What is the Kingdom of God

I was meeting with a freind this week and we were talking about Matthew 6.
"Seek first the kingdom of God and all these things will be added to you as well"
We then broke it apart and were reminded that the kingdom of God is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. So often my Gen X generation (myself included) see Matthew six and we interpret it as a way of doing "good" things for God or being totally sold out for him. Neglecting our responsibility to provide. I am beginning to realize that we can seek the kingdom first in our jobs, with our families, with our freinds, with our children etc. I am going to start looking at that verse this way.
...."seek first righteousneess, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit and all these things will be added to you as well."

Sharing God's faithfulness

It is on my heart to share with you the things that God has done in my life over the last while. The main theme is around getting my house in order. A couple of months ago God spoke to my heart and said "tell me what you want, not what you need...What do you want" I was so moved by the intimacy in that statement. Anyway all summer my lovely wife and I were wrestling with whether or not to send our children to the Christian school or a neighboring school. We looked at our financial situation and realized that even though every month we had our bills paid, we did not have anything extra. As I prayed about that I had a real strong sense that God wanted me to get my house in order. I kept thinking about 1 Peter where it says a man must manage his family well if he wants to do more in the kingdom. I took that to heart and began with my wife listing the things that we felt were important to us. We had our monthly income covered but we did not have the following things. Life insurance on myself, RRSP's, RESP's, content insurance, an alarm system (we live in the inner city) we needed a bed, a new fridge, I had two vehicles that needed repair, eye glasses for myself. We saw that the extra money that went toward tuition (which worked out to around $400/month) could have gone toward these things. So following I want to give praise and testimony to Gods faithfulness in my life for it is only his hand that has given me what I have.
1. School...After praying, we decided that we were going to enroll our children in a neighboring school. We had everything set up to go (including school supplies) and the day before we were to go register our kids, the Christian school called us and said that they prayed about it and felt that they were to assist us to keep us at the school. They offered us a large bursary plus an anonymous family offered to put $500 toward our kids tuition. That left us to pay $95/month. We were so overjoyed to see God's hand in that.
2. Security alarm
We called an alarm company to set up an alarm system. When they called us back with the credit check that they have to do, they found that I have no beacon score. (however that is possible) They said that the only way that they could go ahead is if we paid 3 years monitoring up front which was around $1000. When my wife called me to tell me what she said, I was ready to walk away. Not in a resentful way, just quietly accept it. The man that was doing this whole set up called us the next day and said that he talked to his supervisor and told him or her that he felt that we were legitimate people and he felt that we could be trusted. (He told us later that he put his neck on the line because if it did fall through, it would fall on him) I was so amazed that God pulled that off on our behalf.
3 Fridge
My wife was in a car accident with a friend back in March. She didn't get hurt, she did have quite sore back however. She had attended some medical assistance for it. About 6 weeks ago my wife got a call from the adjuster saying that the claim was about to be closed so she would mail out the cheque. My wife was beside herself "CHEQUE??" she said to the adjuster. It was explained that it was a pain and suffering settlement. When my wife mentioned this to me I was again beside myself. All I could say was 'wow and thank you God' It was large enough for us to buy the fridge that we had wanted for quite some time.
4. Credit card
Five years ago I declared bankruptcy. I have been married for 12 years and ten of those years were very financially difficult for my wife and I. Two years ago we were accepted into a housing co-op were the provincial government puts a 30% downpayment on the purchase of a house on your behalf. You are then required to attend monthly board meetings and follow the policies of your co-op. A person has to be in the co-op for five years. At that time you can go to a bank and have the title of the property transferred into your name. The government also releases the 30% into the equity our your home and you are not required to pat the government back (called a forgivable loan) Anyway in august in dawned on me that if I don't have any negative credit history then I wouldn't have any positive either. That concerned me as I really desire to get my mortgage at the end of the five years. I realized that a credit card would really boost my rating as they report monthly to the credit bureau. I probably tried 5 or 6 different places to try to get one but was turned down every time. A few weeks ago I got a letter in the mail from Capital One saying that they were willing to approve a credit card once they got some of my information. So I sent it in and received the card today.
You may look at that and say "well pre approved cards are scams and charge you high interest rates" but I look at this as a gift from my father God to redeem my financial house. I said in the beginning of this post that my goal was to get my house in order. I believe that God is blessing that desire in my life. I am going to share more as God shows himself faithful to me.

