Join us as we explore God’s ancient wisdom and apply it to our modern lives. His word is as current and relevant today as it was when he inspired its authors more than two and a half millennia ago. The websites where you can reach us are alittlewalkwithgod.com, richardagee.com, or saf.church.

I hope you will join us every week and be sure to let us know how you enjoy the podcast and let others know about it, too. Thanks for listening.

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

In yesterday’s lectionary we see a story that could have come from the headlines today. “Religious fanatics destroy livelihood of poor peasant girl: riot ensues!” Here’s how Luke tells the story to Theophalis in Acts 16 as translated in The Voice.

One day, as we were going to the place set aside for prayer, we encountered a slave girl. She made a lot of money for her owners as a fortune-teller, assisted by some sort of occult spirit. She began following us.

Slave Girl (shouting): These men are slaves like me, but slaves of the Most High God! They will proclaim to you the way of liberation!

The next day as we passed by, she did the same thing—and again on the following days. One day Paul was really annoyed, so he turned and spoke to the spirit that was enslaving her.

Paul: I order you in the name of Jesus, God’s Anointed: Come out of her!

It came right out. But when her owners realized she would be worthless now as a fortune-teller, they grabbed Paul and Silas, dragged them into the open market area, and presented them to the authorities.

Slave Owners: These men are troublemakers, disturbing the peace of our great city. They are from some Jewish sect, and they promote foreign customs that violate our Roman standards of conduct.

The crowd joined in with insults and insinuations, prompting the city officials to strip them naked in the public square so they could be beaten with rods. They were flogged mercilessly and then were thrown into a prison cell. The jailer was ordered to keep them under the strictest supervision. The jailer complied, first restraining them in ankle chains, then locking them in the most secure cell in the center of the jail.

Picture this: It’s midnight. In the darkness of their cell, Paul and Silas—after surviving the severe beating—aren’t moaning and groaning; they’re praying and singing hymns to God. The prisoners in adjoining cells are wide awake, listening to them pray and sing. Suddenly the ground begins to shake, and the prison foundations begin to crack. You can hear the sound of jangling chains and the squeak of cell doors opening. Every prisoner realizes that his chains have come unfastened. The jailer wakes up and runs into the jail. His heart sinks as he sees the doors have all swung open. He is sure hisprisoners have escaped, and he knows this will mean death for him, so he pulls out his sword to commit suicide. At that moment, Paul sees what is happening and shouts out at the top of his lungs,

Paul: Wait, man! Don’t harm yourself! We’re all here! None of us has escaped.

The jailer sends his assistants to get some torches and rushes into the cell of Paul and Silas. He falls on his knees before them, trembling. Then he brings them outside.

Jailer: Gentlemen, please tell me, what must I do to be liberated?

Paul and Silas: Just believe—believe in the ultimate King, Jesus, and not only will you be rescued, but your whole household will as well.

The jailer brings them to his home, and they have a long conversation with the man and his family. Paul and Silas explain the message of Jesus to them all. The man washes their wounds and feeds them, then they baptize the man and his family. The night ends with Paul and Silas in the jailer’s home, sharing a meal together, the whole family rejoicing that they have come to faith in God.

I’ve had a really hard time getting going with this passage today. It’s not that there isn’t a ton of material here. I’ve started and stopped midstream half a dozen times already. But nothing seems to fit. Maybe there’s too much here. Maybe I’m trying to make one sermon out of what should be several. It’s pretty easy to talk about the slave girl who was freed from her life as a fortuneteller.

I could also talk about the businessmen who were more interested in their money than in the freedom Paul and Silas gave to their slave girl. Their story within the story is where I got the headline to start this podcast. It seems that in our culture, we are much more interested in material things that we are spiritual things. So, we could build a sermon or two or three around these two men.

I thought about doing a podcast based on the unwarranted beating that Paul and Silas received for just being who they were — followers of God.

I thought about a podcast that focused on the joy that Christians can have even in the face of suffering. There Paul and Silas were in jail beaten, bruised, in shackles and chains, no light, no food. They had every reason to complain. But instead, Scripture tells us they sang and prayed and all the other prisoners listened and I expect many joined in. There’s a lot to be said about the joy we can have just because we have God’s spirit in us.

I thought about the jailer and how quick he was to think about suicide as a means have a escaping punishment for something he didn’t even do. It happens so often in our everyday lives. We face suffering because of things that are completely out of our control, and we sometimes make some crazy decisions instead of really examining the problem and potential solutions before we jump in with our rash actions and make a mess of things. A lot could be said about the jailer’s actions before Paul and Silas stopped him from carrying out his decision from which there was no return.

I thought about how Paul and Silas accepted the jailer into their brotherhood even after the beating they received. How many of us would gladly befriend those who imprisoned us or beat us or harmed us for no good reason. But that’s exactly what Paul and Silas did. In fact, it seems that the jailer’s family became the nucleus for another house church within the city. You never know what will happen when we let God take charge of things.

So you see, there’s so many things in these few verses that point to God’s goodness. There are so many spots as this drama unfolds where we see God’s handiwork. We see him reaching out through Paul and Silas because of their willingness to listen to his spirit and just do what they know they should with his prompting. Because of the commotion around them and the nudging of God’s spirit in them, they were able to free this slave from a horrible life. They were able to help a jailer and his entire household come to know God in new way. They were able to bring such joy and peace to a jail full of criminals that when all their chains were broken and all the cell doors shook off their hinges, no one wanted to leave. Rather, they all wanted to stay to listen to the singing, to be part of the pray meeting, because they knew they were in God’s presence.

