Tag Archives: Luke

One Came Back, October 19, 2020

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

Today, we are further from the first-century church than was King David. Life for the shepherd king resembled life for Jesus and his followers more than it does for us. We sometimes find it challenging to remember that because of the way the Renaissance portrayed the first century. We see paintings of the Roman Jesus instead of the Jewish Jesus. We see him peacefully meandering through the hillsides and large crowds welcoming him wherever he goes with no interruption or opposition in those paintings.

I don’t think that’s what life was like for Jesus and the Jews of his day. We forget Israel and Jerusalem, in particular, found itself an occupied nation filled with Roman soldiers. Jerusalem’s priests continually worked to quell revolts among the people so they could keep their tenuous line of authority with Herod and Caesar. Revolutionaries popped up among the populace often enough that crucifixes were not an uncommon sight along the Judean and Galilean roads as examples of what would happen to those who sought to overthrow their Roman yoke.

The Jews didn’t like the Romans. They didn’t like their taxes. They didn’t like the fact that taxes must be paid with Roman coins with Caesar’s depiction stamped on one side and the pronouncement’ son of god’ on the other. The blasphemous thought grated at them every time they even saw one of those coins. That’s part of the hypocrisy of their question to Jesus, the scribes and Pharisees should have shuddered at producing a coin, much less had one within the Temple grounds.

Jesus spent most of his ministry outside Jerusalem to the very end, mostly, I think, to avoid what he knew would result when he spoke of the kingdom of God within the city. The priests would protect their positions with Rome. Rome would swiftly end anything they saw as a threat to their empire. Any talk of a new king constituted a threat to Caesar. How could Rome not execute another proclaimed Messiah, King of the Jews? Jesus was not the first to hang on their crosses, and he would not be the last. But he would be the only one the grave could not hold.

So, let’s take a different picture of what Israel might look like in those three years of Jesus’ ministry. Instead of the serene country hillsides and quiet fishing villages, let’s move the scene forward into what it might have looked like in our modern world. Picture Chicago, Seattle, Portland, New York, and other major cities protesting the police’s overreach in some of those cases. Riots spring up, rocks thrown, torches lit, crowds gather around public buildings.

But there is one huge difference. In our cities, those protests and riots run their course. Buildings burned. Some innocents and guilty were injured. Some arrested. But imagine living in a police state like Rome or China. That first night of protest, the army comes out in full force. The protesters find themselves surrounded. Gunshots begin to ring out. Within a few minutes, it’s over. The protesters no longer stand shouting with fists raised, ready to let the government know their grievances. They lay dead in the streets.

That’s Jerusalem in Jesus’ day. Centurions kept peace with their companies of soldiers. When rocks were thrown, they retaliated with swords and spears. The Romans showed no mercy. They conquered wherever they went because everyone knew their reputation and most often surrendered before forced to fight. Paying taxes seemed better than lying in a grave.

Did Jesus hide? I don’t think he hid from authorities, but as he often mentioned, he lived on a timetable. Jesus marched toward a specific destiny at one particular time. He would be the Passover Lamb and did not want to find himself in the hands of the authorities at the wrong time. Consequently, we find most of his teaching outside Jerusalem in Judea and Galilea’s hills, and sometimes in Samaria.

Why all that background? It’s to introduce us to a story that hits too close to home for the church today. It comes from an event recorded by Luke in the seventeenth chapter:

¹¹As Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem, he passed along the borderlands between Samaria and Galilee. ¹²As he was going into one particular village he was met by ten men with virulent skin diseases who stayed at some distance from him.

¹³‘Jesus, Master!’ they called out loudly. ‘Have pity on us!’

¹⁴When Jesus saw them he said to them, ‘Go and show yourselves to the priests.’ And as they went, they were healed.

¹⁵One of them, seeing that he had been healed, turned back and gave glory to God at the top of his voice. ¹⁶He fell on his face in front of Jesus’ feet and thanked him. He was a Samaritan.

¹⁷‘There were ten of you healed, weren’t there?’ responded Jesus. ‘Where are the nine? ¹⁸Is it really the case that the only one who had the decency to give God the glory was this foreigner?

¹⁹‘Get up, and be on your way,’ he said to him. ‘Your faith has saved you.’ Luke 17:11-19 NTE)

Jesus continued his ministry, mostly in small villages outside the major metropolitan areas of Israel. Herod had already arrested and killed his cousin, John, because of his ministry. Jesus’ message was more inflammatory and revolutionary than John’s. His disciples declared him Messiah. Herod knew from the prophecies that meant one thing. He would reign over all the Jews and all the nations. Jesus was a threat to Herod and Caesar.

Still, Jesus spread his message. Repent! The kingdom of God is near. His kingdom is at hand. But Jesus’ kingdom didn’t bring speak of violent overthrow of an oppressive government. He didn’t expect to use armed soldiers to fight against another army. Jesus spoke of fighting with peace, love, mercy, forgiveness, grace. Characteristics that describe the loving Father he knew created all things and allowed the kings of the world to hold their positions to bring some order into the chaos that would otherwise run rampant throughout his world.

We saw how the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone or Capitol Hill Organized Protest turned out. It didn’t take very long until what was supposed to be a peaceful, everyone equal, no racism, no police area of Seattle included burned-out buildings, businesses looted, and owners threatened, robberies, rapes, and murders with a small group of armed men deciding they were in charge. Autonomy turned into anarchy in the small area. Peace and love turned to violence and fear. God’s word says he puts authorities in place to keep us in line because we can’t do it ourselves. We are broken people because of sin. We cave to our misdirected desires and satisfy them in ways that break the communities in which we live.

Still, Jesus spread his message. He knew our hearts. He knew most would reject him. Only one of the ten men healed of their dreadful disease returned to thank him and give praise to God. Did the other nine return after they went to the priest? We don’t know, but based on the story, I doubt it. Did they run to their families to share the good news first and then come back? Probably not, according to the tone of Jesus’ words.

We haven’t changed much across the millennia of our existence. We think we become smarter with more information at our disposal. We think we know more than our ancestors. We think we possess advanced intelligence. But I think we may digress in wisdom as we look at the plight of humanity. We have all this information at our fingertips, but what do we do with it to help each other? Instead, we try to line our pockets with more. We build bigger barns, drive faster cars, get the corner office with bigger windows.

