Tag Archives: commands

God’s Covenants, March 1, 2021

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

The season of Lent includes several important points for us to consider as we journey through those 40 days leading up to Easter. Initially, baptismal candidates used the time to go through a rigorous catechism to ensure they knew what it meant to take on the title Christian in a pagan world. Church membership didn’t mean just putting your name on a roll and attending every once in a while or giving a few dollars to keep the lights burning. Becoming a member of this band of Jesus followers meant the possibility of giving up everything, including your life. You might lose your job, your possessions, family and friends, everything. As Jesus told his disciples, the world would hate them because of the message they lived before others. Lent, then, allowed these new converts to make sure they believed what they believed and knew what it meant.

Over time, we transferred Lent as a preparation for baptism and church membership to prepare for Easter, something the early church never did because every Sunday they celebrated Easter. That’s why the early Christians celebrated and worshiped on Sunday, the first day of the week when the resurrected Jesus appeared to Mary and his disciples after his crucifixion for the first time. We seem to have forgotten much of what the early church meant by their early baptism practices, Lent, even the meaning of Easter and Sunday. But Lent is in every respect a time of preparation, a time for self-examination and meditation on what God did for us on the cross.

The cross fulfilled his last great covenant with humanity. God made covenants with many throughout the Old Testament. They begin with Adam. He placed him in the garden and gave him dominion over his creation, granting him life for as long as he obeyed a straightforward command. Don’t eat from the tree in the center of the garden. Adam failed the test, and the curse of death fell upon all creation. God gave Noah a covenant and sealed it with a rainbow. He gave Abraham and David and Solomon covenants. Throughout the Old Testament, we read repeatedly covenants God made with individuals and with his chosen people.

God’s covenants have some interesting characteristics, however. His covenants are extraordinarily one-sided. God does most of the work. Covenants today would be called contracts in which each party commits to providing some service to the other party. But in God’s covenants, invariably, God commits himself to do everything except one small item. He calls the other party to obey him. Usually, that’s the sum total of what he asks. That was all he asked of Adam, Noah, Abraham, David, Solomon, Moses, Israel, and the list goes on. His covenants ask for obedience. Just listen and do what he asks. And usually, his rules are not hard. Don’t murder – not so hard. Don’t steal – we can do that. Don’t commit adultery – it seems like our culture leaves that out a lot, but if we control our appetites, we can do that without much effort. Don’t lie – it’s a lot easier to tell the truth, so you don’t have to remember who you told what lie. Don’t covet – there’s that appetite again, but it’s really about being okay with what someone else has. If we do those, it’s easier to have no other God’s before Yahweh, or not to have any images, things we’ve created to take his place, or to take his name in vain, or to set aside time to worship him. When we do all that, honoring parents is easy. And Jesus put it together in two simple commands: Love God; Love others.

So, to sum up God’s covenants, he does everything for us to succeed in his economy. He takes care of our needs, not necessarily our wants. He adopts us into his royal family and makes us part of his kingdom. God renews our humanity as he designed it. And all we need to do is love him and love others. He takes care of everything else. That should sell better than the Gansu knife. But it doesn’t because we think we know more than God. Take a look at God’s covenant with Abraham, for example.

When Abram was ninety-nine years old, Yahweh appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty. Walk before me and be blameless. I will make my covenant between me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly.”

Abram fell on his face. God talked with him, saying, “As for me, behold, my covenant is with you. You will be the father of a multitude of nations. Your name will no more be called Abram, but your name will be Abraham; for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make nations of you. Kings will come out of you. I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God to you and to your offspring after you.

God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but her name shall be Sarah. I will bless her, and moreover I will give you a son by her. Yes, I will bless her, and she will be a mother of nations. Kings of peoples will come from her.” (Genesis 17:1-7;15-16 WEB)

How do we get around our obstinance and worldly attractions? Lent is a good start. Paul tells us in Philippians to think about “whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, excellent, or praiseworthy.” (Philippians 4:8 NIV) The covenant of the cross surely meets that criteria and should be in our thoughts consistently during Lent. Think about what comes from Jesus’ sacrifice – forgiveness, fellowship, adoption, inner peace, eternal life. Meditate on these things and let God’s peace wash over you during Lent.

Jesus did it all for us. He gave his flesh and blood. He endured the agony of the cross, the ridicule, and humiliation from the crowd, even death at the hands of an angry mob. He did it all. And our part of the covenant he instituted on that last night with his disciples? Obey two commands. Love God and love others.

