HERE IN THE REAL WORLD

Our world today is a dog eat dog world. To many, if not most, all that matters is getting to the top. People will step on just about anyone to get to the top. That isn’t just in the secular world. From the earliest years we instill in our children a sense of always making it to the top. We use top CEO’s as roll models. There is only one place to be: the top. Number two is nothing but the first looser. Or, is it?

Luke wrote, “For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted” (Luke 14:11). That doesn’t say that being at the top is bad thing; it speaks to the attitude that we have on the way there and when we get there. We can be at the top of the ladder of success and be lower than the person on the bottom rung of the ladder of success. When we stand on the top and exalt ourselves we have gotten nowhere. Without God we are nothing; we are nowhere. And though at the top, we are at the bottom.

To go to the top of the Spiritual ladder we can not take the first step without acknowledging that without God we are nowhere. The psalmist wrote, “The transgression of the wicked saith within my heart, that there is no fear of God before his eyes” (Psalm 13:1). It is God that knows our hearts and minds. He knows the motivations that push us to the top. We can get there either by pride or humility. We can get there by either by knowing that without God we are nothing, or we can get there by focusing on God. We can be in the top of the success ladder while being on the bottom of the spiritual ladder. Or, we can be on top of the spiritual ladder while being on the bottom of the success ladder. But, it is possible to be on top of both.

The Apostle Paul wrote, “I can do everything through him who gives me strength” (Philippians 4:13). With a proper focus on God, the giver of strength, we can stand on the bottom rung of the ladder of success, and be at the top of the Spiritual ladder. It is done through humility. It is done by being humble. We can stand on the highest rung of life and never be at the top until we let ourselves descend the ladder by being humble.

Until next time May The Good Lord Bless And Keep You: All Y’all!Bobby Cohoon
North Carolina, USA
cohoon@embarqmail.com

Commenting on the speed (or lack there of) of one of his baseball players, former Los Angeles Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda said, “If he got in a race with a pregnant women he’d come in third.” Our world today is based on speed: who can get a job done first. Efficiency has become the trademark of world: speed and efficiency seem to be all that matter to us. If you can’t get the job done fast, usually you won’t get the job done. Luckily we have a Heavenly Father who looks at things differently than we do. Looking at two of Christ’s parables we can see that “which place” is not important, but “place” is the standard.

Look at the Parable of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15. We see the story of a son who has gotten his inheritance while his father is still alive. He then leaves home and squanders what was given to him. And then he decides he wants to come home. We pick up the story with his fathers response to seeing the son return, “But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him” (Luke 15:20). It wasn’t that the son was ahead in a race to the father; it was that he had repented and had turned to the father that counted. He, the son, was still far away. Yet, he was coming to the father. God sees us the same way. There may be people farther along their journey to Him, yet he sees also the one who has just started and has compassion on him.

The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard (Matthew 20) gives us an an insight to the rewards of first, second, and third place and more. The story is that people were hired to work the vineyard. They were promised a denarius for a days work. Latter in the day more workers were hired…at the same pay wage. God isn’t interested so much in what place we come in; He is concerned that we come in! God’s concern is that we turn to Him and start that journey.

This world we live in may be overly concerned with being number one, but in the journey to God there are no “places.” There is only one reward. Number two is just as good as number one, and number three is as good as number two. God’s concern is repentence and the pure heart that we seek Him with. God doesn’t grade us as win place and show: Show and Place WIN!

Until next time May the Good Lord Bless and Keep You: All Y’all!

Bobby

Bobby Cohoon
North Carolina, USA
cohoon@embarqmail.com

Melvin is a young man of 66-67 years of age and Always on the go teaching school or coaching basketball. Then it hit: Mesothelioma. Immediately he went on everyone’s prayer list. Luckily, the cancer was not in the lung but between the lung and the rib. After a surgery and a little chemo there was no more cancer. Prayers were answered. Then just a month later the cancer was not only back but it was everywhere. Were the prayers unanswered after all?

One of the biggest problems in most people’s prayer life is that when things turn out opposite of what they prayed for they assume God isn’t listening and God isn’t answering prayers. And of course they stand on this verse: Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them” (Mark 11:24). Sometimes the problem lies only with our inability to recognize an answer.

Of course we can’t understand someone sick as receiving an answer to prayer for healing. And then, when that person passes we cannot fathom that it is the answer to our prayers. Of course God is God and I believe whole heartedly that God has the power to heal today. I also believe that God can use whatever “earthly” things that are at his disposal to provide healing: Doctors and drugs. But what about the person who dies?

