Coffee With The Lord

Ever had what you could label “a close call” – an event that could have taken your life but miraculously your life was spared?

I have! In fact I’ve had several… and after each one of them I was convinced of several things… 1) I was convinced God had spared my life! 2) I was convinced the Lord was merciful! 3) I was convinced He had a purpose for my life and I owed everything to Him!

For instance… My wife, Sharon, and I were traveling from Sioux Falls to Mitchell, South Dakota. The roads were very icy but the travel was necessary. I was driving the car and trying to exercise extreme care. We were following a large truck with a trailer when suddenly the driver lost control of his rig and it began to spin around and around on the freeway on the ice. Both Sharon and I thought we were doomed – we braced ourselves for a terrible accident! Suddenly, miraculously, our car was on the other side of the spinning truck… in front of him! To this day, whenever we discuss the event, we have no idea how we got there! The only explanation we have… GOD!

I can tell you, as we drove down the highway after that event, our hearts were filled with thanksgiving and praise! We had the distinct impression God had his hand on our lives and we offered ourselves to Him and His purposes with deep gratitude!

There’s a Psalm for that kind of thing in the Bible… Psalm 124

“If it had not been the LORD who was on our side — let Israel now say — if it had not been the LORD who was on our side when people rose up against us, then they would have swallowed us up alive… then the flood would have swept us away, the torrent would have gone over us; then over us would have gone the raging waters! Blessed be the LORD, who has not given us as prey to their teeth! We have escaped like a bird from the snare of the fowlers; the snare is broken, and we have escaped! Our help is in the name of the LORD, who made heaven and earth!”

If something like that has ever happened to you, you’re probably aware God has His hand on your life and a purpose for you to fulfill. Your heart is filled with gratitude every time you think about it! And if you’ve never expressed that to Him, let me suggest that today might be a good time to acknowledge it, offer thanks to Him, and commit your life to Him and His purposes!

My heart and prayers today go out to the following people…

An elementary aged child from a devoutly Christian family who is going to public school in a pretty rough neighborhood, has shared some of the things their family stands for, and has been bullied or ridiculed because of it.

A committed Christian high school student involved in sports or other activities who is experiencing continual pressure to compromise their convictions morally in order to be one of the “in-crowd.”

A college or university student attending a secular university that has a professor that openly ridicules Christian values and beliefs and has made it very clear… “Agree with me in public discourse or when turning in assignments or I’ll publicly embarrass you and your grades will suffer!”

An employee striving hard to succeed who has been notified, “I expect you to do whatever is necessary to turn a profit or make a sale – and that includes the willingness to compromise your Christian ethics and values!”

A wife who lives in a neighborhood where it appears that to enjoy any friendship or close friends she has to participate in activities and conversations she does not feel comfortable with and must “leave her religion out of it!”

A Christian businessman in a highly competitive enterprise whose ethics in his business practices are challenged every day… including facing daily moral temptations from those who “want an inside track to advancement.”

To those kind of people in those kinds of situations… I’VE GOT A PSALM FOR YOU!!! (I read it during “coffee with the Lord” this morning and thought of YOU!)

“To you I lift up my eyes, O you who are enthroned in the heavens! Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master and as the eyes of a maidservant to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the LORD our God, till He has mercy upon us. Have MERCY upon us, O LORD, have MERCY upon us, for we have had more than enough of CONTEMPT! Our soul has had more than enough of the SCORN of those who are at ease, of the CONTEMPT of the proud!” (Psalm 123 ESV)

So my prayer today in the face of the contempt and scorn you might be facing? MERCY! God’s steadfast, reliable, faithful, covenant love! Nothing can separate you from that! (check out Romans 8:31-38!)

It often helps me during my time of personal devotions (I call them “coffee with the Lord”) to paraphrase some of the passages I read that day in the Bible.  So here goes on one of the passages I read today… (I guess you’ll have to be the judge as to whether I captured the truth of the passage at all)

My personal paraphrase of Colossians 4:2-4…

Pray!  Pray!!  Pray!!!  We are all called to a ministry of prayer!  Look for things to pray about – things that need your prayer!  Be sure to season your prayer liberally with thanksgiving!  Especially pray for Christian leaders and faithful servants of the Lord who are serving in difficult places in our world (Note: Apostle Paul was in prison at the time he wrote this passage) – Pray that they may be effective in communicating the Gospel.”

Here’s the passage from the Bible that I attempted to paraphrase this morning for comparison…

“Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving!  At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison — that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak.” (Colossians 4:2–4 ESV)

Listen… With the help of God, I’m not just going to paraphrase that passage – I’m going to seek to do it!