Tag Archives: sin

Who wins the battle of wills? November 19, 2018

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Once again in my devotions, I came across an intriguing question. “Why do you need to lose the battle of wills against God?” Maybe you never thought of obedience in those terms before. Maybe you never thought about following God as a battle of wills, but when you really stop and think about it, that’s exactly what we do when we decide to give our lives to him and follow him.

Why would I approach obedience from that perspective, you might ask. We can go back to Genesis 3 for the answer and that same theme follows us all the way to present day humanity. Adam and Eve wanted their way. They wanted their selfish desire to trump God’s rule not to eat from the tree in the center of the Garden of Eden. It might sound like a silly, inconsequential rule to you and me. It was only a single tree in a huge garden full of trees from which they could eat, so what was the big deal?

I think the issue was not so much the particular tree or the type of fruit, but it was the command. It was the willingness to set aside their desires for God’s. It was their willingness to say, “God, I’m going to do what you want, instead of what I want.” It’s really that simple. The same simple formula persists from that first act of disobedience to this very day. It’s a matter of my telling God I want to usurp his will with mine. I want what I want and I’m willing to suffer the consequences for it.

When we really stop and think about that attitude, if we had any brain cells functioning at all, we would realize what a monumental mistake that would be. We are not God. We cannot dictate the consequences of our actions. The laws of physics, the laws that govern the nature of sowing and reaping, the consequences of actions and reactions just happen. God set them in place at his act of creation. He doesn’t need to change them, although sometimes he does intervene and releases us from the consequences of our actions. Not often, but sometimes. So our behaviors reap certain consequences over time just as planting certain seeds will harvest crops of a certain kind and we would not expect any other fruit or vegetable to sprout and grow in its place. I don’t expect to get oranges when I plant apple seeds. I expect apples.

So we know good, God desired actions and behavior, brings about good, God desired consequences, put in place at the beginning of time. We also know that evil actions and behavior will eventually reap those same rewards, evil consequences that we must bear in time. It’s the irrefutable nature of the cause and effects of sowing and reaping. We also recognize that evil begins with my selfish desire and my selfish belief that I know better than God.

From the first encounter with that spirit in opposition to God, Satan, the Devil, Beelzebub, whatever name you want to use to identify him, we have been deceived and convinced that we can exert our will over God’s and come out okay. We can’t. God is still God. Always has been and always will be. We are as nothing in the scope of his creation and yet we are the jewel of his creation. He knows every bird that falls from the sky and takes time to deal with our petty arguments that we use to try to lift ourselves on pedestals higher than his. All ours crumble. His has and will always remain intact.

We try to demand of God. Fix this. Give me that. Take care of this problem. Why don’t you answer this question. Stop this suffering. Make me prosperous so I can give more. Do you see how disgusting we must sound to the maker of the universe? To our creator? How arrogant. How self centered. How stupid we can be. Yet God still loves us. He still wants us to come to him and accept the sacrifice he made for us so we might be forgiven.

Some would say, “God is a loving God and everyone will receive his forgiveness in the end.” I hope for everyone’s sake that is true. My Bible says it is not. God operates with us in covenants. Covenants require participation from both parties to the covenant. God promises certain things, far more than we deserve. And he keeps his promises. But we must also promise certain things and keep our promises. We must follow him. We must set aside our desires for his. We must become his maidservant or manservant. We must usurp our will to his. We must act out of an obedient heart and understand his every command is centered on making us more like him every day. And he never gives up. He never quits molding us and refining us.

I asked for his forgiveness for my sins 58 years ago. I gave myself to him in full commitment to whatever he wanted of me 42 years ago. Yet every day as I read and study his word, I find new challenges to help me become more like him each day. Like Paul, I haven’t arrived yet. I’m still fighting the good fight. One of these days, I’ll be too old and feeble to do much more than pray, but I will be able go do that. And I’m sure Satan will continue to push excuses in my path to try to keep me from doing God’s will. He makes it easy. He wants to destroy us. He wants to move as many as possible away from God’s eternal reward for those who are willing to lose the battle of wills against God.

