HERE IN THE REAL WORLD

As I write this today the baseball world is mourning the loss of New York Yankee owner George Steinbrenner. The “Boss,” as he was known, was known for being able to put together a team that would almost always be in contention for the championship. He would always seem to come up with a team of greats. He knew it took a team.  One cannot think of baseball without remembering some of the great players of the past, and some of the great quotes they made. So, today, once more, I turn to the “diamond” for a little theology and find out that it takes a team.

Former Chicago Cubby Vance Law said, “When you’re in a slump, it’s almost as if you look out at the field and it’s one big glove.”  Sin in our lives is the same way. When we stumble and sin, the jaws of even more sin is waiting to devour us. Our desire for pleasure, fed by the sin, seems can never seem to be satisfied. One sin will lead to another and to another until we find ourselves deep in the pit and mire of sin totally living away from Christ.

James said that we are to “Therefore, confess [our] sins to one another” (James 5:16). We bring in our brother/sister in faith and let them know where we have failed, or where we are about to fall. That small act of humbling ourselves can take the weight of the world off our shoulders. It throws darkness into light. And, we all know when we turn on the lights the darkness is gone. It makes us accountable.

We live in a world where we think we can handle everything on our own. Unfortunately for some many of us that is not the case. And, when what we are trying to handle is sin it sometimes even gets hard to handle by ourselves. It takes a team. The writer of Hebrews wrote, “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching” (Hebrews 10:25). We are to encourage each other. We are to encourage others just as they are to encourage us.  We can get all the self help books money can buy, but there is only one that helps with sin: The Bible. And, it encourages us to rely on the help of our brothers and sisters in Christ. It takes a team.

Baseball has long had a history of “greats of the game.” We cherish the memory of what these guys did on the field. Our faith is no different. The writer of Hebrews wrote, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin” (Hebrews 12:1). Our scriptures are filled with great stories of faith, and all around us great men and women of faith still bare witness. We need let these witnesses encourage us. We need to let them build us up not just in our time of need, but to refuel us at all times. It takes a team.

Former Yankee Billy Martin once said, “I may not have been the best Yankee to put on the pinstripes, but I am the proudest.” In our Christian walk it is a great thing that we don’t have a Father that keeps statistics like Major League Baseball does.  If that was the case we would none be considered “best Christians” because all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). But we serve a God that forgives and does not count our sins: I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins (Isaiah 43:25). When we rely on our teammates and follow the leading of our perfect Manager we can get past the sins that plague us and separate us from the Father. It takes a team!

Next Month is a special month at “Here In The Real World”. We will have several guest writers all writing on the topic of UNITY. Here is the list of writers:

Chris Stanley- Campus Minister at Mid Atlantic Christian University

Chris Gallagher- The Preacher’s Pen

Paula Harrington- Paula’s website

Tim Archer- Kitchen of Half Baked Thoughts

Doug Young- douglasryoung.net/

Trey Morgan- Treymorgan.net

John Dobbs- Out Here Hope Remains


If you are in the area come see me at the ROANOKE ACRES CHURCH OF CHRIST

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

Here in coastal North Carolina the last week or so has brought some hot temperatures with humidity that is normally reserved for much later in the summer. Normally we’d have sometime of building temps and humidity and allow us to acclimate to the changes. Not, last week though. And, while complain about the heat here in early/mid May, we have to always bear in mind what else is hot: Hell is hot.

Many of us ease through life acclimating ourselves to all types of sin. We get comfortable with it and let it become a part of our own lives. Then one day we depart this world only to become a part of Hell. When Jesus told the story of the Rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16) He gave us some truths about life on the other side.

Hell is hot. The Rich man died and went to a place where there was suffering. Jesus said  that the rich man was “in torment” and “in anguish in this flame.” Here we see a flame burning a man and yet the man does not die. The flame torments the man forever. I can only liken this to the feeling of hot grease popping all over you from a frying pan over and over and over. There is no relief. The flame doesn’t stop. The rich man didn’t wind up in the flame because he was rich. He would up in hell for being a poor steward of what he had. He was burning because of poor life choices.

Jesus also said that a “great chasm has been fixed between” Heaven and Hell and there is no crossing once you get to the other side. What we do in this life has a direct effect on which side of that chasm we will spend eternity on. And, whichever side we start the afterlife on is the side we are going to spend the whole of eternity on.

