Happy Thursday

Daily Grind by Kevin Corbin

I have a confession to make ... I enjoy a good cup of coffee. As with most things, too much coffee is not good for you, but in moderation it does no harm.

Antique - Colonial Coffee Grinder

I will also confess that I'm no connoisseur, but there are some coffees I prefer over others. I don't know the difference between Jamaican Blue Mountain, Hawaiian Kona or any other specialty blend. I me be able to tell them apart, but that would be extent of my ability. I couldn't tell which one was a "better" blend, I just know that I like some blends more than others.

In Canada, the coffee shop is the social equivalent of the British pub. It's where people gather for a beverage and a bite over some conversation. I have been frequenting one chain for more than 30 years, I won't identify it by name, but it has brought the expression "double-double" (meaning double cream and double sugar) into broad usage and it is not four-bucks.

Coffee is made from the roasted and ground beans of the Arabica or Robusta coffee plant. There are many other varieties of coffee but only these two groups are used as many of the others are toxic. Within the Arabica and Robusta groups are hundreds, perhaps thousands of sub-varieties making the selection of coffee virtually unlimited, certainly too varied for my undiscerning taste buds.

As I emptied yesterday's filter basket and started to make a fresh pot for the day, I meditated on coffee beans.

Coffee beans truly are an amazing thing. You can make a cup of coffee just by soaking the beans in cold water. It would be weak and flavorless, but it would still be coffee.

Or you can roast and grind a bean blend that is to your taste fresh every day and brew with boiling hot water. Same coffee and same water but what a difference in the results. Just the application of some heat combined with a little crushing and grinding make all the difference in the world.

That's the way God works in our lives too. Oh He can and will use a hardened heart like Pharaoh or Judas Iscariot, but what a difference when He works with a willing heart. Yes we'll undergo the heat from the trials of life. Yes we will be ground and shaped. When that happens though, the sweetest of all brews results.

Galatians 5:22-25 NET
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Now those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also behave in accordance with the Spirit.

Now God doesn't grow us all in the same place, nor does He heat or grind us all in the same way. Different coffees from different regions, combined produce differing flavor coffees. It is the same with us. He chooses us, heats us and grinds us to make us the best possible "brew" with our lives.

Are you going to work with Him to allow the most delightful cup or will you fight Him all the way and end up with a weak flavorless cup.

Until next time, may you learn to understand the trials of life are managed by God and give thanks.

Hallelu Yah (Praise God)
Be blessed
Kevin
Never let the enemy tell you that you are worthless or insignificant. You have value in the eyes of God so great that it was worth dying for. You are a blessing to the world. You are so precious to God that heaven will not be complete without you.

Trust and Obey

When we walk with the Lord in the light of His Word,

What a glory He sheds on our way!

While we do His good will, He abides with us still,

And with all who will trust and obey.

Refrain

     Trust and obey, for there’s no other way
     To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.

Not a shadow can rise, not a cloud in the skies,

But His smile quickly drives it away;

Not a doubt or a fear, not a sigh or a tear,

Can abide while we trust and obey.

Refrain

Not a burden we bear, not a sorrow we share,

But our toil He doth richly repay;

Not a grief or a loss, not a frown or a cross,

But is blessed if we trust and obey.

Refrain

But we never can prove the delights of His love

Until all on the altar we lay;

For the favor He shows, for the joy He bestows,

Are for them who will trust and obey.

Refrain

Then in fellowship sweet we will sit at His feet.

Or we’ll walk by His side in the way.

What He says we will do, where He sends we will go;

Never fear, only trust and obey.

Refrain

Morning Smile

A Tourist was driving down a country road in Kentucky when he saw a little boy walking down the road with only one shoe on.

He stopped and said, "What's the matter son? Did you lose a shoe?"

The boy says, "Nope! Just found one."