LifeLink Devotional

Tuesday, June 11, 2019

In the 1970’s a British television show became a kind of cult hit in America. It became so popular that they even produced a full-length motion picture using the same cast. The tv show was called Monty Python and the Flying Circus, and they did some very crazy and radical things to get a laugh. One of them was a skit about men who were applying to the government for grants to develop a unique and crazy style of walking. The men would knock on the door of the Bureau of Crazy Walks and proceed to demonstrate the unpolished walk they were trying to develop. They would swing their legs in wild and wacky ways, taking two steps forward and three steps backward, complete with hip hitches, hippity hops, and hang time. Some of their requests would be rejected because the “new” walk was too similar to one already registered. Some requests would be granted. and the developer would be given a huge amount of money to continue to perfect his walk. In one scene, all the men are “walking” down the street on a busy day attempting to convince other people to join them in how they were walking. It was chaotic and a little dangerous as people crashed into one another, and little progress was made.

The irony of this tv sketch is that every day we are all attempting to develop our own personal style of walking through life that both pleases us and draws attention to ourselves. We look to the government and even the church to validate our particular style of walking, and we seek to rally others to our sides that walk in the same way we do. We have become a society of diverse walks with no common model, and in the name of unity we have been told to tolerate one another no matter how much confusion or how many collisions it causes.

Yesterday we began a study of Deuteronomy 10:12-21 to discover what it is that God requires of those who choose to be His followers. After telling us to fear God above all else, Moses tells us to walk in all his ways. In other words, the walk we are to walk has already been registered and perfected by Another who becomes our model. Just read these verses:

Colossians 1:9-10 For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.

John 8:12 – Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.”

Romans 6:4 – Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

Galatians 5:16 – But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.

Ephesians 2:10 – For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.

Ephesians 5:1-2 – Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us,

1 Thess. 2:12 – so that you would walk in a manner worthy of the God who calls you into His own kingdom and glory.

1 Thess. 4:1 – Finally then, brethren, we request and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us instruction as to how you ought to walk and please God (just as you actually do walk), that you excel still more.

1 John 2:6 – the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.

Walking through life is simple. Imitate Jesus. We don’t have to discover the right way to walk. We don’t have to develop our own style and figure out our own identity. We simply walk as has been already modeled for us by Christ Himself. The work has already been done. All we need to do is imitate the walk of Jesus. I don’t mean to make that sound easy. If it were there would not be so many biblical admonitions to do it. But if you are going to expend a lot of energy learning to walk, why not learn to walk the right way?

We don’t need any more crazy walkers. We need Godly walkers.

Like you.

So why not excel at it?

Pastor John