Coffee With The Lord

A few years ago I recall during my time of “coffee with the Lord” at the cabin, while my wife Sharon was having her devotions upstairs, she called out to me and said, “Honey, you know what?  We need to have Psalm 133 posted as a motto in the cabin!”  At the very time she said that, I was reading the passage for myself… She was right!  Here is what it says…

“Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity!  It is like the precious oil on the head, running down on the beard, on the beard of Aaron, running down on the collar of his robes!  It is like the dew of Hermon, which falls on the mountains of Zion! For there the Lord has commanded the blessing, life forevermore!”

Now neither Wes nor I (nor our spouses) anticipate a problem – we are not only brothers, we are the best of friends!  But I am sure there will be differences of opinion sooner-or-later that will arise.  We’ll have to guard ourselves so that those things never become a problem.  We’ll need to defer to one another and practice “give-and-take” for the arrangement to work.  Love for one another must rule!  We want the “goodness and pleasantness” of unity to be felt in our cabin.  We want our summer place of “get-away” to be a place where the “anointing of the Holy Spirit” (i.e. the “oil” spoken of in the passage) can be sensed.  We want our cabin to be a place of “blessing” (perhaps intended by the imagery of “the dew of Hermon” in the psalm).

And you know what?  I really believe the message of Psalm 133 needs to be fulfilled EVERYWHERE!  In every Bible-believing church… In every family… in every home… and in every marriage!  Don’t you?!  Let’s depend on God to help us with that… Let’s cooperate with Him to make it a blessed reality!  Eh?

Things are just not right!  For some reason the little one is fussy!  They’re crying over every little thing and no one – dad, the older children, grandparents, friends who happen to be nearby – can quiet them.  Then mom walks into the room, reaches down and picks up the little one who snuggles into her bosom, and presto… a whimper or two and the crisis seems to be over, peace comes, whatever was the problem is now solved… It’s a miracle – the miracle of “Mom”!!

There’s a lesson to be learned here…  The Lord is a lot like “Mom” to His children.  We don’t always know why we’re fussy… but we are.  Don’t know really what the problem is… Don’t know what’s bothering us or even why we’re upset.  Sometimes we do, and we make it all too evident to everyone.  Sometimes we get ourselves involved in things that are not our concern… they’re God’s concern.  At other times we mettle in things we’ve been warned to stay away from… and because of it we’re troubled, we’ve got a crisis, we’re fussy…

Thought about that today as I read the following Psalm…

 “My heart is not proud, Lord, my eyes are not haughty; I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me.  But I have calmed and quieted myself, I am like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child I am content… put your hope in the Lord both now and forevermore!  (Psalm 131 NIV)

Well at least one important project was completed on our trip to the “Bartel Cabin” in Montana this summer… I was able to go over the “Necessary Food” Bible reading plan day by day, passage by passage and correct some unintended errors in the recent revision. So, if you’re using the “Necessary Food” Bible reading 2020 revision, please download the pdf of the updated and corrected revision 2021. It’s not “inerrant” but it’s “corrected” – the plan itself is not “inspired” but I hope it will be “inspiring” and “uplifting!”

Necessary Food 2021 – A passage daily from the Old Testament historical books, biblical poetry, the prophetic books (including Revelation), the New Testament Gospels and Acts, and the epistles. “The latest and greatest”… Enjoy!