Tag Archives: war

Don’t put your hands where they don’t belong – July 30, 2018

Today’s Podcast

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

Don’t put your hands where they don’t belong. That sounds easy enough, doesn’t it? We’ve all heard the dilemma of the kid getting caught with his hand in the cookie jar. Not quite smart enough to let go of the cookie so it could extract his hand and escape. Have you put your hands where they don’t belong? Do you give in to your cravings knowing you not supposed to have whatever it is you crave?

Let’s take a look at Samson and learn something about how to win the war we’re in every day. As you look back at the very beginning of Samson’s life, his parents were told to raise him as a Nazarite. That meant he had three rules to follow. Don’t drink alcohol. Don’t touch anything dead. Don’t cut his hair. Simple, right? Not like the 612 rules the Israelites were supposed to follow in Jesus’ day. Just three simple things that you really can’t mix up.

So let’s read a little further in Judges 14. Samson went down to Timnah together with his father and mother. As they approached the vineyards of Timnah, suddenly a young lion came roaring toward him. The Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon him so that he tore the lion apart with this bare hands as he might have torn a young goat. But he told neither his father nor his mother what he had done. Then he went down and talked with the woman, and he liked her.

Some time later, when he went back to marry her, he turned aside to look at the lion’s carcass, and init he saw a swarm of bees and some honey. He scooped out the honey with his hands and ate as he went along. When he rejoined his parents, he gave them some, and they too ate it. But he did not tell them that he had taken the honey from the lion’s carcass.

I’ve skipped over an important part of the story dozens of times in my life. I’ve always concentrated on the part about Samson’s amazing strength. What a brave and powerful guy to be able to take on a lion with no weapons and just tear it apart. I always thought Tarzan was pretty awesome fighting a lion with just a knife. But at least he had a knife. Samson took this hungry lion on and tore it to pieces.

That’s what I’ve always focused on. But as I read these verse this time, something jumped out at me. Remember Samson’s rules? Don’t drink alcohol. Don’t touch anything dead. Don’t cut his hair. Well, this lion had been dead for a while. Samson was taking his parents to Timnah. If you remember from last week, that’s a city he was not supposed to go to. His father and mother were going with him to talk to the parents of a Philistine woman Samson had seen and wanted for his wife. Another rule all of Israel knew and understood. Two strikes.

Now, Samson goes over to the lion he killed several days earlier and sees a bee hive and honey in the hive. As you can imagine, it takes a while for bees to build a hive and a while longer to produce enough honey so three people can eat it. So that lion was not warm and freshly dead. It was really dead. And what was Samson’s second rule as a Nazarite? Don’t touch anything dead. I guess he forgot that one as he manhandled that carcass and grabbed that honey. Rules are just for other people to keep, right? He was special and they didn’t apply to him, right?

Samson’s idea of obedience just keeps getting worse and worse. He digs a deeper and deeper hole for himself. How would you like to eat honey from the carcass of a dead lion anyway? Maybe that’s why he didn’t tell his father and mother where he got it. I don’t think I’d want to eat it.

So what can we learn from Samson’s life?

We, like Samson, have some simple rules we need to follow to keep chaos out of our lives. Simple things that God wants of us to keep us out of trouble. Too often, we think those simple little rules are for everyone else, though. I can bypass that one. It doesn’t apply to me. I can bend this one a little just once, can’t I?

What makes us act like that? Why have we been breaking rules since Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden? Another simple answer. There is sin in the world and we are basically selfish. We want what we want and that’s about it. Usually we see something bright and shiny in the middle of that rule and we want it more than keeping the rule and keeping our relationship with God and our fellow man pure.

Samson couldn’t resist the honey. Sweet honey was more important to Samson than keeping his Nazarite vow. I mean what was so special about not touching anything dead anyway. It didn’t matter to all the other Israelites. What was so important about this particular rule for him? If God had given him such great power, what hold could a carcass have on him? And it’s just this once for something that tastes so good. God would understand. God wants us to be happy, doesn’t he?

Samson rationalized his behavior and broke the rules. Just like we do. And just like Samson, we will pay the consequences of doing so. If you don’t want to end up like Samson, it’s simple, just obey the rules God gives you. That’s it. Not complicated. Just do it.

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

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.

We are at war! – July 16, 2018

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For the next few weeks we will look at the fight we are in. If you don’t feel like you’re in a fight for your live, be careful. You might be in the enemies clutches. Remember, the devil is like a roaring lion looking for someone to eat. If you’re not on his menu, you might already be in his digestive track. If you’re a Christian, you should be up to your eyeballs in the fight.

