Coffee With The Lord

An interesting (and significant) feature of quality Biblical interpretation is to always examine the relationship of passages that are adjacent to one another (context matters!).  Often that relationship is purposeful and clearly the Biblical writer, inspired by the Holy Spirit, had a purpose or agenda.  Significant truths are taught and significant insights gained from context!

There are many examples of this that could be cited.  Today in my Bible reading I encountered one, that in the past I have overlooked (probably because it bridges a chapter boundary) …

I think all of us are impressed by a person we’d call “the real deal” – a person who expresses authenticity, consistency, character and integrity.  They practice what they preach.  Their Christianity is genuine!  There is not a fiber of hypocrisy in their personhood!

So, here’s what I read today… “And in the hearing of all the people He said to his disciples,  ‘Beware of [those] who like to walk around in long robes, and love greetings in the marketplaces and the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts, who devour widows’ houses and for a pretense make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.” (Luke 20:45–47 ESV)

I wrote this in the margin of my Bible… “Beware of these kinds of people!  They are NOT ‘the real deal!’”

Then in the very next passage (at the beginning of the next chapter – an unfortunate chapter boundary marker, I must say) I noticed these words… “Jesus looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the offering box, and he saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins. And he said, ‘Truly, I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them.  For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.’” (Luke 21:1–4 ESV)

What a contrast!  What a powerful truth!  The ostentatious, the self-righteous, the proud, the attention seeking, the spiritual bigots are NOT ‘the real deal’!  They are the hypocritical – they will be the condemned!  On the other hand, the sincere, the simple believer, the humble, the generous, the consistently righteous (and often the unnoticed and overlooked), ARE ‘the real deal!”

Don’t know about you… but I WANT TO BE “THE REAL DEAL!” 

“Just a sip” from my “Coffee with the Lord” Bible reading today…

To good, godly people… “We always give thanks to God for you because your faith is growing abundantly and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing!  We boast about you for your steadfastness and faith in all your persecutions and afflictions you are enduring.” (From  2 Thessalonians 1:3-4 ESV)

I read a passage this morning during my time of “coffee with the Lord” that’s a pretty tall order…

1 Thessalonians 5:23–24 (NIV)

“May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Wow!!  “Sanctified through-and-through!!  Holy!  Completely set apart to the Lord, His will, His purposes, His cause!!  Spirit, soul, and body – inside and out – every attitude, inclination, molecule and atom, blameless and without fault when the Lord returns!!  Can you imagine!  How is that possible?!  Well Paul, the apostle put it this way…

Then this statement:  “The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it!”  What a relief eh?  It will be God’s provision, initiative, activity and power at work in our lives that makes it possible!

But there’s our part as well.  And I can tell you that’s when I began to have serious reservations… I know my weakness, I’m aware of the power of temptation, I’m all to aware of the times I’ve fallen short!!  I was praying about that this morning when the words of this old gospel song came to mind.  From my experience and perspective it helps provide an answer to “my side of it”…

1.  Dying with Jesus, by death reckoned mine;
   Living with Jesus, a new life divine;
   Looking to Jesus till glory doth shine,
   Moment by moment, O Lord, I am Thine.

Refrain:
Moment by moment I’m kept in His love;
Moment by moment I’ve life from above;
Looking to Jesus till glory doth shine;
Moment by moment, O Lord, I am Thine.

2. Never a trial that He is not there,
   Never a burden that He doth not bear,
   Never a sorrow that He doth not share,
   Moment by moment, I’m under His care.

3. Never a heartache, and never a groan,
   Never a teardrop, and never a moan;
   Never a danger but there on the throne,
   Moment by moment He thinks of His own.

4. Never a weakness that He doth not feel,
   Never a sickness that He cannot heal;
   Moment by moment, in woe or in weal,
   Jesus my Savior abides with me still.

Daniel W. Whittle – 1893

Give this wonderful old hymn a listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7b0cf_kM8c