Tag Archives: John

One more is worth the cost (John 15:18-22)

Today’s Podcast

Thanks for joining me today for “A Little Walk with God.” I’m your host Richard Agee.
Stereotypes are awful, but they are everywhere and just part of our nature. The question is whether we let them rule us or do we rule them. We can get over them with some effort. Is it worth the cost? Think about those who pushed through their stereotypes to reach you.
Scripture
1. John 15:18-25
2. Jesus: If you find that the world despises you, remember that before it despised you, it first despised Me. If you were a product of the world order, then it would love you. But you are not a product of the world because I have taken you out of it, and it despises you for that very reason. Don’t forget what I have spoken to you: “a servant is not greater than the master.” If I was mistreated, you should expect nothing less. If they accepted what I have spoken, they will also hear you. Everything they do to you they will do on My account because they do not know the One who has sent Me. If I had not spoken within their hearing, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have no excuse for ignoring My voice.

If someone despises Me, he also despises My Father. ²⁴If I had not demonstrated things for them that have never been done, they would not be guilty of sin. But the reality is they have stared Me in the face, and they have despised Me and the Father nonetheless. ²⁵Yet their law, which says, “They despised Me without any cause,”^[a] has again been proven true.

Devotional
1. The words cliché and stereotype have a good deal in common. Both come from French, both were originally printers’ terms, and both have come to take on somewhat negative meanings in modern use.
2. Their original meanings are essentially synonymous, referring to printing blocks from which numerous prints could be made. In fact, cliché means stereotype in French. Their modern meanings, however, are quite distinct. Cliché is today overwhelmingly encountered in reference to something hackneyed, such as an overly familiar or commonplace phrase, theme, or expression. Stereotype is most frequently now employed to refer to an often unfair and untrue belief that many people have about all people or things with a particular characteristic.
  1. a plate cast from a printing surface
  2. something conforming to a fixed or general pattern; especially : a standardized mental picture that is held in common by members of a group and that represents an oversimplified opinion, prejudiced attitude, or uncritical judgment
  3. We’re bad about stereotyping people
    1. Ethnic groups
    2. Political parties
    3. Socioeconomic sectors
    4. Religious affiliation
3. World views Christians as the cause of the problems in the world order
  1. Demand human rights, sometimes go about it the wrong way
  2. Tie political agendas to Christian views detracting from gospel message smearing Christian values and worldview of who we should be
  3. Fail to meet standards we say we hold then blame others or sin which we cannot help but commit
4. Jesus warns of the stereotype His followers would receive
  1. From the political realm – fail to kneel to Caesar means rebelling against the state
  2. From the Jewish community – usurp the thought of one God with Jesus coming to live among us as the God/Man; God incarnate – confusion of the triune godhead
  3. From the Gentile community – setting standards of living condemning satisfaction of base desires in any way we please; sexual immorality, lying, stealing, injury to others through gossip/slander, idol worship
  4. All evils of the world would be blamed on the Christian community – if they would just leave everyone else alone, tolerate everyone else and stop this “Jesus is the only way” teaching
  5. Guilt would stop; fighting would stop; pain would stop
5. The stereotyping will not end until time stops
  1. Jesus promises the world will continue to despise us and abuse us
  2. He promises they will not listen to us if they will not listen to Him
  3. He promises they will close their eyes and fail to see
  4. He also promises some will come to know Him and be saved from their sins
  5. That one who listens and clings to Him is worth the pain and suffering
6. Don’t give up; one more is worth the cost
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.

