A Little Walk With God

Join us as we explore God’s ancient wisdom and apply it to our modern lives. His word is as current and relevant today as it was when he inspired its authors more than two and a half millennia ago. The websites where you can reach us are alittlewalkwithgod.com, richardagee.com, or saf.church. I hope you will join us every week and be sure to let us know how you enjoy the podcast and let others know about it, too. Thanks for listening. Thanks for joining me today for "A Little Walk with God." I'm your host Richard Agee. Palm Sunday has slipped behind us. Passion week stands before us. As we look at the events that will happen to Jesus over the next few days, I think it will help us to understand why both the religious and political leaders want so desperately to do away with him. Everything culminated with the actions he took on the first day of the week, Palm Sunday. But without fully understanding the historical background behind the events that took place that day, we cannot understand why the chief priest and representatives of Rome were so anxious to be rid of Jesus. We fail to miss why the radical shift from crown him to crucify him. We see Palm Sunday as Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem and picture people waving palm branches and shouting “Hosanna!” In our western thought, we have turned the actions into not much more than a nice children’s activity for them to make construction paper palm leaves and wave them in the air as they walk down the aisles of the church. We smile and comment on how cute they look as one of the boys chosen to play Jesus comes riding through the middle of the group on a stick horse. The events of Jesus’ triumphal entry have significantly more to say to us than just a nice parade on a sunny Sunday morning, though. The depth of the covenant promises between God and Abraham, David, and the Israelites made the events that happened that day extraordinary. Until we put some of the background of Jewish thought and hope into Jesus’ actions, we miss the significance of Palm Sunday. Let’s start with Mark’s rapid-fire description of the entry from his gospel in chapter 11. Now, as they were approaching Jerusalem, they arrived at the place of the stables near Bethany on the Mount of Olives. Jesus sent two of his disciples ahead and said to them, “As soon as you enter the village ahead, you will find a donkey’s colt tied there that has never been ridden. Untie it and bring it to me. And if anyone asks, ‘Why are you taking it?’ tell them, ‘The master needs it and will send it back to you soon.’ ” So they went and found the colt outside in the street, tied to a gate. When they started to untie it, some people standing there said to them, “Why are you untying that colt?” They answered just as Jesus had told them: “The master needs it, and he will send it back to you soon.” So the bystanders let them go. The disciples brought the colt to Jesus and piled their cloaks and prayer shawls on the young donkey, and Jesus rode upon it. Many people carpeted the road in front of him with their cloaks and prayer shawls, while others gathered palm branches and spread them before him. Jesus rode in the center of the procession, with crowds going before him and behind him. They all shouted in celebration, “Bring the victory! We welcome the one coming with blessings sent from the Lord Yahweh! Blessings rest on this kingdom he ushers in—the kingdom of our father David! Bring us the victory in the highest realms of heaven!” Jesus rode through the gates of Jerusalem and up to the temple. After looking around at everything, he left for Bethany with the Twelve to spend the night, for it was already late in the day. (Mark 11:1-11 TPT) Let’s start with the geography, and the place Mark records the beginning of Jesus’ triumphant ride. He and his disciples have come to the home of Lazarus, Mary, and Martha in Bethphage near Bethany, Bethphage means the house of stables in Aramaic. These two small villages are nestled on the eastern slope of the Mount of Olives. Jesus came here often, it seems. Whether to visit his friends Lazarus, Mary, and Martha, to deliver the sermon we call the Olivet Discourse Matthew records in chapters 24 and 25 of his gospel, or in his agony in the Garden of Gethsemane after his last Passover meal with his disciples this place is familiar. Jesus will ascend from the Mount of Olives forty days after his resurrection. A most fascinating aspect of the geography, however, comes from Ezekiel’s prophecy. In chapter eleven, God gives the prophet a vision in which he sees the shekinah, the visible glory of God, depart the city of Jerusalem, and stop above the mountain east of it. The mountain east of Jerusalem is the Mount of Olives. Jesus, the embodiment of God, returns to the Mount of Olives to begin his triumphant return into the city of Jerusalem on the first day of the week that will mark the beginning of his reign over the new Kingdom of God. We next see Jesus’ foreknowledge of certain events as he tells two of his disciples to go ahead of him and get a colt they will find in the village tied to a house. Perhaps we can assume Jesus planned with the owner earlier for the colt to be available at a certain time and place, but would Jesus know about the bystanders who would question his disciples, and the answer that would placate their curiosity if they thought any thievery were in progress? It makes one wonder. Then we see Jesus’ act of riding an unridden donkey at all. First, donkeys are well known for their stubborn streak, their unwillingness to obey their owners, much less strangers who want to put them to work. Second, this was an animal not yet tamed. Ask those who tame horses, mules, and donkeys how quickly they would hop on an unridden colt and take it into a crowd. Not one in a thousand would think you were sane to attempt such actions. But Jesus did without a second thought. He knew the animal would obey his every command. If the wind and waves obey him, so would an untamed donkey. Riding a donkey into Jerusalem meant something special to the Jews, though. It looked unlike the victory procession of most kings. They would enter gates on stallions with their conquered kings and slaves behind them. Jesus rode a lowly donkey, and the colt of a donkey at that. But those who looked for their Messiah King saw Jesus as their rescuer from Roman oppression. Zechariah had written: Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion!     Shout, Daughter Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you,     righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey,     on a colt, the foal of a donkey. (Zech 9:9 NIV) Jesus, this miracle worker who dared challenge the authority of the Pharisees, and gave new interpretations to the law that spoke of love, peace, and God’s kingdom near at hand road through the gates of God’s city just as Zechariah described the Messiah. Their victor had arrived. Israel’s King came through the gates that day. Herod met his match. Caesar and his government would no longer bully God’s people. God had sent his Messiah to rescue them and bring justice back to Israel. The people on that first day of the week saw victory in its many forms – return from exile; freedom from Roman oppression; true justice reigning; God’s new kingdom beginning; the Age to Come had arrived; the Messiah, King of all nations would reign. What they didn’t see was how that victory would take place. They didn’t understand the Messiah was a suffering servant. They didn’t think the Messiah could die on a cross, the most shameful means of execution. And they didn’t see the connection in the geography. Jesus, the embodiment of God, began his triumphal entry on the Mount of Olives, where Ezekiel last saw God’s glory revealed. Jesus rode the foal of a donkey through the narrow road to Jerusalem to the Hosannas of the crowd, and through streets of the city to the Temple. Jesus, the embodiment of God, went into the Temple, and no one recognized him for who he was. He looked around, and just as in Ezekiel’s vision, Jesus departed and rested at the Mount of Olives in the home of Lazarus. The rest of the week will unfold with the religious leaders understanding the revolt that simmers because of Jesus’ actions on that first day of the week. The crowd sees a potential revolutionary hero rising. This Jesus came through gate of the city using prophecy to declare himself King, Messiah. Barabbas already awaited execution for inciting a revolt. Crosses lined the countryside filled with those who dared challenge Roman rule. Now Jesus rides in as if he were King of the Jews. Herod is not a friend, but at least he is not a foe of the Temple. He’s better than Caesar and has served as a buffer for Israel. Now, the authority Herod gives the priests in governing, the nation itself stands in jeopardy because Jesus’ followers declared him Messiah, King of kings. If Jesus is Messiah, Herod is not king, Caesar is not lord. The country, the Jewish faith is in trouble. Something must be done. If the religious political leaders knew what they were about to do, they would never have killed Jesus! By their actions, they are about to usher in the Age to Come, the new creation, heaven joining earth in a way they could not imagine. A revolution is about to begin that will encompass the world - revolution of love. 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 Passion Translation®. Copyright © 2017, 2018, 2020 by Passion & Fire Ministries, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scriptures marked NIV are taken from the NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION (NIV): Scrip

Join us as we explore God’s ancient wisdom and apply it to our modern lives. His word is as current and relevant today as it was when he inspired its authors more than two and a half millennia ago. The websites where you can reach us are alittlewalkwithgod.com, richardagee.com, or saf.church. I hope you will join us every week and be sure to let us know how you enjoy the podcast and let others know about it, too. Thanks for listening. Thanks for joining me today for "A Little Walk with God." I'm your host Richard Agee. The scripture under consideration this week gives us some interesting points to explore as we approach Good Friday and Easter. It comes from the gospel of John, chapter 12.  Now there were a number of foreigners from among the nations who were worshipers at the feast. They went to Philip (who came from the village of Bethsaida in Galilee) and they asked him, "Would you take us to see Jesus? We want to see him." So Philip went to find Andrew, and then they both went to inform Jesus. He replied to them, "Now is the time for the Son of Man to be glorified. Let me make this clear: A single grain of wheat will never be more than a single grain of wheat unless it drops into the ground and dies. Because then it sprouts and produces a great harvest of wheat—all because one grain died. "The person who loves his life and pampers himself will miss true life! But the one who detaches his life from this world and abandons himself to me, will find true life and enjoy it forever! If you want to be my disciple, follow me and you will go where I am going. And if you truly follow me as my disciple, the Father will shower his favor upon your life.  "Even though I am torn within, and my soul is in turmoil, I will not ask the Father to rescue me from this hour of trial. For I have come to fulfill my purpose—to offer myself to God. So, Father, bring glory to your name!" Then suddenly a booming voice was heard from the sky, "I have glorified my name! And I will glorify it through you again!" The audible voice of God startled the crowd standing nearby. Some thought it was only thunder, yet others said, "An angel just spoke to him!" Then Jesus told them, "The voice you heard was not for my benefit, but for yours—to help you believe. From this moment on, everything in this world is about to change, for the ruler of this dark world will be overthrown. And I will do this when I am lifted up off the ground and when I draw the hearts of people to gather them to me."  He said this to indicate that he would die by being lifted up on the cross. (John 12:20-33 TPT) Some translations say Greeks came to Phillip, but to the Jews, all foreigners were Greeks or Gentiles; the terms were synonymous to them. It's like our phrase when hearing a foreign language or explanations that are intellectually challenging and exclaiming, "It's all Greek to me." These men may have been proselytes to the Jewish faith, or they may just have heard about Jesus' miracles and wanted healing, food, or answers. Maybe they believed he could forgive and longed for freedom from sin or perhaps just curious about this man who raised so many questions among the people. Phillip went to Andrew, and the two took the request to Jesus. We might have thought Jesus would say yes or no to the request or would have gone to the foreigners to give them an answer to the quest. Instead, we get what seems a rather peculiar response. "The time has come. I'm about to be glorified. Unless a grain of wheat is buried and dies, it is alone. But if it dies, it will produce a harvest. If you love your life, you will lose it. If you hate your life in this world, you will keep it for life in the age to come. If anyone serves me, they must follow me. Where I am, my servant will be too. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor them. Now I'm troubled, but I came for this hour. Father, glorify your name. Now, this world's ruler will be thrown out when I am lifted up from the earth. And when I've been lifted up, I will draw all people to myself." What a strange answer to give Phillip and Andrew when the Greeks came to see Jesus! Throughout the gospels to this point, Jesus had continually told those around him, "My time has not yet come." At the wedding in Cana, in conflict with demons, when Jesus told some he healed not to tell who healed them, and so many other instances. After his first confrontation with the Pharisees in Jerusalem, Jesus kept his ministry outside Jerusalem to avoid both the religious and political leaders there because 'his time had not yet come.' Jesus knew his death would coincide with Passover. It seemed he looked to a particular Passover. We might think he would aim to go to the cross on the day of atonement to look at the somber ceremony the Jews held for the forgiveness of sins each year, but he did not. He marched toward the Passover for a reason. In the Protestant church, we miss the meaning because we don't understand the long, rich history of the Jews and why Passover held such a powerful meaning. We know it marked the Exodus from Egypt, but the celebration meant so much more to the Jews, and we forget the early Christians, including Jesus, were Jews steeped in that history. Passover marked freedom from slavery. Freedom from the power of an evil King, Pharaoh. It marked the passage from death to life with the crossing of the Red Sea. It also brought the remembrance of their sin and death in the wilderness. Their sin wasn't because of bad behavior but because of idolatry. The word sin means missing the mark. Their failure to worship God. Their failure to be the image-bearers of God he gave them as their vocation in his covenant relationship with them. They missed the mark in their vocation. Their sin of idolatry kept them from the promised land until they cleaned up their act in the wilderness and learned to worship God in the tabernacle as he directed in the tablets of the law. Then they crossed the Jordan and began the conquest of the promised land. But again, they missed the mark of the covenant, and God finally sent them into exile into Syria and Babylon, not because of bad behavior, but because of their idolatry. They failed in their worship. They gave power to idols rather than keeping the authority God gave to humans in having dominion over the world. Gods of wood and stone, crafted by men's hands, were given power they did not earn but were given to them as men worshiped them. Idolatry polluted humanity, including the Jews, finally driving God's people into exile. The tabernacle, the ark, the mercy seat was the place God would come to meet with man. The lifeblood of the animal sacrifice cleansed and purified the altar and the mercy seat. It wasn't the killing of the animal God wanted. It was the access to the purifying blood to place on the mercy seat. We know from medicine today that it is our blood that purifies our bodies. It carries the toxins and impurities to our liver and kidneys, which act as filters to flush them out of our system. Without blood filtering the cells throughout the body, the toxins we produce would kill us in minutes. Blood from the sacrificial animal cleansed the mercy seat where God met unclean humans, a picture of a future time when God would meet man at the cross with his life's blood cleansing that sacred spot to bring us out of exile. The blood was never for the forgiveness of sins. In the atonement sacrifice, the priest symbolically placed the people's sins on the scapegoat's head, and another priest led the animal out of the camp into the wilderness. The sin offering individuals might make throughout the year atoned for wrongs committed unwittingly or unwillingly, wrongs they didn't know they committed. Committing a behavioral wrong knowingly meant harsh punishment, often death by stoning with the accuser casting the first stone. Jesus and those around him knew all this. They lived it every day as part of the burden carried by the corrupted Jewish covenant. But when Jesus answered, he saw the cross. He knew the evil powers would soon break. The cross would overcome sin. He was the light of the world; he had almost completed his vocation as God intended for humanity. Jesus was about to take back the power of those idols through his death on the cross. His innocent death would usher in a new Passover; the power of forgiveness would find victory over the power of evil and the curse of death. Jesus' hour has come. The world is invited. The cross will bring victory, freedom, forgiveness, and power through God's spirit. His vocation will find completion in the cross. Jesus knew more suffering would come, both to him and his followers, but that is the way of the cross. That is the way of love and forgiveness. The powers of evil, of idolatry, will not give up easily. They will fight. But Jesus moves steadily toward the cross because he also knows what lies on the other side. The cross is in front of him. But so is Easter. You can find me at richardagee.com. 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 TPT are taken from The Passion Translation®. Copyright © 2017, 2018, 2020 by Passion & Fire Ministries, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.  

