Tag Archives: disobedience

Why the sacrifice? April 22, 2019

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

Easter is just behind us. We’ve gone through a season of Lent to ask ourselves the questions early Christians asked: who is Jesus?; what does it really mean to be lost and then to have his forgiveness?; and what is the cost of committing my life to Jesus? This self-examination of our faith is important as we live in a world increasingly hostile to the thought of living a life of faith. A recent Gallop poll shows within the US population, affiliation with any church has dropped 20% in the last decade. Now less than half of us in this country even think of ourselves as belonging to a Christian church, much less faithful in attending one.

Perhaps it’s time to look at why the cross is so important. Why do we need to believe in such a horrendous act as that which hung a man we believe is the son of God, God incarnate, on a cross to die in our place? What is so special about this execution of an innocent man that millions have followed him through the centuries and sometimes willingly sacrificed their own lives rather than deny his deity? Why would God choose such a method to want us to follow him and win our confidence and worship and faith?

The Apostle Paul writes to the early congregation gathering in Corinth with these words: “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”

It is true. Unbelievers find the message preposterous. Why would we believe the events we just celebrated really happened in the first place? What causes us to think the crucifixion and resurrection story is nothing more than a religious fairy tale? Why would so many people give themselves as martyrs to such a ridiculous tale?

I think the answer is, so many would not give themselves as martyrs to such a ridiculous tale if it were only a tale. Historically, from the writings of some non-Christians we know there was a man named Jesus who lived and died in the manner described in the Gospels. We know from the writings of the early church leaders in the first century the teachings of this man and the impact he had on the entire world.

Every time archeology tries to disprove something in scripture, it seems to only find evidence that it is true. Today, we continue to uncover evidence of the things recorded in scripture just as it was portrayed. Believers’ stand on the authenticity of God’s word finds justification from the scientific world despite efforts to thwart it.

But why would God choose death? Why such a brutal end to his own son? And as we understand the trinity, one Godhead, one God manifested as three, Father, Son and Spirit, physical death to a part of himself. Does it make any sense? Well, we have to go back to Paul’s writing. “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”

It might not make sense to us, but it is how God chose to reveal his love to us in a profound way. He goes back to the very beginning of his relationship with man. He goes back to those early conversations with Adam and the understanding Adam had of life. The blood that coursed its way through the veins of the animals around him and through his own body held the secret to life. Without that blood providing the necessary nutrients to the cells in the body and carrying away the toxins those cells produced as byproducts of their activities, the body dies. Adam didn’t understand the science behind the biological processes as we do today. But he knew blood was essential to life because God told him so.

When Cain killed his brother Abel, God’s call to Cain included the observation that Abel’s blood spilled into the ground. His life left him because of the spilled blood. God declared life is precious and condemned Cain’s murderous act placing a mark upon Cain that signified his guilt for all to see. We don’t know what that mark was, but we know Cain carried it and all who saw him recognized his guilt and shame because of it.

God required blood sacrifice to cleanse away the guilt of disobedience. Adam and Eve lost their prolonged life in the Garden of Eden and their animal sacrifices from that time on reminded them of the life they lost and sin they brought into the cosmos. Their actions disrupted the harmony of the universe. The symbol of life through the spilling of the blood of a sacrificial animal as a substitute for their own life gave recognition to God that he alone is worthy of worship and praise and glory.

God established rules for sacrifices. He wanted an intimate relationship with his most favored and highest creation. But we, his highest creation, continued to think we were able to live without his rules, without the restrictions he imposed for our good, without him. We wanted our selfish ways to live life however we might choose. We expected God to bend to us instead of bowing to him. We forgot he is God and we are not. And mankind paid the price. God sent a flood to destroy us. Only Noah and his family survived.

But even from this most righteous family, sin, passed through the seed of Adam sprang up as Noah and his son Canaan fell prey to wickedness. We know Noah became drunk on wine and Canaan found him naked in his tent. I have a feeling there is a lot more to the story than those few verses we read in Genesis. I have a feeling both Noah and especially Canaan deserved much more than the punishment we read about in the narrative. God wanted to start over with a new family devoted only to him. And Noah’s family failed the test, too. Just as Adam and Eve and their family did.

