HERE IN THE REAL WORLD

May 22, 1959 a male child was born. He must have been a blessing to his family as his father was given a pay raise due to his birth: he was now making a whopping fifty dollars per week. The child went to church from his earliest days. He was taught to pray, to trust God, to have faith, to love others, to help others; he was brought up in a Christian family. His first two score and six years were filled with everything from extreme highs to trying lows. His family never achieved material wealth, but they were filthy rich with love. The family moved a few times, schools changed, friends came and went, but one thing remained constant: God. Even at times when his walk didn’t always seem as close to God as one would desire, it was due to his straying from the path; God remained in the same position. He must have lived a rather boring existence in those forty six years as he never married, didn’t do drugs; he never even managed to get arrested (well he did manage to get a fishing ticket once). But, he devoted his life in those years to helping others; putting himself second. I can only hope that his next two score and six years are as “simple” as the first.
I pray that my next 46 years I remain as close to God as I am today and even get closer. I hope my “tree” shows good fruit (Gal. 5:22). I pray that I may be a good servant to my fellow man. Lord give me the strength and power to live the “Royal Law.” Let me “Love my neighbor as myself” (James 2:8).
Lord grant me the wisdom to be an “older son”: Lo, these many years I have been serving you; I never transgressed your commandment at any time (Luke 15:29). Yet, give me the peace of knowing that should I become a “younger” son I have a home to return to: It was right that we should make merry and be glad, for your brother was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found (Luke 15:32). Lord your word says “If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).
Lord grant me the privilege of being used to guide the lost to you. Let my light shine: If then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, the whole body will be full of light, as when the bright shining of a lamp gives you light (Luke 11:36).
Father let me above all things “seek the kingdom of God” (Luke 11:31). Let me lay up my treasures in Heaven; for your word says “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Luke 11:34).
Lord, the first commandment you gave with a promise was “Honor thy father and thy mother” (Exodus 20:12). Lord, grant me the strength and the power to serve them as they enter their golden years just as they took care of me in my early years.
Lord, let me abide in you that when you appear I will not be ashamed before you (1John 2:28). Lord, allow me not to love in “word or in tongue” but let me love “in deed and in truth” (1 John 2:18).
Lord I thank you for every trial I have faced in these first two score and six years: My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing (James 1:2-4). “We also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us” (Romans 5:3-5). Lord, let me “persevere” and be a “character” full of “hope”.

Lord, I thank you for these first two score and six years and for the next two score and six years I pray “God, let me be a “NIKE” Christian”: But become doers of the Word, and not hearers only” (James 1:22); Lord let me “Just Do It!”

In Jesus Name Amen

(Select verses: mostly the writings of John)

Who can forget that love song recorded by Andy Williams a few years back;

Where do I begin
To tell the story of how great a love can be
The sweet love story that is older than the sea
The simple truth about the love she brings to me
Where do I start?[1]

Those verses that became the theme for the movie “Love Story,” told the beautiful story of pure love. Almost 2000 years earlier though, the apostle John wrote an almost identical love story. John told of the love of God. A love that can be unmatched, and has remained so unto this day. Andy Williams asked in his song, “where do I begin?” John answered that question, and all others about the love of God.

The apostle John starts his gospel by answering the question, “where do I begin?” John starts in the beginning. John 1:1, “….In the beginning was the Word..” When all things began, the Word, Jesus, already was! Genesis 1:1 tells us that God created the Heavens and the Earth. Before the creation God was! The Word, Jesus, was with God in the beginning. He was present as part of the Trinity at the creation. John tells us he was “with God” (John 1:1). The third part of the Godhead, the Spirit, we see was also there Genesis 1:2, “And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.” Not only was the Word, the Savior of this great love story, with God, he was in fact God. John 1:1, “ and the Word was God.”
Jesus was the active agent in the creation. John tells us that “All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made” (John 1:3). The Word made it all. This is echoed in Colossians, “For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. 17 And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist” (Colossians 1:16-17). Nothing was made without Him. God spoke the world into existence. God spoke…THE WORD!
Before anything was created, the Word was with God, the Word was God. The Word, our Savior, created everything. He was before everything. He set in motion that “sweet love story that is older than the sea.”

“To tell the story of how great a love can be.” How great a love can be, there is no love greater than the Love the Father has for us. John tells us that “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). God sent his Son to earth to be a sacrifice for our sins. “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends” (John 15:13). How great a love can we have, when we have a Savior that laid His life down for us? For our part in this love story, all we have to do is to obey His commands. “You are My friends if you do whatever I command you” (John 15:14). And what is His commands? John 15:17 tells us, “ These things I command you, that you love one another.” For us to abide in God, we have to abide in Love “he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him” (1 John 14:16). This great love story started not with us, but with Him, “We love Him because He first loved us” (1 John 14:19).

