Tag Archives: knowledge

Learn Patience, September 16, 2019

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

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but it seems the world keeps gravitating to the darker side of things. Our news reports never seem to share the good news, only bad. Our advertisements tell us how we might get better with their products implying we are in a sad state without them. Our bodies are never fit enough, lean enough, young enough, pretty enough, energetic enough, something enough, so there is some product out there that will help that. Well, not really. You just can’t push a button or take a pill and expect to look like whoever you see on the screen. Biology doesn’t work that way.

And the good news doesn’t sell. No one gives the salesman money for a product when he tells you, “Hey, you look great. Why don’t you get some of this miracle stuff that will help you look good.” His commission would be pretty small. Or what newspaper would sell if it only told about the boy scouts helping ladies across the street? Unfortunately, we gobble up the murders, robberies, and rapes, but don’t pay much attention to the bright news in the world. At least, it isn’t advertised very much.

No, we live in a culture and a world that seems to grow darker every day. And it’s really a shame because there are some really good things happening around us if we would open our eyes and see it. In fact, right this moment, I’m performing a minor miracle or two or a dozen. I’m sitting at my MacBook typing notes for this podcast, looking out the back door of my very comfortably conditioned home in San Antonio. Inside my home, it’s 72°. Outside, it already feels like 82°, and it’s not 10:00 yet in the middle of September.

The fact that I can even put the words on paper almost as fast as I can talk is something people 100 years ago would never think possible. Manual typewriters were around then, but not computers, not laptops, not the ability to dictate to a machine and have words appear as you spoke them. It would appear as a miracle to them.

And I’m enjoying my favorite beverage as I’m putting this together. Coffee from my Keurig. It took less than a minute to have a steaming hot cup of coffee in any of dozens of flavors. Go back to that 100-year-old spot again. Fifty cents for that cup of coffee would seem a little outrageous to them, but less than a minute from start to finish for a hot cup of coffee? No way! Impossible. 72° in the house? Words appearing on a screen that looks like paper as soon as you speak them? Madness!

Today though, I tapped my fingers on the counter impatiently waiting for that cup of coffee. I can’t believe it takes a whole minute for that stupid machine to get through the process. And my MacBook makes so many mistakes sometimes misunderstanding my Tennessee-Texas-Georgia-North Carolina-Louisiana-German-all those other places I spent too much time accent. I have to go back through and correct all those mistakes. It takes me five or ten minutes sometimes. And why does my air conditioning fluctuate those three degrees between 70° and 73°? Why can’t it stay a perfect 72° all the time?

And I spent a whole 8 minutes in line at McDonald’s waiting for an order of fries and a milkshake, too. Can you believe it took 8 minutes to get such a small order ready? There was only one person in front of me, so I just don’t understand why it took so long!

We have become so impatient, haven’t we? Fast food. Fast news. Twitter, Snap Chat, Instagram, and whatever the newest stuff to get instant information from our friends. We just can’t wait. Time rushes past, and we don’t think we have time for anything. But then…

There is this verse from Numbers 21 that says: “but the people became impatient on the way.” That starts the story of serpents God let loose in the Israelite camp because of their grumbling and complaining about their wandering in the wilderness, a problem they created themselves because of their disobedience. Remember, God barred the Israelites from the promised land because of their disobedience, just as he banished Adam and Eve from the garden of Eden because of their disobedience. And because of their griping and whining, serpents came into the camp, and people started to die.

God told Moses to erect a brass serpent on a cross and put where people could see it, and anyone bit by a serpent who looked at that serpent would not die. He did. They did. People didn’t die. The cure worked. Later, Jesus used the narrative imagery to indicate his death and the redemption, the cure for sin, that would come for all who believed in him and his sacrifice for them.

Impatience led to many deaths in Israel’s camp. Impatience leads to all kinds of problems today. We get anxious for no reason. Our impatience gets us in trouble. We stopped projects or rush through them haphazardly because of our impatience. We accept shoddy work instead of excellence because of impatience. We want things now instead of understanding the best most often comes for those that are patient enough to wait.

