The magical healing power of coffee

This week has been an interesting one. I am preaching again this week and the scripture passage has me really excited. When I initially took a look at the two passages that I would be preaching on I figured that last week's sermon would be the "easier" to write. Leave it to God to really point out some cool things in this week's passage and I am really excited to share them on Sunday.

This morning I did a bit of catching up on my blog reading. Both of the blog posts from my good friend (and fellow seminary alumni) Brad were excellent. His first post was on the topic of healing. I was really interested in what he had to say seeing that I just covered the miraculous spiritual gifts. His life experiences also bring a unique perspective:

"Healing, and specifically God’s power in healing, floats through my mind every once and a while, and it has been on my mind again the past few days. I work in a hospital providing care to people recovering from serious injuries and illnesses. Some of my patients are in the hospital a few days, and I have worked with people who have stayed in the hospital for many months."

Brad goes on to say:

"As I stated in my beginning, I believe that God can heal absolutely anything and everything, but there is a qualifier to that, which is that God works healing according to his will. And this can be hard for us to grasp and accept."

The overall point that Brad is making is that sometimes God brings the healing that we desire and other times he does not. Unfortunately we don't always know the reasons why or why not. God's healing is not dependent upon us. It doesn't matter if we have "enough" faith. What matters is God's will. His will is that one day there will no longer be a need for healing but between now and that day comes we cannot fully know why God does or does not heal someone. I would highly recommend the post as it helps shed some light on the subject.

Brad's second post this week was on one of my favorite topics: Coffee. He picked up on a news story this week that had this headline:

"Two cups of coffee a day cuts overall risk of dying by 10 percent, research shows"

He goes on to point out the fatal flaw (pun intended) in the headline: it doesn't matter what we do–we cannot actually cut the risk of dying. The mortality rate in human beings is hovering right around 100%.

"So no matter how much coffee I drink, or how much I exercise, or the amount of broccoli I eat, or any other habit, good or bad, that I may practice, will have any bearing on the ultimate fact of my death. Death will indeed come for me one day. My habits may influence the length of life to a small degree, and they may also influence its quality, but they will not stave off death’s inevitable arrival."

Death on this earth is inevitable. It's coming and we cannot avoid it. But death her on this earth is not the end:

"Whenever it may come, I believe as a Christian that only one thing will really matter: my standing with God. In the parable of sheep and goats in Matthew 25:31-46 Jesus is seen separating people into two groups, those who knew him truly, and those who didn’t. The ones who knew him as his own receive their inheritance, being joined with him forever, while those in the other group are cast out into the darkness."

And I have to give the punchline away. It really is the most important thing in life.

"This is truly the Good News. Earthly life will end but for the Christian it is merely the gateway to their eternal presence with God."

Both posts are really worth the read...especially with your next cup of life-prolonging coffee.

 

God Spares the Guilty

I once again had the privilege of preaching at Faith Community Reformed Church this past Sunday. The sermon is based on 1 Samuel 24 where David spares King Saul's life.

One of the important lessons that I learned was the importance of having water handy. My mouth was dry and a had a bit of a tickle in my throat.

An Eternal Grace

 A friend of mine sent me a devotional last week. It is based on 1 Chronicles 4:22 which says:

"and Jokim, and the men of Cozeba, and Joash, and Saraph, who ruled in Moab and returned to Lehem (now the records are ancient)."

The first 9 chapters of 1 Chronicles are lists of geneologies. The author took the time to trace them out and in the middle of it all adds the comment that "the records are ancient." Which is a very interesting thing to say as you are going through ancient records. That is where the devotional comes in:

"But not so ancient as those precious things that are the delight of our souls. Let us for a moment recount them, repeating them as misers count their gold. The sovereign choice of the Father, by which He elected us unto eternal life, before creation, is a matter of vast antiquity, since no date can be conceived for it by the mind of man. We were chosen from before the foundations of the world.

"Everlasting love went with the choice, for it was not a bare act of divine will by which we were set apart, but the divine affections were concerned. The Father loved us in and from the beginning. Here is a theme for daily contemplation. The eternal purpose to redeem us from our foreseen ruin, to cleanse and sanctify us and at last to glorify us, was of infinite antiquity and runs side by side with immutable love and absolute sovereignty.

"The covenant is always described as being everlasting, and Jesus, the second party in it, is from eternity. He struck hands in sacred covenant long before the first stars began to shine, and it was in Him that the elect were ordained unto eternal life. In this way a most blessed covenant union was established between the Son of God and His elect people, which will remain as the foundation of their safety when time shall be no more.

"Is it not profitable to be conversant with these ancient things? Is it not shameful that they should be so readily neglected and even rejected by the majority of professing Christians? If they knew more of their own sin, would they not be more ready to adore distinguishing grace? Let us both admire and adore tonight, as we sing--

"A monument of grace,
A sinner saved by blood;
The streams of love I trace
Up to the Fountain, God;
And in His sacred bosom see
Eternal thoughts of Love to me."