Lent – a time of preparation, self-examination, meditation. Think back to the early church and what it meant to new believers. True believers may not be far from going underground again in this country as Christians are in many countries around the world. It’s time we stop and contemplate what it means to follow Christ. Will you follow him if it means your job, your property, your possessions, your family, your life? Will you pay the price in suffering when you walk in the footsteps of the suffering servant? Those were questions the early church faced. Will we see them in this country? Maybe. Spiritual warfare continues in realms we do not understand. Lent offers a time to reflect. Take the time as another glorious Easter celebration approaches.

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

Scriptures marked WEB are taken from the THE WORLD ENGLISH BIBLE (WEB): WORLD ENGLISH BIBLE, public domain.

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

Love the Underdog, November 4, 2019

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

I like stories where the underdog wins. Maybe it’s because I’ve never been much of an athlete. In Junior High, I tried out for the football team and discovered with my size at the time, pain and I didn’t work well together. I was a cornerback, and everyone who came at me weighed at least 30 pounds more than me. I saw a lot of blue skies that year while lying on my back. Did I tell you I’m not fond of pain? This business of no pain, no gain, just doesn’t work for me. It seems pain is there to tell us something is wrong. We might be doing something stupid and need to stop.

I like it when the underdog wins. Whether in sports, business, or life. It’s good to see the guy you least expect to come out on top do just that occasionally. It helps us to know there is hope that any of us can make it. Underdog stories give us the energy and enthusiasm to keep on going when things look kind of bleak. They give us courage when we want to back away from some seemingly insurmountable obstacle in our path.

We find an underdog story told by Luke from some eyewitnesses that saw Jesus come to Jericho. In chapter 19 of the writings in his name, he shares the account in this way.

He [Jesus] entered Jericho and was passing through it. A man was there named Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was rich. He was trying to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was short in stature. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to see him, because he was going to pass that way.

When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down; for I must stay at your house today.”

So he hurried down and was happy to welcome him. All who saw it began to grumble and said, “He has gone to be the guest of one who is a sinner.”

Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, “Look, half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor; and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay back four times as much.”

Then Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.”

Zacchaeus would be called an underdog. No doubt about it. First, he was short. So short, he couldn’t see over the heads of the crowds gathered along the road, waiting to see Jesus. That meant he must find a way to maneuver through the mass or find a higher vantage point. Otherwise, the preacher everyone talked about would pass by without Zacchaeus seeing him.

Second, Zacchaeus held one of the most hated occupations in Israel. He collected taxes for Rome from his own people. And how did he earn his wages? From the taxes he collected. Zacchaeus added a little more to each Form 1040 to make sure he could pay his mortgage each month. Everyone knew the game. Tax collectors lived on the excess the received above that which Rome required. And that leads to the third problem for Zacchaeus.

The man was rich. In ancient times, Israel did reasonably well economically. Like any city, Jericho had its slums, its middle-class, and its wealthy. I picture Luke, a physician, one of the higher class in both our day and his, knew what rich looked like. Zacchaeus may have been Jericho’s poster child for the wealthy.

That meant no one was going to let him through. He would not push his way past that mob to see the man called Jesus. He’d have to find another way. So he did. Luke tells us he ran down the road and found a tree to climb. Picture in your mind this middle-aged man in flowing robes running down the street, kicking off his sandals, and climbing a tree. Zacchaeus probably put on a few extra pounds since buying food wouldn’t be a problem for him. So watch him in your mind’s eye pulling his rotund body up those limbs to find the right spot where the branches wouldn’t sag too far, but he’d get a good view of this miracle man.

Then imagine the surprise when Jesus stops under the tree. I expect most thought Jesus would ridicule this thief among them. He stole their money and gave it to their oppressors. They knew Jesus was about to let Zacchaeus have it. He preached righteousness and holiness, after all.

But that’s not what Jesus did. Luke says, “When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, ‘Zacchaeus, hurry and come down; for I must stay at your house today.'”

Stay at the house of the tax collector? Spend time with this thief? Make friends with someone who has tried his best to steal us blind through the years? Surely, not! But Jesus did. The crowd didn’t applaud Jesus’ action. They grumbled and complained. Why would the Prophet, the Teacher, the Rabbi, the Son of God, go to the house of a sinner? Why would he dirty himself by even being in this tax collector’s presence? They were not happy. Zacchaeus was. Jesus was. The underdog won.

But the day turned in a rather strange way. After spending time with Jesus, the tax collector changed. He saw people the way Jesus saw people. Zacchaeus’ focus shifted. Remember what happened? Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, “Look, half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor; and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay back four times as much.”