Instant gratification is the name of the game in our culture. We become more and more like Veruca Salt in “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” a selfish, rotten brat who shows her wealthy family no mercy and has absolutely no regard for other people’s property. She wants anything and everything, and she wants it now. But what does it do to us? Veruca Salt lost. The Israelites lost. Impatience causes us to lose much more often than not. We need to stop and take inventory of our emotions every once in a while and make sure we are not acting like Veruca Salt and her compatriots. I need to remember than a minute for a cup of coffee is okay. Eight minutes for a milkshake and fries is really fast compared to a hundred years ago. And spending a few minutes correcting mistakes because of my poor pronunciation is a lot better than trying to read my poor penmanship that would take a lot more time to write by hand.

Why have we become so impatient? Maybe because we think we know so much. Knowledge or I should say information is doubling every 12 months. Before 1900, it doubled every 100 years or so. Some say the volume of information will soon double every 12 hours because of the digital age. Julian Carver of Saragram created an infographic that gives a visual comparison of digital bytes to physical lengths. First, remember that a megabyte is a million bytes, a group of eight zeros and ones used to replicate a letter or number or character in the digital world. A million megabytes equals one terabyte, and a million terabytes equal one exabyte. He shows that if an ant is a megabyte, the diameter of the sun is an exabyte. An exabyte is a million, million megabytes. The total sum of information on the internet today is about five exabytes. So if a megabyte were the length of an ant, the internet would be the diameter of five suns side by side. And that doubles faster than every 12 months.

Or maybe we have become so impatient because we know we move so fast. 100 years ago, cars were still a luxury. Horsepower even meant something to those who heard the term because they used horses routines to pull plows or wagons or to carry loads too heavy for men to bear. Speed, even with the new horseless carriage, didn’t top fifteen or twenty miles per hour. Those speeds only came in short spurts. Now 50 is about the slowest interstate speed in cities and in west Texas 80 to 85 mph speed limits are not unusual.

Then there is that astronomy stuff we learn about in school and on television documentaries. The earth doesn’t stand still either. Depending on where you’re standing, the earth spins at different speeds since the whole thing spins together. Standing at the equator, you’re moving at about 1,037 mph. At my house just north of San Antonio, I’m moving at about 900 mph. The further north or south you go the slower you spin until you get to the poles that take a whole day to turn in a circle. Then we’re traveling around the sun once a year. To make that 584 million mile journey, we are moving at about 66,627 mph through space. But then our whole solar system is moving inside the Milky Way at about 448,000 mph. On top of that, astronomers tell us the Milky Way is on a collision course with its nearest neighbor galaxy at about 157,000 mph.

So in this fast-paced world that keeps spinning at mind-boggling speeds, we need to stop and take a deep breath, pause, and consider God, the creator of the magnificent world in which we live. After all, he put all of this in place so we can survive on this tiny rock hurtling through the vastness of the universe. We need to stop and enjoy its beauty every once in a while and learn patience.

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.

Wisdom starts with God, November 5, 2018

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I ran across this question today in my devotions: If knowing God is the beginning of wisdom, can a person who does not know God be wise?

In today’s culture we would probably get an overwhelming number of responses to that question that answers in the affirmative. The argument would be to look at all the accomplishment we have made as a collection of all mankind’s minds. Certainly, the discoveries we have made, the inventive and creative mind of man, the impressive body of knowledge around us means that we are wise with or without God, right?

It is certainly convenient to think we are as smart as God and we wisdom, but I’m inclined to believe the Book that contains the wisdom of the Ages. Off and on, I have attempted to read one chapter of Proverbs a day each month continuously. I’ll have to admit, I’m not very good at it. There are 31 chapters, so it makes for a good goal to just pick up the book and read today’s chapter and see what it says.

I’m releasing this podcast on Monday, November 5th. That chapter in Proverbs gives warning from a father to his son concerning adultery. Nothing good comes from it. In fact, only bad things can come from adultery. There might be moments of pleasure, but in the end, those pleasures disappear and you are left with a disastrous marri age, ruined relationship both within and outside the family, a reputation that says you cannot be trusted since your spouse could not trust you.

