Fear of Tomorrow, March 30, 2020

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Be Light in Darkness, March 23, 2020

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Plenty of Water, March 16, 2020

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“I have no husband,” she said.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Let God Bring Peace, March 9, 2020

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Be Real, March 2, 2020

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

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

Let’s get back to my occupation.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Seek Silence, February 24, 2020

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

We live in a noisy world. And we’ve become so accustomed to the noise that we have a hard time with silence. We often say we want to get away from the noise and the clamor that surrounds us, but many of us get home, and the first thing we do is turn on some sound machine. Whether it’s a radio or the television or some other device, we have a problem with silence.

I think that’s one of the reasons we have a hard time finding God today. You don’t discover God in the noise and business of the day. You meet him in quiet places. We picture him in his throne room surrounded by singing angels, but I think when he comes to us, he wants our full attention away from the distractions that the business and clamor of the world cause.

We aren’t the first generation to experience the problem of noise getting in the way of finding God. It happens to every generation. Remember, Elijah looked for God in the thunder and lightning and the earthquake. He expected to find God in the noise, the clamor, and excitement. But Elijah discovered God in the whisper of the gentle breeze that passed by the mountain.

God wants to meet with us but wants our undivided attention. As I sit in my study preparing this podcast, I’m aware of the dryer tumbling clothes in the room next to me. The HVAC system activated, and I hear air moving through the vents. Next door, contractors are putting the finishing touches on the fence my neighbor put up for his new puppies. A truck just passed by that needs a muffler repair. I hear a mower a few yards down the street. An airplane just flew overhead on its last turn before getting into the landing pattern in San Antonio. And even the clicking of the keys on my keyboard as I take notes can distract me from listening to what God has to tell me.

With all the noise, can we find silence? And do we want to? That’s an important question because when we find stillness and let God start to talk to us, two things begin to happen. One we desire, fellowship with the Father, letting him pour into us his love as only he can. The second, we don’t particularly like as he points to things in our life we need to change or actions we need to take on his behalf.

But do we really need that quiet time to hear God, you might ask? Jesus did. Look at the many times the gospels record that he went alone to pray. Moses did. He waited six days on the mountain before God called him into the cloud to give him the laws for the new Israelite nation. David did. Read his psalms and see how many times he admonishes us to wait on the Lord. Those 120 who met together in the upper room did as they prayed together for ten days waiting for something they did not understand to happen.

All of them emptied themselves and found that quiet place to commune with God. They found a place away from the business of life, apart from the noise that distracts us, away from everything except their attention focused on God. Then they listened. It’s when we get into the silence of our heart that we can begin to hear his voice.

Jesus told us to go into our closet to pray, and what we say to the Father in private, he will answer and bless us publicly. The implication is we need to get away from the noise. We need to follow his example and get alone in a place away from all those distractions so we can listen, not just talk. Prayer is more about listening to God than talking to God. He is so much smarter than we are, after all. If we will stop and get away from the noise, and listen to what God tells us, we might find out he has a pretty good path laid out for us. We might make fewer blunders along the way if we stop to listen in those quiet times. We might find listening to God a better use of our time than talking to God as we become his pupil for life.

How do we find quiet places? It’s not easy anymore. As you heard a few minutes ago, as I try to find calm in my study, noise still surrounds me. The decibel levels are low, but there nonetheless. If I’m not careful, I can let them take me away from what I should be doing. It becomes more difficult every day to find times and places to find silence in our world.

So what do we do? Ask God for help. Find as quiet a place as possible and ask him to help you train yourself to shut out the rest. Ask him to assist you in focusing your mind on him and him only. Ask him to help you recognize when your thoughts slip off onto something apart from him and immediately bring your focus back to him.

Is it easy to find that inner focus on God and him alone? No, it’s not easy. It takes discipline, a dirty word in today’s society, but one that God expects of those that follow him.

Extol the LORD our God; worship at his footstool. Holy is he!

Moses and Aaron were among his priests, Samuel also was among those who called on his name. They cried to the LORD, and he answered them.

He spoke to them in the pillar of cloud; they kept his decrees and the statutes that he gave them.

O LORD our God, you answered them; you were a forgiving God to them, but an avenger of their wrongdoings.

