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. Well, the November elections are well behind us. A new president took office months ago. But our nation hasn't changed much. We still feel the effects of the divide that has been developing for a couple of decades. Party politics, escalated by the algorithms that social media shove to us to keep us addicted to what we want to hear, continue to grow on a hyperbolic curve. We continue to have the growing concern about racism or reverse racism or whether there is any racism and what constitutes racism. Is it against color? Ethnic origin? National allegiance? Religious affiliation? Political ideology? Socioeconomic status? It seems all of those get stirred into the mix whenever racism starts rearing its head in some circles. The "woke" movement and "cancel" culture are equally divisive. Somehow, we forget our entire history, good and bad, brought us to the place we are today. Right or wrong, the past is what it is and cannot be changed. It is history. Are we proud of our history? Some of it should be rightfully proud. Some of it we should fall on our knees in disgust and ask God forgiveness for our people as Daniel did. It doesn't change the facts of history, but it changes us. Then we see what is still happening with the pandemic. India seems to be the disease's principal target as I write these words, although the United States still has 32.5 million positive cases and more than half a million deaths in its wake so far. And the number of new cases has remained relatively flat since mid-February despite more than half the population receiving at least one dose of the miracle vaccine to stop the spread. Chances are we will take another booster in six months or at least twelve months because of the mutations the virus undergoes with each generation of its spread. It appears masks will become the new global fashion statement. The virus's secondary and long-term effects on the body are still being discovered. It is a vicious disease. We also don't yet know the long-term effects of the vaccines we take or the effects of the cures to get us out of intensive care wards. We know those are better than the days of suffering those with the disease endured with death knocking at the door, but we don't yet know what they are only a year into the process. So, what do we do? Responses look typical from where I sit. Some still isolate themselves, daring to go out only for necessities and emergencies. Businesses like DoorDash, Grubhub, and Uber capitalized on the isolation quickly delivering whatever you need – with the requisite fee and a tip, of course. Others try to hoard supplies as if the apocalypse arrived and factories will close forever. When supplies get to needy areas, sometimes money makes a difference in how distributors handle those supplies. The wealthy somehow always seem to have enough, and the poor always seem to remain in need. We can examine the plight internationally and blame poor government, but we can look at home and see the same results. Our responses continue to divide us no matter how we try to come together over issues. So, what do we do? As Christians, what is our role, and how should we respond to the mess we see around us on every front? Let me share from one of the readings this week, and I think it will speak for itself. My dear friends, we must love each other. Love comes from God, and when we love each other, it shows that we have been given new life. We are now God's children, and we...

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 like to read the stories in the Bible. We like to hear about the miracles and heroes rising up to defeat great armies. But that’s not what the Bible is about. When we stop and examine those stories, they tell us about God’s plan for humanity through those stories. What’s more important is how his plan unfolds through the lives of those who follow him and stay obedient to him. We learn by watching God’s power work through their weakness. One such story comes from the early believers as Peter and John go to the temple to worship. But it’s not the miraculous event that should capture our attention, but Peter’s sermon that follows. Just to make sure we suit everyone, though, I will share the miraculous part of the story, too. The time of prayer was about three o’clock in the afternoon, and Peter and John were going into the temple. A man who had been born lame was being carried to the temple door. Each day he was placed beside this door, known as the Beautiful Gate. He sat there and begged from the people who were going in. The man saw Peter and John entering the temple, and he asked them for money. But they looked straight at him and said, “Look up at us!” The man stared at them and thought he was going to get something. But Peter said, “I don’t have any silver or gold! But I will give you what I do have. In the name of Jesus Christ from Nazareth, get up and start walking.” Peter then took him by the right hand and helped him up. At once the man’s feet and ankles became strong, and he jumped up and started walking. He went with Peter and John into the temple, walking and jumping and praising God. Everyone saw him walking around and praising God. They knew that he was the beggar who had been lying beside the Beautiful Gate, and they were completely surprised. They could not imagine what had happened to the man. While the man kept holding on to Peter and John, the whole crowd ran to them in amazement at the place known as Solomon’s Porch. Peter saw that a crowd had gathered, and he said: Friends, why are you surprised at what has happened? Why are you staring at us? Do you think we have some power of our own? Do you think we were able to make this man walk because we are so religious? The God that Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and our other ancestors worshiped has brought honor to his Servant Jesus. He is the one you betrayed. You turned against him when he was being tried by Pilate, even though Pilate wanted to set him free. You rejected Jesus, who was holy and good. You asked for a murderer to be set free, and you killed the one who leads people to life. But God raised him from death, and all of us can tell you what he has done. You see this man, and you know him. He put his faith in the name of Jesus and was made strong. Faith in Jesus made this man completely well while everyone was watching. My friends, I am sure that you and your leaders didn’t know what you were doing. But God had his prophets tell that his Messiah would suffer, and now he has kept that promise. So turn to God! Give up your sins, and you will be forgiven. Then that time will come when the Lord will give you fresh strength. He will send you Jesus, his chosen Messiah. But Jesus must stay in heaven until God makes all things new, just as his holy prophets promised long ago. Moses said, “The Lord your God will choose one of your own people to be a prophet, just as he chose me. Listen to everything he tells you. No one who disobeys that...