If we would just live by the precepts the writers of Proverbs gave us more than 3,000 years ago, we could avoid so many of the problems we bring on ourselves. Those wise men give us lots of advice about the practical things of life. Loving God and pursuing him. Learning, studying, and obeying God’s laws. Family relationships. Parenting. Finances. Work ethics. The consequences of not following their advice in these areas of life.

And you know what? As I reach toward the back half of my sixth decade of life, I’m finding their advice and their knowledge of the consequences of not following their advice is absolutely true. I only wish I had followed everything they had to say. I didn’t. I don’t know very many people who have. We are pretty stubborn and selfish and most of us have a pretty healthy opinion of ourselves. We think we know the answers to life better than God. We don’t.

All we have to do is look around our world and see just how awful a job we do at following the wisdom of those writers. As humans, we fail in almost everything those authors told us. We mess up relationships because we are more interested in what we want than in caring for those we are supposed to love. We have messed up finances in every country because again we are selfish. The haves and the have nots plague our world. One percent of the world’s population owns well over 99% of its wealth. I don’t think God meant for us to live that way.

With that statement, I’m not suggesting we move to a socialist or communist society because governments have proven many times over that those countries do not fare very well. And, oh by the way, they have their one or two percent that own 95% or more of their countries wealth. Those governments never work because people are selfish and greedy by nature. Those with the wealth don’t want to give it up because if they give away some of their wealth, they won’t have it. Not that they need all of it, but they won’t have it and that’s the point. We are selfish and greedy with humongous egos.

We think we have knowledge. So did Thomas Jefferson’s generation. In the mid 1800’s the current philosophy was that there was nothing else to be learned. We knew it all. Except that today we double our knowledge base about every 12 months according to IBM and with the full build of the internet, knowledge is expected to increase every 12 hours before too many years pass. Just think of that, All the knowledge that ever was doubling every year in today’s communication systems. That blows my mind. But knowledge isn’t wisdom.

I know a lot of people with a lot of knowledge, but they can’t control their household. They are hopelessly in debt. They seem to destroy every relationship they have with their supposed knowledge. They are a total mess even though they know a lot of things. Knowledge is not wisdom.

You see, wisdom is how you use the knowledge you have. It has more to do with having peace in a chaotic world. It has to do with more than surviving or being what the world might deem as successful in life. It has to do with making from this life to the next and having an eternal reward instead of an eternal punishment. It has to do with living in community with others. Wisdom is recognizing we don’t know everything, but that’s okay. It means we recognize our limitations. We understand we need others and we especially need God.

Having wisdom is so much better than having property or money or any physical assets of any kind. With wisdom, you understand the importance of the intangibles of life. These are the things that last. The physical assets that so many run after can be taken away in a moment. Ask the people who lived through the hyperinflation years in places like Argentina when all the stores just dropped the last three zeroes in the price because 1000% inflation every few months meant a loaf of bread cost nearly thousands of pesos. Even today, now that inflation is under control, a meal for two in a mid-range restaurant will run AR 800$.

The same could happen here. Assets in stocks or property or in the bank or anything tangible can lose value overnight. Look at the housing bubble that caused property to climb unreasonably fast and fall just as fast. We watched one of the most powerful manufacturing cities in the country, Detroit, crumble and whole neighborhoods in foreclosure and houses selling for as little as $400-500. Seems unbelievable, doesn’t it? Just spend some time around Wall Street and you’ll see fortunes won and lost in hours. Nothing tangible survives.

The Pharaohs thought they could take their wealth into the afterlife with them. We know they didn’t as tomb after tomb gave up its golden treasures to grave robbers. Nothing went with those mummies that lay in those sarcophage. Everything placed in those tombs stayed there until someone took them. But their reputations survived through decades and centuries. Their histories still peak our interest. We still know something of some of their reigns. But all the things that survived them are intangible. What made the treasures of interest was the stories that go with them.

