Author Ron DeMiglio is an international coffee businessman. He has travelled the world and discovered a potpourri of lessons about life, discipleship, and following Jesus. In this book he sets out to share some of these lessons.
DeMiglio has written an outstanding book here. It is remarkable in a number of ways:
First, you only need to read a couple of paragraphs to realize this man has a a unique style of writing that keeps your mind on tippytoe with curiosity. After two paragraphs you will realize he is a wordsmith, a sentence builder and a stand up comedian all at the same time.
You will want to keep reading each chapter just to see how the adventure turns out. You will find yourself stuck in the quicksand of truth, struggling to get your feet on solid ground.
To use a baseball analogy, DeMiglio keeps throwing you curve balls, fastballs and sliders. You fall behind in the count but you keep gripping the bat, waiting for a pitch to hit. By the end of each chapter you discover you have doubled to left center field and you are standing on second base, feeling like a million bucks. That is what truth as a punchline does for you.
What made “Coffee, the World and Jesus” such a good read for me was that I felt engrossed in the narrative. DeMiglio saw to it that I was.
Here are some excerpts:
On Evangelism:
“I don’t need to force the issue. When I’ve met people where they are the conversation feels natural and easy. I’ve had completely ordained conversations with people that wore more leather than a cow or had more ink in their skin than an octopus. I’ve bantered with and befriended people so unlike myself that, at first, it made them suspicious. I’ve talked about life with tough guys who were bigger than my first apartment as well as painfully shy among us.
I once struck up a conversation with a legless man in a wheelchair who was menacingly eyeing people from the entrance of an alley. As I approached him, the smell of alcohol, body odor, and urine hit me like a stink hammer. I knelt beside him and asked if there was any way I could serve him. His facial expression softened immediately as he asked me if I could re-position his pillow and help him sit more upright because his back was hurting. I did, and the cross made an appearance.”
On the “all Christians are hypocrites” charge:
“Understand when people call you a hypocrite, they are just trying to verbally lessen the contrast between what you profess and how they choose to live. Seeing it for what it is can be freeing and, honestly, a bit entertaining. Oftentimes the accusation speaks far more about their ethical cowardice than it does about our failure. We fail, but we’re not failing. I’m a hypocrite. So are you. A loved, redeemed and forgiven hypocrite. And I can’t think of a better place to be…Failure won’t make me back down. Blowing it helps me come to grips with my need for a Savior.”
On Spiritual Warfare:
“Does it bother anyone else that the enemy has arrows (flaming arrows, mind you), a weapon used at a distance, while the only offensive weapon I have (the sword) requires close proximity to do any damage? The evil one can throw fire arrows at me from afar but I’m stuck trying to lure him into an arm’s length confrontation. What kind of playing field is that? Far from a level playing field…
I want a godly grenade, a Holy Ghost Howitzer, or an Abba Father flamethrower! Give me something, Lord! my enemy is pelting me from the shadows with flaming arrows and I’m stuck here inpersonating a ceiling fan.”
On Church Struggles:
“If your church fails, roll around in that soot and mud for awhile until you have learned a little something about your own culpability in the demise. If our church is not as dynamic or as Christlike as we had hoped, the issue might not be our church. It might be our lack of engagement in it.”
Indeed. THIS is what reading “Coffee, the World and Jesus” will do for you: it will get you ENGAGED in the truth. Get the book and fasten your seat belt. You are in for the ride of your life!
My rating: [usr 5]
