Join us as we explore God's ancient wisdom and apply it to our modern lives. His word is as current and relevant today as it was when he inspired its authors more than two and a half millennia ago. The websites where you can reach us are alittlewalkwithgod.com, richardagee.com, or saf.church.
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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.
Thanks for joining me today for "A Little Walk with God." I'm
your host Richard Agee.
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?
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.
...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.
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).
Devotional
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
So golf, baseball, basketball, pick a sport, pick a vocation,
pick a hobby. To be good at it, takes time and effort and
practice.
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:
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.
...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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
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."
A daily devotional through the Bible narrated as if walking through the garden east of Eden with God. Scriptures come from a daily reading plan that take you through the Bible in one year, generally coming from The Voice. Our website is http://alittlewalkwithgod.com or http://richardagee.com