Morning Coffee - Taking on the Giants!

There we saw the giants   Num. 13:33

Giants stand for great difficulties; and giants are stalking everywhere. They are in our families, in our churches, in our social life, in our own hearts; and we must overcome them or they will eat us up, as men of old said of the giants of Canaan.

There is a prevalent idea that the power of God in a human life should lift us above all trials and conflicts. The fact is, the power of God always brings a conflict and a struggle. One would have thought that on his great missionary journey to Rome, Paul would have been carried by some mighty providence above the power of storms and tempests and enemies. But, on the contrary, it was one long, hard fight with persecuting Jews, with wild tempests, with venomous vipers and all the powers of earth and hell, and at last he was saved, as it seemed, by the narrowest margin, and had to swim ashore at Malta on a piece of wreckage and barely escape a watery grave.

Was that like a God of infinite power? Yes, just like Him.

The men of faith said, "They are bread for us; we will eat them up." In other words, "We will be stronger by overcoming them than if there had been no giants to overcome."

Streams in the Desert

Mrs. Chas. E. Cowman

Time to refill my cup and boldly face the giants of today.

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Sunday Morning Coffee - Thankful!

"Thankful"

Somedays we forget
To look around us
Somedays we can't see
The joy that surrounds us
So caught up inside ourselves
We take when we should give.

So for tonight we pray for
What we know can be.
And on this day we hope for
What we still can't see.
It's up to us to be the change
And even though we all can still do more
There's so much to be thankful for.

~~~

Morning Coffee - Command the Lord!

"Concerning the work of my hands command ye me" Isa. 45:11

Our Lord spoke in this tone when He said, "Father, I will." Joshua used it when, in the supreme moment of triumph, he lifted up his spear toward the setting sun, and cried, "Sun, stand thou still!"

Elijah used it when he shut the heavens for three years and six months, and again opened them.

Luther used it when, kneeling by the dying Melanchthon, he forbade death to take his prey.

It is a marvelous relationship into which God bids us enter. We are familiar with words like those which follow in this paragraph: "I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commanded."  But that God should invite us to command Him, this is a change in relationship which is altogether startling!

What a difference there is between this attitude and the hesitating, halting, unbelieving prayers to which we are accustomed, and which by their perpetual repetition lose edge and point!”

Streams in the Desert

Mrs. Chas. E. Cowman

Boy does this hit home with me!  I offer up the wimpiest prayers imaginable. Over and over I whine to God in a voice I am certain he is tired of listening to!  Today, fortified with devotions and a cup of coffee, I will command the Lord -  as He has commanded me!

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Morning Coffee - Take on the day!

"When Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus. But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me."   

Matt. 14:29-30

"Not by measuring the waves can you prevail; not by gauging the wind will you grow strong; to scan the danger may be to fall before it; to pause at the difficulties, is to have them break above your head. Lift up your eyes unto the hills, and go forward--there is no other way."

Streams in the Desert

Mrs. Chas. E. Cowman

I need to learn to put my “assessing” tools aside.  I spend way too much time, measuring, calculating, figuring and making notes.  No wonder I have trouble surmounting obstacles; I never really tackle them.

Time to pour another cup of coffee and take on the day!

~~~

Professor Godfrey St. Peter

I just finished reading The Professor’s House by Willa Cather. I love reading Willa Cather as her composed, no-frills style of writing is pleasing to me. 

The main character in The Professor’s House is Professor Godfrey St. Peter, described on the cover as “a man in his fifties who has devoted his life to his work, his wife, his garden, and his daughters and achieved success with all of them.”  This could aptly describe many of us in our fifties and sixties. 

And the inner emotional journey he traversed could fit as well. 

Maybe that’s why I loved the book.  I journeyed right along with Professor St. Peter.

Underlined:

“…the habit of living with ideas grows on one I suppose,”

“I think your ideas were best when you were your most human self.”

“At least, he felt the ground under his feet.  He thought he knew where he was, and that he could face with fortitude the Berengaria and the future.”

I may have to read this again.

~~~

The Message - Proverbs 3:5-6

I first posted this two years ago, May 9, 2009.  But since this particular verse presented itself to me twice this morning, I've decided to post it once again.   I need the reminder.

Saturday, May 9, 2009

My favorite verse, Proverbs 3:5-6 - from The Message translation:

Trust God from the bottom of your heart;
don't try to figure out everything on your own.
Listen for God's voice in everything you do, everywhere you go;
he's the one who will keep you on track.

"Listen for God's voice in everything you do, everywhere you go." I like how this is phrased; in everything and everywhere. I still exert too much control here. No wonder I keep derailing.

My mind is like a dimmer switch on a light bulb and my hand is on the control. I can go from very intense listening to merely half-hearted listening in just a matter of seconds. I turn that knob way too often; quieting God's voice when it doesn't suit me. What I need to do is set it on high and then remove my hand.

But control is so hard to give up.

~~~

Morning Coffee - Today's Perfect Melody

"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God" (Rom. 8:28).

All things "work together." It is a beautiful blending. Many different colors, in themselves raw and unsightly, are required in order to weave the harmonious pattern.

Many separate tones and notes of music, even discords and dissonances, are required to make up the harmonious anthem.

Many separate wheels and joints are required to make the piece of machinery. Take a thread separately, or a note separately, or a wheel or a tooth of a wheel separately, and there may be neither use nor beauty discernible.

But complete the web, combine the notes, put together the separate parts of steel and iron, and you see how perfect and symmetrical is the result. Here is the lesson for faith: "What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter." –Macduff

Streams in the Desert
Mrs. Chas. E. Cowman

I need to remember that the anthem created by God is perfect in every way.  It is only when I try to alter the tune by resting on favorite notes and skipping over those that are difficult that the music loses its glorious beauty. 

I believe I’ll pour a second up of coffee and begin to enjoy today’s perfect melody.

~~~

Morning Coffee - Stripping off every weight!

Let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily hinders our progress.  And let us run with endurance the race that God has set before us.

Hebrews 12:1

I love how this is paraphrased! While we think of the putting on of things in the morning, it is better to think of stripping off.  Time for a refill and see what I need to leave behind for the day. 

~~~

Morning Coffee - Setting my Sails

We cannot create the wind or set it in motion, but we can set our sails to catch it when it comes; we cannot make the electricity, but we can stretch the wire along upon which it is to run and do its work; we cannot, in a word, control the Spirit, but we can so place ourselves before the Lord, and so do the things He has bidden us do, that we will come under the influence and power of His mighty breath.

Streams in the Desert
Mrs. Chas. E. Cowman

Time to pour another cup of coffee and prepare to set my sails for the day ahead.

~~~