What is it about us that we do the things we do even though we know the consequences can be so dramatic? Why do we know what is right but continue to live in ways that push against the will of a loving God? It’s all there in the Book of Genesis for those who believe. Adam sinned. We inherited his nature through his ‘seed.’ Every human offspring born by the joining of a sperm and egg to form an embryo in a mother’s womb carries within that sperm the genetic material that Adam shares with us, the bent toward evil.

But then comes Jesus, the Christ, the Messiah. He was born of a virgin. No earthly father. No inherited genetic material from Adam. No bent toward evil. No inherited self-centeredness. Jesus, the God/Man, perfect in spirit because he did not come from Adam’s ‘seed,’ but from the Father’s. One set of chromosomes, not two. One strand of DNA, not two. How? I don’t understand it. Impossible? Not with God. Isaiah says he was not so handsome. Nothing to look at. In fact, Isaiah infers his looks might even be a little on the grotesque side. Like Quasimodo, the Hunchback of Notre-Dame. Certainly, not the face of the brown haired Roman figure we see in most of the paintings of Jesus adorning the walls of many churches and homes around the country. Yet this gentle, homely, peculiar man attracted thousands because of his words and actions.

This peculiar man. One of a kind. Perfect in spirit. Born of a virgin. Son of God. Allowed himself to be hung on a cross. His life’s blood spilled to the ground as a substitute for my life and yours. The penalty for disrupting the perfect harmony of the universe. My disobedience brings chaos to the cosmos. So does yours. When we create that chaos that ripples through the galaxies, what should the penalty be? When all the stars and planets and galaxies and all things within and around them feel the effects of our disobedience to their creator, how should we make it right? The only way to stop the carnage we create is to snuff us out. Take our life. Stop our further chaos.

But God is full of mercy and grace. He gave himself so we can still live. If we accept his gift of life and follow him we can have life eternally with him. Why the cross? I don’t understand it all. I accept that I will not understand it because I am not God. I am only one of his created beings. But I am loved by him and accept his mercy and grace. The cross was for me, but he took my place. I am forever in his debt.

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.

How bad do you have to be?, August 12, 2018

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How bad do you have to be for your own to turn you over to the enemy?

Today we’ll look at what happens to Samson after he killed 30 Philistines to pay his debt to his bachelor party companions after they gave him the answer to his riddle. Last week we so how Samson let his emotions get out of control even though it was really his fault all these things were happening to him in the first place. We talked about his anger at everyone but himself, the real culprit in his string of failures.

Today we see the consequences of his actions in Judges 15.

Later on, Samson went to visit his wife. He took a young goat with him. He went at the time the wheat was being gathered. He said, “I’m going to my wife’s room.” But her father wouldn’t let him go in.

Her father said, “I was sure you really lated her. So I gave her to your friend. Isn’t her younger sister more beautiful? Take her instead.”

Samson said to them, “This time I have a right to get even with the Philistines. I’m going to hurt them badly.”

So he went out and caught 300 foxes. He tied them in pairs by their tails. Then he tied a torch to each pair of tails. He lit the torches. He let the foxes loose in the fields of grain that belonged to the Philistines. He burned up the grain that had been cut and stacked. He burned up the grain that was still growing. He also burned up the vineyards and olive trees.

The Philistines asked, “Who did this?” They were told, “Samson did. He’s the son-in-law of the man from Timnah. Samson did it because his wife was given to his friend.”

So the Philistines went up and burned the woman and her father to death.

Samson said to them, “Is that how you act? Then I won’t stop until I pay you back.” He struck them down with heavy blows. He killed many of them. Then he went down and stayed in a cave. It was in the rock of Etam.

The Philistines went up and camped in Judah. They spread out near Lehi. The men of Judah asked, “Why have you come to fight against us?”

“We’ve come to take Samson as our prisoner,” they answered. “We want to do to him what he did to us.”

