Category Archives: Christian

You are His Temple, May 11, 2020

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

We find it easy to think God doesn’t care when we see the devastation man and nature creates around us. Particularly in these times, when we huddle in our homes, afraid of each other. Afraid our neighbor will spread the virus to us. We live in fear today. What happened? In a few short months, we gave up the outdoors. We gave seeing each other. We gave up our extended families. We even gave up our ability to mourn.

I’m not sure God’s desire for us to love each other as He loves us looks favorably on what we have done to ourselves in these last several months. Certainly, we need to take precautions against this new disease about which we seem to know very little. But do we let fear stop our relationships? Do we allow anxiety to be the overwhelming emotion in our lives?

I think it is time we allow God’s rich legacy of peace to take over in our lives and our communities. As His children, we can offer something the rest of the world cannot. We can embrace life with an assurance of hope that a better day is coming. This short time of suffering is not the end, but the beginning of life. No matter what we might face now, it is so insignificant in the face of what we will enjoy with Christ for eternity if we accept Him as the Master of our lives.

Unfortunately, most people today will not agree with me. As in Jesus’ day, most will reject Him. They will call Him a charlatan, a fake, a seeker of fame. That same crowd will declare His followers delusional, gullible, ignorant. But the early followers of Christ held fast for one simple reason. Some five hundred of His disciples saw the physical, resurrected Jesus. Not a ghost or spirit or a delusion, but a physical body. Jesus spoke with them. He ate and walked and touched them. The crucified, once dead, Master overcame the grave and lived. We believe because of the conviction of their belief.

Then Jesus gave those same disciples a mission. The last time they saw Him, He told them to make more disciples and teach them what they knew. Bring them into their fellowship with the rite of baptism in the name of the Triune Godhead, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. More than that, Jesus taught His disciples in His last days before His death, that the Holy Spirit would not just come to live with them as He had, but would live in them.

What difference would that make for them? God longs to have an intimate fellowship with His highest creation, human beings. He made us in His image. He touched the earth to walk with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.

He touched the earth in the Holy of Holies, the sacred place in the tabernacle He instructed Moses to build for Him as a dwelling place and later in the Temple Solomon made as a place of worship for Israel. It was the spot God came to bring heaven and earth together with His presence.

Then God lived among us as flesh and blood in human form in His Son Jesus, the second person of the Triune Godhead. How is that possible? He is God, and it is beyond human understanding. If we could understand everything about God, he would not be God, just a super version human.

While He was here, Jesus said something incredible about that third person of the Godhead, though. He said the Holy Spirit would live in us. Think about that a moment—God in us.

God touched the earth again—in us. The Holy Spirit, God, lives on earth now, when we accept Him into our lives as the Master of our soul. When we decide to give ourselves to Him, He lives in us just as He lived in the Holy of Holies in the Temple in Jerusalem or the tabernacle as His people moved across the wilderness. We are His temple.

The Apostle Peter writes to the early church and puts the concept in these words:

Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God’s sight, and like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in scripture: “See, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious; and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”

To you then who believe, he is precious; but for those who do not believe, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the very head of the corner,” and “A stone that makes them stumble, and a rock that makes them fall.” They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. (1 Peter 2:4-10 NIV)

We are God’s temple when we believe in Jesus for salvation. And when he lives in us, it also makes us a priesthood—every one of us because we are His temple. Think about the responsibility of the caretakers for God’s dwelling place; sacrifices, prayers, intercession, care of the temple itself. If I am His temple individually and we are His temple collectively, we have responsibilities to keep ourselves and His church clean and holy, first of all. Then we have a responsibility to minister to those outside this living church; to make disciples and teach them. Jesus commanded us to love each other and love them. He said to make new disciples and teach them.

How do we do that? We love them into the Kingdom of God. And what better time to do that than now. During every pandemic that has swept the earth, God’s people ministered to those in need. It should be the same with this one. Be careful? Absolutely. Be fearful? Never.

As the psalmist wrote, “Death, where is your victory? Death, where is your sting?” When we know our destiny, the worst that can happen to us is we wake up with Jesus. Let God’s love shine through you as you live each day for Him.

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.

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

Be the Body of Christ, May 4, 2020

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

It’s hard to believe four months of the year are behind us. Days creep along when faced with the daily grind of the coronavirus restrictions. Or when fighting the disease on the frontlines of hospitals watching patients struggle for life. But here we are with a fourth of the year gone by. Life rushes by at an incredible pace. Before you know it, time is gone.

