A Little Walk With God

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

So what should Christians look like and act like? Sometimes we will look and act like John the Baptist. Sometimes it’s necessary to be the prophet with the message of repentance. When Christ asks us to take on that role, it isn’t always pleasant and our countenance will probably reflect the difficulty of confronting others with the truth of the gospel. We will sorrow for those who refuse to listen and continue on their selfish path to ultimate destruction and eternal punishment.

But most often, we will be like Jesus was as He drew crowds around Him. Welcoming the children. Singing. Laughing. Telling stories of God’s grace and goodness. Helping others understand the good news of God’s salvation and His empowerment in our life, now, in this place, in the middle of all the evil that surrounds us. Our lives as Christians today are certainly no more difficult than that of the early followers of Jesus. In fact, we probably have life too easy. Maybe a little persecution would help us understand just how much we need to rely on Him instead of ourselves.

Read it in a year - Psalms 27-29

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.

Who do you look for to learn about spiritual things? Jesus pointed to John the Baptist and asked the crowd following Him what they thought of John. What were they looking for? Someone soft that would bend in the political wind of the time? That wasn’t John. He was in prison for speaking out against Herod’s marriage. John saw Herod, who proclaimed to have a Jewish heritage, do something well outside the bounds of the moral code of the Jewish faith. The priests wouldn’t say anything about it for fear of reprisal from the king, but John had no such fear. When he saw wrongs that needed righting, he jumped in with both feet and let them be known whether the perpetrator lived in a hovel or sat on the king’s throne.

That’s the kind of person I want as a spiritual teacher and leader. Someone unafraid of the politically correct. Someone who stands for what is right regardless the consequences of that stand. John was such a person. I’m afraid many that we see in our pulpits today, may bend with the political climates instead of standing firm on God’s word.

Read it in a year - Ruth

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 told John’s disciples to just look around and see the miracles happening around them and report back to John. He will know the truth when he hears their report. Can we look around and see the truth of God’s word around us? If not, maybe it’s because we’re not in touch with Him. Maybe we need to open our eyes and look around at the things He does for us everyday to understand what’s afoot. If you have a hard time finding miracles, just think about the process of breathing the air around you, the miracle of life. Think about how extraordinary it is that God makes you in such a way that your body naturally pulls in enough oxygen to power the processes that turn food into energy so your muscles can do what they do, so your brain can think, so your body can function, so you can live. Life itself is a miracle beyond description!

God is afoot!

Read it in a year - Genesis 36-39

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 welcome Jesus' emissaries, you welcome Him, and you welcome the Father, because He is one with the Father. Conversely, if you reject His emissaries, you reject Him and the One who sent Him.

Those can be tough words today. How do we discern who His true emissaries are in a world that also contains a lot of false prophets, preachers and teachers that bend the truth and pull us away from God’s intended path? Like Satan’s temptation of Jesus in the wilderness, they use scripture to prove their point. But they use pieces of scripture for their convenience. Their words sound good, but they don’t carry God’s message. How do we discriminate between God’s prophets and false prophets?

Read it in a year - 1 Corinthians 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’ words really get to the heart of our devotion. Who or what do we worship? Will we worship Him or someone or something else? He only accepts first place. Remember the second commandment God gave Moses on Mount Sinai? “You are not to make any idol or image of other gods. In fact, you are not to make an image of anything in the heavens above, on the earth below, or in the waters beneath. You are not to bow down and serve any image, for I, the Eternal your God, am a jealous God.” That any image, include any person. Sometimes that’s our biggest problem. We begin to put our spouse or our parents or our kids ahead of God.

You say, I’d never do that! But then we take them out of church to go to those soccer games. So, what’s more important? We decide to hit the lake instead of helping our invalid, widowed neighbor since that’s the only day we have off. So, what’s more important? We choose silver over service, gold over God’s glory, pleasure over piety. We don’t pour precious metals into molds and bow down to them as they sit on altars. But we have our idols as surely as the pagan nations of the Old Testament. We just disguise our better. Or so we think.

