Sin-namon Acid...

I sit here, listening to the stainless steel kettle as it bubbles and pops something unfamiliar. Not like tea water, but something much more acidic, yet fragrant and full of caffeine still...

My tiny little cup, traveled from across the globe, waits patiently as Its' heat reignites.

My mind wanders back to the sermon at church today and I shutter just a little. The message, in Peter, spoke to me. It spoke to me in a way, much like my much awaited cup of Cinnamon Vanilla Nut coffee speaks to me right now.

My coffee, on the edge of the counter, had already been brewed once today, yet there it sat...waiting, expectantly to roll across taste buds, delight the brain, and be swallowed down deep. Finally, a moment. Kids are snug, and there the cup sat. Waiting...growing stronger with each moment as it longed to penetrate my soul.

My soul...ah yes...staring at the passage from Peter, knowing it had been brewed once before. In fact, this exact passage has been brewed several times before, but it was allowed to sit. On the edge of who knows where, this passage, yes, this passage has been fragrantly waiting for some time.

I sip the piping hot coffee and it rolls down...down, down, burning, more acidic now. Similarities with the passage in Peter no less. Today I decided to drink the passage, reheated and more impressionable than before.

Dear friends, you are like foreigners and strangers in this world. (Much like my coffee in a tea kettle no less! Strange for sure...foreign to it's design...it's purpose. I wonder. I ponder. This world, if not our home, how much tastier we will be once we get there...)

I beg you to avoid the evil things your bodies want to do that fight against your soul. Fight against your soul...

Why...why do I struggle so. Perhaps the flavoring in my coffee could be spelled differently this night. Sin-namon Vanilla Nut.

Sin. Taken in, first, sip by sip. Then, once the burn cools just a little, gulp. by. gulp.
Sin becomes our passion...our idol.  We desire sin more than any other desirable thing. We think about it, obsess about it, plan it and indulge in it. We WANT it and, before we know it, our souls lie burned and naked before the Lord.

The good news? Christ carried our sins in his body on the cross so we would stop living for sin and start living for what is right. You are HEALED because of his wounds. You were like sheep that wandered away but now you have come back to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls...

Thank God for the wounds that He bore for us all. Thank God that He can carry our heavy loads, and that we can be brought back to the Overseer of our souls...

I pray this passage will linger with us all. That we will brew, and re-brew until it infuses just right. Until it penetrates our hearts, changes our minds, and wins over our souls.

May we proceed with caution in this foreign land...

1 Peter 2:11-25