Tag Archives: character

The Voting is Over, November 2, 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 week of our election in the United States. Depending on when you’re listening, we are choosing tomorrow, have chosen, or are awaiting news of who garnered the most electoral votes and will sit in the Oval Office on January 20^th. Will it make a difference to the country? I’m not sure.

In the last few decades, we polarized ourselves to such a degree I’m not sure anyone can bring us together unless we, as a people, choose to stand up as a whole and demand change from within. Jesus described our political parties well from his description of the political parties of his day when he said in Matthew 23:

²‘The scribes and Pharisees,’ he said, ‘sit on the seat of Moses. ³So you must do whatever they tell you, and keep it, but don’t do the things they do. You see, they talk but they don’t do. ⁴They tie up heavy bundles which are difficult to carry, and they dump them on people’s shoulders – but they themselves aren’t prepared to lift a little finger to move them!

⁵‘Everything they do is for show, to be seen by people. Yes, they make their prayer-boxes large and their prayer-tassels long, ⁶and they love the chief places at dinners, the main seats in the synagogues, ⁷the greetings in the market-places, and having people call them “Rabbi.” (Matthew 23: 2-7 NTE)

Take a look at what goes on within the political arena in Washington. We’ve had so little happen for the people in the last 20 years unless it brought attention to the bill’s author. We hear about Obamacare or the Affordable Care Act, but if you read the 10,000 pages of its legislation, it’s not much different from the Trump Healthcare plan except for the act’s regulation. They both provide the same care to those who can’t afford it. They both ensure pre-existing conditions are covered. They both try to reduce unpredictable and uncontrollable costs.

The big difference is in the regulation. The Republican Party doesn’t like big government, so gets rid of regulation whenever it can, which means getting rid of government oversight and government jobs. The Democratic Party favors big government and management and adds regulation and government jobs. The two have much more in common than in differences. But we don’t read the 14,000 pages of legal jargon, so we don’t know that. We only hear what each side tells us through their media, and we buy their stories.

I’m thrilled we finally turned out to vote this year and discovered the importance of letting our voices be heard in an election. Maybe we won’t crawl into a hole until the next general election but will instead continue to provide a voice through letters, calls, attendance at local venues with our representatives in the local, state, and federal legislatures to let them know what we think. We have let them run amuck far too long. It’s our fault the right and left have grown so far apart. We have failed as citizens to reign them in and make them sit down at the table and discuss meaningful compromises that will do what we want them to do. They are our representatives, not our kings, our princes, or bosses. They should be giving voice to what we want, not what they want.

How do we make that happen? When they fail to voice our concerns and a more moderate line, which is what I think most Americans would prefer, we should vote them out of office and replace them with someone who will listen to our voice. Recalls can still happen when our representatives fail to follow what we insist they do. Our laws allow us and demand us to take such action for the good of the citizens they represent. But we must stay involved and informed if we plan to do those things.

We can’t blindly take the word of what we have found to be a significantly biased media. Both left and right spin their stories to inflame the other side. Now we see both sides of social media intentionally censor their clientele to ensure only one side gets told on their platform. As Christians, how are we to overcome this divide that plagues our nation?

First, recognize what is happening. As Jesus said, “A house divided cannot stand.” If we continue to allow the media and our politicians to inflame the populace along far-right and far-left ideologies, America will dissolve as a democracy. We cannot continue to survive as a nation under these conditions. Nor can we survive as a far-left or far-right nation. Neither side will meet the needs of the majority. The radical fringe ideologies that both sides propose daily will destroy what we built over the last 244 years. Both extremes are wrong. Both sides lay burdens on the backs of the people they are not willing to carry themselves. Note the exemptions Congress gives itself regarding the laws it enacts for the rest of us concerning taxes, healthcare, banking laws, salary for life after serving just one term, and many other regulations that burden the people but not them.

Second, pray that God will intervene and soften the hearts of the men and women in our elected positions, that they will listen to his voice and act accordingly. Pray that he will hear our prayers and heal our land. Pray that he will bring safety to our country; that he will return a sense of humanity to the hearts of both sides of the aisles in our legislators at all levels of government. Pray that the radical actors burning our cities and committing violence against innocent citizens will stop, repent, and discover God.

Third, find out the facts about what our governments at local, state, and federal levels are doing. Don’t listen to the news outlets, but instead, get involved and read the legislative bodies’ official records. Go to the public documents that record the legislation and the votes of those who represent you. See how they acted, not what they said. It’s often interesting the differences you find in the two. You don’t get prosecuted for lying to the press, but you do when you perjure yourself in court or Congress. So read the official records.

Fourth, vote for the individuals who act according to what you think is right for the community at large. Don’t vote based on what you hear in ad campaigns or what the media splashes across their platform. As we have seen in the campaigns this year, both sides do their best to take one statement, spin it a million different ways, and try to trash their opponent. This has nothing to do with how they will help you or your community. So, vote for the person who acts to do what is right for the community at large. That is what democracy is about—doing the majority’s will while protecting the few’s rights.

Next, get involved. Go to the meetings your representatives hold—Voice your opinions and concerns. Ensure your representatives carry out the will of the people, not their agenda. They represent the majority that put them in office, not some isolated group somewhere, or at least that is how our government is supposed to work. When they fail to meet your expectations, vote them out of office. Don’t let politicians continue to hold offices that fail to carry out the will of the majority. Hold them accountable for their promises.

Finally, force your representatives to sit down at the table and listen to the other side. Find the commonalities between the two. Negotiate a reasonable plan that will satisfy both sides. We don’t need to operate on the far left or far right. In fact, we should probably never find ourselves living in either space. Find a moderate compromise that takes both sides’ best and legislates a sensible plan free of all the add-on amendments that too often cause good bills to fail. Get involved as one not driven by either extreme to let your voice, driven by the King of kings, be heard.