Read it in a year - Matthew 26-28

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.

When we look at the use of the word in the Old Testament we begin to get a better idea about what it means to ‘know’ Jesus. In Genesis 4, the King Jame version and many of the older translations use the term Adam ‘knew’ Eve and she conceived and bore Cain. Abraham ‘knew’ Sarah and she bore Isaac. ‘Knew’ and ‘begat’ go hand-in-hand throughout the Old Testament. The term denotes the intimate relationship between husband and wife. It’s even more than a sexual relationship. It’s the relationship that desires and accomplishes procreation.

Jesus wants us to know Him. To create more spiritual children for His kingdom. He is sending our His disciples to share His message to increase the population of the kingdom of heaven. The intimate relationship that draws us close to our spouse, so close we want to create progeny to carry on our human legacy, is the kind of close relationship Jesus wants with us. He wants us to know Him intimately.

Read it in a year - Isaiah 51-55

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.

When we believe in Christ for the forgiveness of our sins, we do not need to fear punishment. This fear is the awe that God deserves from us when we remember exactly who He is. He is God. The Creator of the universe and all that is in it. He deserves our worship and our awe, our fear. Jesus goes on to say, though, that we are worth far more to God than the smallest creatures He takes such good care of every day. His example of the swallows God feeds and shelters helps us see how much we must be worth to God.

God knows everything about us. He knows what we have tried to fill the void in our life. He knows the path we have trod to finally discover our broken, depraved, seemingly hopeless condition in our sins. He knows the price He already paid for our salvation. God knows more about us than we know about ourselves. He knows the number of hairs on your head. Do you think you could ever count them? Don’t worry about those authorities that might want to arrest you, beat you, even kill you. Fear God. Follow His directions. He’s the One that sets the standards and makes the rules. Probably a good idea to please Him if He will be the final judge.

Read it in a year - Job 17-18

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 promises this universal disclosure of our lives as He talks to the disciples on this particular day. Nothing will be secret, everything will be known by all. So, how then should we live each day? Would your actions stand up to the scrutiny of others? Do you want you life on display for others to see? Jesus is telling us to live such that our lives can be an open book and the events of our lives, directed by Him, shouted from the mountaintops. In fact, Jesus wants us to tell others the secret whisperings He has for us. His message doesn’t change. Repent. Follow Me. The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Shout it from the rooftops. Let others know your secret - Jesus is Lord, His kingdom is at hand.

Read it in a year - Psalms 24-26

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.

Names have significant impact, not as much as they used to, but they carry a lot of weight. Think about a few names that bring some visceral response. Mother Theresa. Billy Graham. Bill Gates. Steve Jobs. Jeffrey Dahmer. Adolf Hitler. We could go on and list dozens and dozens of names that cause us to think good thoughts or bad thoughts about those names.

Now think about Jesus’ words. If the head of the house is called, the devil, and he is the best of the bunch, what will people call the rest of the household members? Get the point? So whose house do you want to be a part of?

Read it in a year - Judges 17-21

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.

Men will hate you if you tell them about dying to selfish desire and living for Christ. Men will hate you if you talk about repentance and obedience to God’s word. Men will hate you if you tell them the only way to heaven is by following Jesus’ example. Men will hate you for bearing the righteousness of God because of His forgiveness and His Spirit in you. Jesus promised they will hate you if you carry His message to them.

As we help others understand the truth of Jesus’ message, some will hate us. But some will learn about Him and be gathered into His kingdom. Some will repent because His kingdom is at hand. Some will recognize their evil ways, their brokeness and want to find freedom from the burden of sin they carry. Some will listen to your words and want the peace and joy they see in your face. And for those few who find the narrow path on which we walk, all the trials and persecution and suffering and heartache will be worth it.

Read it in a year - Genesis 32-35

see the whole year's plan here