During these days, I am trying to be a little more mindful of things going on around me. Couples walking around the block that didn’t have time to do so before. Kids riding bicycles that have laid idle in garages in the past. Friends and neighbors spending time talking across the yard to each other when before this crisis began, there seemed to be little time for any of these activities.

I’ve also tried to filter the news to which I pay attention. Most of the reports give us the number of sick and dead around the world or in our country. They tell us the worst-case scenarios we can expect with the disease and our economy in the months ahead. It’s all the same. Look for, here’s the dreaded word, “unprecedented” events in the coming months.

I’ve come to really dislike the word. We misuse it. It’s not true of this plague. Many alive today never experienced anything like it, but it certainly isn’t unprecedented. Ask anyone who survived the “Great Depression.” We are nowhere close to that stage in this country yet. If you could resurrect those who lived during the “Black Death” that swept through Europe in the middle ages, they would laugh at us. Between 25 and 50 percent of the population died then. Even the 1918 Spanish Flu took 25 million of us.

We cannot call this unprecedented. We can call it a pandemic. We can call it a disaster. We can call us unprepared. We can say a lot of things about it, but we should stop using the word unprecedented. It’s not.

What is also not unprecedented, but rare are the acts of kindness I’m beginning to see around us. Rather than hoarding, I’m starting to see neighbors making grocery runs for neighbors who are at higher risk of severe symptoms if they acquire the virus. I’m seeing those neighborly actions that were so common in the 1950s and 1960s. I’m seeing people talking to each other with real words instead of through mechanical devices. People are beginning to understand that the entertainment industry and sports world might not be the most essential segments of society. Maybe teachers and health professionals and first responders and janitors play a much more indispensable role than we have given them credit over the last few decades.

Maybe we can begin to charge our federal officeholders to become statemen instead of politicians in the future. We have watched enough of their party politics result in tremendous human suffering. It’s time we stop their petty scramble for reelection and keep the good of the people in mind.

But frankly, governments will never take care of people well. They never have. Rome created one of the best welfare systems for their Roman citizens. It eventually failed. The state couldn’t afford it, even with their world-wide conquests and burdensome taxation. So how were people cared for? The fringe was the concern of Jesus. He ministered to outcasts by the governments and religious organizations. So did those who followed his example after his resurrection. We read about them in the second letter Luke wrote to Theophilus concerning the acts of the early followers of Jesus. We call the letter the Book of Acts. Luke writes:

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles. All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day, the Lord added to their number those who were being saved. (Acts 2:42-47 NIV)

More people became followers of this new way of life because they saw the joy and peace that radiated from those who ministered to them. They saw something different in these Christians. Even though the Romans and the Jewish leaders sought to destroy them, they didn’t fear death or suffering at the hands of these leaders. They exuded peace in the face of death that could not be explained by ordinary means. It was the presence of the living God in their lives that made the difference. And it was this same presence of God that caused them to joyfully share what little they had with others to ensure all had enough to survive the onslaught of the persecution they faced.

Generosity in the face of poverty. Gladness in the face of persecution. Hope where others thought there should only exist hopelessness in their situation. These are the traits of the early Christians that drew men and women into their fold, adding to the church day by day. Their demonstrated love brought people to them and the church, nothing more and nothing less.

So here we are in the middle of this pandemic. Some states and cities relaxed their shelter at home orders freeing us to move about with certain precautions. The pandemic isn’t over. We will have a second wave in the next few months. More will become sick, and many will die before we see the end of this disease.

As Christians, we have an opportunity to extend God’s love during this time. We can act like the Apostles in the early church and be mindful of the needs of those around us. We can praise God and have the goodwill of the people because of the genuine love we have for those around us demonstrated by our actions. Let’s be the living body of Christ that he intended us to be in this crucial time.

Love Deeply from the Heart, April 27, 2020

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

Like most of the world, I’ve been reading different stories about the current crisis. Various news outlets and social media present very different views of happenings. What I know is things are not the same as they were a few months ago. We don’t really know what the future holds. All we know is it won’t be the same.