A lot of people are working really hard to get to the anguish side of the chasm. Jesus said that we are to make disciples. In other words, we are to help people to get to the Abraham’s bosom side of the chasm. In the story of the rich man and Lazarus Jesus taught that once there there is no coming back, not even to teach and warn people of the impending doom. We have a responsibility to try and teach and help these people along the road. For many of the lost we hold the key to the thermostat. Let’s get out and show them that Heaven is a much “hotter” place to be than Hell!

If you are in the area come see me at the ROANOKE ACRES CHURCH OF CHRIST

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

Bobby Cohoon
North Carolina, USA
bobby@bobbycohoon.com

Everybody must get stoned. Well, at least that’s what Dylan said. And, I guess a little stoning “doth” the Spirit good.  I mean we have Jesus already so a little stoning can’t hurt. And, of course by saying a “little” I only mean like daily. Think about before you decide against it. Stephen was “a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 6″5) and even Stephen got stoned!

Every day we meet countless opportunities to share our faith, but so many times we shy away because we don’t know how that sharing will be taken. We sometimes shrink low when should fly high. But when faced with death Stephen didn’t shrink low Stephen rose to the occasion and testified on behalf of God. Yes, Stephen got stoned. Why do we find it so hard to share our faith when death will probably never be a consequence, but people like Stephen could share theirs in the face of death?

While most of us will never face a stoning, each time we defend our faith to people that are hostile towards God we get stoned. But, that power of God gives us the strength to continue.  There is a lost world all around us. We can’t pick and choose who we try to evangelize. We have to take the opportunities as they present themselves to us. And, all will not respond to our evangelism. Some will respond well, others, well, not so well. But, I guess everybody must get stoned!

If you are in the area come see me at the ROANOKE ACRES CHURCH OF CHRIST

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

Bobby Cohoon
North Carolina, USA
bobby@bobbycohoon.com

Just think about it. Our churches could have Negro day once a month. We could have the scriptures from the electronic Bible with James Earl Jones doing the speaking. Potluck dinners (it might be the only time of the year that we have real pot at the potlucks). Fried chicken collard greens maybe a slab or 12 of ribs. It would atone for our white sins of the past and it would give blacks that sense of unity with the church they attend. Any churches want to sign on?

Sadly this is the feelings of a good many people in our Christian sphere. Even in 2010 some people fail to see the unity we are to have in Christ not just one month a year, but every day. Somehow under the guise of Christianity race relations haven’t progressed a great deal. We have managed to keep 11 0′clock Sunday morning the most segregated hour of the week.

Paul wrote to the Galatians, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 2:28). Wow, that was written in the AD 50s. What has happened to us?

Paul wrote, “let us do good to all people” (Galatians 6:10). That is something we struggle to do. We allow skin color, social status and a host of other things to stand in our way. We can’t walk down the street without allowing our prejudices to stand in our way when meet “other” people.  Paul went on to write of doing good to all people, “especially to those who belong to the family of believers” (Galatians 6:10). And, yet almost 2000 years latter we can’t see a person that isn’t our color as the brother in Christ that he is.

We have no trouble sending money to other countries where people are painted up in tribal paint, yet we struggle to accept the people in our communities that are marked up with all types of ink. Of course we send money to aids stricken countries, but when it comes to sharing God’s love with the gay in our country we fail.

Tradition says that when the Apostle John was old he had to be carried into the church. All he could manage to say was, “Love each other.”  Isn’t it time we started doing that Everyday not just on appointed days?

Until next time may the good Lord bless and keep you: All Y’all

Bobby Cohoon
North Carolina, USA
bobby@bobbycohoon.com

WARNING: THIS MIGHT NOT BE SUITABLE FOR ALL PEOPLE

A few weeks ago a friend of mine, Trey Morgan who preaches in Childress, Texas, wrote a post on his website about what Jesus would tweet or what his facebook status would be.  Here are a few of my favorites:

1.      Didn’t tell my parents I’d be hanging at the temple for about 3 days. Mom and Dad just found me. Wow, Mom looks mad.

2.      Just changed water to wine for the wedding feast. Let’s see the preachers try to explain this one in 2000 years.

3.      Just sent a bunch of demons into a heard of pigs. I call it swine flu.

And of course my favorite:

4.      Sleep evaded us all last night. Andrew snores like a three-humped camel with asthma.

I decided to take a look at some Christian college students facebook profiles. I was amazed at much of what I found! Kevin Roose would be proud.