Can we still see these kinds of things today? I don’t know. God hasn’t changed. The real question is, are we as committed as Paul and Silas? Do we believe the way they believed? Are we ready to give our all to do whatever God wants us to do as they were? Are we ready to be just an instrument with no recognition, no glory, no fame, nothing except an instrument in the hands of God.

When Christians begin to get rid of self and really believe in God the way Paul and Silas believed in God, when we begin to give ourselves completely to him, I think we will begin to see miraculous things happen all around us. They actually are there already if you have the eyes of faith to look up and see his hand at work. Just believe and let him do his work through 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.

Check out this episode!

Join us as we explore God’s ancient wisdom and apply it to our modern lives. His word is as current and relevant today as it was when he inspired its authors more than two and a half millennia ago. The websites where you can reach us are alittlewalkwithgod.com, richardagee.com, or saf.church.

I hope you will join us every week and be sure to let us know how you enjoy the podcast and let others know about it, too. Thanks for listening.

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

Our pastor has challenged us since the first of the year to live a questionable life. Those of you who hear that for the first time might be taken back a bit. What do you mean live a questionable life? Does that mean skate at the edge of evil? Does that mean throw out everything we’ve learned and live like we want? Does that mean to make the Christians or others around us question our faith?

No. To live a questionable life in the context of our pastor’s messages, he challenges us to live like Jesus. Live a life that causes people to stop and question why we do the things we do. Why do we go out of our way to be kind to those who defame our character? Why do we smile and give warm greetings to those who ridiculous us and only want to do us harm? Why do we not live with the same standards of vengeance and revenge and selfish motivation that the rest of the world lives by?

Live a life that causes people to stop and question the goodness of our life. Live in such a way that others see the love of God extended to the unlovable. Live in a way that brings questions about why we live a life of love. Live a questionable life. Sounds like a good challenge, right?

There are a couple of verses in Psalms 67 that remind us why we should live like that. The Psalmist writes: “May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us, Selah that your way may be known upon earth, your saving power among all nations.”

That “Selah” in the middle is an important interlude in those verses. Scholars have attached various meanings to the word including instructions to musicians accompanying the playing of the psalms, but most, including those scholars, agree that selah asks us to stop and listen. Pause and contemplate what you just heard. Think about what was just said because it impacts the words you are about to hear. That is so poignant in these two lines of verse from the psalms.

Let God be gracious to us and bless us and make our way a good one for a single purpose. So that those around us sharing this planet we call earth will know your saving power. How we live should reflect the gracious blessings God gives us. We who have experienced his saving power should reflect the light of his face in ours. We should live such outpouring lives of love to others that others know that it can only be by the power of God we are able to live that way.

I heard a great order from the Roman emperor Jullian when he was trying to oust the Christians from his kingdom. He said these atheists were winning over too many people by their kindness. Just as a side note, they were known as atheists because they believed in only one God. These followers of one God didn’t believe in a pantheon of gods as his empire did. In fact, many believed the emperor himself a god. So these Christians, followers of the Way, were certainly far afield in their beliefs. To thwart their progress, he ordered his officials to be kind to the populace. Well, that lasted about as long as it took him to say it. Why? Because the followers of the way didn’t need an order to love people. They did it from the inside out, not the outside in. Their hearts were made pure by the presence of the Holy Spirit in them. Jullian’s officials had no chance of winning against such odds.

Questionable lives? Absolutely. In their day, the early church fed and clothed the poor, the sick, the outcasts. They took care of the widows whose only recourse in life was prostitution if they couldn’t find another husband quickly. Women had no place in that society. The Christians took it upon themselves to take care of those who could not take care of themselves. Love won out. People asked why. Believers told them about the freedom they received in Jesus. Forgiveness from sin. Freedom to live truth instead of lies.

The Romans couldn’t provide it. The Greeks couldn’t mimic it. The only ones with a corner on the market giving hope and peace and genuine love were these uneducated men and women following this guy that had been crucified at the hands of his own people and the Roman government. It didn’t make any sense and yet here were the facts in front of them. Love wins. Forgiveness wins. Truth wins. Peace wins. Hope wins.

That was then. But what should we do now? Well, live a questionable life. People still know genuine love when they see it. People still recognize authentic care and concern when it happens. People still know the difference between an act and the real thing. When confronted by real love for each other, Jesus says the world will know we are different, that we follow him, that there is something strange and unusual, and good about us. Questionable lives.

That’s how Jesus lived everyday. Talking with women of questionable character but bringing them peace, not punishment. Questionable actions on his part. Telling men to pick up their beds and walk away on mended legs on the sabbath, doing work, questionable activity. Telling us politics don’t matter. Give to the pagan dictator his due. Governments, even bad ones, are allowed to stand because there are some things that only governments can do to bring order into the lives of large populations. Without them, even bad ones, chaos would reign. Hard to believe Jesus wasn’t a Republican or a Democrat or an Independent. He was a man living under the rule of a Roman dictator doing his best to share the good news that there is a greater kingdom for us to concern ourselves. God’s kingdom is here.

