HAVING COFFEE WITH JESUS

For a long, long time, I have wished that the Lord and I could meet up at Starbucks and have coffee together. Then, I could ask Him all my questions and get direct feedback without having to use spiritual discernment to guess at what He might be saying back to me.

Recently, I ran across John 4:24 that says, “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth.” The first thing I said was, “Well… looks like we’re not gonna be meeting up at Starbucks for that face-to-face.”

Our relationship with Heavenly Father is spiritual, unlike our relationship with one another where we can see, hear, and touch each other.

But we can still grow in our relationship with Heavenly Father, much like we do with each other. Jesus said the sheep follow the Shepherd and know His voice (John 10:4). When we have been trained to discern His voice, we are able to distinguish what is Him, and what's not Him (Heb 5:14). In the same way that I have come to know my husband's voice, even if he's not in the same room with me, we can learn to discern the voice of God.

Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. If you seek Him, He will be found by you as One hiding out in the open, wanting to be found.

Jeremiah 29:13 (NKJV) You will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.

To God be the glory.

Dee Richardson, Voice of the Dove

RAISED IN CHURCH

We grew up attending church on a regular basis. We had church on Sunday morning and Sunday night. Occasionally, we had a Sunday 3:00 service where we worshiped with other congregations to celebrate church and pastoral anniversaries. We had the midweek service and Friday night service. Occasionally, we came together with other congregations for Joint Meeting services on Saturday night. We were in church at least 3 days a week.

Today’s families are not attending that much church and therefore, this generation is not being exposed to learning about God as previous generations did. Yesterday, I was reading in the book of Judges and noticed how quickly the Israelites kept backsliding and worshiping idol gods. While the appointed judge was alive, they served Almighty God. But as soon as the judge died, they backslid and worshiped worthless idols. Their commitment and dedication to God was shallow so it did not last when the judge left them.

The Israelites were cautioned to teach God’s word to their children, speaking it to them when they were at home, traveling down the road, before they went to bed and as soon as they woke up.

Deuteronomy 11:19 (NKJV) You shall teach them to your children, speaking the word to them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.

In the New Testament, the apostle Paul said to bring the children up in the training and admonition of the Lord.

Ephesians 6:4 (NKJV) And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord.

We must be diligent to teach children about God so they can develop their own relationship with Him, as they come to know Him personally for themselves. Then when life hits them, they will not back away from God, they will run to Him. Let's prepare this generation to face what the future holds by getting Christ in their hearts, and getting them rooted and grounded in His love.

Proverbs 22:6 (NKJV) Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.

To God be the glory.
Dee Richardson, Voice of the Dove

SAY IT!

I was watching a rerun episode of Celebrity Name Game, and they were in the head-to-head round where the host, Craig Ferguson, would give a clue and the first contestant to buzz in and give the correct answer would win the designated money for that question. The first contestants to reach $3,000 would advance to the next round.

As tension mounted, one of the contestants buzzed in with an answer that would’ve put them over $3000. Instead of confirming whether the contestant was right or wrong, Craig Ferguson just stood there in a long, cold silence. When the contestant couldn’t take it anymore, he began jumping up and down screaming, “Say it!!” Finally, Craig Ferguson acknowledged the answer was correct and they had won their bank and advanced.

While this contestant was uncontrollably jumping up and down, and screaming at the top of his lungs, the Lord showed me that this contestant was ME!

There are times when I’m desperately waiting for my prayers to be answered and my impatience resembles that contestant jumping up and down screaming “Say it!!” at the top of my lungs, wanting God to hurry up and respond.

The psalmist David said, “I would’ve lost heart, unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.”

That’s what I need… a believing heart that is secure in the goodness and faithfulness of God.

The Lord said to the prophet Habakkuk, “The vision awaits an appointed time – though it might linger, wait for it because it will surely come to pass, and it will not delay.”

Habakkuk had a lot of hard questions to ask the Lord because some things just made no sense at all to him. The Lord was patient to answer his questions, and strengthen his faith, even in the day of trouble when impatience wanted to make him scream, holler and jump up and down.

Yet, the prophet said, “I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in the God of my salvation.”

One of my favorite verses in the Bible is Isaiah 41:10…

Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.

To God be the glory.
Dee Richardson, Voice of the Dove

BE KIND

Two years ago, I kept receiving messages to “be kind”. These were pictures and posts that kept popping up here and there that I knew could not just be a coincidence because it happened too many times. It had me scratching my head trying to figure out when I had been unkind, and to whom I had been unkind. Why did the Lord keep sending me this message?

It was my thoughts about strangers in the grocery store, or the neighbor next door that wouldn’t keep his dog quiet, or the annoying neighbor on the other side who seems to be irritating on purpose. My silent thoughts about these people could be most unkind at times. The Lord was telling me to be just as kind in my thoughts, as I am in my actions, not because they earned it but because it’s the right and human thing to do. Show kindness, even when they can’t see it.

Ephesians 4:32 (NASB) Be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.

To God be the glory.

Dee Richardson, Voice of the Dove

IN THE IMAGE AND LIKENESS OF GOD

When God created Adam, He said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness.” Before Jesus became a human being, He existed in past eternity. He was the Word in the bosom of God. Before the Holy Spirit came to earth, He also existed. They created Adam in the moral, spiritual, and intellectual nature of God… in His image and likeness.

When Adam and Eve sinned, that image and likeness became very flawed. They developed a sin-nature that was passed on to their children. By the time Noah’s generation came along, that sin-nature was only evil continually. God wiped the earth clean through the flood and started over with Noah and his family.

Any efforts to remain godly became futile because of the weakness of man’s sin-nature to remain godly. The apostle Paul said, “I don’t practice what I want to do, but I do what I hate.” That is the power of the sin-nature in mankind. The Ten Commandments became a struggle because of the power of the sin-nature working against their will to do the right thing. The image and likeness of God that once defined Adam, no longer existed.

Along came Christ Jesus. He was made in the likeness of sinful flesh, but did not have a sin-nature. He was conceived in Mary’s womb by the Holy Spirit. Jesus was not conceived by a human father, so He was not born with the sin-nature that we have through Adam. He was completely human, and remained completely God, the Word.

The apostle Paul said, “God made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” Once again, we have been made in the image and likeness of God through the last Adam.

Romans 7:24-25 (NLT) Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord.

To God be the glory.

Dee Richardson, Voice of the Dove