Coffee With The Lord

“But you [spoken to largely gentile Christians] are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” (from 1 Peter 2:9–10 ESV)

Do you believe in the power of collective prayer – when a group of Christians gather together, focus on a need and pray fervently for God to act or meet it?

I do! And I read a story this morning in the Bible during my time of “Coffee with the Lord” that powerfully illustrates it! It’s found in Acts 12.1-19. So here is my challenge for you today… Get a Bible, put on your “imagination” (so you can visualize what you’re reading – Hey, this story is filled with drama!), enter into the story and SEE IF IT DOESN’T ENCOURAGE YOUR FAITH TO PRAY!

Then I urge you to get a group of Christians together, identify a need, focus in faith and PRAY!! Then see what God will do!! BE EXPECTANT… GOD CAN WOW YOU!! (And even if you’re faith falters He can even SURPRISE you!) Go ahead… read the story! … and DO IT!

As a side note: I’d just LOVE to see a group of capable actors turn this story into a dramatic presentation!! It would make a POWERFUL sermon on the power of prayer preached through the vehicle of drama!! Com’on someone, DO IT!! (And send me a copy of the video!)

Little babies don’t need “junk food” – try to feed ‘em that stuff and it could kill them! The best thing for a brand-new infant is “Mamma’s milk” – and it’s natural for a baby to “crave it!” They have an appetite for it (and believe me, a healthy baby will let you know when they need it and want it!) Something is desperately wrong when they don’t have an appetite for it!

That reality came to mind as I read the following verses this morning (and it was reinforced by an experienced mother – my wife – who during her devotions read these verses to me from the New Living Translation of the Bible)…

“Get rid of all evil behavior. Be done with all deceit, hypocrisy, jealousy, and all unkind speech [that’s the “junk”]. Instead LIKE NEWBORN BABIES, CRAVE THE PURE SPIRITUAL MILK so that you will grow into a full experience of salvation! CRY OUT FOR THIS NOURISHMENT, now that you have had a taste of the Lord’s kindness!” (1 Peter 2:1–3 NLT)

Now the context of those verses makes it clear that the “spiritual milk” Apostle Peter, the human writer of those verses was referring to is God’s word (check out verses 23-25)

In fact, several years ago I was sitting in a conference where Dr. Thom S. Rainer, a foremost Christian researcher and statistician, was the featured guest… I heard him make this statement: “Research shows, If you could get a brand new ‘baby Christian’ to do just one thing above everything else to help them grow strong in their faith it would be this – get them to read their Bible systematically and regularly!”

Listen, brand new “baby Christian” or not – NEVER… YES, NEVER lose your appetite for God’s Word! And as we’re facing the end of 2022 and the beginning of 2023, NOW is the time to cultivate your “Spiritual appetite” and develop the habit of daily Bible reading!

If you have an interest in doing that, contact me – I have developed a Bible reading plan, I CALL IT “NECESSARY FOOD” AND WILL SEND A PDF OF IT TO YOU FREE OF CHARGE. Just e-mail me at this address (leroybartel@gmail.com) and I’ll send it to you. Using it you read a passage from each of the five major divisions of Scripture daily (your spiritual MDR – “minimum daily requirements”) and finish the Bible in a year.