So how do we relate that kind of living into today’s culture? For one thing, we need to stop bashing each other on the Internet about everything. Talk about unsocial media! I see some of the most unChristlike behavior coming from people who call themselves Christians when they get behind the barrier of their keyboard and screen. Remember Jesus wasn’t into politics. The only thing he ever said about politics was to give the required support to whatever government is providing the current rule over the country where you live. Well, that’s a lot different than the blasts that come from both sides of the political aisle today, isn’t it.

Jesus helped the beggars, the prostitutes, the widows, the outcasts. Jesus went into the places no one else would go. Mother Theresa would be our modern day example. A nun who poured her life into the lives of others with no regard for her own. I encourage you to read the story of her life, particularly the years before she made all the headlines. Read why she became so widely known in the first place. It was her quiet sacrifice to those who could not fend for themselves. And she did it over and over and over, never expecting anything. She did it because she loved God and loved people.

Jesus didn’t care about the color of skin or the nationality of the receiver. We get so hung up on my rights and my poverty and my lack and my… We can all complain if we really look hard enough. But our complaining about our personal plight doesn’t do much for us. While we’ve been harping about how unfair life is, China has quietly taken over the largest number of billionaires in the world by about 50% according to a recent CEOWorld Report. With 819 billionaires in China, the United States came in a distant second with 579. There are 36 million millionaires in the world today. And that group of the 1% of the wealthiest people in the world hold half of the world’s wealth.

Does that make you angry? The deep question I have is why? It really is only money and money cannot make you happy. I expect if you could truly find a scale of life contentment and happiness, the lower 50% of the world’s population would rank higher than the upper 50%. That might sound crazy to most people in this country and in most societies where money is the driving factor in life. But when Jesus came, he turned the world upside down.

Jesus didn’t strive to be poor. He didn’t purposely strike out to abandon all material possessions. I don’t think he did. I think he provided for his mother and made sure she was taken care of after his earthly father died. In his day, age 30 was when a man was thought to have reached the age of maturity and could share wisdom as a teacher and leader. But I think he started on his journey away from Nazareth at the age of 30 partly because he worked to set aside enough to make sure Mary was taken care of after he was gone. He wanted to make sure she was not part of the troop of widows and orphans that turned to thievery or selling their bodies in order to survive.

No, Jesus didn’t think about money the same way we do. He knew we needed funds to do certain things because we live in this corrupt world, but he also knew that relationships are far more valuable than money. He knew that our intimacy with God is much more precious than any treasure here. Think about how ridiculous we are about some of that treasure. Diamonds are just pretty rocks thrown out of volcanoes from the past. Gold is a pretty metal that we wear around our necks or fingers. We’ve learned in the last half century to use them in different ways because of their physical properties, but that’s only been in the last 50 to 100 years we’ve made those discoveries. For millennia before that, it was just pretty stuff. Sometimes, we’re just crazy! But because of our selfishness, we think, “If I give it to you, then I won’t have it.” And therein lies the problem – our selfishness.

We hear about the disparities, the violence, the unfair things that happen in the world around us and it stirs our emotions. We sometimes become victims to those unfair practices and bite our tongues and recite WWJD, WWJD, WWJD. What would Jesus do? A nice mantra a few years ago reminding us that Jesus said, “Do unto others what you would have them do to you.”

But I think we get that wrong. Jesus didn’t think vengeance. He didn’t think about the cruelty of the world against him. Jesus loved. What would Jesus do? He would reach out his hand and help the one who beat him, pick up the club and put it back in the back of the pick up. What would Jesus do? He would encourage the billionaire to continue to be the very best entrepreneur he possibly could because it might mean he would build another building where one of those people begging bread could find a job sweeping the floor or taking out the trash at minimum wage instead of going to bed hungry. And he would talk to the beggar with the same loving spirit as he talked to the billionaire. In fact, if the billionaire met him at Starbucks, he’d probably have a couple of those down-and-outers at the table to introduce them to his friend.

“Do unto others, what you would want them to do to you,” he said. That doesn’t mean refrain from punching them in the nose when someone has hurt you. Although, it does include that. I think Jesus is saying to us, “Would you like someone to sit down and listen to you over a cup of coffee? Then don’t ask, go find someone that looks like they need someone to just listen and take them for a cup of coffee and listen. No advice. No, “I told you so.” No, demeaning or shocking looks. Just listen. It’s surprising how many people actually know the answer to their problems, they just need to tell themselves out loud and then follow their own advice. And once you’ve listened, then let the Holy Spirit guide you. Let him give you the words you need to say or the actions you need to take. Do what you want someone else to do for you. It’s the Nike commercial. They only took the second half, though. Just do it, but for someone else.

You want people to know you follow Jesus? What is a questionable life? Living out loud the love of God into the lives of the people around you. So go and be Jesus to those who need to see him in the world today.  

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.

Check out this episode!

Join us as we explore God’s ancient wisdom and apply it to our modern lives. His word is as current and relevant today as it was when he inspired its authors more than two and a half millennia ago. The websites where you can reach us are alittlewalkwithgod.com, richardagee.com, or saf.church.

I hope you will join us every week and be sure to let us know how you enjoy the podcast and let others know about it, too. Thanks for listening.

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

I just finished reading a captivating novel entitled “Dark Star: Confessions of a Rock Idol” by Creston Mapes. Some will think one of the two characters unrealistic as she spends over ten years praying for the salvation of this extreme figure trying to move people away from the reality of heaven and hell. But if you think praying for someone’s salvation for that long isn’t real, how long do you think you were on someone’s heart before you yielded to Christ? Or how long have you been praying for a friend or loved one to finally realize the answer they are seeking is in Jesus?

Today’s scripture reminds me of the book. It comes from some of the last words spoken by Jesus to his disciples. John records some of those last words at that last meal. In the gospel by his name, in chapter 13 we read these words:

13:33 Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come. ‘I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Sounds pretty simple doesn’t it? Just love each other.  More than tolerate. More than be nice. More than do to others what you would want them to do to you. Jesus says to love each other. So what does that mean for us today?

We live in a world that has taken the word and hijacked it like it has so many other words in our vocabulary. Here are a few notable examples from a Huffpost article.

1) “Hook up,” said Gena Lovins Fausel. “Hook up” used to mean getting some kind of device or service or appliance up and running, i.e. “hook up cable television.” Today, it also means “hooking up” with someone to have sex or just “hooking up” with someone as in meeting up.

2) “Fantastic” meant “existing only in one’s imagination” centuries ago. Today, it means something is really incredible.

3) “Bad,” said Nancye Hernsmith. “Bad” used to describe someone who’d done something wrong or something that was poor in quality. Today, it also means “good” or “great” when used as slang. (And “breaking bad” means to challenge conventions and defy authority.)

4) “Gay,” said Anna Cornwall. “Gay” used to mean merry or happy, i.e. “don we now our gay apparel.” Today, it is usually associated with being homosexual as in “gay marriage.”

5) “Sick… now is a good thing,” said Angel Matuszak Novie. “Sick” used to mean ill. Today, it also means something is really amazing.

6) “Backlog” meant the biggest log in the fire during colonial times. Today, it means a reserve or a pile of work you still need to plow through.

7) “Rubbers used to be slip-on boots that covered shoes,” said Alexa Robbin. “Rubbers” also used to be erasers (and still mean erasers in Britain). Today, it’s most often slang for condoms.

8) “Years ago, ‘thongs’ were another word for flip-flops. Nowadays, thongs are underwear!,” wrote Linda Hervas.

9) “Tool” used to mean something you dug up the garden with. Today, it also means someone who’s not intelligent enough to realize they are being used or taken advantage of.

10) “‘Message me!’ wouldn’t have made sense a few years ago… like ‘Letter me’?” wrote Amy Richards.

11) “Cell used to mean jail! Or a tiny part of your body…” said Amy Richards. Today, of course, it’s also what you call your phone.

12) “Awful” used to mean something that inspired awe. Today, it means something is bad or that someone looks terrible. It also means exceedingly great as in “an awful lot of money.”  

So today, when we think of love, we think of the actions behind closed doors that make movies R-rated and cause so much pain to individuals and families when we exercise the physical acts beyond the boundaries of marriage as described by God’s design. The Greeks, with their deep philosophical discussions, divided love, the single word we use for such a broad band of emotions, into four different categories. Jesus uses the deepest form, here. “Agape,” God’s love. Love that gives and gives with only the best in mind for the recipient of that love expecting nothing in return for that outpouring.

We don’t see much of that in our society. We are much too selfish to give expecting nothing. We want something back in return. We give with the attitude, “What’s in it for me?” We often say we don’t want anything back, but often we will give for the pleasure it brings, or the reward we think we will get in heaven in return for the acts we perform. We have to get beyond even that to express agape, God’s love.

Give without even hoping for that good feeling that comes with giving. Give expecting only heartache in return. Give knowing that it comes from a heart that wants the very best for the recipient. God’s love. The kind of love that allow us to nail him to a cross and watch him die the most agonizing death imaginable.

How do we do that? I’m not sure I’m totally there if I’m honest with you. I try to love with God’s love, but to be honest, there are people I don’t like. It has nothing to do with race or color or nationality or even religion or ideology most of the time. I realize we grow up believing what surrounds us. We learn from parents and friends and neighbors. We believe what made those near us successful or what made them failures.

God performs an incredible miracle changing our hearts in the middle of this evil cesspool of life we experience every day. And the influence it has keeps trying to suck us back under its currents. The currents get stronger every day. As I watch what has happened through the years with entertainment, schools, government, even churches, I find tolerance for pure evil grows exponentially, not arithmetically.  The Christian walk is hard, even after almost 60 years. And it is getting harder.

The world would have you believe God is not real or there are many ways to make it to heaven, paradise, naravana, whatever place you want to call the afterlife, if there is one, they say. But God hasn’t changed. He is the creator of all things including time and including the word that tells us there is only one way to reach him. What does that mean for the millions who have not heard about Jesus? I don’t know. I’m not God. I don’t know how his grace and mercy covers the uninformed.

I do believe those who know about Jesus, but have rejected him will face the consequences of their choice. It’s like the doctor telling me I can live if I take the medicine that’s in the bottle he gives me. It’s there sitting on the table. It’s the one thing that will let me live. I know what it can do. I know it is available. I can see those little white pills. But unless I open the lid, tap one of those pills into my hand each day and swallow it down. I will die.