Then 3,000 men from Judah went to get Samson. They went down to the cave that was in the rock of Etam. They said to Samson, “Don’t you realize the Philistines are ruling over us? What have you done to us?”

Samson answered, “I only did to them what they did to me.”

The men of Judah said to him, “We’ve come to tie you up. We’re going to hand you over to the Philistines.”

There it is. Once again Samson goes where he isn’t supposed to go. He does what he isn’t supposed to do. Then wonders why the Philistines want to take him prisoner. Of course the reason is Samson is a criminal. Sure the Philistines did bad stuff, too, but Samson was one of God’s chosen people and a Nazarite to boot. He was to live better a more noble life. He was to keep higher moral standards that the pagans God displaced when he told Joshua to possess the land. He didn’t. Little that Samson did portrayed the kind of behavior God wanted his people to share with the rest of the world.

Samson strayed so far from the moral compass God set for his people, though, that 3,000 men from Judah came to turn him over to the Philistines. Can you imagine that number arriving at your doorstep to tell you that you’re no longer welcome in your own country. You’ve done so much to alienate yourself from your family and friends that 3,000 of your neighbors come to tie you up and make you disappear.

Samson moved further and further from God and didn’t even know it. How could he think it was right to destroy the Philistine crops? How could he think it was right to kill those 30 innocent men to take their clothes from them? How could he think it right to abandon his wife and then go back to reclaim her and expect her father to have done nothing about it in that culture? How could Samson live the way he lived and not expect consequences?

How about you and me? Do we do the same? Do we live apart from God’s will and expect his blessings? Do we live however we choose and expect no retaliation from those we leave in our wake of destruction? Do we think we can act with no consequences?

I’m afraid too often that’s exactly what we do. We buy into the mantra that God is love without also understanding that God is just. He set in place these rules that govern the universe. We understand them in physics and chemistry and math. For instance, we believe that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. We believe that 2 + 2 will always equal 4. But we have a hard time believing that our actions have consequences, whether good or bad, there are consequences.

Learn from Samson’s mistakes. Understand that life is full of cause and effect rules. When you do something, good or bad, something else will happen that affects you and others around you. Don’t be like Samson.

The Beginning of Life as We Know It, September 4, 2017

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

Bible Reading Plan – www.Bible-Reading.com

I’m back and happy to be sharing with you again after a brief interlude with work and family.

My church, San Antonio First Church of the Nazarene, begins a new series September 11 called The Story. Some of you may be familiar with The Story and may have even been through its 31 week study. In our church, through this series, every class and every sermon, and we hope every family and person will focus on The Story. So in keeping with the theme of my church, I will be sharing devotionals aligned with next Sunday’s sermon and small group discussions.

So today we start at the beginning of life as we know it found in Genesis chapters 1-8. I won’t get into discussions about whether we live on a young earth or an old earth. I won’t try to give you any scientific information on how all of this came into being. I won’t argue points about the size and scope of the universe or debate the physical properties and mathematical equations that explain the delicate balance of how life can exist at only this spot in our solar system. But I will tell you that every civilization, every religion tells the story of creation. And our Bible begins it this way: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”

At the end of those verses that outline the order of creation beginning with God’s spoken word to separate light from darkness, each creative act carries the same pronouncement. “God looked at His handiwork and said ‘It is good.” The earth He created, the living things that populate it, plants and animals and even man are all celebrated as good. God created them, so how could they be otherwise?

There is another important verse near the beginning of that creation narrative that helps us understand what the Bible, The Story, is really all about. It is found in Genesis 3:8, “Then the man and his wife heard the Lord God walking in the garden. It was the coolest time of the day.”

We will get to the rest of that verse in a moment, but it’s important to recognize what God is doing here. He desired to be with Adam and Eve. He also desires to be with us. It was God’s routine to meet with those first inhabitants of the earth and He walked with them in the garden each day.

You see, God’s greatest desire, His greatest passion, the thing He longs for is a relationship with the men and women He creates. You’ll find that the rest of The Story, from that first verse in Genesis until the closing verse in Revelation lays out for us God’s passion to have an intimate relationship with each of us.