That is the simple truth about the love He gave to me. Because He first loved us, we love him. And that love is made perfect in us. He loved us and laid down His life for us. He is our “Good Shepard,” “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep” (John 10:11). If we obey His words, we become His sheep. We fellowship with Him. We become those who He laid His life down for. “As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep” (John 10 15).

Andy Williams ended his song with this question, “Where do I start?” Though Williams had to ask where to start, we have the answers given to us about the Love story of our Savior. Our love story is fulfilled by faith. That faith comes when we hear the story. We are saved through that faith. Ephesians 2:8 says, “ For by grace you have been saved through faith.” That faith comes when we hear and believe. “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17). The prophet Habakkuk told us long ago that “ ..the just shall live by his faith” (Habakkuk 2:4).
Hearing and believing isn’t all though that we must do in order to take part in this great love story!
After hearing and believing we must repent and be baptized for the remission of sins. Repent means that we turn from the sinful lifestyles that we have been living in. We will still sin, but it’s the act of living in “habitual” sin that we repent, with the hope of not sinning anymore. John wrote in 1 John 2:1, “My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin.” It would be great if we would never sin again, but that “ain’t happenin’.” We are to be baptized for the remission of sins. Peter in his sermon recorded in Acts 2:38 told them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins.” In fact every conversion recorded in the Bible contains an account of baptism. When we are baptized it isn’t that we will never sin again, but it’s that pledge of a good conscious towards God, “baptism (not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God)” (1 Peter 3:21).
Our love story does not require us to be perfect, in fact our Savior knows that we are not! We know that when we do sin we have one to go to who will forgive us those sins. I john 2:1 tells us, “And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”
We have then to hear, believe, repent, and be baptized, but our Love Story isn’t yet completed. We have to confess with our mouth Jesus as Lord! Romans 10:9, “confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” Our Love Story is complete when we confess Jesus as Lord. And, why wouldn’t we? Before we were ever created, God loved us. We love Him because he first loved us. Before the worlds ever was, He was. He set into motion the great love story before the world ever was. Before the world was He laid out the scheme of redemption for our sins. Revelation 13:8 says, “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” The precious Lamb of God slain from the foundation, that which was/is perfect, slain for those who are anything but perfect. How great a love can that be! Is today the day you take part in the greatest love story ever told?

[1] Words & Music by Carl Sigman & Francis LaiRecorded by Andy Williams, 1971

HE’S MORE THAN A NAME ON A WALL
(Acts 17:22-32)

In the early 70’s as the Viet Nam war raged on, one of the more popular pieces of jewelry was a little silver bracelet. On the bracelet was engraved the name of a soldier who was a P.O.W. I was in awe a few years ago when I had a chance to be in Washington, D.C. And see the Viet Nam Veterans’ Memorial: The Wall. After careful inspection I found the name that I had worn some twenty some odd years ago on my arm, Captain Peter Sherman. To most people who saw that name he was just an unknown soldier. To most these names represent unknown people, but to others they represented a life. They were the fathers who would never again play ball with their child. They were the students who would not become the lawyer or president. They were the doctors who would not find the cure for some dreaded disease. They were the husband who would never again hug their wives. They were the sons who would never again brighten their parent’s life. They were brothers who would never again argue with the sister. No matter how unknown there were, to someone they each represented and empty place at the table. Yet, to most there were no more than just unknown soldiers.
The altar at Mar’s Hill had an inscription to an unknown. Paul said, “I even found an altar with this inscription: TO THE UNKNOWN GOD” (Act 17:22). Paul had perceived that the people there were religious (Acts 17:22), yet they worshiped what to them was an unknown god. Paul, in addressing the people there, took the mystery out of the unknown god and made him a known God.
In Acts 17:24, Paul proclaimed that God was the creator of the earth, “God, who made the world and everything in it” and set him as ruler of the Heavens and the earth, “since He is Lord of heaven and earth.” Paul harkened back to Genesis1:1 which said, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” This god that was unknown to the people of Areopagus was the God that created the Heavens and the earth. This was the God that inspired Paul to write, “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead” (Romans 1:20). Little by little Paul made the unknown god, a known God.
Paul let those listening know that God was not unknown that God was real. He was not some carved image that so many had worshipped. The prophet Habakkuk wrote, “What profit is the image, that its maker should carve it, The molded image, a teacher of lies, That the maker of its mold should trust in it, To make mute idols? (Habakkuk 2:18). Paul showed that God was the creator, a living God whose qualities had been seen since the creation. The writer of Hebrews said, “For the word of God is living and powerful….” (Hebrews 4:12). This is the God that Paul proclaimed to those gathered at Mars Hill, a God that is a live and will live for ever. The God that said of himself in John’s revelation, “I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore” (Revelation 1:18).
In Acts 17:29 Paul declared that we are God’s offspring, “Therefore, since we are the offspring of God.” The message that Paul proclaimed to those at Mars Hill was the same one he wrote to the Galatians. “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:26). Paul told the promise of the known God, that through Jesus Christ we all can become sons of God. Jesus said, and the apostle John wrote, “While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light” (John 12:35). Even at this late hour, it is not to late for one to become a child of the light because of a living God, who Paul made known to a previously ignorant group at Mars Hill, that scarified his son that we might all live eternally.
Preaching to a group who had previously worshipped an unknown god, Paul proclaimed the one true living God. Paul proclaimed him as creator, and Father of all. Paul taught that He was, and still is, more than a name on a wall.

