Mysterious Coffee Confounded by Coffee

This is the headline of today's article on NASA's site. I get a regular daily e-mail from the site, mainly in the hope of illustrations for sermons. Today's article 'stirred' my thoughts!

The article explains some of the physics behind the difference between that hard vacuum packed brick of coffee that you by at the store and the soft, pliable open bag you have once you break the seal. Each coffee grain is jagged and irregular in its shape. The pressure of the atmosphere squeezes in on all sides when the grounds are 'under seal'. Their irregular shapes interlock and resist being broken apart as long as the pressure is maintained. As soon as the vacuum seal is broken, the pressure has an outlet and the grains are free to tumble in whatever direction they like.

Isn't this like the pressure of accountability one finds in a local church? Christians who submit themselves to the authority of a local church find themselves 'interlocking', replicating the form and function that Christ intended. Those who will not submit to the accountability of the local church find themselves drifting, led first by this whim, then that, never stabilizing spiritually.

Some pressure is good in our lives, the pressure of accountability to a God-honouring local church is one of them.