The voting is over. Right now, the country is in turmoil, and it’s our fault as Americans, as silent Christians. We have not played our part as good citizens. It’s time we do what we should and let our voices be heard so that the King of kings can rule this nation along with all the others. It’s time to participate in politics and tell those the country elected to do the right thing and make sure they do. Remember, separation of church and state was always to keep the government out of the church, not keep the church out of government. We need to raise our voice and let God back into the running of our country. It’s our fault as Christians we are where we are today. We can help fix it if we dare.

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.

A Formula for Hope, June 15, 2020

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

We will remember 2020. Many said that about 1963, the year President Kennedy was shot. And 1967, the year we Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy were assassinated. And 1990, when the world faced off against Iraq after they invaded Kuwait. And 2001, when the Twin Towers fell in New York City. But this year, wow! Coronavirus has infected two million Americans and seven million globally. More than 110,000 have died in this country, and we are approaching a half million around the world.

Then the murder hornets invaded the west coast. Shortly after, protests against racial injustice swept across the country, turning violent in too many places, causing millions of dollars in damages and the deaths of innocent people of all colors. The economists already declared a recession. Stocks almost recovered to pre-COVID heights, but only because of speculative trading if you read the tea leaves correctly. Companies that have already filed Chapter 7 and 11 bankruptcy stocks are exploding because uninformed traders think they will bounce back. They probably won’t, which means those stocks look artificially and dangerously high. Those traders are about to lose their investments when the stock market stabilizes in the next few weeks and months.

Unemployment stands almost as high as during the depression. And this phenomenon isn’t limited to the US. It reaches around the globe because of the pandemic that, except for a handful, affects every country. Suffering is everywhere. You see hopelessness in the eyes of millions. But there is an answer to the desperation that seems so pervasive in the situations that predominate this year. Despite the terrible events that keep piling one on the other, I can assure you; there is hope.

That hope isn’t found in another stimulus check, though. There isn’t enough money in the world to buy hope. You won’t find hope in legislation that brings equality to every race, we’ve tried that. It failed before and will fail again. Defunding police departments won’t stop police brutality, but it will unleash an unbridled criminal element on a defenseless citizenry. Vaccines won’t stop pandemics. Another disease will sweep through the world in a few years just as virulent as this one with devastating effect.

We can do nothing to provide hope to the world because we created the chaos that plagues us. But we can find hope. The Apostle Paul tells us how in his letter to the early followers of Jesus in the church in Rome in the first century. He writes:

Therefore, since we have been made righteous through his faithfulness,^[a] we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. ²We have access by faith into this grace in which we stand through him, and we boast in the hope of God’s glory. ³But not only that! We even take pride in our problems, because we know that trouble produces endurance, ⁴endurance produces character, and character produces hope. ⁵This hope doesn’t put us to shame, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

⁶While we were still weak, at the right moment, Christ died for ungodly people. ⁷It isn’t often that someone will die for a righteous person, though maybe someone might dare to die for a good person. ⁸But God shows his love for us, because while we were still sinners Christ died for us. (Romans 5:1-8 CEB)

I don’t care much for the formula Paul gives us, but through the centuries, Christians prove it true. Trouble produces endurance, endurance produces character, and character produces hope. We stand firm on that hope; it doesn’t put us to shame, we know it to be true, we boast in the hope of God’s glory because the Holy Spirit poured God’s love into our hearts.

Let’s backtrack through Paul’s formula in these verses. Despite that fact that we were God’s enemies, sinners, disobedient toward him, he showed his love for us by dying for us. He took my sins and your sins to the cross so heaven and earth could join together at that spot. He died for ungodly people, sinners, us.

Why? So by accepting his forgiveness, his spirit could live in us and his love could energize our actions and our love toward others. He enables us to love those we could not love without him. The Holy Spirit pours God’s love into our hearts. We see others differently. We love with his love. His spirit enables us to live a life of love and hope for his glory.

The hope in the Christian throughout the centuries sparked incredible action. Not cathedrals and churches and edifices with stained glass windows, but hospitals, schools, orphanages, shelters for abused women and children, food and clothing pantries, and thousands of other ways men and women help the hurting. Christians run toward the hurting, not away from them.

Please remember, not everyone who says they are Christian have Jesus in their heart. That is the problem with much of Christendom today. Many know the words to say, but have never experienced his life-changing power. Despite their declaration, they are no more Christian than I am a neurosurgeon, even if I said I am. You certainly don’t want me to open your scalp any time soon.

God’s love drives Christians to act because God first loved us, forgave us, and pour his love into our hearts giving us hope for tomorrow. People recognize those loving actions as character. It’s not the money given or the legislator trying to get elected or the pharmaceutical company passing pills. It’s the man or woman standing in the breech helping the needy, getting their hands dirty, disregarding what others might think of them for doing so that defines character.

And helping those in need means getting involved in life and life is messy. It always means endurance. Life is not a sprint, but a marathon. In the church we often remark methods change, but the message never changes. It’s the same with life. Involving ourselves with others is always messy, always emotional, always painful at times, but it is the work God calls us to do if we love as he loves. Imagine if God had given up on you the first time you did something wrong. Where would you be? Can we do any less for those he puts in our path? Endure.

What do we endure? Problems. Trouble. Suffering. Life. We face all the issue of life good and a lot of bad because we, humanity, brought sin into the world and every one of us contributes to that pile. None of us are free from it. Each of us brings our little piece of selfishness to the table and until we give ourselves completely to Christ, we continue to contribute to the mess call life. Even then, our imperfections in this world will cause pain and suffering to those around us. We can’t help it. We will be misunderstood, misinterpreted, abused, maligned. But we also don’t need to complain about it. Jesus went to the cross misunderstood, misinterpreted, abused, maligned. He died for us.

