Tag Archives: destruction

Just how much does God love us? (John 3:16-21), January 23, 2017

Today’s Podcast

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Thanks for joining me today for “A Little Walk with God.” I’m your host Richard Agee.
Just how much does God love us? Sometimes we let familiar verses get too familiar. Listen to one today in a different translation to hear again the depth of God’s love for us.
Scripture
1. John 3:16-21
2. For God expressed His love for the world in this way: He gave His only Son so that whoever believes in Him will not face everlasting destruction, but will have everlasting life. Here’s the point. God didn’t send His Son into the world to judge it; instead, He is here to rescue a world headed toward certain destruction.

No one who believes in Him has to fear condemnation, yet condemnation is already the reality for everyone who refuses to believe because they reject the name of the only Son of God. Why does God allow for judgment and condemnation? Because the Light, sent from God, pierced through the world’s darkness to expose ill motives, hatred, gossip, greed, violence, and the like. Still some people preferred the darkness over the light because their actions were dark. Some of humankind hated the light. They scampered hurriedly back into the darkness where vices thrive and wickedness flourishes. Those who abandon deceit and embrace what is true, they will enter into the light where it will be clear that all their deeds come from God.

Devotional
1. So many see God only as someone who wants to put a damper on life.
  1. A list of don’ts
  2. Take the fun out of any party
  3. Looking over our shoulder looking for our sins to zap us
1. Important verse tells us the nature of God
  1. Loves us so much He became one of us
  2. He came not to judge, but to rescue the world from our own self destruction
  3. He came to offer life
2. Then and now acted as light to expose the hidden things that cause that destruction
  1. Crime show detectives looking for evidence use flashlights even in the daylight
  2. Pinpoint the light
  3. Focus attention
  4. Expose ill motives, hatred, gossip greed, violence, and the like
  5. Many hate Him because they see their real self when He exposes their soul
3. Can you imagine a surgeon trying to operate in the dark?
  1. Only by exposing the diseased parts in bright light can they be removed
  2. Exposing sin makes it possible to get rid of it
  3. The Light came so we can be cleaned up
  4. Jesus came to rescue us from certain destruction
4. God loved us so much, He gave His Son, so that anyone who believes in Him for the forgiveness of their sins and obey Him, will not face that certain destruction, but will instead have everlasting life. What a Savior we have.
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 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.

The temple will fall (Matthew 24:2) May 29, 2016

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Galatians 1-3

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

Today’s Devotional

Matthew 24:2
Jesus: Look around you. All of it will become rubble. I tell you this: not one stone will be left standing.

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

The temple was a beautiful structure. Herod erected the gleaming white stone structure to create an awe inspiring edifice for the Jews he ruled. He wanted to win their favor and so spent what amounted to millions today to complete this monument to God. Only, it was more a monument to men than to God. Herod wanted the Jews to accept him as their king. Despite his evil, despite his loyalty to Rome rather than God, despite his utter failure in his faith, Herod thought he could win the Jews by buying their devotion with this temple.

And for many, the temple did win their favor. Herod put the priests in place who would allow his extravagances. The put up with him. They failed to call him out on his evil deeds because they enjoyed their privileges and power. They didn’t want to give up the luxuries and position and power the king gave them. Even these leaders and teachers knew where their power came from, they didn’t want to lose it, so they tolerated Herod.

This monument that was supposed to please God didn’t. But none of the temples did, really. If you go back to the first temple, you’ll remember David collected all the materials for it and gave the design to his son, Solomon to build it. God wouldn’t allow David to build it because of the blood on his hands in all the battles he had fought. But God allowed Solomon to build a temple. Solomon dedicated it and made some promises that he failed to keep.

Solomon’s son, Reheboam lost the northern tribes of Israel from the kingdom because of his father’s and his disobedience. The nation continued to falter in their faith and the temple finally was destroyed after it had been ransacked several times in the nation’s history. Ezra came back to lay its foundation four hundred years before Christ came, but it was nothing compared to the splendor of the ancient temple of Solomon or the awe inspiring edifice of Herod’s temple. And through all that time, the people continued to look at the building as the place where God resided.

They put Him in that box and assumed He stayed there. Just like we too often put God in our sanctuaries and assume He stays there. We leave after the worship service and live our lives pretty much the way the Israelites did when they left the temple. We forget God is the God of everyone and everything. That means He is in control of your home, whether you want Him to be or not. He is God in control of your job, whether you like it or not. He is God in control of who sits in the White House, whether the President is in your party affiliation or not. He is God in control of the terrorists, whether we want to think so or not.