Wisdom provides the stories. Wisdom gives us the use of knowledge that brings good to others. Wisdom advances relationships and brings peace to chaotic situations. Wisdom springs from the heart of God. Wisdom knows when justice or mercy or grace is the proper response to those who wrong us. Wisdom befriends the broken, but doesn’t condone the actions that caused their brokenness. Wisdom listens like, talks like, acts like, lives like, worships like, strives to be like Christ. Knowing him is the beginning of wisdom. Without him, we are fooling ourselves thinking we are able to adequately apply any amount of knowledge in a worthy manner.

So to be wise, know him so you will know more.

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.

Personality of a specialist (John 11:14-15), March 12, 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’ve heard a lot of reports of people with cancer, heart problems, strokes, all kinds of maladies in the last few weeks and I’ve heard families complain sometimes about the specialist caring for their loved one. Rough bedside manner. No people skills. Don’t seem to care. I’ll let you in on a secret in just a minute.
Scripture
1. John 11:14-15
2. Jesus: Lazarus is dead, and I am grateful for your sakes that I was not there when he died. Now you will see and believe. Gather yourselves, and let’s go to him.
Devotional
1. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but in the medical world, there seems to be an inverse relationship between bedside manner and perfection of subspecialty skills.
  1. Brilliant people with exceptional medical knowledge and skill
  2. Can diagnose and treat when no one else seems to be able to
  3. Knows exactly what to do and wonders why no one else can see the problem
  4. Horrible bedside manner
    1. Matter of fact
    2. No social skill
    3. Blunt without emotion or feeling
  5. But they’re good, maybe the best
  6. Perhaps okay to put up with lack of social skill when they are the best at their craft
2. Jesus sounds a lot like that when He talks to the disciples in this passage.
  1. Lazarus is dead
  2. For your sakes
  3. Grateful I wasn’t there when He died
  4. Don’t cry.
  5. Let’s go
3. Knowing Jesus is the best at what He does, don’t always expect Him to be all soft and squishy with you
  1. Sometimes needs to tell it like it is
  2. Sometimes needs to just cut to the chase and let you have the news you need to hear
  3. Sometimes needs to have no bedside manner to get your attention so you can heal best
  4. Great Physician
    1. Physically
    2. Mentally
    3. Spiritually – only He can save us from our sins
  5. He’s the specialist, it’s okay for Him to get rough with us sometimes
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 part of an accountability group? (John 8:19), February 20, 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.
Are you part of an accountability group? Do you have anyone that really knows you and challenges you in your daily journey? How do you find someone like that in your life? One group of men I heard did just that.
Scripture
1. John 8:19
2. Jesus: You don’t know the Father or Me. If you knew Me, then you would also know the Father.
Devotional
1. A few days ago I was listening to a vignette about a men’s group that decided they wanted to become accountable to each other. The short video didn’t explain how the men met or tell much about any common interests that brought them together.
  1. Might have been a Sunday School Class
  2. Might have been a Men’s Bible Study
  3. Might have been neighbors at the time
  4. Might have been co-workers, but probably not
  5. Came several areas of business, some entrepreneurs, some blue collar
  6. Made a commitment to met for support and accountability to each other for the next 20 years
2. During those twenty years…
  1. One plead guilty to felony charges and spent time in prison
  2. Two lost a child
  3. One when through rehab for drug and alcohol addiction
  4. Three went through divorce
  5. All had major crises in life
  6. All supported each other and helped them through those crises
3. Seventeen years later
  1. They know each other
  2. No secrets
  3. Nothing off limits in their accountability circle
  4. Grow in their spiritual journey together
  5. Challenge each other in all areas of life
  6. Still committed to life of integrity
4. Jesus said we don’t know Him or the Father
  1. Maybe it was because they didn’t spend any time with Him
  2. Maybe they thought a superficial relationship would do
  3. How are you, what’s happening, good to see you, kind of relationship
  4. He wants us to commit like these ten men committed to each other
  5. Spend time with Him, get to know Him and make nothing off limits in discussion with Him. He knows anyway.
5. When we spend time with Him we will get to know Him and when we know Him we will know the Father because they are One. How? I don’t need to understand it, I just need to believe it.
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.”

