Coffee With The Lord

In the news yesterday: ISIS has declared to Christians in Iraq… “Leave, convert to Islam, or die!”

This is deeply troubling and should constitute a call for Christians around the world to fervent prayer! This morning during “coffee with the Lord” I read this appeal from Apostle Paul…

“Pray for us, that the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored, as happened among you, and that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men. For not all have faith!” (2 Thessalonians 3:1-2 ESV)

Would you join me today in fervent prayer for believers in Iraq (and elsewhere in the world) who are the target of these kinds of threats and severe persecution?

In case you’ve doubted it or wondered… The covenant-love – the “steadfast love” – the love of God that is anchored in His very nature and character, has expressed itself here on earth: first of all in creation… then in what God did for His people in the Old Testament, it was epitomized at the Cross, and continues to be expressed today and into eternity! Nothing.. No one… No situation… No circumstance… can separate us from His love!!! I read about it today again in Psalm 136…

“…His steadfast love endures forever!

“…His steadfast love endures forever!

“…His steadfast love endures forever!

“…His steadfast love endures forever!

“…His steadfast love endures forever!

“…His steadfast love endures forever!

“…His steadfast love endures forever!

“…His steadfast love endures forever!

“…His steadfast love endures forever!

“…His steadfast love endures forever!

“…His steadfast love endures forever!

“…His steadfast love endures forever!

“…His steadfast love endures forever!

“…His steadfast love endures forever!

“…His steadfast love endures forever!

“…His steadfast love endures forever!

“…His steadfast love endures forever!

“…His steadfast love endures forever!

“…His steadfast love endures forever!

“…His steadfast love endures forever!

“…His steadfast love endures forever!

“…His steadfast love endures forever!

“…His steadfast love endures forever!

“…His steadfast love endures forever!

“…His steadfast love endures forever!

“…His steadfast love endures forever!

Get it?… 26 times in one psalm!! That’s why I’m ready to lay claim to Romans 8:37-39 as a foundational, unshakable, dependable, truth in the Bible…

“No! In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord!”

An interesting (and significant) feature of Biblical interpretation is to examine the relationship of passages that are adjacent to one another. Often that relationship is purposeful and clearly the Biblical writer, inspired by the Holy Spirit, had a purpose or agenda. Significant truths are often taught and significant insights gained.

There are many examples of this that could be cited. Today in my Bible reading I encounter one, that in the past I have overlooked (probably because it bridges a chapter boundary) …

I think all of us are impressed by a person we’d call “the real deal” – a person who expresses authenticity, consistency, character and integrity. They practice what they preach. Their Christianity is genuine! There is not a fiber of hypocrisy in their personhood!

So here’s what I read yesterday… “And in the hearing of all the people he said to his disciples, ‘Beware of [those] who like to walk around in long robes, and love greetings in the marketplaces and the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts, who devour widows’ houses and for a pretense make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.” (Luke 20:45–47 ESV)

I wrote this in the margin of my Bible yesterday… “Beware of these kinds of people! They are NOT ‘the real deal!’”

Then in the very next passage (at the beginning of the next chapter – an unfortunate chapter boundary marker, I must say) I read these words today… “Jesus looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the offering box, and he saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins. And he said, ‘Truly, I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.’” (Luke 21:1–4 ESV)

What a contrast! What a powerful truth! The ostentatious, the self-righteous, the proud, the attention seeking, the spiritual bigots are NOT ‘the real deal’! They are the hypocritical – they will be the condemned! On the other hand, the sincere, the simple believer, the humble, the generous, the consistently righteous (and often the unnoticed and overlooked), ARE ‘the real deal!”

Don’t know about you… but I want to be “the real deal!”