It all starts and ends with Jesus…

100% man, yet 100% God. So human, yet so divine. He is not just one or the other, He is completely both… but ONE Christ.

The gospel of Jesus Christ is perfect, pure and so absolutely profound. The message is so clear, so real, so direct and so obvious. It is a message founded on one word… Love.

As humans, we have perverted faith into religion, but everything about the message of Jesus is all about reconciliation and relationship. God saw a need, and He met it…. And now its up to us.

Jesus came to give us a personal relationship with God through Himself, a personal connection with our creator, a personal hope, a personal faith, a personal, unique and individual purpose.

Admiring the time Jesus spent on earth, I stumbled across a really cool thought… Jesus carried a personal relationship with God the Father, but there was a massive purpose attached to it. He was not just building His Church and performing miracles, he was living and carrying a personal intimate relationship with God.

What is your relationship with God like?

Is he personal to you?

God chose to be personal with you, so that you can be personal with him.

Can you imagine where we would be if Jesus was not personal with the Father? Moreover, where we would be if Jesus denied the purpose attached to his life?

When we speak about our “relationship” with Jesus, I feel for a lot of people there is a real disconnect. Big questions like:

Who said that?
Was that me?
Why do I feel this way?
Who is Jesus to ME?
What does He sound like?

It is ignorant to think that God has just one voice, just one accent, just one interpretation or only speaks one language. He is so much more then that. He is personal, unique, individual and intimate to YOU. He knows our hearts desires, our past mistakes, our current thoughts, our challenges we have been through and those that are to come… He knows, He cares, and He loves us anyway.

The truth is, He loves us SO much that he gave His best for YOU… just so YOU could know Him personally. God is so much bigger than we could ever comprehend… so big, he needs to be shared with others.

A relationship with God is not meant to be kept secret… the reason God is personal with YOU is so that he can be personal with OTHERS too. He demonstrated that by sharing Jesus. God gave us His personal best.

He is YOUR God
He is YOUR Saviour
He is YOUR Creator
He is YOUR Alpha
He is YOUR Omega
He is YOUR Beginning
He is YOUR Present Help
He is YOUR End
He is YOUR Redeemer
He is YOUR Rescuer
He is YOUR Refuge
He is YOUR Protector
He is YOUR Father
He is YOUR Answer
He is YOUR Lord
He is YOUR Shepherd
He is YOUR Healer
He is YOUR Provider
He is YOUR Banner
He is YOUR Peace
He is YOUR Advocate
He is YOUR Deliverer
He is YOUR Salvation

My encouragement to you is this. If you want to discover your purpose, it starts by making Jesus personal.

Jesus said to the people who believed in him, “You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teachings. 32And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
John 8:31-32 (NLT)

And then he told them, “Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone.
Mark 16:15 (NLT)

I love good coffee!

Anyone who knows me for longer than five minutes will notice my secret obsession with the tasty beverage. Living in a city with an abundance of trendy cafes and incredible selection of blends, there was no question that I would end up enjoying the sweet nutty flavours and rich tones of the second most widely used product in the world.

Thing is, I am not the only one who is hopelessly in love with coffee. 1.4 billion people drink coffee daily and its existence generates a living for over 100 million people. Important stuff coffee is. I have been drinking coffee for over a decade now, and I probably will continue to drink it for decades to come… but coffee to me, is no longer just a drink, it’s a revelation.

In the developed world, we often take for granted the blood, sweat and tears behind the products we consume. We often forget that our prosperity, is usually at the cost of others poverty… but that’s a whole different story.

I pose the question… what is a kilogram of coffee worth? What is the value? How much does it cost?? $25? $35? $45?? The only way to measure the true value of coffee, is by asking the bean itself.

And no, I am not saying that coffee beans have feelings, but I want to share on how the value of something depends a lot on the environment, conditions, the blood, sweat and tears and the preparation behind the production of it.

One morning a few months ago, I was going through my daily routine and preparing a coffee in the morning before work when God clearly spoke into my heart… “Admire the bean” ,my response was probably what yours would have been and was something along the lines of “What!? Weird! But okay” … I thought about it for a moment and thought about all the variables that have gone before I get to enjoy this cup of coffee…

The land, the weather, the environment, the care of the plant, the altitude, the picking, the importing, the preparation… and all before it arrives on our doorstep and into our grinders… interesting thought isn’t it?

Where are you positioning yourself in 2012?

What conditions are you surrounded by?

What environment are you planted in?

Are you caring for your plant?

What altitude have you planted your seeds?

Are you ready for a harvest?

Are you ready to go places you haven’t been before?

Are you prepared to pick up your cross and follow Jesus… daily?

When a coffee is prepared, the strength of the cup of coffee is determined by the grind, the pressure and the temperature of the water.

The finer the grind, the stronger the coffee.

The harder the coffee is pressed, the stronger the coffee.

The hotter the water, the stronger the coffee.

Only when these three things are combined, do we receive the perfect extraction and full flavor shot that the creator originally intended from the seed.

I cannot help to compare this thought to the message of Jesus. He came to earth as an extension of love, to face life in all of its challenges, to show YOU and I that life on earth is but a vapour, and that we too can live in direct relationship with God, that YOU have a purpose and by embracing your destiny, YOU too can bring glory to God through the challenges of life. Jesus came to give YOU a purpose, a hope and a future in Him.

Sometimes we may feel like we are going through a grinder, being pressured from all angles and going through the heat of life, but take heart, because Jesus has OVERCOME the world in all of its trials and sorrows.

The coffee bean does not know why it is going through what it is going through, but it is its destiny. Only if the bean fulfills its destiny by going THROUGH the grinder, pressed and heated can we determine its strength! The finer the grind, the more glory to God, the harder the pressing, the more glory to God, the hotter the water, the more glory to God!

Jesus died for you and I… if you want to know the value of your life, ask Jesus what it cost.

He is the author, our creator, our redeemer, our rescuer, our refuge, our passion, our purpose, our destiny, our desire, our friend, our Father, our overcomer and the Saviour!

Next time you look at a coffee bean, admire the bean.

“Do not be afraid, for I have ransomed you.
I have called you by name; you are mine.
When you go through deep waters,
I will be with you.
When you go through rivers of difficulty,
you will not drown.
When you walk through the fire of oppression,
you will not be burned up;
the flames will not consume you.”
Isaiah 43:1-2 (NLT)

“I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.”
John 16:33 (NLT)

Some more thoughts on coffee:
- Coffee expands during roasting by almost 20% in size
- The French and American revolutions were planned in coffee houses
- Pope Clement VIII loved coffee and authorised its use
- The New York Stock Exchange started as a coffee house