Coffee With The Lord

Notice to those using the “Necessary Food” Bible Reading plan I developed… There is an error in the Bible reading for today, May 27… Lamentations 1 was inadvertently omitted from the “Prophecy” reading for today. Here is my recommendation for resolving it: Read Lamentations 1:1-22 today and Lamentations 2:1-22 tomorrow and you should be ok… Sorry that happened!!! 😔

The children of Israel… They were on the threshold of claiming God’s promises and entering into God’s covenant blessings… What an opportunity!!!  You wouldn’t want to do anything to mess that up!  What were the secrets?

Well that’s what Deuteronomy 6 is all about.  I don’t know if you’re following the “Necessary Food” Bible reading plan I developed and is available on this site, but if you are, Deuteronomy 6 is the Old Testament History reading for today.  Regardless, I encourage you to read the whole chapter and look for the principles it addresses for claiming God’s best and enjoying His covenant blessings…

Here they are (see if you can identify them in the passage)…

• Love Him with all your heart, soul, might!  (“The greatest commandment – vs. 5)

• Reverence Him!  [“Fear the Lord”]

• Obey Him!

• Serve Him!

• Share His story [i.e. Pass on the legacy to the next generations]!

God’s promises are true!  His covenant is sure!  His blessings are abundant!  It seems to me that although, Deuteronomy 6 especially was addressed to the Children of Israel as they entered the “Promised Land.” Its principles apply to us if we are to claim, enjoy, and live in the fullness of New Covenant blessings provided through faith in Jesus Christ.

I love water baptism services!  At the church we are a part of we call them “Plunge Parties” (i.e. taking “the plunge” to follow Jesus … “all in” for Him!).

According to Romans 6:1-11, water baptism is more than simply a ceremony!  It represents a reality – it is a “baptism into Christ Jesus” – a full and complete identification with His death, burial and resurrection.  In a real way it is a faith-identification with Him – IN SOME REAL WAY HIS DEATH BECAME OUR DEATH TO SIN, HIS BURIAL BECAME OUR BURIAL, AND, PRAISE THE LORD, HIS RESURRECTION BECOMES OUR RESURRECTION!  Here is how Romans 6:4 puts it… “We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life!”

Years ago, when I baptized a friend of mine, Bill Cypher, in the Crow Wing River in Minnesota, this was his testimony… “The pastor told us today this was really a burial service!  Today I can see my past – the sin I have committed – just going down that river far, far away.  In a moment the pastor is going to put me down into the water of this river and the ‘old Bill’ you knew is going to be buried!  Then he’s going to bring me up out of the water, and by the grace of God, you’re going to see a ‘new Bill’”!  I remember it like it was yesterday… What a testimony!  What an accurate description of what water baptism represents – and what it truly ought to be!

This morning during my time of  “coffee with the Lord” I read Galatians 2:20 and thought to myself, wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could get people to memorize this verse and get them to quote it and affirm it in a loud and clear voice when they came out of the waters of baptism… “I HAVE BEEN CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST!  IT IS NO LONGER I WHO LIVE, BUT CHRIST WHO LIVES IN ME!  AND THE LIFE I NOW LIVE IN THE FLESH I LIVE BY FAITH IN THE SON OF GOD, WHO LOVED ME AND GAVE HIMSELF FOR ME!”