In our competitive social culture in this day and age, we want to win. We argue and plan and fight expecting to win. We scheme and connive and twist and turn events so we will win. But if we want to see Jesus, we must take a different perspective. In the end, the loser wins. The loser of the battle of wills against God wins. The loser of demands fulfilled wins. The loser of life for God’s sake wins. Jesus came and turned our rules upside down because he knew we didn’t understand the relationship with God our fearsome, most awesome, benevolent, wonderful, creator, savior and friend.

So today, in the battle of wills in your life, who wins? It’s a fascinating question. If God wins, so do you. If you win, you only win when God wins. If God loses, you lose, too. So you lose so you both can win, or you win and you both lose. It is an intriguing question. It’s a good day to lose, I mean win, I mean lose so you can win! I hope you know what I mean. If you want to win, make sure the battle of wills must fall to God…always.

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.

Who wins the battle of wills? November 19, 2018

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One bad night in Jerusalem – November 20, 2017

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Bible Reading Plan – www.Bible-Reading.com; The Story, Chapter 12; You Version Bible app Engaging God’s Story Reading Plan Days 78 through 84

What one night would you like to erase from your memory forever? What one event would you like to just take away from your past because of the consequences that have come from that one indiscretion? You know what it is. It probably doesn’t take you a lot of time to think back through your history. You probably don’t have to thumb through pages and pages of journals to think of the event you’d like to relive and do things differently.

King David had one of those days. His army went to war in the spring of the year, but he didn’t go with them. One night he went out on his roof and glanced over his city and there on another rooftop he saw Bathsheba bathing. If David had just walked back inside and gone about his business we probably wouldn’t hear about the demise of the twelve tribes or the terrible things that happened within his own family. But he didn’t.

David sent a servant to bring Bathsheba to his palace and he slept with her while her husband, Uriah, one of David’s mighty men, a brave and loyal soldier in his army, performed his duties on the field of battle. David sent her home. Soon she sent word to David that she was pregnant and the king tries to cover up his wrongs.

First, he brings Uriah home to blame the pregnancy on Uriah, but he doesn’t go home. Refusing to enjoy the comforts of home while his men are suffering the discomforts of the battlefield. Next, David tries to get Uriah drunk to then let his baser desires take hold and get him to sleep with his wife. But that doesn’t work either. Uriah is just too loyal to his men and the king’s army. Finally, for all intents and purposes, David murders Uriah by sending a secret message to his commander instructing him to place Uriah at the front where the fighting was the fiercest and then withdraw leaving Uriah to die. David even sent them message by Uriah to seal his own fate.

David thought he covered his tracks. To the army and the kingdom, it looked like he did a noble thing and took in his warrior’s widow into his palace to marry her and take care of her after Uriah’s untimely death. He thought his sin was hidden from all but he and Bathsheba. But God knew and God let Nathan, His prophet know. The prophet came to David and uncovered the sin. He pronounced the punishment that God decided. Bathsheba’s child would die.

David prayed, he pleaded, he begged. The consequences of his sin began. David repented, but Bathsheba’s child still died. His son raped his daughter. Another son rebelled against him and tried to take his kingdom from him. David watched his family fall apart as a consequence of the sin that started because he didn’t walk away that spring night in Jerusalem.

God forgave David and called him a man after His heart. Why? Because David did repent and tried to live according to the laws God laid out for His people. Did he make mistakes? Absolutely. But God still named David a man after His heart and all the kings of Israel were compared to David, the nation’s best king. David made mistakes. God forgave him. But David still suffered consequences as a result of his sin.

David didn’t blame God for his suffering, though. He understood justice and knew the things he suffered were a result of his actions, not God’s. The family problems he faced were because his children behaved as he had behaved with Bathsheba and Uriah, so how he could expect other results. David knew something we forget too often. The message that we reap what we sow doesn’t matter if God has forgiven us or not. We may still reap the harvest of the actions we have taken. Like David, we may be forgiven, but it doesn’t mean we won’t suffer the consequences of those actions in this life.