Don’t wait until Friendship Day to celebrate (John 15:12-17)

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Today’s Podcast

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Thanks for joining me today for “A Little Walk with God.” I’m your host Richard Agee.
Topic Introduction with headline.
Scripture
1. John 15:12-17
2. Jesus: My commandment to you is this: love others as I have loved you. There is no greater way to love than to give your life for your friends. You celebrate our friendship if you obey this command. I don’t call you servants any longer; servants don’t know what the master is doing, but I have told you everything the Father has said to Me. I call you friends. You did not choose Me. I chose you, and I orchestrated all of this so that you would be sent out and bear great and perpetual fruit. As you do this, anything you ask the Father in My name will be done. This is My command to you: love one another.
Devotional
1. Friendship day is August 6th this year. You might not even know we have a friendship day, but there is it.
  1. Jesus tells us to celebrate friendship with Him if you obey His command to love one another.
  2. That’s one real friendship is all about
  3. Love God and love each other as we love ourselves
2. But what is friendship?
  1. The history of friendship day is a little shady, a little commercial.
  2. Joyce Hall, founder of Hallmark Cards 1930 to sell cards to send to friends
  3. Definition of friendship
    1. the emotions or conduct of friends; the state of being friends
    2. a relationship between friends
    3. a state of mutual trust and support between allied nations
  4. Friend
    1. a person who has a strong liking for and trust in another person
    2. a person who is not an enemy
    3. a person who helps or supports something
3. We don’t have many real friends in our society today; we live in isolation in crowded places
  1. Go to any restaurant or park or place where groups of people are gathered
  2. Watch their interactions
  3. Most are tied to their smartphones texting
  4. We isolate ourselves from each other without human touch and emotion
  5. We can avoid commitment by cutting the phone connection
4. Jesus said no greater love than to give His life for a friend
  1. Does that mean death?
  2. In His case it did
  3. But it might mean life; servanthood; caring enough to be present in times of need
  4. Give life when life crashes in around a friend; when they need help or support for something
  5. “A friend in need is a friend indeed” as far as Euripides in 424 BC
5. Friendship Day is not the time to celebrate friendship
  1. Today is the day
  2. Everyday is the day to celebrate friendship
  3. Be a friend
  4. Give your life to someone in need; serve with love and make a friend
  5. Jesus expected nothing in return for His friendship and says we are to be like Him
  6. Hard steps to follow but that is the command He give and it starts with love
  7. He loves us so we can love others and express genuine friendship to those around us
6. Go celebrate a few months early
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.”

Are you a laborer, apprentice, or journeyman? (John 15:9-11), April 6, 2017

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Thanks for joining me today for “A Little Walk with God.” I’m your host Richard Agee.
Trades have three kinds of people, laborers, apprentices, and journeymen. Where are you in your walk with Christ? Have you followed Him enough to be an apprentice, or a journeyman?
Scripture
1. John 15:9-11
2. Jesus: I have loved you as the Father has loved Me. Abide in My love. Follow My example in obeying the Father’s commandments and receiving His love. If you obey My commandments, you will stay in My love. I want you to know the delight I experience, to find ultimate satisfaction, which is why I am telling you all of this.
Devotional
1. When I was a teenager, I worked some with a journeyman mason.
  1. Never picked up a brick or stone twice
  2. Knew exactly where and how to place each piece
  3. Wasted no energy
  4. Created beautiful structures
2. His son was his apprentice along with one or two others in his employment
  1. Did some jobs on their own
  2. Were pretty good at standard brick laying
  3. Admitted stonework caused them problems
  4. Couldn’t envision how all the pieces would fit together and took them twice as long to complete the job
  5. Still the journeyman would let them do some of those smaller stonework jobs
  6. always brought at least one of his apprentices with him to learn when he faced a tough job
3. Employed several laborers
  1. I was one of many
  2. Brought bricks and mortar to the their sides
  3. Ran back and forth for tools or more supplies
  4. Got water or rags or whatever they needed to keep them from having to do anything other than execute their skills at placing brick or stone in just the right place
  5. Still got to watch and learn and a few of those apprentices had started out as laborers
  6. Showed aptitude, attitude, and interest in becoming skilled in the trade
4. Spent a lifetime learning and mastering his trade
  1. Journeyman in his late 50’s
  2. Apprentices in their late 30’s and 40’s
  3. Laborers teens and twenties, a few older but not interested in learning the skill
5. Following Christ is like that
  1. Interest
  2. Time
  3. Mimic the Master’s moves, words, deeds
  4. Listen to His instruction
  5. Go on the job with Him and allow Him to make correction, sometimes very minute, but will improved the final product
6. Where are you in your path? Laborer, apprentice, or journeyman?
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.”