I believe that “going home” is a healing to a sick Christian. That sickness is immediately gone and there is never a chance that it will return. Though our prayer is for healing, His will as to how (and when) the healing will occur is in the hands of God. Sometimes, maybe, there are other things that need to be done through an illness and the healing is delayed. Maybe one of the family doesn’t know God; The situation can be one where while waiting for the healing lost love ones can come to Christ.
I think many times when we think prayers are unanswered the problem lies simple with our failure to understand or recognize the answer. Remember we pray His will be done and not ours.

Tonight my friend Melvin is in grave condition at home. He has hospice. His family needs our prayers for God’s healing (however God so chooses to do it). They need prayers for strength to get through this trying time. And they need prayers that if anyone of them don’t know Christ, that through this they may come to know Him.

Until next time May The Good Lord Bless and Keep You: All Y’all

Bobby
Bobby Cohoon
North Carolina,USA
cohoon@embarqmail.com

There are some places where people would prefer that we didn’t talk. Libraries and hospitals come to mind right off. I am sure there are many others including school classes and as I write this I am sure a ton of them will pop into mind. But, the bottom line is there are some places where we just need to be quiet. Does that present a dilemma for Christians? After all Jesus said, “Go ye into all the world, and PREACH the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15). And if you are like me you probably don’t know many quiet preachers.

They thirtyish minutes of preaching we hear on Sunday morning are one way of spreading the Gospel. The down side is that most of the people who are hearing the Sunday message have already began a life in Christ. On occasion there may be a few who come in who don’t know anything of Christ; but for the most part the churches are filled with believers. However, we preach the Gospel everyday.

Each day our lives are filled with various people: some we know others we don’t. Some of these people we are aware that they are seeing us. But, countless others see us and we are oblivious to their viewing. They see how we interact when we are running late and the 10th person in line at the gas station. The see us on the parking lot when the bottom falls out of the grocery bag. Almost every aspect of our day is viewed by someone. And while we may not be “preaching” the gospel, we should be living it. The most powerful preaching we everyday is the life we live in Christ. More powerful than words are the actions that everyone sees in our daily lives.

Sure we are to preach and teach, but we are also to live the Gospel of Jesus Christ. St. Francis of Assisi once said, “Always preach the gospel— if necessary, use words.” What is your most powerful preaching your words or your actions?

Until next time May The Good Lord Bless and Keep You: All Y’all!

Bobby
Bobby Cohoon
North Carolina, USA
cohoon@embarqmail.com

We live in a world of numbers. We base almost everything in our lives on some type of statistic. And, though we might not personally be the one who does the count, you can rest assure that at some point most every thing in our lives has been a part of someone’s statistic. We even count in our churches. We take roll and attendance. Some churches actually pass around a “roll sheet” to be signed by everyone there. But what happens when someone’s name is missing from the list?
Are the list used to as map to visit or check in on those names that didn’t make the list?

People miss church for various reasons. And, while many of the reasons might not warrant a phone call to check on the missing person, without checking on them we may never know why they miss. What if someone is absent because they are sick? First, if we don’t call or pay a visit we might never know they are sick. We would only know that they are absent. Jesus said, “I was sick, and ye visited me” (Matthew 25:36). We are to care of our brothers and sisters, not just care when they are sitting beside us. Our Christian love is to flow outside the church walls as well as inside.

We live in a society where the “aged” population is constantly growing. Each year that population adds more and more people as advances in medicine have people living longer now than ever before. And sometimes with the ups and downs of advanced years these may be the very people whose names are absent on occasion from the church rolls, or, even less visible on a daily basis. But, yet most of us can’t find the time to make a call to check on them when they aren’t in out presence. James, wrote, “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction” (James 1:27). Yet, we struggle at finding the time even when we know they have been absent a few weeks in a row.

We have all the attendances of church taken on a weekly basis. We know who is there and who isn’t, yet we seem to never be able to find the time to check and see why they were absent. In his “Holy Rule,” St. Benedict wrote, “Before and above all things, care must be taken of the sick, that they be served in very truth as
Christ is served.” Jesus said, “And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me” (Matthew 25:40). Don’t our absent brothers and sisters deserve to be more than a Sunday morning statistic?

Until next time May the Good Lord Bless and Keep You: All Y’all!

Bobby
Bobby Cohoon
North Carolina, USA
cohoon@embarqmail.com

You remember Dorothy Gale don’t you? She was the girl in the Wizard of Oz. She left home to go with Professor Marvel to see the crowned heads. Dorothy wound up in another land and spent her stay there trying to get back home. She searched high and low for the way back, and when she finally got back vowed that she’d never go searching farther than her own back yard. Dorothy’s biggest problem was that she never searched in her own back yard to begin with.

