Coffee With The Lord

Praise the Lord!  COVID-19 restrictions are being lifted and families and others are making travel plans for the summer!  A lot of you this summer are going to some very beautiful places!  Places that leave you in awe – places that bear the mark of the “Master Sculptor” – the “Artist Extraordinaire” – Creator God!!  I just love the Bible’s calls to worship when I see towering mountains, laughing brooks, cascading waterfalls, wooded lakes, roaring ocean waves, and canyons exploding with stunning colors.   It’s in situations like that when Psalms like the 95^th Psalm come to mind!  I read it just this morning during my time of “coffee with the Lord”…

“Oh come, let us sing to the LORD;

Let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!

Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;

Let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!

For the LORD is a great God, a great King above all gods!

In his hand are the depths of the earth;

The heights of the mountains are his also.

The sea is his, for he made it,

And his hands formed the dry land.

Oh come, let us worship and bow down;

Let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker!

For he is our God!

And we are the people of his pasture, he sheep of his hand.

(From Psalms 95:1-7 ESV)

It won’t be long before Sharon and I head out to one of the most beautiful places on earth – to the “Bartel Cabin” at Glacier Bible Camp, just outside Glacier National Park in Montana.  Where are you headed?  Wherever it is, why not pause, look around, see God’s “handiwork,” and worship!  Wherever you go, have a praise-filled summer!!

These guys had a bad, bad day fishing!  They tried everything!  Every spot that usually produced!  And all night!  They knew what they were doing after all … experienced commercial fishermen.  Hard, hard work for nothing!  That’s right, nothing!

So here they are; discouraged, frustrated, and perhaps a little surly.  They’re washing their nets and this guy shows up (with a crowd yet)!   He wants to use one of their boats to address the crowd.  Simon, who owns the boat, agrees to let him use it… but continues to wash his nets while the guy speaks… Quite a speaker – pretty interesting – captivating actually!

Then it happens… He finishes speaking and speaks to Simon.  “Simon,” he says, “put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.”  Talk about gall!  The guy may be a good speaker… But He sure is no fisherman (his timing is wrong – no sense of fishing strategy at all!)!

Simon responds to the teacher… “We’ve toiled all night and caught nothing!  Nothing!! But ok, at your word I’ll give it a try.”

And then it happened… Miracle stuff!!  Incredible!  Suddenly the nets are full – I mean FULL!  So full the nets are about to burst!  Simon calls to his partners for help!  They come with their boats… they fill up both boats – so full the boats are about to sink with fish!  Never in all their lives could they remember anything like it!  What a catch!  Gotta be a miracle!!

Who is this guy anyway?  Simon falls to his knees before Jesus and blurts out, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!”  And Jesus? …He says to Simon, DON’T BE AFRAID; FROM NOW ON YOU WILL BE CATCHING MEN!”

They’d talk about that miracle for years!  The Bible says, when they got to land “THEY LEFT EVERYTHING AND FOLLOWED JESUS!”  (From Luke 5:1-11)

One of the lessons that came to mind today as I re-read this story?  The power of a life-transforming miracle… No, more than that – miracles often end up transforming several lives!

Ever had one?  Ever seen one?  I have!  GOD’S MIRACLES ARE MORE THAN SIMPLY FASCINATING… THEY’RE LIFE TRANSFORMING! 

I wish I had an adequate video replete with great sound effects for today’s post (I hope what I provided a link for helps 😉!  I pastored in Longview, Washington for several years near the ocean… We would slip over to Cannon Beach, Oregon, go to Ecola State Park near there, and watch the waves crash against the rocks.  The scene and sounds were especially spectacular just before an approaching storm.  You’d just find yourself standing there is awe at the majesty and strength of the ocean waves!

That scene recreated itself in my mind as I read the following words from Psalm 93 this morning… “The Lord is king! He is robed in majesty. Indeed, the Lord is robed in majesty and armed with strength… Your throne, O Lord, has stood from time immemorial.  You Yourself are from the everlasting past. THE FLOODS HAVE ROARED LIKE THUNDER; THE FLOODS HAVE LIFTED THEIR POUNDING WAVES. BUT MIGHTIER THAN THE VIOLENT RANGING OF THE SEAS, MIGHTIER THAN THE BREAKERS ON THE SHORE – THE LORD ABOVE IS MIGHTIER THAN THESE!”

Phrases like, “Our God is an awesome God” and “Nothing is too hard for the Lord” and “Almighty God” come to mind, don’t they?  Perhaps I just need to close my eyes, relive the scene and sounds of the pounding waves of the ocean, and let it truth of it sink in again today!