Coffee and Confessions

coffeeI enjoy a good cup of coffee. A strong, dark roast is my preference. I would never buy ground coffee, only whole beans for this guy. My loving wife has forgiven me many times when I spend too much on coffee or come home from the thrift store with another coffee pot. I do occasionally enjoy a Latte Grande Mocha with Snickers and whip cream kind of drink. However, nothing compares to a cup of high quality dark roast coffee. That is my coffee preference. Many things in life are subject to our preferences. The confession of your Christian faith should not be subject to your preferences.  Once you let one of your preferences in it just opens the doors to more and more. After a while your confession goes from that pure dark roast cup of coffee to a nasty sugary drink that doesn’t taste anything like coffee.

Ingredients for good coffee and good confessions.

Generally good coffee starts with clean water and quality coffee. If you use water from the Mississippi River and coffee grounds out of the McDonald’s garbage can it’s probably not going to taste very good. The same thought goes into the confession of your Christian faith. A good confession starts and ends with the Bible and the Lutherans Confessions. Anything added will corrupt your confession, thus watering down the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The Corruption of Coffee and Confessions.

The best cup of coffee I have ever had was made by using a “pour over”. The pour over technique is basically pouring hot water over coffee grounds. There are plenty of instructions online to make the best possible cup with this technique. The result is a flavorful cup of coffee Mr. Coffee and Keurig can’t replicate. The “Big Three” corrupt coffee, preparation, sugar, and flavoring. Improper water temperature, incorrect grinding of coffee beans, too much sugar, and flavoring take away from the God-given flavor of the coffee.

There is also a “Big Three” that corrupt your Christian confession, The World, The Devil, and your Sinful Flesh.

The World would have you not confess anything. If you do confess your faith, make sure it’s very generic. You don’t want to offend anyone. The world will allow, “I believe in God”. That way the world can throw that confession of faith into a bag of all other religions. When you confess, “I Believe in God”, you really aren’t confessing anything at all.

The Devil wants you to stay quiet. You don’t need a confession. His corruption of the world is apparent. He will tell you lies about how you don’t need to confess Jesus Christ as your Savior. The same way he tells you that your sins aren’t really sins. Even if your confession is solid, he will try to get you to look outside the Bible and the Lutheran Confessions. He knows your weaknesses, and is ready to exploit them to corrupt your confession.

Your Sinful Flesh believes that your confession is so strong. It tells you that your own sin would never corrupt that confession.  You tell people all the time that you are a Christian. You believe in Jesus Christ, but then you sin and don’t repent as you should. Your sin turns your confession into a self-righteous confession of your own works. You start adding and subtracting things from the Bible and the Lutheran Confessions to fit “Your Confession”.

The Final Cup and The Final Confession.

A good cup of coffee and a good biblical confession require very simple ingredients; coffee, water, and a sound brewing technique; the Bible and the Lutheran Confessions. Both take time and care if there is to be the correct result. I’ve heard people say, “Check your Confession”. The Bible and the Lutheran Confessions have everything your confession needs. They confess Jesus Christ, his life, death, and resurrection for you. They confess your salvation through the waters of holy baptism. They confess the forgiveness of your sins. Through faith in Jesus Christ, your confession is finished.

 

 

 

 

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