Today there is no excuse (Luke 12:42-48) November 19, 2016

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Acts 17-18

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

Today’s Devotional

Luke 12:42-48
Jesus: Imagine the stories of two household managers, and decide for yourself which one is faithful and smart. Each household manager is told by his master to take good care of all his possessions and to oversee the other employees—the butlers, cooks, gardeners, and so on. One servant immediately busies himself in doing just what he was told. His master eventually comes to check on him and rewards him with a major promotion and with more responsibility and trust. The other household manager thinks, “Look, my boss is going to be gone for a long time. I can be complacent; there’s no urgency here.” So he beats the other employees—the women as well as the men. He sits around like a slob, eating and getting drunk. Then the boss comes home unexpectedly and catches him by surprise. One household manager will be fortunate indeed, and the other will be cut into pieces and thrown out.
Now if a servant who is given clear instructions by his master doesn’t follow those instructions but instead is complacent and apathetic, then he will be punished severely. But if a servant doesn’t know what his master expects and behaves badly, then he will receive a lighter punishment. If you are given much, much will be required of you. If much is entrusted to you, much will be expected of you.

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

What should we think about God’s instructions and how much He has given to us? Some might want to claim ignorance because they haven’t heard about Him and don’t know His rules. How could they be expected to follow Him if they haven’t read His word or been exposed to the gospel? How can God hold them accountable if they have never darkened the door of a church or heard a sermon from a pulpit? Will God really hold them accountable for not following the things He put in that dusty old book that sits on their grandmother’s shelf? Surely most of the world now fits into that category of not knowing means a light punishment, right?

I’m not so sure that’s true. It’s a nice thought, but who has not heard the name of Jesus? We get blasted by the controversy every time the Christmas holiday comes around. We hear the world’s anger rise about Easter and why do we need to celebrate and raise the name of Jesus in public. ISIS has certainly heard about Jesus. Everyone they meet that mentions His name they execute. We push to take His name out of schools and courts and every other public place. So His name is certainly known around the world.

So the next question is how hard is it to find out what Jesus wants from us? Well, how hard is it to type His name into the search engine of your favorite browser along with some terms like salvation, Christian, or faith. In the first nanosecond, yahoo delivered four and a half million results. It would probably take some time to read through all of those, but I expect in the first page or so of results you would find information about the Christian faith, the simple sinners prayer, and the tenets of the Christian faith.

How hard is it to find a lot of information about what Jesus wants from us? It takes another nanosecond of search to figure out the Bible is the book Christians use to guide their faith. And to make it fair to all the other books published in the world, the Bible is never listed as a best seller. I’ve always wondered why it’s not included, because if you do a simple search of published works, you’ll find the Bible tops the lists of titles sold by a wide margin every year.

So all it takes to have the knowledge you need to follow Him is to pick up a Bible and read it or go to a website and download the Bible or read it from the web or use an audio app. There are dozens of churches with lots of empty seats every week. Of course, just going to church doesn’t mean you’re following the things Jesus said we must do. So, now how hard is it get the information you need to follow Him? Not very hard. It’s pretty easy, in fact. With our communication abilities today and the knowledge network we brag about, there is no excuse for not knowing about Jesus and what He wants from us.

If everything I’ve said in the last few minutes is true, then listen again to Jesus’ warning. “If you are given much, much will be required of you. If much is entrusted to you, much will be expected of you.”

Much is entrusted to you whether you use it or not. It’s available. We have no excuse for not using the tools God has given us. None. I don’t think He will accept, “I didn’t read your book.” or “I didn’t hear those sermons.” or “I didn’t know.” as an excuse. There is no reason we can’t know today. It’s all at our fingertips, we just need to pick it up, read it, and follow it.

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.

