Category: David Coffield

David Coffield, Featured Writers, Guest Post

Staying in Grace

Michael J. Weiss, Sr.

Letter from David C., used by permission.                                                                                                               

I was having lunch with my friend Drew today and he asked me a question (he is really good with questions).  How do you personally keep from drifting away from grace and moving into Law?  I don’t have well thought out answers.  I have a few thoughts though.

Embrace the brokenness.  I don’t care how sharp a person is, if they measure themselves against the absolute, holy Law and standard of God—they are toast.  In Galatians Paul says that one of the functions of the Law is to show us that we are lawbreakers and in need of Christ.  The more I see of the beauty and majesty and glory of Jesus in the scripture, the more I am aware of my tattered, shabby, grubby nature.  At my best I am a victim of the mercy and grace and love of God.

A proud person will have difficulty embracing grace.  They don’t need it.  There is a fine line between confidence and arrogance.  God is always opposed to the proud and He always give grace to the humble.

Embrace genuine fellowship.  Acceptance is hard to come by in a ministry committed to performance.  There are a few brothers I have with whom my life, in all of its brokenness, is accepted, cared for, encouraged.  Such people are a rich treasure.  The critical, legalistic, high performing people I try and avoid.  Paul says we are to accept one another as God has accepted us in Christ.  How is that for a goal to strive for?

Embrace the relationship through the Word.  The problem with the Scripture is that you can read it, study it, memorize it, just like the Pharisees did but they missed Jesus.  It is being willing to sit in the relationship at His feet and believe that we are wanted, desired, loved.  If the ministry is your preoccupation, your focus, your passion…it will be difficult to engage relationally with the Lord.  I am not anti-ministry.  It is an incredible privilege to participate with the Lord when we are invited into the process, but it is His work and His glory.  Paul makes the comment in 1Corinthians 3.  “I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth.  So, neither the one who plants not the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth.”  Our value, I believe, is in our relationship with God as His sons and daughters.

Your brother,

David

David Coffield, Featured Writers, God Loves Us

Being totally, utterly, completely accepted by the Lord. 

Michael J. Weiss, Sr.

Letter from David C., shared with his permission

There is something incredible about being totally, utterly, completely accepted by the Lord.  We are accepted because we are clothed in the righteousness of Christ and our sins are forgiven and we are filled with the Holy Spirit and adopted into His family.  I don’t merit or deserve what God gives me.  It is a wonderful and rare thing when you also experience acceptance from another person.

62+ years walking with the Lord and I am realizing that I will carry my brokenness into the kingdom.  It is a fantasy and an illusion to think that I can clean my life up, deal with the problems, get my act together, stop sinning, etc.  I tell believers sometimes that sin does 2 good things in my life.  It keeps me grateful for the mercy of God, and it allows me to identify with my fellow broken brothers.  We are either ok as we are now or we will never be ok. 

In my daily prayer list and time with the Lord there is a section where I am asking God to grant 3 things to me.  1-that I would not be wise in my own eyes.  2-that I would offer to God the sacrifices that are pleasing to Him—a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart.  3-that I would walk and live in the shoes of the Tax Collector in Luke 18 (God be merciful to me, the sinner).

I have one of those head colds.  Congestion, sore throat, cough, headache.  Not bad enough to seek medical help and not good enough to function well.

I am grateful that joy and happiness are very different.  Joy is a fruit of the Holy Spirit, and we can express it regardless of the way that we feel.  It is independent of our circumstances.  It doesn’t mean it always works well for me. 

It is funny but, in my experience, emotion rarely supports faith.  Faith is a willingness to hear the Word of God and obey it.  Faith always involves God speaking and us obeying.  It is almost never a matter of “feeling like it”. 

The foggy head is having trouble wrapping this up well.  Imagine that.  When all is said and done, may our Lord be praised!  May His name be magnified and may we speak of His glory, power, coming kingdom, and nature!

Your brother,

David

David Coffield, Featured Writers, Guest Post

Ascribe To The Lord The Glory That Is Due His Name

Michael J. Weiss, Sr.

This Letter was written by David C., used with permission.

The Army has a saying “embrace the suck”.  I think for me, a good saying in the Christian life would be “embrace the brokenness”.  We seem to be on a continual journey to improve, get better, fix stuff, shape up, get it right, etc.

