Tag Archives: salvation

All love or all wrath? June 17, 2019

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

The text from the common lectionary yesterday came from Romans 5. Paul wrote these words: Since we have been acquitted and made right through faith, we are able to experience true and lasting peace with God through our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One, the Liberating King. Jesus leads us into a place of radical grace where we are able to celebrate the hope of experiencing God’s glory. And that’s not all. We also celebrate in seasons of suffering because we know that when we suffer we develop endurance, which shapes our characters. When our characters are refined, we learn what it means to hope and anticipate God’s goodness. And hope will never fail to satisfy our deepest need because the Holy Spirit that was given to us has flooded our hearts with God’s love.

We hear a lot about God’s love. Well, maybe in today’s culture we don’t hear as much as we used to, but when we hear people talk about God, we mostly hear about his love. That is as it should be because God is love. He showed us what love is all about when he became one of us and sacrificed himself for us that we might be freed from the guilt of our sin when we accept his sacrifice and declare him as who he is, Lord of lords, and King of kings. But sometimes in our culture, we swing too far in one direction or the other.

In the past, we went too far in the direction of God’s wrath. The revivals of the last century focused on the wrath of God and the judgment day that we all must face. Evangelists preached fire and brimstone from their pulpits and scared people out of hell and into heaven. God was to be feared above all things. In the last century, the world also faced tyrants that fought to enslave masses. Names like Hitler, Stalin, and Mousseline headlined the news through war that tore Europe apart and killed millions in its wake.

We have not had conflict on that scale since. We have not looked to the heavens and cried out to God about the global destruction we see at the hands of men since then. We went through some scary times with the cold war and nations poised with their weapons of mutual destruction aimed at each other, but the probability of human distinction has lessened through the last several decades. My children have never participated in a nuclear bomb drill or even seen a nuclear shelter. We no longer fear mass destruction like we did in the last century.

Maybe that is why we no longer think of the wrath of God. We stopped fearing the superpowers, so we stopped fearing God. We somehow started equating the two. It’s not a very smart way to look at the world or to look at God. There are still nuclear weapons in more countries than there were during the cold war. Then, neither of the superpowers would unleash the destruction because each knew it meant the end of both countries as we knew them. But now, lesser nations own the capability to destroy superpowers and can survive themselves because they do not rely on the same global economy or the same technologies so vulnerable to damage caused by those weapons. We used to talk about bombing nations into the stone age. We could not survive in the stone age any more. Many of our most dangerous adversaries could.

But we don’t want to think about that. We want to assume everyone on the planet will love each other if we just understood each other. We believe (rather wrongly) that our enemies are just misunderstood and that if we just listened better and accommodated more, the world would be a safe place and we could all get along. It’s a nice, pleasant, fanciful thought. People have not gotten along since Cain killed his brother Abel. Every ancient text is filled with stories of violence, not love and understanding. Except one.

The Bible has its moments as God directs his people to take the promised land from the Canaanites and other tribes who inhabited the land. There are many stories in both the Old and New Testaments that could be rated PG or R because of the violence depicted in them. But the God of the Bible is still a God of love. His story from the beginning is one of reconciliation between himself and his disobedient creation. We are the ones who brought sin into the cosmos and disrupted the perfection he wanted for us.

From the moment of that first act of disobedience, God’s purpose shows through the action of the stories in his word, to redeem those who would trust him and follow his commands. He is indeed a God of love, but he also requires that we understand he is God and we are not. He is in charge, not us. He is the one to be worshipped. Not us or some false god we put in place of him, whether made of wood or stone or an intangible thing like a job or the electrons today indicative of the wealth we worship. God set out to help us live with each other and with him and his rules help us do that. Is he demanding? Yes. So were my parents. They made demands to keep me safe and teach me how to live well in society. God’s rules do the same.

God doesn’t give us rules to cause us to step our toes at a cliff and see how close we can get to the edge. He doesn’t give us fences he expects us to push our heads through to see what’s on the other side. Those rules and fences are for our protection. Our problem is that we forget that the edges of cliffs sometimes crumble and cause us to slip and fall. We can get stuck when we push our head through a fence. Our problem is we forget all the land inside the fence he freely gives us for our enjoyment. We forget the beautiful meadow well away from the cliff where we can enjoy life to its fullest without any fear.

Just like Adam and Eve, Satan tempts us with the rules. “It’s just a little thing. It won’t hurt you. No one will know.” And suddenly we find ourselves scrambling for our lives as we fall down the side of the cliff grasping for any handhold but finding none.

God is a god of love. He desires our good. He gives us parameters to work within so we can stay safe and secure within those parameters. But we do not listen to him. We think we know better than he does. Or we think because he is a God of love that he will just forget everything we’ve ever done, and no consequences will ever come for our behavior. How naïve can we be? Consequences are a natural part of this world. Or at least we expect them to be. If I walk out in the rain, I expect to get wet. If I go out in freezing temperatures without a coat, I expect to be cold. If I speed past a policeman on the highway, I expect to get a ticket.