Join us as we explore God’s ancient wisdom and apply it to our modern lives. His word is as current and relevant today as it was when he inspired its authors more than two and a half millennia ago. The websites where you can reach us are alittlewalkwithgod.com, richardagee.com, or saf.church. I hope you will join us every week and be sure to let us know how you enjoy the podcast and let others know about it, too. Thanks for listening. Thanks for joining me today for "A Little Walk with God." I'm your host Richard Agee. I’d like to share with you the lectionary from John. I comes from chapter 3:14-21. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.  "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.  "Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.  Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.  For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God." (John 3:14-21 NIV) We draw closer to Easter. Our meditations focus more on the cross, and the day Jesus ushered in the beginning of the end and new creation, the restoration of heaven on earth as at the beginning of God's beautiful creation. This week's lectionary included one of the most recognized verses in all the New Testament, John 3:16. "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him will not perish but will have eternal life."     We use the verse in evangelistic services to win others to the love of Christ. We use it to comfort people in times of crisis. John 3:16 demonstrates the all-inclusive nature of a loving God. He leaves no one out of his love. The verse gives us hope amid overwhelming despair, knowing life exists beyond the few years we spend in these frail fleshly vessels. The promise of eternity for those who believe in Jesus as Messiah, Savior, Lord, and follow him gets us through the difficulties of life in ways that are hard to explain at times. John 3:16 stands as a monumental verse in scripture. However, we often disassociate the verse from the two that come before it, even though intricately tied together. The preceding verses introduce a story from Numbers that Jesus recalls, and the New Testament writers record only this one time. The story does much to explain the role of the cross as Jesus marches toward his death. The Israelites grumbled about the steady diet of the manna God gave them as a source of food in the wilderness. God had enough and sent poisonous snakes into the camp that began biting and killing some people. The people approached Moses, admitted their wrong, and asked him to intervene to God on their behalf. God told Moses to make a bronze serpent and erect it on a pole in the camp center. Anyone who looked at the serpent would live. To you and me, that sounds like a pretty silly cure for snakebite. It did to many of them, too, I'm sure. But if you believed God and looked at the pole, you lived. If you didn't, you died. The difference became so apparent among the people that the serpent became an implement of worship in the Temple that later King Hezekiah destroyed, grinding it into dust, finally ending the practice, Soon, the political and spiritual leaders prompted by evil forces, unbeknownst to them, would lift Jesus up as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness. Not to cure snakebites, but to cure the sins of those who believed in him once and for all. But it requires believing, just as it required believing for the Israelites in the wilderness. The cross was the culmination of Jesus' vocation – death, the final task completed. Jesus taking his last breath. A picture of evil winning at six o'clock Friday evening. But that was only the end of the beginning. New creation happened next. The Kingdom came. Heaven and earth met. Jesus, the resurrected King came alive from the tomb and defeated the enemy of humanity. He won. What we need to understand about John 3:16, then, is God didn't punish Jesus for our sins as some might think. God gave Jesus as the only one who could live humanity as he intended it. Jesus lived out the vocation God gave Adam, but Adam failed. He gave the vocation to Noah, but Noah failed. Abraham failed. Moses and the Israelites failed. The Israelites looked for a Messiah who would bring them out of exile and looked for God to return to the Temple to dwell there. They never recognized Jesus as the embodiment of God in human form. The Messiah, God, the suffering servant who would fulfill the prophecies in ways unexpected by the political and spiritual leaders corrupted by a broken world. God gave himself in perfect humanity, in perfect love, to live out the vocation he gave to humans who could not carry out his plan, so he did it himself. He lived a life of love and suffering and sacrifice, bringing heaven to earth in unexpected ways to dwell with us. The interesting word used is not dwell or live with us, but he tabernacled with us, temple words, God coming to meet man words. On earth as in heaven words. The passage we shared shows us God loves the world like he loves the Israelites. The world lifted his son like Moses lifted the serpent in the wilderness, but rather than living a few years by viewing the serpent, we can live eternally by believing in the son. God so loved the world he came in the form of humanity to save it. In the wilderness, believers lived, non-believers died. Both had the same opportunity. Both could look at the serpent if they chose to do so. Believers chose to look at the serpent lifted up on the pole because they believed it could cure them. Non-believers never made an effort and died in their tent. Only one group found life. The light came into the world. Believers in the light found life. Non-believers remained in darkness and death. Both have the same opportunity. Both can have life, but only one group will receive it. Only those who come out into the light and have their deeds exposed can find forgiveness for their deeds. Only those who believe can find life. Those who do not believe are condemned already because they refuse to come out of their darkness, and like the Israelites who failed to believe in the wilderness and stayed huddled in their tents, the poison will kill them. Does God desire that we suffer and die in our sins? No. It's why he came in the first place. He so loved us that he came. He took the world's sins upon himself. But covenants have two sides. He did the hard part; he died on a Roman cross for us. He asks us to lift up our eyes to the cross and believe in him. Meditate on this short passage this week. What does it mean to you? Let it soak into your soul as you understand what Jesus did for you on the cross that day 2000 years ago. 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 are taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION ®. Copyright© 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™. Used by permission of Zondervan  

Join us as we explore God’s ancient wisdom and apply it to our modern lives. His word is as current and relevant today as it was when he inspired its authors more than two and a half millennia ago. The websites where you can reach us are alittlewalkwithgod.com, richardagee.com. I hope you will join us every week and be sure to let us know how you enjoy the podcast and let others know about it, too. Thanks for listening. Thanks for joining me today for "A Little Walk with God." I'm your host Richard Agee. Some scholars have built an entire vocation around Apologetics, the discipline of defending religious doctrines through systematic argumentation and discourse. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apologetics) It's not just Christian Apologetics in religious debates today, either. You will find it in Buddhism, Judaism, Muslim, cults; almost anywhere you locate a religious gathering, you'll discover apologists for their belief system. In the early Christian church, apologists debated attempting to stem the growing persecution against the believers. Trumped up charges against Christians put them in grave danger by the state and their neighbors. Nero accused Christians of burning down Rome. Others charged them with cannibalism by misinterpreting the Eucharist. Still others accused the Christians of incest since they called each other brother and sister when greeting each other. So, the early apologists' debate shared the gospel's truth and the Christian practices that helped support those truths. Later, apologists focused on the existence of a unique and personal God. Some, like Tertullian, formulated and described the trinitarian nature of the godhead in the persons of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - one God existing in three personifications. Others explained the means of atonement through the death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus; how the Eucharist acts as a remembrance of his covenant with believers; and other doctrinal issues within the church. Today, apologists often work to share what early Christians believed. We have allowed doctrines and theology to stray so far to the right or left of what the early church held as truth; we have a hard time knowing what to believe anymore. Apologists debate the finer points of doctrine, often confusing the situation more than they should. Sometimes I think they hurt the faith as much as they help when debates internally get as rabid as debates external to the church. But however heated debates might get, it's necessary sometimes to stop and look at scripture, think about what it says to us, meditate on its meaning, and understand what God wants us to do because of its message. Such is the case with many of the Psalms, the Jewish nation's songs, filled with emotion, but also filled with truth. We can see it in Psalms 19, one of the scriptures from this week's lectionary readings. The heavens are telling the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night declares knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words; their voice is not heard; yet their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In the heavens he has set a tent for the sun, which comes out like a bridegroom from his wedding canopy, and like a strong man runs its course with joy. Its rising is from the end of the heavens, and its circuit to the end of them; and nothing is hid from its heat. (Psalms 19:1-6 NIV) In these verses, we recognize nature will declare the creator God's majesty and power if we won't. When we consider the universe's mechanics, we should stand in awe of God's creative power. Some today scoff at his existence, but how can there exist such an intricate balance between the galaxies and stars and planets without a great designer. If only by chance, I would submit that takes a great deal more faith than believers exhibit. Producing the universe by chance would be like putting the parts of a watch in a bag and shaking it until a watch comes out. But indefinitely shaking that bag of parts doesn't produce a watch, only dust in the end. All we need do is look around us, and we see the evidence of God. The sun, moon, and stars do not need to speak for us to know God exists. We see his handiwork by their very existence and their precision movement in the sky. We hear creation around us in the voice of the animals, the babbling brook, the sound of raindrops falling, the breeze rustling the leaves in the trees, and myriad others surrounding us. We feel the heat of the sun, the cool of the night, the salt spray of the sea against our face. We innately know God is real because of our physical experiences every day. Our observations of the natural world tell us something or someone set it in motion. Everything around us cannot be an accident. Things reproduce too perfectly, yet too uniquely to come from chance alone. Something or someone put all the laws in place to make this spot in the universe the perfect place for us to live and grow and multiply. Scripture tells us that someone is God. The apologists use scripture to argue and debate their logic. The non-apologists just look up to the sky and look around them and see the glory of God in all his creation. When Jesus made his triumphal entry into the city of Jerusalem, the Pharisees and rulers told him to hush the crowds as they cried out, "Hosanna to the King." The Pharisees feared what the Romans would do because of the praises lifted for this itinerate preacher and teacher. You probably remember Jesus' answer to the Pharisees and rulers. "If these don't praise me, the rocks and hills will cry out their praise." The psalmist saw creation crying out God's praises whenever and wherever he took time to look. He could not escape the awe-inspiring visage of what God had done. But he also purposed to voice his declaration of God's glory and majesty in the form of a psalm. It is time we, too, declare the glory of God as we look around and see what God has done. Nature will continue to speak on God's behalf, but I don't want nature to speak for me. I want to speak for myself as I share the goodness, the majesty, the incredible power, the glory of the creator God, who rescued us from this dark world and promised to one day restore earth and heaven to their former glory for those who believe in his son for salvation. You can find me at richardagee.com. 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 is taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION ®. Copyright© 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™. Used by permission of Zondervan  