What does it all mean for us as we look at those characters like David? God isn’t looking for perfect people. He knows none of us are perfect. He made us. He knows us. He knows your faults and failures better than you do. What He’s looking for are men and women who, like David, will listen when confronted with their sin. He’s looking for men and women who, when confronted with their sin will repent instead of blaming someone else. He’s looking for men and women who, like David, will meditate on His word, do their best everyday to abide by His law, and listen to His voice.

He tells us He really only has two rules for us to keep. Love Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. And love other people like we love ourself. If we will just do those two things we will stay out of trouble and will keep all His other commands. If David had kept those two rules that night in Jerusalem when he was out on his roof, he would have walked back inside when he noticed Bathsheba bathing on her rooftop. You see, he would not have wanted to sin against God or against Bathsheba or her husband Uriah. He would have wanted to maintain their reputations and his own.

David had that bad night and God forgave him. You’ve probably had a bad night or two yourself. I doubt if your bad night was any worse than what David did, though. He drug his whole family and nation through the mud resulting in rape, murder, incest, a divided kingdom, defeat by their enemies, finally the whole nation falling into exile. God forgave him, but the consequences unfolded before him.

Don’t let that happen to you. Obey God. Recognize He has your best in mind. He doesn’t want you to suffer the results of the harvest of sinful ways. Reap a harvest of good deeds and righteous living. It’s not impossible. In fact, God will help you along the way. Just put your trust in Him, listen to His voice, and obey when you hear Him call.

The Beginning of Life as We Know It, September 4, 2017

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

Bible Reading Plan – www.Bible-Reading.com

I’m back and happy to be sharing with you again after a brief interlude with work and family.

My church, San Antonio First Church of the Nazarene, begins a new series September 11 called The Story. Some of you may be familiar with The Story and may have even been through its 31 week study. In our church, through this series, every class and every sermon, and we hope every family and person will focus on The Story. So in keeping with the theme of my church, I will be sharing devotionals aligned with next Sunday’s sermon and small group discussions.

So today we start at the beginning of life as we know it found in Genesis chapters 1-8. I won’t get into discussions about whether we live on a young earth or an old earth. I won’t try to give you any scientific information on how all of this came into being. I won’t argue points about the size and scope of the universe or debate the physical properties and mathematical equations that explain the delicate balance of how life can exist at only this spot in our solar system. But I will tell you that every civilization, every religion tells the story of creation. And our Bible begins it this way: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”

At the end of those verses that outline the order of creation beginning with God’s spoken word to separate light from darkness, each creative act carries the same pronouncement. “God looked at His handiwork and said ‘It is good.” The earth He created, the living things that populate it, plants and animals and even man are all celebrated as good. God created them, so how could they be otherwise?

There is another important verse near the beginning of that creation narrative that helps us understand what the Bible, The Story, is really all about. It is found in Genesis 3:8, “Then the man and his wife heard the Lord God walking in the garden. It was the coolest time of the day.”

We will get to the rest of that verse in a moment, but it’s important to recognize what God is doing here. He desired to be with Adam and Eve. He also desires to be with us. It was God’s routine to meet with those first inhabitants of the earth and He walked with them in the garden each day.

You see, God’s greatest desire, His greatest passion, the thing He longs for is a relationship with the men and women He creates. You’ll find that the rest of The Story, from that first verse in Genesis until the closing verse in Revelation lays out for us God’s passion to have an intimate relationship with each of us.

God walked with Adam and Eve. They saw Him face to face. He communed with them as they cared for this creation He put into place. It was perfect when He designed it. In the beginning, there was no pain, no heartache, no tears, no death, no evil. The garden was the place God came to meet with the highest of His creation.

But in that third chapter of Genesis we find that Adam and Eve chose to disregard God’s instructions. They made the choice to disobey. And their act brought evil and death and the destruction to God’s good work. We brought pain and heartache and tears and death and evil into the world by our choosing. Ever since that first act of disobedience, we have lived out the last of Genesis 3:8, “The the man and his wife heard the Lord God walking in the garden. It wa the coolest time of the day. They hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.”