Why should I not expect the same consequences if I disobey the commands the creator of all the universe puts in place? Can he set them aside? Yes. And he offers to set aside the punishment we deserve when we acknowledge him as Lord, believe he came in the form of man and died for our sins, confess our guilt to him and accept his sacrifice. And repent. Repent means more than saying I’m sorry. Too often we are sorry we got caught. Repent means to do an about face. Go the other way. Stop doing what you’ve been doing and do the opposite. If you haven’t followed Christ, start following him. If you haven’t trusted him, trust him. If you haven’t obeyed God, obey him. Repent.

God doesn’t have to display his wrath. He has already put the laws of cause and effect in place. There are consequences for our actions. The consequence of not believing in him for salvation is an eternity without him. Jesus describes it as a place of eternal fire where worms never get their fill and the fires are never quenched. Eternal suffering apart from God who so desperately wants his relationship with us restored. But he is a holy God. He has already done his part. But until we repent and accept his gift, the gift remains untouched, unopened, unused.

Take advantage of his love before you become a victim of his wrath. It only takes a little faith and you can know what Paul and so many others have come to know as he shared with the believers in Rome. You can be acquitted and made right through faith, able to experience true and lasting peace with God through our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One, the Liberating King. Jesus leads us into a place of radical grace where we are able to celebrate the hope of experiencing God’s glory. No matter where you are, what you’ve done, he is ready. Are 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.

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.

You can love with his help, May 20, 2019

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

I just finished reading a captivating novel entitled “Dark Star: Confessions of a Rock Idol” by Creston Mapes. Some will think one of the two characters unrealistic as she spends over ten years praying for the salvation of this extreme figure trying to move people away from the reality of heaven and hell. But if you think praying for someone’s salvation for that long isn’t real, how long do you think you were on someone’s heart before you yielded to Christ? Or how long have you been praying for a friend or loved one to finally realize the answer they are seeking is in Jesus?

Today’s scripture reminds me of the book. It comes from some of the last words spoken by Jesus to his disciples. John records some of those last words at that last meal. In the gospel by his name, in chapter 13 we read these words:

13:33 Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come. ‘I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Sounds pretty simple doesn’t it? Just love each other. More than tolerate. More than be nice. More than do to others what you would want them to do to you. Jesus says to love each other. So what does that mean for us today?

We live in a world that has taken the word and hijacked it like it has so many other words in our vocabulary. Here are a few notable examples from a Huffpost article.

1) “Hook up,” said Gena Lovins Fausel. “Hook up” used to mean getting some kind of device or service or appliance up and running, i.e. “hook up cable television.” Today, it also means “hooking up” with someone to have sex or just “hooking up” with someone as in meeting up.

2) “Fantastic” meant “existing only in one’s imagination” centuries ago. Today, it means something is really incredible.

3) “Bad,” said Nancye Hernsmith. “Bad” used to describe someone who’d done something wrong or something that was poor in quality. Today, it also means “good” or “great” when used as slang. (And “breaking bad” means to challenge conventions and defy authority.)

4) “Gay,” said Anna Cornwall. “Gay” used to mean merry or happy, i.e. “don we now our gay apparel.” Today, it is usually associated with being homosexual as in “gay marriage.”

5) “Sick… now is a good thing,” said Angel Matuszak Novie. “Sick” used to mean ill. Today, it also means something is really amazing.

6) “Backlog” meant the biggest log in the fire during colonial times. Today, it means a reserve or a pile of work you still need to plow through.

7) “Rubbers used to be slip-on boots that covered shoes,” said Alexa Robbin. “Rubbers” also used to be erasers (and still mean erasers in Britain). Today, it’s most often slang for condoms.

8) “Years ago, ‘thongs’ were another word for flip-flops. Nowadays, thongs are underwear!,” wrote Linda Hervas.

9) “Tool” used to mean something you dug up the garden with. Today, it also means someone who’s not intelligent enough to realize they are being used or taken advantage of.

10) “‘Message me!’ wouldn’t have made sense a few years ago… like ‘Letter me’?” wrote Amy Richards.

11) “Cell used to mean jail! Or a tiny part of your body…” said Amy Richards. Today, of course, it’s also what you call your phone.

12) “Awful” used to mean something that inspired awe. Today, it means something is bad or that someone looks terrible. It also means exceedingly great as in “an awful lot of money.”

So today, when we think of love, we think of the actions behind closed doors that make movies R-rated and cause so much pain to individuals and families when we exercise the physical acts beyond the boundaries of marriage as described by God’s design. The Greeks, with their deep philosophical discussions, divided love, the single word we use for such a broad band of emotions, into four different categories. Jesus uses the deepest form, here. “Agape,” God’s love. Love that gives and gives with only the best in mind for the recipient of that love expecting nothing in return for that outpouring.

We don’t see much of that in our society. We are much too selfish to give expecting nothing. We want something back in return. We give with the attitude, “What’s in it for me?” We often say we don’t want anything back, but often we will give for the pleasure it brings, or the reward we think we will get in heaven in return for the acts we perform. We have to get beyond even that to express agape, God’s love.

