Monthly Archives: March 2020

Fear of Tomorrow, March 30, 2020

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Thanks for joining me today for “A Little Walk with God.” I’m your host Richard Agee.

We are in the middle of Lent. We are also in the middle of an event no one probably imagined possible in our lifetime – a global pandemic. We had the Swine Flu that swept flu years ago, and it was terrible. But certainly didn’t seem to be on the catastrophic order this coronavirus appears to be taking us.

People are afraid. You can see it in the blank stares of those you meet. You see it in the panic-stricken faces of the shoppers who can’t find the staples necessary to meet the needs of the week. You see it in the faces of the officials who try to bring calm to the cities and states across the country when they don’t have answers or solutions, and they know it.

The pandemic seemed to be out there somewhere when we first heard about the numbers in China and on the cruise ship stuck in Japan. Then we heard the report of the nursing home in Washington, and it began to worry us just a bit. Next, the stories blossomed in Italy, France, Spain, and the rest of Europe. Then New York City became the epicenter for our country, and fear began to grip the nation.

How do we handle all of this? Where do we go from here? How could God let this happen to our nation?

I wish I had answers to all the questions, but I don’t. There are some things I do know, however. God is just the same today as he was when we faced the Swine Flu pandemic and the Spanish Flu pandemic and the Black Plague pandemic and all the other pandemics that have swept through the world. He has not changed. Where is he? Still in the hearts and lives of those who believe and follow him.

Does that make us less susceptible to the outcomes that will occur because of what might happen in the next weeks and months because of these new events? No. Christians will suffer along with the rest of humanity. But we can feel God’s love and share it with those around us. We can face the days ahead with courage, knowing that God is still on the throne and will not forsake us.

One of the passages from yesterday’s lectionary was from one of David’s most famous psalms. In it, he tells God and us, “though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me.”

This virus we face is undoubtedly an evil little bug. It infects others before you know you have it. It seeks out the most vulnerable in the population and wreaks havoc on their system. It invades cities and states and societies indiscriminately. It causes us to give up the thing we need most in times like this, the comfort of human touch and face to face relationships.

God remains, though. He tells us he is ever-present in times of need. I’m not sure how many will reach out to him during this crisis time, but my hope is we will use it as an opportunity to share his love with those around us. Find peace in the middle of all the chaos and fear. Understand that he is the answer to our current dilemma.

Another of the passages from the lectionary spoke of the raising of Lazarus from the dead. By the time Mary and Martha’s messenger reached Jesus, Lazarus was already dead, but the disciples and the messenger didn’t know it. Jesus delayed going to Mary and Martha for their sake and ours. When he finally told the disciples they would go to Bethany to Mary and Martha’s house; the disciples were confused. Why would Jesus wait until Lazarus was dead to go? Why wouldn’t he go and heal him before he died?

We know Jesus had a plan. He wept for Mary and Martha. For their unrelenting love for their brother. For their grief in his death. For their unbelief in his power as the giver of life. Jesus had the stone removed from the tomb, called Lazarus to come out of the grave, and to everyone’s astonishment, the dead man walked out alive.

Jesus demonstrated his resurrection power in calling Lazarus out of the tomb. He had already done it with his touch on the young man at the funeral in Cain and the centurion’s daughter and Jason’s daughter. This incident wasn’t the first time Jesus raised someone from the dead, but it was the first time it wasn’t the same day they died that he brought them back to life.

Burials happened within twenty-four hours in Jesus’ day. The heat of the middle east sun meant a corpse began to smell pretty quickly. The custom was when a person died, they were immediately wrapped in linen clothes embedded with spices and then lain to rest within a day. So all that Jesus raised before had not yet been buried. Until Lazarus. He had been in the tomb for four days.

God gives us that same resurrection power through his Spirit living in us. Can we make it through this current crisis? With his resurrection power in us, we can enjoy the peace he brings. We can know his presence in our hearts. We can share the love he shares with us. We can extend his grace to those around us. We can live with the assurance that the valley of the shadow of death does not need to frighten us because he is with us.

Might we suffer as the pandemic progresses? We might. Will things get worse in the days ahead? They probably will. Can we endure through it all? Yes, we can. God’s resurrection power can help us through the worst of times, giving us his peace in the most turbulent times.

As we get locked into our homes to avoid the spread of the virus, spend time with God. Let his scriptures and his spirit comfort you. Learn more about him and let his words encourage you.

