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Coffee Break – 01.28.2019

Your Monday Dose Of Inspiration

On this day in history: In 1878, the first telephone switchboard was installed in New Haven, CT. In 1922, the National Football League (NFL) franchise in Decatur, IL, transferred to Chicago. The team took the name Chicago Bears. And in 1986, the U.S. space shuttle Challenger exploded just after takeoff. All seven of its crew members were killed.

Coffee Break

Today Is National Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day!
Pop. Pop. Pop. Poppoppoppoppop!

Creative Uses For Old Coffee Grounds – Here’s a video that gives you some creative ideas for those soggy grounds that we all throw away.

A Man’s Guide To Dress Shirt Color And Pattern – I like to dress up occasionally, and kind of enjoy it. I do not have a job where it is required daily though. For those that do, this is a helpful guide.

Of Friends And Brothers – This was a very inspiring story. Kind of makes me want to take a DNA analysis…

Carnival Scam Science – And How To Win – As a kid, I loved the carnival games. But I never really stopped to consider just how weighted they are in favor of the carnival. This video exposes them for what they are, and tells you which ones you might be able to win.

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Memorize Scripture: Psalm 119:97-100

Hiding God’s Word In Our Hearts

With the close of the last stanza, the psalmist has turned a corner. Where there was bleak despair just a few verses before, now there is complete joy and love for God’s Word. It is an incredibly uplifting passage. Take a look at it in Psalm 119:97-100:

Psalm 119:97-100

With such a change in tone, you might wonder if this is even the same person writing these words about God’s Word, but there is no doubt that it is. And the reason for his confidence is the topic of this stanza. The psalmist has identified the source of such joy and wonderment to be the very words of God.

Although the psalmist has written of God’s love before this, such as he did in verses 47 and 48, this is his most eloquent expression of it yet. In this stanza, he gives five different reasons that he loves God’s Word as much as he does, and communicates that to his readers in such a way that we are encouraged to love it deeply as well. Four of these are listed in the second half of this stanza, and we will not deal with them yet, saving them for next week.

But the first reason is repeated three times in the first half of the stanza, emphasizing its importance, and is worth examining a bit closer.

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Flight To Egypt

Matthew 2:13-18

While the Christmas season may be over for 2019, I still am enamored by the nativity accounts in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. Shortly after the birth of Jesus, Magi from the East came to visit him, bearing gifts. From there, Joseph took Jesus and Mary and headed to Egypt.

Flight To Egypt

King Herod was interested in finding the baby Jesus, not because he wanted to worship him, as he implied to the Magi, but because he viewed him as a threat to his throne. So he arranged for the Magi to return to him, relating the details of their discovery of Jesus, so he could eliminate him. However, God had other plans, and as we look at this section of Matthew 2, we can see that his plans were in place from the very beginning.

God sends an angel to Joseph in a dream, telling him to flee to Egypt, in verse 13. This was a command to depart right away, and verse 14 indicates that it probably took place on that same night that the Magi arrived. This was according to God’s plan all along, and Matthew indicates this clearly by one of a long list of prophecies that surrounded the birth of the Savior. In this case, the Old Testament passage quoted is from Hosea 11:1:

When Israel was a youth I loved him, And out of Egypt I called My son.

A trip to Egypt would not have been a difficult thing to do. Traveling one hundred miles directly from Bethlehem would put Joseph well past the border, and two hundred miles would put him at the Nile River. In Egypt, there the family would find friends, probably relatives, because there were an estimated one million Jews in the Nile valley at that point in history. Early tradition states that this small family came to the cities of On or Heliopolis. And of course, the trip was easily financed, with the gifts that the Magi had recently delivered to them.

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Coffee Break – 01.21.2019

Your Monday Dose Of Inspiration

On this day in history: In 1853, Dr. Russell L. Hawes patented the envelope folding machine. In 1855, gun designer John Browning, sometimes referred to as the “father of modern firearms,” is born. And in 1970, the Boeing 747 made its first commercial flight from New York to London for Pan American.

Coffee Break

Today Is Squirrel Appreciation Day!
Yep. You read that right. Go hug a squirrel. Or maybe not…

Five Reasons Your Coffee Sucks – And just for the record… Mine does not.

5 Ways You’re Destroying Your Clothes – I have long ago decided that there is no reason I can’t be one of the best dressed people in any room. But if I am going to be buying quality clothing, there needs to also be some aspect of maintaining and repairing those items as needed. Here are some things you can do to make your clothing last longer.

Our Minds Can Be Hijacked… – I have become more and more of an advocate for putting down the phone. This article is a year old, but what it heralds remains eerily true, and perhaps even more so than when it was written. It’s a long read, but well worth it.

Why Photos Of The Eiffel Tower At Night Are Illegal – Did you even know about this? I didn’t. And it’s very interesting information.

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Memorize Scripture: Psalm 119:93-96

Hiding God’s Word In Our Hearts

Very often, we read Scripture with a very generalized view. By that, I mean that we don’t live as if God’s Word is really living and active in our lives. In this passage from Psalm 119, the psalmist shows just how important Scripture is in his own life. Take a look at the first half in Psalm 119:93-96:

Psalm 119:93-96

I fall into that camp all too often myself. I read through a passage of Scripture and fail to see the relevance to my own life. Sometimes, it’s because I am rushing through the reading, so I can get on with other aspects of my day. Other times, my mind is too distracted by something else. And still other times, I simply fail to trust that God’s Word will give me the strength I need to make it through the day.

Throughout Psalm 119, the writer has not done any of those things. He has had some low points in his life, where his enemies are attacking him, and where he almost seems to wish that his life were over, despairing to the utmost. But never, not once, does he give up on God’s Word as a source of the strength and power that sustains him through all of his trails and the events of his life.

In this stanza, the psalmist seems to have turned a corner, and the worst is behind him. From here, the tone of Psalm 119 will be much more uplifting. And here, in this passage, the writer tells us why. He gives us three things that God has given to him – and to us – through his Word.