Extol the LORD our God and worship at his holy mountain; for the LORD, our God is holy. (Psalms 99:5-9 NIV)

God is worthy of our worship and our time. He is worthy of our attention. The invisible God will come to us when we invite Him into the temple of our hearts. But God comes only when he is the center of attention. We must discipline ourselves to push away all the distractions around us. The best way I’ve found is to find that place of solitude and seek silence as best you can. Then focus on the Holy One and let Him speak.

It’s a Good Way to Live, February 17, 2020

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

Do not cross the double line. Do not pass. Do not enter. Do not steal. Do not kill. Do not lie. Do not commit adultery. Do not covet. Do not. Do not. Do not.

Have you ever noticed how negative life can sometimes get if we are not careful? We can get trapped in the “do not” whirlpool and feel like everything around us is taboo. Anything we do will bring lightning bolts down on our heads. Growing up, I felt that way. I grew up in an era when the church laid down lots of rules and regulations and said if you don’t do any of these things, you’ll be alright with God.

It’s funny how easy it is to get trapped in that mentality. The church still has that problem in many ways. The Pharisees still live in too many of our congregations. They quickly point to the things we shouldn’t do and tell us how evil we must be because of our behavior.

Jesus never seemed to work that way. It seems to me that he operated from a different point of view. It’s not that he didn’t understand the laws the Pharisees preached. His Sermon on the Mount proved that and went far beyond what they held as the universal standard. You can hear his explanation of the law in his words recorded by Matthew:

“You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, ‘You shall not murder’; and ‘whoever murders shall be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgment; and if you insult a brother or sister, you will be liable to the council; and if you say, ‘You fool,’ you will be liable to the hell of fire.

So when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift. Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are on the way to court with him, or your accuser may hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you will be thrown into prison. Truly I tell you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to go into hell.

“It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’ But I say to you that anyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of unchastity, causes her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

“Again, you have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but carry out the vows you have made to the Lord.’ But I say to you, Do not swear at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. Let your word be ‘Yes, Yes’ or ‘No, No’; anything more than this comes from the evil one. (Matthew 5:21-37 NIV)

These demands certainly go much further than the Pharisees required, but Jesus puts a spin on what he asks of us that the temple could never do. Remember the two commands he says sums everything up? He puts those in pretty positive terms. Love God and love others.

How much more positive can his commands get? He gives us two and says he will send his Spirit to empower us to keep these two commands. He gives us simple rules to follow, then tells us he will provide us with the means to do it — what an extraordinary deal.

We could never keep the old rules. Jesus comes and explains the old rules start with thoughts we harbor and mull over until they become more than just ideas. They grow into acts of disobedience. Murder begins with anger. Rape and adultery start with lust. Theft grows from the seed of covetousness. Acts of disobedience don’t just happen; they germinate from ideas planted in our minds because of the evil desires within us. We take the God-given emotions and feelings we have and allow Satan to twist them and try to satisfy them in unhealthy disobedient ways to gain temporary pleasure.

Those who listen to Jesus’ words and follow him have found the promise God gave to the Israelites pretty applicable in their everyday life as well. Moses shared it with them in Deuteronomy 30, and it goes like this:

See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity. If you obey the commandments of the LORD your God that I am commanding you today, by loving the LORD your God, walking in his ways, and observing his commandments, decrees, and ordinances, then you shall live and become numerous, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to possess. But if your heart turns away and you do not hear, but are led astray to bow down to other gods and serve them, I declare to you today that you shall perish; you shall not live long in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.

I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, loving the LORD your God, obeying him, and holding fast to him; for that means life to you and length of days, so that you may live in the land that the LORD swore to give to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. (Deuteronomy 30:15-20 NIV)

I think I’ll choose life by following his decrees as simple as they are: love God and love others. It’s a good way to live.

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

Spice Up Your Life, February 10, 2020

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

Not often enough, I take it upon myself to clean out our refrigerator or pantry. When I take on the fridge, I’m sometimes surprised at the small containers that hold some mysterious gelatinous substance that no longer resembles the original product the box once held. I sometimes try to label those things I put in there (usually called leftovers), so I know what and when they first found their way onto the shelves, but I seldom keep up and so continue to find those mystery boxes.