We have access into God’s grace, his unmerited favor, by faith through Jesus. Because we have access to God’s grace, we have peace with God through Jesus. And because of his faithfulness we are made righteous before God. That is not a small thing.

Remember what Isaiah said when he saw God behind the cherubim seated on his throne? “Woe, I am undone, for I am a man of unclean lips.” God put his hand over Moses so he would not see his face and die. He did the same with Elijah. We cannot stand in the presence of a holy God. But because of Jesus sacrifice on the cross, we are made righteous before him and invited into his presence. How awesome a privilege that we should never take for granted.

2020 is an unforgettable year. Make it so not because of the problems highlighted in the news, but because of a renewed relationship with the King of kings. Meditate on Romans 5:1-8 and remember that “while we were still weak, at the right moment, Christ died for ungodly people. ⁷It isn’t often that someone will die for a righteous person, though maybe someone might dare to die for a good person. ⁸But God shows his love for us, because while we were still sinners Christ died for us.”

Integrity and duplicity, May 14, 2018

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The subject of today’s podcast includes two terms that are mutually exclusive. Integrity and duplicity. The two can not coexist in the same person. We try awfully hard these days. We try to make things fit the way we want them to fit. We want what we think is best for us regardless what it might do to someone else. We want what we want and we want it now. But that’s not how integrity works.

Solomon said in Proverbs 11:3, “The integrity of the upright guides them, but the unfaithful are destroyed by their duplicity.”

So what exactly am I talking about when I talk about duplicity in the context of integrity? We’ve already determined that integrity is about oneness with our Creator. It’s about his truth, not anyone else’s. Integrity isn’t defined by our norms, but by God’s. We’ve said integrity requires accountability and how important a partner and mentor can be in helping us stay on track, keeping us from straying from the path we’ve set out on.

Duplicity is defined as deceitfulness or double-dealing. It comes into play in this setting when we talk about integrity but then don’t live up to what we say. It reminds me of a public service announcement that was aired on the Armed Forces Network when I was stationed in Germany several years ago. The camera panned on a soldier called to his home because his teenage son had been caught shoplifting. The soldier did a pretty good job of chewing out his son, telling him how wrong it was to steal. How he had learned in church that was one of the Ten Commandments God gave us. He asked how in the world he could stoop so low as to steal something that didn’t belong to him.

All the while the soldier carried on this conversation with his wayward son, the camera moved position and drew the lens back to focus on a handful of black skillcraft pens laying on the soldiers desk at home. Those of you who have worked in the government know what that means. No one had those black skillcraft ballpoint pens except Uncle Sam and he bought hundreds of thousands of them. And why did the government buy so many? Because people like that soldier stole them from their offices.

You might think to yourself, taking a pen from my employer isn’t such a big deal. And maybe one pen isn’t. At that time they were about $1.50 a dozen. But this soldier along with probably 50% of the rest of the 5 million people employed by the federal government had two or three or more of those pens at home. If my math is right, that’s about $625,000 of theft. That’s a well organized gang conducting grand larceny. You probably never thought of it that way, but someone had to pay for that pen or pencil or notebook or pad of paper or whatever it is you might bring home for personal use. Is that duplicity? You bet.

Or how about that cell phone ding to remind you of an email or a facebook message that you just have to answer at work? Or the website you need to explore for just a few minutes at the office. Or a bill you need to pay from there because your internet speeds at home are so slow? Does your employer want to pay you for being completely unproductive when you’re supposed to be working for her? Stealing part of your paycheck by failing to give that time to your employer as you agreed when you were hired is called duplicity, deceitfulness, double-dealing. It certainly isn’t integrity.

Am I saying that I am perfect in these area? No. If you scoured my house, you’d probably find one of those long lost skillcraft pens in a box in the garage. And to be honest, once in a while I’ll answer or make a personal call or see a personal email pop up on my screen and answer it while I’m supposed to be doing something else. But I try to stay very conscious of my time and what I do with the equipment and supplies entrusted to me. I learned because of those skillcraft pens that I kept having to buy out of my meager budget as a company commander in the army almost forty years ago how just one innocent pen can suddenly add up to dozens, then hundreds, the thousands. And no one really notices until someone at the top of the chain coughs because more than half a million dollars in black government pens have gone missing.

It’s not that big a deal. Except it’s duplicious. It’s no big thing. Except it breaks commandment number eight. It’s nothing really. Except God says don’t do it. No one cares. Except it means your integrity is at stake.

Our society is trying hard to turn all these things into various shades of gray. Just a pen. Just a pad of paper. Just a box of paper clips. Just a few copies for my kid’s school work. Just a few messages during the day. Just a little me time during my work hours. Just a little here and just a little there. No big deal. No harm done.

The latest figure I could get comes from 2012, so this data is six years old and has only gotten worse since then. But listen to some of these facts from six years ago. 60% of workers spend at least some time on social media during work hours. The average college student in 2012 spent 3 hours on facebook and two hours studying. Which explains why college students who use facebook regularly have a GPA a full point lower than those who don’t.

In the US that year, collectively we spent 12,207,423,487 hours on social media. Twice as much time on social media as in any form of exercise. 10% of us spend more time on social media than we do at work and 60% of us connect with our social media at work. Workers are interrupted every 10.5 minutes by things like twitter, IM’s and facebook. Then studies show it takes 23 minutes to get back on task after an interruption. No one can really multitask by the way. Your brain will only let you do one thing at a time. If you think you’re multitasking, you’re fooling yourself and turning out poorer quality work that you are able.

So what did all that cost? When you do the 2012 math, social media cost companies almost $4500 per employee. And it cost the US economy about $650 billion. But it’s just one message, right? It doesn’t hurt anything? It’s only a few minutes, right? No one cares. It’s not like I don’t get my job done, so I can do this on the sly, right? Take a look at the number once more. The social media mafia successfully stole $650 billion dollars from everyone’s pocket.

