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Look for Blessings, May 23, 2020

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Thanks for joining me today for “A Little Walk with God.” I’m your host Richard Agee.
As this podcast comes out, we celebrate Memorial Day in the United States. A time to remember servicemen and women who have fallen in service to our country. But the day has become more of an extra day for sales in retail stores and the day that marks the opening of parks and recreation facilities than a day of remembrance.
Perhaps this year will be a little. Most of the country still suffers under severe economic strain, so we don’t have a lot of money to spend, no matter how good the sales might be. Some parks and facilities could open, but remain closed due to the constraints placed on them. Beaches opened in most places, but many remain empty for fear of viral spread.
This year is different in many ways. Doors stay shut. Everyone remains at double-arms length. Masks are not just a fashion statement, but protection against an unseen enemy.
Perhaps we can take time this Memorial Day to think about those who put themselves in harm’s way to protect us. As we continue to struggle through these uncertain days with the Corona-SARS-2 virus wreaking havoc around the world, thousands stand in the gap for us trying to make sense of the disease and stop the flood of sick and dying.
Memorial Day has always been about the Armed Forces in the past. Still, I don’t think it would be out of line to remember the first responders and medical professionals that work tirelessly to keep us as healthy as possible under these incredible conditions as well. Having served in the Army Medical Department, many of my friends and acquaintances still serve in those most dangerous areas, putting their lives at risk for us. Many of those professionals not only suffered the effects of the disease, but as you know, some succumbed to its effects and passed away. They, too, died for their fellow man, just as soldiers and sailors, airmen and marines.
Peter wrote to early Christians suffering under the hands of persecutors. In his letter, he encourages them to rejoice. He wrote:

Dear friends, don’t be surprised about the fiery trials that have come among you to test you. These are not strange happenings. Instead, rejoice as you share Christ’s suffering. You share his suffering now so that you may also have overwhelming joy when his glory is revealed. If you are mocked because of Christ’s name, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory—indeed, the Spirit of God—rests on you.
And later.
Therefore, humble yourselves under God’s power so that he may raise you up in the last day. Throw all your anxiety onto him, because he cares about you. Be clearheaded. Keep alert. Your accuser, the devil, is on the prowl like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith. Do so in the knowledge that your fellow believers are enduring the same suffering throughout the world. After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, the one who called you into his eternal glory in Christ Jesus, will himself restore, empower, strengthen, and establish you. To him be power forever and always. Amen. 1 Peter 4:12-14; 5:6-11 CE

I think the longer we endure this pandemic, the more anxious people become. It’s natural. We want it to be over. We want to believe science can create a pill or vaccine or something that will take this thing away. Aren’t we smart enough with all our genomic studies, our ability to conquer space, our ability to clone a sheep – aren’t we able to defeat this simple virus?
The answer is…maybe. Scientists are working to change a seven to ten-year approval process into a twelve to eighteen-month process. That skips a lot of policies and procedures the government put in place over the years for our protection. I know it sounds like a lot of bureaucracy and a waste of money. Through the years, those precautions saved a lot of lives, though. So we might get a vaccine in a few more months, but I won’t hold my breath.
I think I will listen to Peter’s encouragement. This suffering isn’t from God. He isn’t punishing the world for its evil. We punish ourselves. God is in the business of rescuing us from our sins. He sent his Son for just that purpose. The suffering we endure comes because Adam and Eve introduced disobedience and corruption into the cosmos and disrupted its perfect order. We contribute to that chaos and destruction with every passing generation.
But remember Peter’s words? “… don’t be surprised about the fiery trials that have come among you to test you. These are not strange happenings. 13 Instead, rejoice as you share Christ’s suffering. You share his suffering now so that you may also have overwhelming joy when his glory is revealed. … you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory—indeed, the Spirit of God—rests on you.”
We may not feel very blessed going through the pandemic separated from our friends and those we cherish. We might long for yesterday when we could go about freely and do as we pleased. We might shake our fist at God, asking why this tragedy sweeps around the world affecting so many of his children.
To your questions and complaints, you might hear his still, small voice in the whisper of the wind, “Rejoice as you share in your suffering now, so that you may have overwhelming joy when my Son’s glory is revealed. You are blessed, for my Spirit rests on you.”
In these uncertain times, recognize the blessings that surround you. God holds all of this in his hands and gives us hope even in the face of what may appear hopeless circumstances. Trust him, and as Paul exhorts us, “Rejoice in all things.” It’s not always easy, but in everything, we can find blessings from God. He loves us and has our best in mind, even when we can’t see it.
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.

Scriptures marked CEB are taken from the COMMON ENGLISH BIBLE (CEB): Scriptures taken from the COMMON ENGLISH BIBLE copyright© 2011, 2012. Used by permission.

Advent. It’s time to celebrate, December 17, 2018

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

Here we are, the third week of Advent already. Christmas is fast approaching. Just a few more days and it will be here. I’ve been sharing with you thoughts from the common lectionary during this Advent season. Today one of the Advent readings comes from a book of the Old Testament we often don’t pay much attention. Zephaniah is one of those tiny books of prophecy near the end of the Old Testament.

