Coffee With The Lord

I know… It’s the day AFTER Thanksgiving… They call it “BLACK FRIDAY!”  Sounds dark, pessimistic, and negative doesn’t it… And our culture’s answer? … Just go shopping!

LISTEN, IF YOUR PERSPECTIVE IS ONLY “THIS SIDE OF HEAVEN” – WHAT GOES ON “UNDER THE SUN” – IT’S EASY TO GET CAUGHT UP IN THE FUTILITY AND NEGATIVISM OF EVERYTHING!  I’m reading Ecclesiastes in the Bible right now and that is the perspective – trying to figure things out, seeking wisdom, “this side of heaven” – “under the sun.”  If you do that, it’s inevitable… Your perspective will be skewed and distorted – YOU’LL MISS THE DIVINE PERSPECTIVE – the perspective with God taken into account!

I think that’s what happened to the writer of Ecclesiastes!  If you try to figure things out on your own without God’s perspective, you’ll just see the ultimate futility of everything.  Here’s what I read today in Ecclesiastes…

“So I hated life, because what is done under the sun was grievous to me, for all is vanity and striving after the wind.  I hated all my toil in which I toil under the sun, seeing that I must leave it to the one who will come after me, and who knows whether he will be wise or a fool?  Yet he will be master of all for which I toiled and used my wisdom under the sun!  This also is vanity!  So I turned about and gave me heart up to despair over all the toil of my labors under the sun, because sometimes a person who has toiled with wisdom and knowledge and skill must leave everything to be enjoyed by someone who did not toil for it.  This also is vanity and a great evil!”  (From  Ecclesiastes 2:17-21)

“Happy Holidays everyone!”  You sit down and try to figure it all out on your own and you might end up with the same morbid conclusion!

But here’s God’s perspective…

“God is not so unjust as to overlook your work and the love you showed for His sake” (Hebrews 6:10)

“Be steadfast, immovable, always a bounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain!” (1 Corinthians 15:58)

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.”  (Matthew 6:19-20)

“And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the father through Him.” (Colossians 3:17)

And that’s just a few that give God’s perspective – the divine perspective!  I want to see life from that perspective!  Don’t you?

I made a bad error in judgment this Thanksgiving Day morning…  I quickly checked the morning news on my cell phone before I opened my Bible for “Coffee with the Lord!”  Suddenly I was exposed to political polarity, criticism, accusations and negativity (the positive and uplifting was sprinkled in, but it was rare!)… I quickly laid the cell phone down and grabbed my Bible…

And as part of my reading today… “an attitude check” – I admit it hurt a bit, but it was a necessary corrective to my own attitudes about leadership, government, failures, injustice and just a “complaining attitude” about “the way things are!”

See if this passage isn’t what you needed to hear on this Thanksgiving Day as we near the end of a painful, frustrating, and sometimes disgusting year… (It’s a bit long, but believe me, worth the read!)…

“Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be [duly elected or appointed human leaders – my paraphrase]. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people.  LIVE AS PEOPLE WHO ARE FREE, NOT USING YOUR FREEDOM AS A COVER-UP FOR EVIL, BUT LIVING AS SERVANTS OF GOD.  Honor everyone! Love the brotherhood! Fear [reverence] God! Honor the emperor.  Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust.  For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly.  For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God.  FOR TO THIS YOU HAVE BEEN CALLED, BECAUSE CHRIST ALSO SUFFERED FOR YOU, LEAVING YOU AN EXAMPLE, SO THAT YOU MIGHT FOLLOW IN HIS STEPS.  He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth.  When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.  He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. ²⁵ For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.” (from1 Peter 2:13–25 ESV)

When I finished I said this to the Holy Spirit who inspired those words… “Thanks!  I needed that!”  And I wrote these words in the margin of my Bible… “Really good advice during this period in our nation’s history with its challenges! (and added this) “What an awesome example we have in Jesus Christ, son of God, our Savior!”

During my time of “coffee with the Lord” this “Thanksgiving Day” this wonderful passage of Scripture came to mind…

“Be at peace among yourselves… encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with everyone!  See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone.  Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, GIVE THANKS IN ALL CIRCUMSTANCES; FOR THIS IS THE WILL OF GOD IN CHRIST JESUS FOR YOU!…

And then a wonderful word of assurance and blessing…

“Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.  He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.”

(From 1 Thessalonians 5:13–18 and 23-24 ESV)

And here’s my response… With God’s help and the sweet reminders (“nudgings”) of the Holy Spirit, I’m going to do it!

Have a blessed Thanksgiving!