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

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Today’s Podcast

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

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

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Today’s Podcast

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

Farewells can be good or bad (John 14:28-31), April 3, 2017

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Today’s Podcast

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Thanks for joining me today for “A Little Walk with God.” I’m your host Richard Agee.
Farewells. Sometimes we like them, sometimes we don’t. But there is good and bad with every farewell. Jesus tried to tell His disciples about the good in His.
Scripture
1. John 14:28-31
2. You were listening when I said, “I will go away, but I will also return to be with you.” If you love Me, celebrate the fact that I am going to be with the Father because He is far greater than I am. I have told you all these things in advance so that your faith will grow as these things come to pass. I am almost finished speaking to you. The one who rules the world is stepping forward, and he has no part in Me; but to demonstrate to the cosmos My love for the Father, I will do just as He commands. Stand up. It is time for us to leave this place.
Devotional
1. In the military, we had a lot of events we called hail and farewells. In fact, we had them almost every month.
  1. Nature of military moves
  2. Someone always coming or going to fill spots in the units
  3. Welcomed the newcomers, said goodbye to those leaving
  4. Sometimes sad to see the old-timers leave
    1. Good leaders
    2. Contributed to the unit in exceptional ways
    3. Good friends
  5. Sometimes happy to see them go
    1. Just the opposite
    2. Poor leaders
    3. Tried to climb the ranks on the backs of others
    4. Thought only of themselves and not their fellow soldiers
2. Jesus talked about His farewell
  1. Good that He was leaving
  2. In face, wanted them to celebrate the fact that He was going back to His father
  3. Didn’t understand how they could celebrate His departure, especially if it meant the death He predicted
3. In just a few days, though, they would be doing exactly that
  1. In a few days, we will not mourn Jesus’ death on the cross, but celebrate His sacrifice
  2. In a few days, we will celebrate an empty tomb, His resurrection and power over death and the grave
  3. In a few days, we will celebrate His return to the Father, because He proved His promises true then and now
  4. In a few days it will be Easter and the Christian community celebrates Jesus’ resurrection in extraordinary ways
4. But we don’t need to wait a few days to celebrate
  1. He also promised a Comforter would come to be with us and in us
  2. He promised this Comforter would also teach us everything He taught while He walked among us
  3. He promised this Comforter would empower us to do what He did and more if we let Him loose in our lives to work for His glory and the glory of the Father
5. What are you waiting for? Go do some celebrating for Jesus’ farewell today!
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.”

Guns and peace just don’t mix (John 14:25-27), April 2, 2017

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Today’s Podcast

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Thanks for joining me today for “A Little Walk with God.” I’m your host Richard Agee.
How many guns give you peace? Guns are debated a lot in this country. Is one or two a good number? How about 13 million? Actually, guns have nothing to do with peace or fear. But they are interesting to talk about.
Scripture
1. John 14:25-27
2. Jesus: I have spoken these words while I am here with you. The Father is sending a great Helper, the Holy Spirit, in My name to teach you everything and to remind you of all I have said to you. My peace is the legacy I leave to you. I don’t give gifts like those of this world. Do not let your heart be troubled or fearful.
Devotional
1. As I read Jesus words today, “Do not let your heart be troubled or fearful.” I thought about how fearful our nation remains. We seem to be scared of everything. Sometimes for good reason with all the talk of terrorists and crime rates and road rage and general violence going on everywhere.
  1. Last available statistics from the Department of Justice Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosive
  2. Interesting they put all those things under the same department, things that are all equally deadly to our population
  3. 9 million firearms manufactured in the US 2015
  4. 3.9 million imported into the US in 2015
  5. 13 million brand new firearms floating around the country in the hands of mostly responsible, but some pretty irresponsible people
  6. I’m one of those holders of firearms, think I’m responsible
  7. Never the gun that kills, but the person that holds it
2. Weapons don’t bring peace
  1. Instruments of destruction
  2. Provide an easier means of taking life
  3. Able to do so without getting as personal as with a club or bare hands
  4. Just pull the trigger and with a rifle, may never see their eyes or the expression on their face
  5. Comedian on the Internet
    1. Wanted to buy a defensive gun for protection
    2. Not one of those that killers and robbers use
3. Jesus brings peace
  1. Gives gifts unlike the world
  2. Promises a legacy of peace
  3. Inner peace
  4. Will never stop the wars between nations or between fellow human beings until He returns
  5. Holy Spirit beings personal peace in the turmoil of life
  6. Circumstances don’t dictate our states of mind or emotional distress
4. Jesus gives peace the world cannot understand or receive because the world doesn’t know Him
  1. I still like shooting my guns
  2. But my peace comes from the legacy Jesus gives, not from the legacy of the wild west
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.”