The pantry task is even more fun. I hate to admit it, but even after trying to do a thorough job every once in a while, but obviously not often enough, I’m surprised to find products that expired, not months but years earlier. I’m not sure how that happens. I’m beginning to think elves come in at night and change the labels just to give my daughter and grandkids, who usually prompt me and help me take not on the task, a good laugh. We fill bags of expired stuff, drag it to the trash, and in a few months, seem to repeat the same process again and again and again.

A month or so ago, I decided to do the same thing with our spices. They sit in a separate space in our kitchen because we want them handy for cooking. Makes sense, right? The problem is they don’t get into the same not often enough clean this stuff out routine. I was a little more than embarrassed when I went through our spices. We used to joke that we have a kitchen because it came with the house, but we do a lot more cooking at home now that both of us are mostly retired. The expiration date on spices becomes a little more important. I don’t think that makes any of them dangerous, but it certainly makes them less potent in recipes.

So I started the process. I began to go through our two shelves of spices and divided the expired from the nearly expired, and the not expired. You know where this is going.

The three piles were not even by any measure. I think I counted the not expired collection on one hand and those probably because they had no expiration date on them. The nearly expired pile was smaller. If I remember correctly, two would expire within a couple of months. Then I looked at the heap of spices with expiration dates long past. Remember, this sorting happened at the end of 2019. I found spices that expired in the 1990s. Did you get that? Expired more than 20 years ago! How could that happen? And what good were they if they were that old?

I’m replacing spices as I need them. Most of those expired ones, we seldom use, which is probably why they found their way to the back of the shelf and ignored for so long. But the exercise caused me to think about a couple of verses in the lectionary from this week.

Matthew records what we call Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. Early in that sermon, he says this: “You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled underfoot.”(Matthew 5:13 NIV)

Today salt remains salty a long time because of the way we process it. Sodium chloride the chemical name, and the two ingredients in pure salt can be extracted and purified to a high degree so that our salt stays pure for decades. That wasn’t true in Jesus’ day. They used sea salt and sea salt loses its saltiness. Why? Because it isn’t pure. It has other minerals in it that, over time, break down the chemical composition of the sodium chloride that is also in the mixture.

Does that mean sea salt is bad? No, some of the minerals are good for you. It’s just that those same minerals reduces the longevity of the salt’s properties. The people of Jesus’ day understood that very well. It’s the only salt they could buy. It’s the only salt they used. They replaced it often because it lost its potency and then could no longer be used as a spice or preservative, one of its most important uses to keep meat and fish from decaying.

Because we buy our salt from the grocery store and seldom kill, butcher, and salt meat and fish to preserve it, few of us understand the importance of these properties. We know salt as a spice to make things taste better, and we might use it to remove ice from our sidewalks, but we seldom try to save meat throughout the year by salting or smoking it. We just freeze it or more often go to the store and buy it fresh without knowing or caring how it appeared on the shelf. We just wonder why the price keeps going up.

Take a look at Jesus’ words again. “You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored?”

As his followers, we live here, we hope for heaven, but we’re not there yet. We are the salt, not of heaven, but of the earth. Live now, be salt now. Be the spice that makes the world better now. That’s part of the problem the world sees with Christians today. What are we doing to make the world a better place? If we are truly the substance in this place to make the world better the way salt makes food taste better, the world should recognize it.

I’m not a FaceBook person, partly because too often when I peak at entries from many who call themselves Christians, I have seen words that certainly don’t make the world better. I don’t see comments that lift people. I see judgment, criticism, hate, the things Jesus talked about with the Pharisees. I quickly retreat from the page before I get caught up in the vitriol that spews from the keyboards that I’m sure would never come from their lips if they were standing face to face with you. We hide behind the screen and seem to think we can say and do anything. Not so. I think we will be judged for every word we write.

The sea salt that lost its saltiness became good for nothing. People threw it out. The only positive property at that point, let it kill the grass and weeds that grew up in the road. People threw their useless salt on the path to kill the undergrowth and keep it clean; well, not so clean, but vegetation-free.