Zacchaeus didn’t think about what it might cost. He didn’t pull out his calculator to see if he would still be rich or if his plan would put him in the poorhouse. He just did it. We’re not told, but I expect Zacchaeus carried through with his promise. Meeting Jesus will do that to you.

Then Jesus says an interesting thing that you might not have caught before. Listen again. Then Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.”

Did you get it? Salvation came through living out the commands Jesus gave us. There are only two. Love God and love your neighbor. Then Jesus told his disciples to make more like themselves. Teach them to love God and love their neighbors. Let them see faith demonstrated through love as James and Paul and Peter tell us. Zacchaeus did it and found salvation.

We can find salvation, too.

We forget about that horizontal beam of the cross, but Jesus says it’s as important as the vertical one. He says you can’t love God whom you can’t see if you don’t love those around you that you can see. Paul’s letters and the other epistles tell us the same thing. Love other people and give us some examples of how to do that. Then, like Zacchaeus, we can find salvation. It’s not about a works-based faith, but as James says and as Paul says, faith without works is no faith. Expressing your faith through your behavior driven by the love of Christ in you demonstrates your faith.

We need more of that demonstrated faith in our world today. We see plenty of hate and vengeance and revenge. What we need to see is love demonstrated – a cup of water for a thirsty child, a blanket for a cold and homeless woman, a small meal for a hungry man on the street. We need to show we love God by loving those around us who appear so unlovable.

That’s what Jesus did, and that’s what he calls us to do. Just love – with our actions. Be Jesus to the world around us. Now go and do what he said.

Do you know when God is gone?, August 27, 2018

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Samson walked away from God in small steps, but he left nonetheless. He walked away slowly enough that he didn’t even know that God was gone.

We’re in Judges 16 now. Samson’s downfall continues. He goes to see a prostitute. The Philistines find out he is there and wait at the city gate throughout the night to seize him at sunrise. Only Samson lifts up the gates, the posts, and the metal rods that lock the gates in place and carries them away in the middle of the night.

Later he falls in love with another prostitute named Delilah. The rulers of the Philistines offer Delilah a pretty good sum of money to find out the secret of Samson’s strength and money is much more important to her than Samson. He keeps his secret for a while and every time he tells her something, the Philistines lie in wait for him, but are defeated by this incredibly strong warrior.

After a while, though, Samson gets tired of Delilah’s nagging and tells her his secret. I find it interesting that Samson keeps telling her these things that might take away his strength when immediately after Delilah’s house is filled with Philistines who have done exactly what Samson told her would defeat him. It seems Samson is either extremely dense or so extraordinarily arrogant that he thinks absolutely nothing can hurt him.

He’s wrong. Remember his three Nazarite rules? Don’t drink alcohol. Already broke that one. Don’t touch anything dead. Already broke that one. Don’t cut your hair. He let that secret out and again let his arrogance think the rules didn’t apply and Delilah brought in a barber while Samson was in a drunken stupor. Three rules. Three strikes. God was gone. Samson didn’t even know it.

You might look at these chapters and think they were big steps. Samson should have known. But I have a feeling it started with little little things. Maybe as a young teenager he broke curfew a few times and got away with it. Maybe he skipped his synagogue lessons and his parents let him off the hook. Maybe he bullied some of the other kids at school or on the playground and no one corrected him.

Little by little, Samson decided he could do whatever he wanted. He lost his morals. He lost his sense of right and wrong. Samson decided he was incharge of himself and could do whatever without any repercussion. We are left with a few snippets of Samson’s life that show us just how corrupt his life had become consorting with the enemy. Violating his vows. Disobeying God’s ordinances. Bowing to his every base desire without thinking of the consequences of his actions.

We can do the same if we are not careful. It can start the same way. We try to get away with the little things. The little things start turning into bigger things. The bigger things turn into things that from the beginning we would never have dreamed we would do.

And parents, Samson’s life is also a lesson to us. Remember what Solomon said in his proverbs? Raise up a child in the way he should go and he won’t depart from it. That means we need to teach our kids to do the right thing. We need to help them understand there are consequences that go along with every action they take. Good action reap good consequences. Bad actions reap bad consequences. It’s just the laws of nature.

If we don’t pay attention to God’s leading, if we don’t listen to his voice and do what he calls us to do, if we fail to obey his commands, we can find ourselves doing exactly what Samson did and then find that God is no longer providing strength, answers, resources. He is gone and you don’t know it. The enemy defeats you, maims you, imprisons you and it all began with little steps that you just never stopped to think would have any consequences.

Learn from Samson.

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.