Love is the universal language of the world (John 14:23-34), April 1, 2017

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Thanks for joining me today for “A Little Walk with God.” I’m your host Richard Agee.
We hear about love a lot. We think we see it everywhere. Jesus commands that we love. So what is it, anyway?
Scripture
1. John 14:23-34
2. Jesus: Anyone who loves Me will listen to My voice and obey. The Father will love him, and We will draw close to him and make a dwelling place within him. The one who does not love Me ignores My message, which is not from Me, but from the Father who sent Me.
Devotional
1. I went to everyone’s favorite source of perfect information to find the answer to the question, “What is love?” The Internet, specifically Wikipedia
  1. Love is a variety of different feelings, states, and attitudes that ranges from interpersonal affection (“I love my mother”) to pleasure (“I loved that meal”). It can refer to an emotion of a strong attraction and personal attachment.[1] Love can also be a virtue representing human kindness, compassion, and affection—”the unselfish loyal and benevolent concern for the good of another”.[2] It may also describe compassionate and affectionate actions towards other humans, one’s self or animals.[3]
  2. Ancient Greeks identified four forms of love: kinship or familiarity (in Greek, storge), friendship (philia), sexual and/or romantic desire (eros), and self-emptying or divine love (agape). Modern authors have distinguished further varieties of romantic love. Non-Western traditions have also distinguished variants or symbioses of these states.[4][5] Love has additional religious or spiritual meaning—notably in Abrahamic religions. This diversity of uses and meanings combined with the complexity of the feelings involved makes love unusually difficult to consistently define, compared to other emotional states.
  3. Love in its various forms acts as a major facilitator of interpersonal relationships and, owing to its central psychological importance, is one of the most common themes in the creative arts.[6]
  4. Love may be understood as a function to keep human beings together against menaces and to facilitate the continuation of the species.[7
2. Does that get us any closer to understanding love?
  1. Definition of love is like definition of ice cream
  2. Must experience it to really understand it and even then do you really understand it?
  3. How can you really describe the experience?
  4. Yet when we go through the event, when we eat ice cream for the first time, we know we like it and we want more
  5. When we experience real love, not the mushy fake lust we see advertised, but real love,we know we like it and we need it and we want more
3. How do we get love?
  1. We get it unconditionally from God
  2. Most of us get it unconditionally from mothers and fathers who try to be good parents no matter how flawed they are
  3. Most of us get love, though sometimes misunderstood and again flawed by the image of what love is from the media and the world in our marriages
  4. But the best way to get love? Give love to others – unconditionally
  5. What kind of love? – that one that says, “Love can be a virtue representing human kindness, compassion, and affection—”the unselfish loyal and benevolent concern for the good of another”.[2] It may also describe compassionate and affectionate actions towards other humans,
  6. That’s the love God shows toward us and asks us to give it to others in return
4. Jesus says if we love Him we will obey Him, His commands usually come in the form of helping others, thinking of others more than we think of ourselves. Doing and giving and lifting others to show them real, genuine love in a world that knows so little about real love today
5. Love is the universal language, but so few know how to speak it today. Go out and teach them through your actions
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.”

