A Coffee Break With Jesus

God is calling each one of us to dedication and consecration to Jesus as our Lord and Christ. We are to wait on Him with a diligence that opens our hearts to hear Him speak. In seeking Him we will more fully understand where He is taking us and what He is going to do through us. We can do nothing of real importance apart from Him! We are pressed by the tyranny of the urgent, leaving little time for reflection and fellowship. We pass in and out of each other’s lives as cr

If you could live your life over, what changes would you make? No, I am not going to dredge up our past mistakes, as we would all be overwhelmed. Ecclesiastics describes life as fleeting and portrays the whole of life as vanity. The following question stops me in my tracks. “What if you woke up today with only the things that you thanked God for yesterday?“ Anonymous Considering yesterday‘s thankful thoughts, I would be both rich and poor. I would be poor because I forgot t

We are all pressed to change the way we live our daily lives in the face of our present crisis. There is one thing that cannot change. God said, “For I [am] the LORD, I do not change...” Malachi 3:6 We must hold on to God, who cannot change, as our present circumstances involve continual change. Fear is a genuine part of our current condition as we face the uncertainty of new and pressing challenges. I have faced overwhelming challenges, where I took my eyes off God,

God has intervened time and again in my otherwise seemingly impossible circumstances. But why does He take so long to do it? It was during my many moments of testing I questioned God’s plan in fulfilling His work in me. Testing added to my life much frustration while questioning God’s purpose in these lengthy, drawn-out disappointments. God seemed to take much more time than necessary to deliver my help. I would say, “I know you have a lot of people to take care of, but c

Over these many years, I have been thoughtful of the fact that God doesn’t need me. Truly this has been a humbling and healthy perspective to hold. In my 40 years of pastoral ministry, I have witnessed far too many individuals who thought God needed them. They had great beginnings but were blinded by success, and fell prey to the idea that God owed them something. The love of money and marital infidelity led to broken families, death, financial ruin and destruction. Pride

Imagination: the faculty or action of forming new ideas, or images or concepts of external objects not present to the senses: Imagination is a constant companion in our daily journey. It starts at a very young age when you are playing or daydreaming. The young boy is acting out in his imagination some heroics; the young girl dreams of adventure or the day she will be a bride. In your thoughts, haven’t you rescued someone in danger, or been the hero in your story. My poin

You are facing a foreboding situation, you don’t want to appear fearful, but deep inside, trepidation is banging on your door. You question if you dare to make a stand. Courage is not the absence of fear. Courage is trusting God and refusing to submit to fear which can paralyze you into unbelief and inaction. King David, who wrote many Psalms said, “When I am afraid, I will trust in the Lord.” David demonstrated an honest and humble approach to his many fears. Like David, I

I recall many times when I was preparing to move in a specific direction, the Spirit would speak to me through the Word, in my thoughts, and through changing circumstances to make a course correction. Even when I undertake a new painting, I ask the Spirit to assist me, give me understanding of the subject, and when I am stuck on some aspect, I ask for His guidance. Don’t blame the Spirit for my finished product, He only can do so much with this piece of clay. We tend to t

It wasn’t until I stopped attempting to get God’s attention that I experienced Him up close. When I became a Christian, I began working on a plan to please God through works of service. Those were tough years, filled with times of great discouragement. I couldn’t seem to get Him to pay attention to the many ventures I started in His name. The more I said, “Look at what I am doing for you,” the more distant He appeared. The door to God’s presence appeared slammed shut and lock

I try not to overthink things, which can easily displace my focus on God’s continued provision and love for me. There is a simplicity in Christ that invites me into real friendship, where He plays the role of the most faithful Friend. 2 Corinthians 11:3 NKJV “But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.” I fail and come up short time and again, but He urges me on. “Walk with

“I will climb up to my watchtower and stand at my guardpost. There I will wait to see what the LORD says and how he will answer my complaint.” Habakkuk 2:1 Like Habakkuk, we have a watchtower where we wait for the LORD to speak, and to act. Habakkuk’s position allowed him to gaze over the countryside and the teeming population. Irrespective of God’s great blessings upon Israel, the people were not satisfied with God being enough. God was about to bring judgment upon the nat

This verse stood out this morning: 2 Corinthians 6:2 NLT For God says, "At just the right time, I heard you. On the day of salvation, I helped you." Indeed, the "right time" is now. Today is the day of salvation. It tells me my salvation was no accident, “…at just the right time I heard you.” It is always just the right time with my Father. I don’t always like His timing. My impatience gets the best of me, and my impatience has cost me unnecessary pain over the years. I a

One of the many outstanding qualities of Jesus was His sheer honesty. He never left men in any doubt about what would happen to them if they chose to follow him. Jesus came "not to make life easy, but to make men great." He also taught us life’s challenges must be met with courage, therefore understanding the role of peacemaking is essential. We live in a society that wants so desperately to have peace that they are willing to have peace at any price. Whenever we speak of

John 8:32, “…and you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free”. There is great freedom when one is walking in the truth. First, the very idea of walking in truth presupposes that one would not want to offend God, by walking in a known area of untruth. Moral authority has its birthplace in the womb of truth, which is why truth is alive, with the capacity to set us free. All authority breaks down, when descending morals create the impetus to live under the bondag

We look one last time into the classroom regarding the study of the Great Blue. This time you see our solitary friend standing sentinel-like in shallow water at the margin of a pond or sluggish river. He is one of America’s largest birds, with a standing height of nearly five feet. He stands perfectly still, demonstrating a quiet patience that assures him of success. So still does he stand that the unwary fish and frogs rush to the shadow in the water that he creates by h

We return once more to the study of the Great Blue Heron. At the first sense of approaching danger, this great blue avian, with a wingspan of nearly six feet, will effortlessly mount up from the earth. He lifts his head toward heaven and within moments he is out of danger. In like manner we to must look upwards towards the heavens and utilize the advantage that God has given us. In Psalm 50: 15 God declares; “Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you

One of the grand lessons from natures schoolroom, is to never let down your guard. There are many predators lurking just outside the range of your natural vision, who would carefully plot your destruction. In this age of apathy far too many have cast off restraint. In doing so, they fail to take a stand, almost certainly encouraging defeat rather than success. They carelessly saunter into the enemy’s territory, inviting destruction. Then they lift their complaint and cry a

“Love (charity) never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance .” 1 Corinthians 13: 7 NLT C.S. Lewis believed that four types of love were involved in human relationships. They are affection, friendship, sexuality, and charity. Charity goes beyond the other forms of love. Charity loves because God Himself is Love. If you are looking for an example of perfection in humanity you will be greatly disappointed. If you are looking for

When we moved to Arizona we quickly found out that the hardest part of the learning curve is the gardening. The zone is different, the earth is different, and the weather far hotter than any place I've put in new plants or sown seeds. At first it didn't work out. We bought plants that soon died. They withered no matter how much we studied, researched, watered or fertilized them, but then we tried again. And again. And again, but we didn't give up. In the midst of all of thi

How have I been personally impacted by the Gospel? When I was younger I had all the symptoms of having the Gospel. I went to church, I prayed, I spoke openly about Jesus in our home and my family thought I was the most spiritual in our household. By the age of 15 I was in hot pursuit of the world and God had become a burden to me. I was 26 years old when God called me out of the darkness of the world that I was living into his marvelous light. I am living proof that men can