Big brother gives commands (John 8:25-26), February 22, 2017

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Thanks for joining me today for “A Little Walk with God.” I’m your host Richard Agee.
Did your mom ever send your brother or sister to tell you to do something? How did you like it? That just how some people felt when Jesus came around.
Scripture
1. John 8:25-26

“Who are you?” they asked.

“Just what I have been telling you from the beginning,” Jesus replied. “I have much to say in judgment of you. But he who sent me is trustworthy, and what I have heard from him I tell the world.”

Devotional
1. My daughter doesn’t do it very often, but every once in awhile, she sends her oldest child to tell her younger ones to do something. “Jonathon, go tell Grayson to put on her shoes so we can go.”
  1. Doesn’t do it often because of the backlash
  2. Youngest doesn’t like to be told by the oldest
  3. Both are her children
  4. Grayson feels like an equal
  5. Doesn’t want to hear from anyone but her mother
  6. Certainly doesn’t think Jonathon should tell her what to do
2. Many of those who heard Jesus looked at Him the same way
  1. He’s just a man
  2. He’s the same as us
  3. Born of a woman, eats and drinks and breathes like us
  4. Who does He think He is telling us what to do
3. Just like Jonathon gets yelled at by his sister when he passes on a command from his mother, Jesus wasn’t liked by those with whom He shared the Father’s commands
  1. He only passed on what the Father told Him to share
  2. His words were those of the Father and His commands were those of the Father
  3. Until people believed He truly was the Son of God, He was just another man trying to tell them what to do and they didn’t want to listen anymore than a younger child wants to listen to what an older child passes on from his mother
4. We can begin to see some of the danger involved in the dynamics that played out around Jesus during His time on earth as we put ourselves back in His time and in that place. We can be obstinate and raise the hackles on the back of our neck and refuse to believe the Father spoke through Him. We can refuse to believe Jesus is God incarnate who gave Himself for us. We can refuse to trust Him and so suffer the wrath of the Father because of our disobedience. Or we can be obedient children and understand that God sent His Son, Jesus to tell save us from ourselves.
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.”

The games children play (John 5:22-23), January 28, 2017

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Thanks for joining me today for “A Little Walk with God.” I’m your host Richard Agee.
I love to watch children play games. They seldom care about the rules that come in the box. They just make up the rules as they go along and change them to suit themselves if it looks like new rules will benefit them. We’re a lot like that as adults sometimes, too. Perhaps we should consider Jesus words when we apply those rules to life, though..
Scripture
1. John 5:22-23
2. Jesus: The Father does not exert His power to judge anyone. Instead, He has given the authority as Judge to the Son. So all of creation will honor and worship the Son as they do the Father. If you do not honor the Son, then you dishonor the Father who sent Him.
Devotional
1. Children have a tendency to make up their own rules when they play games. Have you ever noticed that?
  1. Board games with grandkids
  2. Discard the rules quickly
  3. Make up rules that will help them win
  4. Change the rules in the middle of the game to suit them
2. We try to do that in life
  1. Rules are given to us by God in His word
  2. We discard them quickly or don’t pay attention to them just like my grandkids with their board games
  3. Try to make up our own rules or change God’s rules to suit us
  4. Creates a problem
3. Imagine baseball or football game where there is no referee or the referee changes the rules at a whim
  1. Create chaos on the field
  2. Rules provide order and direction and guidance in games and life
  3. In sports the referee is the judge for obedience to the rules
  4. In life, we set up courts with judges and juries to determine obedience to our civil laws
4. God gives us some civil laws to live by, but His word is primarily focused on our spiritual well being
  1. Relationship with each other
  2. Relationship with Him
  3. We will be judged based on the spiritual rules He has established and given to us in His word
  4. Jesus, His Son, God in the flesh, has been appointed as our judge
  5. Since He is our judge, it pays to learn and obey His rules
  6. You wouldn’t play college football without reading and understanding the rules, why do we think it’s okay to go through life without doing the same in matters so much more important, things with eternal consequences
5. It’s time we pick up that spiritual manual God has given us. Read it again and again. Get familiar with the things He expects us to do as we journey through this game of life. Then practice those things daily. He is the referee and will be our judge at the end of time. Knowing that, don’t you think it’s time to live by His rules instead of making them up as we go along?
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 want to be a zombie? (Luke 4:4) September 19, 2016

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Numbers 21-24

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

Today’s Devotional

Luke 4:4
Jesus: It is written in the Hebrew Scriptures, “People need more than bread to live.”