Adam and Eve could no longer face the perfect, holy God when their hearts were filled with disobedience and evil. So they hid. They covered their nakedness with fig leaves. They tried to get away from the One who desired to be with them. The rest of The Story, God’s Story, tells of His pursuit of us. We are still His creation and He still longs to walk with us.

God from this point on put a plan in place to redeem us. He wants us back. But He is still a holy God and will not tolerate evil. He made us this promise, though. One day He said He will recreate the earth. He will destroy this one and put in its place a new heaven and new earth. The new one will be better than this one because Satan will be banished. There will once again be no tears, no pain, no death, no evil. And we will once again see God face to face in that perfect recreated garden.

From the fall through the rest of The Story, God makes a way for those who follow Him. We see it in Adam and Eve’s children, Cain and Abel. God gave Cain a way of escape from the punishment of other men by putting His mark upon Him. God took Enoch to be with Him without experiencing the pain of death as an example of His love and grace. God rescued mankind from total destruction through Noah, a righteous man who followed God in all He did. Throughout His Story, we will see God and work trying to redeem us from the death we brought on ourselves.

But throughout The Story, we will also see that it is always our choice. We choose the path we take. We choose obedience or disobedience. We choose to remain trapped in the heartache and evil that come as a result of the fall. Or we choose to accept His plan of redemption and follow Him.

The first garden, the Garden of Eden was perfect. We destroyed it with our evil choices. Through the centuries to this very day, we continue to destroy God’s creation by our choosing to disobey. But for those who choose to listen to and believe His Story, those who trust in Him and follow His leading, there will be a new heaven and new earth. Better than the Garden of Eden. He promised it in His Story and God never breaks a promise.

There are five movements in The Story: the story of the garden, the story of Israel, the story of Jesus, the story of the Church, and the story of the new garden. We heard today an excerpt about the story of the garden. Join me again next week as we continue our journey through the five movements of the Bible, The Story, God’s plan to redeem us and have that intimate relationship He had with Adam and Eve walking through the Garden.

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 about The Story and our part in it. 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.

Jehovah-Rapha (Exodus 25:16), June 1, 2017

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Thanks for joining me today for “A Little Walk with God.” I’m your host Richard Agee.
Today we explore the name Jehovah-Rapha, the Lord who heals. What does that mean to you?
Scripture
1. Exodus 15:26
2. Eternal One: If you will listen closely to My voice—the voice of your God—and do what is right in My eyes, pay attention to My instructions, and keep all of My laws; then I will not bring on you any of the plagues that I did on the Egyptians, for I am the Eternal, your Healer.
Devotional
1. Jehovah-Rapha, the Lord who heals
2. Everyone gets sick every once in awhile.
  1. Short term illnesses
    1. Colds
    2. Flu or other viruses
  2. Long term diseases like
    1. Coronary heart disease
    2. Diabetes
    3. Hepatitis
  3. Deadly diseases
    1. Cancer
    2. leprosy
  4. Some of them we take care of ourselves
  5. Some we need a doctor for help
3. We don’t have much of a problem going to providers when something physical is wrong with us
  1. Hesitate to go to the source of healing when we have spiritual
  2. We are broken people
  3. All have sinned
  4. No one stays pure because we are flawed
  5. We need someone to clean us up, but only God can do that
4. Jehovah-Rapha, the Lord who heals
  1. Story after story from the Bible that shows God heals
  2. Stories from believers about God’s intervention
  3. Personal experience
  4. No doubt God heals
5. Today, think about Jehovah-Rapha, the Lord who heals
  1. What is it you need healed
  2. Physical
  3. Mental
  4. Emotional
  5. Spiritual
  6. God is able because God is Jehovah-Rapha
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.”

