8 FEB 23 Wednesday- A Closer Walk Devotional

 9 FEB 23 Wednesday: A Closer Walk Devotional

“You have heard me teach things that have been confirmed by many reliable witnesses.  Now teach these truths to other trustworthy people who will be able to pass them on to others.  So I am willing to endure anything if it will bring salvation and eternal glory in Christ Jesus to those God has chosen. 2 Tim. 2:2, 10

Paul passes on to Timothy, his disciple, the mission and reality of being a disciple maker.  Practitioners of the gospel will see multiplication, suffering, and endurance as regular parts of life.  Paul stresses that Timothy has a pattern of generational multiplication as he invests in others.  God will bear fruit of people that will bear more people that will bear more people that will bear more people.  Paul is trusting God to do a work in and through Timothy that will last.

Technically we are the fruit of Timothy’s efforts two thousand years ago and it is continuing to bear more people.  Paul also lets Timothy know that there will always be opposition to the efforts of those that sow the gospel seed and invest in others.  Suffering and persecution is the fertilizer that will multiply the expansion of the kingdom of God more rapidly.   

Those that have lived in peaceful societies don’t like to hear that.  We are called to bring a sword of truth that will pierce through bone and marrow and to be light in the dark.  Creatures that live in the dark don’t like the light.  Paul says we must endure and we can do that with joy and energy because our work brings God’s chosen people into saving faith and eternal life.  The good fight is worth the suffering and even death, knowing that God will be glorified and salvation secured for those that are the objects of God’s love.

Are you seeing multiplication and suffering as a Christian? Then are you really living it?

Reading Plan: Psalm 119:97-120; Isa. 59:15b-21; 2 Tim. 1:15-2:13; Mark  10:1-16 

Daily Office Year 1

7 FEB 23 Tuesday: A Closer Walk Devotional

 7 FEB 23 Tuesday: A Closer Walk Devotional

“It’s your sins that have cut you off from God.  Because of your sins, he has turned away and will not listen anymore.  For our sins are piled up before God and testify against us.  Yes, we know what sinners we are.” Isaiah 59:2, 12

We can become pretty good at pointing the finger at others when they do wrong, but have difficulty seeing our own sin and evil.  This past week during an awards show on television, a few entertainers dressed like Satan and demons to worship their own unholy lifestyles.  It is in your face and easy to see demonic and evil activity in most of the music, movies, and our culture.  We can forget that sin and evil operate in us.

God’s own people in the Hebrew Bible wandered far from God on a number of occasions.  God sent messengers to tell the people that they were worse than the foul culture that they lived in and sent them into captivity as punishment.  God made clear that their sins are blocking their prayers and relationship. He revealed to them their state of sinfulness like a mirror.

God’s people had adopted the ways of the surrounding culture by worshiping their idols and their lifestyles.  They were chosen by God and set apart to be wholly different from the nations around them, to be holy.  They probably thought since they were God’s children they could do no wrong in his eyes.  They were dead wrong.

As Christians today, are we allowing the culture to mold and shape us? Jesus tells us to take on the attributes of salt in Mark 9, so we can preserve one another and stay off decay.  It also seasons to what is right and good.  It’s not enough to stop listening and watching the culture’s wicked and sinful programs.  We have to start living in the light and being holy.

Have you taken the time to examine yourself in the light of God’s word?

Reading Plan: Psalm 78:1-39; Isa. 59:1-15a; 2 Tim. 1:1-14; Mark  9:42-50 

Daily Office Year 1

5 FEB 23 Sunday: A Closer Walk Devotional

 5 FEB 23 Sunday: A Closer Walk Devotional

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up.  And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.  We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith.  Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame.  Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne.” Hebrews 12:1-2

When you are running, you don’t want to carry additional things that might slow you down or burn you out before you finish.  It is a given that pain can happen or you have to endure stress to muscles and lungs.  You embrace it and even disregard it knowing that the prize or the goal is greater than the pain.  As a Christian, our prize is Jesus and it is he we focus on.

In the hymn, Turn your eyes upon Jesus, it says that “the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace”.  The closer we are to Jesus and in alignment to his plans the more we can experience lasting joy even in the midst of pain and suffering.  Jesus himself was able to endure the cross and its shame because he looked forward to the joy awaiting him.  Our challenges, suffering, and pain can be used to perfect us in the faith.

As you live this life, begin to look at what is weighing you down.  What things of this world are keeping you for living for Jesus? Maybe you are not letting go of the sin that you like.  Maybe you are striving after the things of this world and houses, career, and possessions now have a hold on you.  Whatever it is? Get rid of it and focus on Jesus instead of yourself or your stuff.

What is keeping you from living for Jesus?

Reading Plan: Psalm 93, 96; Isa. 57:14-21; Heb. 12:1-6; John  7:37-46 

Daily Office Year 1

4 FEB 23 Saturday: A Closer Walk Devotional

 4 FEB 23 Saturday: A Closer Walk Devotional

“Don’t be misled-you cannot mock the justice of God.  You will always harvest what you plant.  So let’s not get tired of doing what is good.  At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up.” Galatians 6:7, 9

We can look around and see that people are looking for happiness in all the wrong places, kinda like the Jonnie Lee song.  In America, we labor hard for the American dream so that we can ultimately retire and do what we like.  We don’t think about how we get there or if the pursuit is really going to bear fruit or if it is this the dream that God wants for us.

Much of what we strive after is self-serving and doesn’t make us happy.  We are sold a false view of what  life and happiness is supposed to be.  God doesn’t hold back and neither does Paul as he addresses the church at Galatia.  Chasing after sinful and self-satisfying pleasures is a direct path to death.  Being blessed or happy comes by pleasing the Spirit and doing good.

We are created to be his masterpiece and to do good works, first among other believers and then to the rest of the world.  When we do good it pleases the Spirit and blesses others around you.  It also testifies to the presence and work of God in the lives of unbelievers. Paul commends us not to grow weary in doing good because we will.  The results of our good works are not always realized here, but our faithfulness is.

What kind of seeds are you planting? What do you expect to harvest?

Reading Plan: Psalm 75, 76; Isa. 57:3-13; Gal. 5:25-6:10; Mark  9:14-29 

Daily Office Year 1

3 FEB 23 Friday: A Closer Walk Devotional

 3 FEB 23 Friday: A Closer Walk Devotional

“That anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.  But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control.  There is no law against these things!” Galatians 5:21-22

The struggle for new Christians and even some seasoned ones are the difference between law and grace.  We see that God established a relationship with the Jews for no other reason than he wanted to.  God showed them favor (grace) then gave them the law as a part of the covenant relationship.  The law revealed the holiness of God and what characteristics his people should reflect.  God intends to have holy people that act like him.

When Jesus came, he lived among them and showed them that a holy life can be lived in the power of the Holy Spirit.  God still chooses who will be his people not by any metric that we can measure, but by his good pleasure. (grace) Jesus fulfills the law of the Jewish covenant that we couldn’t and gives his followers the Spirit and abilities to live a life pleasing to him.

If you look at the sins listed in verses 19-21, they are the desires and focus of self.  When we came to faith, we were washed clean of these and we are not to go back to them.  We move our focus from ourselves and to Jesus and to his will for our lives.  How are you doing with this? Take heart, each new day gives you an opportunity to get in alignment and live for him.

Are you living for God or yourself?

Reading Plan: Psalm 69:1-23; Isa. 56:1-8; Gal. 5:16-24; Mark  9:2-13

Daily Office Year 1