Coffee With The Lord

I have dear friends and family members who recently have received frightening news from their medical doctors – young or older – it doesn’t matter. The challenge has been, what to do – how to respond as a person who trusts God but also has a healthy respect for the medical profession?

Some panic… Some go into denial… Others despair… But what should a Christian do – a person with a healthy trust in the Lord? What should their default response be?

This morning during my time of “coffee with the Lord” I read a partial response to that circumstance… PRAY!!! Pray passionately! Pray believing! PRAY!!! (And if the frightening diagnosis has come to a friend or family member… PRAY!!!

Here is what King David said in similar circumstances…Psalm 30 ESV)

“O Lord my God, I cried to you for help, and you have healed me. O Lord, you have brought up my soul from Sheol (the grave); you restored me to life from among those who go down to the pit!

“Sing praises to the Lord, O you his saints, and give thanks to his holy name! … Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning.

“To you, O Lord, I cry, and to the Lord I plead for mercy! What profit is there in my death, if I go down to the pit (the grave)? Will the dust praise you? Will it tell of your faithfulness? Hear, O Lord, and be merciful to me! O Lord, be my helper!

“You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; you have loosed my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness… O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you forever!”

So here’s the deal… If I get bad news from the doctor… I’m going to listen to the doctor’s diagnosis and advice (I’m grateful for those in the “helping community” after all)! But I’m also going to PRAY – PRAY FERVENTLY – and trust God to help and heal… He can (and does) you know!

When I served as a pastor I was always on the “lookout” in the Bible for a good “call to worship” that I could use at the beginning of a “worship service.”  I loved to use a capable, expressive, interpretive reader in the congregation give voice to it, leading the congregation to look up and look upon the splendor, majesty, grace and goodness of God and engage their hearts in worship.

This morning during my time of “Coffee with the Lord” I came across a “call to worship” I believe I would have used – It’s adapted from Psalm 28…

Here it is: 

“To You, O Lord, I call; my Rock, be not deaf to me!  Hear the voice of my pleas for mercy, when I cry to You for help, when I lift up my hands toward your most holy sanctuary! …

“Blesse be the Lord!  For He has heard the voice of my pleas for mercy!  The Lord is my strength and my shield; in Him my heart trusts, and I am helped!  My heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to Him!

“Oh, save Your people and bless Your heritage!  Be their shepherd and carry them forever!”

Hey, that’s a good one!  My hope is that one the pastors who reads this “Coffee with the Lord” post today might adopt and use this “call to worship” tomorrow in their Sunday “worship service.”  For me?  It doesn’t matter! … I’ll use it as my “personal call to worship” today!!!

As a young man preparing for the ministry, I believe I was led by the Holy Spirit to a very important life-verse… 1 Corinthians 9:27 (I read it again today during my time of “coffee with the Lord”). It has served me well over the years and has assumed a pivotal role in my life. In fact, after I realized the importance of staying in shape and working out daily in order to function at a maximum personal level, the surrounding verses near my life-verse became even more special to me. This is not to say, I’ve never had a failure or stumbled from the principle and truth my life-verse expresses, but regardless of those failures it has continued to be a central, guiding principle in my life. It expresses my life-quest and desire in service for the Lord.

Here is the passage with my life-verse included in all caps…

“Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it! Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So Ido not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I DISCIPLINE MY BODY AND KEEP IT UNDER CONTROL, LEST AFTER PREACHING TO OTHERS I MYSELF SHOULD BE DISQUALIFIED!” (1 Corinthians 9:24–27 ESV)

I think we’ve all seen it at some time or other… A person with great promise in public life disgraced by a moral or ethical lapse or pattern of living. A young talented entertainer self-destruct through an undisciplined lifestyle. An athlete shooting for a world record or championship season disqualified for violating the rules. A high profile pastor disgraced and disqualified for ministry because of a tragic “moral failure.”

I don’t want to be that kind of person! With God’s help I want to listen to the warning of Apostle Paul in this passage and exercise Spiritual self-discipline… Hey, a “fruit of the Spirit” is … “self-discipline” (Galatians 5:22- 23). And if you’ve fallen, acknowledge it, ask God and others to forgive you, establish some accountability, and allow God’s grace to restore you and enable you to rebuild what sin has destroyed. It can happen!!