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

Yesterday, we talked about the importance of scripture in Jesus’ life. He proved it with His temptation experience in the desert after His baptism. Satan tried to get Him to turn stones into bread to satisfy His hunger after forty days of fasting, but Jesus answered Satan’s challenge with the words we read today. Those words come from Deuteronomy 8:3 where the rest of the verse says, “what makes you truly alive is not the bread you eat but following every word that comes from the mouth of the Eternal One.”

A lot of people walk around thinking they are alive, but as we see all these movie trailers and TV show advertisements that flood the airways today, I’m reminded of exactly what we really see moving around us. We really do live in a land of Zombies. We live in a world of the walking dead! They act like they are alive on the outside. They wake up in the morning and go to work. They eat and drink and go about the routine of what many call every day life.

Those zombies out there make money, get married, have children and raise more zombies teaching them to grow up just like them. We have created generations of zombies. I bet you didn’t know that zombies reproduce, but they do. Just look around. They’re everywhere. People who think they have life, but they’re really just biological organisms destined for eternal death because they haven’t taken this verse to heart.

You can’t live by the bread or the food you eat. You can’t live by the job you have or the money you make. You can’t live by the socioeconomic status to which you climb or the number of likes on your Facebook page. Satan tried to get Jesus to let His physical hunger pangs become the most important thing to Him at that moment, but Jesus knew that a few moments of physical pain didn’t constitute life or death. Creature comforts aren’t what real life is about.

Life isn’t about satisfying our desires, it’s about satisfying God’s desires. Life isn’t about us, it’s about Him. It’s about doing His will. Life is about thirsting after God and drinking deeply from the fountain of life He shares with us from His word. Life is about doing what God wants, not what we want.

But that goes against everything the zombies around us believe. The world makes them think they are alive and well. The world makes them think life is about all those material things that go away with the last breath we take. The world says life is about money and beauty and stuff. So the zombies run blindly after all those things and when they get them, they find they still don’t have the life they are looking for. There is still no joy, no comfort, no assurances. Just fear of the unknown and questions about what’s next.

But for those who listen to Jesus’ words and believe them, we don’t walk in the way of the zombies. We know what life is about. Life isn’t limited to the few years we spend in these bodies made of clay. There is something more. We feel it deep inside and know from God’s word and the testimony of His spirit in us that there is something after these few years. We know there is an eternity out there and it only begins with the time we spend in these bodies.

How do we find real life? By doing what God says in His word. You say, “but that’s too much. How can we follow all the rules God gives us in scripture. How can we even know what He said. There is so much there.” I’d beg to differ with you, though. Most Bibles are about 1500 pages and most of those pages are not rules, but stories of God’s redemptive love. Have you ever read the tax code? I think the last version is about 20,000 pages. You’re expect to follow that and it’s just one part of our law. Then there are all the other laws and codes and bills and regulations you obey everyday. We don’t seem to have a problem keeping those and they constitute a whole library full of text.

So why do we think it is so hard to keep God’s laws? There really aren’t that many and Jesus sums them all up in two commands. Love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength; and love your neighbor as you love yourself. So if we can just keep those two rules in mind and do those two, Jesus says we’ve done all the rest because all the rest are based on those two.

So what will it be as we look toward the beginning of another season of new zombie programs hitting the airways. Are we going to be part of that crowd and go around pretending to live like zombies do but without any real life? Or are we going to follow the words that come out of the mouth of God?

Once again, we get to make the choice. For me, I never did like those zombie shows. I’ll take real life every time.

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.

God’s commands don’t weight us down (1 John 5:1-12) December 25, 2015

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Today’s Scriptures

Today’s Bible reading plans include:

Ready – 1 John 5:1-12

Set – 1 John 3-5

Go! – 1 John 1-5

1 John 5:1-12
¹ Everyone who trusts Jesus as the long-awaited Anointed One is a child of God, and everyone who loves the Father cannot help but love the child fathered by Him. ² Then how do we know if we truly love God’s children? We love them if we love God and keep His commands. ³ You see, to love God means that we keep His commands, and His commands don’t weigh us down. ⁴ Everything that has been fathered by God overcomes the corrupt world. This is the victory that has conquered the world: our faith.
^5-6 Who is the person conquering the world? It is the one who truly trusts that Jesus is the Son of God, that Jesus the Anointed is the One who came by water and blood—not by the water only, but by the water and the blood.
The Spirit of God testifies to this truth because the Spirit is the truth. ⁷ So there are three testifying witnesses: ⁸ the Spirit, the water, and the blood. All three are in total agreement. ⁹ If we accept the testimonies of people, then we must realize the testimony of God is greater than that of any person. God certified the truth about His own Son. ¹⁰ Anyone who trusts the Son of God has this truthful testimony at the core of his being. Anyone who does not trust God calls God a liar because he ignores God’s truthful testimony regarding His own Son. ¹¹ And this is the truth: God has given us the gift of eternal life, and this life is in His Son. ¹² If you have the Son, you have eternal life. If you do not have the Son of God, you are not acquainted with true life.

