Coffee With The Lord

I had just finished watching the evening news last night… my feelings?  Frustration, concern… almost despair!  What is our world – what is our nation – coming to?  It seems leadership doesn’t have a clue!  We flounder trying to figure out the best way to go!  We try to solve problems on our own.  The Bible is ignored, its values rejected, what it teaches abandoned.  Acrimony and accusation fill the airwaves!   Where are we headed?  The future is more than uncertain – it is frightening!  Headed for bed fuming and frustrated!

But this morning I got up, got a cup of coffee, took my Bible, and had a wonderful time of “coffee with the Lord!”  Part of my Bible reading today was Isaiah 60 … it was just what I needed!  It speaks of a wonderful future day that God will bring about for His people!  There is hope!  There is a blessed future ahead!  God Himself guarantees it!

Here is a condensed version of that chapter… Enjoy!  Take heart!  Allow hope to captivate your heart!

“Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you!  For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you.  And nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising!  

“…In my wrath I struck you, but in my favor I have had mercy on you.  …I will make the place of my feet glorious.  …They shall call you the City of the Lord, the Zion of the Holy One of Israel.  Whereas you have been forsaken and hated, with no one passing through, I will make you majestic forever, a joy from age to age.  …You shall know that I, the Lord, am your Savior and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.

“I will make your overseers peace and your taskmasters righteousness.  Violence shall no more be heard in your land, devastation or destruction within your borders; you shall call your walls Salvation, and your gates Praise.

“The sun shall be no more your light by day, nor for brightness shall the moon give you light; but the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory.  Your sun shall no more go down, nor your moon withdraw itself; for the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your days of mourning shall be ended.  Your people shall all be righteous; they shall possess the land forever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I might be glorified… 

“I AM THE LORD; IN ITS TIME I WILL HASTEN IT!” (From Isaiah 60 ESV)

If that doesn’t bring you hope – If that doesn’t encourage your heart – If that doesn’t change your perspective about the future… You probably need to read the passage again… slowly, and pause, reading that last phrase as if God were speaking it directly to your heart!

Avid readers love their books…  If asked, in a moment they can give you the short list of their favorites.

Well, at the top of my short list is the Bible!  No, more than that… the Bible for me is a book of a completely different kind! … It may have human writers, but behind it all is the “inspiration” of the Living God!  He is its ultimate source – prompting, guiding and superintending the entire writing process so that what we have in Scripture (another word for the Bible) is the infallible, authoritative, completely reliable Word of God!

Over my years as a prof, teaching a course called… (you guessed it…) “Bible Study,” I’ve urged each group of students to write these words in the flyleaf of every Bible they owned:  “This Book is my all-sufficient guide for faith [my relationship with God] and daily living!”

I’ve got a short list of favorites of other stuff I read… But the Bible?  There’s no other piece of literature like it! … It’s GOD’S WORD!!

How do I feel about the Bible?… In my Bible reading this morning during “Coffee with the Lord” I read Psalm 19 and a portion of it “took the words right out of my mouth!” about how I feel about the Bible! … In fact, I’d like to post those words today, not simply as David, the psalmist’s, words… but as MY personal tribute to The Bible…

“The law of the Lord is perfect and preserves one’s life! The rules set down by the Lord are reliable and impart wisdom to the inexperienced!  The Lord’s precepts are fair and make one joyful! The Lord’s commands are pure and give insight for life!  The commands to fear the Lord are right and endure forever! The judgments given by the Lord are trustworthy and absolutely just!  They are of greater value than gold, than even a great amount of pure gold; they bring greater delight than honey, than even the sweetest honey from a honeycomb!  Yes, your servant finds moral guidance there and those who obey them receive a rich reward! (From Psalm 19:7-11 NET)

Gotta tell you, I don’t just like the Bible… I LOVE the Bible!!!

Rescue!!  I guess I am just a visual guy… I’ve been reading Psalm 18 the past several days and a graphic picture has come to mind… A victim struggling in swirling, violent, treacherous waters of a storm… Hope is gone!  Death seems certain!  Plaintive cries of despair barely heard above the howling wind and roaring waves!!  In sweeps a huge, powerful, apocalyptic-Divine rescuer who reaches down and snatches the victim from the terrifying waters and flies away to a place of peace and safety!!!  Kind of a combination of scenes from “Lord of the Rings” and “Narnia” movies…

My daughter, Shari Dresselhaus, knows a little bit about that… What started out as a personal victory in the Mission Trails Regional Park near San Diego, climbing the North Fortuna Peak, turned into an emergency and the need of a terrifying air rescue almost 2 years ago! (See the pics)

Here’s the deal… scenes like that – language like that is found in your Bible!  In fact, it is used to describe how the Living God recues us when we are in deep distress!!  Psalm 18 describes it (you should read it for yourself this morning… I did!)  How encouraging!  I can only give you a taste of it here…

“I called to the Lord, who is worthy of praise and I have been saved from my enemies! … In my distress I called to the Lord!  I cried to my God for help!  From His temple he heard my voice; my cry came before Him, into His ears! … He parted the heavens and came down … He reached down from on high and took hold of me!  He drew me out of the deep waters!  He rescued me from my powerful enemy – from my foes, who were too strong for me.  He brought me out into a spacious place!  He rescued me because he delighted in me!” (from Psalm 18.1-19 NIV)

He can and does that for those who “cry out to Him!”  Don’t know what you’re going through right now – how desperate, discouraging, demanding and frightening it is – but here’s one voice urging you to “cry out to the Lord for help!”  He can help you – He can deliver you – He can rescue you!!!