In the ultimate act of grace, God created us knowing just how sinful we would be. He knew that we would reject him and he created us anyway. That act of grace is just as eternal as God himself. It is a staggering thought and one that is worthy of our praise.

Losing Our Taste for Grace

I have been following a series on the Desiring God blog that is about staying Christian in seminary. On the face it might seem a silly notion that one might struggle with their faith in the very place designed to train pastors. But alas it is a very real possibility. Seminary is not all about spiritual formation and deepening your walk with God. Rather it gets into both the minutiae of doing theological work as well as theory of ministry work. Along with the profound and deep revelations that come up are the mundane and tedious. (While the third round of Greek vocabulary flashcards might teach one the value of patience and persistance, it really starts to feel mundane and tedious.)

But I don't think that it is just seminary students that struggle with staying Christian throughout their walk. It can (and I believe it does) happen to everyone. It might not always happen in the same way for everyone but I think that at the foundation of it all we lose that sense of wonder that surrounds the grace of God that first grabbed us. In the third post of the series author David Mathis writes:

"Grace is no peripheral thing in Christianity. God’s astoundingly lavish favor toward us terribly undeserving sinners, because of Jesus, is at the very center. Lose our taste for grace and we have no good business calling ourselves Christians, much less putting ourselves forward as leaders in the church."

It is easy to lose that desire for God's grace. We lose it for many reasons. Our lives seem devoid of grace as our world comes crashing down around us. It may be due the loss of a job and the threat of losing our home and security. It may be due to problems at home with a spouse or a child that just never seem to get resolved. It may be due to the unending pressures of work or school. It may be due to the overwhelming trouble that we see in the world. It may be due to the loss of a dear loved one. It may be due to any number of things that would make trying to list them all out impossible.

Mathis makes the point that we need to be intentional about being sensitive to the grace that God has provided to us. It is not about what God has done for us in this world but it is an eternal thing. Mathis suggests taking time to dwell in Ephesians 2:1-7. It reminds us that we were once dead in our sin but that God's grace has made us alive again. God's grace, while it does have consequences for us now, will be lavished upon all those that call on Jesus name in the heaven and the life to come.

Mathis concludes with an exhortation to never take God's grace for granted:

"Don’t be under the delusion that seminary automatically makes you grow in grace (2 Peter 3:18). In fact, it can have quite the opposite effect. Beware of so frequently handling such holy things as the Scriptures and good doctrine and the gospel itself. And especially don’t be flippant with grace. For God’s sake, your own sake, and the sake of the people you’ll one day serve, don’t ever take grace for granted."

That isn't just good advice for those going through seminary. It is something that we should all keep in mind.

 

The other posts from the series:

Introduction: Seminary: Life or Death

Know Your Value of Values

Does God hold children responsible for their parents' sins?

“You shall have no other gods before me.”

“You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.”

These are commandments "One" and "Two" in what we commonly call the “Ten Commandments” as found in Exodus 20. (Although there are more than ten commands that are given to Moses on Mt. Sinai and these are not actually called "The Ten Commandments" in the text.) On their face the two commandments are pretty straight forward. But what about the second part of that second commandment?

Does God punish children for the sins of their parents? Does he reward future generations for the good things that people do?

On the one hand this is actually not that hard to understand. Both my brother and I have some of the very same habits of our dad. Everything from the way we think to the way we sit. Choices that my dad made before we were born shaped how we were raised. There is a whole theory of psychology based on how the family system operates and affects decisions and reactions for generations.

There is no question that when a parent commits a crime and is sent to jail that it has a direct effect on their child. The opposite effect of “blessings” through the money that is inherited can be seen when you consider families like the Rockefellers or the Kennedys.  (The sins of the parents continuing on in the children are also apparent when looking at these families.) These examples show how both the good and the bad move down through the generations.

But does God actively punish future generations? If my dad were to commit a sin would God hold me responsible and punish me?

No.

The system that God set up for this world places great importance and an influence of parents on their children. And this works both for good and bad. It is through this system that we see these things happen but God does not hold me personally responsible for my parent’s sins. In the same way, no one else will ever be held responsible for my sins.

What I believe God is communicating through this verse (and the same message also found directly and indirectly in Exodus 34:7, Numbers 14:18, Psalms 79:8, 109:14, Isaiah 65:6-7 and Jeremiah 32:18) is the contrast between God’s desire to punish sin verse his desire to be merciful to sinners. Yes God is a God of righteousness and of justice that demands punishment for sins but he desires to show his mercy and grace even more.

Jesus quoted Hosea 6:6 when he said, “Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” It is helpful for us to remember this when we approach God in regards to our sin. Yes we have committed a great offense against God but he desires to show us an even greater mercy.


Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.