Salvation is like that to those who have been told. The message is there. It’s on the table. It’s waiting for you to take off the lid and swallow it down. But until you do, that gift just sits on the table and does nothing for you. You can stare at it all day long. You can wish it would heal you. You can hope you don’t face the consequences of not taking the medicine. You still gain nothing until you accept the gift and follow those simple instructions.  Believe it. Accept it. Follow him.

When he lives inside us. We can see others differently. We can begin to see them through the lens of God’s eyes and recognize what they can become with his help. We can see they can be a child of God. Accepted into his family just as we were accepted into his family. We can find a way to love them when they seemed so unloveable before. We can share our testimony of the change God made in us by the resurrection power of his spirit living in us. Are we perfect? By no means. The Christian life is hard. Satan tries his best to defeat us in any way possible. But God in us is greater than he is. When we rely on his strength and not ours, we can stand. We can love. We can share. We can be Jesus to those around us.

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.

Check out this episode!

Join us as we explore God’s ancient wisdom and apply it to our modern lives. His word is as current and relevant today as it was when he inspired its authors more than two and a half millennia ago. The websites where you can reach us are alittlewalkwithgod.com, richardagee.com, or saf.church.

I hope you will join us every week and be sure to let us know how you enjoy the podcast and let others know about it, too. Thanks for listening.

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

Saul became Paul after a miraculous conversion. Last week we talked about how that conversion came about. I don’t know about you, but I’m glad I read about how it happened instead of participating in that particular mode of inspiration first hand. I’m glad Jesus gives us enough examples and heroes of faith in our lives to let us believe in him without having to go through what those early believers went through. But some of their experiences do raise some questions for us today.

We know that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. His word tells us that and we know he is truth. He does not lie, so we know he doesn’t change. Jesus also told those that followed him that they would do more than they saw him do when he walked this earth. He healed the sick. He made the lame to walk and the blind to see. He healed lepers and all kinds of illnesses. He even raised the dead to life. Then we see some glimpses of what he told his disciples.

Peter and John headed toward the temple and saw a beggar who had been lame since birth. The man asked for alms, but instead they gave him new legs. He stood on his two feet and followed them into the temple praising God for his healing. And today’s lesson from the scripture gets even better. Luke in his letter to Theopolis writes these words found in Acts chapter 9.

9:36 Now in Joppa there was a disciple whose name was Tabitha, which in Greek is Dorcas. She was devoted to good works and acts of charity. At that time she became ill and died. When they had washed her, they laid her in a room upstairs. Since Lydda was near Joppa, the disciples, who heard that Peter was there, sent two men to him with the request, “Please come to us without delay.”

So Peter got up and went with them; and when he arrived, they took him to the room upstairs. All the widows stood beside him, weeping and showing tunics and other clothing that Dorcas had made while she was with them.  Peter put all of them outside, and then he knelt down and prayed. He turned to the body and said, “Tabitha, get up.” Then she opened her eyes, and seeing Peter, she sat up.

He gave her his hand and helped her up. Then calling the saints and widows, he showed her to be alive. This became known throughout Joppa, and many believed in the Lord.

Jesus told his disciples they would do more than he would. Now here is Peter raising Tabitha (Dorcas) from the dead, just as Jesus raised the Centurion’s daughter from the dead or Peter’s mother-in-law, or the widow’s son in Cana, or Lazarus. Can you imagine what that must have been like to be in that house when Peter ushered everyone out of the room, prayed for her life to be restored and then walked out of the room with her?

Can you imagine the uproar in the city when the news spread that one of those followers of that rebel, Jesus was doing the same things he did? Can you imagine what the religious leaders were thinking in those back rooms of the temple when they heard the news? They thought it was over. They figured with Jesus dead and gone, the miracles would stop. They figured that even if the claims they heard about the man were true, at least it was over now. He was gone and only his followers were left. The miracles were over and only words were left behind. These guys knew how to debate. They could win the arguments.

But then… The lame started walking. The blind started seeing. The deaf started hearing. The lepers came to these followers. Now Tabitha who every claimed was dead, was walking around saying Peter claimed the Holy Spirit raised her in the name of Jesus, the man they crucified. What were they to do now? It wasn’t over after all. It looked like this might just be the beginning.

We know the rest of the story. The church grew from the eleven gathered in the upper room the night of the resurrection to the 120 gathered in a room together on Pentecost to 3,000 the next morning after the Holy Spirit settled on the people in that room and set their hearts on fire. Then within less than a decade, the church had grown to more than 100,000 across an empire that was out to destroy them because they were “atheists” believing in only one God, not the pantheon of Roman or Greek gods the major religions of the world believed.

The small band of disciples were God’s plan to spread the message. It’s unbelievable that God would use such a crazy plan to get his message across to the rest of the world. But 2000 years later, it appears he had no backup plan. This was it. Come to earth in human flesh. Gather a dozen uneducated men from various backgrounds around him. Teach them for about three years. Leave it in their hands after giving them a spirit of power if they accepted him as their only means of salvation.

What a weird, ridiculous, sure to fail from a human perspective plan. But it worked. The men and women God touches change the world. They are never the same. The men and women God uses to carry his message are transformed and empowered by the same resurrection power that brought life back to the dead cells in that broken body that lay in the tomb Joseph lent to Jesus for three days. That power that enables men and women to do the impossible not because of their ability, but because of God using them as an instrument of his will.