Why is He so smart? (John 7:12-20) December 20, 2015

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Scriptures

Today’s Bible reading plans include:

Ready – John 7:12-20

Set – John 7

Go! – John 7-8

John 7:12-20
¹² The crowds would talk in groups: some favored Jesus and thought He was a good man; others disliked Him and thought He was leading people astray. ¹³ All of these conversations took place in whispers. No one was willing to speak openly about Jesus for fear of the religious leaders.
¹⁴ In the middle of the festival, Jesus marched directly into the temple and started to teach. ¹⁵ Some of the Jews who heard Him were amazed at Jesus’ ability, and people questioned repeatedly:
Jews: How can this man be so wise about the Hebrew Scriptures? He has never had a formal education.
Jesus: ¹⁶ I do not claim ownership of My words; they are a gift from the One who sent Me. ¹⁷ If anyone is willing to act according to His purposes and is open to hearing truth, he will know the source of My teaching. Does it come from God or from Me? ¹⁸ If a man speaks his own words, constantly quoting himself, he is after adulation. But I chase only after glory for the One who sent Me. My intention is authentic and true. You’ll find no wrong motives in Me.
¹⁹ Moses gave you the law, didn’t he? Then how can you blatantly ignore the law and look for an opportunity to murder Me?
Crowd: ²⁰ You must be possessed with a demon! Who is trying to kill You?

Today’s Devotional

From today’s background scripture God might say:

During My time on earth, many questioned how I could be so wise about the Hebrew Scriptures without a formal eduation. I spoke about concepts within the law that amazed the people and confounded the scholars. I turned the Pharisees’ arguments upside down on them when they tried to trap Me in their traditions and opened the laws to catch them in their own traps. So many questioned My abilities and My understanding, My sources and authority.

It would be easy to say all of it came from the God side of Me, but that is only half the story. I was completely God, but also completely Man. My mother, Mary, and My earthly father, Joseph, made sure I knew My real heritage from an early age and made sure the scriptures were available to Me. Joseph would read to Me often from the Law and the Prophets before I could read and Mary would help Me memorize long passages of scripture as a young boy.

I would spend time meditating on what those scriptures meant and because of knowing the story of My birth, I could see the prophecies within those scriptures that pertained to Me throughout My life. I saw the truth of My birth in Bethlehem, yet being called a Nazarene living in the town of Nazareth. I understood the cries of mothers since all the boys My age were killed by Herod. My parents fled to Egypt and called out of Rahmah. I knew the story and the scriptures.

Throughout My life I made the scriptures part of My life and they awakened every day as My human life unfolded around Me. But you can use the scriptures the same way, you know. They are about Me, but when you let Me into your life, you can understand the scriptures with authority because of My Spirit in you and confound those around you.

The issue most have in understanding the scripture is they fail to do what I did when I was young and continued to do throughout My life. I made the scriptures part of Me. I learned them. I studied them. I let them speak to Me and through Me. I didn’t try to twist them to suit My desires, but rather made sure My desires fit the scriptures. That’s hugely different from what I hear in a lot of pulpits today. The scriptures haven’t changed. Neither have men and women. The truths contained in My word are as old as creation and I gave them to you to help guide you through life so you might enjoy more abundant living.

In America, statistics tell you high school graduates read less than one book per year after graduation. What a dismal indictment and waste of your education. But certainly you should at least read My book. How else will you understand how to live? I gave you a manual to live by. Proverbs is full of short lessons that if followed will keep you out of trouble financially, in your relationships, with your boss, in almost every area of life. Read a chapter of Proverbs every day and you’ll read it once every month. It’s not hard, but it will change your life.

The book is only 1500 pages in most translations. If you read an hour and a half a day, you can read it in 52 days. About fifteen minutes a day and you’ve read it in a year. Can’t you afford that much time to learn about Me and what My plan for this world and for you might entail? Can’t you spend just fifteen minutes a day in My word to better understand the precepts by which I will judge you at the end of time? Don’t you think if you’re going to have a test over you life it makes sense to read the rule book? It’s there for you.