Overweight church

A few years ago as I was out for coffee with God he put some things on my heart regarding his church. I want to share it with you as I believe that he is working on this very issue in his church right now.

Parktown Hotel Jan.4, 2002, 4:00p.m

Overweight Church

The time has come for the church to get off their butts and
start going out to the places that God has called them to. God’s
Church is overweight and it is time to start fitness training,
otherwise when he call his church to battle they will not be
physically prepared and will literally get wiped out. Believe
me, the enemy will not attack loosely. He will come against
the church with all that he has.

For decades now the church has taken the fruit that
God has given to them for the benefit of those outside of the
circle. His fruit was never intended to be consumed by the
church. Looking at this in a simpler way. Let me give you an
example.

God is a king that opens up his dining hall to anyone that
wants to come. They can come at any time day or night. In
order for him to have the food ready for his guests, he get his
children to prepare the tables and dining hall. They will also
be used to serve the food as it comes out. However when God gives them the food that was intended for his guests, they realize that they are hungry so they say to themselves “ Lets eat first so that we will be ready and strong for when the guests come in”. So they sit down to eat. What they don’t realize is that first; God has reserved seating (which they are sitting in). Also he has set up his kingdom so that everyone on the outside can see inside. The people walking past the kingdom know that he has invited them, but when they get to his palace they see the people that were supposed to be serving them, sitting in their seats so they don’t come in.

The church as a whole is inward focused on what things
that they can do for each other. They don’t realize that what God
gives to them is not for them but for others.

Gods hearts desire is that his church would stop eating and start
moving. They are to simply give away what he gives. (A gift is only
a gift if it is given. If it stops with a person it becomes a
possession). He desires hungry children. If his people will give his
gifts away then what they are hungry for or when they need
something they will depend on him for whatever they need.

If you look at the physical ailments that are associated with
obesity you will see very similar ‘health problems’ within the
church today. I give you this challenge and promise. If you will
go to God for a personal fitness assessment he will not only show
you how to get fit but you will also experience the entire positive
rewards that also come from a physically fit body. This will not be
an easy road. Just like it took time to put on all the
weight, it will also take time to take it off. Remember though
that it will be God who will help you remove the extra weight.

Why Coffee with God ???

I Chose coffee with God as my web site because I often go out for coffee with him. It sounds wierd I know, but wouldn't you go out with a freind to spend time together? I tell you, God and I have had some very special times together. There are times where I will just sit and read his word, where other times he will put things on my heart to write about. My relationship with God has increased dramatically through these times. I can remember when my three year old was born, I took the year off to be with him. That year was one of the best years I have had with God, due to the time that I spent going out with him.
My life gets very busy with five kids but I desire to continue to go out with God on a regular basis. My oldest son is starting to ask me when he can come with me......wow what a blessing that would be to teach my son to have an intimate relationship with his God.....I can't think of a greater reward (well maybe one) I encourage anyone that reads this post to find as much time as you can to either go out with God or continue to meet with him in your closet (wherever that is)

The gift of Tongues

For over a week now I have been looking at the gift of tongues, and how it applies to believers. 1 Corinthians 14:1 talks about eagerly desiring gifts. I truly agree with that verse and in my heart I really do desire ANYTHING that God would have for me. I look at my five wonderful children and they have hundreds of desires, that does not mean that every desire of theirs will be fulfilled....At least not yet. I feel that it is the same way with spiritual gifts. God wants me or us to desire them, but he knows when he wants to give them to us. I guess I wrestle with the fact that many people say that you have to do something or utter something and hope that you are being spiritual. That concerns me. I don't think that a gift should be sought after, I think that a gift is more special when it is given freely. There is another element that concerns me, that is that there seems to be an undermining "us vs them" mentality when the topic of tongues comes up.
Is not the fruit of the spirit more important than uttering in a tongue or prophesying or whatever? I feel that gifts are a tangible tool to cultivate the fruit in our life. Everything that we do in life builds or bruises our fruit. I don't want to say that I am putting down tongues....Not in a long shot. I am only trying to figure out what it means and what the truth behind it is.