Jesus told us, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15). And I agree totally with Him; We are to preach the gospel in ALL THE WORLD! Did you know that you can not get to the whole world without going through your own back yard? Your neighborhood stands between you and every other part of the world. Yet, we struggle so hard with teaching those in our own back yards. In all of our areas there are hurting people, homeless people, hungry people, and people who have never heard the Good News of Jesus Christ. Yet, for most of us it remains an unconquered mission filled.

We have no problem with sending money to support overseas missions. And, rightly so: we shouldn’t have a problem with it. But, by the same token we shouldn’t neglect the missions that are all around us. We have become farsighted: we can see all the mission needs afar off, yet our near vision is blurry at best. We need to get adjusted back to 20/20.

Each Sunday as we go to church and give money to be sent to far away missions we walk through, drive through and view some of the best overlooked mission fields. Are you like Dorothy Gale and realize that we need to look in our own back yards? Or, are you more like the “WIZ” and prefer to just “Ease On Down The Road?”

In Him,
Bobby
Bobby Cohoon
North Carolina, USA
cohoon@embarqmail.com

I have never given an endorsement to any political candidate on this website, and will not start now. My goal on here is and always has been to spread the words of Christ: To maybe in some way help someone find Christ or help them grow in Christ. But, I want to comment on a quote by one of the candidates. Senator Barak Obama is quoted as saying, “And it’s not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.” I want to narrow my comments to the “clinging to religion” part.

That is one of the problems in the world today (not just among those who know Christ, but those who don’t). The very first sign that something has gone, or is getting ready to go wrong, people who otherwise never pray in their lives immediate start talking to God. They try and cling to the very thing that when all is going well is far from them. Many of these are our Eastmas guest. You know the ones whose shadows are cast in church twice a year: Easter and Christmas. As soon as things get better, their prayer life and walk with Christ again deteriorates.

Are these people looking for a loving God? Or, are they looking for a temporary fix to their problems in the world. Doesn’t God ask a bit more of us than our calling on Him just in a time of need, or only visiting His house twice a year? Yet, for many that is the sum of their Christian walk. When things are going good they act is if they don’t know God exists. But, the minute things head south the look to God for the answers. For some of this group their Christian obligation is fulfilled with two trips to church a year.

We are called to give God glory in all things, not just turn to Him when things get rough: whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God (I Corinthians 10:31). Paul said we are to pray not only when things are bad, but all the time: Pray without ceasing (I Thessalonians 5:17). Without ceasing implies all the time not just when times are tight and we get bitter.

If we only look to God when things are rough and we are bitter, one day we might stand before a judge whose words seem bitter when He asks, “Friend, wherefore art thou come?” (Matthew 26:50).

Until next time May The Good Lord Bless and Keep You: All Y’all!

Bobby

Bobby Cohoon
North Carolina, USA
cohoon@embarqmail.com

We get so excited every time we hear that one of favorite “stars” is coming somewhere near us. Months in advance the posters go up and the buzz begins. Then the night of the show finally arrives. I remember years ago hearing a song start, “People see us everywhere.” Then a voice saying, “They call him the high priest of country music.” Followed by more of the song, “They think you really care.” Followed by an excited Joe Hoppel saying, “Conway Twitty!” Then Conway would break into his rousing version of “O Danny Boy.” You know the most famous person to every grace the world’s stage came with the all the same fanfare that our favorite artists come yet He was for the most part unnoticed. And even today many don’t recognize His presence.

Like all stars His arrival was announced in advance. But, unlike today’s artists who announce theirs a few months in advance, the arrival of the King was announced years, hundreds of years in advance. Isaiah wrote, “Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14). Years before the actual appearance, God announced to the world that its star was going to appear. He even gave us the place: But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting (Micah 5:2).

Then can time for the big blessed event. The lights were down: and the darkness comprehended it not (John 1:5b). It was show time: and she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn (Luke 2:7). The overture began, “And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men (Luke 2:13-14). The show began, yet there wasn’t a mad dash of people buying last minute tickets. A show that was announced hundreds of years in advance, a free show at that, began in quietness unnoticed by the people all around.

Even today many fail to recognize what happened over two thousand years ago. His return engagement was even announced: Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven (Acts 1:11). And though we don’t when it will be, we know it could be at any time: Behold, I come quickly (Revelation 22:7). Yet, many people are not getting excited. Maybe we are not getting the publicity wagon rolling as we should. Have you done your part to make His next appearance a sell out and standing room only?

