Coffee With The Lord

Wow!! Bet it’s been awhile since you heard (or read) the words to this old gospel song!! (Was reminded of it by my Bible reading during “coffee with the Lord” this morning… see the Scripture reading below the words of the song).

“Lord, I care not for riches, neither silver nor gold;

 I would make sure of Heaven, I would enter the fold.

 In the book of Thy kingdom, with its pages so fair,

 Tell me, Jesus, my Savior, is my name written there?

Refrain

 “Is my name written there,

 On the page white and fair?

 In the book of Thy kingdom,

 Is my name written there?

“Lord, my sins they are many, like the sands of the sea,

 But Thy blood, O my Savior, is sufficient for me;

 For Thy promise is written, in bright letters that glow,

 “Though your sins be as scarlet, I will make them like snow.”

“Oh! that beautiful city, with its mansions of light,

 With its glorified beings, in pure garments of white;

 Where no evil thing cometh to despoil what is fair;

 Where the angels are watching, yes, my name’s written there.

“Then I saw a great white throne and Him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them.  And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is THE BOOK OF LIFE.  And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done.  And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done.  Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.  AND IF ANYONE’S NAME WAS NOT FOUND WRITTEN IN THE BOOK OF LIFE, he was thrown into the lake of fire.”  (From Revelation 20:11–15 ESV)

I want to be SURE “My name is written there!”  How about you?  Are you sure… Have you put your trust in Christ to “save” you and give you eternal life?  (Cp. Revelation 21:9-27 esp. vs. 27)

Perhaps I’m “jumping the gun” a bit (but that’s OK)… New  Year’s is just around the corner (four days to New Year’s Eve – five to New Year’s Day)!

My Bible reading during “coffee with the Lord” today provoked within me a New Year’s wish and prayer for all my “Coffee with the Lord” friends on Facebook, my WordPress blog, and Twitter…

If I were going to identify ANYTHING I’d want to hear about them… And if I were to pray for them… What would it be as we approach the New Year?

Here  it is… taken from 3 John 2-4 – The wish Apostle John sent to his dear friend Gaius and his Christian friends…

“My dear, dear friends… I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, as it goes well with your soul!  I rejoiced greatly to hear you are walking in the truth!  I have NO GREATER JOY than to hear that you are walking in the truth!” (adapted from 3 John 2-4)

Listen… I want you to prosper and be in good health – but more than ANYTHING ELSE, I want to know you’re doing well Spiritually and that you’re walking day-by-day “in the truth!” 

That’s Dr. Bartel’s passionate prayer and wish for all of you as we approach 2023!!!

Christians who are “radical!” … “all in!” … “Over the top” … What do you think of them?

Sometimes they make compromising Christians uncomfortable.  They wish they’d “loosen up” a bit and not make such a “big deal” over everything that’s not quite “kosher” for Christ and what the Bible teaches.  They just seem to “draw the line” and “push back” a lot.  It’d be a lot easer to deal with them if they wouldn’t be so “cut and dried” about their convictions.  They seem to insist on “dotting every ‘I’ and crossing every ‘T’” They just make a lot of “ordinary Christians” feel uncomfortable!  Know what I mean?

My Bible reading today during my time of “coffee with the Lord” dealt with a guy like that – a spiritual leader in Israel after the exile in Babylon, named Nehemiah!  I mean you owe it to yourself to read Nehemiah 13 in your Bible and find out for yourself…

First it was an issue of who got to use a storage room in the Temple – a priest, Eliashib, had allowed Tobiah, a relative of His to use the storage room devoted to Levites and their ministry needs.  Nehemiah threw him out and the furniture he had there.

Then it was the violation of the Sabbath rest.  People were working on the Sabbath and bringing things to be bought and sold on the sacred Sabbath – the “Lord’s Day” in the Old Testament.  Nehemiah shut the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath, warned those who had violated it, and had the Levites guard the gates!

Finally, Nehemiah was incensed by the intermarriage of Israelites with their pagan neighbors.  In fact, the children of those unions could not even speak Hebrew as a result!  Godly values were being compromised.  Nehemiah “confronted them, rebuked them, beat some of them, pulled out their hair,” and made them take oaths to remedy the situation!

Zeal!!  …And you might think “over the top” zeal!  There’s even a verse of Scripture about Jesus, when He cleansed the Temple by driving out the money changers, in this regard… “His disciples remember that it was written, ‘Zeal for your house will consume me!’” (from Psalm 69:9)

Now that kind of zeal should not be expressed over private opinions, personal scruples, or debatable issues – but only when God’s word, His holiness, and the clear teaching of Scripture is violated!

But if Nehemiah was going to be attacked, criticized and resisted in his expression of zeal, his appeal was to God on these issues… He said, “Remember me, O my God concerning this, and do not wipe out my good deeds that I have done for the house of my God and for His service! … Spare me according to the greatness of Your steadfast love! … Remember me, O my God, for good!” (Nehemiah 13;14, 22, and 31)

And when zeal is expressed about the right things in an appropriate manner here is the New Testament promise… “Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord!” (Romans 12:11 ESV) “Be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.” (1 Corinthians 15:58)