• Open house at 7:30 I feel some fornication coming on.
• Listening to Gregorian Chant. F* my life.
• Billy Mays here and with two easy steps I can climb over these seats and kick you right in the friggin balls.
• One of my personal favorites came from none other than a teacher: Like the rest of the free world they hate him! If the Phils got ahead by a few runs in the ninth, I’d drill him again despite the fact that the pitcher will get tossed. He’s such a hump.

I wonder what the example the next generation of Christians will send.

Until next time may the good Lord bless and keep you: All Y’all

Bobby Cohoon
North Carolina, USA
bobby@bobbycohoon.com

As I write this baseball season is rapidly approaching an end for this season and Yes Sir, I am going to miss it! I just love the game that has become a part of America. I love it from Alex Rodriguez to Don Zimmer.  But, one of the things I love most is the old timers of the game. These guys were “characters.” But, they were the sages of the game.  And, some of the quotes these guys come up with! Who can forget Tommy Lasorda commenting on the speed of one of his players, “If he got in a race with a pregnant lady he’d come in third.” Let’s take a look at some of the quotes and hit a grand slam in our Spiritual walk.

Yogi Berra once said, “Baseball is 90% mental and the other half physical.” Think about that for  a minute. All the training preseason, 162 games in season, and some players play winter ball. But, our Christian walk is the same way. Sin begins in our mind. James wrote, “but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed” (James 1:14).  Those evil desires start right in our minds. Psalm 1:1 says, “Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. Look at the progression of sin. First walking, then getting a bit more comfortable by standing, then finally get real comfortable with sin and just taking a load off and sitting right down with it! And, all that starts right in the mind. But, we don’t have to be that we. Remember the Psalm said we are blessed when we don’t do these things. Psalm 1:2 tells us how to keep from it: But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. We have to meditate on God’s word. We have to think Pure Thoughts. Now we have a man on first let’s start running to second base.

“If you don’t know where you are going you might wind up someplace else,” Yogi said. That is so true of our Christian walks. Today there is a gospel for anything you want a gospel for. Unfortunately not too many of them of them are Biblical.  We have to search the scriptures and get in the Word and know what the Gospel is. We have to know what we are to do. Luke wrote, “Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true” (Acts 17:11). People, we have to do that. With all the teachings in the world today we have to be on our guard and know what the scriptures say. The Bible is our Spiritual owner’s manual. We have to know what it says. John wrote, “do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world” (1 John 4:1). And, let me tell you that our world today is full of false prophets. So, we fill second base with GETTING IN THE WORD!

Moving on towards third base we have to remember these words of Yogi when he said, “You can observe a lot just by watching.” There are so many examples for us to follow today. Those who are more mature than us set examples for us to follow. Paul wrote in First Corinthians that we should follow his example. And, in a later chapter of the book he tells us where he got his example: He follows Christ! We have the bases loaded now and have to bring them all in. And “Observing a lot just by watching is a good way to bring them in.”

Observation is a two way street. Just as we observe others, others observe us. We may be the first representations of Christ many people ever see. So we have to set an example worthy of Him. It’s not enough that they see us walk into a chapel on Sunday morning; they expect that of us. It’s the example we show in the rest of our life that really counts. The example we set on the golf course; at grocery store; wherever we may be, that’s the example that shows our Christianity. Jesus said we are to make disciples and many times the first teaching we are ever allowed to do is in our actions. And, I can promise you somebody is watching!

We hit a spiritual grand slam n our Christian walk when we make our thoughts pure; when we get in the Word and  follow true teachings; when follow the example of Christ and when we set examples for others to follow.  Let’s challenge each other as we walk with Christ to become more like him and let our grand slams lead to world championships!

My friend Matthew Paul Turner has a new book out called CHURCHED. It is definitely worth looking at. Y0u can read am excerpt by clicking CHURCHED

Until next time may the Good Lord Bless and Keep you: All Y’all!

Bobby Cohoon
North Carolina, USA
bobby@bobbycohoon.com

I’ll admit I was a fan of Dave Attell’s, “Insomniac,” on the Travel Channel. The world around us really is a different place after dark. But it has seemed that more and more here lately that these shadows of the dark, those life styles that we don’t want to talk about much less come in contact with, are being seen more and more and are beginning to be seen in the light. I mean really they are everywhere. Look around your city and if you say they aren’t there let me remind you of a saying my favorite preacher uses, “Lying can get you to Hell as quick as murder!”  Remembering that Jesus came “to seek and to save what was lost,” I wonder who Jesus would hang out with if he walked the earth today.