Until next time May The Good Lord Bless and Keep You: All Y’all!

Bobby
Bobby Cohoon
North Carolina, USA
cohoon@embarqmail.com

Recently in Newark, New Jersey I was attempting to find the New York Transit’s PATH Train system. The course to get there took me many routes: From the motel I took a van shuttle to the airport where I got on an air tram to take me to another terminal to catch a bus which went across town to Penn Station where I boarded the PATH Train. Most days the route was decently easy, but on at least one day the trip seemed to take forever. And, that particular long day when I finally got there the train was filled to not just standing room only but standing room only packed liked sardines! I looked over the crowd that was packed in and noticed all the different types of people pushed in together. There were some from probably every walk of life. There were some from most any “social” class. There were some who were obviously drunks and addicts. You name it and it was probably on the PATH train. I thought how much like our Christian lives and walks this PATH Train really is.

We all start our Christian walks with various degrees of “Christian” education. What I mean is with various degrees of what we know about Christ and where we are headed and how we are to live to get there. Some are born into church going families while others find Christ sometime later in life. It would be great if Christianity was some type of box and when we get saved there would be a Christian suit that we could put on and be A1 Christians from that point forward. Fortunately it doesn’t work that way. I say fortunately because if it was like that we would never grow. And I believe it is our growth process that allows us to gain the life experiences that give us the wisdom to be able to give others directions to the old paths. Daily we chip away the old self as we search the Word, and each day we gain something that will not only help us but someone else that we will meet.

Just as the PATH Train was filled with people of various positions, so is Christianity filled with people of various walks seeking the old paths. Our experience can serve as excellent direction for those who have yet to get to the point on the path that we are, just as those ahead of us can serve to give us directions as we move farther along.

There are literally tons of different people seeking the old PATH Trains. There are even more seeking the old paths. For those of us who had traveled both we are to give directions to those who are seeking. Part of the Great Commission is teaching: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you (Matthew 28:20). Teaching is an ongoing and progressive process. Many people pointed me towards the old PATH train and there are many people who need to be pointed (taught) the way to the old paths.

I found the old PATH Train and when I did I found it full of other people who had come from all different directions seeking the same. I was happy later to be able to give others direction to the PATH. I am also happy to give people direction to the old paths. Always be ready to give directions; remember, wise men still seek Him, but they still need some direction after they find Him.

Last time I asked for prayer for brother John Dobbs’ mother; I didn’t realize that his father needed prayer also. Keep both of John’s parents in your prayers as well as my mother.

Brother Nick Gill’s website has change URLs it is now http://fumblingtowardseternity.wordpress.com/

Until next time May the Good Lord Bless and Keep You: All Y’all

Bobby
Bobby Cohoon
North Carolina, USA
cohoon@embarqmail.com

I was lucky enough to get to see Anwar Robinson perform in the musical “RENT.”
The story tracks about a year in the lives of several people. And, all have their share of problems. All but two of the principles have AIDS. A couple are gay. Most are addicts. They all have their baggage and non can pay the rent. Life can be rough even when we don’t have the man made problems that they have.

These are the very people that most of society (not to mention most in churches) shuns. But as Christians aren’t we called to do a little bit more? I remember reading the words of Jesus to say, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 15:16). He said, “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost” (Matthew 28:19). I can’t find one verse where he said we are to pick and choose.

And when we begin to pick and choose we need to take a close look at ourselves. There is not a one of us who is without sin. We have attached such a stigma to some sins that we don’t want to teach the one who commits them. Yet, all sin no matter how big or little separates us from God. James wrote, “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all” (James 2:10). ). In the vernacular of the peasantry, “lying can get you to Hell as quick as murder!”

There is not a one of us that is without sin, Paul told us that when he wrote, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). Yet we, not God, put the sins of others into categories.The thing that separates us from them is that somebody cared enough to “teach” us about the love of God. When we stop being judge and begin to do what Jesus asked of us some of these people just might have enough to pay their Heavenly RENT!

Please keep my mom in your prayers; She is really sturggling right now with eye problems.

John Dobbs’ mom is also in need of your prayers.

And sister Neva Cooper went through surgery this morning lets keep her in prayer.

I have added a new link on friends list; Drop by and make Steve Tucker feel welcome to the world of blogdom

Until next time May The Good Lord Bless and Keep you: All Y’all!

Bobby

Bobby Cohoon
North Carolina, USA
cohoon@embarqmail.com