God walked with Adam and Eve. They saw Him face to face. He communed with them as they cared for this creation He put into place. It was perfect when He designed it. In the beginning, there was no pain, no heartache, no tears, no death, no evil. The garden was the place God came to meet with the highest of His creation.

But in that third chapter of Genesis we find that Adam and Eve chose to disregard God’s instructions. They made the choice to disobey. And their act brought evil and death and the destruction to God’s good work. We brought pain and heartache and tears and death and evil into the world by our choosing. Ever since that first act of disobedience, we have lived out the last of Genesis 3:8, “The the man and his wife heard the Lord God walking in the garden. It wa the coolest time of the day. They hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.”

Adam and Eve could no longer face the perfect, holy God when their hearts were filled with disobedience and evil. So they hid. They covered their nakedness with fig leaves. They tried to get away from the One who desired to be with them. The rest of The Story, God’s Story, tells of His pursuit of us. We are still His creation and He still longs to walk with us.

God from this point on put a plan in place to redeem us. He wants us back. But He is still a holy God and will not tolerate evil. He made us this promise, though. One day He said He will recreate the earth. He will destroy this one and put in its place a new heaven and new earth. The new one will be better than this one because Satan will be banished. There will once again be no tears, no pain, no death, no evil. And we will once again see God face to face in that perfect recreated garden.

From the fall through the rest of The Story, God makes a way for those who follow Him. We see it in Adam and Eve’s children, Cain and Abel. God gave Cain a way of escape from the punishment of other men by putting His mark upon Him. God took Enoch to be with Him without experiencing the pain of death as an example of His love and grace. God rescued mankind from total destruction through Noah, a righteous man who followed God in all He did. Throughout His Story, we will see God and work trying to redeem us from the death we brought on ourselves.

But throughout The Story, we will also see that it is always our choice. We choose the path we take. We choose obedience or disobedience. We choose to remain trapped in the heartache and evil that come as a result of the fall. Or we choose to accept His plan of redemption and follow Him.

The first garden, the Garden of Eden was perfect. We destroyed it with our evil choices. Through the centuries to this very day, we continue to destroy God’s creation by our choosing to disobey. But for those who choose to listen to and believe His Story, those who trust in Him and follow His leading, there will be a new heaven and new earth. Better than the Garden of Eden. He promised it in His Story and God never breaks a promise.

There are five movements in The Story: the story of the garden, the story of Israel, the story of Jesus, the story of the Church, and the story of the new garden. We heard today an excerpt about the story of the garden. Join me again next week as we continue our journey through the five movements of the Bible, The Story, God’s plan to redeem us and have that intimate relationship He had with Adam and Eve walking through the Garden.

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

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.”

Bad things happen (Luke 13:2-5) November 23, 2016

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Psalms 134-136

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

Today’s Devotional

Luke 13:2-5
Jesus: Do you think these Galileans were somehow being singled out for their sins, that they were worse than any other Galileans, because they suffered this terrible death? Of course not. But listen, if you do not consider God’s ways and truly change, then friends, you should prepare to face His judgment and eternal death.
Speaking of current events, you’ve all heard about the 18 people killed in that building accident when the tower in Siloam fell. Were they extraordinarily bad people, worse than anyone else in Jerusalem, so that they would deserve such an untimely death? Of course not. But all the buildings of Jerusalem will come crashing down on you if you don’t wake up and change direction now.

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

I think from the time Adam and Eve were kicked out of the Garden of Eden as punishment for that first act of disobedience, we seem to lay the blame for every bad thing that happens at God’s feet. It must be God’s punishment for something that caused him to go through that terrible tragedy. It must be some sin in her life that brought on that awful disease. God is punishing him for actions in his past. That must be true, right? Wrong!

There are a couple of things we can learn from these words from Jesus, though. He makes it pretty clear not all the bad things that happen to us are because of sin in our lives. The Galileans killed by the Romans were killed as a demonstration that Rome was still in charge. No reason for their murder other than they came to Jerusalem to worship and perhaps didn’t have all the right permissions stamped on their papers. The Romans ruled with an iron fist and showed their ruthless power occasionally just to let people know who still ruled them and it wasn’t those temple priests.