Early in John’s gospel we see Jesus at a wedding in Cana.  And, when the “adult beverages” so to speak, ran out Jesus made a run. First thing we have to keep in mind is that, yes, these beverages, this wine, had an intoxicating effect. We are told the master of the banquet said, “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink” (John 2:10). Surprisingly to many, one of the words used to get the phrase, “too much to drink” is the Greek  word “methuskomai.” In all cases it has to do with getting drunk; under the influence of alcohol! Are there any drunks in your town?

Forget drinking alcohol for a minute and get a drink of water. Wait, what’s that at the well? It’s a lady. Of course she has no husband at the time, but had five earlier (John 4:17-18). And, the guy she now lives with isn’t even her husband!  And, this is the lady Jesus asked for a drink of water. I am so glad we don’t have people like this around today for Jesus or us in the church to have to deal with! Hmmmmmmmmmmm

And, I don’t mind telling you a tax collector in Jesus day was no better than pimp. He sat back and made his money off the hard work of others. Just look at Zacchaeus. That little short man, he was probably a dwarf! He made a killing off the common everyday people. Maybe he was the Bernie Madoff of the New Testament. I mean when the tax collectors came to be baptized and asked what they should do, they were told, “Don’t collect any more than you are required to” (Luke 3:13). But yet, where did Jesus spend the afternoon? Looking up in the tree where that little short man was Jesus said, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today” (Luke 19:5).

Our world is a whole different world when the sun goes down. All the “undesirables” come out. But more and more these undesirables are surfacing now in the daylight. And yet, the church seems to want no part of a ministry with them. Jesus had no problem going to them and giving them salvation. It makes me wonder if there wasn’t a little insomniac in Jesus. I mean after all the same God that made me and you made the “Drunks and Losers and dwarfs with limps, the flos and hoes and one eyed pimps.”

Please notice the new link on the “What I read Page” for Matthew Paul Turner.

Until next time May the Good Lord Bless and Keep you; All Y’all!

Bobby Cohoon
North Carolina, USA
bobby@bobbycohoon.com

He sits there lost daily, oblivious to the rest of the world that keeps spinning. The only spinning he does is from trash can to trash can in hopes of finding his next meal.  Maybe there will be a party at one of the fancy pubs and a harvest of food will be thrown out.  He has no clue where his next meal will come from or where the next fix of the habit that keeps him alive will be. Death stands at his side on a daily basis as the things that keep him alive are farther from him in times of a bad economy. Pain is his best friend both mental and physical as his body craves life sustaining needs. The crowds pass him by. Some hurrying to work, others are hurrying to play. The atheist and the Christian both seem to not see that he sits daily in the shadows of life’s brightest lights.

Jesus gave us a commission, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in? the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…” (Matthew 28:19). And he gave a direction, “you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8).  Billions of American dollars are sent each year for Christian missions (missions is plural only because we make it so; Jesus gave one mission). And, of those billions most go to foreign countries. Now, I am not opposed to sharing the Gospel with those in other lands who have never heard the gospel. But it does worry me that while we do good works in other lands many times we over look those right in our own cities that are in need. The Holy Spirit didn’t empower Scotty to beam the apostles to the ends of the earth thus neglecting the lands in between. Jesus sent them from where they were, Jerusalem, to the other lands. In other words they started at home and work their way to the ends of the earth.

Would Peter and John have turned a blind eye toward Skid Row Joe? If they followed the lead of Messiah the answer is a simple no. Skid Row Joe would have found the welcome arms of the Savior. You must remember that Jesus was known to hang with the “low life.” I mean he himself said, “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost” (Luke 19:10).  He didn’t come to turn his head the other way to the dying.

I am not suggesting that we neglect the foreign mission. I am suggesting that we pick up the mission at home. In the tough economic times that we live in there is no better time for at home mission than the present. Americans in large numbers are face with the certainty of uncertainty. People have no jobs. They have no money. They don’t know if the next meal will be there. They can’t stay well and many don’t have insurance and can’t afford to get sick. The time is now for the church to step in. We have to notice Skid Row Joe.

America is living in uncertain times. It might even be said that these are times that try men’s souls. While everything else is uncertain, God remains a constant. You might be the first representative of Jesus that many people see. Jesus reached out and touched the man with leprosy; how can you touch Skid Row Joe?

