Walking with Jesus with Pastor Doug Anderson Podcast

   Rest, after a long busy day, or a very long journey is a wonderful thing, isn’t it? It’s amazing how God has designed our bodies, minds and hearts to recover with REST each in their own way, isn’t it? In part, that’s what a weekly Sabbath is all about, and have you found yourself caught in the over-stressed life without a Sabbath rest?   Let’s rejoin Ezra and his large caravan who finally arrived safely in Jerusalem after their 4-month walking journey from Babylon. 4 months in the hot, dry middle east climate, walking with about 1500 other people and all the carts with their belongings and even animals, can you imagine? Ezra simply says this: “So we arrived in Jerusalem where we rested for three days.” (Ezra 8:32) Oh my, can you imagine how welcome and refreshing this 3-day rest was for these weary travelers? (Click here to see full text, images and links)    Pastor Doug Anderson    “Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)Have a comment or question about today's chapter? I'm ready to hear from you, contact me here. Interested in helping "Walking with Jesus" financially? Click here

   Of all the holidays you celebrate each year, which are your favorite and why? What makes those days so special? The food, the gathering of friends and family, the events celebrated, time off from work or school. Over the past several days we’ve been immersed in the remarkable story of Esther found in the Old Testament Bible book which bears her name. It’s an amazing story, isn’t it? As you may know it is one of the great annual festivals for the Jewish people around the world even today. It’s called “PURIM”. (Click here to see full text, images and links)    Pastor Doug Anderson    “Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)Have a comment or question about today's chapter? I'm ready to hear from you, contact me here. Interested in helping "Walking with Jesus" financially? Click here

   Have you ever experienced or heard of someone who suddenly received an unexpected ‘windfall’ financial blessing? I don’t mean they won the lottery. But perhaps they were in someone’s estate plan and didn’t know it, or someone just felt led to give them an outrageous gift. Today, join me again in Susa, the capital city of the Persian kingdom, about 474bc as Mordecai is about to experience a ‘windfall’.(Click here to see full text, images and links)    Pastor Doug Anderson    “Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)Have a comment or question about today's chapter? I'm ready to hear from you, contact me here. Interested in helping "Walking with Jesus" financially? Click here

   When in your life have you felt most vulnerable? Have you ever had a close call with death?  Come with me, back to the city of Susa, in Persia, in the year 474bc. Yesterday we saw that wicked Haman had convinced King Xerxes that the Jewish people, ALL of them, everywhere in the empire were enemies of the king and must be eradicated, eliminated, annihilated! (Click here to see full text, images and links)    Pastor Doug Anderson    “Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)Have a comment or question about today's chapter? I'm ready to hear from you, contact me here. Interested in helping "Walking with Jesus" financially? Click here

   How many times have you applied for a job? Probably several in your lifetime. Some were simple 1-page applications and a brief interview, maybe even over the phone. Others were many pages, background checks, reference checks and multiple interviews with various levels of management. But have you ever been hired simply on the basis of your appearance?  Come with me back to the city of Susa in about 482bc. I left you yesterday standing in the royal throne room of his majesty King Xerxes, emperor over all 127 provinces of the vast Persian kingdom. He had thrown a week-long extravagant banquet for his officials from all provinces. Near the end of those festivities, in a rage, this temperamental King had declared the kingdom’s Queen Vashti was banished from ever coming into his presence again! Her crime? She had refused to come to his banquet and allow the king to parade her beauty before hundreds of the kingdom’s officials who had way too much to drink. This story is found in the Bible book of Esther. (Click here to see full text, images and links)    Pastor Doug Anderson    “Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)Have a comment or question about today's chapter? I'm ready to hear from you, contact me here. Interested in helping "Walking with Jesus" financially? Click here

  Opposition is one of the sad but true realities of the human journey, right? As you reflect on your life, I’m sure there have been many times when you felt great opposition to your ideas or your objectives or your plans and efforts. What did you do in those cases? What have you and I taught our children and grandchildren about dealing with opposition in a God honoring way? (Click here to see full text, images and links)    Pastor Doug Anderson    “Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)Have a comment or question about today's chapter? I'm ready to hear from you, contact me here. Interested in helping "Walking with Jesus" financially? Click here

   I wonder if you’ve had the experience of visiting a childhood special place, many years later as an adult? And while perhaps that place had not physically changed, did it seem so much smaller to you, as an adult, than what you remembered? Today let’s rejoin the Temple rebuilding story in Jerusalem 2500 years ago because… that is exactly what happened! (Click here to see full text, images and links)    Pastor Doug Anderson    “Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)Have a comment or question about today's chapter? I'm ready to hear from you, contact me here. Interested in helping "Walking with Jesus" financially? Click here