When we allow God to do whatever he wants to do through us, God-things happen. The unexplainable takes place. Things that impossible when viewed from the perspective of human knowledge and human ingenuity happen when God powers the task instead of us. Jesus’ declaration that we will do more than he did comes true when an army of believers allow themselves to be catapulted into the community empowered by his spirit breathing his love into the world.

So where do we see these miracles taking place, you ask. My answer is everywhere. We too often go the doctors and give all the credit to science when someone is healed. But take a look at some of the statistics for the healing processes. Why are some healed and some not? Why do medications work for some and not for others? Why do some come back from the brink of death and some slip away without recovery? Are miracles happening? Yes.

But does that mean God is answering prayers for some and not for others? Not necessarily. First, remember that God answers the prayers of believers. Always. He answers the request for forgiveness of the truly repentant. Always. But does that mean he answers our requests the way we want? Not always. Sometimes. I expect Peter had prayers answered in ways he didn’t really want at times. I expect he didn’t want to go to Cornelius’ house and eat pork. But he did. I expect he didn’t really want to associate with many of the people he learned to love later as he prayed alongside Jesus.

Many of his prayers were not answered the way he wanted as he saw his fellow disciples tortured and crucified. Peter was changed at Pentecost and in his writings we know he learned to accept and understand suffering and the way of the cross in this world, but that doesn’t mean he enjoyed it. It doesn’t mean he, like us, didn’t pray for release from some of the pain the way of the cross brought he and his fellow believers. Even Jesus asked for another way. But the Father didn’t answer Jesus’ request the way he wanted either.

We don’t understand why God answers prayer the way he does. Does that mean prayer isn’t effective? No. It means we don’t see the way God sees. It means we don’t have infinite wisdom. It means we can’t see beyond the bend in the road. Last week, another school shooting in Colorado took the life of one and injured eight more. Did God do that? No. Did God not answer prayers to keep our children safe? He answered them, but perhaps not in the way we expect. I think we sometimes use prayer as a wish list and think we can demand God to do what we want because we are his children.

I seldom did what my kids “demanded.” I hope you didn’t either. We need to learn at an early age we don’t control most of what happens in this world. Demanding what we want usually only causes trouble. Good parents know that and don’t give in to their kids demands. I sometimes did what my kids asked of me, but as a parent, I most often did what I thought was best for them. If what they asked didn’t fit that category, I often said no. They didn’t understand then, but as parents themselves, I see them doing the same with their children. Why? Because we want what is best for our children.

So why does God think some good thing like keeping shooters out of school is bad? I’m sure he does. I’m sure he would love to have Adam and Eve back in the garden having never touched the tree in the middle he told them not to touch. But Adam and Eve were given the ability to choose for themselves the path they would take. And they chose to disobey. They could not choose the consequences, though. Their act disrupted the cosmos. Not just their lives, but the entire universe. God’s highest creation disobeyed and that act rippled through the heavens.

Now we live in a world in which God does not isolate us from evil. He doesn’t put us in a bubble and protect us from everything bad that could happen to us. Instead, when we choose to follow him, he puts his spirit in us and asks us to let his power in us help us live like he did when he was living in the flesh. Still bruised, broken, misunderstood, hated, even crucified. But empowered to love the unlovable. Empowered to share hope to the hopeless. Empowered to forgive when the world thinks there should be no forgiveness.

Does God answer prayer? Yes. Does it change circumstances? Sometimes. But more often it changes me and you. Keep praying that God will use you and make you more like him. That’s the right prayer and he always answers.

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.

Check out this episode!

Join us as we explore God’s ancient wisdom and apply it to our modern lives. His word is as current and relevant today as it was when he inspired its authors more than two and a half millennia ago. The websites where you can reach us are alittlewalkwithgod.com, richardagee.com, or saf.church.

I hope you will join us every week and be sure to let us know how you enjoy the podcast and let others know about it, too. Thanks for listening.

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

Last week we talked about Doubting Thomas. He wanted to see the scars in Jesus’ hands and feet before he would believe Jesus had risen from the tomb. This week we look at another of those New Testament figures that God needed to hit with a board across the head to make him believe. The man’s name is Saul, a staunch enemy of those who spread the story of Jesus’ resurrection and tried to disrupt the order of the synagogue and its teachings.

I expect most churches today would love to have Saul as one of their board members. He played by the rules. He lived up to the character people thought of when they thought of a religious person. He went to the synagogue regularly, not just on special holidays. He prayed often. He gave generously. He knew scripture. In fact, if history is correct, to be a student of Gamaliel, Saul would have recited whole books of the Old Testament just to be considered for his tutelage. Saul would have been a great churchman.

But Saul did not believe in the resurrection, and he was out to quell the rebellion in the Jewish community that did. He took with him a section of the Temple guard with papers from the chief priest and arrested as many of the members of this wayward sect as he could find. First in Jerusalem, then, when he started running short of prospective rebels there, he headed to Damascus where he heard one of the “Way’s” ringleaders had gone.

The troop moved fast and furious across the dusty hills toward the old Samaritan capital. Saul would root out this evil and kill it wherever it tried to hide. But something happened. Acts Chapter 9.  Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any who belonged to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.

Now as he was going along and approaching Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”

He asked, “Who are you, Lord?” The reply came, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But get up and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.”

