Coffee With The Lord

 I remember as a small child learning to float in the lake near our home.  My swimming instructor urged me to “just lay back in the water!”  She said, “LeRoy, don’t be afraid, it will hold you, you’re not going to drown, you won’t sink!  Just relax and do it!”  As a small child, I was so afraid!  This was a totally new thing!  I had never done anything like this before!  But she had – she said she had done it and it worked!

I know this is a simple illustration but it helps me understand my fear of death.  I need someone who has heard from God – someone who has experienced it (like Jesus) – to reassure me about what happens after I close my eyes in death.  Dying will be a totally new experience for all of us – it’s something we’ve just never done before!  The apostle Paul had heard directly from the risen Lord on this issue!!  Like my swimming instructor he encourages us…

^“For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down (that is, when we die and leave this earthly body), we will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands… For we will put on heavenly bodies; we will not be spirits without bodies. While we live in these earthly bodies, we groan and sigh, but it’s not that we want to die and get rid of these bodies that clothe us. Rather, we want to put on our new bodies so that these dying bodies will be swallowed up by life. God himself has prepared us for this, and as a guarantee he has given us his Holy Spirit!  So we are always confident, even though we know that as long as we live in these bodies we are not at home with the Lord. For we live by believing and not by seeing. Yes, we are fully confident, and we would rather be away from these earthly bodies, for then we will be at home with the Lord. So whether we are here in this body or away from this body, our goal is to please him. (2 Corinthians 5:1-9 NLT)

 So, I guess I’m a little like I was as a child learning to float on my back in the lake when it comes to dying… I’ve just never faced anything like that before!  I’ve got to trust the reliable testimony and assurance that God’s word provides… And I will!!  When the day comes that I close my eyes in death, as a Christian I believe I will be with the Lord, and at the resurrection be given a completely new body and experience all that “eternal life” means in the fullest sense!  Listen, Jesus, my Lord and Savior has been this way before – He conquered death and rose again!!  “Because He lives, I will live also!” (See John 14:19) 

I’ve gotta say… It’s just an incredibly beautiful spring day in North Texas!!!

And wouldn’t you know this was part of my Bible reading this morning during my time of “coffee with the Lord!”  (I gave it this title in the margin of my Bible… “A SONG OF SPRINGTIME!”)

^“By awesome deeds you answer us with righteousness, O God of our salvation, the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas; the One who by his strength established the mountains, being girded with might! ^… Those who dwell at the ends of the earth are in awe at your signs!

“You make the going out of the morning and the evening to shout for joy!  You visit the earth and water it; you greatly enrich it; the river of God is full of water; you provide their grain, for so you have prepared it.  You water its furrows abundantly, settling its ridges, softening it with showers, and blessing its growth.  You crown the year with your bounty!  Your wagon tracks overflow with abundance!  The pastures of the wilderness overflow!  The hills gird themselves with joy!  The meadows clothe themselves with flocks!  The valleys deck themselves with grain, they shout and sing together for joy!” (From Psalm 65:5–13 ESV)

I hope “Spring has sprung” where you are living… If it hasn’t, give God time – it will!  In the meantime enjoy the pic from North Texas and “A Song of Springtime” from the Bible! … And WORSHIP!!!

Sometimes Christians act like little children – “tattle tales” on a playground – they run to their teacher and say… that group or person over there (as they point emphatically with their “spiritual” finger) don’t believe exactly like we do, they don’t play by the same “spiritual” rules, they’re not doing the Lord’s work just like we do it! Someone needs to stop them!! They’ll ruin everything!!”

How do you think the Lord responds when we act like that?

Good question! Do you think He says, “Thank you for that important information! You’re exactly right! I’m going to go over and put a stop to what they’re doing right now ‘in my Name’ and on my behalf!! Or does He respond with a rebuke to the “Tattletale” – just like a good parent or teacher sometimes does on the playground?

Well, fortunately we’re not left in doubt… There is a situation just like that described in the Bible…

“John spoke up, ‘Teacher, we saw a man using your name to expel demons and we stopped him because he wasn’t in our group!’ Jesus wasn’t pleased. He said ‘Don’t stop him! No one can use my name to do something good and powerful, and in the next breath cut me down. If he’s not our enemy, he’s an ally. Why, anyone by just giving someone a cup of water in my name is on our side! Count on it – God will notice!’ On the other hand, if you give one of these simple, childlike believers a hard time, bullying or taking advantage of their simple trust, you’ll soon wish you hadn’t! You’d be better off dropped in the middle of the lake with a millstone around your neck!” (Paraphrase of Mark 9:38-42 from The Message)

I just gotta say, I don’t want to behave like a spiritual “tattletale!” Somehow I don’t think the Lord has changed his attitude about it. I admit, there are some things that really matter – like the truth of “the Gospel” or the clear teaching of Scripture on a subject! But simply complaining that a fellow Christian isn’t in “our group” or differences in “ministry style” or making a big deal about minor differences of opinion in doctrine, won’t win the approval of the Lord.

The point? Don’t be a “Spiritual tattletale!” It won’t work with the Lord!