Monday January 24, 2011

Your Heart's Desires

Psalms 37:4-5

⁴ Take delight in the Lord,

      and he will give you your heart’s desires.   

⁵ Commit everything you do to the Lord. 

Trust him, and he will help you.

I have found this verse used to argue with God and even pitch a defense for our side of things.  I believe the key and most important part of this little snip-it of scripture is the first five words:  "Take delight in the Lord".  The part we tend to focus on is: "And he will give you your heart's desires".  To me, it makes more sense to read the verses backwards: 

 ⁵ Commit everything you do to the Lord.

      Trust him, and he will help you.  

⁴ Take delight in the Lord, 

and he will give you your heart’s desires.

What I have found in my walk, has given me insight and wisdom about my own heart's desires.  We must first submit: hard to do, at least for me.  Not just say it, but in your heart of heart's really realize it's all His.  I, for most of my life took the credit for a success or accomplishment. I believe for most of us, we would say we trust our Lord & Savior.  The rubber hits the road when we face a loss, a tragedy, a personal financial melt down, a life changing illness and the list goes on.  As hard as it may seem, when your smack dab in the middle of these types of situations, we need to ask ourselves, do we really believe and trust God's Will and Purpose for our lives? 

The reason I pose this question, is because when we can walk within this type of faith, as hard as it may be at the time, I believe we are showing God instead of telling Him. We show God our commitment, trust and our delight in Him when our faith doesn't waiver because of the worldly circumstances that surround us.

His plan is bigger than than circumstance, bigger than me and where I find myself today.  

What I have found as we build our relationship with the Lord; really seek his kingdom.  You will find as I did, those desires in your heart, will become oh so different.  The things of this world and your motives behind your actions will be based upon God's principles and His will for your life.  When this happens the desires in your heart become pure and less diluted with the things of the world.

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

Godspeed,

James Boening

Sunday January 23, 2011

Advice for Young & Old

Ecclesiastes 11:7-10

  ⁷ Light is sweet; how pleasant to see a new day dawning.

 ⁸ When people live to be very old, let them rejoice in every day of life.  But let them also remember there will be many dark days. Everything still to come is meaningless.  ⁹ Young people, it’s wonderful to be young! Enjoy every minute of it. Do everything you want to do; take it all in. But remember that you must give an account to God for everything you do.  ¹⁰So refuse to worry, and keep your body healthy.  But remember that youth, with a whole life before you, is meaningless.

The book of Ecclesiastes was written by King Solomon.  A man, during his time was probably was one of the most powerful and riches men in the world.  He was able to experience life for all of the earthly pleasures one's heart might desire to seek for happiness and meaning.  Solomon, for most his life sought the things of this world and searched for the missing things that would finally give him that inner peace we all seek.  This book within the Bible could be used to give seminars to the political, the rich & CEO's all around the world, on how & what is really important.  If we could teach and spread the good news to these men and women of authority, great reach and  influence, I believe we would see a shift like never before.

At first glance Solomon seems like a man so ungrateful and almost depressed.  I'm not sure of the number of times he uses the word "meaningless", but it's a bunch.  It can be hard to read, if you don't read the book to the end.  He tells us to live life, experience the wonders of the world, he tells us to rejoice in the splendor of each day and gives us such profound wisdom throughout the whole book.      Then always seem to end it by telling us it's all meaningless.  I remember the first time reading Ecclesiastes and saying to myself so which one is it: Am I suppose to experience life or shouldn't I, because really it's all just meaningless?  

But with age comes wisdom.  And I finally read the the last two verses:

Ecclesiastes 12:13-14

¹³ That’s the whole story.  Here now is my final conclusion: Fear God and obey his commands, for this is everyone’s duty.  ¹⁴ God will judge us for everything we do, including every secret thing, whether good or bad.

What Solomon finally realized is that it is good to live life to it's fullest but the most important and meaningful thing one should seek,  is to have a personal relationship with God.  An intimate and daily relationship; he had what I call a light bulb moment.  I believe that if we desire that relationship with our Lord and play by his rules, the life that we seek becomes like a sweet light that you just can't get enough of.  Just remember this: It's our personal relationship with our Lord & Savior that makes everything run, look and feel better.

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

Godspeed,

James Boening

Saturday January 22, 2011

A Lesson in Wisdom!

Proverbs 12:1

¹ To learn, you must love discipline;
      it is stupid to hate correction.