Today’s Devotional

From today’s background scripture God might say:

Let Me tell you a story about love. Once a husband sat his new bride down after their honeymoon and gave her a legal pad page full of the things he expected her to do as his loving wife. Dinner on the table promptly at 5:30. House picked up before he arrived home from work each day. Vacuum the carpet at least twice each week. Mop all the other floors at least once a week. Wash and iron his clothes weekly and make sure his clothes were arranged in his closet in a certain order. And the list went on.

She loved her husband, but lived a miserable life making sure she accomplished each item to his specifications because he checked each week and admonished her if she failed to meet those standards in any way. After several seemingly endless and torturous years, the woman’s husband died.

A few years later the woman met another man and they too fell in love and married. No list appeared when they returned from their honeymoon, though, and the two of them loved each other dearly. Several years later, while cleaning out one of the closets, the woman came upon a box and in it she found that legal pad page of rules her first husband had given her. The list that caused her such misery and tension in her marriage.

As she read down the list, to her amazement, she found that every single item on the list were things she did with joy for her new husband. What was the difference? The rules were not burdensome. She did them out of love. The rules were embedded in her heart and she knew those very things would make her second husband happy and so she did them. Not out of a sense of duty or responsibility, but out of an overwhelming sense of love.

That’s what happens when you love God. Listen again to what John wrote, “You see, to love God means that we keep His commands, and His commands don’t weigh us down.” Like the woman who did all those things her first husband demanded of her, she did for her second without even thinking about it. The difference was love. The difference was a sharing of their hearts.

How do we share hearts? I won’t explain it. I will not explain to you how I become part of you, just as I will not explain how I became both God and Man. The mystery of how I do those things is far beyond your human understanding. Your understanding is finite and I am your God. Just know I can do it and believe in Me. You don’t need to explain it, just have faith. You don’t need to explain the intricacies of gravity to know that things fall, but you believe it. The mystery of gravity, I put into place before creation. My commands I put into place the same way. Just believe and know that My commands are not burdensome.

It’s all about love. Think about what that means for you today.

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.

Know God, not just about him (Luke 6:27-49), September 23, 2015

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Scriptures

Today’s Bible reading plans include:

Ready – Luke 6:27-49

Set – Daniel 12; Luke 6

Go! – Daniel 11-12; Luke 6

Luke 6:27-49
Jesus²⁷ If you’re listening, here’s My message: Keep loving your enemies no matter what they do. Keep doing good to those who hate you. ²⁸ Keep speaking blessings on those who curse you. Keep praying for those who mistreat you. ²⁹ If someone strikes you on one cheek, offer the other cheek too. If someone steals your coat, offer him your shirt too. ³⁰ If someone begs from you, give to him. If someone robs you of your valuables, don’t demand them back. ³¹ Think of the kindness you wish others would show you; do the same for them.
³² Listen, what’s the big deal if you love people who already love you? Even scoundrels do that much! ³³ So what if you do good to those who do good to you? Even scoundrels do that much! ³⁴ So what if you lend to people who are likely to repay you? Even scoundrels lend to scoundrels if they think they’ll be fully repaid.
³⁵ If you want to be extraordinary—love your enemies! Do good without restraint! Lend with abandon! Don’t expect anything in return! Then you’ll receive the truly great reward—you will be children of the Most High—for God is kind to the ungrateful and those who are wicked. ³⁶ So imitate God and be truly compassionate, the way your Father is.
³⁷ If you don’t want to be judged, don’t judge. If you don’t want to be condemned, don’t condemn. If you want to be forgiven, forgive. ³⁸ Don’t hold back—give freely, and you’ll have plenty poured back into your lap—a good measure, pressed down, shaken together, brimming over. You’ll receive in the same measure you give.
³⁹ Jesus told them this parable:
Jesus: What happens if a blind man leads a blind man? Won’t both of them fall into a pit? ⁴⁰ You can’t turn out better than your teacher; when you’re fully taught, you will resemble your teacher.
⁴¹ Speaking of blindness: Why do you focus on the speck in your brother’s eye? Why don’t you see the log in your own? ⁴² How can you say to your brother, “Oh, brother, let me help you take that little speck out of your eye,” when you don’t even see the big log in your own eye? What a hypocrite! First, take the log out of your own eye. Then you’ll be able to see clearly enough to help your brother with the speck in his eye.
⁴³ Count on this: no good tree bears bad fruit, and no bad tree bears good fruit. ⁴⁴ You can know a tree by the fruit it bears. You don’t find figs on a thorn bush, and you can’t pick grapes from a briar bush. ⁴⁵ It’s the same with people. A person full of goodness in his heart produces good things; a person with an evil reservoir in his heart pours out evil things. The heart overflows in the words a person speaks; your words reveal what’s within your heart.
⁴⁶ What good is it to mouth the words, “Lord! Lord!” if you don’t live by My teachings? ⁴⁷ What matters is that you come to Me, hear My words, and actually live by them. ⁴⁸ 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.
⁴⁹ 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.

Today’s Devotional

From today’s background scripture God might say:

You hear a lot of sermons from a lot of people. The question is, do they live the life they tell you to live? I did. The things I ask you to do, I lived in front of you for the time I walked beside you in the flesh. I showed you the way to live authentically. But you can’t do it in your own power. You need something more to live by the directions I give you in the Sermon on the Mount. You need more than your own will power to make it through the schemes Satan lays out in front of you. You need Me empowering your life.

With My Spirit empowering you, you can learn to love and that wraps all the other commands together. Love God and love others. Everything else will fall into place if you do those two things well. You can love Me and love others if you allow Me to focus your mind, emotions, and will. You can love others if you give yourself wholly to Me. You can truly love if you let go of yourself and let Me fully into your life and know Me, not just know about Me.

What does it take to know Me? First, acknowledge your sin. Second, believe I came and died for your sins. Third, repent and accept Me into your life as Lord, Savior, and Director of your life. Then read My word. Talk with Me at every opportunity. Learn to know Me, not just about Me. Seek Me and you will find Me.

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.

John still tells us to love (2 John), August 25, 2015

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Scriptures

Today’s Bible reading plans include:

Ready – 2 John

Set – Psalms 79; 2 John

Go! – Jeremiah 37-39; Psalms 79; 2 John

2 John
¹ I, the elder, to you, a lady chosen by God along with her children. I truly love all of you and am confident that all who know the truth share in my love for you. ²The truth, which lives faithfully within all of us and will be with us for all eternity, is the basis for our abounding love. ³ May grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Jesus the Anointed, the Father’s own Son, surround you and be with you always in truth and love.
⁴ I was so filled with joy to hear stories about your children walking in truth, in the very way the Father called us to live. ⁵ So now, dear lady, I am asking you to live by the command that we love one another. I’m not writing to you some new commandment; it’s one we received in the beginning from our Lord. ⁶ Love is defined by our obedience to His commands. This is the same command you have known about from the very beginning; you must live by it. ⁷ The corrupt world is filled with liars and frauds who deny the reality that Jesus the Anointed has come into the world as a man of flesh and blood. These people are deceivers and antiChrists. ⁸ Ensure that you do not lose what we have worked for so that you will be fully rewarded.
⁹ Any person who drifts away and fails to live in the teachings of the Anointed One, our Liberating King, does not have God. But the person who lives in this teaching will have both the Father and the Son. ¹⁰ If any person comes to you with a teaching that does not align with the true message of Jesus, do not welcome that person into your house or greet him as you would a true brother. ¹¹ Anyone who welcomes this person has become a partner in advancing his wicked agenda.
¹² I have so much more to tell you, but I would rather meet with you personally than try to capture these sentiments by ink on paper. I hope to come and see you so that our joy will be complete.
¹³ The children of your chosen sister send you warm greetings.

Today’s Devotional

From today’s background scripture God might say:

This isn’t the only personal letter John wrote to prominent people in the early churches, but it is typical. John wants to make sure individuals, including you, understand My commands. John got it. He learned well from Me as he walked with Me for those three years as one of My faithful disciples. He figured out that God is love, something taught to every child in Sunday School class.

Throughout all My teachings to all the crowds across all those towns we visited, the message was the same. Love. Sometimes it came with different words and with different expressions. Sometimes it came through healing. Sometimes it came through feeding thousands with the gift of a boy’s lunch. Sometimes it was showing pity at the funeral of a widow’s only son and raising him to life again. I expressed My love for others in a lot of different ways, but always I showed My love to those around Me. Even as I addressed the Pharisees with harsh words about their wrong teaching, it was because of My love for them and wanting to show them the falacy of their teaching and My desire to bring them back to a right relationship with the Father.

