Coffee With The Lord

This morning part of my Bible reading included Genesis 19.

I find this chapter very difficult to read… It certainly is not uplifting!

The Lord mercifully sends heavenly emissaries to Lot (I believe, in response to Abraham’s intercession – Genesis 18:22-33).

It is clear that “SPIRITUAL DRIFT” had set into Lot’s life and family. He, and his family, had enculturated to Sodom more than they recognized or even wanted to admit… and it showed!!! Sodom had influenced Lot’s family and it is only a merciful act of God that Lot and his family were spared the judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah!

Genesis 19 is a sad, sad chapter in the Bible and a warning to all of us who live in a wicked time and sinful culture! BEWARE OF “SPIRITUAL DRIFT” and inappropriate accommodation with cultural values that reject righteous living.

I read Matthew 5:27-32 during my devotions. Reflecting on it gave rise to to the following prayer for sexual purity and marriage’s sacredness!

“Oh Lord, help us as your people never to embrace or give into the loose sexual standards of our culture and abandon the sacredness of marriage! May we exhibit and contend for moral purity and marriage fidelity!!!”

I just finished reading Matthew 5.1-12 this morning, most often referred to as the “Beatitudes.” In that passage Jesus informed His disciples about who was truly “Blessed” in the culture of the “Kingdom of Heaven.”

AS I READ THE PASSAGE THIS MORNING I THOUGHT ABOUT HOW “COUNTER CULTURAL” THESE “BEATITUDES” ARE to the way the broader culture thinks and what it values! Those who mourn over their failures and sin are “BLESSED”! Those who are gentle and non-assertive are “BLESSED!” Those who are “hungry” and “thirsty” to be righteous (and NOT self-satisfied) are “BLESSED”! Those who continually kind and merciful to others (even the undeserving) are “BLESSED”! Those who value a “pure heart” (“inside-out” purity) are “BLESSED”! Those who value and promote “peace” – peace without ethical or moral compromise – are “BLESSED”! And finally, believe it or not, persecuted, abused, reviled people because of their righteous lives or because they are devoted to Jesus are “BLESSED”! …BLESSED BY GOD!!!

I have to tell you that flies in the face of what the broader culture – the secular world – the world that operates and lives without reference to God, tends to value!

And the incredible blessings that accrue for those living by Kingdom values – Christ-centered values? God-given comfort! Incredible enjoyment of everything around you because God has given it to you to enjoy! Satisfaction in God-given mercy, forgiveness, and righteousness – not just a little of it – an abundance, a profusion of it! Imagine, God’s calls you His child… More than that, one day actually being in His presence and seeing Him face to face! AND FINALLY, THE GREAT REWARD … EVERY IMAGINABLE BLESSING OF “THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN” … YOURS!

Wow!! Makes me want to structure 2025 and every year (and day) thereafter around “Kingdom” values… Living here as part of “another kingdom” – the Heavenly Kingdom – The Kingdom of GOD!