Tag Archives: recognition

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

Today’s Podcast

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

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

The good shepherd (John 10:1-5), March 4, 2017

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Today’s Podcast

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Thanks for joining me today for “A Little Walk with God.” I’m your host Richard Agee.
We can learn a lot from shepherds. Stick around and I’ll tell you about the one I met in Germany.
Scripture
1. John 10:1-5
2. Jesus: I tell you the truth: the man who crawls through the fence of the sheep pen, rather than walking through the gate, is a thief or a vandal. The shepherd walks openly through the entrance. The guard who is posted to protect the sheep opens the gate for the shepherd, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When all the sheep have been gathered, he walks on ahead of them; and they follow him because they know his voice. The sheep would not be willing to follow a stranger; they run because they do not know the voice of a stranger.
Devotional
1. While living in Germany, we lived above some vineyards but also had some pretty good pasture land in the back of the house above those vineyards even though we lived in the suburbs of Wurzburg. A few times during our stay there, we had a shepherd visit those fields.
  1. Weather beaten and aged
  2. Two dogs to help care for the sheep
  3. Carried everything he needed on his back and herded the sheep to open fields around the countryside ‘
  4. Build makeshift pens at night with poles and rope
  5. Laid his lean to across the entrance
2. Dogs were an important tool for the shepherd
  1. Protected the sheep
  2. Kept enemy away
  3. Kept sheep herded into a common area
  4. Listened to every command
  5. Obeyed immediately
3. Sheep recognized the shepherd’s voice, too
  1. Called and they would gather around him
  2. Knew it was time to move on
  3. Time to bed down
  4. Time of safety or time of danger
4. Animals seem to learn so much faster than people sometimes
  1. Jesus calls Himself the good shepherd
  2. After watching that shepherd in Germany a few times I learned a lot about how shepherds interact with their sheep
  3. Not always gentle, but always loving and with their best interests in mind
  4. Not always the easiest path, but the path that will get them to the best pastures in the end
  5. Not always the way that seems best to the sheep and He has to push and pull them sometimes with those dogs nipping at their heels until they sometimes bleed, but always taking the best care of them
  6. They hear his voice and follow wherever he leads them
5. We could learn a lot from those sheep and the good shepherd
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.”

Mistaken identity (John 5:36-40), February 1, 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.
Have you ever seen a celebrity in a restaurant or out of character and not recognized them at first. What was your reaction? Did you finally wake up and believe it was them or blow it off and miss the chance to meet them?
Scripture
1. John 5:36-40
2. Jesus: There’s another witness standing in My corner who is greater than John or any other man. The mission that brings Me here, and the things I am called to do, demonstrate the authenticity of My calling which comes directly from the Father. In the act of sending Me, the Father has endorsed Me. None of you really knows the Father. You have never heard His voice or seen His profile. His word does not abide in you because you do not believe in the One sent by the Father.

Here you are scouring through the Scriptures, hoping that you will find eternal life among a pile of scrolls. What you don’t seem to understand is that the Scriptures point to Me. Here I am with you, and still you reject the truth contained in the law and prophets by refusing to come to Me so that you can have life.

Devotional
1. Growing up in Nashville
  1. Not uncommon to see country-western singers around town
  2. Treated like ordinary people with special talents instead of flocked by camera hounds
  3. Often would eat at a restaurant and overhear a fan talking about them
  4. Walk up to the table and be unrecognized
  5. Sometimes the fan would argue about identity
2. Star gives evidence of identity with information
  1. Birth statistics
  2. Favorite foods, color, songs
  3. Others might agree with identity
  4. Fan still skeptical
3. Might even sing to show fan that he is who he says
4. Jesus felt the same way
  1. John testified as to His identity
  2. Father testified with voice at baptism and descending of the dove
  3. Scripture testifies of His identity
  4. Still some refuse to believe He is the One sent by the Father, the Messiah
5. When a fan refuses to believe a singer or celebrity is not who they claim to be, they miss out on meeting a popular person; when we refuse to believe Jesus is the Messiah, the savior of the world, we miss out on eternity
6. Maybe we should be a little less skeptical and start listening to the evidence around us
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.”

