Coffee with Jesus January 27, 2014

Hi Everybody! Don’t know why I feel so chipper today, but I do. It’s below zero and so very cold. Even my Eden Pure isn’t enough to keep my sun porch toasty in this weather. No school so the great grands were off and came to see old grandma. I made cookies to eat while they are still warm. I cheat because I buy those cookies at Costco, all mixed, shaped, and ready to place on the cookie sheet and pop in the oven. I don’t lie, I just don’t tell all. They’re yummy even so and my great grand kids are the cutest kids I ever saw.
This is about the fourth day of very cold weather. The wind chill has been way below zero and school has been cancelled. They call off school because some of the kids have to walk in these temps. That means the teens sleep in and then go walk around the shops and the younger ones go out and slide downhill. What ever happened to the oldsters who talked about slogging to school in the 18 inch drifts with nothing but long snow pants and leather shoes? I need to get my stories ready for you all.

IT is bitter cold. I can’t sit out in my favorite spot. I couldn’t get to church yesterday because I’ve become a wussy in my old age. I made the mistake of having a lift put on the back of my car for my chair, instead of getting a van that I could run the chair into. To go out in this weather I have to stand in the snow up to my gazakus, unfasten the chair from the lift, and then drive through the said snow into the church and if I want fellowship later, I have to get out and tool around the building, down the hill, and into the back door to get a cup of coffee and a donut. (The latter is because I chose a 150 year old church to attend and really has nothing to do with snow or weather.) I can’t get to the grocery, need to go to the bank, I can’t get out to DO STUFF!! Does it sound like I’m whining?
Actually, I am living a dream of forty years ago. I would dream of sitting in my chair and having time to read, having time to choose a craft to work on uninterrupted, time to leaf through a magazine looking at pictures and thinking of house décor, time to gaze into the fire and just veg out, time to concoct something sinful to eat and just sit here, forgetting calories and gorging on chocolate and creamy cheese. I can pick out my own junk on TV and watch with no one to criticize or want another channel. I never had time even on snow days to do that. I am warm and cozy with no place to be and no one to ask me for food or to clean up after. I am as alone as I could ever hope to be. That used to be my dream. Now it is a reality. Am I happy with my dream time?

Now I feel blessed when the Greats find time to visit and to crumb up my house. I welcome any interruption to break up the long time I have been reading. There are no kids or husband to care for. There are no students to worry over and take up my time. There is really no place I have to be or anyone looking for me except doctors and nurses who seem to be on every week’s schedule. I haven’t got chores to do as there are people who take care of my house cleaning, laundry, car, shopping, snow in the drive, etc. I am one fortunate person, am I not? My dream has come true in spades.

My point is, we never seem to be satisfied with what we have at the moment. We seem to always want to change the circumstances a bit or a lot. I don’t want to be a whiner. I don’t think God likes whiners. He is everything good, so pessimism is not part of the heavenly scene. He says, ”No more tears, no more sorrow.”

Being negative is not a good choice and it is a choice. I will choose to find the good. I will choose to love where I am right now. I will cuddle up with my warm heated throw, I will look out the window at the six inch hats of snow all the fence posts are wearing and pronounce them beautiful. I will pick up my book and read awhile and then go into the kitchen for cinnamon toast with butter and sugar. I will exchange my coffee for hot chocolate. Outside I will hear the snow plow go by and be glad we have such a thing. I will think how fortunate I am to have a car that has heated seats to keep my duffy toasty, if I should have to travel.

I won’t be a whiner because I don’t think that is pleasing to God or to anyone else and it can be habit forming. God probably meant to make “Thou shalt not whine” the eleventh commandment and just didn’t have room on the stone to put it there. Maybe He chose too big a font to begin with. Or, more likely, He just said,” They can’t handle ten, adding one more will just be a time waster.” I will ask Jesus to join me as I look around me, see all the things He has blessed me with, and give thanks for all of them. I will look around and see all the answers to prayer. I am so thankful for His love and that I have time to contemplate all of this and to have time for COFFEE WITH JESUS. Keep warm and upbeat. Love to all of you.

Irma Jane

Happy 2014 to all of my friends who join me while having Coffee with Jesus.

