COFFEE MUGS!
by: Bette Owens
“….be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work.” – 2 Timothy 2:21
I love big coffee mugs. I have several different ones. I have some that have our church name on them. I also have one with a cute teddy bear on it that my secret sister gave me. It is so cute! I have one from my son’s church in Bulgaria. I have mugs that match my dishes. Coffee mugs come in all sizes and designs. My coffee mug is the vessel I use to serve me my coffee. Your body is the vessel God uses to serve Him, to bring honour and glory to Him.
Maybe I’m just picky, but I do not like to drink out of a mug that is cracked or chipped. I also do not like to drink out of a dirty mug. I definitely like to drink from a full mug, full of good coffee.
What kind of vessel are you? Are you cracked or chipped? Do you feel like you have been tossed around and dropped one too many times? Is this old world hitting you hard? I do not like drinking from a chipped coffee mug. No matter how much I try to avoid it, the chip always seems to be right there by my lip as I am trying to get a sip of coffee.
Recently I got a new set of dishes with some really nice coffee mugs. The very next day my daughter chipped one of the mugs getting it out of the dishwasher. I tried drinking out of that mug several times, but it was not going to work. My husband saved the piece that chipped off and glued it back in place. Now you can still see where it was chipped, but the cup is more usable. You know, living in this old world can cause us to mess up many times and even cause us to get some chips, but God takes the glue of His Word, and as we yield to the Holy Spirit, He fixes and makes us usable again. We all have some damage, but God can fix us and continue to use us. Oh, the chip is still noticeable, but we don’t have to dwell on the chip or crack. We have to choose to allow God to use us despite the damage, and mold us into what He wants. We do not have to allow the flaws in our lives to slow us down or to make us think we are unusable. We need to go to the Lord and allow Him to fix us.
Maybe you are not cracked or chipped, but you just aren’t clean. Have you ever gotten your coffee mug out of the dishwasher and it was not clean? I cannot stand to run the dishwasher and then pull out a dirty dish. That makes me very upset. The dishes are supposed to be clean. No one likes to drink out of a dirty coffee mug. What about us as Christians? We are supposed to be clean. We aren’t supposed to have any slime or the crusty stuff of the world on us. We are supposed to be living close to the Lord, living holy and clean lives. The only way we can live holy and clean lives is to daily yield to the Holy Spirit and allow Him through His Word to clean us up. It is not unusual to have several loads of dishes to wash each day, but sometimes one load has to be ran over again because the dishes did not get clean the first time. The same thing is true in our Christian lives. There are days we have to continually run to God and be rewashed. Washing is a daily thing we must do. Run to God’s Word and let Him clean you up.
I like my coffee mug full. Now some people may like pouring only a half cup of coffee at a time, but not me, I want a full cup. As Christians, we need to be filled up by Christ. In the Christian life, being half-full doesn’t work. We have to go to God’s Word constantly to be full. We have to pray and communicate with God. We have to allow the Holy Spirit to fill us and keep us filled.
The song, “Fill My Cup Lord” keeps running through my mind right now. The chorus goes like this:
Fill my cup Lord, I lift it up, Lord!
Come and quench this thirsting of my soul.
Bread of Heaven, feed me till I want no more.
Fill my cup, fill it up and make me whole.
I know coffee mugs come in all sizes and shapes, all with different decorations. Some cups are so pretty, but sometimes those decorative or funny mugs aren’t too practical. Maybe the cup is too small and won’t hold enough. Sometimes they have funny little handles that are hard to grasp and hold. Sometimes the paint on them will just rub off as they are being used. What about us as Christians, are we practical or are we just a decoration? Will we hold up with use or are we just pretty to look at? How strong is our faith? Is our faith strong or does it just look good, and when the pressure of life comes, we just fall apart? Many of these decorative mugs are seasonal, such as holiday mugs We get them out at Christmas or Thanksgiving, then we pack them away until next year.
What about us, are we seasonal or everyday Christians? Do we just go to church every week, do a few good works, and say all the right things on the outside but really don’t want to be used anymore than that? We are supposed to “….be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work.” I am not talking about the people who go to church just on Christmas and Easter. We can attend church each week and still be a “seasonal” Christian, only serving the Lord when we see fit, when we feel like it, or when there’s an activity going on that we happen to like. We shouldn’t just be weekly Christians, but we should be everyday Christians. We should be like the mugs sitting in the front row of the cupboard, ready to be taken down and used. The next time you drink a cup of coffee think of yourself. Are you ready to be filled and used as a faithful, clean and available vessel for our Lord Jesus Christ?
Bette Owens
Pastor’s wife
Westside Baptist Church
Pacifica, CA