Coffee With The Lord

I admire a person with a sense of mission, purpose, calling and destiny! Don’t you? Their life is not wasted on “fooling around!” Every day matters! Everything is pointed toward a significant destiny!

This morning during my time of “Coffee with the Lord” I read of the declared mission of Jesus Christ early in His ministry… It goes like this in your Bible – Luke 4:16-21

“And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as was His custom, He went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and He stood up to read. And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to Him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written: ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.’ And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, “TODAY THIS SCRIPTURE HAS BEEN FULFILLED IN YOUR HEARING!”

Jesus applied the inspired prophetic message of Isaiah 61:1-3 to Himself! He saw Himself as the Divinely appointed fulfillment of its words! It was His mission… His purpose… His calling and destiny! He spent the remainder of His life fulfilling those words – every day – every hour of every day! It was who He was!

So at the beginning of His ministry He declared, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing!'” And at the end of His ministry on earth He declared, “IT IS FINISHED!” (John 19:30) WOW! What a powerful moment in human history, His unveiling as Messiah – but more than that, what an incredible mission!!!

I acknowledge the mission of Jesus Christ was unique! But we have the high and holy privilege of sharing in it! At the close of His life Jesus did this… “Jesus spoke to His disciples again, ‘Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you!’ Then He breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit!” (John 20:21-22). Hear me, I’m so honored to share in His redemptive mission! And I’m incredibly grateful for the Holy Spirit’s power He provides to fulfill it!

I guess I am just a visual guy… I read Psalm 18 this morning and a graphic scene came to mind… A victim struggling in swirling, violent, treacherous waters of a terrible storm at sea… All hope seems gone! Death seems certain! Desperate cries of despair can be barely heard above the howling, fiendish 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 an evening news weather feature or an epic movie…

Here’s the deal… scenes like that – and language like that are found in your Bible! In fact, it is used to describe how the Living God rescues us when we are in deep distress!! Psalm 18 describes it (you should read it for yourself… 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)

I appreciate and identify with the scene, believe me! … It describes how I felt when the Lord rescued me from the deadly consequences of my sin! It also vividly captures other situations and times of distress when the Lord has “come through” for me. I’ve heard some of your rescue stories as well… Just take it from me, the Lord is in the “rescue” business! He can do it! … And has!!! Do I hear someone’s cry?