Her Candle Goeth Not
Out By Night
(Pro. 31:18)
Mother’s Day 2005

“Daddies work from sun to sun, but mamas’ work is never done.” That old saying was certainly true around my house. It seemed that from the time she got up until the time she laid down mama worked constantly. And, when she did finally lie down she was on call even then for whatever needs the family had at any hour of the night. At the first sound of a sick child’s cry, she would stir up the light and be on her feet to tend to the ill. When everyone else was relaxing after a big meal, was she washing dishes. She was there caring in each and every moment through her child’s life; Teaching, doctoring, feeding, clothing, bathing, caring, she does whatever when ever it needs to be done.

Mothers take pride in the things that happen in the lives of their children. After the visit by the Shepherds following Jesus’ birth, the Bible records that Mary “But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart” (Luke 2:19). She treasured all the “goings on” surrounding the birth of her child. In her heart she thought about the things that were said; “He is such a healthy looking child;” “He has his mother’s eyes.” She ponder in her heart that angels would announce the birth of her son (Luke 2:9-14).
Mothers teach their children. Not much is known about the early years of Jesus, but one of the things known is that at an early age he knew the scriptures. After making a trip to Jerusalem, Mary and Joseph could not find the boy Jesus. When finally they found him, he was in the temple (Luke 2:41-50). He was not only sitting there listening, but questioning those who taught. Scripture records that those listening “were astonished at His understanding and answers” (Luke 2:47). He showed education that no doubtedly was learned on his mother’s knee, just as we are taught by our mothers while our fathers are at work. In the book of Acts, Apollos knew the scriptures, yet another woman, Priscilla, took him aside and taught him even more. Acts 18:26 says, “when Aquila and Priscilla had heard, they took him unto them, and expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly.” There is no doubt that Timothy also learned of faith from his mother and grandmother (2 Timothy 1:5). His mother it is recorded “was a Jewess and believed” (Acts 16:1).

Mothers believe in US, sometimes when we don’t even believe in ourselves. On the day Jesus went to the wedding at Cana the wine ran out. Mary knew exactly where to go. She went to Jesus. Mary had faith in her son. She knew his special qualities. Even though Jesus said, “mine hour is not yet come” (John 2:4), Mary believed in her son and his abilities. Mary told the servants, “Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it” (John2:5).

She is there when no one else is. When the times get bad a mother still is there for her children. Peter was one of the original twelve, yet on the night that Jesus was crucified peter denied Jesus three times. Jesus told Peter, “Verily I say unto thee, That this night, before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice (Matthew 26:34). After Peter had denied Jesus three times, Peter “remembered the word of Jesus, which said unto him, Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. And he went out, and wept bitterly” (Matthew 26:75). There is no mention of Peter being at the crucifixion. Yet, in John 19 when the soldiers cast lots for Jesus’ clothes, the next recorded passage is Jesus looking at his mother. Were his clothes something his mother had made for him? Did his thoughts go back to his childhood when his mother made his clothes? We can never know what went on in the mind of Jesus when he heard those words about his clothing. But, we do know that the next recorded words were of Jesus looking out for his mother’s welfare: “When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by, whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son! Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother! And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home” (John 19:26-27). IN his last minutes, while his lifes blood drained, his thoughts were on the welfare of the one who had given him welfare. His thoughts were on the one who had taught him, clothed him, worried over him, and believed in him. His thoughts were on the welfare of his mother. Just as a mother puts herself second and her children first, Jesus put his pain second and the future of his mother first. Just as his mother had seen that his most basic of needs were provided, Jesus in his final minutes provided for his mother’s future needs.
It is no wonder that the first commandment with a promise was “Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee” (Exodus 20:12). Our parents honor us. From birth till death our Mothers stand by us. “Her candle goeth not out by night” (Proverbs 31:18)

Bobby Cohoon

North Carolina, USA

little_sorrel@yahoo.com