Give without even hoping for that good feeling that comes with giving. Give expecting only heartache in return. Give knowing that it comes from a heart that wants the very best for the recipient. God’s love. The kind of love that allow us to nail him to a cross and watch him die the most agonizing death imaginable.

How do we do that? I’m not sure I’m totally there if I’m honest with you. I try to love with God’s love, but to be honest, there are people I don’t like. It has nothing to do with race or color or nationality or even religion or ideology most of the time. I realize we grow up believing what surrounds us. We learn from parents and friends and neighbors. We believe what made those near us successful or what made them failures.

God performs an incredible miracle changing our hearts in the middle of this evil cesspool of life we experience every day. And the influence it has keeps trying to suck us back under its currents. The currents get stronger every day. As I watch what has happened through the years with entertainment, schools, government, even churches, I find tolerance for pure evil grows exponentially, not arithmetically. The Christian walk is hard, even after almost 60 years. And it is getting harder.

The world would have you believe God is not real or there are many ways to make it to heaven, paradise, naravana, whatever place you want to call the afterlife, if there is one, they say. But God hasn’t changed. He is the creator of all things including time and including the word that tells us there is only one way to reach him. What does that mean for the millions who have not heard about Jesus? I don’t know. I’m not God. I don’t know how his grace and mercy covers the uninformed.

I do believe those who know about Jesus, but have rejected him will face the consequences of their choice. It’s like the doctor telling me I can live if I take the medicine that’s in the bottle he gives me. It’s there sitting on the table. It’s the one thing that will let me live. I know what it can do. I know it is available. I can see those little white pills. But unless I open the lid, tap one of those pills into my hand each day and swallow it down. I will die.

Salvation is like that to those who have been told. The message is there. It’s on the table. It’s waiting for you to take off the lid and swallow it down. But until you do, that gift just sits on the table and does nothing for you. You can stare at it all day long. You can wish it would heal you. You can hope you don’t face the consequences of not taking the medicine. You still gain nothing until you accept the gift and follow those simple instructions. Believe it. Accept it. Follow him.

When he lives inside us. We can see others differently. We can begin to see them through the lens of God’s eyes and recognize what they can become with his help. We can see they can be a child of God. Accepted into his family just as we were accepted into his family. We can find a way to love them when they seemed so unloveable before. We can share our testimony of the change God made in us by the resurrection power of his spirit living in us. Are we perfect? By no means. The Christian life is hard. Satan tries his best to defeat us in any way possible. But God in us is greater than he is. When we rely on his strength and not ours, we can stand. We can love. We can share. We can be Jesus to those around us.

Opportunity knocks but once (Revelation 3:7-13), May 17, 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’ve heard it, opportunity knocks but once. But is it true? I’m glad God doesn’t feel that way.
Scripture
1. Revelation 3:7-13
2. The One: Write down My words, and send them to the messenger of the church in Philadelphia. “These are the words of the holy One, the true One, and the One who possesses the key of David, which opens the possibilities so that no one can shut them. The One who closes all options so that no one can open:

“I know your deeds. See, I have placed before you an open door, which no one can shut. I have done this because you have limited strength, yet you have obeyed My word and have not denied My name. Watch, and I will make those of the congregation of Satan—those who call themselves ‘Jews’ but are not because they lie—come before you penitent, falling at your feet. Then they will know how much I have loved you. Because you have obeyed My instructions to endure and be patient, I will protect you from the time of trial which will come upon the whole earth and put everyone in it to the test. I will soon return. Hold tight to what you have so that no one can take away your victor’s wreath.

“As for the one who conquers through faithfulness even unto death, I will plant that person as a pillar in the temple of My God, and that person will never have to leave the presence of God. Moreover, I will inscribe this person with the name of My God and the name of the city of My God, New Jerusalem—which descends out of heaven from My God—and My own new name.

“Let the person who is able to hear, listen to and follow what the Spirit proclaims to all the churches.”

Devotional
1. We’ve heard the idiom
  1. Opportunity knocks but once
  2. You only get once chance to achieve what you really want to do
  3. Don’t pass up the opportunity when it comes, you might not get another
2. Sometimes it is true
  1. Perhaps in financial opportunities
  2. Stocks go up and down and if you get in at the right time you make money if you don’t you lose money
  3. Businesses come and go and timing is often critical to their success or failure
3. But God comes to us again and again
  1. Never gives up on us
  2. Keeps calling us to repentance
  3. Wants us to join Him in eternity
  4. God gives us ample opportunity to say yes to His calling
4. We can still refuse, but God keeps asking us to accept His gift of salvation
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.”

