The Straight Talk about the Faith Walk (Part 1)

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"My counsel for you is simple and straightforward: Just go ahead with what you've been given. You received Christ Jesus, the Master; now live him. You're deeply rooted in him. You're well constructed upon him. You know your way around the faith. Now do what you've been taught. School's out; quit studying the subject and start living it! And let your living spill over into thanksgiving" (Colossians 2:6-7, The Message).

Sometimes we need someone to tell it to us simple and straightforward. No double-speak, no soft-peddling, no pampered words -- just give me the truth. That's what Paul is doing in this wonderful verse of Scripture. "My counsel for you," he says, "is simple and straightforward."

And then he says it in a single phrase: "Just go ahead with what you've been given!" And he follows that phrase with a simple explanation: "You received Christ Jesus, the Master; now live in Him."

That, in a nutshell, is the secret of the life we long to experience. I once heard John Wimber, a man of God who influenced me in many ways, put it this way -- "The way in is the way on." In other words, the same faith and courage, love and surrender, trust and obedience that it took for you to take your first steps as a follower of Jesus -- is the same that it takes now for you to keep moving onward.

Day in and day out, through good times and bad, in the face of adversity or in the midst of prosperity, surrounded by friends, or all alone -- "just go ahead with what you've been given. You received Christ Jesus, the Master; now live him."

Forget about yesterday, and don't worry about tomorrow. Just walk with Jesus today. How? By the same faith and courage, love and surrender, trust and obedience your first experienced when your journey began. After all, the straight talk about the faith walk is simply this -- you already have all that it takes to make it all the way!

We'll talk more about this tomorrow....
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