It is a very cold morning so I am sitting in the sun room with the Eden Pure turned directly on me. My sun room isn’t heated but it is solidly insulated so it heats up quickly and efficiently. I am stubborn, wanting to be in the lightest room I can find—wanting to be there all day, all winter in the light. The Eden Pure is cheap heat and quick heat. I am thankful I have it so I can sit in the sun porch.
It will be two years in April since I started to write the “Coffees”. January seems like a good time to make an assessment of what I have achieved in Coffee with Jesus, January 2, 2014 and where I am going from here.

I started this writing in an effort to get closer in a personal relationship with Christ. I wanted to put Him first, to honor Him, and to feel Him close to me. I had a habit of bringing in my morning paper, getting my coffee, and settling down to a pleasurable time with the news, funnies and crossword puzzle. After that was complete, I had planned to do some Bible reading and praying. I spent a good hour or two before getting to the prayer part. By then the rest of the world was stirring, the phone began ringing, and the interruptions began. If I was to give Jesus quality time, clearly He had to come first. I must start the day with Him. I did that.

It wasn’t easy. The crossword puzzle called. I cancelled the paper. I made it a habit to get my coffee, get comfortable, and then ask Jesus to join me. At first I even asked Him aloud and formally to sit with me while I prayed and read His word. Now I am not so noisy about it.

I have, for nearly two years, followed this format. Ask Jesus to be with me. Read the “Daily Bread.” Read a portion of the Bible. Pray about the people I love, those I don’t love so much but pray for anyway, and then pray for myself: state of mind, state of health, and the progress of the day. This seems to be a good system for me and I get a lot of pleasure from the time I spend this way. I am blessed.

Am I any closer to Jesus than I was? I am certain I am, but still think I have such a long way to go. Jesus has been working on me all the time. I am learning so much and I thought I knew so much! I learned that God works in very small ways. He never seems to be in a hurry like I am. I want it yesterday. God has no time limit. Can you imagine not having any time limits? With God there is eternity—time stretching out forever—no wonder He doesn’t hurry about answering some prayers. The New Year means nothing to Him or any year at all. No pushing against time for Him!

While time doesn’t exist for God, He made the world, put us in it, and then made days, weeks and years for us to go by. He even gave each of us a certain amount of time to live here in His world. Let’s hope He gives us the wisdom to do our best for Him as we use up those years. A big topic for thought there. Anyway, back to my original thought, am I making it? Am I closer to Jesus? Certainly I am closer on a daily basis because I sit here each morning and pray without the previous interruptions. I am closer because I ask Him to be here and He says He is at the door knocking and waiting to be asked in. I am closer because I try to listen and to hear that “still small voice.” I am closer because for two years I have read His word every day and that can’t help but bring me closer to Him. Also, I think I am closer in spirit.

So, as I consider my progress in this new year, I’ve decided I am closer by asking for His presence as I pray and study, but there might just be another and maybe better way to feel close. I have, by necessity, learned to wait. The Lord has taught me patience in big doses. He has also taught me that I have to depend on others to do for me. That is a biggie in humility. He has taught me to graciously accept help and to do that with a smile. He has taught me to ask – maybe the hardest part of all. He’s taught me also that others want and need to give and to help and that I need to be on the receiving end for a change. These are BIG LESSONS for someone who has been very independent all of her life. I have been the one who could do everything.

Jesus has been so faithful. He has sent His people to bring food, run errands, taker me to the doctor, sit with me during chemo, visit while I am shut in here, call on the phone, do my laundry, change my bed sheets, praying and laughing with me —- I could go on and on. Why do they do all of these loving deeds? Because they love Jesus. Every day when someone visits, I see the love of Christ. They bring Him close to me. His love shines from their eyes. I am so sorry that I haven’t done more of that. I never realized how much just a fifteen minute drop-in visit would be appreciated. I can’t change that now that I am not physically able to do what I’d like to do. Nevertheless, I am learning that I am closest to Jesus, when I am with those who love Him. I did not realize how much a visit or small kindness was appreciated. I have come to the conclusion that to really be close to Jesus is to love other people. So, here I am, finding that the “golden rule,” love others as yourself, is the way to be close to Jesus. Didn’t He tell us that in the beginning?