Why everyone’s pocket and not just those C-suite executives? Because those C-suite executives didn’t have the money to give employees the raises they might have been able to give otherwise. They didn’t have the money to improve health benefits. They didn’t have the money to hire new employees. They didn’t have the money to build new facilities or new plants. $650 billion can do a lot of stuff, and collectively in the workplace…How did Solomon put it? “… the unfaithful are destroyed by their duplicity.”

Integrity and duplicity can not exist in the same person. But we need God’s help to maintain our integrity. The world makes everything shades of gray instead of God’s black and white. The problem is that the world won’t be our judge when Jesus returns. God set the rules and God will judge us based on his rules. Not the world’s. Not ours. His. So how is your integrity meter running today?

You can find me at richardagee.com. I also invite you to join us at San Antonio First Church of the Nazarene on West Avenue in San Antonio. 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.

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved. In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.

What is integrity?, April 30, 2018

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

Last week we finished with “The Story” as we explored God’s plan to restore us to that face to face relationship he enjoyed with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden before their act of disobedience that banished them from that paradise. God has been working ever since to bring us back to him and to teach us to live in community with each other and with him so we might share eternity with him in a new paradise he has created for all who follow him.

Well, as we start something new this week, I thought about a devotional series I read a few weeks ago on integrity. That’s really what God wants from us. To have integrity. To be genuine with him. But in our society today, I’m not sure we even know what integrity means anymore, much less practice it. So I want to take the next few weeks and explore what it means for us to have integrity.

Let’s start with David. He declared in Psalms 25:21, “May integrity and uprightness protect me, because my hope, Lord is in you.” If his understanding of integrity is such that it would protect him from something when he was running for his life from Saul’s army, then I’d like to figure out what that integrity is because I sure need some protecting in this day and age. Satan is alive and well and wants to destroy my soul. Just like he wants to destroy yours. So what is integrity, then.

The dictionary says integrity is, the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles; moral uprightness. Another definition is, the state of being whole and undivided. There are a lot of synonyms we could throw around to maybe help us get a handle on the word. Some like: honesty, probity, rectitude, honor, good character, principle(s), ethics, morals, righteousness, morality, virtue, decency, fairness, scrupulousness, sincerity, truthfulness, trustworthiness. Or from that second definition things like unity, unification, coherence, cohesion, togetherness, solidarity.

All of those sound good, but I’m not sure that’s where David was going with this when he was talking to God about integrity. We too often fit our good character, principles, ethics, morals, and virtue into our societal code which may or may not be what God is looking for in us. I’m sure you’ve heard the term situational ethics thrown about more than once in the past few years. What’s right depends on the current situation and circumstances. Well, does it? Is God that wishy-washy in his behavior that he changes his rules to fit our circumstances? I doubt it.

David, in our eyes, had every right to defend himself against his accuser, Saul. He was falsely accused. God had already had Samuel anoint him as the next king to sit on the throne of Israel. Samuel had given Saul his pink slip from God. And twice God put Saul into David’s hands, when he relieved himself in a cave and David was close enough to cut off part of his coat. And against when the whole came around Saul slept and David went into the camp and took Saul’s sword and spear. But David was a man of integrity, not someone who adhered to the idea of situational ethics. His integrity kept him on the run instead of in the comfort of the palace. Was that protection? David thought so.

Does fair and decent fit the bill? It depends on who you talk to. Who is to say what is fair. Job didn’t think life was fair when he lost everything but his nagging wife and three friends that told him what a sinner he was. We look at the narrative and look up at God and say the same thing. “God, how is it fair to bring such calamity on such a righteous man?”

Was it fair for the Europeans to blast their way through the native Indians, cut down their forests, deplete their hunting grounds, pollute their rivers and streams, and turn this continent into a new country? They certainly didn’t think so, but their European victors did. And if history had not played out as it did, what would our country be like today? Would we still be living in animal skin huts and trying to forage for deer and buffalo meat for supper? Probably not, but the country would be far different since the Europeans would not have had the land to forge the pioneer spirit that has forged us into the nation we have become. Has it been fair to every group? No. Will it ever be? Not as long as people are involved in the process.

Marx and Stalin thought they could make a fair system work under communist rule. It lasted about 70 years until those that worked hard so that the fruits of their labor went to those that chose not to work so hard. Then no one worked very hard and the Soviet Union finally collapsed. Socialism and communism only work if every single person in the system are highly motivated to give their best to the system. We know humans don’t operate that way because we are inherently selfish. So governments of any flavor are never fair because people are not fair.

Well, what about that decency rule? If you’re old enough, you remember the National Geographic documentaries of newly found tribes in Africa and South America where no one wore clothes. Were they decent? To them they were. To us they were far from it. But even in our society, we have extreme views of what people call decent. Laws can’t dictate decency, though we try. So decency is out of the question if we want to try to define integrity by that norm.

How about ethics? I’ve been to countries where it was impolite to tell a guest something that might hurt their feelings, so lying was okay if you knew the facts would be disturbing. Were they ethical? In their society, absolutely. For me and my colleagues, we were more than frustrated when the facts were discovered later. But as guests around their table drinking tea, everyone needed to be all smiles so were we told what they thought we wanted to hear. Were they wrong? To them it was quite ethical. We were the crazy Americans with stupid ideas.

I could go on down the list of synonyms and pick them apart and find that none of them describe what David saw as protection against his enemies. But I think the second definition will give us some clues about the integrity David and God have in mind when we think about integrity in spiritual terms. Think back on our journey through God’s word over the last eight months. In God’s upper story, he desperately wants to have us return to him in an intimate face to face relationship. He wants to restore that oneness Adam and Eve enjoyed before the fall.