Perfectionists never get to perfect, but Jesus did (John 19:30), April 26, 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.
Perfectionists have a hard time determining when they are done with a project. Something always needs a little more work before it’s ready to go public. Not so with the perfect man.
Scripture
1. John 19:30
2. Jesus: It is finished!
Devotional
1. I’m not a terrible artist, but I don’t haven’t painted in a while and when I pick up the hobby, I don’t do it very long at a time.
  1. I have a problem
  2. I start working on a painting and don’t know when to stop
  3. Always one more thing I can do better
  4. Make one more correction
  5. Finally end up with a hodge-podge of corrections that make the whole thing a mess
2. Same with some other hobbies and projects
  1. Want everything to be perfect but can never get there
  2. Never know when to stop and say this is right, this is done
  3. Need it to be just a little better
  4. Need one more thing to make it right
  5. Want things to be a exactly right but in our flawed state we don’t really know what perfect looks like because we’re not perfect
3. Jesus had a job to do
  1. Share the message of God’s love
  2. Tell of the reconciliation He wanted with His highest creation
  3. Came to pay the penalty for the sins we committed
  4. God told us the penalty for sin was blood spilled; death
4. Moses gave the Israelites the laws concerning blood sacrifices to atone for sins
  1. Every year sacrifices made
  2. Scapegoat took on the sins of the community as representation of their repentance
  3. Blood spilled and sacrifice made
5. Jesus came
  1. He became the scapegoat for us
  2. Penalty for sins committed still death; sacrifice; spilling of blood
  3. But the scapegoat was imperfect; had to return every year and do it again
  4. Jesus didn’t sin; His was the blood of man, but a perfect, sinless man
  5. He intervened as man to God and God to man and sacrificed Himself for our sin
  6. The perfect sacrifice spilled His blood to atone for our sins
6. Jesus knew what He came to do
  1. He knew what the outcome was to be
  2. He took all the punishment and abuse we could dish out
  3. With His last breath He lifted His brush from the canvas of humanity’s future
  4. It is finish – a perfect plan of salvation
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 give up (Luke 13:6-9) November 24, 2016

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Ecclesiastes 9-10

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

Today’s Devotional

Luke 13:6-9
Jesus: (following up with this parable) A man has a fig tree planted in his vineyard. One day he comes out looking for fruit on it, but there are no figs. He says to the vineyard keeper, “Look at this tree. For three years, I’ve come hoping to find some fresh figs, but what do I find? Nothing. So just go ahead and cut it down. Why waste the space with a fruitless tree?”
The vineyard keeper replies, “Give it another chance, sir. Give me one more year working with it. I’ll cultivate the soil and heap on some manure to fertilize it. If it surprises us and bears fruit next year, that will be great, but if not, then we’ll cut it down.”

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

I remember as a lieutenant, one soldier in my platoon that just couldn’t do anything right. I’m not sure how he made it out of basic training and certainly couldn’t understand how he got through his medical training to become a medic. But there he was in my platoon formation every morning filling one of the slots and as short as we were of personnel at the time, I had to figure out how to use him or get him better trained to do the missions we needed to cover to take care of the soldiers in the battalion my platoon served.

After he had been there for about three months and doing everything I knew to do to try and teach this kid how to do his job, I’d just about given up. Everything I tried backfired. None of the companies we supported wanted him as part of the team when it came to their medical support. He just couldn’t do anything right and was a lot more of a hindrance than a help when it came time to go to the field and train.

I was ready to do the paperwork to send him home before he hit that magic timeline to get him all the benefits as a veteran and just let him go when my platoon sergeant came to me. It was a lot like the story of the fig tree. He asked me to give him one more month to work with this soldier and see if he could turn him around. It would still fit within that probationary timeline before he received full VA benefits and I agreed.

I don’t know what my platoon sergeant said or did with that soldier, but a minor miracle occurred in that month. Something woke up in his brain and he suddenly started understanding his role and responsibilities as a soldier-medic in a deployable infantry battalion. He understood that the lives of those infantrymen he went to the field to support were in his hands as they trained and maneuvered in some fairly risky environments. And he became one of my best medics in the rest of my time as platoon leader in that organization.

I learned a lesson from that soldier and from that platoon sergeant that carried across in both my professional and spiritual life. I’ve tried not just write people off. I think we are often too quick to do that sometimes. We assume people are unsalvageable and quit on them. We give up trying and consequently lose out on an opportunity to gain a good employee, win a good friend, or bring another person to Jesus.

We forget that some people just aren’t ready to accept what we have to teach them or tell them and need time to think things through. Few parents today know that a hundred years ago, formal education, reading, writing, math, didn’t start until kids were 8 or 9 years old. The thought was their brains weren’t ready for them to sit in a class all day and absorb the information. A kid’s role in life was to play, learn to get along with other people, begin to form their basis for moral and ethical values through their interaction with other kids and adults. Their job was to play, not go to school. So maybe those kids that don’t get it in first and second grade today aren’t slow or behind or learning disabled. Maybe they are right on target and we just miss the boat in how we try to educate our kids. We need to give them another chance and remember that we are not all alike.

