It was snowy winter day on Fort Dix, New Jersey during basic training. It was early 1988, and my platoon was out in the snow of New Jersey somewhere in the woods learning how to use a compass, I think. As we all sat down the Drill Sergeant offered us hot coffee or hot tea to take the bite off of the cold. I didn’t want any tea or coffee really, but I did want to be warm. I gathered with the other trainees in line to get a paper cup with black coffee. Now if you don’t like coffee, its probably the worse way to start with black coffee – no sugar, no Sweet’N Low, no creamer, but that’s what was offered and that’s what I had. I think the training sessions out in thew woods were about a week long, and after that week was over, coffee and I were good friends. It kept me warm, as it also distracted me from the cold. I’d do some task, or practice some new skill and come back to my, now cold, coffee. If I was fortunate, I could meander back up to the hot pot of coffee and top off what I had with some fresh warmth. The cold, taught me to like coffee, and now almost 40 years later, I love my coffee.
What does coffee have to do with Jesus? If you are having a hard time in your life, something you are totally powerless to face, or you are looking for a way to overcome something causing you pain and you know you can’t do it alone, Jesus can be to you what the coffee was to me. I didn’t like or want coffee, but I did want to be warm. Maybe you don’t want Jesus for whatever your reasons are, but maybe you can recognize that you need someone’s help, and maybe, sadly you need so much help that only the Son of God can help you … if only you believed. Most people don’t want to follow God’s rules they may have heard of and have to change their lives as Jesus asks, and that’s like the bitter taste of the coffee for me. But that situation in your life, like the cold New Jersey winter was for me, drive you to coffee, or in your case, Jesus. Maybe your situation is absolutely hopeless, without some miracle, or maybe it’s looking so bad you have no reason to think things will ever get better. I wish I could introduce you, to my Lord and Savior Jesus, because he can take care of you like no other. At first, as he helps you through whatever your situation is, you may still have a lot of concerns, and quite frankly not like some of his rules and protections. But, it took me a long time to realize those are one and the same – rules are protections. Your parents no doubt told you to look both ways before crossing the street, don’t touch the stove when things are cooking, don’t run in the house when you were a little child. These rules were protections, and so it is with God.
In closing, some of us will come to Jesus because we need him, and there is no other way. Or maybe for you he came gently and someone asked you if you’d like to do a bible study and learn who Jesus is, or some other friendly invitation. Whatever the circumstances in your life, seek God out and get to know him. Find out more about him before you reject him. When my infant son died, my first child, I had never never really known or acknowledged God, but found myself in the middle of a road one day yelling at this God I didn’t believe in for taking my son, not saving him. Even though I’d yelled at God and blamed and hated him in that road those years ago after my son passed away, my wife and I mourned him and healed and had two wonderful daughters. And about 18 years later, someone invited me to a bible study, and I came to know Jesus. The Lord was patient with me, and gentle, coming at a time when I would be open to hearing about him. If you are reading this and you don’t know Jesus as the Lord of your life, I pray you will reconsider, because the alternative is terrible, and I’d rather you didn’t burn in hell for eternity. Everyone has an eternal life, and it’s either very good, or very bad … but eternal just the same. I’m not trying to scare anyone, but I care enough that I don’t want to leave this out, and leave you not letting you know there are consequences to this choice.