But do we give credit to the One who enables us to do any of those things? And do we share the surplus as God asks? Do we take care of the widows and orphans, the definition of those who could not take care of themselves in his day? Do we share the message that Jesus came to fulfill Abraham’s side of the covenant, to finally share the blessings of God with all the nations of the world – to rescue them from themselves?

Jesus came to rescue us – from sin, death, sickness, economic woes, environmental problems, societal strife, all the things that plague humanity since Adam and Eve first broke their covenant with God and ate the fruit he forbade them to eat. Jesus began that work through his message. He fulfilled that work in his resurrection. He begins to make it available to all who believe in him as Messiah, the son of the living God.

Will all believe? I don’t think so. Will all be rescued? Again, I don’t think so. When drowning, you must grab the life ring before it can save you. While it just floats beside you and you refuse to grab it, the life ring can do nothing for you. God gives us every opportunity to grab on to his message, to believe in him, to experience his forgiving mercy and grace. But we must also take that step of faith and reach out to him as well. He reaches far past the middle, but we must also reach out to him. He wants believers in his kingdom, not puppets. It is always my choice and yours.

Ten were told to show themselves to the priest. One returned to praise God. One received the words from Jesus, “Your faith has saved you, healed you, rescued you.” The other nine? We don’t know their fate for sure. I only know I want to stand with that one and know for sure I’m in that small crowd who falls at Jesus’ feet and praises him for his saving grace. How about you?

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.

Be the Body of Christ, May 4, 2020

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

It’s hard to believe four months of the year are behind us. Days creep along when faced with the daily grind of the coronavirus restrictions. Or when fighting the disease on the frontlines of hospitals watching patients struggle for life. But here we are with a fourth of the year gone by. Life rushes by at an incredible pace. Before you know it, time is gone.

During these days, I am trying to be a little more mindful of things going on around me. Couples walking around the block that didn’t have time to do so before. Kids riding bicycles that have laid idle in garages in the past. Friends and neighbors spending time talking across the yard to each other when before this crisis began, there seemed to be little time for any of these activities.

I’ve also tried to filter the news to which I pay attention. Most of the reports give us the number of sick and dead around the world or in our country. They tell us the worst-case scenarios we can expect with the disease and our economy in the months ahead. It’s all the same. Look for, here’s the dreaded word, “unprecedented” events in the coming months.

I’ve come to really dislike the word. We misuse it. It’s not true of this plague. Many alive today never experienced anything like it, but it certainly isn’t unprecedented. Ask anyone who survived the “Great Depression.” We are nowhere close to that stage in this country yet. If you could resurrect those who lived during the “Black Death” that swept through Europe in the middle ages, they would laugh at us. Between 25 and 50 percent of the population died then. Even the 1918 Spanish Flu took 25 million of us.

We cannot call this unprecedented. We can call it a pandemic. We can call it a disaster. We can call us unprepared. We can say a lot of things about it, but we should stop using the word unprecedented. It’s not.

What is also not unprecedented, but rare are the acts of kindness I’m beginning to see around us. Rather than hoarding, I’m starting to see neighbors making grocery runs for neighbors who are at higher risk of severe symptoms if they acquire the virus. I’m seeing those neighborly actions that were so common in the 1950s and 1960s. I’m seeing people talking to each other with real words instead of through mechanical devices. People are beginning to understand that the entertainment industry and sports world might not be the most essential segments of society. Maybe teachers and health professionals and first responders and janitors play a much more indispensable role than we have given them credit over the last few decades.

Maybe we can begin to charge our federal officeholders to become statemen instead of politicians in the future. We have watched enough of their party politics result in tremendous human suffering. It’s time we stop their petty scramble for reelection and keep the good of the people in mind.

But frankly, governments will never take care of people well. They never have. Rome created one of the best welfare systems for their Roman citizens. It eventually failed. The state couldn’t afford it, even with their world-wide conquests and burdensome taxation. So how were people cared for? The fringe was the concern of Jesus. He ministered to outcasts by the governments and religious organizations. So did those who followed his example after his resurrection. We read about them in the second letter Luke wrote to Theophilus concerning the acts of the early followers of Jesus. We call the letter the Book of Acts. Luke writes:

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles. All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day, the Lord added to their number those who were being saved. (Acts 2:42-47 NIV)

More people became followers of this new way of life because they saw the joy and peace that radiated from those who ministered to them. They saw something different in these Christians. Even though the Romans and the Jewish leaders sought to destroy them, they didn’t fear death or suffering at the hands of these leaders. They exuded peace in the face of death that could not be explained by ordinary means. It was the presence of the living God in their lives that made the difference. And it was this same presence of God that caused them to joyfully share what little they had with others to ensure all had enough to survive the onslaught of the persecution they faced.

Generosity in the face of poverty. Gladness in the face of persecution. Hope where others thought there should only exist hopelessness in their situation. These are the traits of the early Christians that drew men and women into their fold, adding to the church day by day. Their demonstrated love brought people to them and the church, nothing more and nothing less.

So here we are in the middle of this pandemic. Some states and cities relaxed their shelter at home orders freeing us to move about with certain precautions. The pandemic isn’t over. We will have a second wave in the next few months. More will become sick, and many will die before we see the end of this disease.

As Christians, we have an opportunity to extend God’s love during this time. We can act like the Apostles in the early church and be mindful of the needs of those around us. We can praise God and have the goodwill of the people because of the genuine love we have for those around us demonstrated by our actions. Let’s be the living body of Christ that he intended us to be in this crucial time.

Scriptures marked NIV are taken from the NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION (NIV): Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION ®. Copyright© 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™. Used by permission of Zondervan

Love the Underdog, November 4, 2019

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We can find salvation, too.

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

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

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

Don’t you hate evaluations? October 28, 2019

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

I remember throughout my military career going through my calendars searching for those events that would help me remember things I had done that I could list as accomplishments for my efficiency reports. I was never very good at keeping diaries or journals then. I’m hit and miss now when it comes to what I’ve done. But I would go through my calendars of ToDo lists and try to figure out what might appeal to promotion boards or schools or other entities that used those reports for different considerations.