I read a good example of what we are up against a few days ago. If you’re standing on the 20 yard line of a football field and you’re the only one on the field, it’s pretty easy to run into the opposite end zone and score an unopposed touchdown.

But change to picture a little. Now you’re that same halfback and the quarterback passes that football to you. In front of you are eleven really big men with one thing on their mind. Crush the guy with the ball. I’m 5’9”, 185 pounds, and 64 years old. I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t make it back to the line of scrimmage without a few broken bones and a probable concussion. I don’t know what kind of shape you’re in, but can imagine that since less than one percent of all the high school football players can make it into the pros, you would probably not make it to the line of scrimmage either.

Keep that picture in your mind. Without God on our side, that’s what it’s like facing the world every day as a Christian. We are in a fight every day. Those football players get on their battle ground once a week. We face that enemy every day we wake up and put our feet on the floor. There is an enemy out there that wants to destroy us. Satan does not want us to make it to heaven. He wants company in the hell God has prepared for him. He wants to capture the souls of as many as he can.

And he’s not just out there waiting for us to bump into him. John and Peter both describe him as a lion on the prowl. He’s hungry. He’s hunting us. He wants to eat you, devour you, destroy you. I’ve never seen a lion in the wild and I really don’t care to. I’ve seen enough wildlife to know that I don’t want to face a lion, the king of the beasts. Lions are give that title for a reason. They will take on just about any other animal and usually win. They are vicious when they hunt. Not many get away from them. Even those that do, often leave scarred, damaged, never the same.

That lion is searching for as many as he can until the Jesus returns. He wants company. He wants you! So in this fight, what are we to do? That’s what we will explore over the next few weeks. We will look at Sampson. How did he succeed? How did he fail? What can we learn from his sordid life? We can discover some things to do and not to do as we look at this Judge in Israel’s past. He was a hero and he sometimes let his position, his talents, his strength go to his head. He forgot the important things of life.

Paul tells us in Ephesians 6, Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.

Paul knew we are in a battle. Jesus told us that if we followed him we would be at war with the world. It’s time we accept the fact if we carry his name, the world will hate us. The enemy will try to devour us. We will be at war. We must fight. But if God is on our side, he cannot be defeated. If you follow him, you’re on the winning side.

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.

What does peace mean to you? (John 20:20-21), April 28, 2017

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Thanks for joining me today for “A Little Walk with God.” I’m your host Richard Agee.
I grew up in the 60’s and 70’s and you saw peace signs everywhere. Technology brought the Viet Nam War into our living rooms for the first time in history and we heard the daily body count from across the sea. Everyone longed for peace.
Scripture
1. John 20:20-21
2. Jesus: May each one of you be at peace.

As He was speaking, He revealed the wounds in His hands and side. The disciples began to celebrate as it sank in that they were really seeing the Lord.

Jesus: I give you the gift of peace. In the same way the Father sent Me, I am now sending you.

Devotional
1. What does peace mean to you?
  1. There will never be peace between nations.
  2. We can’t even have peace within nations as evidenced by our most recent elections here.
  3. We often can’t achieve peace in our own households as evidenced by divorce rates climbing toward 60%
  4. So what is peace?
2. Definition of peace: 1. freedom from disturbance; quiet and tranquility. 2.freedom from or the cessation of war or violence.
  1. Is this what Jesus promised His disciples and us?
  2. Freedom from disturbance; quiet and tranquility?
  3. Slander; persecution; martyrdom
  4. Where is the peace He promised?
3. If looking for peace in regard to our relation to the world, it will never happen
  1. The world hated Him and will hate us
  2. Promised trouble in this world and all who follow Him have found trouble if they share His message or live the life He demands of us
  3. The world opposes us and tries to turn us to their ways
  4. When we don’t they do everything they can to destroy us
4. So what kind of peace did Jesus leave?
  1. Inner peace
  2. Peace with ourselves and with God
  3. Freedom from the guilt that plagues us because of estrangement from God in our wickedness
  4. Doesn’t mean we’re murderers or robbers
    1. Although, Jesus says hate means murder
    2. Coveting, means robbery
    3. Robbing God with our tithes and offerings
  5. All have sinned against God
  6. Failed to honor Him and live the life He wants us to live
  7. We know we need His forgiveness
  8. He gives assurance of forgiveness and peace
5. What can you give in exchange for that peace?
  1. Nothing
  2. Nothing in all the world is worth the peace you can have in knowing your sins are forgiven
  3. Every follower of Jesus who is really all in for Him knows that
  4. His legacy is peace
If you want to learn more about my church, you can find us at SAF.church. If you like the devotional, share it with someone. If you don’t, tell me. I hope you’ll join me again tomorrow for “A Little Walk with God.”