Jesus let those around him know the Galileans that lost their lives did nothing more or less than any others around them yet lost their lives. It’s not their individual sins that caused those bad things to happen, it’s the fact that death entered the cosmos with that first sin Adam and Even committed and so bad things happen to everyone. Trouble in life is a universal issue for all of us. We all get sick. We all face taxes and bills and mortgages. We all find laws conflicting with other laws and have to make choices as to which we will bend to follow others. We all find difficult relationships with someone somewhere.

Face it. Bad things happen to us occasionally. We can’t get away from it. Expect it. And it comes just because we breathe air on this side of dirt. If you take that first breath out of your mother’s womb, you will have bad things happen to you. It’s a fact of life and you just can’t get away. Maybe it’s like James Dobson once said, it’s to keep us from getting too comfortable here and help us remember there is a better place awaiting us. If we never had problems here, we might not long for heaven the way we do. So maybe it’s okay for bad things to happen just because.

But Jesus also indicates that sometimes bad things do happen as a result of our wrong doing. That wasn’t true for those Galileans who were killed or the victims of the tower wall that fell in Siloam, but He warns those listening to Him that they better changed their ways or bad things will happen to them soon. He says the walls of Jerusalem will come crashing down on them if they don’t change.

Those are interesting words considering in forty years the Romans will destroy Jerusalem and the temple and the whole city will be reduced to rubble. I wonder how many of those in that crowd were caught under the falling stones as catapults and battering rams smashed the walls. Some of them didn’t change their ways. We know that from their behavior toward Jesus at the mock trial, calling for His crucifixion, mocking Him on the cross.

So some of the bad things that happen to us are a result of our wrong doing. Either natural consequences of our bad behavior, like the health problems that come from drug addiction, abuse of alcohol, and a host of other illicit behaviors. Or punishment from God for our disobedience to Him like He did with the Israelites and sent a plague among the community.

The bottom line for any individual is that you know your heart. Is there any unconfessed sin there? If so, ask God to forgive it and thank Him for His forgiveness. Then recognize that all of us will suffer in this world. Accept the suffering as identifying with our Lord. He suffered and died for us and was sinless. If He suffered and did no wrong, then we have nothing to complain about when we suffer for the wrong we do. Bad things will happen to us. Use them to remember Jesus faced bad things, too. He faced them so we can enjoy good things for all 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.

The good and bad in a twelve year old (Luke 2:49) September 18, 2016

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Philemon

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

Today’s Devotional

Luke 2:49
Jesus: Why did you need to look for Me? Didn’t you know that I must be working for My Father?

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

We’ve moved into the gospel of Luke today. The only gospel that has any mention of Jesus’ childhood beyond His birth, the family’s escape to Egypt, and return to Nazareth. All the other gospels pick up His life’s story with His baptism at the Jordan River by His cousin John the Baptist. But Luke, Paul’s physician companion on his missionary journeys gives this brief snippet into Jesus’ childhood just as He is reaching the age of accountability according to Jewish tradition.

Jesus is twelve. He accompanies His family to Jerusalem for the Passover Feast. That was a five day journey for them when the roads weren’t terribly crowded and the weather was pretty good. It’s about 120 miles on foot. And that was how they traveled. On foot. Like most twelve year old boys, He probably ran ahead and played with friends or explored some interesting find on the path while His parents caught up, then ran ahead again throughout the five day journey. With all the pilgrims keeping an eye on all the children at play on the road, parents didn’t worry much about their kids getting lost. They just had them check back every once in a while to make sure they stayed relatively close and safe. He acted like a twelve year old on a five day trek.

But then He saw the temple during the Passover. It probably wasn’t His first time, but for some reason we don’t know, Jesus was invited into the circle of scribes on this occasion. And as He listened to them, He was allowed to make comments. Now that was really unusual. He was only twelve, not yet of age to be heard. But these scribes listened to His opinions because Jesus had wisdom well beyond His years. They were amazed at this young man’s understanding.

