Coffee With The Lord

PEOPLE CAN AND WILL DISAPPOINT YOU – even those we call “friends” can fail us. Paul said, “At my first defense no one came to stand by me, but ALL DESERTED ME! May it not be charged against them.” He expected support, companionship, encouragement, and even testimony on his behalf … he stood alone, they all forsook him.

In one of his lowest moments – a time of extreme disappointment and loneliness… BUT THE LORD WAS FAITHFUL! He continued… “But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it.” Everything that people failed to provide the Lord supplied – where friends failed him, God fulfilled him!

BUT MORE… GOD RESCUED HIM!! “The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into His heavenly kingdom! To Him be the glory forever and ever. Amen!! (2 Timothy 4.16-18)

From feelings of abandonment to renewed confidence because of the faithfulness of God! Lord help me remember Paul’s testimony of your faithfulness in my lowest moments and depend on you to replicate Paul’s experience in Your own way in my circumstances!

Where enduring riches are to be found…

“The blessing of the Lord makes rich, and He adds no sorrow with it!” (Proverbs 10:22 ESV)

It is a terrible affront and injustice to knowingly misrepresent what another person has said! It is also a serious mistake to misrepresent someone innocently when it is your responsibility to represent what they have said accurately! That is especially true for those who preach, teach or share “God’s Word!”

With “tongue-in-cheek” I have told the Bible students I have taught over the years, “I don’t want God looking down when I preach, teach, or share His word and exclaiming, ‘I said THAT?!’”

This morning during my time of “Coffee with the Lord” I again read this sober challenge, charge and warning from Apostle Paul to young Timothy…

“I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: PREACH THE WORD! Be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you… FULFILL YOUR MINISTRY! (From 2 Timothy 4:1–5 ESV)

I’m just telling you… after reading that passage again today, I paused and committed myself, to be best of my ability (and the Holy Spirit’s assistance) TO NEVER MISREPRESENT WHAT GOD INTENDED TO COMMUNICATE THROUGH HIS WORD! I want to “Present myself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth!” (2 Timothy 2:15)