Join us as we explore God’s ancient wisdom and apply it to our modern lives. His word is as current and relevant today as it was when he inspired its authors more than two and a half millennia ago. The websites where you can reach us are alittlewalkwithgod.com, richardagee.com, or saf.church. I hope you will join us every week and be sure to let us know how you enjoy the podcast and let others know about it, too. Thanks for listening. Thanks for joining me today for "A Little Walk with God." I'm your host Richard Agee. The season of Lent includes several important points for us to consider as we journey through those 40 days leading up to Easter. Initially, baptismal candidates used the time to go through a rigorous catechism to ensure they knew what it meant to take on the title Christian in a pagan world. Church membership didn't mean just putting your name on a roll and attending every once in a while or giving a few dollars to keep the lights burning. Becoming a member of this band of Jesus followers meant the possibility of giving up everything, including your life. You might lose your job, your possessions, family and friends, everything. As Jesus told his disciples, the world would hate them because of the message they lived before others. Lent, then, allowed these new converts to make sure they believed what they believed and knew what it meant. Over time, we transferred Lent as a preparation for baptism and church membership to prepare for Easter, something the early church never did because every Sunday they celebrated Easter. That's why the early Christians celebrated and worshiped on Sunday, the first day of the week when the resurrected Jesus appeared to Mary and his disciples after his crucifixion for the first time. We seem to have forgotten much of what the early church meant by their early baptism practices, Lent, even the meaning of Easter and Sunday. But Lent is in every respect a time of preparation, a time for self-examination and meditation on what God did for us on the cross. The cross fulfilled his last great covenant with humanity. God made covenants with many throughout the Old Testament. They begin with Adam. He placed him in the garden and gave him dominion over his creation, granting him life for as long as he obeyed a straightforward command. Don't eat from the tree in the center of the garden. Adam failed the test, and the curse of death fell upon all creation. God gave Noah a covenant and sealed it with a rainbow. He gave Abraham and David and Solomon covenants. Throughout the Old Testament, we read repeatedly covenants God made with individuals and with his chosen people. God's covenants have some interesting characteristics, however. His covenants are extraordinarily one-sided. God does most of the work. Covenants today would be called contracts in which each party commits to providing some service to the other party. But in God's covenants, invariably, God commits himself to do everything except one small item. He calls the other party to obey him. Usually, that's the sum total of what he asks. That was all he asked of Adam, Noah, Abraham, David, Solomon, Moses, Israel, and the list goes on. His covenants ask for obedience. Just listen and do what he asks. And usually, his rules are not hard. Don't murder – not so hard. Don't steal – we can do that. Don't commit adultery – it seems like our culture leaves that out a lot, but if we control our appetites, we can do that without much effort. Don't lie – it's a lot easier to tell the truth, so you don't have to remember who you told what lie. Don't covet – there's that appetite again, but it's really about being okay with what someone else has. If we do those, it's easier to have no other God's before Yahweh, or not to have any images, things we've created to take his place, or to take his name in vain, or to set aside time to worship him. When we do all that, honoring parents is easy. And Jesus put it together in two simple commands: Love God; Love others. So, to sum up God's covenants, he does everything for us to succeed in his economy. He takes care of our needs, not necessarily our wants. He adopts us into his royal family and makes us part of his kingdom. God renews our humanity as he designed it. And all we need to do is love him and love others. He takes care of everything else. That should sell better than the Gansu knife. But it doesn't because we think we know more than God. Take a look at God's covenant with Abraham, for example. When Abram was ninety-nine years old, Yahweh appeared to Abram and said to him, "I am God Almighty. Walk before me and be blameless.  I will make my covenant between me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly." Abram fell on his face. God talked with him, saying,  "As for me, behold, my covenant is with you. You will be the father of a multitude of nations.  Your name will no more be called Abram, but your name will be Abraham; for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations.  I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make nations of you. Kings will come out of you. I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God to you and to your offspring after you.  God said to Abraham, "As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but her name shall be Sarah.  I will bless her, and moreover I will give you a son by her. Yes, I will bless her, and she will be a mother of nations. Kings of peoples will come from her." (Genesis 17:1-7;15-16 WEB) How do we get around our obstinance and worldly attractions? Lent is a good start. Paul tells us in Philippians to think about "whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, excellent, or praiseworthy." (Philippians 4:8 NIV) The covenant of the cross surely meets that criteria and should be in our thoughts consistently during Lent. Think about what comes from Jesus' sacrifice – forgiveness, fellowship, adoption, inner peace, eternal life. Meditate on these things and let God's peace wash over you during Lent. Jesus did it all for us. He gave his flesh and blood. He endured the agony of the cross, the ridicule, and humiliation from the crowd, even death at the hands of an angry mob. He did it all. And our part of the covenant he instituted on that last night with his disciples? Obey two commands. Love God and love others. Lent – a time of preparation, self-examination, meditation. Think back to the early church and what it meant to new believers. True believers may not be far from going underground again in this country as Christians are in many countries around the world. It's time we stop and contemplate what it means to follow Christ. Will you follow him if it means your job, your property, your possessions, your family, your life? Will you pay the price in suffering when you walk in the footsteps of the suffering servant? Those were questions the early church faced. Will we see them in this country? Maybe. Spiritual warfare continues in realms we do not understand. Lent offers a time to reflect. Take the time as another glorious Easter celebration approaches. 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 WEB are taken from the THE WORLD ENGLISH BIBLE (WEB): WORLD ENGLISH BIBLE, public domain. 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  

Join us as we explore God’s ancient wisdom and apply it to our modern lives. His word is as current and relevant today as it was when he inspired its authors more than two and a half millennia ago. The websites where you can reach us are alittlewalkwithgod.com, richardagee.com, or saf.church. I hope you will join us every week and be sure to let us know how you enjoy the podcast and let others know about it, too. Thanks for listening. Thanks for joining me today for "A Little Walk with God." I'm your host Richard Agee. We can find our nation's motto in a lot of places – on our coins and bills, on government buildings, in several federal department and state seals. It has been around for almost two centuries, first embellishing the one-cent coin in 1837 and becoming part of all our coins in 1873. It became the United States' official motto under President Eisenhower in 1956 and has been on our paper money since 1957. At the passage of the Coinage Act in 1873, the country still reeled from the effects of the Civil War. We needed a reminder that God remained as the guiding light from whom all things would prosper and proceed after a war that killed more Americans than any other. We needed to remember our real treasure didn't reside in money or wealth or property but God. So by putting "In God We Trust" on our coins and bills, every time we paid for an item, we are reminded God provides, not the government, or our jobs, or some other tangible or intangible force we might presume gives aid. God is the source of our strength and success. Many have tried to remove the words from our currency from the first day it appeared. To date, all attempts have failed. I'm afraid it won't be long until those opposed to God will soon succeed to the detriment of the nation, but as Christians, we need to continue to press to keep the motto alive across the land for as long as possible. Our heritage lies in the providence of God's grace. Were all our founding fathers Christian? No. As many point out, some were deists; some were atheists. But many did claim Jesus as their Lord and Savior. The reason for the several groups' departure from the European continent certainly involved escape from religious persecution. Others wanted to take advantage of the prospect of new lands for development, the potential for finding rare minerals, power, and a host of other reasons. However, the earliest settlers from Europe came seeking religious freedom, as seen by the early charters within their settlements. What can we learn from them? Perhaps the most important lesson, trust in God. I'm reminded of those words as I read the lectionary for this week from Psalms 25: Make me to know your ways, O LORD; teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth, and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all day long. Be mindful of your mercy, O LORD, and of your steadfast love, for they have been from of old. Do not remember the sins of my youth or my transgressions; according to your steadfast love remember me, for your goodness' sake, O LORD! Good and upright is the LORD; therefore he instructs sinners in the way. He leads the humble in what is right, and teaches the humble his way. All the paths of the LORD are steadfast love and faithfulness, for those who keep his covenant and his decrees. (Psalms 25:4-10 NIV) Lord, teach me. We become so arrogant in our seeming knowledge, but we know so little. If we had real wisdom, we would face the mess we find ourselves in today with its racial strife, the enormous political divide, the clashes between socioeconomic or ethnic groups. We would not create such misunderstanding between people because of disparities in material or immaterial things that might cause those disparities. If we had real wisdom, we would work together in community to help each other, lift each other, encourage each other, strengthen each other, understand each other. So, my prayer is to teach me, Lord. Help me know your paths. Somehow get through my thick head, and lead me in your truth, not what some party or newscast or social media writer might want me to hear, but rather, lead me in your truth. I know that only your truth can save me from myself and from the evil that surrounds me. That's what the psalmist knows, and that's what I am learning daily from God's truth recorded in his word. I like the way "The Voice" renders the next verses. "Gracious Eternal One, remember Your compassion; rekindle Your concern and love, which have always been part of Your actions toward those who are Yours. Do not hold against me the sins I committed when I was young; instead, deal with me according to Your mercy and love. Then Your goodness may be demonstrated in all the world, Eternal one." (Ps 25:6-7 The Voice) I am so glad God doesn't give me what I deserve, but rather, in his compassion, his mercy, and love, which have always been part of his actions toward his children – humanity – he extends his grace instead. He forgives our sins. He forgets our transgressions. He wipes away the wrongs we commit against him because he is good and merciful and loving. But God doesn't leave us at that point. He doesn't abandon us at the point of forgiveness. Instead, God instructs us to live right. He teaches us to live honorably. God leads us down paths that will benefit us and keep his reputation and name clean and clear. The humble find themselves lifted by God's teaching. But what does humility mean? I think the best definition I've heard is not thinking less of yourself, but not think more of yourself, either. Remember that you are a child of the King, but only because the King died on the cross for you. So, where does all of this put us? I think it's time to pay attention to our motto. Whenever you pick up a coin or lay a bill on the counter to pay for something, remember where to put your trust. Faith in money doesn't work. There will never be enough to do everything you want to do. We will probably never pay off those trillions of dollars we owe that keep growing every day. The government won't fix things. For 245 years, the government has tried but has never succeeded in making life better for everyone. Someone always gets the short end of the stick. Social change doesn't make a difference. The change will benefit one group but harm another; it always does. Our only hope for the future comes from putting our trust in God. The psalmist knew it. The Secretary of Treasury Salmon P. Chase knew it in 1861. President Eisenhower knew it in 1956. As believers, we know it today. We need to show by our actions that we believe it, though. Read God's word. Soak your mind in it. Let it become part of your life. Act on it as you let God's Spirit work through your life to show his love in a world desperate for something more than what they get every day through their standard fare. Make a difference because of what you learn in and through Jesus, the Messiah, the true King of this world. 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 Scriptures marked THE VOICE are taken from the THE VOICE (The Voice): Scripture taken from THE VOICE ™. Copyright© 2008 by Ecclesia Bible Society. Used by permission. All rights reserved.  