Some discuss the fact that we have 30,000 – 40,000 deaths a year from the flu, and no one talks about it. And yes, we’ve only had 50,000 COVID 19 deaths…so far…in seven weeks. But we are far from over before COVID 19 decides to quit finding its victims in this first wave. This novel coronavirus is not typical flu. We will lose a lot more people around the world, no matter what we do.

The news about our economy is also real, though. The longer we keep our businesses closed, the more desperate we will become. Job loss. Government debt stacking up to recession and possibly depression levels. Fear and anxiety are growing with every passing day.

How do we handle it all? Let me share some words Peter wrote in a letter to new Christians facing the wrath of the Roman emperor looking to extinguish any religion that did not recognize him as part of its pantheon of gods.

If you invoke as Father the one who judges all people impartially according to their deeds, live in reverent fear during the time of your exile. You know that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without defect or blemish.

He was destined before the foundation of the world, but was revealed at the end of the ages for your sake. Through him you have come to trust in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are set on God. Now that you have purified your souls by your obedience to the truth so that you have genuine mutual love, love one another deeply from the heart. You have been born anew, not of perishable but of imperishable seed, through the living and enduring word of God. (1 Peter 1:17-23 NIV)

This new Christian faith faced the possibility of extinction. The Roman government saw mystic religions as a threat to their authority. They deemed Christianity, Judaism, and many other religions of the day as mystics and wanted them out of the way. We see a glimpse of the Roman brutality from the crucifixion, the games in the Colosseum, the blood lust that permeated the nation. And that blood lust pointed to these new Christian believers.

The early church by this time began to meet privately in homes, caves, catacombs, out of the way places to avoid the eyes of the Roman army. The church grew under heavy persecution. But as you can imagine, the growth came at a price. The church felt grief at the loss of some of its members. And the deaths occurred quickly and brutally—torturous deaths as spectacles for the pagan Roman authorities.

Families mourned the deaths, but often could not be present, and many could not bury their loved ones properly, or they would suffer the same fate. The church gathered in small groups to encourage each other, but they could not meet openly, for fear of discovery, and summary execution.

It reminds me a lot of what is happening today. We don’t have the persecution in this country that the early Christians had. But we find ourselves isolated from each other. Some of our friends, neighbors, and family members find themselves alone in hospitals fighting a disease about which we know very little.

We hide behind closed doors and separate ourselves to avoid the reach of the disease as much as the early Christians hid themselves to avoid the Roman soldiers. We don’t have answers for the reason this plague has come upon the world, but we see the suffering that so many must endure.

Death touches so many households, and when it does, the victims face it alone. Those left behind then grieve alone. The comfort we usually find in the relationships we build in our lifetime are not there to wrap arms around us. It seems we must suffer alone.

Yet we don’t. We are fortunate to live in an age in which technology joins us. We can reach out and engage others through social media that can also be such a detriment in our lives if we do not use it carefully. Churches and individuals are finding new ways to use the media plagued by bullies, disreputable characters, child molesters, pornography, the list is endless. But that same media can be used by God for good. We can turn it around and spread the message of Jesus to those who might never come through the door of a church. But they will listen to an interesting discussion or podcast. They will spend time exploring ideas that will help them through life’s journey. People will cling to rays of hope in times like these that appear hopeless on the outside.

The church will not be the same when this is over. Already, church leaders discuss what the next generation of church will look. Many will be afraid to come indoors and sit shoulder to shoulder as we have in the past. The risk of spreading an uncontained virus is too high. Limiting attendance, seating by families and spreading them out, conducting multiple services to accommodate the number of people desiring to come, escorts from the entrance to seats to the exit, monitors to ensure separation safety. We don’t know what church will look like in the next months, but it will not be what it was in January and February.

It’s an excellent time to think about what church means and the mission of the church. What did Peter tell the church in his letter? Now that you have purified your souls by your obedience to the truth so that you have genuine mutual love, love one another deeply from the heart. I think that means more than lip service. It’s more than words. It means letting God use our hands and feet to demonstrate his love to a community desperate for hope in these trying times. Now is the best time to exercise that love. Show someone you really care about them – today.

A Pandemic of Love and Grace, April 20, 2020

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

We have a phenomenon going on across the country and around the world that baffles me in some ways. I’m sure it depends partly on how much you trust the news, social media, and other sources of information. It also depends on where you live and how this pandemic touches people you might know. But there is a significant segment of the population that thinks the novel coronavirus is no big deal. They wonder why we are disrupting our lives so much and taking such extraordinary measures for something that so far in this country seems like a nasty flu epidemic.