Saul, the fire-breathing, perfect church board member of today figure of a man found himself face down in the dirt, blind, listening to the voice of Jesus, the one these rebels followed. The one who rose from the dead. Here he was talking to Saul, telling him to stop. Telling him he had a job for him to do.

Ouch! Talk about sudden guilt. All these months, Saul had gone around arresting followers of Jesus. They had been locked away and many killed. Saul knew their fate, but didn’t care. He was doing the right thing… he thought. He was stopping this rebel outbreak before they could cause harm against the Jewish community. Rome was looking for reasons to destroy the Jews, he had to stop this group or at least lay blame at their feet for all the ills going on in Israel so his people could be saved from the wrath of Rome.

But then he met Jesus. “Get up, go to Damascus, you will be told what to do.”

I’m not sure Saul was used to being told what to do. I think he was pretty headstrong and was used to telling other people what to do, not the other way around. But not this time. For three days, Saul saw only the darkness of his blinded eyes behind the scales God put in place. For three days he was entombed in his thoughts because he could see nothing else. For three days he prayed for God to help him see and understand what happened and why.

Then Ananias comes into the room with a little fear edging into his voice. “Saul, Jesus, the one you have been persecuting told me to come and lay hands on you so you can gain your sight again.” If I were Ananias, I’d have been a little fearful. What if Saul just gets angry at being blind for three days? What if he decides he wants to take out his blindness on me when he can finally see again? What if he really isn’t so blind after all? What if the dream wasn’t so accurate and I’m walking into a trap? No doubt Ananias had a lot of “what if’s” in his head, but his faith overcame them all and he when to the right street and the right house and asked for Saul. Then laid his hands on him and told him what was about to happen.

Great story isn’t it? Sometimes I think I could have more faith if I had an experience like Saul on the road to Damascus. But then again, I’m not sure I would. Have you ever thought about what it would be like? I’m not sure I’d want to be there. The bright light that blinds you and not knowing if you’ll ever see again. The person whose followers you’ve been killing shows up with that kind of power and knocks you to the ground. The person you think you are controlling suddenly takes absolute control over your life and turns you into one of those poor beggars you pass on the street everyday, not able to do anything without someone’s help to lead you along by the hand.

Then, in Damascus you hear a knock at the door and recognize the name at the introduction. “I’m Ananias…” and you miss the next few words because his name is at the top of the list of those you’ve come to take back to Jerusalem. He’s here. You’re blind. He knows why you came to Damascus. You are completely at his mercy. Then he lays his hands on your eyes.

No, I don’t think I would like going through what Saul went through in coming face to face with Jesus. I’m not sure my heart would stand the strain. I’m not sure I could trust the people or the circumstances the way Saul did, even then. Maybe he didn’t have much choice. Or maybe he thought death at the hands of one of these rebels would be better than being blind. Or maybe he began to see just a glimmer of truth in what Jesus told him. Who else but God could do the things he just witnessed.

Nope. I’m glad I can learn from Saul. I’m glad he changed his name to Paul and wrote so many letters to the churches of the first century. I’m glad he gave all that advice to Timothy and Titus and the members of those congregations to which he wrote. I’m glad he wrote about his suffering, his hope, his joy, his peace. But I’m glad I didn’t fill his shoes as he walked those roads across the empire.

His experience, though, causes me to pause and ask a question each of us must answer for ourselves. I have not been blinded on the road to Damascus, but do I believe in the risen Jesus? Do I know in my heart that the resurrection happened, just has Paul and John and the other gospel writers describe? Do I know that Jesus is not just some prophet who did some really good things and told some really good stories, but he is, in fact, God incarnate. God who put on human flesh, live among us, died for my sins, and rose from that borrowed tomb to prove he is who he says he is. Do I believe it, or is it just a lot of words?

I can tell you there’s a shrinking percentage of us who believe the story is true today. More and more are convinced it is just a story. What you believe makes a difference in how you approach life, death, and eternity. Here’s the problem many face. If Jesus’ words are not true, it doesn’t matter. How you live, what you believe, it doesn’t make any difference in the end, if Jesus’ words and his life is just a fairy tale. But if what he says is true. If the story is real. If when he says he is the only means of salvation, then what you believe makes all the difference in how you live and die and face eternity.

So there’s the question. What do you believe about him? Is he just a man or not? Is he God or not? Did he sacrifice himself for your forgiveness or not? Does he demand believe in him for salvation or not? What you believe matters. It did to Saul and it does to you and me. So what is it, true or false?

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.

Check out this episode!

Join us as we explore God’s ancient wisdom and apply it to our modern lives. His word is as current and relevant today as it was when he inspired its authors more than two and a half millennia ago. The websites where you can reach us are alittlewalkwithgod.com, richardagee.com, or saf.church.

I hope you will join us every week and be sure to let us know how you enjoy the podcast and let others know about it, too. Thanks for listening.

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

Missouri is sometimes known as the “Show Me” state. I’m not sure when that began or who caused the first citizens of the state to be so disbelieving, but whatever and whenever it happened, folks from outside the state who told Missourans something are often met with the famous words, “Show me.”

Those words don’t apply to just Missourans, though. We have become some of the most skeptical, yet some of the most gullible people on the planet. Polls of high school students show that more believe in the truth of Star Wars than in the truth of a landing on the moon. Somehow we manage to believe the stories of Hollywood writers with all of their technological film effects, but we don’t believe the live feed from the surface of the moon when that grainy black and white signal came from 250,000 miles above us.