Don’t you love getting advice? (John 18:11), April 20, 2017

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Thanks for joining me today for “A Little Walk with God.” I’m your host Richard Agee.
I love to get advice from other people about what God wants for my life, don’t you? Yeah, right. We do seem to try to meddle sometimes, don’t we. That’s exactly what Jesus called Peter on in the Garden of Gethsemane.
Scripture
1. John 18:11
2. Jesus (to Peter): Put down your sword, and return it to the sheath. Am I to turn away from the cup the Father has given Me to drink?
Devotional
1. I know what is best for my adult children, right? I need to give them advice on their career choices, the spouse they choose, the things they do with their money, the places they go…even when they don’t ask.
  1. Same with elderly parents
  2. Same with neighbors
  3. Same with everyone around me
  4. I don’t need to take advice from anyone else, but I sure need to give others my advice
  5. I even try to give God my advice sometimes
  6. In our flawed state, we think we are smarter than God
2. That’s what Peter does with Jesus
  1. Attacks Malcus, high priest’s servant
  2. Tries to help Jesus escape from the Pharisees and the death penalty they wish to impose
  3. Thinks he knows better than Jesus what His path should be
  4. Thinks the Messiah must not die, but reign as a military and political leader to free Israel
  5. Steps in front of Jesus to protect Him
3. How often do we step in front of God’s plan instead of doing what Jesus did and trust the Father with His perfect knowledge?
  1. Can’t mean what He says
  2. Can’t mean for us to face the trial He puts in front of us
  3. Can’t mean for us to suffer
  4. The path must be different
  5. So we try to change the path, we step in front of His plan and try to change it
4. Often we pick up implements to challenge the enemy
  1. Sword, spear, implements of war to fight
  2. He wants us to submit instead
  3. Trust that God knows what He’s doing
  4. Recognize that He is God and His plan will be ultimately completed the way He intends
  5. We can choose to be a part of those plans or not
  6. The smart choice is to let Him take the lead and then do what He says
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.”

Guns and peace just don’t mix (John 14:25-27), April 2, 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.
How many guns give you peace? Guns are debated a lot in this country. Is one or two a good number? How about 13 million? Actually, guns have nothing to do with peace or fear. But they are interesting to talk about.
Scripture
1. John 14:25-27
2. Jesus: I have spoken these words while I am here with you. The Father is sending a great Helper, the Holy Spirit, in My name to teach you everything and to remind you of all I have said to you. My peace is the legacy I leave to you. I don’t give gifts like those of this world. Do not let your heart be troubled or fearful.
Devotional
1. As I read Jesus words today, “Do not let your heart be troubled or fearful.” I thought about how fearful our nation remains. We seem to be scared of everything. Sometimes for good reason with all the talk of terrorists and crime rates and road rage and general violence going on everywhere.
  1. Last available statistics from the Department of Justice Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosive
  2. Interesting they put all those things under the same department, things that are all equally deadly to our population
  3. 9 million firearms manufactured in the US 2015
  4. 3.9 million imported into the US in 2015
  5. 13 million brand new firearms floating around the country in the hands of mostly responsible, but some pretty irresponsible people
  6. I’m one of those holders of firearms, think I’m responsible
  7. Never the gun that kills, but the person that holds it
2. Weapons don’t bring peace
  1. Instruments of destruction
  2. Provide an easier means of taking life
  3. Able to do so without getting as personal as with a club or bare hands
  4. Just pull the trigger and with a rifle, may never see their eyes or the expression on their face
  5. Comedian on the Internet
    1. Wanted to buy a defensive gun for protection
    2. Not one of those that killers and robbers use
3. Jesus brings peace
  1. Gives gifts unlike the world
  2. Promises a legacy of peace
  3. Inner peace
  4. Will never stop the wars between nations or between fellow human beings until He returns
  5. Holy Spirit beings personal peace in the turmoil of life
  6. Circumstances don’t dictate our states of mind or emotional distress
4. Jesus gives peace the world cannot understand or receive because the world doesn’t know Him
  1. I still like shooting my guns
  2. But my peace comes from the legacy Jesus gives, not from the legacy of the wild west
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.”