God won’t be a scapegoat (John 9:3-5), March 1, 2017

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Thanks for joining me today for “A Little Walk with God.” I’m your host Richard Agee.
It sure is easy to blame someone else for the trouble we face, isn’t it? And it’s really easy to blame God. He’s a good scapegoat, but it usually doesn’t work out when we do.
Scripture
1. John 9:3-5
2. Jesus: Neither. His blindness cannot be explained or traced to any particular person’s sins. He is blind so the deeds of God may be put on display. While it is daytime, we must do the works of the One who sent Me. But when the sun sets and night falls, this work is impossible. Whenever I am in the world, I am the Light of the world.
Devotional
1. God came into the garden in the cool of the day. He wanted to talk with Adam after his day’s work was done. A day filled with caring for the creation over which God had given him dominion. Adam tilled the soil, harvested crops, cared for the animals in the garden. Life was really good. Work was satisfying. His companionship with Eve and God and the rest of creation seemed perfect. At least until this day.
  1. Sin had entered in
  2. Adam broke the perfect relationship he had with God because of his disobedience
  3. He felt his guilt and shame
  4. God came into the garden and what did his sin cause him to do?
  5. Adam and Eve both hid
    1. Their bodies from God and each other
    2. Sewed fig leaves together
    3. Hid behind the vegetation when God came to the garden
2. We all have a tendency to blame someone else for our sin
  1. Devil made me do it
  2. He tempted me
  3. He gave me the fruit
  4. Adam even blamed God as do we
  5. It’s God’s fault we fail to do what He asks
3. Until we own our faults and failures we cannot find healing from our sins
  1. If we confess our sins, He is able
  2. Opposing message, if we do not confess our sins, He is not able to forgive us
  3. Why? We fail to take ownership of our wrongs
  4. We fail to recognize our need for Him
  5. We fail to understand just how depraved and hopeless we are without Him
4. Jesus can work in and through us, but only when we are open and honest with Him and others. We must be vulnerable with Him. We must recognize just how much we need His grace, forgiveness, Him.
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.”

You don’t have to eat like a pig (Luke 15:11-24) December 7, 2016

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Psalms 140-142

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

Today’s Devotional

Luke 15:11-24
Jesus: Once there was this man who had two sons. One day the younger son came to his father and said, “Father, eventually I’m going to inherit my share of your estate. Rather than waiting until you die, I want you to give me my share now.” And so the father liquidated assets and divided them. A few days passed and this younger son gathered all his wealth and set off on a journey to a distant land. Once there he wasted everything he owned on wild living. He was broke, a terrible famine struck that land, and he felt desperately hungry and in need. He got a job with one of the locals, who sent him into the fields to feed the pigs. The young man felt so miserably hungry that he wished he could eat the slop the pigs were eating. Nobody gave him anything.
So he had this moment of self-reflection: “What am I doing here? Back home, my father’s hired servants have plenty of food. Why am I here starving to death? I’ll get up and return to my father, and I’ll say, ‘Father, I have done wrong—wrong against God and against you. I have forfeited any right to be treated like your son, but I’m wondering if you’d treat me as one of your hired servants?’” So he got up and returned to his father. The father looked off in the distance and saw the young man returning. He felt compassion for his son and ran out to him, enfolded him in an embrace, and kissed him.
The son said, “Father, I have done a terrible wrong in God’s sight and in your sight too. I have forfeited any right to be treated as your son.”
But the father turned to his servants and said, “Quick! Bring the best robe we have and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and shoes on his feet. Go get the fattest calf and butcher it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate because my son was dead and is alive again. He was lost and has been found.” So they had this huge party.

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

That young man reminds me so much of us today. It seems each generation just gets more selfish and self centered. What can I get and how fast can I get it. It doesn’t matter if anyone else is inconvenienced or hurt by my gain, just give me what I want. And give it to me now! We are an instant gratification society and the advertising industry know it in spades. Every ad grabs your attention and is aimed at pleasure. Even the products that have nothing to do with pleasure use images, sounds, and innuendos that aim at the pleasure centers of your brain.

It is an amazingly sinful world we live in and Satan tempts us through our own selfishness. Unfortunately, we too seldom wake up to our fallen condition as the young man in the parable or if we do rather than go back to the father we keep trying to fix our brokenness ourselves. But we can’t, we just get ourselves deeper into the hole we dig for ourselves.

But the Father wants us back. He welcomes us when we come to Him as the young man did, knowing our brokenness and ready to give ourselves fully to Him in servanthood. The father restored his son to his position of honor and sonship. He restored him to his home and laid out a banquet for him. He put new robes on his back and rings on his fingers. He treated the young man as a son because he was. The young man made mistakes. He squandered his inheritance. But he came back to his father.