   We’ve all had the experience of TIME running much faster than we want it to, and sometimes we actually run OUT of TIME, or find ourselves far behind a time schedule. That is especially true in a rebuilding project, have you experienced that? Join me again please in Jerusalem about 2500 years ago. Everywhere you look at that time, dirt is flying, as the ruins of the demolition of the city of Jerusalem and the great Temple of God are being cleared and restoration begun! Yesterday we looked at Ezra’s description of the rebuilding of the huge Altar for Burnt Offerings on the Temple mount. (Ezra 3:2) In fact that reconstruction happened exactly on the foundation of the original Altar which had first been constructed there almost 500 years before by King Solomon! (Ezra 3:3) (Click here to see full text, images and links)    Pastor Doug Anderson    “Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)Have a comment or question about today's chapter? I'm ready to hear from you, contact me here. Interested in helping "Walking with Jesus" financially? Click here

   We’ve all had the experience of packing up for a long trip. Many of us have perhaps packed to move permanently to a far distant place. So, it should not be difficult for us to imagine what the Jewish exiles were doing in Babylon when I left you yesterday in Ezra 1:7, about 538bc. King Cyrus had issued an edict that ANY Jewish captive, anywhere in the Persian empire, was free to return to their homeland with specific instructions to rebuild the city of Jerusalem and especially the great Temple of King Solomon which had been destroyed by King Nebuchadnezzar in 586bc. (2 Chron. 36:22,23) (Click here to see full text, images and links)    Pastor Doug Anderson    “Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)Have a comment or question about today's chapter? I'm ready to hear from you, contact me here. Interested in helping "Walking with Jesus" financially? Click here

   When you hear the word “REVOLUTION” what comes to your mind? What about a Spiritual Revolution? Yesterday I left you in the middle of chaos in Jerusalem about 2000 years ago, do you remember? It was the Jewish “Shavuot” festival, also known as the Harvest Festival or Pentecost, which was celebrated each year 50 days after Passover.  As you recall, the Passover weekend, which we celebrate as Easter, was for all who knew Jesus Christ dramatic, unexplainable, unbelievable, and historic. The death, burial and resurrection of Jesus has changed history and changed life for Billions of people in the past 2000 years. (Matt. 26-28)(Click here to see full text, images and links)    Pastor Doug Anderson    “Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)Have a comment or question about today's chapter? I'm ready to hear from you, contact me here. Interested in helping "Walking with Jesus" financially? Click here

  I’m sure you’ve had the wonderful experience of an anticipated ARRIVAL. Perhaps you waited at an airport or train station and finally your loved one appeared with other weary travelers. Or maybe you waited for a check that was promised to be in the mail. Of course, pregnancy is all about waiting and the wonderful arrival of a new baby. Life is filled with waiting and arrivals so today let’s look at one of the most significant arrivals of all time. It has probably touched your life in a big way!! I left you yesterday with the disciples and friends of Jesus waiting in Jerusalem about 2000 years ago. They were waiting for something they really couldn’t describe, nor did they know exactly how it would happen! Jesus had told His disciples to “wait for the gift My Father promised, which you have heard Me speak about. For John baptized with water but in a few days, you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 1:4,5)(Click here to see full text, images and links)    Pastor Doug Anderson    “Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)Have a comment or question about today's chapter? I'm ready to hear from you, contact me here. Interested in helping "Walking with Jesus" financially? Click here

   Have you ever found yourself snared in the comparison trap? Perhaps it was comparing the car you drive with that of your friends, or the brand of clothes you wear as compared to other people, or what you do for vacation? Comparison is a natural part of life, and it can be motivational or like an albatross it can weigh you down and defeat you.  Did you know Jesus dealt with this ‘comparison trap’ among His disciples more than once? (Click here to see full text, images and links)    Pastor Doug Anderson    “Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)Have a comment or question about today's chapter? I'm ready to hear from you, contact me here. Interested in helping "Walking with Jesus" financially? Click here

   n your life journey, how often have you experienced the power of both FORGIVENESS and RESTORATION back into a wonderful relationship? It’s rare, isn’t it? Too often bitterness and resentment set in so deeply that while forgiveness might happen, trust is never restored, and the relationship remains frayed. Have you found that to be true in your life experience?  Today, join me again on that shoreline in Galilee, 2000 years ago, and let’s witness the restoration of a broken relationship that probably has touched your life and mine, 2 millennia later!(Click here to see full text, images and links)  Pastor Doug Anderson    “Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)Have a comment or question about today's chapter? I'm ready to hear from you, contact me here. Interested in helping "Walking with Jesus" financially? Click here

   Momentum is a very special word with many different applications. I wonder how you define it and what images come into your mind when you think of ‘momentum’?  I left you yesterday walking along the road from Jericho to Bethany. Oh, we’re not simply walking, we’re walking with Jesus, and He was leading His disciples toward Jerusalem, and with every step they were getting more and more excited, they were gaining momentum! Why? Because they knew the great Jewish festival Passover was awaiting them in Jerusalem!(Click here to see full text, images and links)    Pastor Doug Anderson    “Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)Have a comment or question about today's chapter? I'm ready to hear from you, contact me here. Interested in helping "Walking with Jesus" financially? Click here