Paul’s comment is 2Corinthians 4:7, “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves.”

There will always be a qualitative difference of the glory of God expressed within us and the flesh in which it is contained.  My desire is for personal glory.  I want people to look at my life and ooh and ah.  It is sin of course.  John the Baptist had it right when he said, “He must increase but I must decrease”.  We live in a narcissistic culture in which everything is about the person, their success, their glory, their accomplishments.  It is the Holy Spirit who helps us lift our eyes to Jesus and ascribe to Him glory and honor.  I like Psalm 115:1  “Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to Your name give glory, because of Your loving kindness, because of your truth”.

It leaves me with 2 goals.  

One, is not to attempt to fix my brokenness for my glory.  I have flaws and brokenness that will be with me as I come into the presence of Jesus.  If I were to write a book, I would title it, “The Fellowship of the Broken”.  Some are more “healthy” than others but all are broken in some way.  Some things God works on, some He fixes, but most remain so that His glory might be displayed.  2Corinthians 12 is a good read.  If anyone had a reason for confidence and was sharp…it was Paul.  Yet he comes to the place where he will boast in his weaknesses.

Two, is to ascribe to the Lord the glory that is due His name.  I will speak of the goodness of the Lord, His majesty, His works, His power, His coming kingdom all the days of my life as He gives me grace.  Psalms 29 and 96 say basically the same thing, “Ascribe to the Lord the glory that is due His name”.  What do we talk about?  What speech fills our time?  What is our agenda?  No one gets it right all of the time of course.

David Coffield

Is the Lord righteous in all of His ways and kind in all of His deeds?

Michael J. Weiss, Sr.

Letter to me from David C.

Two things that the Scripture teaches that I need to embrace daily.  The sovereignty of God and the goodness of God.  If God is not sovereign; then life is a roll of the dice and there is no guarantee of a desirable outcome.  If God is not good; then we are subject to evil and calamity.

But God is both sovereign and good.  Psalm 145:17 “The Lord is righteous in all of His ways and kind in all of His deeds.”  My failure to understand it does not change the reality of it.

We struggle to think that God is good and sovereign when we watch bad things happen in our lives and the lives of others.  We tend to “sell” Christianity as a life enhancing experience where God is committed to our happiness, success, pleasure, health, etc.  Hebrews says that God “scourges every son that He receives”.  What?!  Why?  Because we need it.

We need it to grow into the image and character of Jesus.  Years ago, before I purchased a bench grinder, I had a hand file to sharpen the lawn mower blade.  It was slow, hard work.  There are elements in our lives that I think God is working to refine, sharpen, change, improve.  It takes time.

I get really irritated with Christians who preach that you can take 2 verses, memorize them, and you will be fine.  Really irritated.  We have been shaped by our experiences in life over time and, for the most part, they are not easily fixed.  God is growing us up.  It is through the crucible that refining comes.  Proverbs says, “The refining pot is for silver and the furnace for gold, but the Lord tests hearts”.  The word “tests” is the same thought of “refining”.  God doesn’t wonder about the status and nature of my heart…He knows.  And He knows how to refine and shape me towards the image of His Son.  There is far more pain involved in the process than I am happy with.  

You hear occasionally in the Special Ops community the phrase “embrace the suck”.  It is the willingness to lean into the pain and push through.  For the believer it is giving thanks in all things because our loving Father is both sovereign and good.  Is it pleasant?  No.  Can we rejoice?  Yes.  We have the Holy Spirit and the ability to choose to override our emotions and lift our eyes to our Father.

Your brother,

David

David Coffield, Featured Writers, Guest Post, Jesus, Yahweh

How do we measure spirituality? Discipleship?

Michael J. Weiss, Sr.

A letter from Dave C.

A metric is how we measure or evaluate something.  For age, it is about the passage of time, years, days.  For weight, it is usually about pounds.  For height, it is about inches.  How do we measure spirituality?  Discipleship?  What is our “metric”?

We used to work at the 7 basics of the Christian life—Quiet time, Scripture memory, Bible Study, Witnessing, Prayer, Application, Fellowship.  On my team we used to evaluate every week the quantity and quality of our engagement in those activities.  I often say that a Navigator would make a good Pharisee.  How do we evaluate if a person is a disciple?  It used to be the completion of the Design for Discipleship Series, the memorization of the TMS, regular participation in the group activities, and good progress in the basics.