So what was that second definition again? Integrity is the state of being whole and undivided. But when Adam and Eve were banished from the garden, a piece of them went missing – the presence of God in their life. They walked with him face to face until they disobeyed. But because of their disobedience, God’s truth, his integrity, his holiness demanded their sin be put away from his presence. So they lost his presence in their life.

Jesus talked over and over about unity among the disciples. He talked about how others would know they belonged to him, by their love for each other. He talked about the oneness between him and the father and that same unity could happen between him and us. Jesus mentored his disciples on togetherness. How to break bread with each other and share their faith. He taught them to overlook that faults and dwell on the spirit that God forgives when we ask him. Jesus talked about a kingdom that is open to anyone who believes. That kingdom is not bound by race or color or nationality. It is bound by faith. By unity. By oneness. Cohesiveness in believing in the one name above all names. Jesus, the Christ, our Savior and Redeemer.

I kind of think if David wrote this psalm in twenty-first century vernacular he might say, “God, I’m going to do my best to stick to you like glue. I know that if I do that, you’ve got my back. I don’t need to worry about the things that go on around me because you’re God and I’m not. But together I can make it because you can’t fail. I can’t make it on my own, but my hope, my peace, my joy, my comfort, my assurance is in the one I put my faith in and that’s you, Lord.”

Integrity. It’s not about me or what I think is right or wrong. It’s not about what society thinks is right or wrong, good or bad. I’m not even sure it’s about any in that long list of synonyms that focus on personal character. I think integrity has everything to do with how close I can squeeze up to God and let him carry me through this life wherever he wants to take me. Doing with me whatever he wants to do. Teaching me whatever he wants to teach me. Molding me into the likeness of his son day by day as I obey his voice as he whispers in my ear.

How do you define integrity?

If today’s devotional strikes a cord in you about your personal integrity as it relates to your nearness to God, what will you do about it today? Tomorrow and the next day?

How can you show integrity where you live?

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 about The Story and our part in it. 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.

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Cutting through the kudzu! (John 15:5-8), April 5, 2017

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Today’s Podcast

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Thanks for joining me today for “A Little Walk with God.” I’m your host Richard Agee.
If you’ve never tried to rid your property of kudzu, you’ve missed an extraordinary experience…not! Jesus’ words, didn’t have to bring back that memory today, but He did.
Scripture
1. John 15:5-8
2. Jesus: I am the vine, and you are the branches. If you abide in Me and I in you, you will bear great fruit. Without Me, you will accomplish nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is like a branch that is tossed out and shrivels up and is later gathered to be tossed into the fire to burn. If you abide in Me and My voice abides in you, anything you ask will come to pass for you. Your abundant growth and your faithfulness as My followers will bring glory to the Father.
Devotional
1. In 1876, a simple Japanese vine was introduced into the United States at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia as a decorative plant for ground cover. In the 1930’s and 40’s agriculturalists recommended it in dustbowl areas to stop soil erosion.
  1. Extremely invasive plant
  2. Nodes on the vines stick to anything with any amount of soil or potential source of nutrients
    1. Soil
    2. Trees
    3. Buildings
    4. Almost any immobile object
    5. Just stand still long enough
2. Removal is difficult
  1. Mow close to the ground and scrape out the crown root
  2. Burn off the plant then scrape out the crown root
  3. Let goats or sheep overgraze to eat the crown root
  4. Use herbicides to kill the crown root
3. So why do I talk about kudzu when Jesus talks about being part of the vine or else you will be tossed aside and burned in the fire?
  1. Kudzu is everywhere in the southeast, like sin
  2. Kudzu tries to invade any field or yard or property that isn’t attended on a regular basis
  3. Like sin, until you do something with the crown root, it is likely to come back again and again
  4. Kudzu is a nuisance, not a help
  5. Removed and burned, destroyed
4. God in us empowers us to make right choices
  1. Do we always listen and obey
  2. We get better at it as we stay connected to the vine and draw from Him
  3. We hear His voice more clearly when we stay connected
  4. The closer we stay to Him, the more nodes and roots He removes so we can clear away the plants, the ungodlike characteristics more easily
  5. He wants to perfect us each day as we will let Him
If you want to learn more about my church, you can find us at SAF.church. If you like the devotional, share it with someone. If you don’t, tell me. I hope you’ll join me again tomorrow for “A Little Walk with God.”

Do you need a trim or a pruning? (John 15:1-4), April 4, 2017

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Today’s Podcast

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Thanks for joining me today for “A Little Walk with God.” I’m your host Richard Agee.
I’m not a gardener as anyone who knows me can attest. But I do know the difference between trimming and pruning. We don’t mind trims, but most of us don’t care for pruning very much.
Scripture
1. John 15:1-4
2. Jesus: I am the true vine, and My Father is the keeper of the vineyard. My Father examines every branch in Me and cuts away those who do not bear fruit. He leaves those bearing fruit and carefully prunes them so that they will bear more fruit; already you are clean because you have heard My voice. Abide in Me, and I will abide in you. A branch cannot bear fruit if it is disconnected from the vine, and neither will you if you are not connected to Me.
Devotional
1. I don’t have any fruit trees in my yard anymore. I do have several bush and I try to keep them reasonably shaped so I don’t get nastygrams from my Home Owners’ Association.
  1. Want to keep them all about the same size and shape
  2. Don’t want sprigs poking out everywhere
  3. Want them to be need and attractive from the street
  4. I trim them occasionally to make them look okay when driving past the house
  5. I have never pruned them
2. Took a trip to Disneyland a few years ago
  1. Bushes formed in the shape of cartoon characters
  2. Takes careful pruning to ensure each branch retains the right amount of foliage and grows in the right direction to form those familiar shapes
  3. Pruning takes away what might look like good healthy branches, but they are not contributing to the purpose for which the gardener planted that particular bush
  4. Looks good, but the wrong direction, the wrong growth, non-contributor to the cause
3. Fruit trees are like that
  1. Orchards filled with trees that are not very tall
  2. Produce extraordinary crops
  3. Every branch that doesn’t produce fruit is removed
  4. It doesn’t contribute to the purpose for which the tree was planted
  5. Just soaks up nutrients that the fruit bearing branches could use to produce more and better fruit
4. Jesus wants to do that for us
  1. Prunes us
  2. Wants to take away everything that doesn’t produce fruit
  3. Wants to remove the things that just soak up time and energy with no purpose
  4. Wants to transform us into His likeness
5. Doesn’t want to just trim the edges to make us look good from a distance; wants to prune us to make us better, more productive in His kingdom
If you want to learn more about my church, you can find us at SAF.church. If you like the devotional, share it with someone. If you don’t, tell me. I hope you’ll join me again tomorrow for “A Little Walk with God.”