Jesus’ family left for the journey home, but instead of leaving with them, He slipped back into the temple and the circle of scribes. Something about this place drew Him close. The scriptures acted like a magnet to Him and the men who surrounded Him welcomed Him because of the things He said. They listened to His thoughts as if He were a seasoned rabbi. Soon, Jesus forgot His family was leaving town and He missed their departure.

Surprising to us, it was three days before Mary and Joseph discovered Jesus’ absence. But remember that almost all of Nazareth would have traveled to Jerusalem for Passover. As many as could, went to Jerusalem for the three great feasts God told Moses to present to the Israelites in the desert – Passover, Pentecost, and the Feast of Tabernacles. Mary and Joseph would have made as many of these feasts in Jerusalem as possible. The city burst at the seams with people. It was a time for family reunions and reuniting with old friends. With that many people coming together, Mary and Joseph would easily assume Jesus was with His cousins and aunts and uncles as they traveled.

Finally, Mary and Joseph figured out Jesus was not in the entourage and headed back to Jerusalem frantically searching for their missing son. But as they made inquiries and their search led them back to the temple, there He was confounding the teachers of the law with His amazing understanding of the scriptures at such a young age.

No doubt Jesus was in trouble for the worry He caused. No doubt He didn’t get to run ahead or play with His friends on the rest of the journey home. I expect if they could have done so without raising too many eyebrows, they would have put a lasso around Him and kept Him tied to one of them. So the lesson in these scriptures is not to run away from your parents. That’s not a good thing. Even for Jesus, that was not a good thing. He probably got some fairly hefty punishment for the scare He caused and His failure to leave with the family, even though He was doing something very good at the time. He really needed to tell His parents what He was doing before He scared them to death.

But the other thing we learn from today’s words is that scripture was important to Jesus from a very early age. Remember we closed the book of Mark talking about just how important scripture was to Jesus. We talked about the fact that many of His last words on the cross came from Old Testament Psalms. How was He able to recite those verses under such extreme duress? Because from the age of twelve, whenever you couldn’t find Jesus, just look in the temple or the synagogue or with a group of rabbis or scribes. You’d find Him learning scripture. You find Him reading the ancient texts, learning the prayers of David and Isaiah and Daniel and Moses.

Jesus was a student of His Father’s words as handed down through the writers of our Old Testament. He used them often in His preaching and teaching, in His confrontations with Satan and his minions, in His times of greatest joy and deepest sorrow, and even on the cross. If scripture was so important to Jesus, the perfect Son of God, don’t you think it should be important to those of us who are so imperfect? Pick it and read it today and every day. It will do you good.

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

Will you do what the Father says? (Matthew 21:27-32) May 17, 2016

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – 2 Samuel 15-19

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

Today’s Devotional

Matthew 21:27-32
Jesus: Then neither will I tell you about the authority under which I am working. But I will tell you a story, and you can tell Me what you make of it: There was a man who had two sons. He said to his first son,
Father: Go and work in the vineyard today.
First Son: No, I will not.
But later the first son changed his mind and went. Then the father went to his second son.
Father: Go and work in the vineyard today.
Second Son: Of course, Father.
But then he did not go. So which of the sons did what the father wanted?
Chief Priests and Elders (answering at once): The first.
Jesus: I tell you this: the tax collectors and prostitutes will enter the kingdom of God ahead of you. John came to show you the straight path, the path to righteousness. You did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. Even as you saw the prostitutes and the tax collectors forgiven and washed clean, finding their footing on the straight path to righteousness, still you did not change your ways and believe.

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

The chief priests and elders got pretty frosted at Jesus’ story, because they knew He meant for the second son to represent them. They knew what they were supposed to do, but failed to do it. They carried on the rituals, but didn’t extend God’s love. They knew the Talmud and the Law, but didn’t live what they preached to the crowd that assembled to learn from them. The elders and chief priests understood the standards, but didn’t live up to them.