   Have you ever had someone tell you that you remind them so much of someone they know who perhaps lives far away or maybe is even deceased?  Join me again on a hillside in Israel, about 2000 years ago as disciples Peter, James and John are trying to comprehend what they’ve just experienced with Jesus in His “transfiguration”?! While Matthew was not part of that miracle, he’s the one who gives us the details, as he was led by the Holy Spirit and undoubtedly was given the story by his three disciple friends who had experienced it. (Click here to see full text, images and links)   Pastor Doug Anderson    “Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)Have a comment or question about today's chapter? I'm ready to hear from you, contact me here. Interested in helping "Walking with Jesus" financially? Click here

  We’ve heard these types of directions since we were kids: “Follow the rules”; “Follow the light”; “Follow your heart”; “Follow the right path”; “Follow your conscience”; “Follow that still small voice inside you”. We’ve also heard these warnings: “don’t follow the crowd”; “don’t follow peer pressure”; “don’t follow bad advice.” So, pause for a few seconds and consider this question: “How do you and I decide what or who to follow?” And this question: “Who is following YOU?” (Click here to see full text, images and links)    Pastor Doug Anderson    “Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)Have a comment or question about today's chapter? I'm ready to hear from you, contact me here. Interested in helping "Walking with Jesus" financially? Click here

  Your life journey and mine have been filled with ‘defining moments’ which sometimes affect the rest of our lives. For the past three days in our “Walking with Jesus” journey we’ve been experiencing a ‘defining moment’ with Jesus and His disciples at Caesarea Philippi as recorded for us in Matthew 16.  Today the story continues with another ‘defining moment’ as Jesus is preparing His disciples for what Jesus knows will happen on Passover/Easter weekend, only a few weeks away, but the disciples don’t have any idea, nor could they imagine it!  (Click here to see full text, images and links)   Pastor Doug Anderson    “Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)Have a comment or question about today's chapter? I'm ready to hear from you, contact me here. Interested in helping "Walking with Jesus" financially? Click here

   Yesterday we began an exciting, several week journey with Jesus and His disciples, as we walk together, toward Easter. If you missed yesterday, I urge you to go to our Daily Archives tab and catch up with us, so you understand where we are, where we are going and why.  I left you yesterday standing with Jesus and His disciples at Caesarea Philippi looking out over a remarkable scene of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people engaged in business, worshiping their idols at the cliff niches, watering their animals and of course lots of talking as they share news of their part of the world. (Click here to see full text, images and links)    Pastor Doug Anderson    “Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)Have a comment or question about today's chapter? I'm ready to hear from you, contact me here. Interested in helping "Walking with Jesus" financially? Click here

    wonder how often you receive a special looking envelope in the mail with words like “extremely urgent” or “official document” stamped on the envelope? And how often when you open the envelope do you find it is simply a marketing ploy attempting to coerce you into purchasing something you really don’t need? As frustrating as that is, occasionally we do receive a very important document which perhaps you put in a safe place with your other legal, important documents.   Yesterday I left you in the palace in Babylon with King Darius the Mede in the year 539bc. He had just witnessed the most remarkable miracle he’d ever seen in his 62 years of life. (Click here to see full text, images and links)   Pastor Doug Anderson    “Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)Have a comment or question about today's chapter? I'm ready to hear from you, contact me here. Interested in helping "Walking with Jesus" financially? Click here

   I wonder if you’ve ever experienced being in a courtroom when the judge pronounces the verdict and drops the gavel declaring the decision final and the case closed? Depending on the severity of the case the words of the judge and the sound of the gavel can be chilling, sending a shiver up your spine.  That is exactly the scene I left you in yesterday, but it wasn’t a courtroom, it was a large banquet hall in or near the palace in Babylon 2500 years ago. King Belshazzar and his 1000 guests were terrified by seeing a disembodied hand appear in the air and write some words on the banquet hall wall. (Daniel 5:1-6) Only Daniel was able to read the words and explain to the king and his royal guests what it all meant. Remember what we’ve learned from Daniel in this shocking experience thus far?(Click here to see full text, images and links)    Pastor Doug Anderson    “Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)Have a comment or question about today's chapter? I'm ready to hear from you, contact me here. Interested in helping "Walking with Jesus" financially? Click here