Credentials are important (Luke 6:46-48) October 9, 2016

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Hebrews 8-10

see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)

Today’s Devotional

Luke 6:46-49
Jesus: What good is it to mouth the words, “Lord! Lord!” if you don’t live by My teachings? What matters is that you come to Me, hear My words, and actually live by them. If you do that, you’ll be like the man who wanted to build a sturdy house. He dug down deep and anchored his foundation to solid rock. During a violent storm, the floodwaters slammed against the house, but they couldn’t shake it because of solid craftsmanship.
It was built upon rock.
On the other hand, if you hear My teachings but don’t put them into practice, you’ll be like the careless builder who didn’t bother to build a foundation under his house. The floodwaters barely touched that pathetic house, and it crashed in ruins in the mud.

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

As you listen to this podcast or read this blog, you might also be considering the aftermath of some of the damage hurricane Matthew caused as it made its way across the mid-Atlantic and wreaked havoc on Haiti, the Bahamas, and the southern coastal areas of the United States. As I watched with you the news reports of the devastation of the storm, I thought about these verses. They came at an opportune time to use hurricane Matthew as a good illustration.

Several of my friends retired to Florida after their service in the military. Some took positions in various companies related to government work dealing with digital training or South American relations or medical insurance support or a variety of other positions that took them to the Sunshine State. They enjoy the beach, the warm weather, the predictable weather. They don’t enjoy the autumn storms which bring hurricanes into their area.

Most bought or built homes guaranteed to withstand the storms, though. They have a piece of paper in their hand that tells them the size hurricane their house can handle before pieces of the structure begin to crumble under the onslaught of the powerful forces of the winds and waves that accompany those storms. But most of them are somewhat at the mercy of their builder since they are not construction engineers. I’m sure as some of them escape Matthew, they hope the guarantee on their piece of paper holds true.

For many other home owners on the Florida coast, they have no such assurances that their homes will withstand a hurricane of any force. They just hope it was built solidly and will not topple when the winds blow and the rains fall as they will over the next several days. With a category 4 hurricane, it will be pretty easy to see if the builders live up to their side of the bargain. 100+ mile per hour winds have a tendency to test the strongest structures and those that are not built to stand the test just don’t stand. They blow away in the wind.

Those houses that stand have foundations that go deep into the bedrock below the sand. The builders that have good reputations are well known to the residents in the area and give good recommendations to those who come into the area and are looking for good builders. Those who do shoddy work are also well known to residents in the area and also get reports for anyone who will take the time to search out reputable builders. It isn’t hard to determine who the good and bad builders are. The community will let you know.

The same is true of the people of good and bad character in a community. You know the people with shady character and those you trust. You know the ones with a character that stands the test of time and stress and success and loss and crisis. You know those who stand out in your community, good and bad.

But there is only One who teaches from a foundation that is absolutely rock solid. In fact, He made the rock He stands on. He is the foundation. He is the singular point from which everything else begins and ends. So when we build our character, our faith, our purpose, our very being on Him, we get it right. We can stand through the toughest storms life can throw at us, know that we will not just survive the storm, but come through it victoriously.

Some of the Florida and Georgia coast builders who put their names on their creations will lose a ton of money and their reputations as a result of the storm crushing the buildings they said would stand the stress of the winds and waves. Those who put their trust in those false credentials will find their houses in rubble or with roofs torn off and the contents spread over miles of territory. In building homes and other structures in hurricane prone areas, it pays to do your homework on the builder and know their reputation before the first shovel goes into the ground and the first form for the foundation is erected.

For building your character, it is equally important to know the reputation of your teacher. To know the one who give you instruction has the credentials to lead you down the path you need to go for a sound and secure future, not just for the few years you have in this physical space and time, but for eternity. My teacher inspired the book that has been the best seller in almost every language for centuries. I hope you’ve adopted Him as your instructor, too.

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.

Forgiveness, a tall order (Mark 11:22-26) August 30, 2016

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – 1 Chronicles 15-19

see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)

Today’s Devotional

Mark 11:22-26
Jesus: Trust in God. If you do, honestly, you can say to this mountain, “Mountain, uproot yourself and throw yourself into the sea.” If you don’t doubt, but trust that what you say will take place, then it will happen. So listen to what I’m saying: Whatever you pray for or ask from God, believe that you’ll receive it and you will. When you pray, if you remember anyone who has wronged you, forgive him so that God above can also forgive you. If you don’t forgive others, don’t expect God’s forgiveness.

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

Sometimes Jesus’ words are just hard, aren’t they? Sometimes I just want to overlook the things He says and pretend He really didn’t mean them. Like these last words. “…if you remember anyone who has wronged you, forgive him so that God above can also forgive you. If you don’t forgive others, don’t expect God’s forgiveness.” I would just as soon not hear those words. I would like Jesus to just forget to tell us that and tell us that God will just forgive us and forget the rest.