My mornings with Jesus in quiet and thought have definitely not been wasted. I need that too. I am closer through devoting time to Him. Still, He wants us to be together to serve and fellowship because He IS THERE in the love that is shown as we love each other. He is REALLY THERE! Why else are my beautiful friends using their time to stop their busy lives to visit and care for me? They don’t do it because I have anything to give them. They do it because of His love. Get close to Him by loving someone!

I thank you for the love you have shown me in your positive response to these e-mails. This is my way of visiting you when you are lonely. I can’t bring food or take you on errands, but these words are what I can do to show my love for you. I can pray and I can tell you I love you and I know that will bring you close to Jesus too. My prayer is that we all will get close enough to Jesus to feel like we are, indeed, sharing our day and our “coffee with Jesus”.

I wish you a blessed New Year!

Irma Jane Fritz-Zager

Merry Christmas to Everybody and I hope you all have a blessed time remembering the Birthday of Jesus.

I am in Grosse Pointe with JD. Tina and family.  It is Christmas Eve, the sun is shining and there is very little hope of a white Christmas here.  We are warm,well-fed and together so what more could we ask for?  Lots of chocolate, maybe?

I am proud that I was able to drive myself part way up here from Ohio.    I drove north of Toledo about 12 miles and met Tina, Macaulie, Aynslie and Blake.  They drove me the rest of the way.  I am very comfortable behind the wheel but still uncertain about having to get out of the car and navigate on my own.

I will stay here until Friday and then back home for time with Jackie’s family, also Jim and Kathy if weather permits.

Before I know it, it will be 2014.  I remember wondering what the new millennium would bring and that was FOURTEEN YEARS AGO!!!

The last four weeks I have thought about Advent and what it might mean.  I discovered there were four themes, one for each week.  The first was waiting – waiting for something to happen.  I think we are always waiting. Quite often we wait with trepidation like when we sit in the hospital waiting room, or wait to hear from our child who has been deployed to a danger zone far away, or when we wait for a late child to come home.  That kind of waiting is nerve-racking and frightening.  Most of the time we wait with anticipation of something good, like Christmas.  Waiting for the next thing.  Too bad we can’t enjoy the here and now more and not spend so much time anticipating the next event.  Anyway, the first week we are waiting for something good to happen. 

The second week was mystery and the big wonderment in Advent was what, where and why Christ came as He did.  The answer was that He loved us.  Why?  Don’t know yet.

The third theme was redemption and since we are all a little bit bad, we are not all good and therefore are in great need of redemption because God is Holy and without any sin at all.  To be with Him, we also have to be perfect and so we need redemption and to be cleaned up and made pure.

This last week of Advent is devoted to the incarnation.  God made in the form of a man. 

I think it is important to remember that Jesus was not a human being with the spirit of God in him.  He was GOD in a human form. Jesus was God incarnate.  He is still God.  God with us! He is here!

He came as a baby, the lowest way to be a human.  He was needy and helpless, not threatening in any way. God coming to earth to live with us was not scary.  He wanted us to come to Him with loving hearts, not hearts that were afraid.  He came to the lowly people first. He started at the bottom: shepherds, carpenters, the unimportant and the ordinary.  He didn’t come with a royal lineage (though He had one), riches, or even physical beauty.  He was ordinary in every way so that all people would know that He was like them. 

God was able to let folks know they are important to Him. No one is excluded or too lowly to be left out. He started in the servant class and never left it. 

If God had come to us in a magnificent form like a towering angel, glowing in eye-popping colors, and emitting thunderous sounds; would we have come to Him in love or fear?  God doesn’t want us to come to Him in fear and capitulation.  He wants us to love Him back as He loves us. He lives with us, He teaches us, He shows us how we ought to live and then He dies for us. 

The incarnation of God was perfect in every way, just as He is perfect.  His plan for incarnation was perfect, too.

Our Christmas is waiting, mysterious, redeeming and all by a perfect God Incarnate in Christ Jesus.

My investigation into Advent was good for my spiritual walk.  I love Christmas and all the family traditions and doings that that entails.  God wants us to have good clean fun and to laugh and love each other.  I think He also wants us to include Him and to remember how great a sacrifice He made for us.

Christmas is so full of the stories of His greatness.   It’s a wonderful time of the year; the most wonderful season of all

  I hope yours is wonderful.  God bless you, Everyone!