Coffee With The Lord

It is a terrible affront and injustice to knowingly misrepresent what another person has said! It is also a serious mistake to misrepresent someone innocently when it is your responsibility to represent what they have said accurately! That is especially true for those who preach, teach or share “God’s Word!”

With “tongue-in-cheek” I have told the Bible students I have taught over the years, “I don’t want God looking down when I preach, teach, or share His word and exclaiming, ‘I said THAT?!’”

This morning during my time of “Coffee with the Lord” I again read this sober challenge, charge and warning from Apostle Paul to young Timothy…

“I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: PREACH THE WORD! Be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you… FULFILL YOUR MINISTRY! (From 2 Timothy 4:1–5 ESV)

I’m just telling you… after reading that passage again today, I paused and committed myself, to be best of my ability (and the Holy Spirit’s assistance) TO NEVER MISREPRESENT WHAT GOD INTENDED TO COMMUNICATE THROUGH HIS WORD! I want to “Present myself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth!” (2 Timothy 2:15)

What an invitation! What a promise! What a wonderful “sip!”

“Jesus stood up and cried out, “If any thirsts, let him come to Me and drink! Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water!’ He said this about the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive!” (From John 7:37-39)

Authentic Christianity is “counter-cultural” – It is transformational (personally and within the broader culture)!

A Scripture that makes that point powerfully is the well-known “DO NOT BE CONFORMED TO THIS WORLD, BUT BE TRANSFORMED BY THE RENEWAL OF YOUR MIND, so that you may prove what the will of God is – that which is good and acceptable and perfect!” (Romans 12:2 NASB)

That Scripture came powerfully to mind this morning as I read 2 Timothy 3 during my time of “Coffee with the Lord!” Here’s our challenge as devoted, obedient, Spirit-empowered followers of Jesus in our culture…

First – “DO NOT BE CONFORMED TO [i.e., “pressed into the mold of”] THIS WORLD”

Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit said, “But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people… These people oppose the truth, and are corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith. (From verses1-8)

Instead he said, BE TRANSFORMED BY THE RENEWAL OF YOUR MIND!

“But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that the man [or woman] of God may be complete, equipped for every good work!” (From verses 14-17)

So it seems to be the answer for us, our children, and our grandchildren, etc. is to resist the pressure all around us to conform to our cultures values, way of thinking, and manner of life. And instead, fill our minds and hearts with Scripture and ask the Holy Spirit to transform us “inside – out!” Don’t conform – instead be transformed! From “childhood” – through adulthood – until we are “complete, equipped for every good work!”

Hey, it’s one reason I have “Coffee with the Lord” every day!