Coffee With The Lord

Integrity pays off! I believe that – but I also have to face the reality that some suffer unjustly in spite of their integrity! Joseph in the Bible is the case study of both seemingly contradictory truths…

Joseph’s master in Egypt, Potiphar, “observed that the Lord was with Joseph and that the Lord made everything he was doing successful.” So Potiphar made Joseph overseer of everything in his household and all that he owned. And the Bible says, “The Lord blessed Potiphar’s household for Joseph’s sake.”

Joseph conducted himself with scrupulous integrity. But Potiphar’s wife seduced and propositioned Joseph on multiple occasions. On one occasion she grabbed him by his garment and said, “Joseph, have sex with me!” In his integrity, Joseph, left his coat and fled the house. In rejected rage Potiphar’s wife falsely accused Joseph and Potiphar “took him and threw him into prison.”

But even there, “the Lord was with Joseph and showed him kindness. He granted him favor in the sight of the prison warden.” The warden saw the kind of person Joseph was – the sterling quality of his character – and put him in charge of all the prisoners. In fact the Bible says, “the Lord was with him and whatever Joseph was doing the Lord was making successful.” (From Genesis 39 the NET Bible)

I just want to say it again… Integrity pays! But I hope that even if I should suffer unjustly in spite of my integrity; I, like Joseph, will sustain my integrity, and trust the Lord to work things out, vindicate me, and cause me to prosper regardless of my circumstances. Going to say it one more time with conviction… I believe integrity pays!

It’s time to “wake up and live right!”

That’s the message I got from my Bible reading this morning during “Coffee with the Lord!” Ever almost oversleep? You had an important appointment, you woke up and you had another 30 minutes before the alarm went off so you decided to just go ahead and “catch a wink or two” … the alarm went off but you hit the “snooze button” … just 10 more minutes … An hour later you wake with a start and alarm! How are you going to make that important appointment!

Sound familiar? Tragedy is we do it with our lives… We doze off when we know we ought to be “up and at ‘em” … Alert! Clothed with righteousness! Living right! Conducting of lives as if “today” might be the day the Lord returns!

Here’s the passage from the Bible that sounded an awful lot like a “spiritual alarm” to me this morning…

“And do this… because we know the time, that it is already the hour for us to awake from sleep, for our salvation is now nearer than when we became believers… The night has advanced toward dawn; the day is near. So then we must lay aside the works of darkness, and put on the weapons of light. Let us live decently as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in discord and jealousy. Instead, let us put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh to arouse its desires! (Romans 13:11–14 NET Bible)

Jesus – the “righteous guy” (and I mean really righteous – not “hypocritical righteous”) always hanging out with the wrong people! Caused quite a stir in the religious establishment (among the “hypocritical righteous)! They didn’t have the right “pedigree” or affiliation. The people he hung out with didn’t attend synagogue regularly (once a year, if at all). They didn’t keep all the “ritual stuff” … washing their hands at the right time, chanting the proper prayers, they didn’t “tithe” and a lot of other “religious things” the religious establishment expected. But they had this in common… they all needed God!

And then Jesus, led by the Spirit, stops by a Roman tax booth! Those guys were notoriously bad … rip off artists, complicit with the evil Roman empire, greedy and godless, loathed by any self-respecting Jew! Jesus calls Matthew, the tax collector, (the guy after whom this book in the Bible is named) and Matthew follows him! His life is transformed by God’s grace and invites all of his old tax collecting friends and other “sinners” that he knew over for dinner to meet Jesus!

Made the religious establishment mad! “When the Pharisees saw this they said to Jesus’ disciples, ‘Why does your teacher eat with the tax collectors and sinners?!’”

Jesus’ answer to them says a lot about Him… and a lot about what REAL Christianity ought to look like…

Jesus said, “Those who are healthy don’t need a physician, but those who are sick do. Go and learn what this saying means: ‘I want mercy and not sacrifice.’ For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners!” (Matthew 9:12–13 from the NET Bible)

Three things about Jesus’ approach challenged me this morning and caused me to pray this prayer… Sincerely I might add…
• Lord, help me to put more emphasis on helping those who really need help!
• Lord, help me to exhibit your grace and mercy a whole lot more than religious ritual!
• Lord, help me to embrace Your passion and love for those who don’t know you and aren’t following you yet… Help me to effectively issue your invitation to “follow” with a humble loving heart! (After all, I’m just a sinner saved by grace!)