When you first read this it seems harsh and maybe even something easily said in public, but who really could possible love discipline or love to be corrected when wrong?  I believe the essence of the word "love" in this scripture doesn't mean how we, so often think of the word: enjoyment, bliss, contentment, happiness, the word is so much more than physical emotions or feelings.  We often base our relationships and our marriages on this small area of love and that is why so many people give up or throw in the towel and run to the next relationship or next marriage.  These emotions and feelings are nice and it is how all relationships start, but there is so much more to the word "love".  I believe we have forgotten how to truly love.  True Love is selfless, patient, endurance, steadfast and commitment regardless of feelings and emotions.  True Love is action not based on how you feel at that moment.  True Love sees the bigger picture, it takes emotion out of the equation and places Jesus as not part of the equation, but as the the answer to the equation.  We have all seen seen the bracelets, WWJD (what would Jesus do?).  I always thought that they got it a little wrong.  By asking what would Jesus do always seemed to me a little self-righteous.  So often we think we are suppose, "to do".  When in reality we should be asking ourselves this question.  WDJD, What Did Jesus Do?  I can make this promise to all, Our Lord & Savior endured all temptation humiliation, pain, sorrow, unjustly accused and gave his life for you and I.  It makes it a lot easier to say what did Jesus do instead of what would Jesus do?  He has already done it, don't think you have do it alone.  True Love: Jesus didn't want to be brutally beaten and put on cross to die, he wasn't happy, content, filled with bliss or enjoyment. As a matter fact he prayed, Father if you can take this cup  from me please take, but not my will but yours.  He couldn't hardly bare to think what he was about to go through.  But thank God he didn't base his love on his feelings and emotions.  Just remember the roots that hold us in place and show true love are:  selfless, patient, endurance, steadfast and commitment.  Without these in place, all the other emotions and feelings will blow away in the wind and never find a home and never have or experience True Love.  After all of this, I believe we can understand and carryout the scripture above.  We must learn to Love what is right and to endure for one simple reason:  Our Lord & Savior showed us it is possible.

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

Godspeed,

James Boening

Friday January 21, 2011

A Wife of Noble Character

For those of you that are not married, I want you to understand how important this decision is!  Outside your salvation, this will be the most important decision of your life.  A partnership so important that this one decision can mean the difference between a best friend for life or a life filled with regret.  I urge all of those who have not taken this step of wedlock to read this next passage of scripture.  For me, I have said this before and will say again, my wife has been the rock when I've wavered, she has loved and cared for this family. Her family is her prized possession and far more important than the things of this world.  She has fought and prayed for us like a great warrior in battle.  We have been through some deep, deep valley's and she never gave up.  

For those of you that are already married and feel like giving up I say this, your marriage is always worth fighting for, ALWAYS.  The things of this world will infiltrate every marriage in their own and deceptive way.  The enemies  number one task is to destroy marriages.  When the marriages are ruined the families will fall and when the families fall so fall all the things around it: homes, kids, neighbors, communities, schools and even churches.  There is great power when a family is united in the Lord.  The families are the pillars to our society.  You remove the pillars to a structure what happens?  Complete and utter destruction.  That is why the enemy has attacked the institute of marriage with a vengeance.  Marriage will be difficult and sometimes seem not worth the struggle, we tell ourselves it would be easier to to start over.  This my friends is one of the enemies greatest lies.  We've all heard the saying: "Anything worth fighting for is never easy".  The enemy tells us the exact opposite: "Anything worth having should not be this difficult".  

I leave you with this scripture that embodies the woman I married!

Proverbs 31:10-12, 14-15, 17, 20, 23-31

¹⁰ Who can find a virtuous and capable wife?  
 She is more precious than rubies.
 ¹¹ Her husband can trust her,
      and she will greatly enrich his life.
 ¹² She brings him good, not harm,
      all the days of her life.

 ¹⁴ She is like a merchant’s ship,
      bringing her food from afar.
 ¹⁵ She gets up before dawn to prepare breakfast for her household
      and plan the day’s work for her servant girls.

 ¹⁷ She is energetic and strong,
      a hard worker.

 ²⁰ She extends a helping hand to the poor
      and opens her arms to the needy.
 

 ²³ Her husband is well known at the city gates,
      where he sits with the other civic leaders.
 ²⁴ She makes belted linen garments
      and sashes to sell to the merchants.

 ²⁵ She is clothed with strength and dignity,
      and she laughs without fear of the future.
 ²⁶ When she speaks, her words are wise,
      and she gives instructions with kindness.
 ²⁷ She carefully watches everything in her household
      and suffers nothing from laziness.

 ²⁸ Her children stand and bless her.
      Her husband praises her:
 ²⁹ “There are many virtuous and capable women in the world,
      but you surpass them all!”

 ³⁰ Charm is deceptive, and beauty does not last;
      but a woman who fears the Lord will be greatly praised.
 ³¹ Reward her for all she has done.
      Let her deeds publicly declare her praise.

My prayer for all of you is that the Lord pour Peace & Protection over you and your families.  And for those of you who haven't gotten married yet, please take your time and make sure you are equally yoked.  Because you will have extreme temptations and come against great difficulties, but remember this: It's Always Worth Fighting For!!  

I want to thank all of for taking the time to start your day with "God's Cup of Coffee".

Godspeed,

James Boening

Thursday January 20, 2011

Personality Trait's

Again, I am using scripture from Ephesians.

Ephesians 4:2-4

² Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love. ³ Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace. ⁴ For there is one body and one Spirit, just as you have been called to one glorious hope for the future.