But the tax collectors, the prostitutes, the down and out that Jesus ministered to on the hillsides, those people came back to the synagogues filled with joy. They came giving their tithes and offerings joyfully. They came praising God for the transformation in their lives because of the forgiveness they experienced when they came with a truly contrite, repentant heart.

Okay, so Jesus got the attention of the chief priests and elders. That was then. It’s 2,000 years later. What does that have to do with us? He was talking about those leaders that were about to crucify Him, right? He doesn’t mean us, does He? Well, perhaps it’s time to take inventory.

Do we really worship Him when we go into our churches or do we just go through a routine every week and say we do? Do we let anything take the place of our worship of God or take the place of our service to Him? Do we sully His name by calling ourselves Christians and then acting like everyone else instead of acting like Jesus? Do we take time to talk with God on a regular basis without asking Him for something, but just talking to Him as you would your father or a friend?

How about honoring our parents? Do we give them the respect they deserve? Do we slander others and so destroy their reputation without real cause? Do our eyes wander lustfully to someone other than our spouses? Do we take home pens and paper from work or use the office resources for our personal projects? Do we cheat at solitaire? Do we try to keep up with the neighbor when then get a new car, new shutters on the house, new plants in the yard, or anything that looks interesting that we want?

Those are just the common ten commandments God tells all of us to keep, you know. He gives each of us personal commands and convictions to keep us protected from the temptations Satan throws in our path. But do we listen to Him? Do we do what He tells us to do or do we take matters into our own hands and think we know whats best and make our own decisions without consulting Him.

See, Jesus looked into our future and the story He told the chief priests and elders that day hits all of us between the eyes if we’re not careful. What God wants from us is our obedience. When we love Him we will do just that, obey. When we don’t trust Him and love Him, we hold on to parts of ourself and think we can live our lives better without Him. We try to hide parts of our lives from Him. (An impossible thing to do, by the way.) We try to maintain lordship over every aspect of our lives.

But really we can control very little of what happens to us day to day. So little of life is under our direct control. We think we have power over things, but we really don’t. How much do you really control your health, for instance? You can eat right, sleep right, exercise, do everything the medical world tells you to do. Then you step into the street and get hit by a bus. You just can’t control everything.

What we can do, though, is decide to obey God. We can do what the Father asks us to do. He will give us the ability to do it. All we need to do is make up our mind to live for Him, ask for His empowerment, and do what He says. He will help us. He promises. He always makes a way of escape from the temptations of life. Our problem is we usually don’t look for the exit signs He has glaring in front of us. We just stick around for the show instead of running away as fast as we can.

So will you be like the first son or the second son in the story? Will you do what the Father says or not?

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.

Confession is good for the soul (Deuteronomy 1:26-46), Mar 5, 2015

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Today’s Scriptures

Today’s Bible reading plans include:

Ready – Deuteronomy 1: 26-46
Set – Deuteronomy 1; Mark 12
Go! – Deuteronomy 1-2; Mark 12

Deuteronomy 1: 26-46
²⁶ But even after all this encouragement, you still weren’t willing to go up and fight. You rebelled against what the Eternal your God told you to do. ²⁷ In your homes, you complained to each other, “The Eternal hates us! That’s why He brought us out of the land of Egypt—so He could hand us over to the Amorites. They’re going to destroy us! ²⁸ He tells us, ‘Go up,’ but go up where? The report of the rest of those we sent out was terrifying: ‘The people there are bigger and taller than we are. Their cities are huge, with walls as high as the sky! We even saw giants there—descendants of the Anakim.’”

²⁹ So I told you, “Don’t be scared! Don’t be afraid of them! ³⁰ You won’t have to fight this battle yourselves; the Eternal your God, who always goes ahead of you, will fight for you just as He did in Egypt—you saw Him do it! ³¹ And here in this wilderness, all along the route you’ve traveled until you reached this place, haven’t you seen the Eternal, your True God, carrying you the way a parent carries a child? ³² But you still don’t trust the Eternal your God, ³³ even though He always goes ahead of you as you travel and finds places for you to camp. In a pillar of fire by night and in a cloud by day, He always shows you the right way to go.”