How did I speak with such understanding and knowledge? I made the scriptures a significant part of My human life every single day…without exception. The Father’s words given to humankind are the most important words you can read each day. I understood that from an early age and lived it throughout My life with you. Make them a part of your daily life, too. You won’t regret it.

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.

Do you love God’s temple? (Psalm 84), September 24, 2015

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Scriptures

Today’s Bible reading plans include:

Ready – Psalms 84

Set – Psalms 84-85; Luke 7

Go! – Ezra 1; Psalms 84-85; Luke 7

Psalms 84
¹ How lovely is Your temple, Your dwelling place on earth,
O Eternal One, Commander of heaven’s armies.
² How I long to be there—my soul is spent,
wanting, waiting to walk in the courts of the Eternal.
My whole being sings joyfully
to the living God.
³ Just as the sparrow seeks her home,
and the swallow finds in her own nest
a place to lay her young,
I, too, seek Your altars, my King and my God,
Commander of heaven’s armies.
⁴ How blessed are those who make Your house their home,
who live with You;
they are constantly praising You.
⁵ Blessed are those who make You their strength,
for they treasure every step of the journey to Zion.
⁶ On their way through the valley of Baca,
they stop and dig wells to collect the refreshing spring water,
and the early rains fill the pools.
⁷ They journey from place to place, gaining strength along the way;
until they meet God in Zion.
⁸ O Eternal God, Commander of heaven’s armies, listen to my prayer.
O please listen, God of Jacob.
⁹ O True God, look at our shield, our protector,
see the face of Your anointed king, and defend our defender.
¹⁰ Just one day in the courts of Your temple is greater
than a thousand anywhere else.
I would rather serve as a porter at my God’s doorstep
than live in luxury in the house of the wicked.
¹¹ For the Eternal God is a sun and a shield.
The Eternal grants favor and glory;
He doesn’t deny any good thing
to those who live with integrity.
¹² O Eternal One, Commander of heaven’s armies,
how fortunate are those who trust You.

Today’s Devotional

From today’s background scripture God might say:

The sons of Korah acted as the worship leaders of the Israelites. These Levites held the responsibility of leading the music, the choral readings, the congregational hymns, the common prayers of My people. They led the worship as My people assembled together in the Temple in Jerusalem.

Perhaps watching the faces of My people coming into My house to worship helped them see the inner beauty of worship. They saw beyond the gold and silver and ornate tapestry of the faciltiy and saw My presence in the Temple as My people sang praise to Me each day.

Perhaps preparing the music and worship activities helped bring the Korahites into a close relationship with Me as they put words and sounds together lifting their praisees and petitions to Me in orchestrating the parts of their worship service. Maybe their study of My word began to show them how beautiful worship can be.

But maybe the author if this psalm just figured out that spending time with Me is better than living life in any other place or in any other way. Spending time with Me is better than life itself. Perhaps the song writer spent time doing more than just reading My word and singing My praise. Perhaps he spent significant time alone with Me in prayer, not just talking to Me, but also listening to My voice. And what did he learn?

He learned that there is no better place than being in My presence. He learned that it can be an even better experience when several of My people humble themselves in My presence and call on Me in adoration and praise. He learned that when My people call on Me I hear them from My throne in heaven and I answer their prayers. He learned that I know what’s best for him and those he cares for and I will never let him down because I will never fail.

The writer of the psalm found the words of the hymn flowing easily from his pen because he knew Me. He spent time with Me. His worship was more than coming into My house and getting through the routine. He poured out his heart to Me with every word he sang and every prayer he prayed. He put his heart and soul into his worship because it was for Me. The writer knew Me and longed to be near Me in this life and the next. And his desire showed in everything he did.

How does your worship measure up to his? Is that how you come to the Temple, synagogue, church, altar every time you come into My presence? Do you dig into My word so that you might truly know Me. Do you spend time in prayer listening to Me as much as talking to Me? Are our conversations two-way conversations or one-way? Do know Me or just know about Me?

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
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