A Lesson From Coffee
By: Jeff Lappano, Jeff@tddm.org

“For God so loved the world, that He gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him, shall not perish, but have eternal life."
~John 3:16 (NASB)

Having dinner at my grandparents is always a blast. It’s even so much better when my aunt comes. The best part of course is the desert time. Coffee with whatever deserts my grandparents happens to have. Me, being the youngest and all, I love coffee with cream and a lot of sugar. My aunt and grandmother likes just cream. Grandpa, on the other hand likes his “cup of Joe” totally black. Of course there are little comments between us of the different ways we drink the coffee, but never have we gotten into a huge brawl.

Turn to 1 Corinthians 1:11, 12“For I have been informed concerning you, my brethren, by Chloe’s people, that there are quarrels among you. Now I mean this, that each of you is saying, “I am of Paul”, and “I am of Appollos”, and “I am of Cephas”, and “I am of Christ.” The people were fighting about the different teachings by the different men of God. All of these men were teaching accurately the life changing Gospel. Yet the church was arguing about who was teaching right, and who was teaching wrong.

What in the world does this have to do with us living at the end of 2003? The word I’m thinking of is denominations. We have so many denominations in the world today. From personal experience, I know that we have an attitude such as the church at Corinth. If we want to life as brothers and sisters in the Lord, we so just got to get over the denomination beliefs.

How does the scriptures and illustration fit together? It doesn’t matter if you put cream and/or sugar in it, or the amount thereof, its still coffee. Hebrews 9 tells us that Christ took His own blood into the holy place, and put it on the mercy seat. God gave his begotten son for the shedding of His blood. That is salvation. There is no other way to the Father but by the Blood of the Lamb. Lets get over our denominational doctrines and come together in the unity of the blood. Lets get over the fighting and remember that the only way to the Father is accepting Jesus as your Lord and Savior.

Amen to that.