Tag Archives: teachings

Time to Teach, October 21, 20190

Today’s Podcast

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

I learned early in my military career that one of my responsibilities was to train my replacement. Eventually, I would leave my position through transfer, promotion, or at some point, everyone departs the service. If I failed to train someone to take my place, the service would suffer, and soldiers would suffer. Not that I was indispensable or anyone else was, but we had a responsibility to make sure none of us were by ensuring we had someone ready in the wings to take our place.

Paul knew the importance of doing the same as he embarked on his missionary journeys. So he groomed Timothy and Titus to take his place in the early churches he formed in his mission work. He knew he would need a replacement at some point, and the way things had been going for him, that time would probably come sooner rather than later. He’d been shipwrecked, beaten, stoned, run out of town, and imprisoned. He knew his days were numbered. So, while in prison, Paul penned instructions to his two proteges.

My instructions to the officers that came behind me centered on how to treat soldiers, how to make decisions, how to carry out the tasks given by higher commands, how to determine priorities of work with limited resources. Some of the training I provided to those who would come after me in the service I hoped would save lives on future battlefields, and as I’ve heard from some of them and read accounts of current conflicts, I think some of those lessons paid off.

Most of the training I passed on didn’t make it into documents that I expect to survive for centuries, though. In fact, if they last another decade, I will be astonished. Those bits of knowledge will last a season and be gone. Some will trickle down another generation, maybe two, but then warfare will change, tactics and doctrine will evolve, and the lessons passed on thirty years ago will seem pretty meaningless to anyone who might care to hear about them in another generation.

But Paul’s words to Timothy are a completely different story. We read them, memorize them, absorb them into our being. We do so because we understand the depth and truth of his words. He writes these words to Timothy in the second letter addressed to him in the New Testament:

“But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:14-17)(NIV)

We know from these few sentences, Timothy was a student of God’s Word. He learned from his mother, Lois. He studied from Paul. He poured through the scriptures personally to discover all he could about the God he served and loved. What we often forget as we read these words from Paul, is that the “scriptures able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus” did not include any from our New Testament. That should cause us to give pause to any who might discount the Old Testament as unimportant to the Christian life or its statutes as ancient and no longer applicable to modern society.

What can scriptures do for us? Timothy knew, and Paul reminds him. They teach, rebuke, correct, and train in righteousness. And why are those attributes important to followers of Jesus? Because he gave us a mission. He told us to go and make disciples. Teaching them all the things others taught us in his name. How can followers of Jesus share knowledge if no one shared with them in the first place? It goes back to what I learned as a new Army officer. I need to start preparing my replacement. If I don’t, there may not be a replacement when one is required.

Have you thought about that in your Christian walk? What if you were the only link to carrying the message of Christ to the next generation? How well has your replacement learned to place his or her trust in God based on what you taught? Is the next generation of disciples ready to pass on what you know because you taught them well?

The next words from Paul often used to provide the charge to ministers really apply to all of us who follow Christ. Jesus didn’t differentiate between any of those gathered on the mountain when he gave the command to go and make disciples. He told all of them the same thing. What Paul told Timothy, reminds me of the importance of my role in sharing what I learned from others. Paul continues his letter with these words:

“In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.” (2 Timothy 4:1-5)(NIV)

It tells me that whenever I have the opportunity, I must be prepared to correct, rebuke, encourage, teach with great patience and careful instruction. The time when people will not want to hear sound doctrine came a long time ago. They didn’t want to hear it from Timothy or Paul or even Jesus. With all we see around us, those statements could not be any more accurate today. People run to what they want to hear instead of the hard truth of God’s Word.

Ignoring the truth in his word does not fix our sin problem, though, any more than ignoring cancer will repair those runaway cells in our body. We must do something about the disease. When we find out about cancer, we go to the oncologist and seek a cure. When we find out about sin, if we are to find release and relief, we must go to God and seek a cure. Listen to Paul. Do the work God calls each of us to do in reproducing disciples through sharing what others entrusted to us. It’s how God’s kingdom grows. It’s plan A and surprisingly, he never developed plan B. It’s up to you and me to make it happen.

You can find me at richardagee.com. I also invite you to join us at San Antonio First Church of the Nazarene on West Avenue in San Antonio to hear more Bible-based teaching. You can find out more about my church at SAF.church. Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed it, tell a friend. If you didn’t, send me an email and let me know how better to reach out to those around you. Until next week, may God richly bless you as you venture into His story each day.

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

No secret societies (John 18:20-21), April 21, 2017

Today’s Podcast

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Thanks for joining me today for “A Little Walk with God.” I’m your host Richard Agee.
Secrets are something Jesus reached inside others and made known. He didn’t seem to have any Himself. Maybe we should follow suit.
Scripture
1. John 18:20-21
2. Jesus: I have spoken in public where the world can hear, always teaching in the synagogue and in the temple where the Jewish people gather. I have never spoken in secret. So why would you need to interrogate Me? Many have heard Me teach. Why don’t you question them? They know what I have taught.
Devotional
1. I’ve taken several oaths in my life.
  1. As an Army officer to support and defend the Constitution
  2. To my wife
  3. In court, to tell the truth
  4. In various legal situations attesting to my identity or the truth of some legal document
  5. All those oaths are public record or can be
2. I’ve never belonged to one of those secret societies. And I don’t want to.
  1. Oaths behind closed doors.
  2. Teachings that you must reach certain levels before you are allowed to hear what the next level knows
  3. Secrets about beliefs and activities
  4. Secrets about loyalties and how deep those loyalties extend
3. That’s what I like about Jesus’ testimony to the high priest
  1. Wasn’t trying to be flippant
  2. Wasn’t trying to be rude or arrogant
  3. Just stating fact
  4. Everything He did was in the open for all to see
  5. Even His prayers were open enough for His disciples to overhear and record them for us later in the gospels
4. Beware of those religions that hide behind secrets
  1. Jesus had no secrets
  2. Everything He did, He did in the open for all to hear
  3. I think He tells us to do the same
  4. We have nothing to hide when we follow His command and His example
  5. It’s true many have died because of His teaching, but so did He
5. What did He teach that cost His life?
  1. God wants a personal relationship with each of us
  2. Only one relationship never ends, think about it
  3. Everyone you enter into a relationship with will die or move or things change that change the relationship
  4. Every relationship with anything or anyone terrestrial will end
  5. Only a relationship with God can last
  6. Only He is immortal and relates with our immortal soul
If you want to learn more about my church, you can find us at SAF.church. If you like the devotional, share it with someone. If you don’t, tell me. I hope you’ll join me again tomorrow for “A Little Walk with God.”

