see, we have progressed to the we are today because of the knowledge of those who have gone before us. If we throw out the principles and understanding of those that made the present possible. When we forget all the principles on which our current successes are founded, we find ourselves standing on a slippery slope. We see it in our nation today.

Read it in a year - Jeremiah 7-11

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.

How will His messengers know the difference? God stands in judgment and sees our hearts. As He gives directions, His messengers carry them out. There are no mistakes because God knows everything and sees everything. He knows those who harbor sin in their hearts and those whose sins have been covered by the blood of His Son’s sacrifice because they have come to Him in repentance. He knows our intent, or motive, or thoughts. He knows everything about us. There will be no errors in His sorting process.

The results from that sorting process should be a little scary for those whose hearts are not right with God. Jesus says they will be cast into the fiery furnace where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth. Doesn’t sound like a pleasant place to me. Many discount Jesus’ descriptions of hell and assume there is no hell. But Jesus talks a lot more about hell than He does about heaven. Why would He do that if it wasn’t real? I doubt if He’s just trying to scare us. That doesn’t sound like God. I think He continually tries to warn us. He doesn’t want us to go there, but He still gives us the choice.

Why would anyone choose to go there? But they do. Because when you don’t choose heaven, you choose hell. There is no other place. Jesus only talks about two places. You have your choice, but there are only two to pick from. Pick the right one.

Read it in a year - Job 25-26

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 jeweler was on the lookout for that valuable jewel. He wasn’t just sitting around. He spied out the things that passed through his hands and was looking for something worth his time and effort. He knew there was one special jewel out there that was worth everything and when he saw it, he wanted it. Heaven it like that. If we look for the very best there is to find, we will find Jesus. We will find heaven.

If we never look, though, we’ll never find heaven. If we keep our eyes closed to the truth, heaven will pass us by. If we refuse to do what is necessary to obtain it, it will be beyond our reach. Heaven is worth it. It is beautiful, valuable, rare, and precious. The parable of the pearl helps to teach us just how rich and wonderful it is. But like the jeweler looking for the pearl, we must look for heaven and then commit everything we have and everything we are to finding it. God accepts nothing less. After all, He gave His life for us.

Read it in a year - Psalms 36-38

see the whole year's plan here