So what message does Jesus give us in these words? We’re salt. We’re supposed to add spice to the world and make it better. We’re sprinkled in the world like salt is sprinkled on food. But one last thing. Remember Jesus talked about salt losing its saltiness. It happened. Everyone knew it. Salt expired which means when you bought it, you started using it right away. You didn’t hold on to it and put it away in the back of the cabinet like my 1990s spices. You kept it up front and used it often, then went and got some more.

It’s like the daily bread for which he taught to us ask. Get enough for today and use it up. Then get more and use it up. Then get more and use it up. Rinse and repeat as the bottle says. We are the salt of the world so he expects us to be used up, restored, and used up again like those little bottles of spices. That was the problem with many of my expired spices, I bought the big bottles, cheaper per ounce to save money, then threw most of them away, wasting more money because I didn’t use them up. The small bottles would have been cheaper in the long run because I threw away spices I didn’t use.

I’m learning. Fresh is better in cooking. Fresh is better in spiritual warfare. Fresh experience is better in sharing what God is doing in your life. Fresh is better to act as salt in the world. Let Jesus spice up your life so you can make the world a better place as his salt in a world that truly needs it more than ever.

Some Things Don’t Make Sense, February 3, 2020

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

Some things just don’t make sense. Why do most animals in a herd point the same direction in a field? Why do penguins live only in the coldest climate on earth? Why do most whales, the largest animals in the ocean, eat only the plankton, the smallest of sea life? Why is an octopus considered one of the smartest of sea creatures, incredibly ugly, and seldom seen in the wild? Why do some areas of the world get torrential rains while others get only a few inches of rain over decades?

We sometimes call them imponderables, things that have no concrete answers. Science is uncovering some logical responses, but still, we are baffled by the mysteries of the world and the whys that surround us every day. We have learned more in the last 100 years than in the rest of man’s history, but we still have many unanswered questions about the world in which we live.

We think we’re pretty smart today since we know a lot about quantum physics and how things stay together. We’ve learned about the universe and the fact we are not the center or even near the center of one of several billion galaxies. Our Milky Way seemed so large until we began to compare it to more enormous galaxies around us. We thought we understood the weather until we found we really don’t, and our weather folks still get it right about two-thirds of the time. Yep, we think we are wise today with the trillions of words housed in the Library of Congress on floating around on the Internet.

Paul got it right, though, when he wrote his first letter to the members of the church at Colossae in the first century.

For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”

Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.

Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, so that no one might boast in the presence of God.

He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, in order that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

Everyone around him thought they were wise, but compared with God’s wisdom, we are pretty foolish. We don’t know much of anything. Scientists will tell you the more we know, the more we figure out we don’t know. But God is the creator of all things. He knows it all. He’s the one who made all the rules we are just on the edge of trying to figure out. In the 1970s, we sent two experimental crafts called Voyager, to explore the outer edge of our solar system. Forty years later, they found out all our assumptions about the border of our solar system were wrong. Now those two satellites are still headed where no one has gone before but have barely scratched the surface of real space travel.

Our brilliance turns into ignorance when we see all that is out there beyond the confines of our puny planet. Our greatest wisdom appears as foolishness compared to God’s understanding. And what does Paul use as his comparison? The cross.

How can we explain why God would do such a thing? We can’t, except that he loves us more than we can ever understand. We disobey him, but he loves us. We run from him, but he loves us. We curse him and do everything he asks us not to do, yet he loves us enough to wrap himself in human flesh and live among us to show us just how much he loves us.

He died the most horrible death imaginable, crucifixion at the hands of Roman soldiers, after an unjust kangaroo trial. He never did anything to justify the suffering he endured, but he took it, all the same, to show us how much he loves us. Jesus taught radical lessons that said follow a pattern set by a heart filled with love instead of the rules given to the prophets and priests. He said to do two things, and you’ll be in good stead with the creator. Love God and love others.

He never said it would be easy to follow those two rules, but that’s a straightforward list to remember. It’s sure a lot easier than remembering the laundry list of dos and don’ts most organized religions give us to follow. Just love.