It’s really incredible what people will believe and what they will not believe even when faced with the facts. I’m often amazed at the number of people who really act like the figures in that old Gieco commercial which depicts a rather homely man coming to date see a rather pretty young lady. They get into a discourse at the bottom of the stairs to her porch and she comes out with some incredibly stupid statements. He asks where she learned these startling things and the answer is the Internet so they must be true. Then Gieco shares its savings commercial which is probably truer than the Internet statement the girl just blurted out.

But we have a tendency to believe some crazy things because of the source. It’s from the Internet, so it must be true, right? Well, there is a little formula about Internet research I learned well before the Internet invaded every household and classroom across the globe. It’s like this. If the site is a .com site, it is a commercial site and its owners are engaged in making money. Be wary. If it’s a .edu site, it’s written by some professor who wants to make his or her mark on the world and will sometimes tell you things just to make you think. Be wary. If it’s a .org site, that owner is a non profit with a cause and whatever that cause might be, right or wrong, that will be the flavor of the site. Be wary. And if it is a .gov site, well… you know politics. Don’t believe anything you see there without lots of other independent evidence.

When I heard that formula for researching the Internet, those were the only endings available on websites. Now, of course, you can find .me, .food, .church, .whatever you want to make up as an ending for a site if you’re willing to set up the server farm for it. The same rules apply. Usually, normally, most of the time a website and the information on it is there with someone’s purpose and their agenda in mind.

I’ll be honest, my website that carries the blog and podcast you listen to is no different. I have a purpose and an agenda for putting the information there. You are free to agree with or disagree with me and my agenda, but I continue to provide this podcast to share thoughts that I think God would have me share from my study of scripture and how it applies to our lives today. There it is. If I didn’t believe that, I wouldn’t spend the time and energy and money I do in preparing, recording, editing, and all the steps involved in having this ready each week.

I want to share the Gospel. This is a way I have found to do that effectively as it is heard in countries around the world. Thanks to all of you who listen and share “A Little Walk with God,” a couple of thousand people a month including people in Russia, China, Vietnam, Australia, and several other countries download the podcast and listen to it each week. That’s pretty cool. That’s why I continue to do it. I get to share God’s word. I have an agenda. You can believe what I say or not. You’re choice. I hope, though, you research what I say and find it true and meaningful to you.

So, Missourans. Show me. I won’t believe it unless I see it. Sound familiar? I guy who got the nickname Doubting Thomas said those words. John recorded them in the 20th chapter of the Gospel by his name. For those who might not remember the details of the story, it goes like this.

The two Mary’s had found Jesus’ tomb empty. They ran and told Peter and John. Peter and John raced to the tomb and found the tomb empty. The four were told by angels that Jesus had risen from the dead as he said he would. His disciples were still hiding because of their fear of the Romans and religious leaders. They had just killed Jesus and the disciples were his closest companions and shared in proclaiming the message Jesus shared across the country.

This news caused the fearful disciples to get together to talk about this news, though. They locked themselves behind closed doors and that same night, Jesus just appeared to them. He broke bread with them and talked to them. Then he just disappeared. A ghost? Ghosts don’t have flesh and blood. Jesus did. A physical person? Yes, but very different because he just appeared and disappeared. Unbelievable, right? Thomas wasn’t there. And that’s just what he said.

You guys were drunk. You guys are crazy. You guys don’t know what you’re talking about. You guys are just stressed out and wanting to believe what Peter and John told you this morning, but it didn’t happen. Jesus might be gone from the tomb, but to see him in flesh and blood when the doors are locked and then have him just disappear? No way. Show me.

Verse 26. A week later Jesus’ disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.”

Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!”

So, here we are. Jesus gives a special blessing after this to those who believe without seeing him in the flesh the way those disciples did that night. But do you believe? Do you really believe in the resurrection? The truth is most of the world does not. Most of the people in the United States, which not that many years ago was known as a Christian nation, do not believe in the resurrection. In fact, I’m finding there are a lot of Doubting Thomases sitting in Christian churches.

It’s easy to be like the Missourans and cry out, “Show me!” It’s easy to be like Thomas and say, “I won’t believe in the resurrection unless I can see for myself.” But that’s not how faith works. Faith is believing in what you cannot see. Faith is accepting as truth what you may not understand. It’s like flipping the lightswitch expecting the lights to come on even though you don’t know how the electricity is generated from hundreds of miles away, stored, passed safely through the lines to your house, and causes the bulbs to glow when that switch is flipped. We don’t need to understand all there is to know about electricity to believe the lights will come on, we just flipped the switch believing they will. That’s faith.

I don’t need to understand how the medicines I take work, either. But I believe the doctor who gives them to me and because I take them, it makes a difference in my quality of life. But the resurrection? It’s the same. We don’t need to understand how. We don’t need to be like Thomas and see the scars in Jesus’ hands and side. We just need to believe in the testimony of the thousands who have trusted in him through the centuries and place that same trust in the truth of the gospels. Will I ever understand how the resurrection happened from a scientific perspective? Never. Do I need to understand it? Never. I just need to believe it. And talk about the change in my quality of life? The legacy of peace that Jesus promises comes pouring through.

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.

Check out this episode!