That’s all God asks of us. Come to our senses and then come back to Him. But we first need to come back to our senses. We need to quit listening to the lies the world screams at us and understand that selfishness is where every sin begins. I want what I want instead of what God wants. And so it begins. Every broken commandment, every lie, every grab of property, riches, relationships for the purpose of gain. Every sin starts with a focus on me instead of focusing on the creator.

We don’t have to settle on the pods the pigs eat, we can eat from the banquet table of the king. We don’t have to wear the rags of guilt, we can be clothed in a raiment of righteousness. We can be everything God wants us to be when we come back to Him and let Him take charge of our lives. When we don’t, when we think we know how to run our lives better than God, we end up just like the younger son in the story. When we understand the Father knows us better than we know ourselves and always has our best in mind, we can follow His commands and know He will do incredible things in our lives. We will spend eternity at home with Him. What could be better than that?

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.

Bad things happen (Luke 13:2-5) November 23, 2016

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Psalms 134-136

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

Today’s Devotional

Luke 13:2-5
Jesus: Do you think these Galileans were somehow being singled out for their sins, that they were worse than any other Galileans, because they suffered this terrible death? Of course not. But listen, if you do not consider God’s ways and truly change, then friends, you should prepare to face His judgment and eternal death.
Speaking of current events, you’ve all heard about the 18 people killed in that building accident when the tower in Siloam fell. Were they extraordinarily bad people, worse than anyone else in Jerusalem, so that they would deserve such an untimely death? Of course not. But all the buildings of Jerusalem will come crashing down on you if you don’t wake up and change direction now.

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

I think from the time Adam and Eve were kicked out of the Garden of Eden as punishment for that first act of disobedience, we seem to lay the blame for every bad thing that happens at God’s feet. It must be God’s punishment for something that caused him to go through that terrible tragedy. It must be some sin in her life that brought on that awful disease. God is punishing him for actions in his past. That must be true, right? Wrong!

There are a couple of things we can learn from these words from Jesus, though. He makes it pretty clear not all the bad things that happen to us are because of sin in our lives. The Galileans killed by the Romans were killed as a demonstration that Rome was still in charge. No reason for their murder other than they came to Jerusalem to worship and perhaps didn’t have all the right permissions stamped on their papers. The Romans ruled with an iron fist and showed their ruthless power occasionally just to let people know who still ruled them and it wasn’t those temple priests.

Jesus let those around him know the Galileans that lost their lives did nothing more or less than any others around them yet lost their lives. It’s not their individual sins that caused those bad things to happen, it’s the fact that death entered the cosmos with that first sin Adam and Even committed and so bad things happen to everyone. Trouble in life is a universal issue for all of us. We all get sick. We all face taxes and bills and mortgages. We all find laws conflicting with other laws and have to make choices as to which we will bend to follow others. We all find difficult relationships with someone somewhere.

Face it. Bad things happen to us occasionally. We can’t get away from it. Expect it. And it comes just because we breathe air on this side of dirt. If you take that first breath out of your mother’s womb, you will have bad things happen to you. It’s a fact of life and you just can’t get away. Maybe it’s like James Dobson once said, it’s to keep us from getting too comfortable here and help us remember there is a better place awaiting us. If we never had problems here, we might not long for heaven the way we do. So maybe it’s okay for bad things to happen just because.

But Jesus also indicates that sometimes bad things do happen as a result of our wrong doing. That wasn’t true for those Galileans who were killed or the victims of the tower wall that fell in Siloam, but He warns those listening to Him that they better changed their ways or bad things will happen to them soon. He says the walls of Jerusalem will come crashing down on them if they don’t change.

Those are interesting words considering in forty years the Romans will destroy Jerusalem and the temple and the whole city will be reduced to rubble. I wonder how many of those in that crowd were caught under the falling stones as catapults and battering rams smashed the walls. Some of them didn’t change their ways. We know that from their behavior toward Jesus at the mock trial, calling for His crucifixion, mocking Him on the cross.