Paul tells us what that looks like, and again, it doesn’t make sense to us. It looks like the cross. Be ready to be hated by the world. Be ready to be misunderstood. Be ready to suffer when you share the good news of what God has done to redeem us from the deceiver who wants to capture our soul. It sounds crazy to those who have not given themselves to him. But for those who have, for those who know his forgiveness, the cross is the answer. The empty tomb is proof.

Are you ready to let go of the wisdom of the world and accept the wisdom of the one who created all things? It takes faith. It costs everything. God never accepts second place in your life. He wants everything you have and everything you are at his immediate disposal. But God never makes mistakes. He knows how best to bring you safely home. All you need to do is believe and follow him. It’s a good day to start.

Let Him Shine, January 27, 2020

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

Last night the lights went out. It was dark. I mean dark. I went to the front of the house to see if the whole neighborhood lost electricity or just us. By the time I reached the hall, I had realized it was a bad idea. I headed back to retrieve a flashlight from the nightstand before I stumbled over a chair or table or something left in a spot I didn’t expect. I couldn’t see anything with cloud cover and the darkness.

It made me wonder about people living before electric lights. Just two hundred years ago, candlelight would have been the extent of the illumination to lead me through my house last night. Have you ever traveled through a house by candlelight? It’s not much. Certainly, more than pure darkness, but not much.

Candles produce about thirteen lumens, less than a two and a half-watt small Christmas tree bulb. Can you imagine living with no more light than that? Picture yourself as the woman looking for the lost coin with just a candle. Or think of the fear of huddling in the darkness during one of those famous Texas thunderstorms with only your oil lamp to provide some relief from the dark and the howling wind that threaten to overtake you.

Our kids don’t know much about physical darkness today. Few have seen the beauty of the Milky Way with their eyes. Light pollution from most of our cities keeps us from observing that band of stars that populate our galaxy and stretches across the sky. The lights from towns mask the brilliance of the stars except on oceans or deserts. We don’t know darkness, so we don’t appreciate the light.

Now that you’ve given a little thought to life without electric lights. Now that you’ve spent a moment putting yourself back a couple of hundred or a couple of thousand years into the past looking into the darkness of the night that surrounds you wondering about the predators that might be lurking in the shadows. I’d like you to listen to the words Isaiah wrote concerning the coming savior of the world.

They come from the book by his name from chapter 9.

But there will be no more gloom for those who knew such hardship. In times past, God humbled the land of Zebulun and Naphtali; later, He will restore the honor and glory to the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee, home of the nations.

The people who had been living in darkness

have seen a great light.

The light of life has shined on those who dwelt.

in the shadowy darkness of death.

And You, God, will make it happen. You bolstered the nation,

making it great again. You have saturated it with joy.

Everyone in it is full of delight in Your presence,

like the joy they experience at the harvest,

like the thrill of dividing up the spoils of war.

For as You did back in the day when Midian oppressed us,

You will shatter the yoke that burdens them,

You will lift the load that weighs them down,

You will break the rod of their oppressor.

About whom is Isaiah talking? The God-Man, Jesus. He sheds light on the darkness of our hearts. He opens our minds to what God intends us to be. He makes a way for us to enter into the presence of a holy God when we know we do not deserve to be there. Jesus, God wrapped in human flesh to show us how much he cares for us. He came to pay the price for our disobedience. He died for you and me so that we might live.

From an earthly point of view, he grew up in the most unlikely place, Galilee, and in one of the most unlikely villages in that region, Nazareth. No one would have thought the King of all kings would come from a place like that. He knew what it meant to grow up on the “other side of the tracks” in poverty and crime-ridden neighborhoods. Nathaniel understood Nazareth when he commented, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?”

But something did. Someone did. Jesus. The one who brings light to a dark world. His light is not that lumen candle the people of his day used to illuminate their darkened houses in a storm, but John described his glorified body in his Revelations as brighter than the sun. You can’t look at the sun for more than a few seconds without some serious pain; the light is so intense. That’s the light Jesus brings to our hearts.

The end of the first month of 2020 approaches fast. We’ve talked about the coming of God into our world and how we should listen to him, seek him, share him. We should also let him illuminate our lives in such a way that he can shine through us so that others see him in us. We should reflect his light in all we do. Today is a good day to start, don’t you think?