Coffee With The Lord

Environmental issues are big these days with many people. People pick up placards and march – they yell and scream – they protest with anger and vitriol what is happening to our water, our air, our soil and the animals that occupy our world.

And yet the life of an unborn child is disposable and can be destroyed with a whim. The pollution of mind, and heart, and body with the sewage of sin is tolerated – even defended as a personal “right.”

You see, there is a greater pollution we should be much more concerned about! It’s the same pollution and environmental issue addressed by the prophet Hosea in his generation…

“Hear the word of the LORD! The LORD has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land. There is no faithfulness or steadfast love, and no knowledge of God in the land; there is swearing, lying, murder, stealing, and committing adultery; they break all bounds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed. Therefore the land mourns, and all who dwell in it languish, and also the beasts of the field and the birds of the heavens, and even the fish of the sea are taken away.” (Hosea 4:1–3 ESV)

Don’t get me wrong… we have a responsibility – a “stewardship” if you please – to care for (and not destroy) the Creator’s world… as the old hymn put it, “This is my Father’s world!” But the facts, according to Scripture, are that one day “The heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness!” (2 Peter 3:10-11)

Someone needs the encouragement this post provides today! Two accounts from the Bible (found in 2 Kings 6:24 – 8:6) proclaim the great truth that nothing is to hard for the Lord – what we think is impossible, with Him is entirely possible! In the natural, we may say that something just cannot happen – but if God has promised it, He has a way to fulfill it!

The first account involves a siege of Samaria by Benhadad, king of Syria. Conditions were desperate, there was almost no food available in the city. Two starving women had actually plotted to eat their own children. Angry about the situation, king Jehoram, threatened to kill prophet Elisha.

Elisha prophesied something that seemed impossible! He said that the next day there would be an abundance of food. The Bible says, “Then the captain on whose hand the king leaned said to the man of God, ‘If the Lord Himself should make windows in heaven, could this thing be!?’ Elisha responded, “You shall see it with your own eyes, but you shall not eat of it!” (2 Kings 7:1-2)

The next day four lepers decided in desperation to approach the Syrian camp at the risk of their lives in hopes of perhaps finding mercy. To their surprise there was no one there – the entire army had fled – “The Lord had made the army of the Syrians hear the sound of chariots and of horses, the sound of a great army” and they fled away in fear leaving everything behind. The lepers took all they could, then realized the good news needed to be shared. When the people in the city discovered it was true they actually stampeded and trampled on one another to get to the abundance left behind! In the process the captain who had doubted the prophet’s words was trampled to death, thus fulfilling the prophet’s words.

The second account involves the Shunammite woman, whose son God had raised from the dead through Elisha’s ministry. Famine had come to the land. Elisha had urged her to leave Israel and “sojourn wherever you can.” She and her husband left everything behind and went to the land of the Philistines for seven years. Here is where the account gets exciting! The Bible says, “at the end of the seven years, when the woman returned from the land of the Philistines, she went to appeal to the king for her house and her land. Now the king was talking with Gehazi the servant of the man of God, saying, ‘Tell me all the great things that Elisha has done.’ And while he was telling the king how Elisha had restored the dead to life, behold, the woman whose son he had restored to life appealed to the king for her house and her land. And Gehazi said, ‘My lord, O king, here is the woman, and here is her son whom Elisha restored to life!” And when the king asked the woman, she told him. So the king appointed an official for her, saying, ‘Restore all that was hers, together with all the produce of the fields from the day that she left the land until now!’” (2 Kings 8:3–6 ESV)

Incredible! Can God keep his promises? He not only can, He will! Things may seem completely impossible … He has ways! Be encouraged!!

I was so impressed this morning in my Bible reading by the impact ordinary people (even children) can make for the Lord in significant and sensitive contexts!

Syria had invaded Israel and among its captives had been a little unnamed servant girl! She had been brought into the home of a powerful military leader, Naaman by name. This young girl served Naaman’s wife as a mere household slave… faithfully fulfilling all kinds of household duties.

Naaman was a military leader in Syria of great distinction – in the words of Scripture, “a great man…a mighty man of valor.” But he was facing a crisis of gigantic proportions… He had contracted leprosy. The dreaded disease threatened his marriage, his home life, his social life and his military future. I’m sure his wife was beside herself with worry. The king was equally concerned… he risked losing a key military leader.

In a moment of frustration and worry Naaman’s wife may have let her deep concern about the situation slip out in the presence of the little Israelite slave girl. What to do? How to help? The only things she knew to say was, “Would that my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy!”

God used that brief testimony for His glory! A pagan leader was exposed to the power of the living God and was healed! Read the entire story in 2 Kings 5:1-14.

Here’s the question that came to my mind: Is it possible that there are other individuals like the little servant girl that God may have strategically placed in important and sensitive places in our world? Places where you and I do not have access, but places where God has positioned an ordinary person (even a child) to be his agent to strategically touch a life… A 3^rd grader who speaks a word of encouragement and witness to a teacher whose marriage is unraveling… A high school soccer player who takes a stand for Jesus before a godless coach… a minimum wage employee who evidences integrity in a hell-hole of a work environment… A custodian who works in a government building and offers to pray with a legislator? Who knows whom God will use for His glory today… I want to be ready, don’t you?