I hated the process then, and I hate the process now. I’m delighted to be mostly retired and not have to worry about those reports anymore. Except I do. Every time I travel to another installation to help in the training of a medical unit, which I do part-time, now, I end up searching through those ToDo lists finding the good and the bad to create the reports that go to the clients I serve and the men and women who hire me.

It seems we never get away from evaluations. All through life, we find ourselves evaluated on something. Someone has something to say about our performance, our behavior, our personality, our wealth, our mood, something. No one is left alone without some evaluation. We all face the music, and we all probably dislike it to some degree or another.

Evaluations can be useful, though. They help us learn our weaknesses and give us opportunities to improve in areas we might not see in ourselves. They help us understand better the desires and directions our boss wants us to go instead of traveling in our own sometimes misguided ways. Evaluations can inform us in many ways if we let them.

Jesus gave such an evaluation in a parable. A parable is a simple story used to illustrate a moral or spiritual lesson. I sometimes wonder if Jesus’ simple stories were really stories or real events with unidentified people to protect the names of the guilty. Many of them are so true to life. I can visualize them happening then or today in our society.

Today, the one, in particular, I’m thinking of comes from the eyewitnesses Luke heard from recorded in chapter 18 of the gospel by his name. It goes like this:

18:9 He [Jesus] also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt:

“Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.’

But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’

I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.” (NIV)

Jesus draws an interesting comparison between the two. He talks about both of their prayers. The Pharisee tells God, “I’ve kept most of the 612 laws we’ve put on the backs of your people.” If Jesus had told the story with the whole prayer, the Pharisee would probably list 600 of those 612 laws he had not broken. He was a ninety-eight percenter — top two percent of his class.

The prayer did not impress the Father according to his Son.

If I could paraphrase Jesus a little in debriefing the Pharisee after the long-winded prayer he probably gave, Jesus might have said something like, ” Hey, bud. You’re right. You’re a two-percenter, but you got the position wrong. The Father put you at the bottom two percent, not the top. I hope you enjoyed listening to that beautiful oration you gave yourself because it got no farther than your own ears, according to the Father. And I should know, we’re on pretty good speaking terms. Oh, and by the way, he gave me the grade book, and I say you just flunked the course. Sorry about that.”

The tax collector, on the other hand, couldn’t say he got anything right. He just knew he needed help if he had any chance at redeeming his filthy, sin-ridden soul. He recognized where he stood before God. The tax collector understood that no matter how good he tried to be, God was so much better, and we are so far from true righteousness that our only hope lies in his mercy. So he pleads for it.

Who gets the crown in the end? The guy the Pharisee never expected. The one who broke all the rules. The tax collector who couldn’t even lift his face off the floor because he felt so unworthy to even be in God’s temple.

But aren’t the rules important? When you’re a toddler and mom has to tell you to keep your hands away from the stove, or you’ll get burned, the rules are important. When dad says, “Don’t play in the street, you’ll get run over.” Rules are important. But Jesus summed up those 612 laws that crushed God’s people in two simple commands. He told us to listen to him. All authority rests in him, not in the Mosaic Law. So do the two things he said to do. What are his two rules? Love God and love others with everything you’ve got.

If we could just catch his message and do those two things as his followers, what a difference we could make in the world. Oh, and that love others part, that means everyone. He said to go into all the world. I think that covers all races, all nations, all religions, all political parties, all. We are to love all. Do we have to agree with them? No, Jesus didn’t, either. But he loved them. And as people saw the love in his heart and the love in his disciples, they wanted what they saw. It changed the world. What happened to us? We started hating this group or that group. We began demanding people follow our rules. We wanted everyone to act and talk and look like us instead of loving people and letting God handle the rest.

Sounds rather like that Pharisee’s prayer, doesn’t it? Maybe it’s about time we who call ourselves Christian look in the mirror and ask ourselves, “Do I love others the way Jesus loves me?” If not, I have some work to do – on my knees.

Be Shrewd, September 22, 2019

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

Being a pastor in several churches, you get to see some of the best and the worst in society. And honestly, sometimes it’s easy to get a little jaded if you’re not careful. You watch a small segment of society try to take advantage of the generosity of churches that try to reach out to those in need. Their stories tug at your heartstrings and make you want to do anything you can to help because of the sad plight they find themselves.

Then you happen to see them getting into their brand new BMW in the next county. They are a little surprised you’re there, but not embarrassed in the least as they have discovered a way to make lots of money through the generosity of others. And it’s all tax-free. No one knows about it. The church seldom keeps records or reports it to the government. They certainly didn’t. And so it goes. Money. Wealth. Things.

Jesus warns us about it. He said these words after a story that, to us, can be a little confusing. “No slave can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.”

The confusing story is about a dishonest manager that got caught and was about to be fired. So he goes out and begins slashing the bills his master’s debtors owe. He hopes by doing so, he will gain favor in their eyes and have some means of survival after his discharge since he has no other skills. One bill is reduced by 20% another by 50%. His master finds out and gives this report. “The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness.”

Jesus goes on to say, “For the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light. And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings.

“One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much. If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful in that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own? No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”^[1]

I’ve got to tell you, it’s easy for me to see the logic in the last part of Jesus’ teaching. Why would God entrust us with great riches if he can’t trust us with little things? I talk about that to the people that work with me all the time.

New people that come to the team are always scrutinized until I get to know them. It’s not that I don’t trust them, but we all think differently. We understand words in different ways and have different experiences, talents, and skill sets. So until I know how my instructions are received, understood, and carried out as a leader, responsible for the outcome of some project, those working with me to help complete that project are under some level of scrutiny to make the end result what it is meant to be. If I’m not sure the capability of one of the team members, I have to watch that team member more closely than those with whom I’ve worked in the past whose strengths and weaknesses I already know, so that I can make whatever needed adjustments early so work doesn’t need to be redone or a project fails because I fail to give appropriate guidance.

It’s all about communication. Learning how to trust and when to trust. And if one of the team members never learns to move in the same direction as the rest of the team, that member will never get critical pieces of the project. The outcome is too important to put critical pieces in the hands of someone that is not trustworthy. And if that goes on too long, that team member will disappear from the team. It’s just the way it is. Those who refuse to be trustworthy, dig themselves into a hole they have a hard time climbing out of.