You may not know or realize how the Old Testament is put together, but the prophets are not arranged chronologically, but by length, the longest being first in the canon and the shortest last. Zephaniah is ninth among the twelve minor prophets. And the minor prophets are called minor only because those scriptures are short, not because they are less important than the major prophets. So now you can wow your friends about how our Bible is put together.

The only things we know about Zephaniah are what come from the text of this small book. We know a little of his heritage, maybe springing from King Hezekiah, although the Hezekiah named in his genealogy isn’t called king, so we are not even sure of that. Scholars think the book was probably written about 620 years BCE, about the sixty to eighty years before the book of Isaiah was written. It also speaks of the same kinds of corruption Isaiah talks about in his prophecy, though, so some think Zephaniah may have been a student of Isaiah.

The verses from the lectionary I’d like us to think about today as we pass through this Advent are these:

Hurray! It’s time to sing, faithful daughter of Zion!

It’s time to shout out loud, Israel!

Be happy and celebrate with all your being,

faithful children of Jerusalem!

The Eternal has cancelled His judgments against you.

He changed the course of your enemies.

The True King of Israel, the Eternal One, is standing right here among you;

you have no reason to be afraid ever again.

The come from chapter three verses fourteen and fifteen.

The thought hit me today that we really need to hear these words and take them to heart. They don’t just apply to the Israelites, but they apply to all who call on Jesus’ name as Lord of life. The reason we need desperately to celebrate Christmas revolves around the state of the world. In my opinion, we are at a crisis moment around the world. Just think about a few facts that affect us globally.

The antidepressant market will reach nearly $13 Bn this year with the United States and Canada consuming more than a third of those prescription drugs.
Violent crimes occur to about 900 per 100,000 in the richer countries of the world
The tension between countries has never been greater because of their economies, environmental issues, religion, human rights, and a host of other issues
Our sensitivities to wanting what we want with no regard to what it might impose on someone else has never been worse
Our patience to acquire material things has shortened such that most American families owe nearly three times their annual salary
The national debt we now pass on to our children stands at $18 trillion. That’s about $157,000 per taxpayer. Note that a mortgage company will probably not loan you the money for a house if your debt to income ratio is more than 35-40%. Our governments ratio of debt to income now stands at 103%. Ouch.

So many things seem to go wrong these days. We live in a scary world. One could become paranoid about living in the conditions we face every day. The world, including this country, has gone insane. We think only about ourselves and we do that poorly. We think only about the moment without thought of the repercussions our behavior may have. We forget we live in a global society. In fact, sometimes it seems we forget we are part of a society or a community at all. We don’t turn out to vote and if we do we rely on the ridiculous television or radio ads candidates throw at us instead of researching their history and their character.

We don’t know our neighbors and shut ourselves inside our homes afraid to meet those next door because we’re afraid we might somehow offend them or they might offend us. We don’t want to mess up our relationship with them so we don’t have a relationship with them at all. We don’t even know our family, if the truth be told. Just look around the next time you go to a restaurant to eat. You’ll find families and “friends” at most tables if it’s a busy place, but notice what they are doing. Most won’t be talking to each other. They will have their face down and fingers flying, “connecting” on their smartphone. But there is a terrible problem with that picture. First, those phones are not smart at all.

Second, we do not connect through phones. We only project bad information and poor communication. You see, communication means seeing and understanding the body language that should accompany words spoken. Part of our problem with the rage and hate and flying around our society is the misinterpretation of written words recorded without inflection, tone, and body language to go along with them. The receiver thinks they know what was said, but often doesn’t.

So many of our words have been hijacked and meanings turned around that putting something on social media is a sure fire way to get people angry. For instance, gay used to mean happy, joyful. It still does in some circles, but the word was hijacked and now we can no longer use the word in that way because most of society will think we are talking about an alternative lifestyle, not about a state of emotional well being. The rainbow used to be understood as God’s promise not to destroy the world with a flood ever again. God’s iconic promise has been hijacked and the meaning of the symbol changed in our society.

We are in trouble and don’t know it. We need to hear God’s word. We need the promise that he still loves us and will return to take us home. We need to know that the true King of Israel is standing right among us and will not let our enemies defeat us. We need to know he is our salvation and he will not fail us. We need to hear his words and recognize his truth in a world that has gone insane.

In this Advent season, it is time to celebrate. It is time to rejoice. The King has already come and done for us what we could not do for ourselves. He has redeemed us with his blood. He took upon himself the sins of the world. That includes my sins and yours. All we need do is believe in him and he will give us eternal life in exchange for our trust in him.

Because he is here with us, we have no reason to be afraid. He will keep us and protect us and nothing can defeat us. Will our lives be perfect when we walk with him. No. The Christian life is hard. It’s a difficult road. Jesus promised the world will hate us because of him. But he also showed us that life with him is worth the suffering. He showed us that even though we might suffer here for a little while, the rewards even now are far greater than the suffering we might go through. As we think about the legacy of peace he promises. Those of us who have followed him for a while, know of that peace. We can testify to it sustaining power when everything around us might be in turmoil and chaos. We can know an inner inexplicable joy that fills us even when sorrow knocks at the door and threatens to destroy us in its fury.