   What is the worst FEAR you have ever experienced? Fear so deep you could not cry or utter a sound? Fear so paralyzing you could not stimulate your mind to think or your mouth to speak or your feet to run.  Knee knocking; hand wringing; mind boggling FEAR! Let’s return to a very large banquet hall in the remarkable city of Babylon about 2500 years ago. King Belshazzar has invited 1000 of the most prestigious, important, influential people in all Babylon and even leaders out in the rural towns and villages. As we rejoin the party this celebration of Babylonian greatness has gone on for several days but now, suddenly FEAR has captured the revelers! A large human hand, unattached to any arm or body, has appeared in the air and is writing words on the wall near the lampstand in the palace! Can you imagine that? (Click here to see full text, images and links)   Today’s Scripture: Daniel 5:7-25. Choose below to read or listen.​​Pastor Doug Anderson    “Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)Have a comment or question about today's chapter? I'm ready to hear from you, contact me here. Interested in helping "Walking with Jesus" financially? Click here

   I wonder how many neurological or psychological disorders you are familiar with? How about “PTSD” or “ADHD” or “Bi-Polar” or “GAD” or “Agoraphobia” or “panic disorder” or “Manic” or “Schizophrenia”, and the list goes on, doesn’t it? The world of therapists and medications is growing rapidly to treat an ever growing list of dysfunctions in humanity.  I wonder what psychologists would say happened to King Nebuchadnezzar about 2600 years ago, as Daniel records it for us in Daniel 4? (Click here to see full text, images and links)    Today’s Scripture: Daniel 4:28-37. Choose below to read or listen.​​Pastor Doug Anderson    “Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)Have a comment or question about today's chapter? I'm ready to hear from you, contact me here. Interested in helping "Walking with Jesus" financially? Click here

   In recent weeks ‘Executive Orders’ and “Negotiated Proclamations” have been issued by some of the most powerful people in the world and the results have been very significant. Usually, such powerful documents are political or military or economic in nature but today let’s look at one of the most significant of all time. This document was auto biographical, issued by none other than King Nebuchadnezzar himself, sovereign over the Babylonian empire. The opening paragraph of this remarkable document is unlike any other I’ve ever read: “King Nebuchadnezzar, to the nations and peoples of every language who live in all the world. May you prosper greatly. It is my pleasure to tell you about the miraculous signs and wonders that the Most High God has performed for me. How great are HIS signs, how mighty HIS wonders! His kingdom is an eternal kingdom; His dominion endures from generation to generation.” (Daniel 4:1-3)(Click here to see full text, images and links)   Today’s Scripture: Daniel 4:1-9. Choose below to read or listen.​​Pastor Doug Anderson    “Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)Have a comment or question about today's chapter? I'm ready to hear from you, contact me here. Interested in helping "Walking with Jesus" financially? Click here

   Sometimes that phrase “Walking with Jesus” can take on grave consequences, can’t it? Oh, probably you’ve never found yourself in a life-or-death situation with death hanging in the balance depending on how you might answer a demand from a very angry person… but that’s exactly what 3 young Jewish men were facing in the throne room of the most powerful man in the world at that time, King Nebuchadnezzar.  Come with me, back about 2600 years ago, to the great city of Babylon and let’s see what happened next. You’ll find the account in Daniel 3 in your Bible.(Click here to see full text, images and links)    Today’s Scripture: Daniel 3:13-29. Choose below to read or listen.​​Pastor Doug Anderson    “Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)Have a comment or question about today's chapter? I'm ready to hear from you, contact me here. Interested in helping "Walking with Jesus" financially? Click here

   A few years ago, I stood at the bedside of a friend and his family as the family discussed one of the most difficult life decisions any family can face. The man was on ‘life support’ and the family was considering turning off the machines. After prayer, they in fact did and as I watched, the man kept breathing and soon revived and has now been alive nearly five years since that day, living a vibrant second chance at life! Have you ever experienced or watched someone else experience a second chance at life?(Click here to see full text, images and links)    Today’s Scripture: Ezekiel 37:1-14. Choose below to read or listen.​​Pastor Doug Anderson    “Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)Have a comment or question about today's chapter? I'm ready to hear from you, contact me here. Interested in helping "Walking with Jesus" financially? Click here

   I presume most of us on this “Walking with Jesus” journey are old enough to recall some of the horrific, cataclysmic events of the past several decades. Perhaps you even remember where you were when you first heard the news of… * The 9/11/2001 New York City Twin Towers terrorist attack * The Christmas Eve 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami wave which killed 225,000 people in 15 nations  * The January 2010 Port-au-Prince, Haiti earthquake killing upwards of 200,000 people * The August 2005 Hurricane Katrina flooding of New Orleans, Louisiana  * The COVID-19 global pandemic of 2020 which killed more than 3 million people (Click here to see full text, images and links)   Today’s Scriptures: Jeremiah 32:17-35 & 2 Kings 25:1-21 & 2 Chronicles 36:11-21. Choose below to read or listen.Jeremiah 32:17-35​​2 Kings 25:1-21​​2 Chronicles 36:11-21​​Pastor Doug Anderson    “Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)Have a comment or question about today's chapter? I'm ready to hear from you, contact me here. Interested in helping "Walking with Jesus" financially? Click here

