Agape Values Immersion: For the Maturing Christian Disciple

By Joseph Allen Holmes BSES BMSE

In our world bigotry and hate has become a national pass time. Becoming a loving person requires focus, dedication and persistence. Learning to agape requires more than just becoming a believer. Learning how to see creation through Christ’s eyes necessitates immersion in a system of values that support, nurture and enhance a Godly point of view. Agape Values Immersion opens the door to a Holy Spirit driven process of Christian maturation.

Agape Values Immersion takes the reader from affection to agape using basic concepts of development. We use goal setting, positive mental attitude and affirmations to transform the subconscious mind of believers into agape servo discipleship. The beauty of this process is that the disciple does not have to join a monastery in order to become an agape agent.

Written for Christians wanting to grow in Christ likeness. The heart of the book are two tables. The first is a table of comparative values: Agape, Basic Human and North American Values. The second is a table of sample Agape Affirmations derived from the Agape Values.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Balboa Press
• Release date: May 14, 2021
• ISBN: 9781982266769

Joseph Allen Holmes BSES BMSE

Joseph A. Holmes is a pastor and former biomedical systems engineer and salesmen. An adamant believer in 1 John 4:8, though a victim of denominational bigotry, he is dedicated to agape. He pays the price of loving his fellow man daily, suffering severe spinal stenosis from an attack by a student he was protecting from street gang violence. He strives for agape despite numerous set back and hardships. Through agape God has made him an overcomer. A faith this book was written to share.

Book preview

A gape Values

Immersion For The

Maturing Christian

Disciple

JOSEPH ALLEN HOLMES, BSES, BMSE

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Copyright © 2021 Joseph Allen Holmes, BSES, BMSE.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means,

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author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New

International Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International

Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved. [Biblica]

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author

and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of

the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of

people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

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ISBN: 978-1-9822-6675-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-9822-6677-6 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-9822-6676-9 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2021907055

Balboa Press rev. date:  05/12/2021

Contents

Dedication

Introduction

The Value of Values

Agape Affirmation

Where Faith In Jesus Christ Fits In

Behavior Modification Techniques (BMT) And the Mind Of Christ

How to Create Goals for Success

A Step Toward Glory: Congregational Health & Growth Goal Sheet Structure

A. Goal

B. Description

C. Overall Goal Needs

D. Benefits for achieving this goal: collateral

E. Obstacles & Risks

F. Possible Collaborators

G. Plan of Action (POA)

H. Biblical References

I. Goal Validation

J. Activating Prayer

K. Affirmations

L. Authorization: Date and authority

M. In Process Evaluation and Feedback

N. Efficacy Summary

O. Team Members

P. Pray

A Step Toward Glory Goal Sheets

Agape (God’s Love)

Obedience

The Folly Of Blending

Maslovian Needs

Comparable Values

Where Values And Personalities Meet

Table of Comparative Values (Agape Values)

Example Agape Values Affirmations

Sample Table of Agape Values Affirmations

Final Thoughts

Bibliography

Dedication

¹²No one has ever seen God; but if we love

one another, God lives in us and his love

is made complete in us. 1 Jn 4:12

This book is dedicated to the Spirit of Agape that instantly bound my beloved wife Terri J. Rold Holmes to my blessed mother Doris V. Hobson Holmes Osborne on Jan. 15, 2005. After meeting Terri on that fateful day, she told my sister, this one is a keeper. This was the agape relationship she had hoped for her only son.

Mom shared the epitome of maternal love, as a single mother, raising a boy in one of the roughest neighborhoods in street-gang-infested central Brooklyn, NY. Terri spent the years from 1982 until 2002 as a loving single parent raising a boy in one of the roughest areas of Omaha, NE. Maybe their mutual trials of raising Black boys in bigotry-bound ghettos drew them together. I thank God to have had the love of both. They both now share agape and memories with Jesus Christ in glory.

I am eternally grateful to Rev. Carey Womack, my best friend, brother in Christ, and pastor. I cherish the love, care, and support of my church family at Camden, TN Cumberland Presbyterian Church. They cared for me through three strokes, massive pulmonary emboli, and numerous TIAs. I am especially grateful to Julia Caperton and Nancy Arnold who sacrificed to help me get this book published. Lastly, I would not be alive had not my neighbors Bob Dill, Deborah Williams, and her son Edward Jones, who came to my rescue during several of those emergencies.

Introduction

³⁰ Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with

all your soul and with all your mind and with all your

strength.’ ³¹ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor

as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than

these." ³³ To love him with all your heart, with all your

understanding and with all your strength, and to love

your neighbor as yourself is more important than

all burnt offerings and sacrifices." Mk 12:30-31, 33

The United States of America’s 2020 Presidential election has been the most contentious challenge of attitudes and values this nation has faced since the Civil Rights challenges of the 1960s. There could not be two different styles of communication, attitudes about justice, approaches to problem-solving, and the list goes on. The volume of ballots submitted by the people was astounding. In the end, the people of America chose the President, whose system of attitudes and values reflect the direction most voters want America to move toward, for at least the next four years. America chose agape and reconciliation over confrontation and bullying. Value 101: Who do you love?

The human life is lived by balancing goals, desires, attitudes, and values. Our social yardstick suggests the most successful, popular, and/or prosperous of us have done so with clarity and organization. Dreams, day or otherwise, are things, relationships, and experiences we hope for. Goals are things, relationships, and experiences we plan for, ideally written down with detailed steps for accomplishment with stages, specific target and completion dates for each step. Attitudes are habits of thought. In a few pages, we will show