You can find me at richardagee.com. I also invite you to join us at San Antonio First Church of the Nazarene on West Avenue in San Antonio to hear more Bible-based teaching. You can find out more about my church at SAF.church. Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed it, tell a friend. If you didn’t, send me an email and let me know how better to reach out to those around you. Until next week, may God richly bless you as you venture into His story each day.

Be Light in Darkness, March 23, 2020

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Thanks for joining me today for “A Little Walk with God.” I’m your host Richard Agee.

I don’t think many people around the world could have imagined what our behavior looks like today. This novel coronavirus changed us in so many ways. We can’t help but hear the news from another country or state or city that declares war against the virus by shutting down schools, stopping events where crowds gather, closing business.

We don’t know yet when the panic will stop, and calmer heads will inject themselves to stop the runs on every food and cleaning commodity in stores. In these first days, we certainly demonstrated how unchristian and selfish we are as a culture. When people suddenly hoard to ensure they have enough for themselves at the expense of others, something is wrong.

I find it interesting that any day of the week, our grocery stores are filled with food, and warehouses supply them routinely without a problem. But a little snow, a little ice, and now the pandemic and some decide no one else should have the benefit of our bounty in this country. What has happened to us?

The Garden of Eden happened. Selfishness happened. A long history of “what’s in it for me” has happened. Those mindsets will destroy us in these days if we don’t turn them around.

The next weeks and months will not be pleasant. As we saw with China, South Korea, Italy, Spain, and other countries, the virus will spread, and the number of ill and dead will rise dramatically. Once started on this scale, the genie is out of the box, so to speak. The only way to stop the spread is for everyone to stay in their home until the virus dies. We won’t do that. We will come out to at least go to the hospital, buy food, police the streets, fight fires, and do other things that force us to leave our homes and interact with others. When we do, the virus spreads. It’s the nature of pandemics. It gets too widespread in a community to stop it without extreme measures that I’m not sure Americans will stomach.

So what do we do? I read an article a few days ago that said in pandemics, Christians lose. Why? Because we live under the principle of love that Jesus taught us. It caused the Christians in the Middle Ages to go to the plague victims and care for them instead of fleeing from them. It causes Christians to run to the homeless and orphans to help in their needs instead of pushing them to the side. And the love inside us means Christians will sacrifice for the hurting and dying in these times, too.

Paul sums up the difference in his letter to the church in Ephesus with these words:

For once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light. Live as children of light- for the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true. Try to find out what is pleasing to the Lord.

Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is shameful even to mention what such people do secretly; but everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for everything that becomes visible is light. (Ephesians 5:8-14a NIV)

So what are we to do as we watch the shelves empty, the media raise the panic level, the misinformation spread through social media, and all those around us crouching in fear? We remember Jesus saved us to be light in the world. Now is our time to shine for him. We can be his hands and feet when those around us need to see his love in action as never before. We can remember that God still sits on the throne, and none of what happens now shakes him or moves him from his place. He is still God and cares for us.

Can I explain why he allows these things? No. Can I understand why good people suffer through a scourge as we might experience over the next weeks and months? No. But I trust the God I serve, who has carried me through good and bad times before. He has never let me down, and whatever happens in the future, I know he will be beside us. He promised never to leave us or forsake us. He will give us peace, even in the middle of the crisis we currently face.

We have an opportunity to be God’s light to the world. Shame on us if we let it pass us by or be part of the problem with dark acts of selfishness when we know the suffering of others who stand beside us. Make it a point to check on your friends and neighbors. Be a helper and not a hindrance during these problem times. It will not get better in a week or a month. Be ready to show Jesus wherever you are so that others will see you are a Christian not by what you say, but by your love.

Scriptures marked NIV are taken from the NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION (NIV): Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION ®. Copyright© 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™. Used by permission of Zondervan

Plenty of Water, March 16, 2020

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Thanks for joining me today for “A Little Walk with God.” I’m your host Richard Agee.

The headlines for this week will be much like the headlines of last week and next week and probably the week after. Coronavirus! It has everyone’s attention. Is it the next apocalyptic event? Are we in for the long haul with something akin to the Spanish Flu of 1918 or the Black Plague of the Middle Ages?

Frankly, no one knows. Thanks to the media storm with the misinformation and rumor that sells news by heightening fear, we are running into shortages of crazing things like toilet paper of all things. I’m not sure about your house, but we’d have a hard time using twelve jumbo packs of toilet paper in fourteen days. But that seems to be the fear of some as they raid the shelves of anything and everything they think might be of value in the coming days.