Don’t you love the power in His simple words? (Mark 1:25) July 6, 2016

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Psalms 78-80

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

Today’s Devotional

Mark 1:25
Jesus (rebuking him): Be quiet, and come out of him now!

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

Jesus starts His ministry with a bang. He teaches and people listen. They are in awe of His understanding of the scriptures. They like what He says. He speaks with authority and the way He shares the Law and the Prophets with such intimate knowledge but as an uneducated carpenter from the village of Nazareth just blows them away. This just shouldn’t be happening. Nazareth was a dean of thieves and robbers. It was the bad side of the tracks for the bad side of the tracks. Nothing good came out of Nazareth and yet here is this Man with such a wonderful gift of teaching God’s message.

Then a man bursts through the crowd screaming out above the sound of His teaching, “I know who you are! You are the Son of the Holy God! What are you doing here? Have you come to destroy us?” It was the demons inside the man screaming out, evaluating the presence of this teacher. They knew exactly who the Man was. And they were afraid. They knew His power. They knew His holiness. They knew He could destroy them with just a single word.

But Jesus’ ministry was just beginning. He didn’t want people to believe because of the testimony of demons. He wanted people to believe in Him because of their faith. He didn’t want His demonstrations to sway them. He wanted them to exercise their faith to realize He was the Son of God. So Jesus stopped the demon from saying anything else.

“Be quiet. Come out of him now!” Jesus demanded silence from the demon that announced who He was. We probably can’t understand why other than what scripture tells us. The timing wasn’t right. He didn’t want to be found out and made king or priest or ruler because people found out too early who He really was. He didn’t come to hold any of those earthly positions. Jesus came to conquer sin. He knew the best way for Him to do that was to live a sinless life and die as the perfect sacrifice for our atonement.

So what can we learn from this exchange between Jesus and this demon He exorcised from this tormented man?

First, we find without a doubt that Jesus is God incarnate. He is the Son of the living God. The second person of the triune Godhead. We don’t understand how all that works, but we can trust that God’s words is true and Jesus, by declaration of the those who walked with Him and the demon’s who feared Him recognized He is God.

The second thing we learn from this exchange is the demons lived among the people of Judea. They inhabited some and did all sorts of dispicable things in and through them. Sometimes it was one demon and sometimes it was many that invaded the life of a single person as we discover in scripture. The Bible doesn’t tell us how demons came to possess this man or others in scripture, but we know they did so to a violent end in most instances. And often the individual had little control over their behavior when the demons decided to take control. No sane person without that influence would throw themselves into the fire, throw themselves on the ground injuring themselves, require chains outside the city because of their violent behavior. But all these describe the activities we read about in God’s word among the demon possessed.

The third thing we learn about this exchange is the demons feared the Son of God. They thought He came to destroy them when they saw Him among the crowd. They feared for their very existence when He approached. They assumed their time had come to an end and judgment day had dawned because Jesus appeared on the scene. They knew they could not defeat Him and bowed in cowardice in His presence.

Next, we learn Jesus had complete and total control over these demons. He told them to be quiet and they spoke no more. He told them to get out of the man and they left. He told the demons to leave immediately and no sooner had Jesus spoken the words than the demons fled. He showed complete and total mastery over the minions of Satan. They could not stand in His presence and power and all He did was speak the words. They could do nothing but obey Him.

Finally, I think we learn that Jesus wants to bring freedom to any of us who want freedom from the sin and evil that is resident within us. We may not be possessed by demons, but we all have sinned and harbor that dark place that needs His light shined upon it so the darkness is dispelled. He wants to do that for us if we will let Him. He is anxious to do the work and all it takes is the sound of His voice. Come out and leave him. For Jesus, it’s that simple. Where no one else can soothe the guilt and turmoil in our soul, Jesus can with just a few simple words. You are forgiven. Enter in. Faithful servant. Child of God. Simple words with great impact.

Don’t you love the power in His simple words?

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.