Coffee With The Lord

Was out a few days ago in Hungry Horse, Montana taking a walk with my wife, Sharon and passed this “flower garden.” I placed quotation marks around the term “flower garden” because this little plot of “flowers” is a prime illustration of another term…. “Hypocrisy”!

As Sharon and I walked past it the first time the flowers looked vibrant, alive and flourishing. About half-way past it Sharon remarked, “Those are artificial flowers!” She was right… they are “fake”! The only thing alive in that flower garden is the weeds!

How like some professing Christians! They go to church fairly often (some even every week). They know the “lingo,” they know the liturgy, they know the songs, when to stand up-sit down-and raise your hands, ” they can pray with a quiver in their voice, they have all the religious expectations down pat… but they don’t know the Lord and aren’t living for Him! What they do in private, what they do in business, what they do in the privacy of them home – what they do Monday through Saturday is a contradiction to what they do on Sunday! If the truth were known, the only thing alive in their lives is the “weeds” … If you get to know them close up they’re a big disappointment… a “hypocrite!”

Don’t want to be like that! Help me Lord to be the genuine, authentic article – a growing, fruitful Christian!

Devoted Christ-followers are challenged, not to conform to the broader culture, but to live transformed lives within the broader culture – to be “counter cultural”! Tragically – sadly – all too often we do not do a very good job of that.
This is especially true with regard to sexual behavior and practical Christian living. I tremble at the degree to which professing Christians are allowing themselves to be intimated by sexual mores of the broader culture and allowing the broader culture to set the agenda for what is considered acceptable behavior or a natural sexual orientation.
The apostolic witness is very different from that… Apostle Paul’s letter to new Christians in Thessalonica is an example…
“Finally, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God… that you do so more and more. For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles (i.e. the broader culture) who do not know God; that no one transgress and wrong his brother (or sister) in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you. For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you!
“Now concerning brotherly love you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another. For that indeed is what you are doing… But we urge you to do this more and more, and to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs (i.e. business), and to work with your hands, as we instructed you, so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one.” (1 Thessalonians 4:1–12 ESV)
There it is… the will of God not only for first century Christians, but for Christians today! Sexual purity, Christ-like love, and practical Christian living. Not conformed to the broader culture – but Holy Spirit empowered counter cultural living! Not conformed – but transformed. Here’s how Apostle Paul put it in another well-known passage: “I appeal to you brothers (and sisters), by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” (Romans 12.1-2)

Some blessings in the Bible are so incredible you find yourself wondering, “is this really legit? Is it too good to be true? Can I depend on it? Will this really come true?”

Well I read a blessing like that this morning! I’ll tell you what I decided… I’m going to claim it (and seek to live daily in such a way that it comes to pass in my life)!

Here’s the incredible promised blessing….

Psalm 128 (ESV)

“Blessed is everyone who fears the LORD, who walks in his ways! You will eat the fruit of the labor of your hands; you shall be blessed, and it shall be well with you! Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house; your children will be like olive shoots around your table. Behold, thus shall the man be blessed who fears the LORD! The LORD bless you from Zion! May you see the prosperity of Jerusalem all the days of your life! May you see your children’s children! Peace be upon Israel!”

I mean look at it… contemplate it… Your efforts blessed! Your business blessed! Personal well-being! Your family blessed! Your city, your country, your church blessed (all implied by the terms “Zion” and “Jerusalem”)! Even your grandchildren (and great-grandchildren) blessed! How long? “All the days of your life!” Oh, and the final blessing? … “Peace! – Shalom!”

Wow!! Incredible!! And the kind of life that brings blessing like that? “Blessed is EVERYONE who FEARS (or reverences) THE LORD (stated twice in the passage)! This does not imply a pathological dread or unhealthy trepidation of a despotic, angry deity – it is rather an appropriate honor, reverence or respect for a loving Heavenly Father!

The key question is, how do I regard God? What practical difference does it make in my daily lifestyle and worship? Jesus taught us the appropriate spiritual posture when He told His disciples to pray like this… “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name! Your kingdom come! Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven!” I don’t just want to pray that way – I want to LIVE that way! That’s the way of incredible blessing!