Of course, John 8:31,32 is the only definition that Jesus gives of what it means to be a disciple of His.

Our couple’s study is looking at Luke 18 and I was struck hard by the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector in 9-14.

The Pharisee was at the top of his game in terms of religious performance.  The best of the best.  He was religiously righteous, and he knew it.  He was outperforming everyone around him easily.

The Tax Collector was the bottom of the Jewish culture.  A person working for Gentiles who was taking money from his fellow countrymen.  Abhorrent.  Tax Collectors and prostitutes got along well.  But the Tax Collector’s statement was, “God, be merciful to me, the sinner”.

The Lord’s conclusion?  “I tell you the Tax Collector went down to his house justified rather than the Pharisee.”  

I am beginning to think that our metric ought to be the humility of the heart and not the religious performance.  Pride is a terrible thing, and I suspect we are often blind to it.  I haven’t plumbed the depths of this, but I sense something profound and powerful lies here.  May the Lord give us eyes to see our own hearts and the hearts of those around us and to walk in humility.

Your brother,

David

David Coffield, Featured Writers, God Loves Us, Jesus, Messiah, Yahweh

Let’s Be With Father God!

Michael J. Weiss, Sr.

Matthew 11:28-30.  These are verses that I pray for myself and for a number of others as well.  I love the passage.  “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.  Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For My yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

I love that Jesus describes Himself as “gentle and humble in heart”.  It is the only place I know of where He describes His nature, His character.  There are lots of places where He speaks of His titles, His position, etc.  I can hang with a person that is gentle and humble in heart.  Very encouraging.

When He says, “take My yoke upon you and learn from Me” He is inviting us into a specific relationship.  It is a relationship where we are willing to do what He wants us to do, participate with Him in His work, keep our focus on Him.  He is inviting us to walk with Him in life day by day. 

We are invited into a daily relationship with Jesus that results in an easy yoke and a light burden.

It is possible to be mighty in the scriptures and barren in one’s relationship with Jesus.  The Pharisees lived it.  It is possible to labor mightily in the ministry and miss the leading and work of the Holy Spirit.  Matthew 7 speaks of a group that will consider themselves “qualified” based on their performance alone.

“Fixing our eyes on Jesus”, “seeking first His kingdom, His righteousness”, responding in love to the incredible invitation to walk with Him, to fellowship with Him, to learn from Him.  May the Lord so grant!

Your brother,

David

David Coffield, Featured Writers, God Loves Us, Guest Post, J3 Khai Ambassadors, J3 Khai Restoration, Jesus, Veterans, Yahweh

“God is interested in growing us up and it is going to be painful”

Michael J. Weiss, Sr.

Someone should inform new believers (and probably old ones as well) that God is interested in growing us up and it is going to be painful.  The writer of Hebrews informs us that God “scourges every son whom He receives”.  What!?  That is child abuse.  A writer in Psalms says, “You Who have shown me many troubles and distresses…”

Why would God do that?

I can think of 2 reasons.  One would be that we need it for growth.  I was reading in Proverbs 17 this morning, “The refining pot is for silver and the furnace for gold, but the Lord tests hearts”.  We don’t like the process of getting there but we like the end result.  The word “test” in this passage means that God is in the process of refining and developing our hearts.

When we come to Jesus, we are not ok as we are any more than a new recruit off the street is ok to deploy with an U.S. Army Special Forces team.  We are accepted as we are.  We are loved, embraced, and delighted in as we are but because God loves us, He wants to grow us up into the image and character of His Son Jesus.  The Christian life is about growth and growth means change.  We grow as we walk with Jesus.  It is what happens when we engage in a relationship with Jesus through the Word and prayer daily.

We also grow when God looks at our lives and decides to work on developing us.  Pain, trials, stress, troubles, sicknesses, conflict…it goes on and on.  Without the confidence that the sovereign hand of our loving God is ruling over it we can lose hope. [Note from Michael; and that he promised never to leave us for forsake us]

Another reason would be that it expresses God’s glory.  When you are suffering, and you rejoice—God receives glory, and the world sits up and takes notice.  When life goes poorly, and you give thanks—the world sits up and takes notice.  May the Lord give us the grace to give thanks in all things.

