CHAPTER 48: THE CUP PEOPLE 2023
The Cup People is the study of a limited state of mind, possibly even a corrupted mind or restricted. All of us are subject to this thing. Stuck — the status quo is fiercely maintained. Those who are stuck in the cup, don’t want out. A cup person likes the cup, it’s comfortable, familiar. There is control over daily life, things stay the same, and are understood — new information is not welcome here. It may sound like Utopia, a place where all things exist and are agreeable. Where’s the problem? The Cup is a mirage. It’s not real, at least not very long. A perpetual machine of comfort does not exist, even in the mind and absolutely not in the physical world. Without growth, resources run out, and life without substance, simply fades, dust in the wind.
Consider a cup of coffee forgotten on a table, perhaps there is a half cup remaining. Left unattended, the cup dries out, organisms are born of this now toxic environment and an actual hierarchy is born. A sort of government, top dog all the way down to the scum at the bottom of the cup. This ecosystem persists quite well for a time, the experiment provides some type of food until the coffee, and the cream, what’s left of the sugar, the resources so to speak, dry up or are completely absorbed into the organisms now existing in the cup. What happens? Finally, it all dies, the rain comes if the cup is outside, or the owner of the cup discovers the mishap and washes it clean, or the wind just simply blows the remaining debris into the air. The Cup People, are gone. You see, the walls of the cup may have provided safety to whatever was in the cup, and for awhile, there was food, water, even a government of sorts. In the cup I can pretend, nothing gets in, nothing gets out. If I can’t get myself out of the cup, I can’t help myself or anybody else. What’s it look like in a cup? A prison, in the name of being important. People in the cup fight for their right to be stupid. They come to believe that everything outside of the cup is irrelevant or bad.
Slipping back into the safety of the walls of the cup, hiding in self importance, a vision of what? Drill a hole in the side of the cup and get out.
Proverbs 4:6-7
Do not forsake wisdom, and she will protect you; love her, and she will watch over you.
The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom. Though it cost all you have, get understanding.
And what pain when all the infrastructure of the cup finally turns to dust and blows away, leaving nothing for all efforts, except pain. Pain is a wake up call isn’t it?
A quote from CS Lewis from his book, “The Problem of Pain:”
The human spirit will not even begin to try to surrender self-will as long as all seems to be well with it.
Now error and sin both have this property, that the deeper they are the less their victim suspects their existence; they are masked evil.
Pain is unmasked, unmistakable evil; every man knows that something is wrong when he is being hurt. … And pain is not only immediately recognizable evil, but evil impossible to ignore.
We can rest contentedly in our sins and in our stupidities; and anyone who has watched gluttons shoveling down the most exquisite foods as if they did not know what they were eating, will admit that we can ignore even pleasure.
But pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.
— C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain
I’ve told you before, if the devil can’t make you sin, he will waste your time. How much time do you really think you have? Years, months, weeks, days, hours, minutes or seconds? Let me tell you a little story.
Luke 12:19-21
New King James Version
19 And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry.” ’
20 But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?’
21 “So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”
Isn’t it true, all caught up in the daily grind, gotta get a loan, gotta keep this house, gotta keep up with the Jones’, make some moves, can’t change anything, anything, no sir, will not change, no sir — will not learn, will not listen, will not comply, and then what…, and then we fail.
Hosea 4:6
New American Standard
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.
Because you have rejected knowledge,
I also will reject you from being My priest.
Since you have forgotten the law of your God,
I also will forget your children.
Cup people limit themselves, family, the futures of everything and everybody in their soon to be over, life. I’ve said it before, in a breach of your fiduciary duty — you cease to exist.
Suddenly, what you were is no more, one is only left with the memory of being special, without being special anymore. Without knowledge and wisdom, luck runs out, time runs out, resources run out, you simply disappear. Sin and stupid, it’ll do, Lou and mediocre, all of it yields the same thing, …nothing. Stubbornly holding onto the cup is lethal to all future achievements. Let go, get out, run to win, fight to learn, engage true believers, discover the Word, climb out, be delivered from the hands of fate into the hands of destiny.
Hebrews 12:1
New Living Translation
God’s Discipline Proves His Love
12 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.
Is it possible to get in the cup when a person is outside of the cup? Traps and Blessings I say, they look the same up front, one is long term, one is short term. Armed with truth, all of us are susceptible to the mysticism and the excitement of the occult, false prophecy, wrong thinking, magic, theories and generalities, not good, entry level cup person so to speak, stuck, wasting time, valuable resources. Be careful with whom you find yourself keeping company, lest they be the doorman to oblivion.