I think at least part of the world has gone insane over the coronavirus. I’m not dismissing the importance of taking precautions. I’m in that category with the highest mortality rates. Still, we can get a little overboard and do some incredibly stupid things that harm everyone when we lose our heads and don’t take appropriate actions to protect ourselves and others in times like this. Panic serves no useful purpose and keeps us from acting in ways that move us toward meaningful solutions to the problem.

One thing I’m sure of in times like this, God is still in control. For those saved by his grace, following in his footsteps, there need be no fear in these times. Despite the shortages of hand sanitizer (soap works just as well, by the way), bottled water, and toilet paper, God’s word reminds me he cares for us.

John tells of an event in Jesus’ life when he shares a source of life-giving water that never ends. We don’t need to worry about it running out or having to stock up in case of an emergency. We just need to tap into the source to satisfy our thirst. He tells the story in chapter four of the book by his name.

He [Jesus] came into Sychar, a Samaritan village that bordered the field Jacob had given his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was still there. Jesus, worn out by the trip, sat down at the well. It was noon.

A woman, a Samaritan, came to draw water. Jesus said, “Would you give me a drink of water?” (His disciples had gone to the village to buy food for lunch.)

The Samaritan woman, taken aback, asked, “How come you, a Jew, are asking me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?” (Jews in those days wouldn’t be caught dead talking to Samaritans.)

Jesus answered, “If you knew the generosity of God and who I am, you would be asking me for a drink, and I would give you fresh, living water.”

The woman said, “Sir, you don’t even have a bucket to draw with, and this well is deep. So how are you going to get this ‘living water’? Are you a better man than our ancestor Jacob, who dug this well and drank from it, he and his sons and livestock, and passed it down to us?”

Jesus said, “Everyone who drinks this water will get thirsty again and again. Anyone who drinks the water I give will never thirst—not ever. The water I give will be an artesian spring within, gushing fountains of endless life.”

The woman said, “Sir, give me this water so I won’t ever get thirsty, won’t ever have to come back to this well again!”

He said, “Go call your husband and then come back.”

“I have no husband,” she said.

“That’s nicely put: ‘I have no husband.’ You’ve had five husbands, and the man you’re living with now isn’t even your husband. You spoke the truth there, sure enough.”

“Oh, so you’re a prophet! Well, tell me this: Our ancestors worshiped God at this mountain, but you Jews insist that Jerusalem is the only place for worship, right?”

“Believe me, woman, the time is coming when you Samaritans will worship the Father neither here at this mountain nor there in Jerusalem. You worship guessing in the dark; we Jews worship in the clear light of day. God’s way of salvation is made available through the Jews. But the time is coming—it has, in fact, come—when what you’re called will not matter and where you go to worship will not matter.

“It’s who you are and the way you live that count before God. Your worship must engage your spirit in the pursuit of truth. That’s the kind of people the Father is out looking for: those who are simply and honestly themselves before him in their worship. God is sheer being itself—Spirit. Those who worship him must do it out of their very being, their spirits, their true selves, in adoration.”

The woman said, “I don’t know about that. I do know that the Messiah is coming. When he arrives, we’ll get the whole story.”

“I am he,” said Jesus. “You don’t have to wait any longer or look any further.”

Just then his disciples came back. They were shocked. They couldn’t believe he was talking with that kind of a woman. No one said what they were all thinking, but their faces showed it.

The woman took the hint and left. In her confusion she left her water pot. Back in the village she told the people, “Come see a man who knew all about the things I did, who knows me inside and out. Do you think this could be the Messiah?” And they went out to see for themselves.

In the meantime, the disciples pressed him, “Rabbi, eat. Aren’t you going to eat?”

He told them, “I have food to eat you know nothing about.”

The disciples were puzzled. “Who could have brought him food?”

Jesus said, “The food that keeps me going is that I do the will of the One who sent me, finishing the work he started. As you look around right now, wouldn’t you say that in about four months it will be time to harvest? Well, I’m telling you to open your eyes and take a good look at what’s right in front of you. These Samaritan fields are ripe. It’s harvest time!

“The Harvester isn’t waiting. He’s taking his pay, gathering in this grain that’s ripe for eternal life. Now the Sower is arm in arm with the Harvester, triumphant. That’s the truth of the saying, ‘This one sows, that one harvests.’ I sent you to harvest a field you never worked. Without lifting a finger, you have walked in on a field worked long and hard by others.”