So this trust part of Jesus lesson is pretty simple, especially when it comes to money. A few questions get to the root of it all. Whose money is it? Yours or Gods? All it takes is a quick peek at your bank account, and you can tell. Do you think you are a steward or an owner? Are your palms turned up or down when holding the funds God entrusts to you? Simple, but very tough questions we must answer when we read those last verse in this discourse.

But what about those earlier verses? “The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light. And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings.”

Does God want us to be shrewd the way the world is shrewd? Does he want us to make friends with unrighteous wealth? What does that really mean?

I’ve been thinking about that the last few days since I read those verses and starting putting together my thoughts about this podcast. At first, I was going to skip over those words and just do what most of us do and go straight to the “you can’t serve two masters” part. But something stopped me from doing that.

First, the word used for wealth is the Semitic word mammon often also translated as money or possessions. It reminds us that whatever we have in this world is not really ours. We are just stewards. It doesn’t go with us into eternity. It’s not the eternal treasure that lasts Jesus talks about elsewhere. But we must have possessions here. We can’t survive with nothing.

Yes, most of us have more than we need. We live in a culture that pushes us to accumulate more and more and more. The motto “the boys with the most toys win” is alive and well in our culture. We seem to strive for that extra pay that bigger house, that newer car. But do we need those things? No. We want them, but we don’t need them. Our culture demands we have them. Our need does not.

Our need demands we have our daily bread. Enough to sustain us for another day. Enough clothing to stay clean and dressed appropriately for the climate in which we live. Not necessarily fashionable according to the cultural fad, but dressed comfortably for the environment. We need housing to protect us from the weather. Not mansions and not cardboard boxes, but housing sufficient to protect us from the weather in our particular locale. That’s about the extent of our real physical needs daily; food, clothing, shelter, and not much else.

Look around you at all the extras God has entrusted to you. And none of it lasts. It all goes away. It all requires time and energy and more resources to take care of it. And every single item you add to the list of things takes a little more time, a little more energy, a little more resources to care for it that could be used for something else. All of our time-saving devices …don’t. Even as I write this, I’m thinking of the time I have to spend removing the deck from my riding mower that is supposed to save time. It has a bent shaft, and so I’ll spend a couple of hours removing it, taking it to be repaired, a couple of hours putting it back on, and a bunch of dollars that could have been used for something else. What happened? I hit a hidden rock in my yard that is too big to mow with a push mower and probably too big for two people. But the culture caught me like it catches most of us.

So what does the scripture tell us? I think it says be smart with all that stuff. Use it the same way the world does. Don’t hold back. They use it to make friends. They use it to invite others into their piece of the world. They get people into their fold. They use their possessions, whether money or things, to capture the interest of those around them for some purpose.

Sometimes the purpose is nefarious. Sometimes it really is just to make friends. Sometimes it’s for business, to lure you into one of those pyramid schemes or something. But shrewd people of this world will use their possessions to capture the attention of those around them.

I think Jesus is telling us, God entrusted his followers with the same worldly possessions unbelievers use for their purposes. Why not use those same tools, those same kinds of possessions for holy purposes? Why not recognize those possessions as gifts from God and use them just to make friends? Or capture the attention of those around you to show Christlike behavior? Why not use the possessions at your disposal to do good in a world that has evil intent on its mind? Why not recognize as shrewd followers of Christ, we can use the same possessions, the same money, the same mammon the world treats at tools to tempt as tools to win people to God.

It’s incredible to me how many things God created that we have perverted. Why not turn the tables? If there is something we think we created (we probably didn’t, but that’s another story), why not turn it around and use it for God? Use the skills and talents and processes the world might have taught you in business and use them to build the Kingdom of God. Bring others to Christ with the same tools you use to bring others to your business. Christ will sell himself, we just need to make the introductions.

Be shrewd, not worldly, but shrewd. Use what God has put in your hands. And if he can trust you with the little things, you’ll be surprised how your life will change as you become a steward in his Kingdom.

^[1]Scripture quotations are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright© 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

The Debt We Owe, September 9, 2019

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

Bill-paying weekend, don’t you hate it? Of course, the banks and creditors have made it so much easier than it used to be. Maybe that’s why, as individuals and as a nation, we are in so much more debt than we’ve ever been. On bill-paying weekend you used to stack all the bills on the table, pull out the checkbook and painfully write out that check to each creditor, stuff the check and bill stub into an envelope, write your return address in the upper left corner, put a stamp in the top right corner, and then grab the next bill to do the same again.

Now, it’s just point and click, and in about two minutes, all the bills are paid with the bill-pay convenience most banks give you today, and most creditors are happy to subscribe. In fact, creditors will happily enroll you in auto-pay to let you no longer worry about even doing the point and click business. They’ll just collect the minimum amount due so they can collect the maximum amount of interest. Progress – maybe.

We are up to our ears in debt as a nation, and it’s easy for us to swallow that because most of us across the country are up to our ears in debt individually. It’s become a normal part of life. Finance a car, mortgage a house, finance school, clothes, vacations, even groceries. We are a debt ridden society. It’s no wonder we let Congress get away with putting us in trillion-dollar debt. So, if we were to pay off the debt today, my two-year-old granddaughter’s bill would be about $65,600, as would yours, and your neighbor’s and every other person living in the US. Pretty sobering when you think about what we’ve done in those terms, doesn’t it? $65,600 – not per household, but person. Do you have a family of four kids, five? Now the bill is over $325,000. Sorry about that.

I digress. What got me thinking about bills and debt and those things are tied to the scriptures from the lectionary. In Luke 14, Jesus talked about the owner making sure he had enough money to build the house before building or else people would make fun of him when he ran out of money after the foundation was done. Or the king would count the cost if he only had 10,000 soldiers against his enemies 20,000 soldiers. He’d send a delegate to try to start some peace negotiations instead of losing his kingdom in battle.

Paul writes to Philemon and asks him to take back his runaway slave, Onesimus as a brother without punishment. Under Roman law, Philemon has the right to punish Onesimus any way he chooses, up to and including death. But Paul reminds Philemon of the debt he owes Paul for bringing life to him through the gospel. Paul calls in the debt and asks Philemon to treat his slave as a Christian brother. Hard words in Roman culture.

Then we come to the scriptures from the psalmist in chapter 139:

For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; that I know very well.

My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.

