Coffee With The Lord

HEY, THERE’S VALUE IN BEING A “NICE PERSON” AS A CHRISTIAN!  It enhances the power and potency of your testimony!  It’s the kind of life the Lord can bless!

In my Bible reading this morning during my time of “coffee with the Lord” I was reminded of that fact.  Apostle Peter had just dealt with the responsibilities and behavior of Christians as citizens (1 Peter 2:13-17)… Then he spoke to “servants” about their work ethic (1 Peter 2:18-21 – and what he says applies to employees as well!)… Then the responsibility of wives and husbands within the context of marriage and the home is addressed (2 Peter 3:1-7).  But he ends it all up by saying…

“FINALLY, ALL OF YOU, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind.  Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing.”  (1 Peter 3:8–9 ESV)

Christians are called upon to be exceptionally, consistently, kind, gracious, NICE people!  Wouldn’t it be wonderful if it were always that way?  Wouldn’t the cause of Christ be furthered?  Wouldn’t the “Gospel” have maximized impact?  I gotta tell you I want to be that kind of Christian!  Don’t you?  I know, it will take the grace of God and the fruit of the Holy Spirit working in my life to pull it off… But isn’t that Who is working in our lives?  Hey, we can do this! 

I know… It’s the day AFTER Thanksgiving… They call it “BLACK FRIDAY!”  Sounds dark, pessimistic, and negative doesn’t it… And our culture’s answer? … Just go shopping!

LISTEN, IF YOUR PERSPECTIVE IS ONLY “THIS SIDE OF HEAVEN” – WHAT GOES ON “UNDER THE SUN” – IT’S EASY TO GET CAUGHT UP IN THE FUTILITY AND NEGATIVISM OF EVERYTHING!  I’m reading Ecclesiastes in the Bible right now and that is the perspective – trying to figure things out, seeking wisdom, “this side of heaven” – “under the sun.”  If you do that, it’s inevitable… Your perspective will be skewed and distorted – YOU’LL MISS THE DIVINE PERSPECTIVE – the perspective with God taken into account!

I think that’s what happened to the writer of Ecclesiastes!  If you try to figure things out on your own without God’s perspective, you’ll just see the ultimate futility of everything.  Here’s what I read today in Ecclesiastes…

“So I hated life, because what is done under the sun was grievous to me, for all is vanity and striving after the wind.  I hated all my toil in which I toil under the sun, seeing that I must leave it to the one who will come after me, and who knows whether he will be wise or a fool?  Yet he will be master of all for which I toiled and used my wisdom under the sun!  This also is vanity!  So I turned about and gave me heart up to despair over all the toil of my labors under the sun, because sometimes a person who has toiled with wisdom and knowledge and skill must leave everything to be enjoyed by someone who did not toil for it.  This also is vanity and a great evil!”  (From  Ecclesiastes 2:17-21)

“Happy Holidays everyone!”  You sit down and try to figure it all out on your own and you might end up with the same morbid conclusion!

But here’s God’s perspective…

“God is not so unjust as to overlook your work and the love you showed for His sake” (Hebrews 6:10)

“Be steadfast, immovable, always a bounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain!” (1 Corinthians 15:58)

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.”  (Matthew 6:19-20)

“And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the father through Him.” (Colossians 3:17)

And that’s just a few that give God’s perspective – the divine perspective!  I want to see life from that perspective!  Don’t you?

I made a bad error in judgment this Thanksgiving Day morning…  I quickly checked the morning news on my cell phone before I opened my Bible for “Coffee with the Lord!”  Suddenly I was exposed to political polarity, criticism, accusations and negativity (the positive and uplifting was sprinkled in, but it was rare!)… I quickly laid the cell phone down and grabbed my Bible…

And as part of my reading today… “an attitude check” – I admit it hurt a bit, but it was a necessary corrective to my own attitudes about leadership, government, failures, injustice and just a “complaining attitude” about “the way things are!”

See if this passage isn’t what you needed to hear on this Thanksgiving Day as we near the end of a painful, frustrating, and sometimes disgusting year… (It’s a bit long, but believe me, worth the read!)…

“Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be [duly elected or appointed human leaders – my paraphrase]. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people.  LIVE AS PEOPLE WHO ARE FREE, NOT USING YOUR FREEDOM AS A COVER-UP FOR EVIL, BUT LIVING AS SERVANTS OF GOD.  Honor everyone! Love the brotherhood! Fear [reverence] God! Honor the emperor.  Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust.  For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly.  For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God.  FOR TO THIS YOU HAVE BEEN CALLED, BECAUSE CHRIST ALSO SUFFERED FOR YOU, LEAVING YOU AN EXAMPLE, SO THAT YOU MIGHT FOLLOW IN HIS STEPS.  He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth.  When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.  He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. ²⁵ For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.” (from1 Peter 2:13–25 ESV)

When I finished I said this to the Holy Spirit who inspired those words… “Thanks!  I needed that!”  And I wrote these words in the margin of my Bible… “Really good advice during this period in our nation’s history with its challenges! (and added this) “What an awesome example we have in Jesus Christ, son of God, our Savior!”