#Hot! ☕️

Hot coffee! ☕️ My love for it first began with it’s aroma back when I was a little girl. My mom drank hers black, hot, and in a small White Castle coffee cup. The first time I tasted it as a teenager, I was surprised it didn’t taste as good as it smelled. But, by the time I was old enough to live on my own I was an official coffee lover, although I took mine with milk and sugar.

Nowadays my requirements for a good cup of coffee are pretty simple. I prefer Folgers Classic Roast Instant Coffee Crystals, with a little skim milk, Splenda Naturals, and most importantly, it must be hot! Lukewarm will not do!

So, you can imagine how excited I was to own my first microwave oven back in 1980. It was a wedding gift from my mom, and it wasn’t just any microwave; it was a Sharpe Carousel Microwave. I actually didn’t cook much in it but I found it perfect for making and keeping our coffee hot. ☕️

Fast forward to May of this year, our youngest daughter got me a really cool 😎 Ember Temperature Control Smart Coffee Mug for Mother’s Day! Cool 😎 as in really nice! I love it! ❤️ When used properly, it keeps my coffee a perfect 143 degrees.

Three things I’ve learned about using my Ember mug:

1. You must start out with hot coffee. For example, you can’t pour cool or lukewarm coffee in the mug and expect it to work properly.

2. You need to start out with a full cup. It doesn’t work well if you only pour in a half of a cup. It needs to start out full.

3. You need to keep it charged. While it will work off of its charging base, it doesn’t work for long periods of time. It needs to be connected to its base often in order to keep a good charge.

Thinking about all of this brought Revelation 3:15 to mind:

“I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot!”

In this verse, Jesus was referring to the church at Laodicea. It was a dead church; their hearts were lukewarm and their deeds were hypocritical; done for show and not with the heart or the love of God. Basically, the church was full of unconverted, pretend Christians who saw themselves as “rich” believers, but in reality they were self-sufficient hypocrites who relied on their own prosperity and their own good deeds. The Lord saw them as wretched, pitiful and “poor” unbelievers, who he chastised using the analogy of the temperature of their water:

Their drinking water was disgustingly lukewarm. It came from a viaduct via a nearby spring but it was practically worthless. It wasn’t hot like a hot springs that people could bath in, nor was it refreshingly cold for drinking: it was lukewarm, basically good for nothing and nauseating to drink. Thus the analogy of the Lord’s response to the Laodiceans who sickened Him like the lukewarm water:

“So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.” Revelation 3:16

A very stern warning!

And thus a simple analogy:

1. Lukewarm won’t do: You must be born again. Good works are not a substitute for salvation, nor is their any value in trusting in prosperity or possessions. Attending or being a member of a church doesn’t make you a Christian either.

2. You need to be full: There are no halfhearted Christians. To be a “lukewarm Christian” is the equivalent of being an unbeliever. You’re either saved or your not saved. Fully trusting in Jesus and His sacrificial death on the cross, taking the penalty for our sins in our place, turning to Him in repentance and faith.

3. Stay close to God: Christians stay connected and ever growing in their relationship with God through prayer, the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, and grow in the truth of God’s word through meaningful Bible study. Good works are a result of salvation, not a means of salvation.

Something to think about the next time you enjoy a delicious hot cup of coffee. ☕️