Sunday February 27, 2011

The Enemy is Always Lurking

1 Corinthians 10:11

¹² If you think you are standing strong, be careful not to fall.

We must always realize the times of some of our greatest vulnerability to the enemy is often when we are the closest to the Lord.  The enemy is so cunning that he places things or opportunities in our path ever so slightly that we may not even notice them at the time.  We can become to confident in our own abilities to realize we should be praying at this moment instead of taking the next step.

We cannot accomplish the Lord's will for our lives without Him in complete control.  Sometimes when we spend so much time with Him we can find ourselves over confident and even cocky.  Both of these are the opening for the enemy to attack.  We must always remember to walk daily with great humility and discernment.  Over confidence in our own abilities to make the right decision is often times disastrous . Our confidence should be in the Lord's promises to never forsake us and Love us unconditionally.  He has told us He will never allow us to experience more than we can bear and has told us He will always give us a way out but the only way to do that is to completely trust Him in all situations and pray constantly for His protection and guidance in our daily walk.  Be CONFIDENT in the Lord in all things and surrender your confidence, your will and your desires at His feet and watch the Lord fill your sails with His glorious power.  This next statement should be all we need to wake each day with and abundance of Hope & Love.

For all of us who have and accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord & Savior and asked Him to forgive us of our sins and believe he died on the cross and rose from the dead three days later to ascend to the right hand of the Father, remember this:

WE'VE ALREADY WON!

I want to thank all of you for your support and for starting your day with a "Cup of God's Coffee".

Godspeed,

James Boening

Tuesday February 22, 2011

A Call to Listen to God!

Hebrews 12:14-15

¹⁴ Work at living in peace with everyone, and work at living a holy life, for those who are not holy will not see the Lord.  

God has taught us through His scripture and His son that our eternal salvation is a gift, it can't be bought or earned so that no man or woman can boast.  

So often, we find ourselves in the church in a battle between works and faith.  It is very simple to keep straight if we would slow down and let the Lord speak to us and read His word.  

Our eternal salvation is a gift, period.  It's a one time act between you and the Father.  Our works here on earth are part of God's plan for all of His children, each one of us have special gifts given to us out of Love from our heavenly Father.  

The reason God instructs us to WORK at living in peace and Work at living a holy life is not for His benefit but for ours.  God knows if we Work at the things of the Lord we will live a life filled with internal peace, hope and love.  We will live blessed lives by developing our special gifts.

Look at it like this: take an Olympic athlete for example.  everyone of these men and women had a God given gift, the only difference between an Olympic athlete and an average athlete with the same God given gift, boils down to one word, WORK & Sacrifice.

We need to ask ourselves what is my gift from God?  What can I do to Work on making that gift better to serve Him?  What is my calling?  Just like that Olympic athlete, he didn't just wake up one day and try out for the Olympic team.  He or she spent many, many years training to achieve this goal.  It starts with baby steps, conditioning, a plan and a desire that stops at nothing to achieve your goal.  It's no different in our walk with the Lord, if we've accepted Him as our Lord and Savior, our names are written in the Lambs Book of Life.  God wants more for us than just to make the Olympic team, He wants us to finish the race with a gold metal.  He wants great and wonderful things for our lives.  He has given each of us gifts and all the instructions and tools to achieve our gold metal, its up to us to Work and often times make Great Sacrifice to fine tune our Gifts God has given us.

I believe the last part of this verse is taken differently by most and causes the battles between works and faith: for those who are not holy will not see the Lord.  If we believe and trust the Lord, that nothing can pluck us from our Fathers hand and salvation is a Gift and not earned, then the only way that this last part of this verse makes sense is this.  I will paraphrase the words: for those who don't work to be holy, because none are holy or pure of sin, we will not see the Lord in our daily lives.  We will not experience the Lord's presence or see Him revealed on our time here on earth.  It has nothing to do with our salvation.