Join us as we explore God’s ancient wisdom and apply it to our modern lives. His word is as current and relevant today as it was when he inspired its authors more than two and a half millennia ago. The websites where you can reach us are alittlewalkwithgod.com, richardagee.com, or saf.church. I hope you will join us every week and be sure to let us know how you enjoy the podcast and let others know about it, too. Thanks for listening. Thanks for joining me today for “A Little Walk with God.” I’m your host Richard Agee. As Christians, we often ask the question, ‘why can’t the world understand how wrong their behavior when pitted against God’s word?’ It’s a valid question. People’s actions everywhere seem to get worse instead of better with the turning of every calendar page. We thought the ’70s topped the list for frivolity, disorder, and social discord, but then came the last several years. Wow! Serial killers, kidnapped children worked as sex slaves, increased control by drug lords, violent crime, division among political parties turning into riots instead of debates, social injustice. You name it, and we’ve had it in the last few years. Evil doesn’t claim a party name or a social divide. The behavior finds its way into every corner of society – every party, every race, every social class. We used to claim ourselves a Christian nation, not necessarily because the vast majority were Christian, but because we based our law and expected behavior on Christian values. Particularly, those last six commandments – honor your parents, don’t murder, don’t commit adultery, don’t lie, don’t steal, and don’t covet. When we live in a community with those principles, we live better together. Somewhere along the line, we quit living by those principles. Perhaps it started with lying, then coveting, then dishonoring parents, adultery, stealing, then murder. Everything skyrocketed. But why? Why can Christians (not nominal Christians, but Christians) understand scripture’s importance, but others can’t? Why is God’s word so much more evident to us than to those who do not follow Jesus? Why is the Bible just a fantasy to those who do not believe? Paul gives us the answer in his second letter to the church in Corinth. He writes these words in what we note as the fourth chapter of his letter: However, if our gospel still remains ‘veiled,’ it is veiled for people who are perishing. What’s happening there is that the god of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they won’t see the light of the gospel of the glory of the Messiah, who is God’s image. We don’t proclaim ourselves, you see, but Jesus the Messiah as Lord, and ourselves as your servants because of Jesus; because the God who said ‘let light shine out of darkness’ has shone in our hearts, to produce the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus the Messiah. (2 Corinthians 4:3-6 NTE) It’s an interesting phrase, ‘the god of this world.’ Satan’s hold over this world is as flimsy and false as it was in the Garden of Eden or in the wilderness when he tempted Jesus. God is the God of all creation, including this world. But just as Satan blinded Adam and Even with his deception, he blinds men and women who fail to accept in faith the truth of God’s word. We, in the church, the body of Christ, still have an interesting problem, though. Why do so many Christians misunderstand God’s word or use it in ways that clearly run against Jesus’ command to love God and love others? How can they twist scripture in ways that would permit the crusades or burning mosques, or killing innocents in riots? How is stealing, adultery, lying, murdering somehow okay when twisted into some kind of righteous behavior? Today, part of our problem stems from the variety of translations used across various denominations and groups. Although the vast majority have few items that will change important aspects regarding salvation, some translations do. A small number of sects make wholesale revisions of God’s word to suit what they want to believe rather than what His word says. To reduce the probability of such an error, I encourage you to read a variety of translations. The vast majority render God’s word in much the same way. Newer translations come from the very oldest manuscripts available, some from as early as the second and third centuries. Compare versions and see what scholars say about any significant differences in word meanings before blindly accepting one over another. Second, we forget the gospel writers penned their works for Christians living in their day and time, not ours. The letters they wrote to congregations and individuals around the Mediterranean in Greek address the first-century Roman world issue the Christians faced in their new found faith. We blindly read without thinking about the context in which the writers lived. In fact, we often forget Paul and the other authors of the New Testament wrote to believers, not unbelievers. They admonished people in the church for their behavior, not those in the pagan temples. Their letters could have started, “Clean up your own act before you start talking about those guys outside your doors.” We need to think about the culture, the difficulties the church faced, the ideas Paul tried to instill in a new faith with no theology before pressing our beliefs and denominational theology on the scripture we might read. Finally, remember definitions change with time. Not only do we have the problem of the translations from Greek to English. The Greek New Testament contains about 5,400 words translated into an average of over 12,000 English words, two and a half times as many words. So, some translations are bound to use different English words for the same Greek word. But some English words change meaning over time. Bad now means good in the vernacular. Gay usually doesn’t refer to lighthearted and carefree today. Words change. God’s word still provides truth. But how do we find that truth after telling you the pitfalls we face? First and foremost, be a student of God’s word. Read and study it. When I say read it, I’m not talking about reading a verse or two a day and setting your Bible aside and saying that’s good enough. You can read the longest gospel in about two and a half hours. You’ll be surprised what you learn when you do so. You can read Romans in half that time—what a fantastic book. Read large chunks of the Bible at a time – several chapters or a whole book, so you understand how it came into the possession of those to whom it was written. The authors didn’t write chapters and verses. They wrote letters to the churches. They wrote prophecies to kings. They wrote biographies of Jesus. Read the Bible as you would those types of books, and you will get an entirely different perspective than by reading a few verses at a time. Next, study smaller sections, starting with the gospels. Try to understand how the people lived during Jesus’ day. How did he act around them? How did the Romans act around the Israelites? Do you realize as Jesus walked the roads in Galilee and Judah, he saw criminals crucified along the roads? We sometimes forget he was not the first to undergo Rome’s most heinous form of execution. Jesus knew what was coming. He saw it every day. The crucified acted as road signs across the country to let people know they better obey Rome – or else. Think about the setting, the culture, the plight of the people he helped, spoke to, admonished, forgave. Use commentaries, history books, and whatever you find useful to help place you in that time to better understand what he told the disciples and those around him. Then do the same for the rest of the New and Old Testaments. Then, as you read and study, begin with a prayer and a question. “God, what do you want me to hear from you today? What do you want me to change about my life?” You’ll be surprised at the answers you find in his word, his truth. Finally, ask for discernment as you read and study. Spend some quiet time before and after reading to just listen for the Holy Spirit’s voice in your life. Test what you hear against God’s word. They will never conflict. They will always support Jesus’ commands to love God and love others. He showed us how and said for us to do the same. So, test what you think you heard from God. Then go and do it. Go wherever God is working and be part of his plan, not yours. Stop asking, “what is your plan for me?” Instead, ask, “God, what is your plan, and how can I be part of it?” It’s a subtle but important difference in how we approach God’s word. Don’t let the self-proclaimed god of this world pull the veil over your eyes. Let the truth of God’s word, the creator of all things, the one who gave his life for us, be your guide in all you do. Truth is available for those who seek it. You can find me at richardagee.com. I also invite you to join us at San Antonio First Church of the Nazarene on West Avenue in San Antonio to hear more Bible-based teaching. You can find out more about my church at SAF.church. Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed it, tell a friend. If you didn’t, send me an email and let me know how better to reach out to those around you. Until next week, may God richly bless you as you venture into His story each day. Scriptures marked NTE are taken from the NEW TESTAMENT FOR EVERYONE: Scripture are taken from The New Testament for Everyone are copyright © Nicholas Thomas Wright 2011.  

Join us as we explore God’s ancient wisdom and apply it to our modern lives. His word is as current and relevant today as it was when he inspired its authors more than two and a half millennia ago. The websites where you can reach us are alittlewalkwithgod.com, richardagee.com, or saf.church. I hope you will join us every week and be sure to let us know how you enjoy the podcast and let others know about it, too. Thanks for listening. Thanks for joining me today for “A Little Walk with God.” I’m your host Richard Agee. I don’t know about you, but I’m tired. I’m tired of politics. I’m tired of the pandemic. I’m tired of isolation and social distancing. I’m tired of biased news reporting. I’m tired of social media. I’m tired of the increase in violent crime. I’m tired of the growing disparity between classes. I’m tired of the constant bickering that never accomplishes anything. I’m just tired. Do you feel that way sometimes? If you do, you’re not alone, and I’m not alone. I think we all experience it at some point. The Israelites experienced it during Isaiah’s prophecies. Judah and Israel crowned more bad kings than good ones during their histories. Few stood up to God’s standard as men after God’s heart. More carried the title “more wicked than his father.” Most often, the prophets spoke out against the kings’ leadership because of two significant issues. First, they allowed and often participated in the worship of foreign gods, in contradiction to Yahweh’s first commandment to have no other gods before him and his second commandment to never make or bow to any image. Second, the kings failed to care for those who could not care for themselves in society, the widows and orphans who had no means of support. The kings made the poor poorer as they accumulated wealth for themselves. Finally, God allowed his chosen people and the city where the Jews built his Temple to crumble. First. Assyria led Israel into exile, then Babylonia took all but Judah’s poorest and lowliest into exile. Jerusalem ground into broken stones and burnt timbers. I look around at our country and see a lot of what Isaiah saw. Our nation seems to crumble around us. A few years ago, we heard about the infrastructure of Flint, Michigan. The lead in the water system poisoning its people because of the antiquated water system in disrepair. Then we heard about the bridges collapsing in several states under the weight of everyday traffic and discovered many of our interstate overpasses stood on the verge of collapse with no repair since erected in the 1950s and 60s. The overhead electric grid serving California sparked several wildfires that destroyed millions of acres of forest, hundreds of homes and killed dozens of people. Our education system crumbles around us as we place near the bottom of the industrial world with students graduating from high school that can’t read or write above the sixth or seventh-grade level. Math skills among our graduates rank among the lowest in the civilized world, and few of our college graduates are problem solvers. They look for answers on the internet instead. We saw our political system crumble in this last election cycle as both parties slung mud at each other instead of outlining plans for how they would fix the problems we face. The rhetoric on both sides of the aisle continues to divide us, create distrust among us, discourage meaningful debate, and resolve real issues. We have few statesmen left in either House of Congress as parties vote as a block on every piece of legislation. And it seems faith has crumbled. Before COVID, attendance across most denominations in the US consistently fell. People didn’t pronounce God dead, but many acted like it. We became a society afraid of telling the truth because we might hurt someone’s feelings. And I agree that truth without grace is disastrous. But so is grace without truth. We must stand for something, and if we call ourselves Christians, we must stand firmly on the commands Jesus gave us. Love God and love others. But we must not only stand on them, but we must also act on them. Today there are more than 5,000 cults in the United States. A cult is a system of religious veneration and devotion directed toward a particular figure or object. We think of Jim Jones, David Koresh, and others like them, but more than 5,000 small sects register as religious groups worshiping a person or object in this country alone. And collectively, they bring in billions of tax-free dollars. Our faith crumbles. Israel whined and complained about their plight. I just whined and complained about our plight. Look at any social media outlet and you will see an incredible amount of whining and complaining. But God, through Isaiah has something to say about our complaints. We find these words in Chapter 40 beginning at verse 21. Do you not know?     Were you not told long ago?     Have you not heard how the world began? It was made by the one who sits on his throne     above the earth and beyond the sky;     the people below look as tiny as ants. He stretched out the sky like a curtain,     like a tent in which to live. He brings down powerful rulers     and reduces them to nothing. They are like young plants,     just set out and barely rooted. When the Lord sends a wind,     they dry up and blow away like straw. To whom can the holy God be compared?     Is there anyone else like him? Look up at the sky! Who created the stars you see?     The one who leads them out like an army,     he knows how many there are     and calls each one by name! His power is so great—     not one of them is ever missing! Israel, why then do you complain     that the Lord doesn't know your troubles     or care if you suffer injustice? Don't you know? Haven't you heard? The Lord is the everlasting God;     he created all the world. He never grows tired or weary.     No one understands his thoughts. He strengthens those who are weak and tired. Even those who are young grow weak;     young people can fall exhausted. But those who trust in the Lord for help     will find their strength renewed. They will rise on wings like eagles;     they will run and not get weary;     they will walk and not grow weak. (Isaiah 40:21-31 GNT) Did you notice? God has this under control. He did for the Israelite and Judahites headed into exile. He did for the disciples and the early church as they faced indescribable persecution. And he does for us right now. God sees what happens to us. He knows what we need, how we feel, the anguish and burdens we carry. But God never gets tired. He never gets weary. His wisdom is beyond understanding. And he strengthens us. Isaiah tells us the young with all their vitality may stumble and fall and grow tired in their journey. But those who trust in God, the creator of all things, will regain their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles. They will run and never get winded or weary. They will walk and never tire or faint. Will all those things happen this side of eternity? My aging broken body says, probably not. But there will come a day when Jesus returns to renew and restore heaven and earth to its former glory. He will give us new bodies that never tire. We can enjoy that space with him forever when we give ourselves in faith to him. This place may crumble around our heads, but we don’t fight against this visible place. It’s okay if it all tumbles down around us. We are citizens of a different kingdom. One that will last forever. We are children of the King and will enjoy the fruit of his renewed creation, a renewed heaven and earth, as part of his family. Our mission now is to introduce other to him through love, so his family can grow. So, do we whine and complain, or do we look at the reality of the spiritual warfare taking place around us a praise God for the hope within us as we love others into his kingdom? 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 GNT are taken from the Good News Translation®: Scriptures taken from the Good News Translation® (Today’s English Version, Second Edition) Copyright © 1992 American Bible Society. All rights reserved.  