Of course, when you try to explain the properties of a pandemic and how they spread to those unbelievers, they wish it away and tell you you’re crazy. They don’t want to believe the catastrophe that is happening in New York City or Baton Rouge or Italy or Spain or many other places around the world. More than two million people have died, as of this podcast, that have been identified as coronavirus victims. Scientists tell us more died of the disease, but the dead are not tested.

The social separation states imposed works. In this country, when people work hard to enforce the rules for separation to curb the spread, it seems to be working. Cases are down. Hospital beds are available. Death rates are lower than in other places around the country and the world. Breaking the chain works. But there will continue to be those who doubt what the leaders enforced.

Our economy is in shambles right now after just a month of isolation. That shows you just how fragile this global system has become. When we close our doors for just thirty days, we fall apart as a nation. How much longer can we sustain the separation and closures to allow the virus to burn itself out in this first wave to enable us to find cures for it? I’m not sure.

We already have an increasing number of suicides, domestic violence, hungry children, and the list goes on in the most vulnerable parts of our population. Those on the fringe of society are clearly at the highest risk during pandemics, and this one appears no different.

Still, some doubt the reality of what is happening around us. The coronavirus is a hoax, they say. It’s a ploy to gain power by one political party or the other, they say. It’s a means of getting rid of a race of people I heard one doubter of the pandemic say. Some of the comments I hear and read flabbergast me. I don’t know where they get their ideas.

The doubt in the beginning, though, I understand. I think many of us thought the coronavirus was only a news item when we first heard about the epidemic in Wahun, China. Only when it reached the nursing home in Washington state did many begin to realize the jeopardy of the situation. And only when New York City’s hospitals and morgues begin to overflow did we come to understand the danger the country faced and begin to take active measures to slow the spread of the disease.

Doubt. The same doubt Thomas had when the other disciples told him Jesus appeared to them behind locked doors the night of the resurrection. We don’t understand how he suddenly appeared or what kind of physics allowed it to happen. But we know they could touch him. He could eat and drink. They could hear him speak, and he could hear them talk. But Thomas wasn’t there. He didn’t see it and wouldn’t believe it. John tells us the story.

When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.”

But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”

A week later his 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!”

Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” (John 20:19, 24-29 NIV)

Thomas wouldn’t believe unless he saw Jesus himself. Some don’t want to believe what is happening with the pandemic unless it happens to them or someone they know personally. We have this big issue with trust sometimes that keeps us from realizing our full potential with God and others. Faith is a crucial part of life. Without faith, we cannot survive. It allows us to walk out the door and get in our car believing we will not be hit by another motorist when we drive down the street. It allows us to go to work, believing we will be paid for our labor. It keeps us motivated to raise our children, believing they will grow to become productive adults.

Faith is critical in our everyday lives. It is also vital in our spiritual lives. Faith for Thomas, and us, means believing in the truth that Jesus is alive. He rose from the dead, not as a disembodied spirit, but as a physical, touchable, breathing person. We don’t understand the physics that let him appear and disappear as the narratives tell us. We don’t understand the physics that let him feed more than 5,000 with a boy’s lunch. We don’t understand a lot of things. But we can exercise faith and believe.

Just as we can believe the devastation that the pandemic creates around the world without being in the middle of it, if you live in a part of the country or part of the world that has so far been only mildly touched by it, we can believe Jesus rose from the dead.

It was the disciples’ witness that gave them the courage to share the message of the resurrection. But it was the faith of the hearers of the message that continues to spread the message. Like the pandemic we see in our world today, there are a couple of truths we can learn. We don’t have to catch it to know it’s real. We can see it’s evidence around us.

The same is true of God’s grace. It doesn’t take a believer to see God’s grace, but experiencing God’s grace makes so much difference and solidifies the knowledge of his grace in our lives so we can never forget it.

Second, like the social distancing in our current pandemic, if we fail to share his love with those around us, how will his love spread? But live a virus, when we touch others with his love, he has a way of sparking love in them, and then one becomes two and two becomes four, and suddenly, we can see a pandemic of his love and grace when we exercise faith and spread his grace to those around us.

