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God is Love, May 3, 2021

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

Well, the November elections are well behind us. A new president took office months ago. But our nation hasn’t changed much. We still feel the effects of the divide that has been developing for a couple of decades. Party politics, escalated by the algorithms that social media shove to us to keep us addicted to what we want to hear, continue to grow on a hyperbolic curve.

We continue to have the growing concern about racism or reverse racism or whether there is any racism and what constitutes racism. Is it against color? Ethnic origin? National allegiance? Religious affiliation? Political ideology? Socioeconomic status? It seems all of those get stirred into the mix whenever racism starts rearing its head in some circles.

The “woke” movement and “cancel” culture are equally divisive. Somehow, we forget our entire history, good and bad, brought us to the place we are today. Right or wrong, the past is what it is and cannot be changed. It is history. Are we proud of our history? Some of it should be rightfully proud. Some of it we should fall on our knees in disgust and ask God forgiveness for our people as Daniel did. It doesn’t change the facts of history, but it changes us.

Then we see what is still happening with the pandemic. India seems to be the disease’s principal target as I write these words, although the United States still has 32.5 million positive cases and more than half a million deaths in its wake so far. And the number of new cases has remained relatively flat since mid-February despite more than half the population receiving at least one dose of the miracle vaccine to stop the spread. Chances are we will take another booster in six months or at least twelve months because of the mutations the virus undergoes with each generation of its spread.

It appears masks will become the new global fashion statement. The virus’s secondary and long-term effects on the body are still being discovered. It is a vicious disease. We also don’t yet know the long-term effects of the vaccines we take or the effects of the cures to get us out of intensive care wards. We know those are better than the days of suffering those with the disease endured with death knocking at the door, but we don’t yet know what they are only a year into the process. So, what do we do?

Responses look typical from where I sit. Some still isolate themselves, daring to go out only for necessities and emergencies. Businesses like DoorDash, Grubhub, and Uber capitalized on the isolation quickly delivering whatever you need – with the requisite fee and a tip, of course.

Others try to hoard supplies as if the apocalypse arrived and factories will close forever. When supplies get to needy areas, sometimes money makes a difference in how distributors handle those supplies. The wealthy somehow always seem to have enough, and the poor always seem to remain in need. We can examine the plight internationally and blame poor government, but we can look at home and see the same results. Our responses continue to divide us no matter how we try to come together over issues.

So, what do we do? As Christians, what is our role, and how should we respond to the mess we see around us on every front? Let me share from one of the readings this week, and I think it will speak for itself.

My dear friends, we must love each other. Love comes from God, and when we love each other, it shows that we have been given new life. We are now God’s children, and we know him. God is love, and anyone who doesn’t love others has never known him. God showed his love for us when he sent his only Son into the world to give us life. Real love isn’t our love for God, but his love for us. God sent his Son to be the sacrifice by which our sins are forgiven. Dear friends, since God loved us this much, we must love each other.

No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is truly in our hearts.

God has given us his Spirit. That is how we know that we are one with him, just as he is one with us. God sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. We saw his Son and are now telling others about him. God stays one with everyone who openly says that Jesus is the Son of God. That’s how we stay one with God and are sure that God loves us.

God is love. If we keep on loving others, we will stay one in our hearts with God, and he will stay one with us. If we truly love others and live as Christ did in this world, we won’t be worried about the day of judgment. A real love for others will chase those worries away. The thought of being punished is what makes us afraid. It shows that we have not really learned to love.

We love because God loved us first. But if we say we love God and don’t love each other, we are liars. We cannot see God. So how can we love God, if we don’t love the people we can see? The commandment that God has given us is: “Love God and love each other!” (1 John 4:7-21)

I grant you that it is hard to get through the rhetoric we hear on every front today. We get blasted by the far-right and the far-left with little sanity from either side. Both sides’ ideas begin to sound okay when all you hear is what they feed you, but when you really listen to what the other side says, you find both sides often want the same outcome. If we would remember that neither party is in control of the world, or the country, or much of anything really, we would start to learn to talk to each other and solve problems. Neither side has control because Jesus is King. The head of one party or the other might promise all kinds of things, but they have little control over what they can do once on their throne. Obstacles in their path blur their vision, cause them to stumble, and stop their plans. It happens to every leader except one – King Jesus. His plans will succeed.

We need to stop listening to the world’s rhetoric on both sides and spend time with the King of kings. Learn how he lived and interfaced with those around him. Figure out what he did and what he said to those who followed him. Listen to the words of his disciples, those who lived next to him for three years and saw the miracles he performed and the way he treated the fringes of society. He was and is the King of kings then and now. Most people in the world just haven’t acknowledged it yet. But it won’t be long until every knee bows before him.

Watch him. God is love, and his actions show us what love looks like, what God looks like in action. Jesus demonstrated the ultimate example of love for his followers and all humanity, taking on his shoulders the sins of all humankind and carrying them to the cross. That horizontal beam of the Roman symbol of agony and death should remind us of the love we should have for each other as Jesus showed us when he lived with us for those few years. He is our example.