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 you might expect, the New Testament scriptures in the lectionary just after Easter reference Jesus' appearances to those he would choose to continue to share the message he began while living among us. "The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent. Believe in the Son of Man, and you will have eternal life." His resurrection proved to those who followed and saw him that he was indeed Israel's Messiah. The verses from the gospels come from John, chapter 20. The latter part of the reading says this: Now Thomas (called Didymus), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord!" But he replied, "Unless I see the wounds from the nails in his hands, and put my finger into the wounds from the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will never believe it!" Eight days later the disciples were again together in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you!" Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here, and examine my hands. Extend your hand and put it into my side. Do not continue in your unbelief, but believe." Thomas replied to him, "My Lord and my God!" Jesus said to him, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are the people who have not seen and yet have believed." Now Jesus performed many other miraculous signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are recorded so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. (John 20:24-31 NET) Darkness has fallen on the first day of the week. Rumors fly about what happened in the garden tomb where Joseph of Arimathea laid Jesus after a group of them took his bloody corpse from the cross. The two women who had gone to finish the burial preparation said they saw an angel sitting on the slab. They reported the angel told them Jesus rose from the dead and would meet the disciples in Galilee. But who can believe what women say? But Peter and John ran to the tomb and also found it empty with the linens lying on the slab as if the corpse had passed through it somehow. And the napkin that covered Jesus' face, inside the linen wrapping, was outside the wrappings, folded by itself. Were they drunk with grief? Was it some magic trick? Did Jesus really rise from the dead? It's impossible, but it happened. Two more saw him on their way to Emmaus. He talked with them, explained the prophecies about himself from the scriptures, broke bread, and prayed with them. Then he just disappeared. He wasn't a ghost. He had a different kind of body. They said it was like they knew him, but he was different. It was like seeing a friend you hadn't seen in a long time. But instead of looking older and ravaged by work, age, and the stress of life, he was energized, the same age but younger looking. It was like he was whole, complete, he had something physical about him that was hard to describe, but you knew it was him. All these rumors, what were the disciples to make of all of it. Now they hid behind locked doors, trying to figure it out. Their hopes dashed Friday afternoon when Jesus took his last breath. The Roman authorities would root them out soon. Their usual method of dealing with rebel leaders meant crucifying the leader and rounding up all his followers, too. They couldn't expect sanctuary from the priests. They wanted to kill...