Your eyes beheld my unformed substance. In your book were written all the days that were formed for me, when none of them as yet existed.

Have you thought about the fact that God made you with a specific purpose in mind? It started at the very beginning with Adam and Eve. He gave Adam the charge of naming every plant and animal. In the ancient world, naming something or someone gave it purpose, meaning, usefulness. So, God entrusted to Adam the task of giving purpose to everything else he had created.

Why would God give such a monumental task to Adam? Because he made us in his image to be co-reagents, stewards of the world he created. This place is his world; we are its caretakers. Our purpose is to propagate the world and be caretakers of it. We haven’t done such a great job of doing the task God gave us to do, but that is why we are here.

What does that have to do with debt? We owe God everything. We owe him the life he gave us. We owe him the talents he built into us. We owe him for the sustenance he provided in his creative acts that we might survive on this third rock from the sun. We owe him for the order he brings to the chaos around us. How can you put a price on what he has done for us? We owe him everything.

Compare what God has done with the other debt you might have. Is your soul worth more than your house? Your car? Those vacations or presents or nights out that still plague your credit cards? How about that $65,600 the government has racked up for you? Is what God has given you worth more than that? I expect the answer is pretty simple.

For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; that I know very well.

My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.

Your eyes beheld my unformed substance. In your book were written all the days that were formed for me, when none of them as yet existed.

No matter what your state in life at the moment, God gives life and breath and hope. His kingdom is here for all who are bold enough to receive it. When we do, he gives his Spirit to those who ask. He empowers us to live a life of hope because we know this world is not the end. This world is in labor pains of giving birth to a new earth, a new heaven. One in which chaos and evil and pain and suffering will be removed. We will once again be positioned to carry out the task God intended for us from the beginning, to tend to his holy place. A new earth where he comes to commune with mere humans in the cool of the day. Where we can bask in his presence and enjoy his company as caretakers of the space he allows us to share with him throughout eternity.

Do I have debts to pay? Oh, yes! I realize it every month at bill-paying time. But I also know I have debts to pay every time I read God’s word, view his handiwork, hear his creation sing his praises, share with him my innermost thoughts. God made me with a purpose. He gives me life to fulfill that purpose. Each day brings me closer to the hope of spending eternity with him in a renewed world. I just need to keep living for him and obeying his commands.

Is it easy? Not in this world. There are lots of conflicts and competing voices to filter out. Is it impossible? No. God gives us his help, his Spirit, his empowerment when we trust him with all we have and all we are. Is it worth it? Absolutely. There is no better rest than knowing regardless of my present circumstances; my eternal destiny will be with him.

Humble as the Son of God? September 2, 2019

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

You’ll find something interesting about military members who return from combat with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Sometimes it can be pretty severe causing a person to be unable to function well because of their experiences. Sometimes it’s a mild case that just causes a few hiccups and peculiarities in their behavior. One of those peculiar behaviors can be seen in most of those returning from combat zones.

I admit I’m one of those trying to recover from some of the things I’ve seen in some of those place the Army chose to send me over the years. It’s not always easy and I don’t always know what will trigger those memories, but one thing that I really don’t like and most of my military friends who have been in combat share my aversion. I don’t like to sit with my back to public doors. I want to see the exits when I’m in public.

In restaurants, I prefer booths against the wall and I want to face the entrance. In theaters, I like the back rows. They are high and I can see everyone else in the place. I’m not very good in large crowds and have a tendency to creep to the edges, not into the middle. I get anxious when I end up in positions that put me in opposition to my preferred spots. I’m working on it and know the likelihood of something happening is slim, but still, the brain works in strange ways after facing some of those past experiences.

What’s really fun is putting a bunch of us in a room together and watching to see who gets the prime seats first and watching the reactions of those who didn’t quite get there in time. I know my PTSD is not so severe as some of my buddies and in those instances try to make sure their needs are met, but I can’t say I’m always comfortable with the idea.

The lectionary from Luke chapter 14 reminded me of those seating peculiarities. Jesus told a parable about a wedding feast that goes like this:

Now Jesus told a parable to those who were invited, when he noticed how they chose the places of hone, saying to them, “When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in a place of honor, lest someone more distinguished than you be invited by him, and he who invited you both will come and say to you. ‘Give you place to this person,’ and then you will begin with shame to take the lowest place. But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when your host comes he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at table with you. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

I remember in one of my dad’s pastorates one of the ladies in the church told us how she “humbled” herself. She had hair down past her waist when she let it down. Of course, she would never do that in the church in those days, she always had it tied up in a bun. But every week, she let her hair down and dunked it in the commode to show God she loved him. We didn’t ask if she flushed first. Sometimes when you stood too close, I’m not sure she did.

And I’m not sure why she felt the need to tell us how humble she was by trying to flush her hair down the toilet. I’m not so sure God really cared much about that. And I’m sure he didn’t care about her proud attitude of her faithful ritual. My dad usually had a hard time keeping a straight face when she proudly announced her weekly ritual. The kids sitting around the church didn’t even try. We giggled and laughed as you would expect.

I don’t think that’s what Jesus meant by taking a lower place and being pulled up to a place of honor. I’m pretty sure Jesus didn’t want us to stuff our heads in toilets to let him know we were humble. That’s pretty ridiculous in my book. And for all of us who heard it and knew her, we knew she took a lot of pride in her ridiculous ritual. She wouldn’t miss that dunking for anything…even her son’s graduation! Can you imagine? I don’t think God can either. He did make an incredible zoo.

We should strive toward a life of humility, though. Jesus is described as humble. He was God, but didn’t flaunt it. He could have. He could have grand-standed and shown off a lot more than he did. We have a few instances where he did some amazing things. Feed 5,000 men plus their families with a boy’s lunch. Make new eyes for a blind man. Fix legs that had never walked. Raise kids from the dead. Call a man out of the tomb who had already started to smell in the Mideast heat. Yep, those are pretty outlandish kinds of acts. But in most of those instances, he told them not to tell anyone. Just go about your business. Leave my name out of it. Give praise to the Father, don’t mention me. And I think he meant it.

Of course it didn’t work. People saw those miracles or the results of those miracles and wanted to know how they happened. And the recipients couldn’t help but tell their stories. Jesus was at the center of every one of them. He didn’t ask for recognition, but he got it. In fact, he got so much of it the religious leaders decided he needed to die. Interesting how it was okay for them to break the rules because they thought he was breaking the rules, huh?