For us "A" type personalities, I have struggled with the first sentence most of my life.  Humility and being gentle are not something that has come easy.  I have often plowed through and been head strong in a lot of areas in my life.  Especially when it came to business.  When I look back, it was in times of plenty, that I would drift from spending time with the Lord.  I believe this tells me, I was taking the credit myself for my good fortune and not giving thanks to my Lord & Savior for the things he had loaned to me at the time.  I have had to learn over and over again it's all his.  God willing, on my next mountain peak, I hope and pray that I bask in humility and with great awe of his wonderful blessing's.   What we must realize is the same great traits that the Lord has blessed us with to advance his kingdom, is the same traits the enemy uses to advance his kingdom.  We all have certain personality trait's, and the only way to keep from using these trait's for the enemy is to spend time with the Lord.  An intimate and personal relationship is the key to carry out these type of qualities listed in Ephesians:  Humble, Patient, Love and Gentle (when I hear the word gentle I think of words like: soft spoken, compassion, caring and thoughtfulness).  Then the rest of the scripture I believe tells us what happens internally when we seek these traits daily: united in the Spirit (one with God), peace and glorious hope.  I love that it says Glorious Hope and not just Hope.  We all have the ability to drift from his protection.  I am finding that with age comes wisdom and a greater understanding.  The quality of life is so much more important than quantity of life.  My hope and prayer for all of you is that you find, quality of life and seek the Lord daily.  I think you will find the sooner we do this in life the sooner we can walk in his Glorious Hope.  I want to thank all of you who start your day with "God's Cup of Coffee". 

Godspeed,

James Boening

P.S.  Please click on the Face Book Badge above and click "like" on the Face Book Page so that I can spread the word through as many different forums  as possible and reach as many people as I can.  Thanks for your support and help in spreading the word.

Wednesday January 19, 2011

A Prayer of Love

One of my favorite books in the Bible is Ephesians, it is definitely in my top 10.   I nearly have the entire book highlighted.  Paul talks straight to my heart about hope, spiritual wisdom, spiritual blessings and a oneness and unity with Christ.  And then; right in the middle of the book he prays these words:

Ephesians 3:14-19

¹⁴ When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, ¹⁵ the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth.  ¹⁶ I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit.  ¹⁷ Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong.  ¹⁸ And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is.  ¹⁹ May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.

When I read this, it energizes me.  Paul was praying this over all of the Christian Church.  I know how comforting it is know that there are people out there praying for me.  I have personally seen the power of prayer work in mine and my families life.  My wife, Leigh Anne is a prayer warrior and without her stead fast prayers over this family, I'm not sure where we would be today.   Prayer is powerful and if your not sure anyone is praying for you just read the scripture above and know Paul prayed these most amazing words over all of us many years ago, and that's the beautiful thing about prayer, it goes on and on and on.  A prayer said today has the power to carry on for eternity.  As far as I know God has never told us that the prayers we say today are only good for a limited amount of time.  Wow that means we should be praying for the generation of great grandchildren we may never see.  I pray every morning for all of you that take the time  to start your day with "God's Cup of Coffee", that the Lord Rain Down from Heaven Above His great Glory, Mercy & Blessings over You & Your Families.  Once again thank you for starting your day with "God's Cup of Coffee" & Please tell as many people as you can about this Blog and spread God's word.  

Also I have created a Face book Community page.  Please check it out and feel free to interact and give any feed back!

Thanks for all your support & Godspeed,

James

Tuesday January 18, 2011

Real Peace or Artificial

Philippians 4:10-13

¹⁰ How I praise the Lord that you are concerned about me again. I know you have always been concerned for me, but you didn’t have the chance to help me. ¹¹ Not that I was ever in need, for I have learned how to be content with whatever I have. ¹² I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little. ¹³ For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.

I struggled this morning with coming up with something to write about.  You see, I am in a valley of my own and had to ask myself are these words that I'm posting and writing down my core or are they words to hide behind?  We will question these things as we travel through the different season's of our life.  As I prayed this morning and laid all my junk on the table, I found myself having a small pity party.  The longer I prayed and the more I took my eye's off of me and starting praying for others in need, and far less fortunate, I slowly felt that pity party for my valley disappearing.  This is why it is so important to spend quite time with the Lord everyday and dive into His word.  We need to ask ourselves this question.  Has our peace changed because our circumstance's changed?  If we lose our peace and joy because our circumstances have turned bad, we have to wonder was our good fortune the reason for our happiness?  God is looking for a deep personal relationship, not lip-service.  Do we trust Him, do we truly, really trust Him?  It's easy to find peace when the road we are walking is paved with bliss.  What I try to do in times of my valley, is fall back to the stories in the bible of Great hope and try to remember, God knows the outcome.  He sees what tomorrow holds and the next day and the next day.  For those of us that have children, remember this as much as we love our own children, God loves us more than that.  I don't believe we have to like the valley our enjoy the pain or suffering, but we can have inner peace that He loves us and will see us through it.  God Loves Us, God Loves Us, we must not forget how much He Loves Us!  I pray that the Lord Bless and Protect You and Your Families and I Thank You for starting Your Day with "God's Cup of Coffee".