³⁴ When the Eternal heard your untrusting words, He angrily swore an oath: ³⁵ “Not a single person in this wicked generation will see the good land I swore to give to your ancestors! ³⁶ There’ll be only one exception: Caleb (Jephunneh’s son). He will see it. I’ll give the very land he walked through when he spied it out to him and his descendants because he remained completely loyal to the Eternal.” ³⁷ And He was angry with me, too, because of the way you acted. He told me, “Not even you will go into the land! ³⁸ It will be Joshua (Nun’s son), a man you’ve already entrusted with important responsibilities, who will enter it instead. Encourage him, because he will lead the people into the land and give it to Israel as their possession. ³⁹ You said that if you fought, all your soldiers would be killed and your little ones would become plunder for your enemies. But it will be those children under age 20, who don’t know right from wrong yet, who will enter the land. I’ll give it to them, and it will belong to them. ⁴⁰ But as for you, head back into the wilderness, toward the Red Sea.”

⁴¹ After God’s judgment you responded, “We’ve sinned against the Eternal! We’ll go up and fight now, just as the Eternal, our True God, commanded us.” So each of you strapped on your weapons and prepared to fight. You thought it would be easy to get up into the highlands. ⁴² The Eternal tried to warn you that it was too late by telling me, “Tell them not to go up and not to fight! I am not with them. They’ll be crushed by their enemies.” ⁴³ I told you everything, but you wouldn’t listen. You rebelled against the Eternal’s command, and you went up arrogantly into the highlands. ⁴⁴ The Amorites who lived there came out and attacked you, and you ran away from them as if they were a swarm of bees! They crushed more and more of your soldiers all the way from Seir to Hormah, until they gave up the chase. ⁴⁵ You came back and wept before the Eternal. But He wouldn’t listen to a word you said. ⁴⁶ So you just stayed in Kadesh and didn’t leave for a long time.

Today’s Devotional

From today’s background scripture God might say:

Moses gives a pretty good summary of the Israelites’ history at the edge of the promised land with one exception. He says I didn’t let him go into the promised land because of My anger with the Israelites. Do you notice the problem? Moses never wanted to own up to his own error. Moses was a great leader for Me, but I wasn’t angry with him over the rest of the nation’s reluctance to believe in Me. I was angry at them, not him. Moses tried to convince them I would win their battles for them. He tried to convince them to go on into the promised land. In fact, Moses didn’t want them to send spies into the land because he knew it might weaken their faith.

I didn’t keep Moses out of the promised land because of the Israelites’ failures. I kept him out of the promised land for two reasons. First, he disobeyed Me. He struck the rock to get water at Meribah when I told him to speak to the rock. It might seem a little thing to you, but Moses was with Me constantly. He knew I demanded obedience. He knew the consequences of disobedience. I gave him My commandments on the mountain and he understood My power more than any other person in the nation.

But there was a second reason Moses didn’t go into the promised land. Did you notice his blame game? He blamed the rest of the nation for Me blocking his entrance to the new land. He would do it again later in his discourse. He couldn’t take the blame for his disobedience. Like so many, he tried to point the finger somewhere else. He wanted to share his guilt. Like Adam in the garden when he blamed Eve for his failure to keep My command. Like Eve who then blamed the serpent for giving her the fruit from the tree. Like Cain who tried to shun the blame for his brother’s murder. Like so many, Moses tried to shed the blame for his disobedience.

Like all who have gone before him and all who have come after him, Moses could not shift the blame. As Paul wrote, “All have sinned and come short of My glory.” No one but Jesus ever walked the earth in a sinless state. So no matter how hard Moses might try to deflect the guilt, he couldn’t. No matter how many times he tried to tell the story and lay the blame elsewhere. He and I knew his failure to enter the promised land came as a result of his own failure.

Never forget what John says in his first letter to the churches of his day. “If you confess your sins, I am faithful and just and will forgive your sins and purify you from all unrighteousness.” Don’t hold back. Give Me a try.

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.