Dr. Gough:

Can one walk with God? The Bible teaches we can!

--Micah was one of many who did, and wrote, God.. "has shown you, 0 man, what is good, and what does the Lord require of you but to do justly , love mercy, and walk humbly with your God" (6:8). How is our walk?

--He says, "The Lord requires of you" and me.

--Ponder these things. We need God's help, to do them.

--We don't have to be prophets to profit from this.

--How do we do it? A daily walk with Jesus!

One of the saintliest men I've known was my grandfather, Edwin B. Stafford. He was a man who walked with God!

--Influenced so many! Life so godly. Spirit, joyous!

--He knew the Lord. Knew God's Word. And lived it!

The words of our text are carved on the Library of Congress Building, should you visit Washington, D.C.

--May the Lord carve them on our hearts, as well.

My friend, we cannot walk with God without a Savior.

--I know no better, for all people, than Jesus Christ.

--By nature, you and I are sinners, walking in an evil world, often wanting our own way; lost to God.

--That's why Jesus said, "You must be born again" Jn.3.

--To walk with God, we need a spiritual relationship!

For years my wife and I chose a verse for the year, to seek to live by - and Micah 6:8 was one of them.

--The name Micah means "like Jehovah," and he lived up to his name. He "walked with God," as many others.

--A man, a prophet, seeking to join man, with God.

--To walk the way of salvation, and righteousness. Doctors say that physical walks are good for a body.

--So are spiritual walks with the Almighty to our soul.

--Listen to the Lord, "If you walk in My Commandments, I will walk among you and be your God" (Lev. 26:3,12).

--"Walk in His ways, keep His commandments" (Dt. 30:16).

--We are to "walk by faith .. in love, wisdom .. in the Spirit .. in newness of life .. walk in light, as He is in the light." So many verses. So many who did.

--Walking with Jesus we'll "not walk in darkness."

How do we walk with God? By knowing and obeying Him.

--"Enoch walked with God," we meet Enoch in Genesis 5.

--Part of the family of Adam and Eve; back then everyone lived a long time. They all died except Enoch.

--"Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him" (Gen. 5:24). To heaven! Without dying!

--Because he so walked with God, when many were not. Not much is recorded of Enoch's first 65 years.

--Then he had a son, Methuselah. Got closer to God.

--A child can draw one to the Lord as we ponder a gift of God's miraculous creation.

--Enoch lived another 300 years, teaching his children well, before God took him to heaven without dying.

--Methuselah lived to be 969 years, How about that?

Next let's meet Noah, whom God told to build an ark.

--In a day when "the wickedness of man was great in the earth.. and the Lord was .. grieved in His heart."

--Noah was different! Not like the world he was in.

--Genesis 6:9 says, "Noah was a just man .. who walked with God." In a very evil world, like ours!

He and his family walked so close to God, all were spared, when the flood of judgment came on the world.

--Others scoffed, in unbelief, until the rains came.

Let's get to know Abraham, a man of faith, to whom God appeared in very Person, said, "Walk before Me." (17:1).

--God says that to us, my friend, in our world today.

--Abraham obeyed. He "walked before the Lord." You say, "I'd walk with God too if He spoke to me!"

--God does! Maybe not in Person; but God speaks to us.

--By His messengers! His Word, Spirit. So many ways.

--Abraham didn't have Bibles, churches, radio or television services, so freely available, as we.

--He just had faith, to go on. But he "believed God."

--"He obeyed .. walked in Him," so closely he was called, "the friend of God" we read in Isaiah 41:8.

--What a compliment! "A friend of God."

--Would that could be said of all of us.

--What will they say about us when we are gone?

Better still, will God say, "Well done.. good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of the Lord"?

Are you a friend of God? Walking with the Lord?

No one can question that Moses "walked with God."

--Certainly those 40 years he led Israel from Egypt to the Promised Land - over desert, sea, and thirst.

--Delivering from slavery. Molding a nation under God.

--Facing hunger, rebellion, evil, many foes..

--Moses prayed. God answered. Spoke "face to face."

--God said to him, "Show them the way they must walk."

--Moses taught them the Word. Showed them the walk.

Then there is Joshua, Moses' successor, who modeled the good walk all his life, told in Exodus and in Joshua.

--Early, God said, "Love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways. And again, late in life (Joshua 22:5).

David, sweet singer of Israel with his Psalms, had his faults - as we all do - but penitently shows his faith.

--David learned the hard way, sinful pleasure. costs!

--Listen to his prayer, "Lord, You delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from falling. I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living (Psalm 116:8f). Genesis to Malachi, many so walked!

In the Gospels we read of 12 ordinary men, Jesus invited to walk with Him for those 3 1/2 years of ministry.

--In the bodily presence of Jesus, they walked with God.

--After He arose, He walked the Emmaus Road with them.

--Their changed lives, changed others; changed a world!

--They never forgot Jesus' wonderful words. His life.

--His death on a cross. His amazing resurrection.

--His unique ascension back to heaven, after His risen appearances. Yes, "He walks with us," day by day.

--Jesus fulfilled all Bible prophecies of Messiah.

--Jesus did not speak for God; Jesus is God!

Hear the words of John, one of Jesus' Apostles, "If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another ..." (I John 1:7).

--Fellowship with Whom? With God! John knew it well.

--You and I, also, may know it by walking with God.

Depending on God for everything we'll not be defeated, for anything. Pray for a closer walk, my friend.

Peter another Apostle said, "Christ suffered for us, leaving us an example, that we should follow His steps" (I Peter 2:21). Whose steps? Jesus! Walk with Him.

My wife and I were in London; attended Wesley's Chapel Sunday morning, Bloomsbury Baptist that night.

--We had directions there, but not back to hotel.

--After an inspiring service that night, visiting with the crowd, we went out front where we left the bus.

--Many buses came there, but told ours was elsewhere, a few blocks away - so we started in that direction.

--Soon knew we were lost, at night, in London!

--Asked several for directions. The hour getting late.

--One couple said, "Better than directions, we'll walk and wait with you!" Discovered they were Christians!

They walked with us! That's what Jesus does if we ask!

--He "walks with us" in life, as with the sorrowing disciples, on the Emmaus Road. And blessed their meal.

--When we walk with Jesus, we walk with God! He is God.

Listen to our Lord, John 8:12, "He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life."

--As we were that dark summer night in London, many are all over the world, walking "in darkness," in sin.

--If only they would accept His invitation, "Come, follow Me." As we do, He will walk with us, to heaven!

The Bible tells, lives show, of many who walk with God.

--I want to be one of them. Want you to be.

--Like Enoch. Like Micah. Like Peter .. and Paul.

Jesus told us to "walk in the light as He is in the light." To "walk in the Spirit" (Gal. 5:16). In peace.

--"Walk in love as Christ loved us" (Eph. 5:16).

--"Walk in wisdom .. in truth .. worthy of God."

--And many other such verses. God is all such of these.

Jesus best sums up our walk, "Love the Lord your God .. with all your heart .. soul .. mind .. strength and your neighbor as yourself" (Mark 12:30f). Like Micah did.

My friend, are you walking with Jesus? Day by day?

--Life with Christ is an endless hope - without Him, it is a hopeless end. Start your walk now, with God.

--No better One to walk with!

Dr. Wilbert D. Gough