Nothing Like The Real Thing

There’s nothing like the real thing, as Marvin Gaye and Tammy Terrel sang years ago for Motown (ok old guys, start singing…).  I started enjoying brewed coffee again a few days ago.  There’s nothing like the taste of freshly brewed coffee!  Actually, I used to brew coffee everyday with a regular coffee brewer.  But after a month, when the electric bill came, I was “shocked” to find out how high my bill was.  Since I drink around three cups of coffee (at the most) a day, that meant I would brew a fresh cup three times a day also.  So, I decided to go back to instant coffee.

Then a few years back a friend of mine gave me a coffee presser.  It made things a little easier, and I could enjoy brewed coffee once again.  But eventually for lack of budget to buy packs of brewed coffee I was back to instant.

Recently I received two packs of brewed coffee from brethren in the church.  Then I remembered the old coffee presser, just like the one in the picture below, that I used to use some years back.  I asked Marge to look for it, and she found it.  And, lo and behold, I was back to drinking brewed coffee again!

 

Yeah…there’s nothing like freshly brewed coffee.  The richness, the fullness of the taste.  Thank God for coffee!

Psalm 34:8 Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.

Many times in Scripture the Lord would invite people to “taste” and enjoy life with Him.  Just like brewed coffee, or any other favorite beverage or food you may enjoy, the moment you taste “the real thing” – life with God – you will always look for Him, because there will be nothing, or no one, who can replace Him.

When reaching out to a Samaritan woman who had five husbands, and was living in with someone, Jesus said:

John 4:13  Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again,
John 4:14  but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."

The things of this life, what this world has to offer, only makes us thirst some more.  They don’t really satisfy.  But if we drink the water that the Lord gives us we will never thirst.  The satisfaction we receive will be more than what the world offers, and it wells up to eternal life!

Let’s not make the same mistake as Israel:

Jeremiah 2:13  "My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.

Imagine turning their backs on the “real thing”, the spring of living water, and building their own cisterns, broken cisterns, that hold nothing.  How many today have turned their backs on the Lord, or, at least, have placed Him in the sideline, while they’re busy digging their own cisterns, stressed out, tired, frustrated…because it holds no water.

There’s nothing like the real thing.  In John 10:10 Jesus said that He came so that He could give us life…and He brews the best!

Exhausted, Giving Our All

During my prayer time this morning I read a couple of passages that the Lord used to check the quality of time that I gave Him in prayer.  All I can say is “ouch”.  Let me share them with you.

Isa 43:22  "Yet you have not called upon me, O Jacob, you have not wearied yourselves for me, O Israel.

Wearied means “exhausted”.  Do we exhaust ourselves for the Lord?  No, not in ministry, but in prayer.  Is our prayer time a time where we weary ourselves before Him, seeking Him – His presence, His fellowship, His will?

Another passage brought to my attention was this:

Mark 14:3  While he was in Bethany, reclining at the table in the home of a man known as Simon the Leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, made of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the perfume on his head.

Here was a woman, with an expensive alabaster jar of expensive perfume, pure.  Verse 5 tells us it was worth a year’s wages!  And yet she broke the jar and poured all the perfume on our Lord’s head.  That was how much the Lord was worth – everything she could give.

She spent so much, gave so much, for the Lord.  Worship at its best.  No, not at it’s best…worship as it should be.  There is no other worship that God accepts.

Wearied.  Giving the best, giving our all.  Does this describe the worship, the prayer time, that we bring to the Lord?  Does this describe what we offer to the Lord, what we believe He is deserving of?

The Bodyguard

I was in the mall today, having an early dinner with a friend, when I saw a brother in Christ from our church walking just outside the glass panel of the restaurant.  He is a head of security of a congressman who just happened to be there also in the mall.  I was waving at him to say hello, but he was so engrossed in his role, or work, as security for the congressman that he either did not see me, or if he did he could not afford to be distracted.  I admired his focus, his attention and discipline during that moment.  I’m sure when I see him on Sunday he will be the usual accommodating and friendly brother he is.  But while at work, he was fixed on doing what he was called to do.

I remember another brother in Christ, now a Minister of the Gospel, but many years back was a close-in security of a political figure.  I was told that when he was with other Christians he was friendly and would fellowship, but when he was at work guarding his boss he would not leave his post, or even talk to anyone who approached him.  Talk about alertness and commitment to his work.

This should remind us of the same commitment and alertness we show to the Lord and to the life He desires us to live.  Many times in the New Testament God’s Word reminds us to be alert at all times.

1 Thessalonians 5:5-6  You are all sons of the light and sons of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness.
6  So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be alert and self-controlled.