John understood My command to love Me and to love others. So in all his letters he emphasizes the need to live in a constant state of love. He admonishes his readers to be wary of anyone who doesn’t recognize Me as coming from the Father because My message and My life personifies the Father and shows that He and I are One. The false teachers alive in John’s day have not gone silent, either. Still their voices cry out.

Today false prophet declare that I am not one with the Father. Some will say I am God but not man. They will tell you I never walked in the flesh and that all flesh is corrupt and cannot possibly live in this world without sin. They cannot believe I could have lived a sinless life in this world for thirty-three years, so I must not have been a real man, only spirit. Others will say I was a real man, but only a prophet, a good man, a good teacher, but not God.

John clears the air in his letter to the chosen lady and makes clear hear and in his other writings that I am both fully God and fully Man. You cannot understand how it works because you are not God. It is beyond your understand how I managed to make it happen. But you can trust that I did. My word is true. Everything I have said would happen has or will happen. All the archeologists are uncovering all those facts that naysayers said never happened. Believe Me. I am who I say. Just trust Me. Listen to My commands and love.

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.

Live, Love, Labor – for the Lord (Deuteronomy 10/12-22), Mar 9, 2015

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Scriptures

Today’s Bible reading plans include:

Ready – Deuteronomy 10:12-22
Set – Deuteronomy 10; Mark 16
Go! – Deuteronomy 10-12; Mark 16

Deuteronomy 10:12-22
¹² And now, Israel, what is the Eternal your God asking of you? Only that you fear Him, live as He wants you to, and love Him; serve Him with every part of you, heart and soul; ¹³ and obey His commands and rules, which I’m giving you today for your good.

¹⁴ Think of it—everything already belongs to the Eternal your God: the sky and His own dwelling place beyond the sky, the earth and everything on it. ¹⁵ Nevertheless He devotedly loved your ancestors; and out of all the peoples He chose you, their descendants, to be His own, as you still are today. ¹⁶ Cut away that hard covering around your heart, and do not harden your neck against me, ¹⁷ because the Eternal your God is the God of gods and the Lord of lords, the great and mighty and amazing God! He doesn’t favor the powerful, and He can’t be bribed.

¹⁸ He enforces His justice for the powerless, such as orphans and widows, and He loves foreigners, making sure they have food and clothing. ¹⁹ You must love those foreigners living with you in the same way. Remember how you were foreigners in the land of Egypt! ²⁰ So fear the Eternal your God; serve Him, and be devoted to Him. Show your loyalty by swearing oaths only in His name. ²¹ He’s the One you must praise—He’s your God who has done such great and amazing things for you, as you’ve seen with your own eyes. ²² When your ancestors went into Egypt, there were only 70 people in their whole clan. But He kept increasing your numbers, and now there are as many of you as there are stars in the sky!

Today’s Devotional

From today’s background scripture God might say:

Moses summarized My requirements for you pretty well. What do I want from you? Fear Me; live as I want you to; love Me; serve Me with every part of you, heart and soul; and obey My commands and rules. It might sound like a lot, but it really isn’t. It really boils down to thinking about who I am and then loving Me because of it.

I own everything. Look around you. It’s Mine – lock, stock, and barrel – everything. It belongs to Me. I created what you see or the materials from which it was made along with the creative genius to make it. Everything is Mine. So the food you eat – Mine. The house you live in – Mine. The clothes you wear – Mine. The car you drive – Mine again. Everything is Mine.

I let you borrow My stuff for a while and that opportunity for stewardship tells you I love you. More important than what I let you borrow for a while, though, is the sacrifice I made for you so you can live the way I want you to. Jesus’ death on the cross, My Son, Me in the flesh, provided the penalty for your sins so you can live in freedom. Freedom from the guilt of sin. All you have to do is accept Me as your Lord. Live like I want you to live. Believe I am who I say I am. Do what I ask. I’ll never give you more than you can handle.

So with all I do for you, can you not love Me with all your heart and soul? Can you trust Me to guide your way through life? Can you let Me design the pattern of your life in a way that makes the most sense for the long term? If I can create the universe and all that is in it, surely I can lay out the right path for you. You can trust Me with your possessions, they’re Mine anyway. You can trust Me with your time, that’s Mine, too. You can trust Me with your health, I give it to you. You can trust Me with your life, I created it.

Simple rules to live by. Just love me with your whole self, body, mind, and spirit. Say yes to what I ask. Obey My rules and commands. That’s it. Not a lot to remember. I don’t want to make this so complex and difficult that you have a hard time doing it. I want you to succeed. I want you to join Me in everlasting life one day. And I want you to begin that journey now.

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.