1 Timothy 4:1-2
New Living Translation
4 Now the Holy Spirit tells us clearly that in the last times some will turn away from the true faith; they will follow deceptive spirits and teachings that come from demons. 2 These people are hypocrites and liars, and their consciences are dead.[a]
Chapter 48: “The Cup People.” Is it a sin? Disobedience is a slippery slope, isn’t it? There are good reasons people have to do things that shouldn’t be done. Wasting your talent is never good. I’ll say that. Wasting your life? I’d say that’s worse. We all make mistakes. Staying in the cup too long is a mistake, getting out of the cup and climbing back in is a travesty. The measure of the man or woman is how fast they get off of it or in this case get out of it. A cup is for coffee, that’s all.
Napolean Bonaparte is quoted to say:
“Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and I have founded empires. But on what did we rest the creations of our genius? Upon force. Jesus Christ founded his empire upon love; and at this hour millions of men would die for him.”
Why don’t I see all that God has given me and yearn for it? Why do I see it now, when opportunity has passed? Is it selfish, or is it the state of man? Adam Clarke, a British Methodist theologian noted in the 1800’s as saying..“Beasts, birds, fowls, and in many cases pond-fishes, know and seem thankful to the hand that feeds them; while man, made much more noble than they, gifted with the greatest powers, privileged with the most important benefits, considers not the Lord, nor discerns the operation of his hand. Quadrupeds, reptiles, and fowls, have more gratitude to their masters than man has to his God.” Matthew Poole, an English Non-conformist theologian and biblical scholar during the the mid 1600’s said, and I quote.. “God hath given to men those gifts which he hath denied to beasts, reason and religion, wisdom to know God and themselves, and their obligations to God, and their dependence upon him. And therefore it’ll becometh them to lie like brute creatures, roaring and crying out in their miseries, without taking any notice of God in way of prayer or praise; and if they do so, it is no wonder if God takes no notice of them.”
The moment you accepted Christ your life became a ministry. Either an “easy ministry” or “not an easy ministry.” An easy ministry: you go to church, look holy, say a few prayers for people, set up some chairs, maybe be a greeter, and go home feeling pretty good about yourself, no follow up necessary see you next Sunday. Not a bad start, but if you stay there, and that is the extent of your ministry — you’re stuck, go nowhere, do nothing and suddenly a person doesn’t want to do anything else, as far as it’s enough. You see, in the “not so easy ministry” there is no follow up required. Come to church, say a few prayers, talk to people, enjoy the company and leave. A feeling of complete is in order. Holy has been achieved until next Sunday. Is that really the extent of God’s gift of eternal salvation, redemption and the blood of Christ? It can’t be. He’s given too much for any of His children to stop ministry at the entry level position, especially those who have been given so much. Growing in the faith is a pre-requisite to the “full armor of God’, growth as a “soldier of Christ.”
1 Corinthians 3:1-3 New International Version
2 I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. 3 You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere humans?
Boom, there it is, the cup people. Fighting for the right to stay stupid, when so much is offered in kingdom work. Look, being an example in Christ is a full-time job, there’s nothing part-time about it. However, the cup is an equal opportunity employer, believers or non-believers…, stuck is available to everyone. Okay, that is the definition of the “easy ministry.” How about the “not so easy ministry?” The “out of the cup” option of Chapter 48?
Ephesians 6:10-18 New International Version
13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.
When engaged inside of a “not so easy ministry” one never feels adequate, pastors, worship leaders, teachers, youth group, all of those folks go home with the job, the challenges, problems, personal phones constantly buzzing through the night requiring a never ending follow through — scripture, prayers, guidance from the Word and a realization, as one stands, a Watchman over God’s flock, of the treachery found in the world, the vulnerability and weakness of our human condition, sin and the debauchery it causes.
Make a difference in the God given gift of redemption and stand firm on the front line with the creator Himself against Satan, an unstoppable force of evil, who would surely kill us all.
Mediocre is bad kids, stuck is no good, stupid is stubborn and God is infinite, you are infinite within Him. Jesus asked Peter three times, a very pertinent question…
John 21:15-25 New International Version
17 The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Feed my sheep.
“Feed my sheep,” not an easy ministry. “Not an easy ministry” changes the world irrevocably forever, anytime, all the time. And who started the “not so easy ministry?”The Cross, kids, the blood of Christ, Jesus is the beginning of the “not so easy ministry” that changes everything.
Chapter 48 The Cup People — Make your choice, kids, get out of the cup or be one of the many representatives of complete “ignorance.” This is the real deal.., my friends, Amen.