Have you ever seen a security guard asleep?  Christians are not supposed to be that way.  We are to be alert, not allowing anything in the world to distract us, and so self-controlled that no matter what may catch our eye we keep our eyes on the Lord!

And just like a bodyguard knows that the person he is guarding may have enemies ready to pounce on him, we, as Christians, need to be alert at all times knowing we, too, have an enemy.

1 Peter 5:8-9  Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.
9  Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.

We shouldn’t be walking in this world unaware that we have an enemy who is ready to pounce on us and attack us.  We should be self-controlled and alert, standing firm in the faith always.

Spiritually we are to be bodyguards to ourselves, our Christian lives, guarding our heart that has been bought and saved by our Savior.  Standing firm, alert, not allowing anyone or anything to distract us.

Desiring to Obey

One of my favorite moments when I’m on a local flight is when the plane has landed.  The stewardess welcomes everyone to the city where we landed, and gives a few more instructions – please don’t open your cellphones, and do not unfasten your seat belt until the fasten seat belt sign has been switched off, and the  plane has come to a stop.  Clear as daylight.  But, while the plane is still taxiing (is that a right spelling?  Or word?!) to the arrival area you begin to hear cellphones ringing.  And the moment the plane stops, even before the fasten seat belt sign has been switched off, people start standing up and getting their bags in the overhead bins!  And I always begin to smile when that happens.  What’s funny is, even in a short flight, of around 30-40 minutes, people are rushing to get out of their seat and leave the plane!  It never fails, and it always brings a smile to my face.  And I notice how people are looking at me, still sitting down and waiting, probably wondering what the heck I’m doing waiting for the pilot to switch off the seat belt sign!  And I can just imagine the feeling of frustration of the fight stewardesses who give the instructions, and see how everyone just disobeys them.

You actually see it everywhere – people living as if there are no laws.  We cross the street where we want to, jeepney drivers pick up and drop passengers where they want to.  We live lawless lives – as if there is no law.

Sadly, there are many people, so called “Christians” even, who live as if God has no laws.  We know we’re not supposed to lie, and yet we do.  We know we’re not supposed to commit adultery, and yet we cheat on our spouses.  We know we’re not supposed to covet, and yet we live for what our eyes and hearts desire.

In Psalm 40:8, David proclaimed -  “I desire to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart”.  God doesn’t want us to live lawless lives, as if there were no laws and commands that He wants us to follow.  He wants us desiring to do His will, and obeying them.  And He has given us the grace and power to obey, through the regeneration of our hearts, and the transforming work of the Spirit through the Word of God.

Psa 95:6-8  Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the LORD our Maker; 7  for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care. Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts…

So, when the Holy Spirit prompts your heart to obey what you have read or heard from His Word…Just do it.

James 1:22  Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.

Blurred faith

My usual habit every morning is to have breakfast, and then with the last gulp of water take all my vitamins, and other maintenance medicines I need for the day.  I am so used to it that most of the time I just go to the other end of the table, where all our medicines are, and just reach out for the capsule or tablet I need to drink - even if I am not using my glasses!  This morning I realized how I "blindly" just get the medicines I believe are mine and drink them.  I am so used to how the packaging looks like, or how the capsule looks like, I don't have to really use my glasses to recognize them.  Of course I am hoping that one day I do not accidentally drink the wrong medicine!  I call this "blurred faith".  It's not that I'm blind, and I can't see the medicines I'm taking - I just see it with blurry vision, and my being so used to it gives me faith that I'm taking the right one.

I immediately related it to our faith in God.  Let's admit it - none of us really know God 100%.  Paul the apostle wrote about that:
1 Cor 13:12  Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

Now, he says, we see but a poor reflection of God.  If you're wondering why his example was "as in a mirror", which usually shows a good clear reflection, we need to understand that mirrors then were not as polished and clear as ours today.  Today our concept of the things of God, and of God Himself, are poor reflections of who He actually is.  We don't see the fullness of God yet.  We know Him and His ways in part, not in full.  But one day we shall see Him face to face.  One day we shall know Him completely - in eternity.  But now, in this life, we only see a blurred reflection.

Yet, this blurred faith we have in God is all we need!  God allows us a glimpse of who He is in order that our faith in Him might increase.  And the more we learn, the more we know, the more we realize who our God is, the more our faith is strengthened.  And the more our faith is strengthened the more we desire to know of Him, about Him.

This "blurred faith" that we have allows us to reach out for Him, call on Him, and rely on Him in all circumstances of life, and it brings the result we desire - His answering our prayers and desires.

We may not know much, but what God has revealed to us in our hearts of Himself is enough to give us the "mustard seed faith" to believe and call upon Him.  That grace is all we need.

1 Pet 1:8  Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy,