Jul 10, 2017

A devotional walking through God's word together using The Bible Reading Plan at http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.html. Our website http://alittlewalkwithgod.com.

1. Thanks for joining me today for "A Little Walk with God." I'm your host Richard Agee.
2. It takes time and effort to perfect a skill. Should we expect anything different with our Christian walk? Then why do so many Christians think they can just get by with wearing His name?
3. Scripture - Bible Reading Plan - http://www.Bible-Reading.com (week 28)
4. 1. Colossians 1:10; 22-23;2:6-8
   2. May their lives be a credit to You, Lord; and what’s more, may they continue to delight You by doing every good work and growing in the true knowledge that comes from being close to You.
   3. ...but now He has reconciled you in His body—in His flesh through His death—so that He can present you to God holy, blameless, and totally free of imperfection 23 as long as you stay planted in the faith. So don’t venture away from what you have heard and taken to heart: the living hope of the good news that has been announced to all creation under heaven and has captured me, Paul, as its servant.
   4. Now that you have welcomed the Anointed One, Jesus the Lord, into your lives, continue to journey with Him and allow Him to shape your lives. 7 Let your roots grow down deeply in Him, and let Him build you up on a firm foundation. Be strong in the faith, just as you were taught, and always spill over with thankfulness. 8 Make sure no predator makes you his prey through some misleading philosophy and empty deception based on traditions fabricated by mere mortals. These are sourced in the elementary principles originating in this world and not in the Anointed One (so don’t let their talks capture you).
5. Devotional
6. 1. When I was a kid, pre-teen, as a matter of fact, I took piano lessons. It was the thing to do for a lot of kids and it was a good way to learn music and, quite frankly, music teaches kids to strive toward perfection. You see, it’s pretty easy to know when you aren’t playing something correctly when you hit a wrong note. Our ears are tuned to hear things in certain harmonies and when notes are played out of harmony with everyone else, we know it. We hear those off color notes in a piece of music or a band or an orchestra and no one has to tell us.
   2. Well, I took lessons for two or three years and learned to play all those songs in those first half dozen or so beginner books, but that’s about as far as it goes. Needless to say, I didn’t learn to play well. I could read all the notes. I knew what all the marks on the score meant. I understood what the timing was supposed to be when played well, but my fingers never did what the composer intended when those black and white shapes were placed on those lines years earlier.
   3. On the other hand, I have a cousin who studied piano for many years and became a very accomplished pianist. He majored in keyboard in school and could play just about anything you put in front of him. He could play any type of music and accompany other musicians as they performed instrumentally or vocally. He was very good. But you know what? He started out the same way I did. Those first two or three years were brutal for his parents. Lots of practice with missed notes, obvious disharmony in the notes he played, mistakes galore. It’s the way things work.
   4. We cannot expect to be accomplished musicians without years of focused practice on the instrument we want to perfect. We cannot expect to just piddle around a few times with a piano or guitar or trumpet and expect to play like those we hear in some orchestra like the Philadelphia Harmonic Orchestra. No, we would be foolish to think we could do such a thing.
   5. I’m not a golfer, but I know from those who play the game, that the same is true of that sport or any other. Granted, some people are certainly more athletic than others. Some have an aptitude for certain sports and are fitted to such things much more so than others, but still they require practice. For instance, we would not expect a person four feet two inches tall to make it into the National Basketball League no matter how well he might shoot from the foul line. He just couldn’t compete against the seven footers on the court. But neither can all seven-footers play basketball. Frankly, most of the very tall people I know are a just a little uncoordinated because they’ve had to deal with their size in a world not made to fit them.
   6. So golf, baseball, basketball, pick a sport, pick a vocation, pick a hobby. To be good at it, takes time and effort and practice.
   7. I think the verses today tell us that about being followers of Christ. Listen to what Paul tells us in his letter to the church in Colossi:
   8. 1. May their lives be a credit to You, Lord; and what’s more, may they continue to delight You by doing every good work and growing in the true knowledge that comes from being close to You.
      2. ...but now He has reconciled you in His body—in His flesh through His death—so that He can present you to God holy, blameless, and totally free of imperfection 23 as long as you stay planted in the faith. So don’t venture away from what you have heard and taken to heart: the living hope of the good news that has been announced to all creation under heaven and has captured me, Paul, as its servant.
      3. Now that you have welcomed the Anointed One, Jesus the Lord, into your lives, continue to journey with Him and allow Him to shape your lives. 7 Let your roots grow down deeply in Him, and let Him build you up on a firm foundation. Be strong in the faith, just as you were taught, and always spill over with thankfulness. 8 Make sure no predator makes you his prey through some misleading philosophy and empty deception based on traditions fabricated by mere mortals. These are sourced in the elementary principles originating in this world and not in the Anointed One (so don’t let their talks capture you).
   9. Paul prays about doing every good work and growing in the knowledge that comes from being close to God. That takes time and effort and commitment. He says Jesus reconciled us to present us blameless … as long as we stay planted in the faith. In this present world with it pull on us every day toward the evil one, it means we need to stay in the fight, keep up our guard, draw closer to Him. Commit ourselves to Him continuously and consistently. We must work at growing in Him. Paul says in Chapter two, to Let our roots grow down deeply i Him and let Him build us up on a firm foundation. If you’ve ever tried growing something, you know it takes work to till the soil, the plants fertilized, watered and weeded, so that you get the harvest you expect. It takes work to make roots grow deeply.
   10. And what about making sure no predator makes you his prey? Have you ever watched a prey try to escape its predator? A rabbit fleeing a fox? Or a mouse trying to outrun a hawk? Talk about work! This thing about following Christ means we must work hard at the task. We can’t expect to ask Him to forgive us and then expect everything to be over. To follow Him means we must work at doing so. We must grow in Him and that means picking up a hoe or a pick and shovel and getting through the tough ground so the right seeds can be sown in our life and a harvest reaped in our own soul.
   11. So as a Christian, don’t listen to those who might tell you everything will be peaches and cream when you become a follower of Jesus. It won’t. Following Jesus means work. It means commitment. It means suffering with Him. It means taking up our cross. It means giving our all because He gave His all. But is it worth it? Just ask the many who have followed Him and you will discover the joy in their lives that can never be shaken because He lives within them. Don’t expect an easy life, but expect one filled with excitement, joy, and His presence.
7. If you want to learn more about my church, you can find us at SAF.church. If you like the devotional, share it with someone. If you don't, tell me. I hope you’ll join me again tomorrow for "A Little Walk with God."