And maybe that son or daughter that you’ve been praying for or that neighbor that you know needs God or that co-worker that seems so abrasive just needs a little more nurturing in God’s love to have that eureka moment when it all comes together and suddenly the lights come on. In our instant gratification world, we want everything to happen right now. That’s not how things usually work in nature. Often it’s not how God works things out for us in our spiritual journey, either.

So when you have that urgent prayer need, that loved one that really needs God and you’ve been praying your heart out for them. Don’t give up. Remember the story of the fig tree and the caretaker. Give it a little longer with extra effort and extra care and see what happens. You never know what God will do in that time. You might be surprised at the results.

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.

How will they find Him? (Luke 9:55-56) October 22, 2016

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Acts 9-10

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

Today’s Devotional

Luke 9:55-56
Jesus (turning toward them and shaking His head): You just don’t get it. The Son of Man didn’t come to ruin the lives of people, but He came to liberate them.

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

Football season has started in earnest once again. It’s always interesting to watch the energy and enthusiasm displayed by fans. Some go a little over the top with their enthusiasm, though. When you paint your body green and then stand in sub-zero temperatures to root for your team with nothing on to cover you but that green paint, that’s going a little far. And if you start to say something about that fan’s favorite team, start looking for a fight. Don’t dare get in the way of a true fan and his love for the team. You might find yourself enjoying the services of one of the finest hospitals in your hometown. This sports fan stuff is serious business.

James and John were acting like those sports fans. “Jesus, these guys are not on our team! Should we do like Elijah did and pray for fire and brimstone to fall from the sky and destroy these people who don’t follow you? Don’t they understand that you are the Son of God. Don’t they understand that God has come to earth and you are here to save all of us? Jesus, just say the word and we will join you in prayer and get rid of all these folks that are on the wrong side of the aisle. What do you say?”

James and John were pretty adamant about folks choosing sides and then wiping out anyone that wasn’t sitting on their side of the field. But that wasn’t what Jesus came to do. He certainly wanted people to choose what side they would be on. He wanted everyone to make a choice about who they would follow. He wanted to see all come to the realization that God wanted salvation for everyone. That was His mission. He came to save the lost. But James and John didn’t understand the rules and let their enthusiasm turn their understanding into a game of follow the leader instead of true faith.

James and John wanted Jesus to ascend to the throne of David and free His people from the bondage they had suffered since Babylon enslaved them 600 years earlier. They didn’t understand that Jesus wanted to free everyone who would ever live from the bondage of sin that ensnares us. This was a battle to be fought in the spiritual realm, not on the political or military battlefields around Judea or Rome.

And oh, by the way, these same people that James and John wanted to destroy, God created in the same way He created James and John. He made everyone and everything in all creation. So how could God not want to do everything He could to call these back into His favor just as He was trying to call the Israelites back into His favor. You see, that was part of the problem that caused Him to come into our world in the human form in the first place.

God entrusted the message of salvation to a group of people descended from Abraham and gave Abraham a covenant that included instructions to bless all nations with that message. Share with the world the story of the God you serve. Let them know how Jehovah blesses and keeps and provides and protects when you serve Him with all your heart. But Abraham and his descendants failed to share that message. They failed to live the message and even those who understood the story God wanted them to share horded it instead of sharing it.

God wanted to use His chosen people as His emissaries to the rest of the world to spread His message of salvation. When they failed, He came to share the message Himself. When His people still didn’t listen, God sent messengers like Paul and Barnabas and Peter to evangelize the Gentiles to spread the good news that God could and would lift the guilt of sin from our shoulders if we would but repent and ask His Son, Jesus for forgiveness, through the washing of His the blood He shed for us on the cross as a sacrifice for our sins.

James and John didn’t understand. Too many of us today don’t understand, either. We act just like James and John pushing anyone that’s not like us, that’s not part of our team away. Hey, they don’t belong to our church or our denomination, so they can’t be part of the kingdom or God’s work. Hey, they don’t have the same color of skin, so they aren’t welcome in my church. Hey, they don’t speak the same language I speak, I don’t know what they’re saying behind my back, so they can’t come around here. They might be plotting some sinister threat against us. They come from one of those countries on the terrorist watch list. How do we know they aren’t here to gather information and kill us all? We can’t let them in.

You see, we can get just as bad as those rabid sports fans or as bad as James and John if we’re not careful. Jesus wants everyone to find Him. But how will they find Him if you and I don’t tell them?

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.

Clearer than trees (Mark 8:23-26) August 7, 2016

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – 2 Thessalonians

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

Today’s Devotional

Mark 8:23-26
Jesus: What do you see?
Blind Man (opening his eyes): I see people, but they look like trees—walking trees.
Jesus touched his eyes again; and when the man looked up, he could see everything clearly.
Jesus sent him away to his house.
Jesus (to the healed man): Don’t go into town yet. [And don’t tell anybody in town what happened here.

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

Have you ever thought about why Jesus had to touch this man twice? What was it about this encounter that required Him to work in the man’s life two times instead of just once? In almost every other occasion we see Jesus speaking to someone or touching someone or doing something and the word says immediately the person is healed. So what is it about this encounter that is different? Why the second touch before this man could see clearly?