I want to thank all of you that still log on to read the blog, I have made a commitment to make the time and make some sacrifices to make sure I write more often regardless of my current busy schedule.

Thanks again for starting your day with "God's Cup of Coffee."

Godspeed,

James Boening

     

Sunday February 13, 2011

Happy Valentine's Day

To the second love of my life: 

My wife Leigh Anne,

This is probably not the way you would think to start a writing to your wife on Valentine's Day or any day for that matter.  But I know my wife would have it no other way.  You see, I can't truly love my wife unless she's second, I can't truly care for my wife unless she's second, I can't truly stay committed through thick and thin unless she's second!  As a matter of fact you can't whether the test of time if your wife is the first love of your life.  

Like I said earlier my wife would have it no other way.  She has seen what happens over our 20 years together when I stop putting the first love of my life, first.  She will tell you when we first meet she fell in love with a man that had a deep love affair with someone she also loved.  She would tell you that my love for the this someone was filled in my speech, my walk and in my eyes.  The window to our souls is through our eyes.  She fell in love with this man because she knew that she was second to a love affair that was first.  

Because I loved this someone first, she knew I could love her like no other.  The problem was I didn't always do this.  Because of my wifes love affair with that same someone and always staying faithful to her first love affair, she was the rock when I wasn't, she prayed when I didn't, she was strong when I wasn't and she was able to stand by my side when most would run.  

So, I want my wife to know that she will always be my second love and I will always seek out daily and grow my first love affair with both of our first love affairs: 

OUR LORD & SAVIOR, JESUS CHRIST!

I LOVE YOU, YOUR HUSBAND,

James!

Wednesday February 3, 2011

Missing In Action!

I want to apologize to all the people that follow the blog daily, for not being able to post over the last couple of days.  I have taken a consultant job in a different state and it has been very difficult to incorporate my quiet mornings of prayer and writing.  I have been praying but not writing.  It may be a little on and off over the next 30 days, but I'm am going to do my best to find the time to post as often as I can.  

Philippians 2:14-16

 ¹⁴ Do everything without complaining and arguing, ¹⁵ so that no one can criticize you.  Live clean, innocent lives as children of God, shining like bright lights in a world full of crooked and perverse people.  ¹⁶ Hold firmly to the word of life; then, on the day of Christ’s return, I will be proud that I did not run the race in vain and that my work was not useless. 

The reason I have chosen this scripture is because I have stepped back into the world of working outside the house.  I immediately found myself surrounded with ungodly people that had no regard for a life of Christ.  From the people at the place of business to the customers walking in the door.  I was put to the test in every form of temptation in an instant.  I felt like an alien from another planet.  My eyes, ears and mind have been made sensitive to the spirit of God; (that I am so thankful for), but found myself a foreigner in the world I live in.  I am thankful for so many opportunities to be a witness to so many, so quickly.  But, I also must recognize how important it is to cover ourselves in the Lord not just daily, but constantly.  I haven't walked upright and righteous or walked in with my bible holding a cross for them to notice there's something different about me.  It has been as simple as lending a helping hand when I didn't have to, smiling all day even in the midst of a mess, not participating when the foul language started flying, not hiding a mistake to the owners when the employees thought I should, giving everybody respect regardless of their title.  I believe that when we  witness for God, He isn't always expecting us to shove our beliefs down someone else's throat, but sometimes do just the opposite.  I think He calls us to live a Godly life with morales, integrity and character regardless of what the world around us is doing.  People are watching and deep down people are attracted to these traits,  whether they posses them or not.  They may not even know why or what is different about you, but I can promise this they know something's different.

As it says in the scripture, we must hold TIGHTLY to the WORD of life, because we live in a world of perverse and crooked people.  Let God shine through you and be that soldier for Christ in today's battle field of Life.  Trust me they're paying attention.

I want to thank all of you for your support and for starting your day with "God's Cup of Coffee".

Godspeed,

James Boening