   Many things in life have a time limit. Athletic competition often has a time clock; every day has only 24 hours; elected office normally has a term length; even many perishable foods have a ‘shelf life’. Often the final amount of time in the life span of an event is very significant. Lately we’ve been looking at lessons God wants us to learn about that closing time for the nation of Israel and specifically Jerusalem as recorded in the Bible. Over the past several days we’ve been walking a remarkable journey with Jewish prophets Jeremiah, who lived in Jerusalem and Ezekiel, who lived with the captives in Babylon. Both were God’s spokesmen as the collapse of the nation of Israel approached. (Click here to see full text, images and links)   Today’s Scripture: 2 Chron. 36:11-16 & Jeremiah 21:1-10. Choose below to read or listen.2 Chron. 36:11-16​​Jeremiah 21:1-10​​ Pastor Doug Anderson    “Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)Have a comment or question about today's chapter? I'm ready to hear from you, contact me here. Interested in helping "Walking with Jesus" financially? Click here

   When we hear the word ‘corruption’ what pictures come into our minds these days? The violent drug cartels of Mexico; Human traffickers sneaking people across the borders; corrupt governments of third world nations; or high-ranking elected officials in sophisticated western nations who have succumbed to bribery or blackmail? Join me again in the great city of Babylon, 2600 years ago, with the Jewish prophet Ezekiel, in captivity, as he receives a message from God which is as relevant today as it was then. This new message, recorded by Ezekiel in chapter 8, is about corruption even among people who claim to be God honoring people!  (Click here to see full text, images and links)    Today’s Scripture: Ezekiel 8. Choose below to read or listen.​​Pastor Doug Anderson    “Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)Have a comment or question about today's chapter? I'm ready to hear from you, contact me here. Interested in helping "Walking with Jesus" financially? Click here

   Yesterday, Mr. Ezekiel challenged us to consider our vital life roles in our families and society as ‘watchmen’. It was God’s calling & commission to Ezekiel. (Ez. 3:16,17) For Ezekiel no further explanation was needed. He understood and greatly respected the role of a ‘watchman’ in his world, at his time in history.  But as God often does, God clarified His “watchman’ assignment with further details for Ezekiel, so let’s listen as we seek to discern God’s word for us today. Ezekiel recorded what he heard from God this way: “The word of the LORD came to me: Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the people of Israel…(Click here to see full text, images and links)   Today’s Scripture: Ezekiel 3:16-21. Choose below to read or listen.​​Pastor Doug Anderson    “Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)Have a comment or question about today's chapter? I'm ready to hear from you, contact me here. Interested in helping "Walking with Jesus" financially? Click here

   Have you ever felt compelled to speak something to someone which you knew would be painful for them to hear, but you were very confident that if you DID NOT speak, it would be wrong to remain silent? Do you remember the emotions, the anxiety you felt as you wrestled with what you should say, what the right and ethical thing to do was? I wonder what you did.(Click here to see full text, images and links)   Today’s Scripture: Ezekiel 2:7-3:4. Choose below to read or listen.Ezekiel 2:7-3:4                                   Ezekiel 2​​Ezekiel 3Pastor Doug Anderson    “Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)Have a comment or question about today's chapter? I'm ready to hear from you, contact me here. Interested in helping "Walking with Jesus" financially? Click here

   2600 years ago in Babylon, chariots were the envious transportation of the day. Yesterday we joined Ezekiel in his multi-sensory experience of the Vision God gave him which he describes in Ezekiel 1. Yesterday we discussed the four faced, four winged angelic beings.  Today Ezekiel continues with these words: “As I looked at the four living creatures, I saw a wheel on the ground beside each creature…the wheels sparkled like topaz and all four looked alike. Each appeared to be made like a wheel intersecting a wheel. As they moved, they would go in any one of the four directions the creatures faced… (Click here to see full text, images and links)    Today’s Scripture: Ezekiel 1:15-28. Choose below to read or listen.​​Pastor Doug Anderson    “Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)Have a comment or question about today's chapter? I'm ready to hear from you, contact me here. Interested in helping "Walking with Jesus" financially? Click here

   We are thirty days into the new year of 2025 and 12 days or so into the new US leadership, and I wonder what you have seen as you’ve watched the headlines all around the world in these tumultuous days? Fires in California / hostage negotiations in Israel / installation of a new President and many new key leaders in Washington, oh my it’s been a busy time! Here’s an important question: Do you see God at work in our world over these past days? If so, what convinces you it was God and not simply politics or strong winds fanning California flames or something else? What helps you discern when and how God is directly involved in human events, even your own life? That key question was front and center for many people 2600 years ago as it is today! (Click here to see full text, images and links)   Today’s Scripture: Ezekiel 1. Choose below to read or listen.​​Pastor Doug Anderson    “Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)Have a comment or question about today's chapter? I'm ready to hear from you, contact me here. Interested in helping "Walking with Jesus" financially? Click here