We don’t understand why God allows things to happen the way they do, but we are not God and I’m glad for that. We would be terrible at the job. We are not just. Sometimes we are fair, but most of the time, we’re not and we are not just. But God is just. His actions are never unjust. It’s not in His nature to be unjust. He allows evil things to happen sometimes because we collectively made such a mess of His creation. Sometimes He gives us what we asked for. And the result is the world we see around us.

But God is still in control. He will not let His creation go further into an evil path than He desires. He will not let His children suffer beyond the point He chooses. God is beyond our understanding and we may not be able to figure it out with our finite minds, but God is still God. We are not. That’s the basic problem we have had since Adam. He thought he could become as wise as God. He couldn’t.

We think we can put God in a box. We can’t. We somehow get the idea we can confine His influence to the few hours we spend in worship with Him or we can turn Him on or off at our pleasure. We can’t. We think we can get by with our agenda and He’ll just go along with it because He likes us and we’re pretty good people. We’re not and He won’t.

You see, God is God. To really understand the purpose of the temple or the synagogue or the church, you really have to start with getting that one truth straight. God is God. Everything revolves around Him, not us. All those edifices are only temporary facilities for us to gather in community to worship. They have nothing to do with Him except as places for us to gather. He’s everywhere. We can meet with Him anywhere and we should. We can meet with Him anytime and we should. He is God.

So figure out God just wants to be with you. He doesn’t care much about the place. He cares about the relationship. We can’t impress Him with stuff, we only impress ourselves and others around us. They don’t count, only He does. Was Jesus sad that the temple would fall? I’m sure He was. Not because God wouldn’t have a place of worship, but because of all the reasons that caused God to allow its destruction once again. Our failure to listen to His voice.

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.

Which road? (Matthew 7:13-14) February 2, 2016

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Joshua 21-25

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

Today’s Devotional

Matthew 7:13-14
Jesus: There are two paths before you; you may take only one path. One doorway is narrow. And one door is wide. Go through the narrow door. For the wide door leads to a wide path, and the wide path is broad; the wide, broad path is easy, and the wide, broad, easy path has many, many people on it; but the wide, broad, easy, crowded path leads to death. Now then that narrow door leads to a narrow road that in turn leads to life. It is hard to find that road. Not many people manage it.

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

It’s easy to go along with the crowd. Just ask the herd of cattle on the farm. They move from the barn in the morning to the pasture and just graze around following the lead cow. In the afternoon, the lead cow knows it’s about time to go back to the barn so they follow the same worn path back to the barn until the next morning. The same routine goes on day after day, with the cows going out into the field and coming back in again until one day the lead cow leads the herd through a series of gates that ends up with the cows looking through the sideboards of a transport headed to the slaughter house.

We’re not much different. We have a tendency to just follow the leader, not thinking much about who we’re following. We get into the middle of the crowd and let it push us along mindlessly going back and forth day after day until finally we find out one day we’re looking through the sideboards of life on our way to the slaughter house and it seems there’s no way out.

My wife and I enjoy seeing Broadway plays off Broadway as they tour our community. When we first started going to the theater in our town we discovered a quick way out of the theater through an exit by the stage. Only a few people knew about that exit and it only took swimming upstream a few rows for us to break through the mass of people trying to go out the way they came in to get to that exit and beat the crowd to the parking lots.

Getting through those first few obstacles is hard. People are thinking you’re crazy. You’re going the wrong way. Everyone else is moving to the back of the room and we’re moving to the front. People jostle us. We squeeze through the cracks in the crowd. We take some verbal abuse at times. But our mind is set. We’re going for that smaller door that few people know about. Freedom from the crowd. Freedom from the meandering push. Freedom to break out and get loose.

The other interesting thing that has happened is that over the several years we have attended those plays, some of those who routinely sit around us started to notice our escape route. They started following us through that sea of people and discovered they, too, got to their cars faster and escaped the downtown traffic faster. We brought along some people through that narrow path to freedom.

I think about Jesus’ metaphor sometimes as I still bump into the newbies that don’t know about the door by the stage. They don’t know they can escape the mass of people they are following and break free to the fresh air outside if they’ll just break away from the crowd and follow the narrow path to the side door. Maybe they’ll stick around long enough to learn. Maybe I should tell them.

But more important than that secret door at the theater, I want to make sure I find and follow that narrow path that Jesus talks about. The world will take me and you down a path that’s easy to follow. Just sit and watch television and the world will tell you what you need, money, sex, fame. The world will make you believe that what you want is more important than anything else. But the world lies. What’s most important is what God wants. His will is most important and it will be accomplished. His plans will be carried out, the question is whether or not you and I will let ourselves be part of them.

We can run through life like the herd headed to the slaughter house or the crowd pushing to the back of the theater, or we can listen to Christ and follow Him. We can take the narrow road and bring some along with us. We can help others figure out the broad path leads to their own destruction, pull them aside and point out the narrow path that Jesus shows us. We can help them experience real freedom.

