Coffee With The Lord

“Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall – Humpty Dumpty had a great fall!  All the kings horses and all the kings men could not put Humpty Dumpty together again!”  I believe it can be successfully argued there is a developing leadership vacuum in our nation and world.  One group argues passionately that the Dems have the person with the answers to our dilemma… The Republicans argue for their candidates… And the independents run the entire gambit of solutions and prospects.  Progressives and liberals curse and castigate the conservatives – conservatives sound almost apocalyptic about progressives and liberals.  Who can bring the solutions we need to the mess we are in… both nationally and internationally?

And the tragedy of it all?  The Bible predicts the situation will only get worse until at the end of time there will be someone who steps into the leadership vacuum and gets almost universal acclaim, acceptance and approval… The Bible calls him “the man of sin” or the “antichrist” (lower case letters are deliberate – a personal comment of mine upon that persons character!).

But today during my Bible reading during “Coffee with the Lord” I read of another person – A Divine Person – who will step into history at the end of time…

God speaks and says, “Behold my Servant, whom I uphold, my Chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon Him!  He will bring forth justice to the nations!  He will not cry aloud or lift up His voice, or make it heard in the street!  A bruised reed He will not break, and a faintly burning wick he will not quench!  He will faithfully bring forth justice.  He will not grow faint or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth!”  (From Isaiah 42:1-4)

That’s the Supreme leader I’m waiting for!  That’s the One Who has the solutions our world ultimately needs!  Every other leader until then needs our prayers!  Every other human leader will stand before Him one day in accountability and judgment!  Then, as the book of Revelation in the Bible predicts, “The kingdoms of the world will become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!” (Revelation 11:15)  That’s the leader I’ve set my hope upon – He’s the One I’m looking to for the future of our planet… And He’s the One in Whose Kingdom I’m living right now, and the Kingdom whose values I embrace in the present leadership crisis that our world is experiencing right now!

I was a farm kid… So much of what the Bible talks about within an agrarian context, I understand.  I’ve plowed fields, prepared the soil, planted seed, watched the young plants sprout and come up, waited for the rain, the sunshine, the development of the grain and rejoiced (or groaned with my dad) over the harvest!

So this morning when once again I read the great parable [or short scent ‘snippet’ with a spiritual lesson] of the sower, the seed, and the soils it was vivid to me… and I believe I got it!  The cultures are different, the farming methods a bit different (they sowed the seed and then tilled it in) and the fields tended to be smaller (food first for the family and then some for sale) – no tractors or other mechanized equipment like we used on our farm.  But I believe I still got the truth that Jesus was trying to communicate!

The passage?  Matthew 13:1-23 (especially 1-9 and 18-23)

After reading it again this morning during “Coffee with the Lord” here was my response and prayer…

Oh Lord, when the seed – the “word of the kingdom” – is sown, may more of it fall upon good soil – not hard hearts!  And may that precious seed, with life-transforming potential, be protected from being snatched away quickly by the devices of the “evil one!”

And, Oh Lord, I pray for those who hear the “word of the kingdom” and immediately receive it and embrace it with joy but haven’t counted the cost!  May it take root in them sufficient to withstand temptation, tribulation and persecution when it comes!  (And it will come!)

Then there are those… I’ve watched them – I know who some of them are – who received the “word of the kingdom”… It sprouted in their lives, it began to grow, the future looked good in their Spiritual, “Kingdom journey,” it seemed they would be fruitful… Then things pressed in, distractions came, the cares of life developed – even prosperity and materialism crowded in and they became more “sons and daughters of this world” than “children of the Kingdom!”  And the result?  In “kingdom of heaven” terms, they were “unfruitful!”

Oh, and finally, “what was sown on good soil” … That’s where I want to be!  One who “hears the ‘word of the kingdom’ and understands it, bears fruit and yields a hundredfold, sixty-fold, and even thirty-fold!”  In fact, in response to the words of Jesus in the parable, “He who has ears, let him hear!” I jotted this in the margin of my Bible today… “Oh Lord, I want eyes to see, ears that hear, a mind and heart that grasps ‘the word of the kingdom’ and responds wholeheartedly!  I want to be a life that produces the fruit you’re looking for… in abundance!”

Every day we face decisions… some of them seem big, others seem trivial.  As Christians, on some of those decisions we feel the acute need to seek God’s guidance.  On others, we are all too willing to just “wing it” – doing what seems to be expedient and right to us at the moment.  And the sad fact is, that’s when we often get ourselves, as they say, “in a pickle!”

Don’t get me wrong, I’m the first to acknowledge that God expects us to use our heads!  He did not give us brains as an unnecessary cranial accessory.  He, however, expects our minds to be informed by Scriptural principles and to be renewed by His redemptive work and the power of the Holy Spirit.  After all, the writer of Proverbs urged us to, “Trust in the Lord with all our heart, lean not on our own understanding, in all our ways to acknowledge Him and He would direct our steps.” (Proverbs 3:5-6)  Notice he did not say “don’t USE your understanding” – he simply said “don’t LEAN on it.”  In other words we should submit our decision making to Biblical principles and God’s direction and sovereignty.

This morning I read a passage where an otherwise great king of Judah failed on two counts.  The King of Babylon sent important officials to Hezekiah with a flattering letter and gifts after his recovery from a severe illness.  It appealed to Hezekiah’s ego and it disarmed him.  Flattered, in a moment of pride, “he showed them all his treasure house, the silver, the gold, the spices, the precious oils, his armory, and all that was in his storehouses.”

The Lord revealed this serious error in judgment to Isaiah, who confronted Hezekiah.  Isaiah confronted Hezekiah and predicted that this bad decision would result ultimately in the destruction of Jerusalem, the temple, and the exile!  (Read Isaiah 39)

After reading this passage this morning I jotted a note to myself in the margin of my Bible.  Here it is:  “Don’t become inappropriately self-reliant!  Don’t “hunch it” on important decisions!  Seek the Lord’s guidance in all things and the counsel of trusted men or women of God!

Here’s an important verse of Scripture in that regard for us all:  “If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you! He will not rebuke you for asking.” (James 1:5 NLT)  He does not say precisely how the wisdom and guidance will come.  It may come through Biblically informed reasoning, the Godly counsel of wise friends, or in answer to sincere prayer… but It will come!  God protect us from simply “winging it” on our own.