Many of the Samaritans from that village committed themselves to him because of the woman’s witness: “He knew all about the things I did. He knows me inside and out!” They asked him to stay on, so Jesus stayed two days. A lot more people entrusted their lives to him when they heard what he had to say. They said to the woman, “We’re no longer taking this on your say-so. We’ve heard it for ourselves and know it for sure. He’s the Savior of the world!” (John 4:5-42 TM)

During these troubling times, take solace in the fact that Jesus cares. Paul shares the vision of what walking in faith can do. “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” (1 Corinthians 15:55 NIV)

Scriptures marked TM are taken from THE MESSAGE: THE BIBLE IN CONTEMPORARY ENGLISH (TM): Scripture taken from THE MESSAGE: THE BIBLE IN CONTEMPORARY ENGLISH, copyright©1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group

Let God Bring Peace, March 9, 2020

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Thanks for joining me today for “A Little Walk with God.” I’m your host Richard Agee.

Here we are in the middle of Lent. My brother and I used to chuckle when my father talked about Lent from the pulpit. We’d point to our bellybutton and pretend to pull something from it, bellybutton lint. But Lent, those forty days of preparation leading up to Easter, represent an important time in the church year.

Lent begins on Ash Wednesday. The ashes represent our acknowledgment that we belong to the multitude of sinners called humans. We all sin and come short of the glory of God. When we examine our lives by his standards, we fall short.

I’ve been reading about first-century Christians a lot lately how they thought, what they did. The rituals they performed to join the early church and declare their loyalty to Christ. I’m not sure I could have gone through what they did. I’d like to think my love for Christ is deep enough and strong enough, but in the early church, associating with Jesus could literally cost everything. Many lost their jobs, homes, families, even their ability to go into the market place to buy the essentials for life, like food. Some lost their lives in under cruel torturous ways, burned, torn apart, fed to wild beasts and dogs—all to please the blood-lust of evil men.

Could I dip beneath the baptismal pool and declare I am willing to give all of that for Christ? They did. It’s why they had those days of preparation. The church wanted them to take the time to count the cost of following Jesus. It would not be an easy road ahead once you belonged to the Kingdom of God. Jesus told his disciples the world would hate them because of the name they bore. So those forty days became a time of study, learning what the church believed about the teachings, death, and resurrection of Christ. And a time of introspection, determining whether one was willing to pay the price of following him. During those forty days, some decided they could not accept the sacrifice Christianity demanded.

I’m not sure we understand the demands of following Christ in this country. He still calls us to give everything. Following him means all we have, including our lives and livelihood, belong to him. But we haven’t experienced persecution the way the early church did. Sometimes we think the world persecutes us here when they talk about Christians or demand we take down our nativity scenes, change the names of holidays, or rewrite history to obliterate the moral right of some of the events of the past. But that isn’t persecution.

Those things fall into the category of the old “sticks and stones can break my bones, but words can never hurt me,” rhyme we learned as kids. Unfortunately, we have become so sensitive we think those words are the same as religious extremists dragging your children out of the house in front of you and setting them on fire. It’s not the same. We think the insults we receive in this country can be as damaging as when your property is taken or destroyed, then your left beaten and bloodied in the street. It’s not the same.

We think we know persecution. We don’t. But Jesus still demands everything from us. Perhaps it’s harder to be a Christian here because we don’t know what it means to give everything to him. We have so much. He blessed this country with such bounty. We don’t know what it means to sacrifice. I’m not asking God to pour out his judgment and take all that away, but I think we would find out quickly who the real followers are if suddenly life was at risk for following Jesus.

Here’s the funny thing about all of this. Life is at risk. Perhaps we begin to feel that risk in the pit of our stomach as this coronavirus scare pushes around the world. Does it just give mild symptoms, as some suggest? Or is it the next killer virus, like the Spanish flu of 1918? Are you in the low-risk group or high-risk group?

Life is always at risk. But it’s not our physical life we need concern ourselves. I’m not saying I want to take my last breath today, but I’m ready in case I do. I know, by God’s Spirit’s assurance, I will one day be with him in heaven. Whether I fail to wake one morning, or some disaster of natural or human-made design cuts life short, I know my destiny. The pain endured in this world is like the flicker of a candle in the wind compared to the joy we will know in the brilliant light and glory of our Savior.

These forty days leading up to Easter are a time to reflect, look inward, count the cost. The last few weeks increased fear in the world, but for those who know Jesus as Redeemer, there is no fear of death. It’s just another chapter in life. Whatever this round of media coverage holds, whether hype, or hysteria, or coverup, or real, our role as Christians is still to carry the message of the one whose legacy is peace.

Dig deep and let the God of peace settle your heart in these days of preparation for a monumental Easter celebration.

Be Real, March 2, 2020

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Thanks for joining me today for “A Little Walk with God.” I’m your host Richard Agee.

