The Coffee-Cup Gospel

In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider: God has made the one as well as the other, so that man may not find out anything that will be after him.
-Ecclesiastes 7:14 (ESV)

When I’m up early enough to stop by the coffee shop before class, I get a warm feeling inside. The air is crisp and curious, and the breeze is calm. There are very few people around—all is quiet and benign. The sun rises behind the downtown skyline, filling the morning fog hovering between the skyscrapers with a brilliant orange. It really is a beautiful sight, for me and the handful of other 8 a.m. New Testament Greek students Cincinnati Bible College and Seminary. I usually stand at gaze at it for a while, sipping on my coffee, before heading to class.

For a moment on those mornings, I feel at peace with God, moved by His beautiful creation. And what could be better than a nice, warm cup of coffee to start my day? My heart is uplifted, I’m rich in spirit, and for once, I have a very positive outlook on life. It is in these moments that I say to myself, surely, this is what being a Christian should be like.

This is the heart of the coffee-cup gospel. It would make sense that God would want me to have a good time, feel at peace with myself, and feel comfortable and satisfied in life. After all, it’s during those near-perfect moments that I really “feel” close to God. Yet not every day as a Christian is a “coffee-cup” day; in fact, most mornings are “I can’t get out of bed!” mornings, especially when waking for Greek class around 7 a.m. I don’t always “feel” spiritual.

Bottom line: don’t buy into the coffee-cup gospel. It’s important to know that faith is not about “feeling” but trusting. Emotions don’t cut it, because emotions are way too unstable. If we all lived out our faith completely based on emotions, we would have all rejected God, if it weren’t for God stepping in and intervening, pouring his grace out upon us and snatching us out of death.

I’m not here to give advice to help deal with those bad days, those struggles, and those depressed feelings. Quite frankly, I’m not very good at dealing with them myself. But what I do know is that God is working in all things, for the good of His sheep (see Romans 8:28).

As the speaker in Ecclesiastes—thought to be Solomon—says, we must rejoice in prosperity and also remember in days of trouble that God is in control of both the good and the bad times; they both come from him. God does this, the speaker comments, so that men may not discover their future; in other words, they cannot pinpoint what they will do in life and lay down firm and unchanging plans. God will keep us on our toes by bringing us seasons of triumph and peace, along with seasons of suffering and doubt.

I’m not going to go into an apologetics lesson as to why God allows such suffering. That’s laid out on plenty of other websites and in a ton of books, journals, et cetera. What I will say is this: God provides us all days, both “good” and “bad,” for His glory, that we might better seek His will and have our hearts continually grow closer to His Son. Despite the pain and trials we might experience, participating in God’s own plan and becoming engrafted into his own family via Jesus Christ is far more precious than our mere cappuccinos. To Him be the glory.

Prayer: For Whom, Why, and How?

First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time. For this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying), a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.

I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling…

-1 Timothy 2:1-8 (ESV)

We must approach this short, inconspicuous passage in 1 Timothy with great reverence; it is a passage that is easy to overlook. After all, as a Christian, prayer might seem like common sense, something so basic that we don’t really feel the need to study it. This isn’t a deeply theological or challenging passage; it isn’t quoted much, and I must admit, it’s not among my favorites to preach from. Yet this passage is part of the Word of God, it’s in there for a very important reason, and I do believe that God wants to say something to us through this passage—something powerful, convicting, and encouraging.

Cornerstone, Stumbling Stone

As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in Scripture:“Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone,
a cornerstone chosen and precious,
and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.” So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe,
“The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone,”
and
“A stone of stumbling,
and a rock of offense.”They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.-1 Peter 2:4-8 (ESV)

Although I’ve read over these verses time and time again, they never hit me as hard as they did today. This idea of Jesus being a “cornerstone” seemed cliché; after all, I go to Cornerstone festival every year and have taken “cornerstone” just to be a nice nickname for Christ to be used in praise songs. Furthermore, being a “holy priesthood” does not appear too difficult to understand after the Protestant concept of the “priesthood of all believers” was popularized.

But today, as I read these verses, my heart sank. When Peter speaks of Jesus as “cornerstone,” he is claiming him to be more than just the most important part of our faith. Jesus holds our faith together and calls us into becoming a “spiritual house,” in which we too are like living stones. My initial reaction was to seek out and listen to some sermons on this passage, and I inevitably came across several sermons by Pastor John Piper, whom I much admire. What inspiration he brought!

The Coming Torrent

A crimson rose, such shallow roots,
Does dwell among the soybean shoots.
And whilst the reapers do not know,
The Farmer does with purpose sow—

As if to beautify His crop
And cause his men to pause, to stop
And stand befuddled in its range,
O’er something, though alluring, strange.

Yet planted where it is, it blooms,
In contrast to the soybeans’ dooms;
A flower, lone and brilliant red,
To no one but its Planter wed.

A threat’ning sky the labor wrecks;
Mosquitoes nip at workers’ necks.
Such humid air does dew their flesh,
And coming rain, the rose refresh!

Taking Scissors to the Scriptures

Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless, and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation; just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction. You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen. -2 Peter 3:14-18 (NASB)

Even in the first century church, there were false teachers who misconstrued or distorted Paul’s teachings and the rest of the Scriptures, just as Peter points out in this passage. In particular, Peter claims, these false teachers botched the more difficult things to understand in Paul’s letters. We know that, even today, not everything in Paul’s letters is easy to comprehend. As a matter of fact, the gap of 2000 years has produced some tremendous cultural differences and problems with interpretation. There are a number of disagreements over many of Paul’s various teachings, even things as simple as the doctrine of salvation. And in fact, this is indeed true of the whole of Scripture, and not just Paul. There is, of course, only one right interpretation of the Bible; God only meant to convey one truth. The problem is, however, that no one has it all figured out. Still, we do as best we can to study God’s Word and extract theological truths and principles from it without boasting that we’re omniscient, or all-knowing.As a matter of fact, I am intimidated by the fact that we have thousands of manuscripts of various New Testament documents and are continually trying to figure them out. It’s overwhelming to think of how difficult it really is to “understand” the Bible.Despite the fact that we are far from knowing everything, though, there are some basic doctrines the Church can simply not deny. Scripture makes it very clear that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, died on a cross and was resurrected in order to save us from the eternal damnation we deserve. Our sin leads us into death, but we have life through Jesus Christ and continue to live by the Holy Spirit. This is what Christianity is all about, in simplified form. And yet there are people who profess to be Christians that deny even the simple doctrine of substitutionary atonement–that Christ died to pay for our sins. There are many weird ideas out there, indeed. But what do the Scriptures have to say about them? I don’t want to lead anybody astray, nor do I want anyone else to lead people astray. I ask that you check the Scriptures in regards to everything I write, making sure you give them a clear look before believing anything I (or anyone else) might say. Don’t believe my teaching on one Scripture before checking it with the rest of the Bible. If anything I teach is contrary to the gospel of Christ, I am to be accursed (Galatians 1:8). There is truth in the Word of God; while you can’t always trust men, you can always trust your Scriptures. Please, brothers and sisters, don’t neglect that blessing.