Was Jesus off His game that day? I don’t think so. Was this man worse than others Jesus’ had seen? Probably not. Did the man have some strange disease Jesus didn’t know about and that’s why it took a double dose of His cure? I doubt it. Jesus is God incarnate. He can do all things. This was just another simple case of healing. So why the difference?

Let me give you my thought that will run contrary to what some of you might think, but here it is anyway. You can choose to agree or disagree as you see fit, but I think there are also a lot of people who will agree with me. So here it is.

I think Jesus uses this event to teach us what Paul will later tell us about salvation and sanctification. Some say they are the same thing. I do not. I believe they are two separate, distinct actions that take place in the life of the repentant follower of Jesus. Can they happen simultaneously? They can, but I think, as illustrated by Jesus’ encounter with this blind man, they don’t have to, and the more we seem to progress in this world the farther apart these to events seem to happen in people’s lives. I’ll explain why later.

The two events, salvation and sanctification, are separate and distinct. Salvation is forgiveness of our sins. We are made right with God. He forgives the past. He pays the penalty we should pay and covers the debt we owe with His own blood. He redeems our life with His own. We belong to Him because He has purchased us with the price of His blood on the cross. Forgiveness for the past, that’s salvation, a distinct immediate action that happens when we in true repentance ask Jesus to forgive. He does and we are saved from death, eternal damnation, eternal separation from God.

Sanctification is also a separate and distinct event in the life of the follower of Christ. Can it happen at the same moment of salvation? Yes. Does it always? No. Does it often? I’m not so sure it does and here’s why, particularly in our world today. Sanctification means the setting apart of something for a sacred purpose. To make holy. That means we commit ourselves completely, totally to God. Everything we have, everything we are, everything we gain is His. Nothing held back. He hold 100% stock in us. He is the CEO and president of the company called me. He is the chairman and the board of directors of the company. I can vote, but my vote doesn’t count. He’s in charge. Period. I’m set apart, set aside, given up to Him.

And here’s why I think that setting apart seldom happens when we are forgiven of our sins at the time of our salvation. At age six, I knew what sin was. I knew I needed to ask forgiveness from God if I did bad things. And I would go the altar and ask for His forgiveness. I know He forgave me for those sins. Was that salvation? Yes. Was that sanctification? No. As a six-year old, I had no concept of what it meant to give my life completely, wholly to God. Was God still guiding me and helping me? Sure. When I asked Him to forgive my sins at 8 or 10 or 12 did that mean I was confused about salvation or sanctification? No, but I still didn’t understand what total commitment of life meant.

At eighteen, I got tired of the roller coaster life Paul describes in Romans 7, I do what I don’t want to do and what I want to do I don’t do. What a miserable life. Who can rescue me from this up and down, in and out battle? Thank God, there is one who can, Jesus, who gives us His Spirit to live in us and help us live by the Spirit instead of living by the flesh! I committed myself to Him fully, completely, totally at an altar on a rainy Sunday night in March of 1973. That was sanctification. God had given all of Himself to me, but that night I gave all of myself to Him. I am set apart for Him. His instrument. His tool to use any way He wants. That’s sanctification.

Can it happen at the same time? It can. But more often, I think we must come to an understanding of what it means to commit ourselves completely to Him. Like the blind man in this encounter with Jesus, when our sins are forgiven, we see His kingdom and His truth around us more clearly, but when we give ourselves completely to Him, His word opens up in ways that make His will and His love crystal clear. Instead of seeing people like trees, we see every detail. Commit to Him, you won’t be sorry.

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.

Breaking the rules (Mark 1:41-44) July 8, 2016

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Ezekiel 25-30

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

Today’s Devotional

Mark 1:41-44
Jesus was powerfully moved. He reached out and actually touched the leper.
Jesus: I do want to. Be clean.
And at that very moment, the disease left him; the leper was cleansed and made whole once again. Jesus sent him away, but first He warned him strongly.
Jesus: Don’t tell anybody how this happened. Just go and show yourself to the priest so that he can certify you’re clean. Perform the ceremony prescribed by Moses as proof of your cleansing, and then you may return home.

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

Have you ever run into one of those guys? You desperately need something done. He knows how to do it and can do it well, but refuses to help. Maybe he wants more credit than you want to give him. Maybe he wants you to beg and plead some more. Maybe he wants to sabotage the project. It’s that feeling from him, “I can, but I just don’t want to.” Infuriating, isn’t it? I really don’t like to come across those kinds of folks.

I understand if they don’t have the time because of busy schedules. I understand if there are trade secrets involved. I understand if they are in the middle of something and to take care of my need would disrupt their activities significantly. I understand those issues. But when the answer is, “I can, but I just don’t want to.” Those, I just don’t like. I’m sure you don’t either.