Unfortunately, He didn’t. He said it. He made it pretty clear. If you don’t forgive others, don’t expect forgiveness from God. He gave us a few illustrations to make it clear. The story of the king that forgave the servant who owed him 500 years wages and then the servant failed to forgive a fellow servant a few day’s wages. Remember what happened to him? He and his family were thrown into jail until he could pay it all back. That meant forever.

Jesus meant what He said. Forgiveness is why He came to earth. That’s why He put on human flesh and spent thirty years walking beside us suffering the same things we suffer. That’s why He worked and toiled and preached and taught. That’s why He took on the Pharisees and the scribes to help us understand what God really wants us to know about having a relationship with Him. That’s why Jesus took all the ridicule from the religious leaders. That’s why He endured the cross. It was all about forgiveness.

He came to teach us about both God’s forgiveness and to forgive each other. The power of forgiveness is incredible. It is a god-like power. It does something for the person that forgives that no other physical or psychological action can do for you. It changes you attitude toward other people.

Does forgiveness mean you act as if nothing ever happened? Sometimes, but not always. There are consequences for someones actions. Those consequences are borne by the person who commits sinful and wicked acts. It would be negligence to put an embezzler in charge of your treasury. But you can still forgive that embezzler for his crimes. He may need to make restitution and even go to jail as a consequence of his crimes. That’s not your fault, it’s his. But you can forgive.

So what’s the difference? Forgiveness doesn’t excuse bad behavior. It doesn’t condone wickedness. It doesn’t let people off the hook. But forgiveness stops the attitude that seeks revenge. It stops the attitude that wants harm to come to the person who wronged you. It stops that, “I’ll get even with her, if it’s the last thing I do, feeling.” You see, all of those characteristics breed bitterness and hatred. And those are not compatible with the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus never condoned bad behavior. But He forgave. He never condoned evil. But He forgave. He didn’t let people off the hook to continue to do as they pleased. But He forgave their past. Jesus never held a grudge. He never sought vengance. He never tried to get even. He never wanted to hurt anyone.

Instead, Jesus forgave. Even when He hung on the cross as an innocent sacrifice for all the sins of all the people who ever lived and would ever live, Jesus forgave.

When we forgive, the anguish of how to get back goes away. When we forgive, the plotting for justice disappears. When we forgive, the bitterness because of circumstances melts from our hearts. We can live in the warmth of God’s love and mercy and grace. We can know He forgives and so we can forgive, too.

And what if we don’t forgive? What if we hang on to that bitterness and seek for revenge or justice or quid pro quo for those who do us wrong? Jesus says we should not expect God to forgive us if we do not forgive others. Elsewhere He said God forgive us in the same measure, to the same degree that we forgive others.

That’s a pretty scary thought if you hold ill will against someone. I don’t want God to bring that up at the judgment one day. I’d like to know that my slate is clean and I’m forgiven. But Jesus tells me that the only way that happens if for me to also forgive. It’s a tall order, but not an impossible one when He help us.

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.

What should we look like? (Matthew 11:16-19) March 9, 2017

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Psalms 27-29

see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)

Today’s Devotional

Matthew 11:16-19
Jesus: What is this generation like? You are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling out, “When we played the flute, you did not dance; and when we sang a dirge, you did not mourn.” What I mean is this: When John came, he dressed in the clothes of a prophet, and he did not eat and drink like others but lived on honey and wild locusts. And people wondered if he was crazy, if he had been possessed by a demon. Then the Son of Man appeared—He didn’t fast, as John had, but ate with sinners and drank wine. And the people said, “This man is a glutton! He’s a drunk! And He hangs around with tax collectors and sinners, to boot.” Well, Wisdom will be vindicated by her actions—not by your opinions.

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

What do you look for in a Christian, a real follower of Christ? Many today look for an always somber, downcast demeanor, someone who looks like they have a perpetual case of indigestion or who lost their kitten and can’t find it. Some think Christians must always be frowning and wearing this mask of sorrow and grief because of the ills and evils present in the world today. Perhaps that’s the picture Jesus painted of John in the wilderness. His was not an easy life wearing camel skins and eating locust and the honey he could find in the trees and bushes in the wild.

But Jesus came and He wasn’t like John. He didn’t stay in the wilderness eating locust and wearing the skins of animals He killed in the brush to survive. He didn’t walk around with a sour disposition preaching doom and gloom. He didn’t keep His head bowed and His eyes on the ground groveling in false humility. Jesus loved people and embraced life everywhere He went. If He didn’t, I don’t think He would have gathered crowds of thousands around Him when He spoke. Think about the charasmatic speakers you see today. There are few that can surround themselves with thousands of listeners. And today they have the advantages of multimedia advertising to help draw their crowds. Jesus had word of mouth to let people know He was coming, yet scripture records events in which He spoke to multitudes…often.

So what should Christians look like and act like? Jesus had fun. He ate with prostitutes, tax collectors, who everyone considered thieves, sinners. He conversed with outsiders, the most poverty stricken who sometimes did unscrupulous things to survive. He ate with the wealthy who sometimes did unscrupulous things to gain and maintain their wealth. How could He associate with such people if He were the Son of God? In those settings, too, He had a crowd around Him. He laughed, He smiled, He told stories, He listened to other people’s stories. He enjoyed life.

The religious leaders of the day, thought Jesus should fit their mold. They thought He should look and act a certain way. They thought He should fit into their picture of what a righteous person looks like. The problem with their thought process, though, they didn’t know what righteousness was. They assumed they were righteous because they kept the rules. But we cannot be righteous just by keeping rules. Remember what Paul says? “We have all sinned. All our attempts to reach out to God have failed.” We cannot become righteous through our actions. It’s not possible.