Your brother,

David

David Coffield, Featured Writers, Guest Post

Do we measure the goodness of God by how we feel?

Michael J. Weiss, Sr.

Written by Dave Coffield:

A friend asked me if I was encouraged.  I am encouraged to the degree that my eyes and focus are on Jesus.

David, the King, is encouraging.  There are days when he is in the pits, distressed, troubled, fearful, despairing.  There are also days when he is delighted, rejoicing, and grateful.

If we measure the goodness of God by how we feel in our circumstances in this life we will be forever on an emotional rollercoaster.  The tribulations with my neck and head pain in the last 9 months have led me to understand that God uses the pain and the suffering both for our good and His glory and we can rejoice regardless.

There is an element of Christianity that thinks that God wants you to be continually healthy, wealthy, wise, and successful.  Too bad it is not biblical.  Paul writes to Timothy and tells him to use a little wine for the sake of his stomach and his frequent ailments.  What?  Paul leaves Trophimus sick at Miletus.  Paul has his own issues with the messenger of Satan sent to torment him and beat on his body.

You can pack a church with prosperity gospel preaching.  Too bad it is not real life.  God is far more interested in our growth than our being happy.  I am ambivalent about that because I like happy.

If we want to be like Jesus, we should prepare ourselves to do a good job suffering.  The confidence that God is good when the sun is shining, and He is good when it is raining.  He is good when we feel well and when we are sick.  The words of Paul ring in our ears, “In everything give thanks for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus”.  Or “Do all things without grumbling or disputing that you may prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation…”

I like the way that the author of Hebrews says it, “Fixing our eyes on Jesus the author and perfecter of faith…”  Our Lord is amazing, wonderful, marvelous, spectacular and worthy of our thanks and praise day by day!

You remain daily in my prayers and on my heart,

Your brother,

David

David Coffield, Featured Writers, Jesus

What’s my focus? Abiding or Fruit?

Michael J. Weiss, Sr.

Written by Dave Coffield

It is obvious as you follow my letters that I am focused on the relationship we have with God by grace as opposed to a focus on works or fruit.  However, I suspect that works will continue to be a strong emphasis of the body of Christ from what I have experienced.

My philosophy of ministry is found in John 14:12.  Jesus said, “Truly, truly I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do because I go to the Father.”

The word for “believes” could easily be translated “the one believing”.  It is speaking of a connected, abiding, ongoing relationship.  It is impossible not to do the works of Jesus if you have a believing, connected, abiding, and ongoing relationship with Jesus.

There is some debate about the works of Jesus.  Simply, He did what the Father gave Him to do.  Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”  The good works are a consequence or the fruit of our relationship with Jesus.  God gets to determine what they look like, when they are produced.

My first concern with my own life and with any believer’s life is whether they have a connected, believing, growing, abiding relationship with Jesus.

You can be involved in activities without bearing fruit.  Jesus continues with this theme in John 14.  “He who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.”  It concerns me when our focus is on Christians “bearing” fruit, doing good works, and not on abiding.

Every day when I drive onto Ft. Liberty I ask the Lord that He would lead me in the good works which He has prepared beforehand for me to walk in.  But He gets to determine what those good works look like, when they are produced.  I suspect that much of what God does through us He does in a way that isn’t obvious to us so that we won’t become proud and take the credit.

May God give us the grace to abide in Him and believe in Him.

Your brother,

David

David Coffield, Featured Writers, God Loves Us, Guest Post, Jesus

God doesn’t need me…He wants me.

Michael J. Weiss, Sr.

The question was raised at the Tuesday night Bible Study on Ft. Liberty, “Once we are saved, why does God leave us here?”  The easy answer is for the advancement of His kingdom.  But I think that leads to the mindset that our value resides only in our labor for the Lord.

I think He leaves us here for our growth in our relationship with Him and all that comes with it.

Jesus defines eternal life in John 17:3.  “This is eternal life that they might know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ Whom You have sent.”  It is also Paul’s passion in Philippians 3:8. “More than that I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord…”.

I tell people on occasion that God doesn’t need us.  Navigators don’t like to hear it because we see ourselves as fulfilling a key role in ministry and the coming Kingdom.  I also occasionally tell Navigators that it is impossible to “make” a disciple, and they don’t like to hear that either.