Join us as we explore God’s ancient wisdom and apply it to our modern lives. His word is as current and relevant today as it was when he inspired its authors more than two and a half millennia ago. The websites where you can reach us are alittlewalkwithgod.com, richardagee.com, or saf.church. I hope you will join us every week and be sure to let us know how you enjoy the podcast and let others know about it, too. Thanks for listening. Thanks for joining me today for “A Little Walk with God.” I’m your host Richard Agee. In the lectionary this week, I came across some strange verses that we usually jump over, disregard, assume an inadequate translation, or mumble through them without thinking much about them. But over the last several months, I’ve been spending a lot of time studying what the Ancient Israelites believed and how Jesus’ contemporaries thought about their world as we passed from BCE to AD and the birth of the church. Let me share some of that scripture with you, and then we will focus on what might cause some of you to think me a bit crazy. The lectionary comes from 1 Corinthians chapter 8, where Paul gives instructions to the church about being careful not to cause weak Christians to stumble because of their superior knowledge about God and the true nature of idols. He shares the verses specifically about food sacrificed to idols, but some verses in the middle of his discourse, we usually skip over. The passage to explore today includes verses one through 7. In the Good News Translations, they read like this: It is true, of course, that “all of us have knowledge,” as they say. Such knowledge, however, puffs a person up with pride; but love builds up.  Those who think they know something really don’t know as they ought to know.  But the person who loves God is known by him.  So then, about eating the food offered to idols: we know that an idol stands for something that does not really exist; we know that there is only the one God.  Even if there are so-called “gods,” whether in heaven or on earth, and even though there are many of these “gods” and “lords,” yet there is for us only one God, the Father, who is the Creator of all things and for whom we live; and there is only one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things were created and through whom we live. 7 But not everyone knows this truth. (1 Corinthians 8:1b-7a GNT) Rome considered Christians and Jews atheists in Paul’s day because they worshiped only one God. The rest of the world recognized and worshiped a multitude of deities, including the emperor. Most nations believed the gods placed their king on the throne and talked to him, giving him the laws of the land. At the time, most countries thought kings who took faithful care of their kingdom could become deities themselves after death. Some, like the Roman Emperor, declared himself a son of the gods. But serving and worshiping a single god just didn’t make sense in the culture of the day. But each god’s temple supposedly stood as the place where their god would reside on earth. The Jewish Temple did the same. The difference between them is no idol or representation of God, Most High – Jehovah – appeared in the Jews’ Temple. Nothing could represent the Creator of all other beings, including all the other gods. Reading the Old Testament carefully, you’ll find ample evidence the Ancient Israelites did not discount other gods, nor did Jehovah. He only demanded their sole allegiance to him. In fact, you can read the very first commandment with that culture in mind as God says, “You shall have no other gods before me.” Why didn’t he say there is only one God, and I’m it? There is an interesting passage in Deuteronomy 32 that explains the Ancient Israelites understanding of at least some of the other gods. It is Moses’ discourse to the Israelites before his death, inspired by God and reads: “Think of the past, of the time long ago;     ask your parents to tell you what happened,     ask the old people to tell of the past. The Most High assigned nations their lands;     he determined where peoples should live. He assigned to each nation a heavenly being,     but Jacob’s descendants he chose for himself. (Deuteronomy 32:7-9 GNT) When you couple these verses associated with Noah’s sons in Genesis ten and count the nations that grew from their lineage, seventy nations, each with its own language, are named. Chapter eleven explains why those seventy nations spoke different languages. God scattered them by confusing their languages at the Tower of Babel, and each tribe went its way – seventy ways. The story continues through the folklore and Moses shares that God assigned those seventy known nations land with a heavenly being to watch over it. But Jacob’s descendants, Israel, the chosen people, he kept for himself. Who are these heavenly beings? I think the gods the other nations worshiped. God’s celestial beings, sent to watch over those nations, became greedy and supposed themselves on the level of God, Most High. These are the rebels, thrown to the earth, and we, in our god-like “knowledge” obtained in the garden, worshiped them. That is the explanation from the Ancient Israelites through Paul’s day and into the Dark Ages. They believed God used a council of heavenly beings, not angels, but beings like himself, but beings he created, god-like, but not God, Most High, to act as his council. Perhaps the seraphim and cherubim who guard his throne fit that category. Perhaps they are more god-like beings than angelic beings. The first, the seraphim, are usually described as fiery creatures giving light and burning away all impurity around the throne—the second, the cherubim, act as faithful guards. A cherub guards the entrance to Eden. A cherub stood in the path of Barack. Cherubim are not the chubby-cheeked valentine picture representations but mighty warriors around God’s throne. Why do they think God used a council? Scripture implies it. “Let us make man in our image.” When Ahab was king, God asked, “How shall we deal with Ahab, when he wanted to attack Edom? Isaiah heard him ask the group, “Who will we send?” Many other examples in the Old Testament show God talking to someone around his throne. I don’t believe he would discuss within the Trinity because the Trinity is him. He would be talking to himself. I think God was talking to his trusted council around the throne. He still performed the creative acts. He made the decisions, but I believe in the heavenly realm, God uses his council and other celestial beings to carry out his desires in that plane of reality just as he uses us to carry out his plans in this one. God, Most High, Yahweh, Jehovah, created all things visible to us and in realms not visible to us. I think he destined humanity to take charge of this realm; we failed. Jesus came to renew us so that we can pick up the pieces and carry out the work God gave us in the beginning. The earth and heaven will ultimately be restored to their original glory, where God and humanity will walk together in the cool of the day. We will hold dominion over his visible creation and care for it through the loving actions he taught us as he walked among us. We will respect our roles as stewards instead of owners of the things around us. But we will be pleased with that role because we will understand who God is and who we are with respect to his position in the created universe. I think at that time, the curtain between the earthly and heavenly realms will be drawn back, and we will understand how God has protected and cared for us in ways we never knew before. God will reveal himself to us in the same way he reveals himself to his heavenly beings now. Let me end discussing a word Paul uses to describe Christians who think themselves strong. Knowledge. The strong Christians in Corinth believed they had knowledge. What is knowledge? The dictionary defines knowledge as:           1) facts, information, and skills acquired by a person through experience or education; the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject: a thirst for knowledge | her considerable knowledge of antiques. what is known in a particular field or in total; facts and information: the transmission of knowledge. Philosophy true, justified belief; certain understanding, as opposed to opinion. 2) awareness or familiarity gained by experience of a fact or situation: the program had been developed without his knowledge | he denied all knowledge of the overnight incidents. Today we deal with way too much opinion and very little actual knowledge. What I’ve talked about today, I’ll admit, is very much my opinion, but based on a great deal of reading, study, and thought. Do I have certain understanding that all I’ve said is true? No, only if I could travel in time, instead of reading many renowned authors’ scholarly works, could I increase the certainty of my opinion. Scripture always holds an undeniable mystery about it. However, our knowledge of those around us holds that same mystery. As you talk with those with whom you come in contact in the next few days, don’t assume you know how they feel, what they think, or even what they mean by their words. Their mind is a mystery to you as much as yours is to them. We often talk at each other instead of with each other and assume far too much of our knowledge and understanding. If I can’t explain myself to someone many times, how can I assume I know how they think or feel? Knowledge in any area of life - facts, information, and skills gained through personal experience doesn’t come easy. When applied to communicating with another person, the subtleties of each person’s different experiences make my experiences, facts, and knowledge suspect regarding their understanding. How do we overcome the communication problem that divides us in so many areas? We follow the two commands Jesus said wraps all the others together. We love God, and we love others. Become knowledgeable in the exercise of love

Join us as we explore God’s ancient wisdom and apply it to our modern lives. His word is as current and relevant today as it was when he inspired its authors more than two and a half millennia ago. The websites where you can reach us are alittlewalkwithgod.com, richardagee.com, or saf.church. I hope you will join us every week and be sure to let us know how you enjoy the podcast and let others know about it, too. Thanks for listening. Thanks for joining me today for “A Little Walk with God.” I’m your host Richard Agee. Last week many of us watched as the United States turned over its seat of power to a new man. President Joe Biden is now my president, and I will pray for him and my country’s leaders every day as I have for the last many years. It’s essential that, as Christians, we pray for our elected officials. He took the reins of a broken country, and I am sure he will do what he thinks is best to pull us together. We have a new president. We have sixty-six new congressmen and women. My fear is we will have the same politics, the same division, the same racism, the same hatred, the same evil. Why do I think we will have the same as we had before? Because we have the same individuals living in the country and the government can’t change people’s hearts, only God can. But God uses people to do that.             Take, for instance, the story of Jonah. It’s an excellent message for the church today if we listen carefully to what it tells us. We know Jonah’s story well. God gave Jonah a mission. He told Jonah, his prophet, to go to Nineveh, one of the time’s most wicked cities, and tell them God would destroy them in forty days. Jonah fled to Tarshish, the farthest town from Nineveh in the known world. But God had other plans. He manufactured a storm that threatened to destroy the boat on which Jonah found passage until Jonah finally asked the crew to throw him overboard, and the sea calmed. Jonah found himself in the belly of a great fish for three days contemplating his disobedience, finally asking for forgiveness. The fish vomited the prophet onto the shore a day’s walk from Nineveh, and Jonah started on his journey to the city. We pick up the story in chapter three. Once again the Lord spoke to Jonah. 2 He said, “Go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to the people the message I have given you.” 3 So Jonah obeyed the Lord and went to Nineveh, a city so large that it took three days to walk through it. 4 Jonah started through the city, and after walking a whole day, he proclaimed, “In forty days Nineveh will be destroyed!” 5 The people of Nineveh believed God’s message. So they decided that everyone should fast, and all the people, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth to show that they had repented. 6 When the king of Nineveh heard about it, he got up from his throne, took off his robe, put on sackcloth, and sat down in ashes. 7 He sent out a proclamation to the people of Nineveh: “This is an order from the king and his officials: No one is to eat anything; all persons, cattle, and sheep are forbidden to eat or drink. 8 All persons and animals must wear sackcloth. Everyone must pray earnestly to God and must give up their wicked behavior and their evil actions. 9 Perhaps God will change his mind; perhaps he will stop being angry, and we will not die!” 10 God saw what they did; he saw that they had given up their wicked behavior. So he changed his mind and did not punish them as he had said he would. (Jonah 3:1-10 GNT) Jonah’s message and his response resemble the church far too much. I think it’s why these verses impressed me so much this week. At first, Jonah didn’t want to make any kind of announcement to the people of Nineveh. Let them do what they want. It doesn’t affect me in Israel. They live too far away for me to concern myself with them or what happens to them. They are just Ninevites, after all. It sounds like too many Christians, doesn’t it? Why should I worry about those people? What do they have to do with me? They live and operate in a separate world, they don’t affect me, and I don’t affect them, so why should I care about them? God leave me alone and let someone close to them worry about them. Jonah finally got the message that everyone belongs to God, and he desires that all should come to him in repentance and become part of his family. He knows all will not, but his desire is they would. But as Paul says in Romans 10:14, “But how can they call to him for help if they have not believed? And how can they believe if they have not heard the message? And how can they hear if the message is not proclaimed?” (GNT) Someone must share the message with them. Jonah shared the message God gave him. “In forty days, Nineveh will be destroyed!” That doesn’t sound much like a salvation message, but Jonah walked a day’s journey into the heart of the city and began his proclamation from God. Jonah liked his message. The wicked city was about to disappear from the face of the earth like Sodom and Gomorrah. God would carry out his justice against these people who cared so little about his laws and righteousness. The chosen people would find retribution for the evils executed by this capital city that ruled the world against its distant subjects. Once Jonah started preaching God’s message for Nineveh’s destruction, I can see a bit of a smile creeping across his face. Some may have thought him mad, but enough believed him that they tore their robes, put on sackcloth as a sign of mourning and repentance, threw ashes over themselves, and cried out to God for forgiveness. Word of Jonah’s message made its way to the king, and even he repented. He proclaimed the entire city, some sixty miles across, that everyone would wear sackcloth, fast, and change their behavior, in other words, repent. Repentance is not just saying we are sorry. It is changing our behavior, turning 180 degrees from the direction we face and turn toward God. Look around and what do you see in our country? The seat of power doesn’t seem to do much for the distant citizens anymore. To whatever party you belong, you probably have significant problems with the opposite party. Of course, the problem is we don’t know what our party does or stands for because we listen to the media’s interpretation on everything instead of digging into the truth for ourselves. All parties are equally corrupt. All parties work for their gain. Both Houses of Congress contain members who become multi-millionaires after a couple of terms at salaries of less than $200,000 a year. All parties bash the others to avoid anyone lifting the tent flaps to see what hides in their own dark spaces. And we allow it with our poor showing at voting booths. Think about it: only 67 percent of eligible voters cast ballots in the November general election. In the average local elections, some state turnouts record as low as 28 percent of their voters hitting the polls. As the supposed model for democracy, we place in the bottom ten even with our highest voter turnout since 1900. So, we let the corruption continue by our apathy and inaction. We have our Nineveh, and if you visit, you will see a few Jonah’s on street corners proclaiming its destruction soon. God saw Nineveh’s repentance, and he changed his mind. He didn’t destroy the city. Jonah got angry. He wanted vengeance. He wanted justice. He declared God’s message of destruction for the wicked, and God didn’t follow through. How dare he make such a fool of Jonah? That’s how the church acts sometimes. Why doesn’t God just destroy the wicked? Why doesn’t he just send lightning bolts or fire and brimstone down and show these guys what righteous justice is all about? Why doesn’t God take over and get rid of evil, so we Christians can live a more comfortable life? We seem to be a bit angry with God and the world far too often. But Jesus said we should imitate him. He brought peace, love, freedom. He acted as a kingdom builder, getting as many as possible into God’s family – rich, poor, the right or wrong side of town, Jew or Gentile, prostitutes, thieves, murderers, tax collectors. Jesus didn’t care what you had done or who you were. He saw what you could be, not what you were. He saw the image of God in everyone and pulled it out of you. He came to seek and save the lost children of God. Then Jesus gave the same mission to the church, those of us who wear his name. He told us to be peacemakers, kingdom builders, lovers of God, and others. But we have a pretty tumultuous history of power mongers, anger, violence, hatred, and war in his name. Some think that applies to the Crusades, and it does. But what are we doing today but the same when it comes to healing the nation and the world? As I read the comments on social media from those who say they are followers of Jesus, I often read hatred, anger, and a call for God to destroy instead of heal. We run from the mission of reconciliation with our brothers. We want justice, not mercy. We want heaven to come quickly, so all those evil folks around us will just disappear, instead of working to help them understand the consequences of their actions and love them into God’s great family. We forget that someone shared the message of God’s love with us, or we would be one of those evil folks about whom we talk. Or maybe, if we’re talking about those evil folks, instead of working hard to love them into the kingdom, we just might be one of them. Let’s take up God’s message for the church before it’s too late and grow his family with love. God wants more than ever for men and women to come to him and know his love in a corrupt and broken world. On which side will you stand? Jonah’s in anger, or Nineveh’s in repentance? 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,