   Have you ever had the painful experience of watching a person disregard the appeals, the warnings and even the desperate warnings of those who love them as they pursue a dangerous path of rebellion that led them to a desperate place like divorce court or bankruptcy or prison or maybe even death?   In our journey together, my friends, I’m grateful the Biblical record of human history is honest and does not gloss over tragedy caused by people, even God’s people, refusing God’s warnings. (Click here to see full text, images and links)      Today’s Scripture: 2 Kings 24:10-17 & Ezekiel 1:1-3. Choose below to read or listen.2 Kings 24:10-17​​Ezekiel 1:1-3​​Pastor Doug Anderson    “Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)Have a comment or question about today's chapter? I'm ready to hear from you, contact me here. Interested in helping "Walking with Jesus" financially? Click here

   You and I live at a time in history when the number of voices clamoring for our attention can be overwhelming. Politicians, entertainers, journalists, social media, voices from around the world calling for help, our own extended families, friends and of course God. But…do you find it a challenge to hear the voice of God in all the noise, my friends? Part of the reason we’ve been walking through Israel’s history in the Old Testament is to learn from those who lived in much the same challenge we face daily. How did they learn to discern and listen to God’s voice in all the noise?(Click here to see full text, images and links)    Today’s Scripture: Jeremiah 9:11-16. Choose below to read or listen.​​Pastor Doug Anderson    “Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)Have a comment or question about today's chapter? I'm ready to hear from you, contact me here. Interested in helping "Walking with Jesus" financially? Click here

   My guess is people all over the world are watching closely to see what the new American President, in partnership with a Republican majority Congress, (both Senate and House) will accomplish in the first week of their leadership in America. Has there ever been an American Washington leadership group who has been under more scrutiny than those in leadership now?(Click here to see full text, images and links)   Today’s Scripture: Daniel 2:45-49 & Genesis 41:37-46. Choose below to read or listen.Daniel 2:45-49​​Genesis 41:37-46​​Pastor Doug Anderson    “Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)Have a comment or question about today's chapter? I'm ready to hear from you, contact me here. Interested in helping "Walking with Jesus" financially? Click here

   I have a question to begin our weekend: How do you measure SUCCESS? Much of the world is asking that about US Presidents these days as “the every four year” Presidential transition is about to take place, again. But let’s personalize the question… what about you and me; our marriages; our parenting; our careers; our legacies?   Yesterday I left you with Daniel as he was beginning a three year, intensive, forced Babylonian leadership training program. Daniel was a prisoner of war, taken forcibly from his home in Jerusalem in 605bc and now being trained, by officers of King Nebuchadnezzar, for overseeing his fellow Jewish captives in Babylon. (Click here to see full text, images and links)   Today’s Scripture: Daniel 1:18-21. Choose below to read or listen.​​Pastor Doug Anderson    “Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)Have a comment or question about today's chapter? I'm ready to hear from you, contact me here. Interested in helping "Walking with Jesus" financially? Click here

   I wonder how many of us made New Year’s Resolutions one week ago today. Now, seven days into 2025, how many of us are holding firm to those resolutions? And what are you finding is your most powerful asset in accomplishing those resolutions?  King Solomon, the wisest man of all time, gave us this good advice: “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.” (Prov. 4:23) Have we learned how important it is to guard our hearts from anything that would draw our hearts away from God or truth or from personal integrity? Will this be a priority for us in 2025?(Click here to see full text, images and links)    Today’s Scripture: Jeremiah 7:12-15 & Ps.78. Choose below to read or listen.Jer. 7:12-15​​Pastor Doug Anderson    “Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)Have a comment or question about today's chapter? I'm ready to hear from you, contact me here. Interested in helping "Walking with Jesus" financially? Click here

 Daily the headlines are calling us to consider the accomplishments and character of global leaders as we evaluate the record of their performance in 2024, and we rush into a new year with these leaders. Will ’25 be different? Oh my, how our world desperately needs men and women of honorable, capable, effective leadership, and what is your assessment of leaders of nations around the world? Have you ever given thought to what God sees when He looks at country leaders and what God’s expectations of these leaders are?  (Click here to see full text, images and links)   Today’s Scripture: Jeremiah 5:5,7,11,30,31. Choose below to read or listen.​​Pastor Doug Anderson    “Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)Have a comment or question about today's chapter? I'm ready to hear from you, contact me here. Interested in helping "Walking with Jesus" financially? Click here