A New Pandemic, April 13, 2020

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

It seems like all we hear about these days is the coronavirus. 80% or more of the news stories talk about it. Conversations on the phone or in emails or wherever you might find yourself (at home, hopefully), continually focus on the dreaded little organism that begins to touch so many lives around the world.

Unfortunately, the crisis isn’t over by a long-shot. The scientists tell us the first wave might be slowing in some parts of the world, but there will be another wave that comes through, and in the United States, we haven’t seen the peak of our first wave yet. The numbers seem to climb relentlessly. It is the way of pandemics.

My podcast today is starting to sound like a lot of gloom and doom, I know. But there is good news ahead, I promise. We can compare this pandemic to others that have torn through the world and see that many have been far worse. The Spanish flu killed an estimated 25 million people in 1918 and 1919. The Black Plague took away about 25% of the total population. Smallpox wiped out entire tribes when introduced into communities without immunities.

We hear more about this one because of our instant global communications. And don’t get me wrong, the numbers of people affected by the current crisis are enormous, but we misuse the word unprecedented. Pandemics have happened before and on a greater scale than we’ve seen so far. Partly, because we understand the mechanisms by which viruses spread, and we are taking precautions through social distancing, wearing some protective gear, disinfecting high touchpoints, and so forth. We are battling the bug, and although it may look like we are losing in many areas, we really are doing a much better job than in decades and centuries past. Keep up the rules the CDC has given, and we will get through this.

The best news today, though, comes from the correlation I find from the pandemic and the Easter message. You see, as I mentioned before, pandemic comes from a Greek word that means all people. And that’s who Jesus came to save. Listen to a short sermon Peter gave to a group of people gathered in a Roman centurion’s house in Caesarea. It’s found in the book of Acts, Chapter 10.

Then Peter began to speak to them: “I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. You know the message he sent to the people of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ–he is Lord of all. That message spread throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John announced: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.

We are witnesses to all that he did both in Judea and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree; but God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear, not to all the people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses, and who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead. All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.” (Acts 10:34-43 NIV)

The coronavirus shows no partiality. It doesn’t care what country you call home. It doesn’t care about your race or religion or socioeconomic position. You can’t buy your way away from it. You can’t wish your way out of it. Pandemics are indiscriminate in their advance through communities. Pandemics, like the word implies, affects all people.

Jesus came to change the lives of all people. In his words, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him will not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16 NIV) Whoever is all-inclusive. No one is left out.

Peter reiterates that message when he says, “I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.” Peter’s message to Cornelius and all of us reminds us that Jesus came for all of us. He does not discriminate. Regardless of race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, nationality, political party, or any other characteristic that seems to divide us, Jesus accepts everyone who believes in him for forgiveness for their sins. His redemption encompasses all believers everywhere.

I would so like to see a different pandemic in our world today, not one that causes fear and illness and death. I don’t want to experience another pandemic that takes the lives of thousands or causes us to continue our social separation. I’m not anxious to go through another crisis that causes our medical systems to collapse and panic to race through our societies.

The pandemic I’d like to experience, remember the Greek word meaning all people, is one in which we all understand Jesus is Lord, repent, and follow him. Can you imagine what kind of world that would be if it happened? No more theft. No more lying. No more deceit. The covetousness that drives people to destroy others to gain their own wealth would stop. Drug addicts would find healing because drug pushers would quit their businesses. All the illegal activities across the world would come to an end. People would care for each other and show God’s love toward each other. Can you imagine such a place? Can you imagine a pandemic like that? It’s that prayer Jesus taught us to pray, “Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” – a pandemic of God’s will here and now.

Stay safe and may God bless you richly.

Pray, Believe, Act, April 6, 2020

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

If you keep your eyes and ears glued to the news, things seem a little hopeless right now, don’t they? The number of people infected by SARS-CoV-2 or novel coronavirus or COVID 19 or whatever name you want to call the tiny creature that is raising havoc among the population keeps growing with seemingly no end in sight.

It gets a little scary when you have kids that depend on you for food and shelter. It gets a bit scary when you know you have comorbidities that could put you at significantly higher risk for what victims describe as a horrible time if you catch it. It shakes us a little when we hear conflicting information from our city, state, and federal officials. Then there are all the anecdotal stories on Facebook and Instagram and the rest of the social media outlets. We sometimes don’t know what to believe.