Join us as we explore God’s ancient wisdom and apply it to our modern lives. His word is as current and relevant today as it was when he inspired its authors more than two and a half millennia ago. The websites where you can reach us are alittlewalkwithgod.com, richardagee.com, or saf.church. I hope you will join us every week and be sure to let us know how you enjoy the podcast and let others know about it, too. Thanks for listening. Thanks for joining me today for “A Little Walk with God.” I’m your host Richard Agee. In case you haven’t noticed, church attendance in the United States has been on the decline for the last several years. Now we can blame the coronavirus pandemic and our inability to gather without risk of spreading the disease. Still, that excuse doesn’t explain the decades before the pandemic when attendance continued to fall. For a few short weeks at the beginning of the pandemic, online church service attendance actually grew to levels above physical attendance in some denominations. That didn’t last as we got used to the pandemic and decided the church wouldn’t help us end it. We could blame our enlightenment on the low attendance, I suppose. Except, I’m not sure how enlightened we are when I listen to the news. I find us filled with as much hate and prejudice and bigotry as ever, maybe even at higher levels when you read letters from any other period in our history. One would assume enlightenment would end that kind of thinking, but it has only grown in the last couple of decades. Our democracy may not last the way it is progressing. Our greatest problem? We left no room for God. We leave lots of room for political correctness. We make sure we stay on the right side of an argument. We work hard to use the right words, so no one accuses us of being racist, the latest and most heinous crime in the country. We step gingerly around pronouns to avoid damaging the psyche of anyone in the LGBTQQIP2SAA community. That’s the latest acronym for the all-inclusive community of the various self-identified gender-specific groups, including more than fifteen different parties. But we still throw away our youngest and oldest in our society through our policies. We live in trying times. I’ve discovered, though, that correctness does not equal right. If you read the last verses of the book of Judges, you’ll find the Israelites individually thought they acted correctly, but they did not act rightly. It says, “everyone did what was right in their own eyes.” They thought themselves enlightened. They thought they could succeed by their rules instead of God’s. Today, we would say their motto was, “If it feels good, do it.” In that book, we find the same things in our society; abuse of power, abuse of the poor and helpless, and disregard for those in need. Their self-admired wisdom fell far short, though, and they paid the price for their disobedience. For periods of time, God allowed outside nations to invade the land and wreak havoc on the Israelites. After they acknowledged their sin and would cry out for mercy, he would come to their aid, raise up a judge or warrior-leader, and rescue them from their enemies. But after repeating their cycle of apostasy and repentance through several iterations, we come to the end of the book of Judges when the author remarks everyone did what was right in their own eyes. Even the priests failed to follow the laws God set for the nation. Eli, the high priest, let his sons take advantage of the people, taking whatever they wanted for themselves instead of the portion of sacrifices set aside for them. We find out how bad the situation had become spiritually with God’s selection of the last judge and first prophet, Samuel, in the book by his name. Samuel served the Lord by helping Eli the priest, who was by that time almost blind. In those days, the Lord hardly ever spoke directly to people, and he did not appear to them in dreams very often. But one night, Eli was asleep in his room, and Samuel was sleeping on a mat near the sacred chest in the Lord’s house. They had not been asleep very long when the Lord called out Samuel’s name. “Here I am!” Samuel answered. Then he ran to Eli and said, “Here I am. What do you want?” “I didn’t call you,” Eli answered. “Go back to bed.” Samuel went back. Again the Lord called out Samuel’s name. Samuel got up and went to Eli. “Here I am,” he said. “What do you want?” Eli told him, “Son, I didn’t call you. Go back to sleep.” The Lord had not spoken to Samuel before, and Samuel did not recognize the voice. When the Lord called out his name for the third time, Samuel went to Eli again and said, “Here I am. What do you want?” Eli finally realized that it was the Lord who was speaking to Samuel. So he said, “Go back and lie down! If someone speaks to you again, answer, ‘I’m listening, Lord. What do you want me to do?’” Once again Samuel went back and lay down.  The Lord then stood beside Samuel and called out as he had done before, “Samuel! Samuel!” “I’m listening,” Samuel answered. “What do you want me to do?” (1 Samuel 3:1-10 CEV) Did you notice? In those days, the Lord hardly ever spoke directly to people, and he did not appear to them in dreams very often. He spoke directly to Adam and Eve. God spoke directly to Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He spoke directly to many of the judges he called to lead the people against their enemies. He often appeared in dreams to the patriarchs and sometimes to their enemies to warn them against harming God’s people. But when Samuel went to the tabernacle under the tutelage of Eli, God stopped talking to people. I sometimes wonder if it was because they stopped listening and just did what they wanted anyway. I think God has that problem with us sometimes. We let the noise of the world drown out his voice. We let all our electronics, social media, news, entertainment, jobs, business drown out his voice. As Elijah discovered, his voice won’t be heard in the whirlwind or the earthquake but the whisper of a gentle breeze. You must listen carefully to hear him. We get addicted to the things around us other than God instead of filling our hearts and minds with him, then wonder why we don’t hear from him. God still speaks, though. His word is alive and active and sharper than a two-edged sword, Paul tells us. We must get away from the noise to let it speak to us. God’s spirit, active in his word, will prick our conscience and let us know what he wants us to do, how we need to transform our lives and our thinking to become more like him to prepare for citizenship in his kingdom. We can hear him in the words of Christian friends and mentors, carried by the winds of the spirit, guiding us into the right path instead of the politically correct path. Will they be the same? Sometimes, but not always. We can be sure the path will always be one of love. Remember the two great commandments, love God, and love others. All the rest hang on these two. To hear God, take Eli’s advice to Samuel. Expect God to speak. When Eli realized the Lord called in the middle of the night, he gave Samuel instruction. Listen to everything he tells you. Listening means more than acknowledging soundwaves vibrate your eardrums and your brain registers the pattern as words and sentences. Listening means letting those words and sentences sink into your brain with meaning and purpose. It means understanding the task directed by those words. Listen to God. Finally, Eli told Samuel to respond, “What do you want me to do?” James says we must be doers of the word and not only hearers of the word. To hear and know what God wants of me and then not to do it means rebellion against him, disobedience, and sin. We need more like Samuel today. Those who will expect God to speak, listen intently to his voice through the avenues his spirit uses to proclaim his words to us and then execute his commands. The world will do everything it can to drown his words in the political correctness that smothers truth and righteousness, but God’s word remains in the end. He created this place, and he will judge it in the future. If he will act as our judge, doesn’t it make sense to listen to him instead of his adversary? It’s time we stand boldly proclaiming God’s rightness in a world gone wrong. 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 CEV are taken from the CONTEMPORARY ENGLISH VERSION (CEV): Scripture taken from the CONTEMPORARY ENGLISH VERSION copyright© 1995 by the American Bible Society. Used by permission.  