   Oh my, it’s Monday December 30 and that means Christmas seems very far away as our focus is riveted now on the rapidly approaching ‘turn of the page’ from 2024 to 2025. Are you ready? Just as you could not have imagined all that has transpired in our world, and probably in your life, in ’24, I doubt any of us can imagine what life will be like one year from now! I wonder how many of us on the “Walking with Jesus” journey will actually walk right into heaven in 2025 as our earthly journey comes to an end? (Click here to see full text, images and links)    Today’s Scripture: Luke 2:36-38. Choose below to read or listen.​​Pastor Doug Anderson    “Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)Have a comment or question about today's chapter? I'm ready to hear from you, contact me here. Interested in helping "Walking with Jesus" financially? Click here

   In every Live Christmas Nativity scene I wonder if the first two actors needing to be cast are Joseph and Mary? So today and tomorrow, let’s make them the focus of our Christmas question: “WHO are Christmas Joseph & Mary”? Let’s consider Joseph today and tomorrow we’ll look at Mary.  The first page of the New Testament is both fascinating and boring, isn’t it? Matthew begins his Gospel account with a long list of names, perhaps you’ve skipped over those names many times in the past. But for Jews that list of names is priceless! (Click here to see full text, images and links)   Today’s Scripture: Matt. 1:16-25. Choose below to read or listen.​​Pastor Doug Anderson    “Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)Have a comment or question about today's chapter? I'm ready to hear from you, contact me here. Interested in helping "Walking with Jesus" financially? Click here

   Do you find that Christmas brings out the best in all of us? Unless specifically instructed not to, people dress up and come to Christmas gatherings expecting enjoyment and also expecting that things will be done with excellence in music, food and festivities, am I right? WHY? That expectation stirs my Christmas question for today: “WHY a smelly, filthy animal stable; in a tiny village; involving insignificant people; for the Incarnation of God, the birth of King Jesus?”   (Click here to see full text, images and links)    Today’s Scripture: Matthew 1:18-25. Choose below to read or listen.​​Pastor Doug Anderson    “Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)Have a comment or question about today's chapter? I'm ready to hear from you, contact me here. Interested in helping "Walking with Jesus" financially? Click here

   If you had the chance to sit down with Joseph and Mary from the Christmas story, I wonder what questions you’d like to ask them? This year on our journey to Christmas 2024 we’re considering one Christmas question each day, and today let’s ask “WHY the MANGER”? (Click here to see full text, images and links)   Today’s Scripture: Luke 2:1-6. Choose below to read or listen.​​Pastor Doug Anderson    “Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)Have a comment or question about today's chapter? I'm ready to hear from you, contact me here. Interested in helping "Walking with Jesus" financially? Click here

   Three weeks from today will be Christmas Day and I hope just those words bring a smile to your face and joy to your heart as you reflect on Christmases past in your life story. In our journey to Christmas 2024 we’re dealing with a Christmas Question each day. First was the question “WHY Christmas”? Yesterday was the question “WHAT is Christmas”? Today, here’s the question: “WHO is Christmas Jesus”? If you and I were to spend today asking THAT question of every person we meet all through this day, what answers do you suppose you’d hear? Most babies are named very near after their moment of birth. In the Jewish world the naming of a baby boy is a very special occasion and occurs at the time of his circumcision on the 8th day after his birth.  (Click here to see full text, images and links)   Today’s Scripture: Col. 1:15-17. Choose below to read or listen.​​Pastor Doug Anderson    “Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)Have a comment or question about today's chapter? I'm ready to hear from you, contact me here. Interested in helping "Walking with Jesus" financially? Click here

   This Thanksgiving/Christmas season of the year fills our minds and hearts with MEMORIES of wonderful times past, right? I wonder, did you grow up in a family which had a spiritual focus from the week before Thanksgiving all the way into the first week of the New Year or was your family focused on food, gifts, parties, travel and lots of activity but very little awareness of God in these weeks?  Of course, the marketplace focus has been on Christmas already for several weeks hasn’t it and Christmas music, Christmas lights, and all types of Christmas festivities fill the air, right? But what will touch you deep in your soul this month?  And let’s be honest with this question: Where you live, have the Christmas celebrations pushed Jesus to the side, maybe even eliminated any true mention of God at all?(Click here to see full text, images and links)   Today’s Scripture: Jeremiah 2. Choose below to read or listen.​​Pastor Doug Anderson    “Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)Have a comment or question about today's chapter? I'm ready to hear from you, contact me here. Interested in helping "Walking with Jesus" financially? Click here

   An old word with a new meaning is showing up in conversation from time to time these days. The old word is “GOAT”. We all understand there is an animal with horns called a goat, but in recent years that word is often used as an acronym for the words: “Greatest Of All Time”. It is most often used in the world of sports and athletics but is now also being used for very unusual and spectacular events. Today, as we continue following the story of King Josiah and the cleansing work he led in Jerusalem and Judah about 2600 years ago, let’s look at an event that the Bible calls the “GOAT” of Passover Celebrations! (Click here to see full text, images and links)   Today’s Scripture: 2 Chronicles 35:1-19. Choose below to read or listen.​​Pastor Doug Anderson    “Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)Have a comment or question about today's chapter? I'm ready to hear from you, contact me here. Interested in helping "Walking with Jesus" financially? Click here