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 just enjoyed a grand Easter celebration because Jesus is alive. But it shouldn't be a once-a-year celebration. Jesus is alive. Think about that a moment. Two thousand years ago, something happened that changed the course of human history, so much so that most of the world determines the date by the man whose death and resurrection caused that change. Today, secularists changed the name of time from BC and AD to BCE to CE. However, the calendar divisions still coincide with Jesus' birth as described by the calendar developed by Dionysius in 524 AD under Pope John I. They can change the name, but they cannot change the fact. Jesus' resurrection proved him as Israel's long-awaited Messiah. God's promised King of all creation to bring freedom and rule over all the world. In Jerusalem, the political and religious leaders thought they defeated the uprising Jesus led with his band of followers proclaiming him Messiah when they nailed him to the cross. The resurrection proved them wrong. But Jesus' uprising did not want to overthrow Rome or even the priesthood. He brought peace, forgiveness, and hope to the world. The promises God gave Abraham, David, Moses, and Israel in his covenants with them. The message they were supposed to share with the nations to bring others into the family of God, expanding his kingdom to all people. Since that day, Christians have heard from non-believers that Easter is just a story, Jesus' followers made it up to keep the revolt alive. Just look at the differences in the gospels, they say. Of course, they disregard the fact that if all the testimonies are identical in a court of law, the opposition will tell you the witnesses were coached. No one sees an event or talks about a traumatic event the same way. Without some trivial differences in the testimonies of witnesses, juries must conclude serious doubt. That's what we see in the gospels, trivial differences. The event is the resurrection. Who got to the tomb first, whether the angels were inside or outside the tomb, whether there were one or two angels, how the linens were arranged, these are trivial compared to the fact that a dead man was no longer dead, but alive just as he predicted. Then some would not believe it because the first who saw the risen Lord were women. The gospels reported Mary first seeing the risen Lord in the garden at first thinking him the gardener. In that culture, a woman's testimony wasn't considered trustworthy. If the gospels writers wanted to make up the story, they would use men, not women, to tell of the resurrection. We notice by the time Paul begins telling the story for the church, the women's testimonies are left out, the disciples' and other followers' testimonies support seeing the risen Jesus, but not the women. Why? Women's testimony would cast doubt on the event in his culture. Then we have the martyrs. Why would ten of the eleven disciples, Paul, and thousands of others willingly go to their death, refusing to renounce their faith in Jesus and his resurrection if they did not believe it? All they had to do was say the words, and they could save their lives, but they did not and would not do so. For those who were Roman citizens, death came quickly as they were beheaded. Rome could create indescribably horrible torture for those who were not Roman citizens before their end finally came. One such form of cruelty described by the historian Josephus, a Christian would hang by one hand over...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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....

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...

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...

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...

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...

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,...

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...

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 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...

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...

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...

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 second week of Advent began in the most interesting times I’ve experienced. Of course, we all deal with the effects of the coronavirus here in the United States and abroad. The disease is wreaking havoc everywhere. Our healthcare workers truly exhibit heroic efforts in combating the progress, but they are exhausted and seem to take two steps back with every step forward sometimes. The virus is just a horrible enemy for the world at large. I thought we would have a more focused Thanksgiving this year with many stores closed because of the virus. More people staying at home and enjoying a more intimate setting with their immediate family. But I was wrong. Store closed, but we experienced record shopping - $4.5 billion in online sales on Thanksgiving Day. Covid-19 did nothing to curb our appetite for materialism. And although airports seemed a little emptier this year, I’m not so sure the roads were less crowded than I’ve seen them in years past. So, I think a lot of people headed for family gatherings away somewhere just to get away for a few days. We will find out in the next few days what that means for the multiplied spread of the virus. And please don’t blame the government for our failures to protect each other. Here we are in a time of anticipation, but of what? More political upheaval? A miracle vaccine to stop the spread of the virus? An instant end to our economic woes? Christmas? In our house, we definitely prepare for Christmas. To get in the mood, Carole starts watching Christmas movies in July. Decorations take a while. We might stop with the eight trees already up (I hope). Maybe there will be one or two more, but at least they won’t be the six-foot variety. Nativity scenes take prominent places in almost every room. Lights and garland go up on cabinets and shelves. Snow scenes and Victorian villages take shape as different rooms take on different themes throughout the house. Needless to say, our decoration preparation starts early in November and ends not many days before Christmas. Then there are presents to buy. Carole is the master buyer. She begins finding just the right gifts for everyone starting in January and buys throughout the year, so our shopping is done before most people start. It’s also a great way to find bargains and spread the cost of presents. Of course, when buying just the right present in January, it’s easy to forget you have it, so you find another just the right gift in July. I’m not sure how much that saves, then, but it’s great to watch the kids and grandkids open gifts selected especially with their personalities in mind. Carole could be a great professional shopper, but she says that would take the fun out of it. Last week, we talked about advent being a time of both looking back to the time of Jesus’ coming. A time of celebrating the fact of his arrival and remembering his life and sacrifice for us. We also talked about advent being a time of looking ahead to the time of his return. He promised to come again to be with those who believed in him for salvation for eternity. The huge question Christians in the first century and Christians today continue to ask is when? When will he come? Our adversaries point to the 2000 year delay and say it’s a hoax. He broke his promise. He never rose from the dead. He never could because when you’re dead, you’re dead. Our faith is a farse and we might as well admit it. As believers, we know otherwise. We know God’s delay...