Love is the characteristic that sets Jesus’ followers apart from the rest of the world. We genuinely care about others. During the final battles between Rome and Jerusalem, the Christians helped those left in the city flee. During the burning of Rome, it was the Christians who provided aid and shelter to those left homeless as they could. It was Christians who helped the plague-ridden victims in the middle ages. Christians come to the assistance of others because they care about their fellow man.

It doesn’t matter what color a person’s skin. God made all of us some shade of brown, from a pale tan to almost ebony, but when we compare our pigmentation, we all fall onto the brown side of the color wheel. We all look the same inside and react to drugs and treatments about the same way. Our limbs, organs, and brains work the same way. God made us much more alike than different if we will stop to examine humanity. And if God made us all, it means we must love our brothers and sisters. As John tells us, “We love because God loved us first. But if we say we love God and don’t love each other, we are liars. We cannot see God. So how can we love God, if we don’t love the people we can see? The commandment that God has given us is: “Love God and love each other!”

Now, go and demonstrate the love of God where you are, show others who the God of creation is by his Spirit living through you.

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

You can love with his help, May 20, 2019

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

All you need is love (Luke 10:26-28) October 28, 2016

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Zephaniah

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

Today’s Devotional

Luke 10:26-28
Jesus (answering with a question): What is written in the Hebrew Scriptures? How do you interpret their answer to your question?
Scholar: You shall love—“love the Eternal One your God with everything you have: all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind”—and “love your neighbor as yourself.”
Jesus: Perfect. Your answer is correct. Follow these commands and you will live.

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

A couple of weeks ago we held a community event at our church. We had a pumpkin patch and bounce house for the kids. A petting zoo and hay ride. Some of the members organized games and face painting and we had some gourmet food trucks that provided goodies throughout the day. But the big event was the antique car show. A couple of the local car clubs brought their cars to show off. I was roped into the role of DJ for the day.

Until the pastor asked me to fill in that role, I had almost forgotten the times one of the local stations in the town I went to high school let me run a show for them once a week as part of preparing for extemporaneous speaking competitions, debate, and other speaking contests I participated in during my high school days. It wasn’t much of an audience, but I did get to spin a few records. Well…I plugged in a few 8-tracks and had to make sure the commercials ran on time, grabbed the news and weather off the teletype and made sure I could read through all the typos that appeared in the faded ink on that flimsy yellow paper.

As the DJ in this particular community event, though, I decided to use a fifties theme since we were using the car show as the major draw for the community. So I pushed the top 100 hits from the 50s all afternoon and everyone had a blast listening to those old songs. At least they were polite enough to tell me they enjoyed the music. Based on their expressions and activity, I’m pretty sure their compliments were true.

So, that brings me to today’s verses, they reminded me of a Beatles’ song made popular in the 60s. You probably remember the words to the chorus. They go like this:

All you need is love
All you need is love
All you need is love, love
Love is all you need

The Beatles probably weren’t thinking about agape kind of love, God’s unconditional love, but those words are true. We just can’t seem to get them right. We try to put other stuff in there instead of loving God and loving others and think that’s what’s necessary to please God. It’s not. The scholar who came to Jesus seeking information about the greatest commandment got it right. In Matthew, Jesus is said to have summed up the law in those two statements, love God and love your neighbor. He went on to tell us that all the other commands, every other law is built on those two commands.

If you think about it, it’s true. If we love God, we will do nothing that would cause Him harm or pain or displeasure. We would obey Him in every respect. We would worship Him for who He is and give Him our whole self to do with us whatever He chooses. We would never say no to one of His instructions to us if we really love Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength.

And what about loving our neighbor? Wouldn’t we do everything we could to advance our neighbor if we loved him? Wouldn’t we always say kind words about him? Wouldn’t we help whenever we could? Wouldn’t we be a listening ear and a helping hand when she needed one? Wouldn’t we be the very best friend we could be if we really loved our neighbor with God’s unconditional love? Wouldn’t we share the story of God’s salvation to our neighbor is our neighbor isn’t a Christian so that he would know God’s grace and saving mercy so that he would not find himself facing judgment without hope? If we really loved our neighbor wouldn’t we do everything we could to introduce her to the Savior so she could know the peace and joy that comes from serving Him?

Isn’t that what love is all about? Isn’t love about giving it away and not about trying to get it from others? At least that’s what Jesus seemed to teach us about God’s love. Yep, the words of the song are right when you talk about the right kind of unconditional agape love that God can put in our hearts. All you need is love. Love is all you need. Sometimes it’s a little hard to find these days, but you can share it. You can plant the seeds of God’s love around you and who knows, you might grow a bumper crop in the neighborhood where you live. Give it a try. It certainly won’t hurt anyone to love them. And it might make a huge difference in their eternity.

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.