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

To make bread you need the right yeast (Matthew 16:6) April 13, 2016

Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Psalms 42-44

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

Today’s Devotional

Matthew 16:6, 8-11
Jesus: Be careful; avoid the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
Jesus: You men of little faith, do you really think that I care which baker you patronize? After spending so much time with Me, do you still not understand what I mean? So you showed up without bread; why talk about it? 9-10 Don’t you remember that we fed 5,000 men with five rounds of flatbread? Don’t you remember that we fed 4,000 men with seven rounds of bread? Don’t you remember what excess, what abundance there was—how many broken pieces and crusts you collected after everyone had eaten and was sated? 11 So when I speak about leaven, I am not talking about what we will eat for dinner. I say again, avoid the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

Reading so much about bread in the Bible the last several months, I started experimenting with making bread myself. I’ve done a little bit of baking off and on since I retired. It’s something I enjoy, but probably not enough to make it a real hobby. But I’ve come to understand it a little. And because I was a chemistry major in college, I get interested in the why baking soda or baking power is needed in a recipe. How does yeast work or what difference does it make when you add vinegar and soda in a red velvet cake.

I know, it’s a little weird, but that’s just who I am. All of us have a weird streak in us somewhere and that’s part of mine. So when Jesus tell the disciples to be careful and avoid the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees. You have to understand a little about leavening to know what He’s talking about.

The problem today, we don’t do much baking at home, except as a hobby like me. Most of us go to the store and buy our bread or get a cake mix that just needs water and a couple of eggs and we’re done. We don’t know what else has gone into that mix to make it rise for that perfect, bouncy, delicious, moist texture. We just stir, bake and eat.

So here’s a little lesson on leavening. First, leavening doesn’t have to be yeast, although in Jesus’ day it usually was. The yeast or other biological consumed simple and complex sugars to form carbon dioxide which forms bubbles in the dough making it rise. But leavening is any number of substances that introduces air into dough or batter to make it lighter or softer. We think of yeast most often, but it can be anything for dough that causes fermentation or produces air from a biological reaction, yeast, beer, ginger beer, kefir to name a few.

There are also chemicals that leaven or create that air we’re looking for in baking, like baking soda and baking powders. These chemicals combine with acids like sour milk, buttermilk, or vinegar and cause the resulting compound to foam creating the bubbles the dough or batter needs to rise.

Bakers also use mechanical leavening like creaming butter and sugar together. The sugar crystals break into the lipid structure of the butter and when heated the crystals break down and leave behind very tiny bubbles in their place. Now we also use steam to create the effect or nitrogen or a number of other discoveries since yeast was first used in baking, but all have the same effect. The chemical or biological process introduces air into the dough or batter, softens it and makes it rise. The gluten or other proteins in the dough or batter hold the structure tight enough to prevent the bubbles from escaping and so the dough transforms into the baked goods we enjoy.

Okay, so now you’ve had a lesson in baking. What does that have to do with what Jesus wants us to know?

I’ve baked enough now, that I’ve made the mistake of using the wrong leavener in what I was making. I’ve used baking powder instead of baking soda. I’ve used regular milk instead of sour milk. I’ve used the wrong stuff enough to know that when you do, you definitely don’t get the results you’re looking for. And once it’s in there, you can’t take it out. It goes through the whole batter and you can’t remove it. Period. The whole batch is ruined and goes into the trash.

That’s what Jesus warns His disciples. If they let the false teachings of the Pharisees and the Sadducees invade them, they can’t get it out of them. It permeates and fills them. It’s as hard to remove those teachings as it is to remove leaven from bread. It infects the whole of a person. So Jesus warns them. Be careful about who you listen to. Be careful about what you let into the windows of your soul. Be careful about the studies you undertake. Those things have an affect on you that you cannot just forget.

Can God help you recover from false teaching and help you walk the path He wants you to take? Yes. But talk to recovering alcoholics. It takes very little to push them back over the edge. Talk to recovery drug addicts. They don’t want pain killers for fear they will be trapped once again in the vicious circle that pulled them into the death trap they were in before. All those things linger in our physical frame and our minds trapped in this mortal body, these vessels of clay. We can’t get rid of the consequences of letting the garbage in. Just try to convince a terrorist his cause is wrong. You won’t get very far for the same reasons.

We must keep up our guard. Jesus says using this metaphor of leaven. When you understand the chemistry behind this tiny bit of biological or chemical compound and what it can do to a large batch of dough, you understand just how dangerous the wrong kind of leaven can be. If you make a loaf of bread you want the right yeast.

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.