Some say stay put and slow the spread so the healthcare system can keep up with the spread. Some say go back to work, so our economy doesn’t implode and drives us into a recession that makes the final outcome worse. Some say it doesn’t matter what we do because the end of the world is here, so don’t sweat it.

What are we to believe in this pandemic? What are we to do? How should we act as Christians?

The current debates between politicians, healthcare workers, economists, epidemiologists, and others remind me of what happened during Holy Week 2000 years ago in a little village called Bethany just a few miles outside of Jerusalem.

Jesus went to visit his friends Lazarus, and his sisters Mary and Martha. You’ll remember Lazarus. The guy whose corpse spent four days stinking up a tomb before Jesus raised him from the dead. Jesus and his disciples were having dinner with Lazarus and his sisters, and a crowd began to gather. John says some came to see Jesus, but some came to see Lazarus, the dead guy walking. But I want you to hear the end of that story as John describes it. It’s in chapter twelve of the story he wrote of Jesus’ life and ministry.

When the great crowd of the Jews learned that he was there, they came not only because of Jesus but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. So the chief priests planned to put Lazarus to death as well, since it was on account of him that many of the Jews were deserting and were believing in Jesus. (John 12:9-12 NIV)

We’re in this debate about what we should do as the pandemic stretches across the country. Should we continue social separation? Should we go back to work like nothing is happening? Should we do something between the two? Should we listen to the CDC and stay home? Should we get the economy back on track before Easter? What should we do in the middle of this crisis?

I know a lot of people suffer right now. I look at the hospital census in places like New York City, San Francisco, and Detroit and see doctors having to choose between who lives and who dies because there isn’t enough equipment to take care of everyone. It was reminiscent of Italy and China just days and weeks ago.

We still have shortages, not only of vital medical equipment and supplies but of food and things those on the margins of life need for survival. How do we continue to ensure they have the necessary support when businesses close and we live in a day when so many live from paycheck to paycheck. What happens when the paychecks stop? The $1200 or $2400 that may come in the mail doesn’t go very far these days, and then what? And the small sum that is coming adds $2 trillion to our out of control national debt. That’s another $5,300 every American owes on top of the $48,000 every American already owed to pay off the mortgage Congress has given us.

The Pharisees voted to kill Jesus and Lazarus so they could keep their positions of power. The common Jews voted for Jesus so they could understand the power and authority Jesus demonstrated in his words. The Pharisees understood God as the giver of prosperity and position. Their national pride came from him. Jesus knew God as the one who calms the storm, the peacemaker, the healer, the giver of life.

I would not want to be in any of our leaders’ position today. They have no-win jobs right now. No matter what decision they make, it will be wrong for hundreds and thousands of people. Whether they choose to keep us sheltered in place or put everyone back to work, all of us will be affected in ways that are detrimental to individuals and the country. Pandemics are no-win situations; they always have been. Pandemic comes from a Greek word that means all people. It affects everyone. All of us will be touched.

So what does that mean for Christians when any decision detrimentally affects many of those around you?

First, we need to pray for our leaders. Pray for them as you have never prayed before. It doesn’t matter what side of the political spectrum you fall. It doesn’t matter who you voted for or who you like as a candidate now. No one, party, race, religion, gender, age, ethnic group, no one is exempt from what we face. The people in office must make some very tough decisions; none of us would want on our shoulders because all the decisions carry adverse outcomes. So pray for their wisdom and divine guidance.

Second, let Christ into your life and learn more about him through experience. He is our hope, our peace, our calm in the middle of this storm. Read about his life from the authors that lived with him. Read John and Luke and Mark and Matthew again and again, and understand the resurrection power Jesus wants to share with those who believe in him. He is our hope in this crisis. If you don’t know him as your savior, you can start with a simple prayer. Acknowledge your need; believe in his power to forgive your sins; declare him as Lord and Leader of your life from this point on. Mean those words, and he will enter your heart and life. He will make you into a new person.

Third, when you can do something for someone in these crisis times, no matter how small it might seem, do it. We can be a blessing to others and show Jesus’ love for us by showing his love to others.

One day all this will be in the past. Our grandchildren and their grandchildren will remember it only as a little piece of history. What we do as God’s children will make it a tale filled with heroic and loving stories or stories filled with only pain and agony. It’s our choice in how we allow God to work through us to make the difference.

Stay safe and may God bless you.

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.

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.

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.