We need to be loved (John 14:18-21), March 31, 2017

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Thanks for joining me today for “A Little Walk with God.” I’m your host Richard Agee.
Have you heard about the studies done in some of the Romanian orphanages? They’ve been going on for more than 80 years and all say the same thing. We need to be loved.
Scripture
1. John 14:18-21
2. Jesus: I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.
Devotional
1. Studies have been going on about attachment and bonding in orphanages since the 30’s and 40’s by psychologists and psychiatrists.
  1. Astounding results
  2. Both physical and emotional impact of not being held and nurtured as infants
  3. 30’s and 40’s studies were on a small scale
  4. Same results are being found today on a large scale with more than 100,000 subjects as part of the study
2. More orphans than people to take care of them
  1. Same in Jesus’ day
  2. War a part of every generation
  3. Parents killed in battle or part of collateral damage
  4. Parents who cannot care for their children and leave them in the hope someone else will care for them
  5. These detached orphans grow up with significant emotional problems
3. They may not have done psychological studies in Jesus’ day, but they knew orphans didn’t fare well
  1. Command was to take care of widows and orphans they need help
  2. Needed someone to love them
  3. Jesus said He wouldn’t leave His disciples or us as orphans
  4. He would not let us suffer the pains of unattachment
  5. He comes to us
4. What constitutes having Him with us and in us?
  1. He gave us the formula for freedom from the lack of attachment problem
  2. Whoever has His commands and keeps them
  3. Whoever loves Him is loved by the Father and by Him
  4. Whoever He loves has Him living inside him
  5. If He is living in us, we can never be alone
  6. He desires relationship with us in the deepest most intimate ways
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.”

Hidden in plain sight (John 14:15-17), March 30, 2017

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Thanks for joining me today for “A Little Walk with God.” I’m your host Richard Agee.
Have you ever been around someone you should have known but didn’t? Or you were with someone you thought everyone else should know but didn’t? Today’s lesson talks about that problem.
Scripture
1. John 14:15-17
2. Jesus: If you love Me, obey the commandments I have given you. I will ask the Father to send you another Helper, the Spirit of truth, who will remain constantly with you. The world does not recognize the Spirit of truth, because it does not know the Spirit and is unable to receive Him. But you do know the Spirit because He lives with you, and He will dwell in you.
Devotional
1. I do some part-time work training senior medical staffs on the use of some software I was a part of visioning almost two decades ago. At that time, the then future Surgeon General and I were in discussion about what would be useful for commanders to know to better anticipate medical needs on the battlefield.
  1. Wrote the medical support plan for Desert Storm
  2. Commanded medical units in the field
  3. Trained medical units of all sizes
  4. Had a pretty good idea of what would help if the right information could be collected
2. Enter more recent technology
  1. Higher speed Internet
  2. Hardened machines that could handle the rough treatment of field conditions
  3. Electronic medical records
  4. Processing speeds that could assimilate information rapidly
  5. Databases with the power to analyze information on the fly
3. I get to teach and train some of those systems for decision making
  1. Retired more than ten years
  2. Senior commanders now were captains and majors when I retired
  3. Many weren’t in the service when Desert Storm happened and those plans were written
  4. Some of their staff weren’t even born
  5. They don’t know me or my expertise
  6. They don’t know I’ve been where they are or authored the changes to doctrine they are using to support the battlefield
  7. Just another contractor to most
4. But to some
  1. They’ve read the records
  2. They remember the conflicts
  3. They’ve seen the documents that supported the doctrine
  4. They’ve seen my picture in the halls of the schoolhouse
  5. And remember
  6. With those, I often have long after hour conversations during those training days as they ask questions about how I came up with the plans, how the training was orchestrated, how the plans were written, how the communications were executed, how the casualties were evacuated and accounted for under such austere conditions. They pick my brain…what little is left.
5. Imagine what we can learn from the spirit of God when we recognize Him!
  1. Jesus let His disciples in on the secret and passes it on to us
  2. Believe in Him
  3. His spirit will live in us
  4. We will recognize Him and He will give us incredible knowledge and empower us to become more like Him each day
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.”