That’s what I like about this story. The leper came to Jesus. He broke all the rules to do so. In Jesus day, lepers lived outside of the towns and villages in the wilderness, banned from contact with the communities. They were contagious and no one could come near them. In fact, if the leper saw anyone, the law required him to yell, “Unclean! Unclean!” to ward off the unsuspecting traveler and avoid any contamination.

But this man pushes through the crowd surrounding Jesus. See, once His ministry began, He never traveled alone. Someone was always with Him on those roads. In fact, there were always crowds around Him looking to see what would happen next. Dozens of people crowded the dusty road as this leper came pushing through crowd and walked right up to Jesus.

“If you want to, you can heal me of my disease. Help me, please.”

I like Jesus’ answer. “I do want to.”

But Jesus didn’t just say the words. He reached out and touched the leper. He did something no one else would do. Jesus felt such compassion for this lonely, forsaken man that He broke all the rules, too. I can picture Jesus reaching out putting His hands on the man’s shoulders gently lifting him to his feet. I see Him looking into the leper’s eyes and speaking those words, “I do want to,” then embracing him in His strong arms. Then Jesus says, “Be clean.” and continues His embrace as He whispers into His ear, “Don’t tell anyone how this happened. Just go show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifice Moses required. Then go home. Everyone wants to see you again.”

The man broke all the rules to get to Jesus. Jesus broke all the rules in sharing and showing compassion to him. But then, if the man is clean in the end, did Jesus and the man break any rules? The man was clean, not diseased in the end. Whose to say either did a bad thing? Who can condemn either one if the man went home to his family healed of the disease?

Do we get so tangled up in our taboos that we forget the people inside them? I sometimes think that’s what Jesus tries to tells us. The leper He healed that day had only other lepers as friends. Drug addicts end up with drug addicts and dealers as their only friends. The homeless end up with only the homeless as friends. The down-and-out end up with the down-and-out as their only friends. Maybe part of the less Jesus wants us to learn is that we need to break the rules every once in a while and break through with compassion to those who need someone else in their circle of friends.

Before we can be healed of any of those maladies above, we must want to be healed, just like the leper in the scene Mark gives us. But how many of the addicts, homeless, down-and-out finally come to realize they need help, only to find that when they get to the edge of the crowd, no one will reach out and touch them. No one on our side of the divide will dare to break the rules as Jesus did.

To find healing from the diseases the sin this world brings upon us, it takes two willing to break the rules. God in His holiness, willing to reach out to a sinful man and forgive him of the wrongs committed. And this sinful man recognizing the pitiful state I’m in and reaching out to a holy God in whose presence I am not worthy to stand.

When both of us break the rules, healing takes place. He makes me clean and invites me into His kingdom. What a marvelous God we serve. Have the two of you broken the rules yet?

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.

Nothing is impossible (Matthew 19:26) May 5, 2016

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Job 35-36

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

Today’s Devotional

Matthew 19:26
Jesus: People cannot save themselves. But with God, all things are possible.

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

We sure try to save ourselves, though, don’t we? We try to buy our way into heaven by giving tokens of material goods. We think if we give enough to a church and get our name on a pew or the wing of church or maybe on the wing of a hospital it will earn us that spot in the kingdom. It’s kind of foolish to think that way, though. Take a look around. How much would it cost to buy the ocean and everything in it? That belongs to God, so does your wing of the hospital impress Him?

Do you know how much gold has been dug out of the earth? If you’ve never thought about it, it’s not quite enough to fill an Olympic swimming pool. That’s all. Men have been pulling gold out of the ground for centuries and that’s all they’ve found. So how much of that Olympic swimming pool sized lump of gold do you own? Do you think that impresses God? I guess not. So buying your way, just can’t save you, can it. There’s nothing you can give God in material goods that could impress Him.

So how about something you could do. Is it some good deed you could do that could get you into heaven? What could it be? What act could you perform that could impress God enough to win your salvation? The answer is nothing. He has seen it all and people have tried everything to try to assauge the guilt of sin they carry with them from their youth. No one has found the cure in good works. Every prophet, every preacher, every priest has talked about it. When you compare what we can do with what God can do, what can we do that would impress Him? Again, the answer is nothing.

We try hard. We do all kinds of things to make up for our past, to atone for our sins, but those actions just don’t do enough. You see, nothing we do can clean up the darkness in our heart. We can’t create light in the darkness. Oh, we can strike a match, but that ’s a chemical reaction, it doesn’t actual create something. We can’t create something out of nothing. Only God can do that. We always start with basic ingredients.

So Jesus starts with this basic premise, this indisputable fact that we try to dispute, people cannot save themselves. We have tried throughout the centuries to prove Him wrong, but no one has, because we can’t. We are not God. We are far from it. We wouldn’t know where to begin to make ourselves pure enough to be in God’s holy presence, but we try…unsuccessfully.

God abhors sin. It sometimes amazes me that He pays any attention to us at all in our sinful state. We separate ourselves so far from His holy, perfect, pure state in our sin, yet He wants to bring us back into His presence. In fact, He puts in place an impossible plan. A God-sized plan to bring us back. He takes all His mighty energy and smashed Himself into the form of a tiny human baby, the likeness of sinful man, and lived among us for thirty years to become the perfect sacrifice for our sins.

