Our Walk

[Sue J Love]

Thursday, July 20, 2017, 6:00 a.m. – The Lord Jesus put in mind the song “Zeal for Your House.” Speak, Lord, your words to my heart. I read various scriptures (ESV) on the subject of our spiritual walk with Christ.

Walk in Daylight (Ro. 13:11-14)

Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.​

Those who are outside of faith in Jesus Christ are spiritually asleep, i.e. they have not yet been awakened to the gospel of our salvation and to eternal life with Christ Jesus, our Lord. This results in death spiritually. And, this also describes many people who profess faith in Jesus Christ, but who do not truly know him. Yet, true believers in Jesus Christ have been awakened spiritually, and have received salvation from sin and new life in the Spirit, in which they now walk, or in which they should now be walking. Nonetheless, it is possible for those who have once been awakened to begin to drift off into a spiritual slumber and to fall back into some of their old ways of living (See: Rev. 2-3), and they need to be reawakened (revived), for the time of the Lord’s return is nearer, when our salvation will be completed.

So, the counsel here is that, as believers in Jesus Christ, we need to cast off any works of darkness in our lives, and we need to put on the light of truth, righteousness, and holiness. We are to live our lives in a manner which is consistent with our confession of faith in Jesus Christ, in all decency, honesty, integrity, uprightness, and morality. And, we are to rid our lives of all lies, deceit, impurity, immorality, indecency, rage, spite and malice.

Our walk is how we live day in and day out. It is how we conduct our lives. It is our lifestyle. This is not to say we will never sin (See 1 Jn. 2:1-2), but it is saying that we should not conduct our lives after the flesh, but that our lifestyles should reflect Jesus Christ and his purity and righteousness. In fact, we should make no allowance at all for immorality, deceit or malice in our lives whatsoever. This means we should not even allow ourselves to be entertained (via TV, movies, games, etc.) by anything containing sensuality, immorality, and indecency, or promoting lies, cheating, mockery, or malice.

Walk Worthy (Ephesians 4:1-3; Col. 1:9-14)

I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy; giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.​

As followers of Jesus Christ, we are to walk (conduct our lives) in a manner (way, behavior) worthy (commendable) of the Lord and of his calling on our lives. We are his representatives, his body, and as such, our lives should reflect him and his righteousness and holiness, and not our sinful flesh. For, when God calls us to be his servants, and his heirs of the promise of eternal life with God, it is not merely so we should escape hell and go to heaven when we die. We are called to be holy, and to be holy means to be separate (unlike, different) from the world, because we are being conformed into Christ’s likeness. In fact, we are predestined to be conformed into the image of Christ, and even before the creation of the world we were called to be holy. Jesus died that we might die to sin and live to righteousness, not that we should have a free license to continue in sin without guilt.

So, daily we should be becoming more like Jesus in all that we do, think, are and say, and we should be daily putting to death the deeds of the flesh, by the Spirit, in order that we might live with Christ for eternity (See: Lu. 9:23-25; Ro. 8:1-14; Gal. 5:19-21; Eph. 5:3-6). And, we should live lives pleasing to God, and not to please ourselves (2 Co. 5:15). We should be growing in our walks of faith every day, maturing in Christ, being transformed in mind and heart, and being strengthened and encouraged by the Holy Spirit of God. We should live our lives, in other words, as though God has truly delivered us out of the domain (ownership) of darkness (sin, Satan), and as though we are now living in the light of his truth and his righteousness (what is deemed right in the eyes of the Lord).

Walk in Him (Col. 2:6-8; 1 Thess. 4:1-8)

Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.

Finally, then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more. For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God; that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you. For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.​

If we are walking (conducting our lives) in Christ Jesus, we are not living to gratify the desires of our sinful flesh. We don’t love the world of sin, i.e. we don’t long for what is unholy, unrighteous, wicked, and evil, etc. Our passion (zeal) is for Christ and his truth, not for what tickles itching ears, or for what appeases our sinful flesh. We don’t follow after human beings and their philosophies and worldly ways, but we follow the path of righteousness and holy living. We are also not tossed back and forth by the winds of false doctrines, “by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes” (See: Eph. 4:11-16). We are not looking for feel-good messages which make us comfortable in our flesh, but we long for the deep truths of scripture which teach us the way of holiness, that we may walk in it.

So many people today are teaching that God requires nothing of us at all other than some non-descript faith in Jesus Christ, which does nothing more than acknowledge who Jesus is and/or what he did for us in dying for our sins, and which merely accepts his forgiveness of our sins, but which never dies with him to sin and which does not live with him to righteousness. They also teach that God is always pleased with us and that he delights in us even when we are engrossed in sinful rebellion against him. But, scripture does not teach that. Scripture teaches that we must repent (turn from) our sins, and we must walk in obedience to our Lord and live lives pleasing to him if we want to have the hope of eternal life with God.

Zeal for Your House
An Original Work / August 1, 2016

Based off Jn. 2:17; Ps. 69:9

Zeal for Your house, it consumes me.
Lord, I love my times with You.
I love to worship You and sing Your praises.
Time in Your Word brings me closer to You,
List’ning to You speaking to me,
Gently guiding me in truth.

Lord, You are my life’s example,
Showing me how I should live.
I love to walk with You where’er You lead me.
No greater joy have I when serving You.
Loving, giving, resting in Your strength,
I’m yielding to Your will.

Zeal for Your house, it consumes me.
See the church turned upside down:
Marketing ventures taking place of worship,
Men of the gospel turning into clowns.
Gospel message made appealing,
So the world will feel at home.

Lord, we need a great revival.
Turn their hearts, Lord, back to You.
Open the blind eyes, turn them all from darkness,
Lord, to the light. May they return to You,
Turn from their sin, forsake idols,
Be restored to God again.

 

[Lanolin]

Hmm well people literally do not get out and walk these days, some people just drive everywhere and people ride with them. I think thats become a huge problem in the industrial age. When people are driving in their cars, most of the time they not even thinking of God, they listening to the prince and power of the air (radio) or txting on their phones, having road rage at other motorists, and taking shortcuts. While breathing noxious fumes.

This is the world many live in.

Children are especially vulnerable because if they arent safely belted in or their driver is drunk or inexperienced, and they are speeding they could crash and its not their fault but the poor or bad drivers who dont look where they going.

 

[Sue J Love]

Hmm well people literally do not get out and walk these days, some people just drive everywhere and people ride with them. I think thats become a huge problem in the industrial age.

I have always enjoyed walking. When I was younger I used to do a lot of walking. I would walk way across town and back. We try to get out and walk a couple of miles a day now, and it really is good for us.