Salvation is impossible without the work of the Holy Spirit.  A Christian desiring to grow in Christ in discipleship is impossible without the work of the Holy Spirit.  No one labors unless the Father moves them to do so through the work of the Holy Spirit.

God doesn’t need me…He wants me.  We have been adopted into His family precisely because it is a family.  I struggle with God wanting me because I know the dark parts of my life.  I struggle because all of my life performance has been the standard for acceptance and approval.  And yet it is true that He loves us and desires us apart from our performance.

God will on occasion advance His kingdom through us.  But it is never because of us.  If I read Revelation correctly Christians get run over in the tribulation.  We are triumphant in death, not overcoming in this life.  We have to go through the Antichrist and the tribulation to get to the return of our Messiah.

May the Lord grant us the same heart Paul had for knowing Jesus!

Your brother,

David

David Coffield, Featured Writers, God Loves Us, Guest Post, Jesus, Mental Health, Messiah, Testimonies, Yahweh

Rejoice that through faith in Jesus your name is written in the Book of Life.

Michael J. Weiss, Sr.

                                                                         

I get struck by things as I read.  Probably the Holy Spirit doing what He does so well.  In John 17:14 “I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world…”  I don’t want to be hated.  I want everyone to like me.   Not going to happen.  There is animosity between the world and God, between the world and the children of God.  It is probably why Jesus tells His followers that He is sending them out as “sheep in the midst of wolves.  Therefore, be wise as serpents and harmless as doves.”  A sheep is wolf food.  The wisdom of the serpent (from my point of view) is that you don’t see it, it is camouflaged.

Luke 10:17-20.  Jesus sends the 70 out with unparalleled power and they come back excited and rejoicing.  The Lord’s comment?  “Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven”.  I was speaking with my chiropractor this morning and we were discussing feeling loved and accepted by Jesus.  I told him that my lifelong struggle is embracing that I am loved and accepted by God just as I am, right now.  We are so performance oriented that it is difficult to believe that God accepts us unconditionally.  I continue to pray day by day, “Lord help me to believe that my value to you resides in my relationship with You as Your son and not in my labor for you.”

We were meeting with a couple yesterday and the wife is an incredible contingency planner.  She looks 10 years ahead or more.  The Lord ministered to me through Ecclesiastes years ago to help me settle in the day and enjoy it.  It is good to plan for the future, it is good to learn from the past.  However—this is the only day that God gives us.  The past is gone, and the future is forever one day out of reach.  5 times in Ecclesiastes it speaks of rejoicing in the day.

Your brother,

David

David Coffield, Featured Writers, Jesus, Testimonies

Jesus promised that He would build His church.

Michael J. Weiss, Sr.

I hear people say that they want to be “like Jesus”.  We hold as our belief that God is working to conform us to the image and character of His Son Jesus.  We want to become more like Jesus in our mindset and our lives.

Yet Jesus says in John 8:28, “…and I do nothing on my own initiative…”  It is a common phrase with Jesus, and it is repeated by Him a number of times.

I don’t know how to pull it off.  I don’t know how to live as Jesus lived.  All of our lives we are exhorted to show initiative, to make things happen, to be intentional.  It suits our sin nature, to take pride and ownership in our accomplishments, achievements, etc.  To proudly say, “Look what I have done”.

Jesus is utterly incredible.  His desire was to do what the Father gave Him to do, say what the Father gave Him to say, go where the Father sent Him to go, to bring glory to the Father.

I suspect that the ability to pull this off is tied to the depth of our walk with God on a daily basis.  Our willingness to choose to walk with Jesus rather than having a “do” mindset.  You don’t hear this much today if at all.  We are exhorted to reach the lost, help people grow, build the kingdom, fill the pews, etc.

God has initiative.  Jesus promised that He would build His church.  It is the purpose of God to add people to the kingdom and to grow up the people in His kingdom.

He is not about to send people to do things who are likely to claim the credit, build their own “thing”, seek their own glory.  God doesn’t need people who think they have it figured out that they know what the purposes of God are and how He will work.  We have one Commander in Chief and all are supposed to serve him.  He will use those who are connected with Him, who are delighting in the relationship, and seeking His glory.  He is well able to speak to such people.  

I remind myself daily that God doesn’t “need” me, He “wants” me.