Iced Mocha Coffee on the fly

Yes, need is a strong word but totally fitting. Sometimes I do actually need a coffee to make it through the long Sunday afternoons. We have two church services and then an hour drive home. From that point, its cleaning, laundry and prepping school for the week until dinner time, which involves cooking, more cleaning then baths and beds. You know the drill!

As I headed home today  the normal drive thru spot was all out. I thought I’d settle for some caffeine from a Coke but that machine was broken too. So, stocked pantry to the rescue for some close enough coffee goodness.

Mix the ingredients together while the coffee is warm so it incorporates well and then pour over ice with either cream or milk at about half mix and half cream ratio. Top with some chocolate syrup and whip cream if you’ve got it and want to feel a bit fancy.

Play with this recipe to make it a little sweeter, more bitter, more milky etc. These are the basics to adjust as you like! These measurements are totally round about. I just threw stuff together so if you measure it exactly, let me know how yours turned out! 😄

1. Brew 5-6 cups of coffee in you coffee maker (or even heat up what you didn’t have time to drink in the morning.)

2. In a quart Mason jar or bowl add the cocoa powder, sugar, salt and vanilla.

3. Pour the hot coffee into the jar and whisk until dry ingredients dissolve.

4. Fill a cup or mug with ice and then halfway with milk or cream. Add an equal part of your mocha coffee mix and stir.

5. Enjoy. Knock out your to-do’s. Go you.

The Joy Set Before Us

Last week I had a moment of imagining waking up one morning and knowing Jesus was there. How exciting it will be to know our Savior and His perfect love is present! Every Christmas morning of my entire childhood, wrapped into 1 morning, times 1000 can’t compare to the joy that awaits His children. But it seems we don’t think about heaven much.

We spend a lot of time talking about the last days and the tribulation and terror that awaits. We spend a lot of time talking about hell and the judgement. But you ask many Christians what heaven is like and they haven’t really thought about it. Many, that I’ve personally spoken to and of all ages and backgrounds, think we will be fairly mindless and doing nothing but praising and floating on clouds all day. Well, that’s obviously better than eternal torment, right!? But does that truly stir up joy?

People who genuinely love Jesus will shrug at a 2 hr worship service. (It is sometimes called a sacrifice of praise for a reason.) But then, their main hope of heaven is to be part of an eternal worship service and clouds. I honestly doubt that is giving them enough joy to endure a cup off coffee with someone they don’t like; much less a cross or tribulation.

“[Jesus] for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising its shame and sat down at the right hand of God.”

Our prayer is and should always be “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” But I rarely consider, what is heaven like? What is his kingdom like? There are many parables on kingdom principles but more simply, what does it look like? When we are changed in the twinkling of an eye, what exactly will be different? What will we see?

“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for those who love Him”

Here is a visual someone put together of what the measurements given in Revelation 21 look like when compared to earth.
http://tourofheaven.com/eternal/new-jerusalem/size.aspx


There are several articles online about how big the mansions could be, jobs we will have, what things may look like and many other interesting things. Are any of these things certain? Probably not. It’s probably even better! I encourage you to take a look at what eternity will be. Let’s build up our joy so that we can share it. Then maybe God can use us more, drawing people to share in it!

(Originally published 2020)