But God made it possible for us to wear His righteousness. We can wear His likeness and when we do, we won’t look like the crowd. We won’t act like the crowd. We won’t worry about what others say about our actions, either. We will do what Christ would do because He will be directing our actions. We will act like He acts and look like He looks because we will be more interested in pleasing Him than pleasing others. We will want to go where He would go and say what He would say. We will be His emissaries and represent Him in all we do.

So what should Christians look like and act like? Sometimes we will look and act like John the Baptist. Sometimes it’s necessary to be the prophet with the message of repentance. When Christ asks us to take on that role, it isn’t always pleasant and our countenance will probably reflect the difficulty of confronting others with the truth of the gospel. We will sorrow for those who refuse to listen and continue on their selfish path to ultimate destruction and eternal punishment.

But most often, we will be like Jesus was as He drew crowds around Him. Welcoming the children. Singing. Laughing. Telling stories of God’s grace and goodness. Helping others understand the good news of God’s salvation and His empowerment in our life, now, in this place, in the middle of all the evil that surrounds us. Our lives as Christians today are certainly no more difficult than that of the early followers of Jesus. In fact, we probably have life too easy. Maybe a little persecution would help us understand just how much we need to rely on Him instead of ourselves.

The leaders in His day couldn’t understand how Jesus fit it to their religious formula. Because He didn’t. He didn’t come to uphold or create a religion but to create relationships. That’s what God wants from us. So He was just Jesus, the Son of Man, the Son of God. What should we look and act like as His followers? Him, that’s all.

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.

Will your neighbors point to your house? (Matthew 10:11-15) February 26, 2016

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Isaiah 45-50

see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)

Today’s Devotional

Matthew 10:11-15
Jesus:When you enter a town or village, look for someone who is trustworthy and stay at his house as long as you are visiting that town. When you enter this home, greet the household kindly. And if the home is indeed trustworthy, let your blessing of peace rest upon it; if not, keep your blessing to yourself. If someone is inhospitable to you or refuses to listen to your testimony, leave that house or town and shake the dust from your feet. This is the truth: Sodom and Gomorrah, those ancient pits of inhospitality, will fare better on judgment day than towns who ignore you tomorrow or next week.

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

This is probably one of those passages you just run through real fast to get to the next one, isn’t it? Jesus already said stay with someone in the villages you enter. So it makes sense to thank them for their hospitality before you leave. We just jump right over these verses, though, without really thinking much about them in the scheme of what Jesus tells His disciples to do. Let me read it to you again and listen carefully to the authority Jesus gives His disciples.

“When you enter a town or village, look for someone who is trustworthy and stay at his house as long as you are visiting that town. When you enter this home, greet the household kindly. And if the home is indeed trustworthy, let your blessing of peace rest upon it; if not, keep your blessing to yourself. If someone is inhospitable to you or refuses to listen to your testimony, leave that house or town and shake the dust from your feet. This si the truth: Sodom and Gomorrah, those ancient pits of inhospitality, will fare better on judgment day than towns who ignore you tomorrow or next week.”

Wow! These guys are to go to the town square and figure out from the average citizen who is trustworthy in the village. Go to that person’s house, knock on the door, invite themselves in, and stay there as long as they stay in that village. Now what do you think about their mission? I thought yesterday bit off more than we could chew, but this is really radical! But those were Jesus’ words not mine or yours. Notice Jesus said, “When you enter this home.” Not “if you enter this home.” He didn’t expect His disciples to get an invitation from the villagers, He expected them to go to the most trustworthy person according to the standards of those in the village. When they arrive at that person’s house, greet them kindly, and tell them their taking up residence in their house as long as they stay in that village.

So how long would that be if someone came to your door? “Hi, I’m Simon. I work for this new preacher in town. I’ve come to stay with you until I decide to leave your city. By the way, I don’t have any money or extra clothes or bedding or anything except what you see on my back. So I expect you to take care of me as long as I’m in town.”

Reminds me of the popular television show, “What Would You Do?” To be honest, I’d probably tell him to take a hike. Am I going to let a stranger stay in my house indefinitely? It will take a lot of nudging, well to be honest it will take a 2×4 across the back of the head from the Holy Spirit to help me know I’m really supposed to do something like that. Someone I know, sure. Someone referred to me, probably. A stranger off the street…these days? Hmmmm.

Listen to their authority, with rewards and punishments, though! If hospitable, leave your blessing of peace. If inhospitable, shake the dust off your feet and leave. They will be judged more harshly than Sodom and Gomorrah. Remember those two cities? Fire and brimstone falling out of the sky until no trace of those two cities exist today! That’s authority for deciding whether a host is good to your or not.

So what? What are we supposed to do today? Do we take in every stranger off the street? Do we give up our homes to anyone who comes around? I think the answer is maybe. The answer is do what God tells you to do. I’m pretty sure there was a reason Jesus sent His disciples to the most trustworthy person in each village. When Jesus’ disciples showed up, these trustworthy men saw something in them that was different than the people that surrounded him everyday. He saw the same trustworthiness and integrity he exercised in his daily life. He saw in these disciples’ eyes the same kindness he showed to others every day. It was not hard for him to extend his personal grace and hospitality to these itinerant preachers sharing the good news of the kingdom of heaven.

But to see trustworthiness, we must be trustworthy. To see kindness, honesty, integrity in the core of a person in that first meeting, in must be in your core. To discern the makeup of the person in front of you, you must have those qualities deep inside you. Only then will you know what that inner peace and confidence looks and feels like when you meet another of your kind. To be one of those to whom Jesus sent the disciples, your actions must demonstrate who you are on the inside by consistent behavior day in and day out through every situation that arises. Then others will call you trustworthy, a person of integrity, honest, loyal, a person of great character.

It was probably easy for the villagers to point the disciples to the right house in every place they visited. So the big question as Christians in a sin-filled world, where will people in your neighborhood point if a disciple asks the question, “Can you point me to the most trustworthy person around here?”

Will they point to your house?

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.