So some of the bad things that happen to us are a result of our wrong doing. Either natural consequences of our bad behavior, like the health problems that come from drug addiction, abuse of alcohol, and a host of other illicit behaviors. Or punishment from God for our disobedience to Him like He did with the Israelites and sent a plague among the community.

The bottom line for any individual is that you know your heart. Is there any unconfessed sin there? If so, ask God to forgive it and thank Him for His forgiveness. Then recognize that all of us will suffer in this world. Accept the suffering as identifying with our Lord. He suffered and died for us and was sinless. If He suffered and did no wrong, then we have nothing to complain about when we suffer for the wrong we do. Bad things will happen to us. Use them to remember Jesus faced bad things, too. He faced them so we can enjoy good things for all eternity.

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.

Let God fill the hole (Luke 11:24-26) November 6, 2016

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – 1 Peter 1-3

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

Today’s Devotional

Luke 11:24-26
Jesus: When a demonic spirit is expelled from someone, he wanders through waterless wastelands seeking rest. But there is no rest for him anywhere, so he says, “I’m going back to my old house.” He returns and finds the old house has been swept clean and fixed up again. So he goes and finds seven other spirits even worse than he is, and they make themselves at home in the man’s life so that he’s worse off now than he was before.

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

There’s no such thing as demons, …is there? Satan’s minions can’t invade our minds and bodies and control what we think and do, …can they? All this demonic spirit stuff is just to make people act better and listen to preachers so they get their salaries paid, …right? Jesus doesn’t really mean what He says here about spirits coming back and bring their friends, …does He?

Well, He said it. So far, everything He said would happen has happened at the right time. So far, every time someone has tried to prove the Bible wrong, they prove it right. So far the number one seller in every book store around the world keeps proving itself accurate in what it tells us. So I expect this tidbit must be true, too.

What do we learn from these three verses that Luke records for us? First, there are demonic spirits in the world. Satan has the ability to infill us with His demonic spirits if we let him. But those demonic spirits will not be looking out for our good but to strengthen their master’s power. Those demons want Satan in control of this world. Even though he has no legitimacy here, they try to give it too him by enticing and tempting us through our selfishness.

Second, Satan’s demons can be removed from our lives. Note Jesus starts out His words with when a demon is expelled. You don’t have to keep a demon around. They can be kicked out of your life. They might be stronger than you, but they are not stronger than God and just the name of Jesus causes them to tremble in fear.

Third, Jesus’ words tell us that we need to replace those evil spirits with God’s Spirit in us. We can leave that spiritual hole in our lives empty. It will be filled with either God or Satan, one or the other. We are all created with this spiritual hunger that wants to be satisfied. But God will not enter our lives unless we invite Him. Satan, like any bully, will crowd his way into any space he can. So when he finds an empty spiritual hole in our lives, he will do his best to fill it with evil. He will tempt us and use whatever enticements he can to keep us from turning to God to fill that God shaped hole in us.

God created us with a desire for worship. The question is who or what will we worship. Paul tells us the predicament the human race got itself into starting with Adam and Eve. We began to think we were better than God so we began worshiping two-legged beings instead of God. Then it was the image of two-legged beings. Then we continued our downhill degradation and began worshiping four-legged creatures and their images, then insects and serpents and trees and rocks and anything else. Our problem as humans, we forgot that the desire for worship can only be satisfied when we worship the only One worthy of worship and He is the God of creation.

Fourth, Jesus tells us that if we don’t fill our lives with His spirit, we are in danger of falling further from Him than we were before He drove out the sin and evil the first time. It’s easy to see that in the behavior of a drug addict, but it’s the same with any sin. The first time you take a drug it doesn’t take much to feel the effects. But every subsequent time you take the drug, it takes a tiny bit more to create the same effect as the first time. Your body become adjusted to the foreign substance and you tolerate it until finally it takes almost a lethal dose to get the same result.

