Coffee With The Lord

A picture worthy of reflection… How did it “change the world?” In what ways? For whom? For how long? In what ways has it changed “your world?”

Does it ever bother you… the arrogance of the powerful, evil, God-rejecting person?

Well, here’s good news… The Bible predicts and promises ultimate vindication!  Psalm 52 in your Bible declares it… I read it just this morning during “coffee with the Lord” and it helped put things in perspective for me…

Listen, reject hatred!  Don’t try to “get even!”  Leave it to the Lord – He’ll take care of it!  What that does is free you up to be “redemptive!”  Perhaps the person that bothers you in this regard will turn to the Lord before judgment comes and be transformed by God’s grace!! (Check out Romans 12:14-21)

Give Psalm 52 a read and let it do it’s work within you on this topic (here’s an excerpt)…  

^“WHY DO YOU BOAST IN EVIL, O MIGHTY MAN?

THE GOODNESS OF GOD ENDURES CONTINUALLY!

Your tongue devises destruction,

Like a sharp razor, working deceitfully.

You love evil more than good,

Lying rather than speaking righteousness.

You love all devouring words,

You deceitful tongue.

“God shall likewise destroy you forever;

He shall take you away, and pluck you out of your dwelling place,

And uproot you from the land of the living.

“The righteous also shall see and fear,

And shall laugh, saying,

‘Here is the man who did not make God his strength,

But trusted in the abundance of his riches,

And strengthened himself in his wickedness.’

“But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God;

I trust in the mercy of God forever and ever.

I will praise You forever,

Because You have done it;

I will wait on Your name, for it is good.”

(From Psalm 52 NKJV)

Sharon, my wife, is an avid reader… she consumes books at an incredible rate of reading!  But I caught her doing it… Yup!  Caught her “red-handed!” … I caught her flipping to the last chapter of a new novel to find out how it all ended!

So “sheepishly” I’m going to do it today – gonna follow her lead here in “coffee with the Lord!”  On this Tuesday of “Holy Week” before Easter Sunday, I’m going to sneak past “Good Friday” and celebrate how it all ends up on Easter… I’m even going to go further and check out the “Epilogue” of Easter! 

No shame!  Going to do it with a smile on my face, rejoicing in my heart, and even triumphant praise on my lips!!!  (My excuse? … It was part of my Bible reading this morning!)

Here’s what I read today (part of one of the greatest chapters in all of the Bible – 1 Corinthians 15)…

“Our physical bodies cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. These dying bodies cannot inherit what will last forever.  But let me reveal to you a wonderful secret… We will not all die, but we will all be transformed!  It will happen in a moment, in the blink of an eye, when the last trumpet is blown. For when the trumpet sounds, those who have died will be raised to live forever. And we who are living will also be transformed.  For our dying bodies must be transformed into bodies that will never die; our mortal bodies must be transformed into immortal bodies.  Then, when our dying bodies have been transformed into bodies that will never die, this Scripture will be fulfilled: ‘Death is swallowed up in victory!  O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?’  For sin is the sting that results in death, and the law gives sin its power.  But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ!!!” (From 1 Corinthians 15:50-57)

So what is it that prompted this wonderful glimpse into the end of the story?  Glad you asked…

“Let me now remind you of the Good News I preached to you before… Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said.  He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said! … And if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is useless and you are still guilty of your sins.  In that case, all who have died believing in Christ are lost!  And if our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are more to be pitied than anyone in the world. ²⁰ But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead!  He is the first of a great harvest of all who have died.  So you see, just as death came into the world through a man, now the resurrection from the dead has begun through another man.  Just as everyone dies because we all belong to Adam, everyone who belongs to Christ will be given new life.  But there is an order to this resurrection: Christ was raised as the first of the harvest; then all who belong to Christ will be raised when he comes back.” (1 Corinthians 15:1-4, 17–23 NLT)

There!  I couldn’t help myself… I just had to let you in on “the rest of the story!”