We need to celebrate Christmas this year as never before. We need to remember Jesus came and fulfilled all those prophecies. He is truly the Messiah. God’s son. Our savior. He came to live with us to show us God. He came to give himself so we might live eternally with him. Jesus came. But he is also coming again. Those prophecies he fulfilled have not ended yet. There are still some on the horizon. Some of those prophecies tell us he will return. And when he does, his bride, the church, will be swept up into the air to be with him forever. We can celebrate even the world is going mad. We can celebrate despite the fact we live in a day when more Christians face death at the hands of our enemies that ever before. We can celebrate.

Paul tells us, “Rejoice in the Lord always! And again I say, Rejoice! Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near.” This Advent, go for it. It’s time to celebrate.

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.

What would you do? (Matthew 28:9-10) July 2, 2016

Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Luke 17-18

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

Today’s Devotional

Matthew 28:9-10
Jesus (greeting the women): Rejoice.
The women fell down before Him, kissing His feet and worshiping Him.
Jesus: Don’t be afraid. Go and tell My brothers to go to Galilee. Tell them I will meet them there.

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

You’ve probably seen the popular TV show, actors portray different scenes in public and hidden cameras watch unsuspecting bystanders to see what happens as the action plays out before them. You know the punch line – “What would you do?” Sometimes the actions are pretty bizarre and we would like to think we know how we would react when put in those situations. But do we?

Put yourself in the cemetery on that first Easter morning. You go to the tomb to finish preparing the body of the man you thought would lead your country to freedom. You listened to His words and just knew He was must be the Messiah, but then He was arrested and killed like a common criminal. All your dreams are dashed. But you still want to carry out this last act of respect.

The guards are laying around the tomb either unconscious or so terrified they just can’t move. The stone is rolled away from the entrance. You see an angel sitting on top of the stone. The tomb is empty. Then the angel talks to you and tells you not to be afraid. What would you do? I’d probably be scared out of my gord no matter what the angel said. He just took on a whole Roman squad by himself and rolled away a stone too massive to for any man to move alone. And did it all without getting a speck of dirt on him.

I bet I’d fall on my face in fear. But then Jesus appears, but His skin is no longer ripped to sheds by the thirty-nine lashes He took. His brow shows no sign of the crown of thorns that pierced it. The bruises are gone. The blood that covered His body when you laid Him in the tomb is gone. The almost unrecognizable figure of a man that went into the tomb three days ago is not the same figure that stands before you now.

No, this is the same Jesus you walked with and talked with every day. This is the One who sat with you and explained the scriptures so perfectly. This is the man who loved everyone and taught you to love even your enemies. This is the man you thought you’d never see again until the final resurrection. What would you do?

I would probably faint dead away. I’d probably just fall on my face and pass out cold from the instant fear that ran through my whole body. That’s what I’d probably do. I’ve seen some really strange things in my life and been in some pretty scary situations, but to see Jesus resurrected on that first Easter mornining? Not sure I’d be standing up.

But Jesus says, “Rejoice!” “Tell my brothers to go and meet me in Galilee.”

Wow! I don’t think John Quiñones could put anything like that together. But if he did, I wonder what kind of response He would get? I’m afraid today he wouldn’t get much of one. People would assume it’s some sort of Hollywood special affects or slight of hand. Folks would look for those hidden cameras thinking that since this couldn’t be real, there must be some wizard behind the curtain and start looking for him. I’m not sure with all the SciFi and fantasy worlds we create for ourselves as entertainment, many would even see this scene as the incredible, historic, supernatural, spiritually awakening invitation for all mankind it really was.

But it happened. Jesus spent enough time in the grave to assure everyone in Jerusalem He was really dead. The Roman soldiers who crucified Him testified to it and they knew their job. They had no doubt about His condition when they took His lifeless corpse from that cross. When Joseph of Arimethea put Jesus in his tomb, no one doubted He was dead. No pulse. No heartbeat. No breath. Bled out. Dead. And even if He was alive, He certainly couldn’t have move that stone and walked around three days later after the physical ordeal He went through. Even with our modern medicine, He would spend months, maybe a year or more in the hospital recovering from His wounds. Walking around talking in three days? Healed? No way. Alive? Impossible.

Jesus told the women who came to finish their burial ritual to rejoice. And they did. They fell at His feet and kissed His feet and worshiped Him. Any question they had about His being the Son of God disappeared in that encounter. He was God incarnate.

Then Jesus gave them a job to do. Go tell My brothers I’m alive and I want to meet them. You know He gives us the same message to tell others when we recognize the incarnate, resurrected God of the universe in Jesus, the Christ, the Anointed One. When we finally figure out who He is and let Him be Lord of our life, He tells us to rejoice. Then He tells us to go and tell His brothers He wants to meet them.

Have you told anyone lately that Jesus wants to meet them? He has risen. He is alive. The message is clear. So what will you do?

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