So which path are you on? Are you part of the herd or do you think for yourself? Are you following Jesus on the narrow path that leads to life or on the broad road that leads to destruction? You get to choose the path you take. One is easy and one is hard. Don’t take the easy road. It doesn’t turn out so well in the end. Swim uphill against the crowd. You’ll be glad you did.

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.

There is still time (Jeremiah 4:1-18), August 9, 2015

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Scriptures

Today’s Bible reading plans include:

Ready – Jeremiah 4:1-18

Set – Jeremiah 4; John 11

Go! – Jeremiah 3-4; John 11

Jeremiah 4:1-18
¹ Eternal One: O Israel if you turn, turn home to Me.
Just turn away from the vile worship of those things,
those idols that repulse Me.
Put them out of My sight for good.
Come home to Me and never stray.
² If you make a promise in My name, saying, “As the Eternal lives,”
and do so in truth, justice, and righteousness,
Then the nations will discover true blessing in Me
and give Me the praise I deserve.
³ This is what the Eternal now says to the people of Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem.
Eternal One: Break up the hard, untilled soil!
It is a waste to plant seeds among thorns.
⁴ Circumcise yourselves to Me;
cut away the foreskin of your hearts,
men of Judah and people of Jerusalem.
Remove all that stands between us,
and devote yourselves fully to Me,
Or the heat of My anger will burn as an unquenchable fire
against your wicked ways.
⁵ Eternal One (to Jeremiah): Cry out to those in Jerusalem. Proclaim to all of Judah.
Let the trumpets blare throughout the land!
Say to the people, “Gather everyone from the outlying villages,
and run toward the fortified cities.”
⁶ Raise a banner toward Zion, Jerusalem;
point everyone toward her refuge.
Don’t wait, for I am releasing an evil from the north that will devastate the land.
⁷ For a lion has stepped out of the thicket;
A destroyer of nations is on the move.
He has left his den to devour your land;
your cities will be left in ruin, empty and lifeless.”
⁸ The time of mourning is here.
Put on your sackcloth, and get ready to cry and scream.
Since we have not turned from our sin,
the blazing anger of the Eternal has not turned away from us.
Eternal One: ⁹ On that fearsome day, even the hearts of kings and leaders will fail. Priests will recoil in horror. Prophets will be shocked into silence.
Jeremiah: ¹⁰ But Eternal Lord, You have misled this people and all of Jerusalem when you said, “You will live in peace.” Even now the cold blade of the sword is pressed against our throats.
¹¹ The day is coming soon when Jerusalem and the people beyond will be told, “A blistering wind will blow in from the desert mountains toward My daughter, My people: a wind too strong to winnow the grain and clean the crops, ¹² a wind too powerful to withstand for it comes from Me. It is My judgment that will bear down on you.”
¹³ Look, you can see Him coming in the distance, like a cloud on the horizon.
Like a whirlwind, His chariots of destruction will descend on you.
Swifter than eagles are His horses. At the sight of this, you will cry out, “Alas, we are doomed!”
¹⁴ Hear me, O Jerusalem, for even now there is time.
Wash these wicked ways from your hearts
So that you can be saved.
How long will you cling to those wicked thoughts?
¹⁵ From the tribe of Dan in the north comes the first cry;
news of disaster arrives from the hill country of Ephraim.
¹⁶ Eternal One (to Jeremiah): Tell the nations to beware.
Announce to Jerusalem:
“Invaders are coming from a distant land.
Their war cries will soon be heard in Judah’s villages.”
¹⁷ They will spread out and surround Jerusalem on every side like guards in a field,
all because she has acted against Me.
¹⁸ (to the people) You chose this path that led to disaster.
Your plans and actions brought it on.
It is your wickedness that tastes so bitter,
your evil that pierces your heart.

Today’s Devotional

From today’s background scripture God might say:

I try so many ways to turn you back to Me. My greatest desire is for you to enjoy eternity with Me. But I want you to desire that relationship yourself. I won’t force it on you. I won’t make up your mind for you. The words you heard from Jeremiah today show you the extremes I went to with the Israelites to try to turn them toward Me.

Jeremiah recognized I am a gracious God, though. He declared to those in Jerusalem, “Hear me, O Jerusalem, for even now there is time. Wash these wicked ways from your hearts so that you can be saved.”

My desire is for you to spend eternity with Me. But I created you with a choice. I want you to have that same desire. So you can choose to spend it with Me or you can reject Me. It’s always your choice. I’ll do everything I can to persuade you to come to Me, but you have the ultimate say as to whether you will follow My ways. I urge you not to take the path the Israelites took. It led to their destruction at the hands of barborous enemies. Instead, I want you to enjoy the good things I have in store for you. Just choose 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.