From this point on all Bible verses at Here In The Real World, unless otherwise noted, are from the LOGOS Bible Software. In my opinion this is the best Bible software on the market no matter what level your needs are. In addition to have the best Bible software, LOGOS also gives a Seminary Scholarship. Check them out I promise you won’t be let down. You will love the LOGOS Bible Software and you may even win a Seminary Scholarship.

Until Next time May The Good Lord Bless and Keep You;  All  Y’all

Bobby Cohoon
North Carolina, USA
bobby@bobbycohoon.com

I have heard people use this figure of speech all my life: You are what you eat. To be honest I can’t decide if I am a pig or a cow. Maybe, I am a cow that eats like a chicken! And, though I don’t believe we are what we eat, just to be safe I shy away from fruits and nuts. But, is there any significance to our daily lives in what we eat? What about the Last Supper of our Lord?

“For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread: And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me” (1 Corinthians 11:23-24). Isaiah 53 gives us a picture of a “suffering servant.” And, in that wheat that is used to make the bread we see the seed suffering. The wheat is picked and left for the winter to dry. After it becomes dry, it is ground up and then subject to fire before it becomes the finished product: bread. Like our Savior the grains of wheat of wheat suffer before becoming a new product; Our Savior suffered and died and was resurrected in a glorified body.

“After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me” (I Corinthians 1:25). The grape, like our Savior, also goes through suffering before it becomes a new product. They are plucked from their life source: the vine. Then it is subjected to a winepress that squeezes it’s life’s juices out. Our Savior lost much of his life’s fluids hanging on a cross through nail holes and the piercing holes of a crown of thorns. And, as his dead body hung lifeless on the Cross a soldier’s sword pierced his side allowing the fluids that kept the Savior alive to flow freely to the ground just as the wine press squeezes the life’s juices from the grape. But, without the death of the grape there would be no grape juice just as with out the death of the Savior there would have been no resurrection; there would have been no New Covenant.

Just as the bread takes many grains to make and the wine many grapes, so to the Body of Christ many people: So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another (Romans 12:5). As we follow the risen Savior and walk in a newness of life we become the grains of wheat and the grapes. Like the grapes and grains we will suffer: Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake (Matthew 5:11). And, like the grapes and grains we will become a finished product: Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life (Romans 6:4). What Christ ate at the last supper gives us a picture into the life that he lived, what does your supper say about you?

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

Bobby Cohoon
North Carolina, USA
bobby@bobbycohoon.com

He was a big boy. Not fat, mind you, tall and big. But, he was as gentle a person as I had ever known. I had known for the few years I had lived in the town. As a matter of fact I knew the whole family. I counted them as friends. I had never known of him to be sick, or at least have any sickness that wasn’t normal like colds and that type of thing. But yet he took us all by surprise in his senior year of high school when for no apparent reason he departed this world. To my knowledge no cause of death was ever discovered. I remember the comment of another friend when told of his death. In a laughing voice she said, “That big nigger died?” After more than 30 years those words still resound through the memories of my mind to this day.

Sadly, comments like that are not limited to the non-Christians. Eleven o’clock a.m. Sunday morning is the most segregated hour of the week. In America 2009 that shouldn’t be the case especially with Christians. God’s call to Abraham was a promise to all people not just people of one race or nationality: and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you (Genesis 12:3).  But we just can’t seem to see all people as equal people before the Lord. No matter how different in appearance the other person is we need to adopt the attitude of Christ and see them as our equals. Paul wrote to the Galatians, “There is no Jew or Greek. There is no slave or free person. There is no male or female. Because you belong to Christ Jesus, you are all one” (Galatians 3:28). “We” are all one.

It is amazing that nearly 2000 years after Christ came that hatred and racism still exists. As the Gospel spread in the first century it went to many places. And among those who heard and responded it to was a most oddly picked group. The first none Jews that we have recorded as responding to the Gospel were a two of the most hated of groups: A Samarian in Acts 8 and a Black man in Acts 8. Coupling that with the first European to respond to the Gospel being a Woman named Lydia in Philippi (Acts 16) it seems that it is time that equality is extended to all people.  Christians should be leading the charge to accept people who are different after all Christ called us to be different didn’t He?

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

Bobby Cohoon
North Carolina, USA
bobby@bobbycohoon.com