This week I helped train a bunch of people in my occupation. My occupation helps put food on the table. I get paid to do that stuff most of the time. God sets my vocation, “Go make disciples.”

Let’s get back to my occupation.

In every group, it seems there is one or two that know everything.

Well, at least they think they do. And that person wants to show everyone else just how much they know. You know the type. Hand in the air with every question, or more often, blurting out an answer before the end of the question arrives. They think they have all the answers and think they have all the experience and could teach the classes better than the instructor.

Most of the time, though, it doesn’t take long for the “hand-waver” to show they don’t know as much as they think they do. It’s not long before the rest of the students start to roll their eyes when words start pouring out of the hot-shot’s mouth. The rest know the answer is wrong, or at least isn’t the answer that the instructor will project from the platform. The class starts to drag because no one wants to hear any more from the self-proclaimed expert.

Teaching in that environment drains you and requires intervention quickly to keep control of the situation. Otherwise, the rest of the students suffer, and the points you need to get across don’t. You almost dread coming into the empty room the next day, knowing the same students will be there for round two, and you may go through the same battle again. Such is the life of instructors and teachers. Unfortunately, that’s part of the job, like it or not.

The situation often reminds me of the warning Jesus gives his followers as he shares the dangers of pride. In his discourse, we call the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus shares these words:

“Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven.

“Be especially careful when you are trying to be good so that you don’t make a performance out of it. It might be good theater, but the God who made you won’t be applauding.

“When you do something for someone else, don’t call attention to yourself. You’ve seen them in action, I’m sure—play actors’ I call them—treating prayer meeting and street corner alike as a stage, acting compassionate as long as someone is watching, playing to the crowds. They get applause, true, but that’s all they get. When you help someone out, don’t think about how it looks. Just do it—quietly and unobtrusively. That is the way your God, who conceived you in love, working behind the scenes, helps you out.

“And when you come before God, don’t turn that into a theatrical production either. All these people making a regular show out of their prayers, hoping for stardom! Do you think God sits in a box seat?

“When you practice some appetite-denying discipline to better concentrate on God, don’t make a production out of it. It might turn you into a small-time celebrity but it won’t make you a saint. If you ‘go into training’ inwardly, act normal outwardly. Shampoo and comb your hair, brush your teeth, wash your face. God doesn’t require attention-getting devices. He won’t overlook what you are doing; he’ll reward you well.

“Don’t hoard treasure down here where it gets eaten by moths and corroded by rust or—worse!—stolen by burglars. Stockpile treasure in heaven, where it’s safe from moth and rust and burglars. It’s obvious, isn’t it? The place where your treasure is, is the place you will most want to be, and end up being.(Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21 TM)

Jesus pointed out what many would think were exceptional practices. Gold and silver coins make a beautiful sound when they spin around the trumpet, the conical opening of the temple treasure box at the door of the outer court. Long melodious prayers sound lovely with the ancient words from theological treatises lifted to the Lord. Giving up things you enjoy as an example to others seems a great way to mentor young followers to show them the sacrifice that discipline requires. All these are exemplary, right?

We would make these guys deacons and elders and put them on our boards and committees in a heartbeat – marvelous examples of Christian living. But not according to Jesus. Their praise from those they impress around them accounts for the sum total of their reward. That’s it. God is not impressed.

What does Jesus tell us? Be yourself, do things for others, but do it in a way that no one knows about it. Secret gifts might not make it to your tax return as charitable giving, but it makes it to God’s accounting records. Those random acts of kindness performed anonymously might not get headlines in the city’s newspaper, but they will find their way into God’s daily journal. Prayers in a secret place never tickle the ears of the congregation, but God hears and answers the prayer warrior’s faithful intercession. Which do you prefer, man’s recognition or God’s? As for me, I’d much rather know God is paying attention to my life than my neighbors. I’d much rather know I’m following the path of righteousness God recognizes than the way of religious piety that man approves. It makes a huge difference at the end of time, standing at the judgment seat accounting for our actions. Whose reward were we seeking? The praise of men or the voice of God saying, “Well done good and faithful servant.” I hope that is a rhetorical question for you.

Jesus laid out a simple way of life for us to follow – love God and love others. He qualified those two commands and said we are unable to love God whom we cannot see if we don’t love others we can see. That sets the rules for us. Easy to remember, not so easy to follow. In fact, impossible to follow without his spirit living in us. But when we let him inside, when we let him control every part of us, he enables us to love as he loves. He lives through us to touch a world that needs his grace.

Will you be that secret partner to share his grace in the world? That’s the command. Go do it.