So what does it mean to be humble? Jesus knew he was the son of God. God gave him an incredibly important mission. Yet he was humble. We define the word as: having or showing a modest or low estimate of one’s own importance. If we look at some synonyms of the word, we find these: meek, deferential, respectful, submissive, diffident, self-effacing, unassertive; unpresuming, modest, unassuming, self-deprecating; subdued, chastened

But he was God incarnate. How could he be meek and submissive and modest and unassuming as God incarnate. I think the answer lay in his relationship to the Father. Jesus was fully God, but set aside the glory of heaven to dwell in this space with us. He assumed the same flesh and blood we have and leaned on his heavenly Father for actions that seemed so miraculous.

He told us we would do more than he did after he returned to the Father and he sent the Comforter to be with us. The same power that raised him from the dead is available to us to do the work the Father has in store for us. What is that work? Redeeming the world through him. We are instruments of his love and we can tap into the power source, his spirit, to enable us to fulfill the role he planned for us.

But we must remember it is not us. Paul reminds us, “I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” That is true, but I must remember it is through him, not through me. Jesus fed the 5,000 through the power of the triune godhead. He raised the dead by the power of the triune godhead. He rose on Easter by the power of the triune godhead. Our finite brains can’t really wrap our minds around what that means. God is one, yet three. He did all those things recorded in the gospels and empowered others to do incredible things recorded in Acts and the epistles.

When we accept Jesus as Lord of life, King of all, the creator who brings order out of chaos and forgives us for our sins. He empowers us to do the works he set out for us. Will we do the kinds of miracles recorded in the New Testament? Maybe, maybe not. For sure, we can love those around us with a love that transcends that which the world knows or understands. We can demonstrate God’s love to those around us and cause them to wonder what happened to us to make us different from the rest of humanity.

I mentioned at the beginning a lot of soldiers end up with PTSD as a result of combat. I’m appalled at what humans can and will do to other humans whether in combat, as terrorist acts, or just through plain acts of evil. I’ve seen some of it that I would like to forget but know I never will. God destroyed humanity once with a flood because all our thoughts and intentions were evil from the time we were youths.

Jesus’ death and resurrection changed all that, though. He makes it possible for our minds to be transformed and for us to begin a better journey. One filled with his love for one another. One that because of his empowerment, can show the world a piece of the new heaven and new earth that awaits his adopted children.

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.

Time to Take Care of This Place, August 19, 2019

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

Carole, my wife, and I ate at a Mongolian Beef restaurant last night. You know the kind of place. You go through the line putting the meat and vegetables you want into a bowl, pick out the sauce for the stir fry, watch it go on a giant circular grill that’s hot enough to singe your eyebrows if you get too close, and then enjoy what you created. That is if you put a reasonable mix of ingredients together.

We enjoyed the place and the food, but I think something was wrong with the air conditioning. We should have noticed when the host met us at the door looking like he just finished his workout at the gym. But we took a seat, got our drinks, and headed to the food line to make our selections. It didn’t take long for us to figure out all the servers also looked like they just finished a workout.

Sure they were working hard getting food on the tables, clearing those where patrons had finished, doing all the things workers in restaurants do. But these young men and women were obviously steamed, not emotionally, but because of the temperature. We began to feel the effects, too. Maybe it was the huge grill that made it hard for the A/C to keep up. Maybe they forgot to pay their electric bill. Maybe it was just broken. Whatever the reason, it was hot.

By the time dinner ended, Carole and I looked like those servers. We looked like we just finished a workout. It was hot. Well, it’s summer in San Antonio, Texas. Not a great time of year to visit our city. It’s hot. The news channels give us heat warnings this time of year reminding us it’s dangerous to work outside too long or leave children or animals in cars whether or not windows are open. This time of year, the inside of a car can reach 130 degrees in about 10 minutes. Pretty dangerous.

Remembering how hot our dinner date ended up last night, I couldn’t help but use the lectionary passage from Luke as the focus for this week’s podcast. In chapter 12, Jesus says these words:

“I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!

“I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed!

“Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. From now on five in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three; they will be divided: father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”

He also said to the crowds, “When you see a cloud rising in the west, you immediately say, ‘It is going to rain’; and so it happens. And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, ‘There will be scorching heat’; and it happens.

You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?”

Did you get those first words of the Savior? “I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!” That doesn’t sound much like salvation, does it? That doesn’t sound much like rescuing us from everything, does it? It sounds more like wrath and destruction. It sounds like cleansing and purging.

If you listen to Jesus’ words, that is exactly what it is. God wants to rescue his creation. He created this cosmos and declared it was good. But we corrupted it. We disobeyed and brought sin and chaos into the perfect order of his creation. God doesn’t want to leave his good creation in the chaotic mess we made. God wants to restore his good creation back to the perfect state he intended from the beginning. The question is how will he do that?

Jesus hints at that several times as he talks with his disciples and Paul tells us in his letters to the churches. Here’s the plan: all of creation awaits a renewal, a rebirth, a new heaven and new earth. Jesus tells us before the present age gives birth to a new heaven and new earth, it will go through birth pangs of earthquakes and floods and famine and wars.

I’ve been thinking a lot about those birth pangs Jesus describes over the last several years. Carole has given birth twice. I was fortunate enough to be present for both and watched her go through those birth pangs. I would have endured the pain for her, but glad I didn’t have to go through it. But I watched those labor pains get more intense with each repetition and I watched those repetitions get closer together until finally they almost fell on top of each other and her doctor gave the order to push. With that order each time, two brand new people sucked in their first gulp of fresh air and let out that wonderful sounding cry only a newborn can make.

Those two births were two of the most exciting events in my life. But as I watch the news and hear reports of earthquakes in unusual places, rains pouring into lands that haven’t flooded in 1,000 years, wildfires that seem to go unabated around the globe, famines that strike almost every country, I can’t help but think of the announcements Jesus made about the present age giving birth to a new age. An age that creates a new heaven and a new earth.

