As We Walk

As We Walk

Exhort bondservants to be obedient to their own masters . . . showing all good fidelity, that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things. TITUS 2:9–10 The culture Paul addressed here was different from our own, yet the point he made here to servants is equally valid for those of us who are servants of the Lord today. Consider Paul’s message . . . Working people spend a great percentage of time at their jobs. Their most important mission field may be their colleagues and customers. Christian workers approach each day as an undeserved opportunity to share Christ with others through their words and actions. If you are going to be an effective witness for Christ, don’t be lazy! Don’t be a complainer. Don’t do substandard work. Don’t put in minimal effort. You represent Christ! Honor Him with your labor. - Blackaby Being Still With God 

Having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. ROMANS 6:18 As familiar as many of us are with the Passover and Exodus, one aspect of that great event is often overlooked: God redeemed His chosen people from bondage to Pharaoh for the purpose that they might become slaves to Him. Freedom for the sake of absolute freedom from all responsibility was never God’s purpose. The children of Israel, once they came out of Egypt, did not suddenly scatter to the four points of the compass to do whatever they wished. God’s desire was that they might walk in His will and invest their freedom from bondage in obedience to His will. Why? So He might bless them! When they failed to obey Him, He did not revoke their redemption and send them back into bondage—but they did miss out on the temporal blessings of continued obedience. The parallel between the nation of Israel in the Old Testament and the individual believer today is inescapable. We should invest our freedom from slavery to sin, not in indulging the whims of the flesh, but in seeking to serve the God who redeemed us. - Dr. David Jeremiah Morning and Evening 

They restored Jerusalem as far as the Broad Wall. Nehemiah 3:8 ESV Well-fortified cities have broad walls, as Jerusalem in her glory did. In a similar way, the New Jerusalem must be surrounded and preserved by a broad wall of nonconformity to the world, by separation from its customs and spirit. The tendency today is to break down the holy barrier and make the difference between the church and the world insignificant. Professing Christians are no longer strict and puritan, questionable entertainment is everywhere, frivolous pastimes are indulged, and a general laxity threatens to deprive the Lord’s special people of the sacred distinctions that separate them from sinners. It will be a bad day for the church and the world when the proposed merger is complete. When the sons of God and the daughters of men are one, another deluge of wrath will be ushered in. Dear reader, make it your aim in heart, in word, in dress, and in action to maintain the broad wall, remembering that “friendship with the world is enmity with God” (James 4:4 ESV). The Broad Wall provided the inhabitants of Jerusalem a pleasant place from which to view the surrounding country. This reminds us of the Lord’s exceedingly broad commandments, in which we walk in communion with Jesus, overlooking scenes of earth and looking toward the glories of heaven. Separated from the world, denying ourselves all ungodliness and the lusts of the flesh, we are not in prison or restricted within any narrow bounds. No, we walk in liberty because we keep His commands. Come, reader—this evening, walk with God in His statutes. Like friends meeting on the city wall, meet your God in the way of holy prayer and meditation. You have a right to walk the strong wall of salvation, for you are a free citizen of the royal city. - C. H. Spurgeon Morning and Evening 

It's always interesting to me when you can read many different things, by decidedly different people, and come away with the same theme. 

Or as I have quoted another Godly man, if God is repeating Himself...listen!

The posts of both Dr. Michael Youseff and Dr. David Jeremiah of late both tie into this theme as well.  The world is pushing its way into the Church. Twisting the truth of God, pushing out doctrine.  Flooding it with entertainment, not praise and worship. Removing even the Bible from being taught as the infallible Word of God. 

This shows a people that isn't living with salvation in mind. 

Scripture says to live out your salvation with fear and trembling. That is, with respect and reverence. It should be the aim of believers to walk in a manner worthy of their calling in Christ Jesus, not as the world walks.

From what we do by ourselves, to work, to home life, to being out in the world. It should reflect a life with Christ Jesus. 

Nobody will ever look back, as a believer, to regret what they did in regards to walking as the Bible had taught them to do, say, and think. 

Every believer will look back, after seeing Jesus Christ face-to-face, and have regret at not doing more in the life they were given.

My regrets follow me daily. Things that I thought that I shouldn't have. Things that I did or didn't do. Thoughts that I should have had that came too late. 

From the moment we get up til we find our bed again at the end of the day we ought to strive to live Godly, holy, lives.  "Be Holy as I am Holy".

As it also happens in my Bible reading this morning we read this from 1 Corinthians 3 "And I, brothers and sisters, could not speak to you as spiritual people, but only as fleshly, as to infants in Christ. I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able to consume it. But even now you are not yet able, for you are still fleshly. For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not walking like ordinary people? For when one person says, “I am with Paul,” and another, “I am with Apollos,” are you not ordinary people?

What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, even as the Lord gave opportunity to each one. I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth. Now the one who plants and the one who waters are one; but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor. For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.

According to the grace of God which was given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building on it. But each person must be careful how he builds on it. For no one can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, or straw, each one’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each one’s work. If anyone’s work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet only so as through fire.

Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone destroys the temple of God, God will destroy that person; for the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are.

Take care that no one deceives himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, he must become foolish, so that he may become wise. ¹⁹ For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in the sight of God. For it is written: “He is the one who catches the wise by their craftiness”; and again, “The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are useless.” So then, no one is to be boasting in people. For all things belong to you, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas, or the world or life or death, or things present or things to come; all things belong to you, and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.

A lot to read, but it IS the Word of God. How are you living life?

Great concern among leading Pastors has them seeing the apathy within the Church today. 

In the letters to the Churches in Revelation Jesus Himself sends the warning to a Church about forgetting their first love. Which is Him!

Paul warned in his letters of how it would be in the last days. Of what manner of people those IN THE CHURCH would be like. Meaning exactly what Jesus asked. Would He even find the faith when He returns?

How ARE you walking in this life? Are the things that are important to God important to you?

Are you adding to the problem in the Church or are you setting the example of a Godly life?

You can't do both and please God. He already squashed that notion. You cannot serve two masters. 

Your entirety of your day should be with the idea that you do have a life to live for Christ. Regardless of your circumstances. Regardless of if it means missing out on things that the world says you deserve to enjoy. The grass withers and the flowers fade but the Word of God stands forever. 

Stop, turn, and repent. Start this day WITH Jesus. 

It makes all the difference in your present and your future as you stand before Christ to give an account of your life. 

I got up early one morning and rushed right into the day; I had so much to accomplish that I didn’t have time to pray. Problems just tumbled about me and heavier became each task. ‘Why doesn’t God help me,’ I wondered.

He answered, ‘You didn’t ask.’ I wanted to see joy and beauty, but the day toiled on, gray and bleak. I wondered why God didn’t show me; He said, ‘But you didn’t seek.’ 

I tried to come into God’s presence; I used all my keys at the lock. God gently and lovingly chided, ‘My child, you didn’t knock.’ 

I woke up early this morning and paused before entering the day. I had so much to accomplish that I had to take time to pray.