   What is the greatest discovery you’ve ever made? Maybe something about your heritage past which you discovered in an old box of faded photographs or family lineage? Maybe some buried treasure that you discovered under the sand at the beach or underground around your house as you were planting flowers?  Join me today in one of the greatest discoveries of all time which was made during a restoration project of the great Temple of God in Jerusalem in 622bc.  2 Chronicles 34:14 and 2 Kings 22:8 give us this record: “Hilkiah the priest found the Book of the Law of the LORD that had been given through Moses. Hilkiah said to Shaphan the secretary: ‘I have found the Book of the Law in the Temple of the LORD!”(Click here to see full text, images and links)    Today’s Scripture: 2 Chron. 34:14-24. Choose below to read or listen.​​Pastor Doug Anderson    “Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)Have a comment or question about today's chapter? I'm ready to hear from you, contact me here. Interested in helping "Walking with Jesus" financially? Click here

   I wonder what biographies of your life and mine would be like, my friends? Probably for all of us there would be some pages, maybe some chapters which would not be very flattering and perhaps we all have some life events we hope would be omitted from our life story.  The last few lines summarizing King Manasseh’s long life in Jerusalem are these: “The other events of Manasseh’s reign, including his prayer to his God and the words the seers spoke to him in the name of the LORD, the God of Israel, are written in the annals of the kings of Israel. His prayer and how God was moved by his entreaty, as well as all his sins and unfaithfulness, and the sites where he built high places and set up Asherah poles and idols before he humbled himself – all these are written in the records of the seers.” (2 Chronicles 33:18,19)(Click here to see full text, images and links)    Today’s Scriptures: 2 Chron. 33:18-24 & 2 Kings 21:16-26. Choose below to read or listen.2 Chron. 33:18-24​​2 Kings 21:16-26Pastor Doug Anderson    “Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)Have a comment or question about today's chapter? I'm ready to hear from you, contact me here. Interested in helping "Walking with Jesus" financially? Click here

   As the world and America continue trying to adjust to the American election process and results; as the Russian invasion of Ukraine continues now with foreign mercenaries joining the fight; and as the horrible chaos and bloodshed in the middle east continues as Iran and its proxies relentlessly pummel Israel with drones and rockets; do you find yourself shaking your head wondering if it can get any worse?(Click here to see full text, images and links)     Today’s Scripture: Nahum 1:1-6. Choose below to read or listen.​​Pastor Doug Anderson    “Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)Have a comment or question about today's chapter? I'm ready to hear from you, contact me here. Interested in helping "Walking with Jesus" financially? Click here

  Here is it, November 5th, 2024. We have finally arrived at “Decision Day” in America. This date has been marked on the world calendar for a long time. Leaders of many nations are watching closely to see who the next President of the United States will be and what that will mean for relations with their nations. Stock markets around the world are watching, seeking to project the economic impact globally of the decision Americans will make today. Militaries around the world stand at the ready awaiting word from their leader in response to America’s decision. Billions of people, of all ages and nationalities will be listening to hear the result of this election, believing their nation, their city and quite possibly their lives will be impacted by this “Decision Day”. And of course, God is watching! (Click here to see full text, images and links)    Today’s Scripture: Psalm 139. Choose below to read or listen.​​Pastor Doug Anderson    “Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)Have a comment or question about today's chapter? I'm ready to hear from you, contact me here. Interested in helping "Walking with Jesus" financially? Click here

   I begin with a question for all of us, no matter where you live in the world, or your age or your marital status or your gender: what would it take for your town or city to become a safe, beautiful city where anyone could walk the streets of your city at any time day or night without concern for their safety? What would it take for your city to be clean and attractive and functioning well and affordable in every season of the year?  Yesterday we began looking at a remarkable statement which describes the difference God’s people should be making wherever they live. Isaiah 61:4 says: “They will REBUILD the ancient ruins and RESTORE the places long devastated; they will RENEW the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations.” (Click here to see full text, images and links)    Today’s Scripture: Is. 61:4. Choose below to read or listen.​​Pastor Doug Anderson    “Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)Have a comment or question about today's chapter? I'm ready to hear from you, contact me here. Interested in helping "Walking with Jesus" financially? Click here

 One week from today will be a very significant day for America and our world as a new American president will be selected by the voting American people. Regardless of who is selected, the weeks which follow will undoubtedly be tumultuous in America and possibly traumatic because emotions are riding so high; the candidates are nearly polar opposites of each other; and the role of the US President at this time in global history is so significant.  To view the full text and Scriptures, click here!   Today’s Scripture: Is. 61:3. Choose below to read or listen.​​