Coffee With The Lord

This morning during my time of “coffee with the Lord” my Bible reading included Matthew 9:20-22 – the story of the healing of the woman with the long term “flow of blood”

Think of the barriers this lady faced…

Culturally “unclean” … 12 long years and no medical help … the size of the crowd … her personal fear (even reticence to interrupt a very busy Jesus) …

But she took heart, pressed through, reached out in “faith” and Divine “virtue” flowed from the Messiah, the Son of God, Savior, and Healer to her! (Check the parallel passages – Mark 5:25-34; Luke 8:43-48)

What might you or I have allowed to dissuade us and hinder us from pressing through in faith? I don’t know about you, but I want to exhibit the kind of faith that causes me to “press through” and “reach out!”

Conversations with fellow Christians, and Biblically informed spiritual leaders as well as my own study of Scripture have convinced me we are living “in the last days” just before the “coming of the Lord!”  The challenge?  Staying spiritually alert and ready!

Yet to my dismay many who claim the name of Christ (i.e. those who call themselves “Christians”) do not heed the exhortation and admonishment of this passage! They have become spiritually sleepy and have allowed the broader pagan culture to influence their lives and have compromised!

Paul urges instead, “Cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light! Walk properly as in the broad daylight!” The things he mentions to “put off” (read them… “cast of the works of darkness, revelry, drunkenness, lewdness, lust, strife, and envy”) should have no place in a “watchful” believer’s life! Instead Apostle Paul challenges us to “put on the armor of light, to walk properly,” and most importantly, “put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts!” (From Romans 13:11-14)

With God’s help and the Holy Spirit’s “nudging” and reminders, I intend to heed Apostle Paul’s exhortation!! Hey, “Salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed!”

Neighbors!  What a pain!!  Their dog dirties on my lawn and barks at every passing person and car!  Their kids yell and scream all the time and throw stuff over the fence into our yard… And their music! … Blaring all the time… and their wild parties!!!  And you should hear the husband… quarreling with his “wife?” all the time.  And that’s not all…!!!

Hey, it’s a conversation I’ve heard from Christians about their “neighbors”!!! (And to my shame it’s a conversation I’ve participated in a time or two… or three!

Then I read Apostle Paul’s God-inspired words today in Romans 13:8-10… Felt VERY CONVICTED!!!

“Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, ‘You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,’ and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.”

God’s law: Summarized in two core commandments:  I’m supposed to love God wholeheartedly… AND LOVE MY “NEIGHBOR” AS I LOVE MYSELF! (check out Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18 along with Matthew 22:34-40; Luke 10:25-37).

Here Apostle Paul urges us NEVER to feel like we have repaid the 2nd great commandment! In fact, he informs us that if we succeed in “loving one another” (i.e. our “neighbor) we have fulfilled God’s law! Oh Lord, help me to do a good job of BOTH – Loving God and loving my neighbor! …And love as a verb, not simply an emotion!

Perhaps you, like me, are going to have to do some serious work on that “neighbor” thing!