Join us as we explore God’s ancient wisdom and apply it to our modern lives. His word is as current and relevant today as it was when he inspired its authors more than two and a half millennia ago. The websites where you can reach us are alittlewalkwithgod.com, richardagee.com, or saf.church. I hope you will join us every week and be sure to let us know how you enjoy the podcast and let others know about it, too. Thanks for listening. Thanks for joining me today for “A Little Walk with God.” I’m your host Richard Agee. Last week we had a short history lesson on Epiphany, the church’s celebration of the Magi’s visits to Jesus in Bethlehem. I mentioned that initially, the church three separate events during Epiphany, the Magi’s visits, Jesus’ baptism by John, and Jesus’ miracle at the wedding in Cana. The Magi’s visits always took center stage during Epiphany since it marked Jesus’ revelation to the Gentile world. As you can imagine, that revelation gives the rest of us, outside the chosen people of Israel, the opportunity to become part of God’s family. Jesus’ baptism very likely did not occur on January 6th. Still, as you may recall from last week, the early church chose January 6th to celebrate Epiphany, probably due to the liturgical reading from the first gospel circulated among the churches, the book of Mark. Those early gospel readers also believed Jesus was exactly two when the Magi found him, exactly thirty at his baptism, and performed the miracle at Cana exactly one year later. All three events, then, became part of the celebration during Epiphany. Again, the timing is improbable, considering the precise timing of all the other events in Jesus’ life. Instead of being born in December, we can imagine Jesus coming during the lambing season in the spring, as the Lamb of the world. The Magi could travel in the fall and winter months to avoid the mid-east summer heat, but the probability of seeing Jesus on January 6th is indeed slim. And Jesus’ first recorded miracle at the wedding in Cana likely occurred earlier than a year into his formal ministry. The reason we celebrate Epiphany, and formerly Jesus baptism and first miracle on January 6th seems solely an accident of where early Christians happened to read Mark’s gospel message. So, now the bit of history in front of us regards the celebrations’ separation timeline. How long has the church put Jesus’ baptism as its own commemoration time? The answer surprised me when I did some research on the topic. For four centuries, beginning in the 1500s, Jesus’ baptism didn’t appear as a commemoration at all in the Roman Catholic church. Then, in 1955 Pope Pius XII wrote a separate commemoration for the Baptism of Our Lord as part of the Mass after Epiphany. He didn’t specify any date to use the observance but suggested it be immediately after Epiphany. Pope John XXII revised the Roman Catholic church calendar, setting January 13thas the commemoration date. Not until 1969 did the Commemoration of the Baptism of Our Lord settle on the calendar as it is today, the first Sunday after Epiphany, a decree made by Pope Paul VI. Other liturgical churches followed suit, as many follow the lectionary established by the Catholic church. The church calendar provides observances for many events in Jesus’ life that we, in the evangelical community too often overlook at our misfortune. Jesus’ baptism is one of those. We read about it in all the gospels. Mark records it like this: This is the beginning of the good news of Jesus, the Anointed One, the Liberating King, the Son of God.  Isaiah the prophet told us what would happen before He came: Watch, I will send My messenger in front of You     to prepare Your way and make it clear and straight.   You’ll hear him, a voice crying in the wilderness,     “Prepare the way of the Eternal One,     a straight way in the wandering desert, a highway for our God.”  That messenger was John the Baptist, who appeared in the desert near the Jordan River preaching that people should be ritually cleansed through baptism with water as a sign of both their changed hearts and God’s forgiveness of their sins. People from across the countryside of Judea and from the city of Jerusalem came to him and confessed that they were deeply flawed and needed help, so he cleansed them with the waters of the Jordan. John dressed as some of the Hebrew prophets had, in clothes made of camel’s hair with a leather belt around his waist. He made his meals in the desert from locusts and wild honey. He preached a message in the wilderness. John the Baptist: Someone is coming who is a lot more powerful than I am—One whose sandals I’m not worthy to bend down and untie. I’ve washed you here through baptism with water; but when He gets here, He will wash you in the Spirit of God. The Jordan River is the setting of some of the most memorable miracles in the Old Testament. On their journey through the wilderness to the promised land, the Israelites walked across the Jordan River on dry ground because God parted its waters. Elisha, one of the prophets of God, healed Naaman by telling him to bathe seven times in its waters. Partly because of miracles like these and partly because of a growing wilderness spirituality, many of the Jews in John’s day are out to hear him and be ritually baptized in the Jordan’s cool, cleansing waters. They are looking for God to intervene miraculously in their lives as He has done in the past. What they don’t know is that God is about to intervene, for at that time Jesus leaves Nazareth and heads south.  It was in those days that Jesus left Nazareth (a village in the region of Galilee) and came down to the Jordan, and John cleansed Him through baptism there in the same way all the others were ritually cleansed. But as Jesus was coming out of the waters, He looked up and saw the sky split open. The Spirit of God descended upon Him like a dove, and a voice echoed in the heavens. Voice: You are My Son, My beloved One, and I am very pleased with You. (Mark 1:1-11 The Voice) In these verses, we learn some things. Baptism was necessary to Jesus as it began his public ministry. Another point we miss, but those Jews who knew their Old Testament did not, was the words Mark used to describe the sky opening. The Septuagint uses the same words here that it uses in Exodus 14:21 to describe God splitting the water in the Reed Sea for the Israelites to cross on dry land. The voice from heaven also gave public recognition that Jesus was the Son of God. Another point we miss, that again, the Jews present who knew the Old Testament well did not, was the pronouncement from the voice Jesus was God’s beloved. Only twice in the Old Testament does God give that description to others, to King David and King Solomon. He described both as beloved when he continued his covenant with them and told them a king from their lineage would always sit on Israel’s throne. Hearing the voice declare Jesus as beloved acclaimed him as Israel’s rightful King. Jesus’ baptism identifies him with Israel’s exodus from Egypt and the kingly line of David. Why do we need to remember the event? First, it reminds us who Jesus is. When we look back and explore the words describing the “Angel of the Lord” who went before Israel as a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night, we find it is Yahweh. Throughout the Old and New Testaments, the word interchanges give us clues that, although God was never incarnate in the Old Testament, he did appear to men and women in a human form in the Old Testament. When God split the sky to announce his son, he reminds us Jesus, Yahweh in human form split the sea and led the Israelites to freedom. When God calls Jesus his My Beloved Son, God puts Jesus in a unique category. He not only belongs in the line of Abraham, God’s chosen people to show God’s image to the rest of the nations, but he belongs to the lineage of David. As God’s Beloved Son, Jesus claims the throne of Israel and, by extension of God’s covenant with David and Solomon, the kingship of all the nations of the world. We know who he is, God incarnate, King of kings, and Messiah through his baptism. Jesus’ baptism also serves as an example to us. If Jesus felt baptism important as the beginning of his ministry, a demonstration of his death to self and life in God, certainly we should follow his example. Baptism doesn’t save us, but it shows those witnesses around us and reminds us through the experience that we die to ourselves and become alive in Christ. Baptism will always be a significant milestone in the life of a Christian. This week, if you have been baptized, remember what it is for and rejoice in it. If you have not yet been baptized or were too young to know what it meant, consider being baptized. Baptism doesn’t save you, but it is a pivotal event in the life of a Christian. We follow Jesus’ example symbolizing giving up ourselves and living in him. 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 THE VOICE are taken from the THE VOICE (The Voice): Scripture taken from THE VOICE ™. Copyright© 2008 by Ecclesia Bible Society. Used by permission. All rights reserved.  

Join us as we explore God’s ancient wisdom and apply it to our modern lives. His word is as current and relevant today as it was when he inspired its authors more than two and a half millennia ago. The websites where you can reach us are alittlewalkwithgod.com, richardagee.com, or saf.church. I hope you will join us every week and be sure to let us know how you enjoy the podcast and let others know about it, too. Thanks for listening. Thanks for joining me today for “A Little Walk with God.” I’m your host Richard Agee. We probably all celebrate the fact 2020 passed away a few days ago, and 2021 began. But 2021 will only improve if we allow God to improve us one by one. Only by letting his Spirit change us internally will this year be any better than last for you. Well, that’s tidbit number one, but not what we will talk about today. This week we celebrate Epiphany. It’s an exciting day in the Christian calendar, observed in various ways across the Christian world. The word itself takes on a definition used outside religious connotations today, and when you look in the dictionary, you’ll find the following: the manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles as represented by the Magi (Matthew 2:1–12). the festival commemorating the Epiphany on January 6th. a manifestation of a divine or supernatural being. a moment of sudden revelation or insight.   The Greek word is seldom used in the New Testament and generally used with Jesus’ second coming, rather than his birth. In New Testament times, the term more commonly found its way into secular writing, referring to visitations by one of the panthea of gods worshipped by the pagans. Today, outside of the Christmas season, we most often hear the word used to describe a remarkable or sudden discovery. For instance, the COVID vaccine creators might have had an epiphany as they found the key to finally finding the answer to fighting the disease. But on the Christian calendar, January 6th marks the Epiphany, the festival commemorating the manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles as represented by the Magi. Why January 6th and not some other day? The Gregorian calendar and Julian calendars didn’t match and weren’t even around when Jesus was born. I expect Mary and Joseph didn’t even own a calendar. Most people didn’t in those days. Days of the week were kept to remember sabbaths, but otherwise, phases of the moon were enough to keep up with the months of the Jewish calendar. The priest let you know when sacrifices came due. No one needed to set an appointment for 9:15 on March 24th. Businesses and personal lives just didn’t work that way. So why January 6th? The best explanation may come from examining the habits of early Christians in their worship. Arrangements of the earliest ancient manuscripts of the gospels follow a liturgical pattern. We assume the original manuscripts were probably written in letter form. Still, as early Christians gathered, read, and studies them, the new arrangement made it easier to incorporate this new faith into their lives. If a congregation started the year reading Mark, their first reading might have been the baptism of Jesus, since most scholars believe Mark wrote his gospel first. They would have found these words: This is the Good News about Jesus Christ, the Son of God. It began as the prophet Isaiah had written: “God said, ‘I will send my messenger ahead of you     to open the way for you.’  Someone is shouting in the desert,     ‘Get the road ready for the Lord;     make a straight path for him to travel!’” So John appeared in the desert, baptizing and preaching. “Turn away from your sins and be baptized,” he told the people, “and God will forgive your sins.” Many people from the province of Judea and the city of Jerusalem went out to hear John. They confessed their sins, and he baptized them in the Jordan River. John wore clothes made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. He announced to the people, “The man who will come after me is much greater than I am. I am not good enough even to bend down and untie his sandals. I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” Not long afterward Jesus came from Nazareth in the province of Galilee, and was baptized by John in the Jordan. As soon as Jesus came up out of the water, he saw heaven opening and the Spirit coming down on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my own dear Son. I am pleased with you.” (Mark 1:1-11 GNT) From reading historical records from the early church leaders, scholars also believe that the first Epiphany celebrations included the commemoration of not just the visit of the Magi, but also Jesus baptism, and possibly his first miracle at the wedding in Cana. Each of these three events marks the revelation of Jesus as the long-awaited Messiah. His actions at Cana proved his abilities as a prophet like Elijah, who performed incredible miracles through God's power. His baptism by John revealed him as the son of God to the Jews. His visit by the Magi presented the new King to the Gentile world. The Magi’s visit to King Herod made the arrival of the Messiah known to the political world through messaging that must have rippled through the Roman empire at the time. Today, we separate traditionally separate the other events from the Magi's visit in celebrating Epiphany and use the passage in Matthew that describes their visit to remember the incredible story of God’s revelation of Jesus to the world. It goes like this: Jesus was born in the town of Bethlehem in Judea, during the time when Herod was king. Soon afterward, some men who studied the stars came from the East to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is the baby born to be the king of the Jews? We saw his star when it came up in the east, and we have come to worship him.” When King Herod heard about this, he was very upset, and so was everyone else in Jerusalem. He called together all the chief priests and the teachers of the Law and asked them, “Where will the Messiah be born?” “In the town of Bethlehem in Judea,” they answered. “For this is what the prophet wrote:   ‘Bethlehem in the land of Judah,     you are by no means the least of the leading cities of Judah; for from you will come a leader     who will guide my people Israel.’” So Herod called the visitors from the East to a secret meeting and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. Then he sent them to Bethlehem with these instructions: “Go and make a careful search for the child; and when you find him, let me know, so that I too may go and worship him.” And so they left, and on their way they saw the same star they had seen in the East. When they saw it, how happy they were, what joy was theirs! It went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. They went into the house, and when they saw the child with his mother Mary, they knelt down and worshiped him. They brought out their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, and presented them to him. Then they returned to their country by another road, since God had warned them in a dream not to go back to Herod. (Matthew 2:1-12 GNT) Why is it important we celebrate Epiphany? First, It reminds us of God’s intent to restore our relationship with him. He wants an intimate relationship with us as he had with Adam and Eve before the fall. Second, it reminds us of God’s intent to restore humanity’s original purpose to care for his creation. Jesus came to show us what true humanity looks and acts like, caring for and loving humankind and God’s creation. God wants to renew that in us. Third, Epiphany reminds us God will restore heaven and earth, recreating it to its former glory repopulating it with those he redeems, called by his name, those who believe in him for salvation. Epiphany reminds us God had a plan ready in the event we failed. We did, and he put his plan into place. Adam and Eve invoked the punishment on all of humanity when they disobeyed God’s command in the Garden of Eden, but God will restore the garden one day. It would take the reversal of the curse of death for it to happen, though. Humans had to pay the penalty for sin, and humans had to conquer death. A human had to do that. The only way for it to happen was through God’s plan to become human and pay the penalty and conquer death himself. So he did – in Jesus. For those who believe in Jesus as the son of God, who came to pay the penalty for my sin and yours, who died on a cruel cross, who rose from the dead, conquering death for all time, the curse is lifted. Restoration began with his resurrection. A new heaven and new earth are in the making as his Spirit comes to reside in us, empowering us with new life in him. Epiphany celebrates that revelation. Take time this week to stop and remember, not just the Magi finding him in Bethlehem and bowing at his feet, but the opportunity we also have to bow at the feet of the one who conquered death, lifted the curse, and gives new life to all who believe in him. Epiphany is a sudden revelation or insight, a manifestation of a divine or supernatural being, the celebration of Jesus’ revelation to us. Make his coming a real epiphany in your life today and every day. 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 GNT are taken from the Good News Translation®: Scriptures taken from the Good News Translation® (Today’s English Version, Second Edition) Copyright © 1992 American Bible Society. All rights reserved.  