The same is true with sin in your life. You might feel some pleasure in that momentary sin that thrills or satisfies some base desire in your life, but it’s momentary, artificial, not the kind of satisfaction that only God’s spirit in your life can create. And every subsequent attempt to gain that same level of pleasure takes a little more or a little stronger dose of the behavior to obtain the same pleasure until the perversion is incomprehensible to a sensible person. But sin has taken over. Satan has done his work well. The addiction is complete and your brain tells you to get more of the temporary pleasure at any expense.

These words from Jesus give us ample warning about the way Satan works in our lives. We need to be careful to fill our lives with God or risk the dangerous consequences Jesus describes. Don’t take the chance. Let God fill that hole in your life.

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.

Don’t hide anymore (Luke 5:10) September 25, 2016

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Hebrews 1-4

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

Today’s Devotional

Luke 5:10
Jesus: Don’t be afraid, Simon. From now on, I’ll ask you to bring Me people instead of fish.

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

If you’ll remember, Jesus said these words to Simon after Simon told Him he should not be around Him because he was a sinful man. Simon’s words remind me of Isaiah’s vision in the temple when he saw God sitting on His throne high and lifted up. Isaiah knew he was about to die because he was a sinful man and was in the presence of God.

Daniel did the same. John on the Isle of Patmos did the same. Everyone who comes into the presence of the Almighty falls to their face and recognizes their sinful state as they see the purity and holiness of His very essence. Simon felt the same way. He heard Jesus preach from one of his boats that he had pushed off from the shore so He could be heard better by the crowd. It was a common practice for speakers to large crowds in that day. The speech would echo off the water and create an amplifying effect rather than standing in the middle of the crowd where the robes and turbans and tunics would muffle the sound.

Simon was just minding his own business, literally when Jesus borrowed one of his boats. He and this fellow fishermen were mending their nets. But while he was working, he heard the message. He saw this preacher from Nazareth. He heard this man expound on the scriptures in ways he had never heard before. Simon knew there was something different about this man. That’s why he trusted His command to cast his nets into deeper water.

But when Simon saw the evidence that this man was more than just a carpenter turned preacher, he was shaken. Simon knew this man was more than anyone he had ever met before and he had met some important people in his many business dealings. Simon knew this man had a special relationship with the God of the universe. I’m not so sure Simon understood yet that Jesus was God incarnate, but he certainly knew he was in the presence of a holy man with power over nature.

Isn’t it interesting that our first reaction is to get away from the presence of God instead of toward Him when we find ourselves in our sin? Just like Adam and Eve, we want to hide. We want to get away from Him. We don’t want to be in His presence for fear we will experience an outpouring of His wrath because of our sin.

But Jesus tells Simon, don’t be afraid. Come close. Just like God called Adam after his sin in the Garden of Eden. God didn’t want Adam to fall. He didn’t want Adam to leave His presence. That was Adam’s choice because He failed to obey God. But then God instituted ways to get back to Him. He showed us how to get back into a right relationship with Him. He set up a means of redemption with that very first sin.

He says, “Don’t be afraid. I want to restore your relationship with Me. I want to bring you back home. I want to put your life back on track. Don’t be afraid. Come close. I have good news for you and for everyone who will listen. You don’t have to stay estranged from Me. You don’t have to stay mired in your sin. You don’t have to be separated from Me. You can be cleansed. You can be made whole again. You can have your sins forgiven.”

We are so afraid of what other people might think if we go to an altar to ask God to forgive us of our sins. We’re afraid someone might think we are a sinner! Well, guess what? All of us are. None of us escape that title. So the question is really whether you will let someone else’s thought about you destine you to an eternity separated from God or whether you will use some common sense and fall on your face before a forgiving God and beg Him for cleansing from your sin.

It is ironic the response we have when God wants so desperately to bring us back into His kingdom. He created us to worship Him. He created us for a relationship with Him. He even came to live with us in human flesh to show us how much He longs to restore that relationship with us. And when He came, He told Simon and us the same message. “Don’t be afraid. I have a message for you and I want you to give that same message to the rest of the world.”

So will you trust Him like Simon did and do what He says? Or will you continue to do like Adam and hide from Him. As always, it’s your choice. Make the smart one, choose to stop hiding and live for 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.