Coffee With The Lord

Fifty-two verses of deep gratitude for deliverance! Don’t know if you’ve ever had a determined adversary – someone who was insanely dedicated to your destruction – David did. His name was Saul… Saul hunted David like an animal. Chased him like incessantly. Plotted to kill him. And all that the return that David received for vowing he would never “touch God’s anointed” and do Saul no harm! 2 Samuel 22 is a song of incredible relief – of great gratitude – for God’s protection and deliverance from a human adversary! It is filled with graphic imagery that begs for your imagination… believe me, its worth reading! Here’s just a taste of its themes…

I thought of suffering believers in various places in our world this morning (including, but not limited to, those in Iraq suffering at the hands of ISIS) as I read these words from Apostle Paul to Timothy… Words we need to hear and heed! Suffering believers we need to remember daily in our prayers, fervent intercession and thoughts!!

“Remember Jesus Christ! – Risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel, for which I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal. BUT THE WORD OF GOD IS NOT BOUND! Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect! – That they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. The saying is trustworthy, for: ‘If we have died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he also will deny us; if we are faithless, he remains faithful’ — for he cannot deny himself.” (2 Timothy 2:8–13 ESV)

These words were written from imprisonment in Rome as Apostle Paul was facing martyrdom! Words that could be echoed by those who are faithfully suffering for the gospel in a prison or whose lives are at great risk because of their testimony about Christ. I urge you today… join me in remembering them in fervent prayer… for their protection, for their release, but most of all for their faithfulness and their ongoing courageous witness!

Does the name Onesiphorus mean anything to you? Probably not in a personal way… But if you’d had the privilege of a personal conversation with Apostle Paul late in his life – in prison in Rome, just before his martyrdom – He’d have told you just how much this guy and his entire household (probably meaning the members of the church that met in his house) meant to him!

Here’s what Paul had to say about it in 2 Timothy…

“You know that everyone in the province of Asia has deserted me, including Phygelus and Hermogenes. May the Lord show mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, because he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains! On the contrary, when he was in Rome, he searched hard for me until he found me. May the Lord grant that he will find mercy from the Lord on that day! You know very well in how many ways he helped me in Ephesus!” (2 Timothy 1:15-18)

People who help others – especially older saints – in their time of loneliness and need are very special! Their concern is like a “cup of cold water” on a hot day to a parched throat! It’s like the healing hand of Jesus extended – more than that – it’s like His loving presence, His comforting voice in their time of deepest need. Not only did Onesiphorus get involved in helping Paul… his entire “household” (likely implying his congregation or the “church” that met in his house) ministered to his need! They were “the body of Christ” in Paul’s deepest need. How did Jesus Himself say it… “As you have done it to the least of these, you have done it to Me!” (Matthew 25:40, 45) How did the old gospel song put it… “Oh to be His hand extended!”

Oh what a challenge! What an honor to be an “Onesiphorus” kind of person (or a member of his household)! Gotta tell you… I want to be one! And as passionately as I want to be a member of his household… I want to avoid like the plague being like those in the province of Asia… especially like Phygelus and Hermogenes who forsook Paul in His time of need… ashamed of him… ashamed of the gospel (see 2 Timothy 1:8)!