Join us as we explore God’s ancient wisdom and apply it to our modern lives. His word is as current and relevant today as it was when he inspired its authors more than two and a half millennia ago. The websites where you can reach us are alittlewalkwithgod.com, richardagee.com, or saf.church. I hope you will join us every week and be sure to let us know how you enjoy the podcast and let others know about it, too. Thanks for listening. Thanks for joining me today for "A Little Walk with God." I'm your host Richard Agee. How will you start your new year? Will it start with hope or despair? Do you think 2021 will be better or worse than in 2020? Will we get better at coping with the problems we face in the growing pandemic or will we get worse in our coping skills? I ask those questions about the pandemic elephant in the room because many think the vaccine on the street is the instant answer. But there is a problem with that thinking. You see, for herd immunity, it takes at least 70% of us having the vaccine for herd immunity to become effective assuming the virus’ mutations don’t hinder the vaccine ineffective. It has taken a week to immunize the first million in the US. Assuming we get better at it and can get ten times better at immunizing our population of 332 million, that still takes us more than half of next year to reach that magic 70% threshold. Until then, our population remains at risk of illness and death at the hands of the pandemic. And to immunize the world’s population, which still endangers us in this global economy in which we live, will take two or three years at best, convincing the richer nations to pay for the vaccines for the poorer countries. What we still don’t know is how long the immunity lasts or if, like flu vaccines, we will need to take it periodically. If so, we may never escape the devastation COVID can cause worldwide. And if the coronavirus stays with us, the economic downturn stays with us until we figure out how to live and work with social distancing. It means a completely new way of life for all of us. How we build our office spaces, our schools, our manufacturing plants, our restaurants and social gathering places, and every other place people gather to do things. The virus will affect every part of life if we must live with it from now on. Life has and will continue to change, it will be a question of how quickly we can adapt. Can we do that in just one year? We haven’t so far. We’ve relied on the government to help fix something it cannot fix. If we continue to expect the government to give us the answer, we will not have a very good 2021. So, what do we do with a new year coming into view? Friday, we tear the last page off the old calendar and begin a new one. Many people will make resolutions they won’t keep. Many will start diets that last a few weeks. Some will begin both and stick to them until they reach their goals. A very few will decide it’s time to start that Bible reading plan and get closer to God in the new year. Some of those people will stick with it a few weeks and quit, but I hope more than ever before will stay with those plans and find real solace and peace in God’s word in the coming year. He is the answer to our problems. In fact, God’s grace provides such remarkable peace and comfort in times of strife, despair, and hopelessness, that it the best time to resolve to give him praise. The lectionary Psalm this week points out our reluctance to praise as it lists humans last it its litany of who gives praise to God. Listen to the words of the 148th Psalm and let it lift your spirits today. Psalm 148 Praise the LORD! Praise the LORD from the heavens; praise him in the heights!  Praise him, all his angels; praise him, all his host!  Praise him, sun and moon; praise him, all you shining stars! Praise him, you highest heavens, and you waters above the heavens! Let them praise the name of the LORD, for he commanded and they were created. He established them forever and ever; he fixed their bounds, which cannot be passed. Praise the LORD from the earth, you sea monsters and all deeps, fire and hail, snow and frost, stormy wind fulfilling his command! Mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars! Wild animals and all cattle, creeping things and flying birds!  Kings of the earth and all peoples, princes and all rulers of the earth! Young men and women alike, old and young together! Let them praise the name of the LORD, for his name alone is exalted; his glory is above earth and heaven. He has raised up a horn for his people, praise for all his faithful, for the people of Israel who are close to him. Praise the LORD! (Psalms 148:1-14 NIV) Jesus told the Pharisees that if the people around him didn’t shout their Hallelujahs during his triumphal entry into the city of Jerusalem, the rocks and hills would cry out their praise. All those inanimate objects of creation knew the importance of the one entering the city. He was and is the creator and sustainer of all things, of all life. He deserves praise. If people didn’t praise him, the animals around him would sing his praise because even in their ignorance, they knew he created them and was and is the son of the living God. Our problem, we as the highest of the created order thought we could be like God from the beginning and we still think that. We think we know so much only to find out every day how little we really know. God is omniscient and lets us find out more about our universe a little at a time. Think about how much we have learned about this world in the last fifty years. In 1969, men first stepped onto the surface of an unearthly surface, the moon. Only two years ago, Voyager 2 left what we think is our solar system and entered what we think is interstellar space to find out space isn’t as empty or cold as we thought. If our sun were the size of a basketball, earth would be the size of a pea, and the black hole at the center of our Milky Way galaxy where we live would be 5,000 miles away. The black hole would also be the size of a basketball, but thousands of times as dense as our sun. So dense, light can’t escape the force of gravity that pulls it into that dark mass. Our galaxy is a medium-sized galaxy among the billions of galaxies we have counted in the sky. All which God created when he said, “Let there be light.” In our arrogance, we think we know so much, but we haven’t begun to know what God knows. We don’t know how the earth and our universe began. We don’t know why it holds together or why the galaxies are flying apart at hundreds of thousands of miles per hour. We don’t know how the brain works or how memories are stored within the electrical impulses between the neurons. We don’t know how mass turns into energy in nuclear reactions or how to reverse the procedure if Einstein’s equation follows normal mathematics rules so that. We aren’t even sure how many planets or moons exist in our solar system. Now some think there might be a small blackhole ninth planet beyond Neptune circling our sun. We are a truly arrogant species. What will make 2021 better? Stop and give God the praise he deserves. Read his word. Let his voice, spoken through the prophets, the authors he inspired to record his text centuries ago, come alive for you. Talk to him as a friend in prayer. Imagine him in a chair beside you and talk to him. Share from your heart your every care and burden. Then listen to his guidance. Remember, it will never disagree with his word. He hasn’t changed and never will. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. So, listen to his advice and follow it. Then just praise him. Praise him for all he has done for you. Praise him for the creation he allows you to enjoy. Praise him for the breath he gives and the life he brings. Praise him for the opportunity to share his grace with others. Praise Him for the gift of salvation and the washing away of the guilt and stain of sin in your life. Praise him that no matter what this new year holds he will still be the same. Nothing that happens in 2021 will surprise him or change him. He is still the answer for bringing peace and comfort and joy to our hopelessness and despair. Praise him today and every day and the new year will be one of joy the world will never understand until they have Christ in their heart. Have a happy and blessed new year. 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  

Join us as we explore God’s ancient wisdom and apply it to our modern lives. His word is as current and relevant today as it was when he inspired its authors more than two and a half millennia ago. The websites where you can reach us are alittlewalkwithgod.com, richardagee.com, or saf.church. I hope you will join us every week and be sure to let us know how you enjoy the podcast and let others know about it, too. Thanks for listening. Thanks for joining me today for "A Little Walk with God." I'm your host Richard Agee. The third week of Advent arrived. Christmas draws closer. Some of you may keep an Advent Candle tradition in your home or church and know the meaning of the various colors and symbolism of each candle. For those that might not know, the term advent can be found as early as the 4th and 5th century among early Christians as they await the coming of Jesus' return. It eventually spread across the entire month of December until it took the shape it does today. The first Advent wreath came from a Lutheran minister doing missionary work among children. He formed a wreath around a wagon wheel and placed twenty-four candles around it. The children would light a new candle each day, twenty red ones on weekdays and four white candles on Sundays. Later, people formed wreaths of evergreens to symbolize Jesus giving life since, in the winter, evergreens remain alive while all other plants turn brown and die. The circling evergreens also depict God's never-ending love and eternal life we have in him. Today's most common tradition includes an evergreen wreath surrounding five candles; a white center candle, three purple candles, and a pink candle. The first candle represents hope, purple in color, and is called the Prophet's candle. The color purple symbolizes royalty, repentance, and fasting. The second candle represents faith and is called Bethlehem's candle. It, too, is purple. This candle recalls the prophecy where Jesus would be born. The third candle is pink. In the liturgy, the color rose symbolizes joyfulness and rejoicing. The third candle represents joy, called the Shepherd's candle, remembering the great joy with which the angels announced Jesus' birth to the shepherds. The fourth candle is purple and represents peace, remembering Jesus came to bring peace to the world. It is called the Angel's candle and is also purple. The fifth and final candle is white, the Christ Candle. It is lit on Christmas day and signifies pure light and victory. So, there it is, a short history of the Advent wreath and its meaning. This week, the third week of Advent, we light the Shepherd's candle, reminding us of the joy the Messiah brings into our world. The Angel's song announcing Jesus' birth to that group of shepherds on the Judean hillside filled them with awe and wonder and joy at all they heard. It was a great time of rejoicing as they came into the humble cave where the child lay attended by his mother and father. But what about us? Here we are in the middle of a COVID crisis. Hospitals filled to capacity across the nation and around the world. Our politics are on the brink of collapse. Regardless of the outcome of the lawsuits and electoral college vote or anything else that might happen in the next month or two, the country's divide has grown so deep; no one will likely heal it in the next century. We see social unrest already stirring as factions begin to realize a Democrat government can do no more to fix the nation's societal ills than a Republican government could. No one can legislate morality. Every country that has tried has failed. So, unrest is once again building because of likely broken promises that no one could keep. As long as we require social distancing, the economy will slide in a negative direction. Unemployment will rise. The government can't fix it. Sending checks to everyone only means someone must pay for those checks. A little math tells me if you took the total income of the entire 5% at the top people keep harping about, that pays those checks for maybe a month or two, and then what? Then what is that the rest of us foot the bill. Printing money doesn't fix the economy. We face a lot of uncertainly in this Advent season, so what do we have to be joyful? The answer is a lot. We approach Advent with all those problems, much like the early church approached their life. It wasn't a bed of roses for them, either. Most in the church lived in poverty. If they had possessions before they became Christian, many lost those possessions because of their faith. Their politics were far worse than ours. At least, we don't get our heads put on poles along the road if we say something disparaging about the opposing party. Try doing that with Caesar, and that's what happened to you. Rome had plenty of enemies, but the emperor also had plenty of people on his payroll to find and destroy them. He ruled with fear as his most potent weapon. The soldiers stationed around the empire remained there because of the unrest. And uncertainty in the early church? Could you eat tomorrow? Was the person you invited to the meeting another one of Rome's spies? Could you trust your neighbor to keep quiet about the number of people coming to your home every few nights to gather and pray? Would your employer suddenly fire you because he found out you weren't worshiping Caesar's image in the temple? How long might it be before the state came and took your children away from you as an unfit parent? Still, Paul could write these words in his first letter to the church in Thessalonica: Always be joyful. Continually be prayerful. In everything be thankful, because this is God's will for you in the Messiah Jesus. Do not put out the Spirit's fire. Do not despise prophecies. Instead, test everything. Hold on to what is good. Keep away from every kind of evil. May the God of peace himself make you holy in every way. And may your whole being—spirit, soul, and body—remain blameless when our Lord Jesus, the Messiah, appears. The one who calls you is faithful, and he will continue to be faithful. (1 Thessalonians 5:16-24 ISV) Always be joyful, prayerful, and thankful, even in the middle of all the bad things that might be going on around you. Despite the political upheaval. Despite the danger to health and life. Despite the economic woes that might head your way. Despite anything that might press against you, Paul told the early Christian community to be joyful, prayerful, and thankful because this is God's will for you in the Messiah Jesus. Keeping up those attitudes isn't always easy, though. The world will do its best to drag you into its mold of despair, discouragement, hopelessness. But as Christians, we know this is not the end. Jesus showed us death does not win. He burst forth from the tomb and promised a new heaven and new earth for those who believe in him for salvation. He promised to build a place for us and come to take us to that place to live with him eternally. Hope allowed the early Christians to remain joyful, prayerful, and thankful despite their circumstances. And it is that hope that can enable us to have that same attitude despite our circumstances. The unrest and uncertainty of the present age do not dictate our emotions when we allow God's spirit to direct our lives. The hope of a future with him where death no longer touches us, where pain no longer cripples us, where sorrow no longer has a grip on humanity allows us to keep the joy and peace Jesus promised as his legacy alive in our hearts. So, what should we do during the rest of this Advent? Spread joy. If Jesus' spirit lives in you, spread his joy to those around you who need to see some joy in these dark times. His spirit avails himself for just that purpose, to give hope, faith, joy, and peace when the world around us tells us we should feel something different in our circumstances. But we know this isn't all there is to life. We know the giver of life and that there is more than the few brief years we spend in this fragile shell of flesh and blood now. We know there is something more for those who live in Christ. Let the pink candle, the Shepherd's candle of joy, remind you in this third week of Advent that Jesus came to bring joy into the hearts of all men and women who believe in him. He came to give life everlasting. He came to rid us of the guilt of sin and pay its penalty for us that we might have abundant life and real joy in living. Let his joy live in you and spread through you to those who need to see it lived out now. 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 ISV are taken from the INTERNATIONAL STANDARD VERSION (ISV): Scripture taken from INTERNATIONAL STANDARD VERSION, copyright© 1996-2008 by the ISV Foundation. All rights reserved internationally.