I’ve been studying lately what that new heaven and earth might be like. What I’ve discovered is that it might be very much like this earth, this cosmos, this place, but without the evil, without the pollution, without the ugliness we have caused in the beauty God gave this place in his creative act. I think God made it perfect and this globe we call earth is a poor image, but still an image of the good earth he created. I have a feeling God might not throw away the good creation he made, but rather, like the humans he says transforms, he will transform, renew, recreate this earth and make it new. I’m not sure he plans to rid us of this place as much as just taking away all the corruption we have caused and just fixing it.

You see, if God can resurrect his son and give him a physical body that is recognizable as his son, but with properties unlike those of our current body, and his son says we will one day be resurrected and have bodies like his, physical bodies with properties unlike those of our current bodies; then why can’t he transform this world and renew it, recreate it, and return us to the purpose for which he created men and women in the first place. Remember the task he gave Adam in the beginning? He said to take care of his creation.

I think when God purges the corruption of this earth with fire and recreates this place, transforms his children in resurrection by the power of his spirit, and renews his purpose for his whole creation, we will again be his stewards to tend to his good creation. We will have renewed physical bodies empowered with his spirit with purpose and talents to care for his world. He will come to be with us in this new world to commune with us as he did with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden in the beginning.

Is that poor theology? I don’t think so. We know Jesus is coming back. We know we will be transformed. We know we will be with him forever if we accept him as Lord of all. Why would we think we would not have work to do in the new world he creates for us. The bigger question is what should that do for us now as we think about our stewardship of this world if it will be transformed and not destroyed? Maybe we should think about how to care for it a little better in the meantime.

Treasures in Heaven, August 5, 2019

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

A few days ago, I sat at my desk and saw one of those plastic Rubbermaid boxes sitting under it. I opened it and began to pull out the tangle of wires, connectors, chargers, plugs, and other assorted electrical contraptions associated with computers and their peripherals.

The tangle of wires stared up at me like the hair on Medusa’s head. I felt paralyzed for a few minutes, then decided the time had come to de-clutter that box. I started through the mess of stuff, trying to figure out what I still owned that needed those cables or chargers or connectors.

It finally dawned on me that the stuff in the box lived there for untouched, well, growing, never shrinking for at least two or three years. I couldn’t remember the last time I actually took something out of the box and used it. Into the trash went 85% of everything from the crate. The other 15% made up part of my travel kit, so I don’t have to switch cables and chargers when I decide to go somewhere.

Piles of stuff. Drawers of junk. Closets of clutter. Rooms of rubbish. I’m not sure I’ve ever been in a house that doesn’t have at least a few of those around. I know I have more than my fair share and get a little overwhelmed at the thought of de-cluttering the physical stuff that takes up space in my life.

You probably know what I’m talking about. You are probably thinking about that closet or that drawer you need to go through but just don’t have the courage to rummage through the contents without a decent dose of pain killers or antidepressants.

Jesus gives us a parable that talks about the accumulation of stuff in our lives and how dangerous it can be. In many Bibles, the parable bears the title “The Rich Young Ruler.” Luke records the parable in these words in Chapter 12.

“A person in the crowd got Jesus’ attention.

Person in the Crowd: Teacher, intervene and tell my brother to share the family inheritance with me.

Jesus: Since when am I your judge or arbitrator?

Then He used that opportunity to speak to the crowd.

Jesus: You’d better be on your guard against any type of greed, for a person’s life is not about having a lot of possessions.

(then, beginning another parable) A wealthy man owned some land that produced a huge harvest. He often thought to himself, “I have a problem here. I don’t have anywhere to store all my crops. What should I do? I know! I’ll tear down my small barns and build even bigger ones, and then I’ll have plenty of storage space for my grain and all my other goods. Then I’ll be able to say to myself, ‘I have it made! I can relax and take it easy for years! So I’ll just sit back, eat, drink, and have a good time!’”

Then God interrupted the man’s conversation with himself. “Excuse Me, Mr. Brilliant, but your time has come. Tonight you will die. Now who will enjoy everything you’ve earned and saved?”

This is how it will be for people who accumulate huge assets for themselves but have no assets in relation to God.” [1]

My collection of stuff in that box under my desk cost a few hundred dollars if bought new. It was pretty worthless to me or anyone else tangled up in that box hidden away under my desk. And even though the cables, chargers, and connectors may have been costly originally, now they were very much like the possessions of that rich young ruler. They have very little value to me or anyone else.

It’s easy for us to get caught up in material things. Our culture gears our brain to attract us to the glitter and gold of this world. We like stuff. We want stuff. We desire to be like that 1% at the top. We want our yachts and second homes and “our people” to submit to our bidding. The young ruler may have had it all. But…

Suddenly, things came into perspective for him. His barns full of produce meant nothing. He would never enjoy the wealth accumulated through his expertise and labor. The goods which made him so proud either would rot in his barns, or the villagers would take them in just a few short hours. All that wealth could do nothing for him.

I’m trying to start ridding myself of stuff. It’s not easy. Carole and I enjoyed living in many parts of the country and world because of my military service. We have lots of stuff that give us a lot of amazing memories. But still, it is just stuff in the long run. The memories are great, but the material things that prompt the memories just take up space and collect dust.

Do I like those things? Sure. I’d be lying to you if I said I didn’t. I live in the same culture as you. I’m bombarded by the same marketing schemes you hear every day. I’m told how possessions mean success and lack of them mean failure in our culture. But don’t believe the lie.

As Jesus told the crowd that day, things mean nothing. One day, we will all hear God say, “…your time has come. Tonight you will die. Now who will enjoy everything you’ve earned and saved?” ¹

What treasures won’t corrupt and live beyond our frail vessels that consume air and water and food? What treasures will last in heaven?

Relationships. My relationship with God. I will either be joining him eternally or separated from Him eternally. My relationship with him and his son determines that outcome.

My relationships with my Christian brothers and sisters. I believe we will be bound together in heaven with a shared knowledge of each other with an understanding we do not comprehend at this time. I think we see only a tiny glimpse of what heaven is like in scripture. But when we arrive, I think we will know each other. We will have perfect love for each other and God. Our relationships will be perfected through him.

Actions done in love to my fellow man. I think the things we do in love for others will follow us in our memories. Paul talks about the crowns we receive for our actions. I believe those actions will be part of our joy in remembering doing Christlike things for those who share this place.