He did what we could not do for ourselves. He acted in a way none of us could because we are sinners. He paid what we could not pay. He did the impossible. Because He is the God of the impossible, He can save us. Because He can speak and create light out of darkness, He can save us from ourselves. Because God can speak and spark life from death, He can bring life to us and grant us eternal life even though we don’t deserve it. Because God has creative power, He can do the impossible. Even bringing us, sinful man, into His holy presence.

How does God do it? I don’t understand it. I only know that He gave His Son, Himself wrapped in flesh, as the sacrifice for the atonement for our sins. I only know that when we exercise our faith in Him as that sacrifice and ask for His forgiveness, He grants it because of His infinite grace and mercy. I only know that because of His love for us He does God-sized things when He forgives us of our sins and makes us right with Him so we can come into His presence covered by the blood of His sacrifice on the cross. How does it work? It’s impossible for my finite mind to grasp the wonder of it all, I’m just glad it does.

I’m just glad that when I cannot save myself, nothing is impossible for God and He shows it by rescuing me from a life of sin. He’ll do the same for you if you ask Him.

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.

Get your ticket (Matthew 8:10-13) February 9, 2016

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Judges 1-6

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

Today’s Devotional

Matthew 8:10-13
Jesus was stunned by the depth of the officer’s faith.
Jesus (to His followers): This is the plain truth: I have not met a single person in Israel with as much faith as this officer. It will not be just the children of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob who celebrate at their heavenly banquet at the end of time. No, people will come from the East and the West—and those who recognize Me, regardless of their lineage, will sit with Me at that feast. But those who have feigned their faith will be cast out into outer darkness where people weep and grind their teeth.
Then Jesus turned to the Centurion.
Jesus: You may go home. For it is as you say it is; it is as you believe.

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

Jesus’ words today give us a powerful promise. God came to Abraham and told him he would be the father of many nations. The Old Testament follows his patriarchal lines through Isaac, and Jacob on through the centuries to describe the history of the nation of Israel, God’s chosen people. But chosen for what? That’s what they forgot through those centuries. They were not chosen to become arrogant and self-serving. They were chosen to bless the other nations of the world.

How were they to bless the other nations of the world? They were the people God gave His message of salvation. God gave them the mission of spreading that message, but instead they kept it to themselves and built walls between them and everyone else. The racial, political, social, and religious divides they built were extreme and they would not allow any cracks in their walls.

So the story of the Centurion, the Roman military officer coming to Jesus for help, bruised the sensitivities of the devout Jews. How could He talk to a Gentile if He was really the Son of God? Would God talk to an outsider? Would God waste His time with someone who wasn’t part of His chosen nation? Of course, we know the answer. God created all people everywhere. Israel just forgot the task God gave them. They forgot who they were. They forgot that God was God and they were not.

Jesus reminded all who gathered around Him that He came for everyone. Salvation is universal for all who believe in Him. His words must have shocked the Israelites around Him. How dare He talk about Gentiles sharing in the resurrection feast with God? But that’s the promise He makes as this “heathen” demonstrates more faith than any of the religious leaders Jesus has seen in His journeys through the country.

His words remind me, though, that we can be just as guilty as those pious, hypocrites Jesus addressed that day. If you’re a Protestant, do you bash the Catholics? Did you forget that your tenets of faith originated within their church? If you’re Catholic, do you think all Protestants are heretics? If you’re Baptist, do you think every other denomination has it wrong? What if you’re Nazarene, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Methodist? Do you look down on other denominations and wonder about their salvation?

If you want to know the truth, Jesus would probably tell us there are some Christians in each of those faiths, and a lot of people who call themselves Christians in each of those faiths. As He told those around Him that day, it isn’t your pedigree that gets you into heaven. Jesus doesn’t care what you call yourself. You could call yourself a “Gollywopper” and be a Christian if you’ve asked for His forgiveness and follow His commands. But if you don’t come to Him repentantly and follow Him, it just doesn’t matter what you call yourself. You won’t be at the feast.

However, the promise is for all who believe. That’s it. Believe enough to know He died for your sins and mine. Believe enough to follow His direction for your life. Believe enough to act as a witness to His grace each day when opportunities arise. Believe enough to let Him change you into His likeness, His image in your thoughts and actions toward others. Believe in Him enough to let Him teach you to love like He loves, even your enemies.

That’s all it takes. Faith. The Centurion exercised his faith in Jesus and his request came to fruition. Jesus sent the Centurion home with the assurance his servant returned to health. And he did. So don’t think your title will do anything for you. It won’t. Don’t think your heritage will help you. It won’t. The only thing that will get you a ticket to the feast is your faith in Christ. And He sais all you need is as much as a grain of mustard seed and you can move mountains. Exercise a little and get your ticket to the banquet with Him.

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.