As part of the community of men and women of every race and nationality, when we do something for one of the least of these, we do it to Jesus. These memories bring him joy and will carry to the other side as treasures in heaven. Make sure you’re collecting the right treasures. Not the junk that hides in drawers or in boxes under the desk, but the things that will last forever in heaven with him.

Don’t give up, July 29, 2019

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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 read the headlines and was appalled. A mother drowns her kids. Another reads, “Father kills mother while children watch, then shoots three children. And another, “Parents cage two children for three years before discovered.”

How does this happen? What kind of people can perform these atrocities to innocent children?

This morning I read the lectionary readings that will be associated with this week’s podcast and heard Jesus’ words regarding prayer. His disciples asked him to teach them to pray. Luke recorded a version of that now famous prayer that many rattle off their tongues without even thinking about it. We often refer to it as the Lord’s prayer, but it is really the disciples’ prayer. It’s the prayer Jesus taught his disciples to pray.

But after that prayer, Jesus told about the necessity to maintain our vigilance in prayer. When we want something from God, we need to continue to ask. Be persistent, he says. In Luke chapter 11, verses 9 and 10, he says, “So listen: Keep on asking, and you will receive. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened for you. All who keep asking will receive, all who keep seeking will find, and doors will open to those who keep knocking.”

That tells me we should not give up on our prayers. God’s word gives us plenty of examples of godly men and women who prayed for long periods of time before they received answers to their requests. Abraham’s peers were great-grandfathers before he had his promised son. Joseph languished in prison before he became the second highest authority in Egypt. Paul prayed for an unknown thorn in his flesh to be removed, something we’re not sure what that thorn was, and God never removed it, but only told him after long supplication that he would receive grace to bear it.

Keep on asking, keep on seeking, keep on knocking.

There is another point of wisdom in these words that wanes in our society today. We give up on almost everything. My grandkids really excel in many areas. I have to brag on them. But once in a while, they will grab a new project, struggle with it a while and want to quit because it’s hard. Fortunately, they have a mom and dad that won’t let them quit something just because it’s hard.

If it’s something that is well beyond their capability, that is different. If it’s dangerous or could cause significant damage, that’s different. But often, they will just give a tiny bit of guidance and let their kids learn how to handle hard things. Sometimes they fail the first few times at a task. But they get better through those early failures and learn to become very good through the tutelage of their parents and other adults. It might be hard, but they grow because of it.

When we stop because it’s hard or it didn’t happen the first time, we miss great opportunities. We lose because we fail to recognize the success in learning from mistakes. It’s the problem many young people face when “helicopter” parent bail kids out of every failure and make everything right regardless of the circumstances. Sometimes, it’s good for us to feel the consequences of our failure. We learn from those instances. We figure out how to succeed when we must endure the pain and suffering that comes from our mistakes.

You’ve probably heard the quote from Thomas Edison’s interview about his first failures in creating his electric lightbulb. He said, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”

I also find his observation, “We often miss opportunity because it’s dressed in overalls and looks like work.”

How much could we accomplish if we just got at it and didn’t give up? What could we do if we just stuck to it and continued to try until we did something. Instead we get tired, feel bad about ourselves for not becoming the next Rockafeller at the age of 20, and just sit on the couch playing video games instead. I sometimes wonder how we became known as the land of opportunity unless it’s now because we give up on everything and anyone who joins us has the opportunity to do all the things we give up trying.

Life is hard. Life is filled with failure and disappointment. We cannot nor should not win every time. Everyone should not get a trophy. We don’t learn as much through winning as we do through losing. In failing is really where we build our character.

We learn grace. We learn how to pick ourselves back up and how to start over. We learn that not being at the top is okay. We learn we can survive, begin again, lean on a friend. We learn we are not alone because no one wins every time.

Jesus says don’t stop. Don’t quit. Keep at it. Don’t give up. It’s a lesson we need to learn today.

He goes on to indict us as a society in what I mentioned as I began this podcast. Do you remember those headlines? In the next verses, Jesus asks what should have been some rhetorical questions. In verses 11 through 13 he says, “Some of you are fathers, so ask yourselves this: if your son comes up to you and asks for a fish for dinner, will you give him a snake instead? If your boy wants an egg to eat, will you give him a scorpion? Look, all of you are flawed in so many ways, yet in spite of all your faults, you know how to give good gifts to your children. How much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to all who ask!”

Today, however, too many of our children grow up in fatherless homes. They don’t know what a father should be. They don’t have any idea how a loving father acts. Our kids are abandoned physically or emotionally as fathers relinquish their responsibilities as the head of the house and act like kids themselves without thought of what they do to the next generation. And the problem in the United States is that this has now gone on for two or three generations, so often, kids can’t find role models from grandfathers or even great-grandfathers in their families.

What are we to do to fix the problem? How are we to help this newest generation understand what it means to be a loving father or mother? How do we demonstrate solid family relationships when almost every family across the country feels the pain of broken homes? The only source for a solid role model is God. Our heavenly Father is the only perfect father. Scripture uses our earthly father as a model to help describe him, but the tables have turned.

I think for us to now understand who we should be as fathers and mothers, we must look to scripture and examine the life of Jesus and how he describes his Father in heaven to understand how we should build our relationships within our families and with those around us. We have so warped our roles as parents through neglecting what parenthood should be through generations of misguided relationships, that we no longer know what it means to be families.

It’s time we look to the source of relationships and marriage and families to find what these institutions should look like. We need to go to God who created us and the foundation of the family by putting Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden with the command to populate the world, instituting what we know as a marriage relationship.

It’s time we look at the good and bad fathers and mothers in scripture. We should see the consequences of the bad behavior and try our best to avoid repeating those mistakes. We should learn from the good behavior and try our best to emulate it.

God will help us learn what we should know as good fathers and mothers, sons and daughters, if we will listen to him. He will also help us recover from our failures if we will not give up, but will pick ourselves up, ask forgiveness for our failures and our sins, and try again. He will help us through those rough places. He will give us the strength to endure.

God can and will give us the courage to journey through this life as the people he would have us be. But we must put our trust in him if we hope to succeed. That doesn’t mean we will be wealthy. It does mean we will be rich. Our riches will come from the legacy of peace he promised as we follow his commands, do his will, learn his ways, and keep them.

You can find me at richardagee.com. I also invite you to join us at San Antonio First Church of the ene 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.