Author: aflcoker

I’m testing the waters again, for the following is a page from my proposed book: Journey with Bunyan’s Pilgrim. I need your comments here or on my Facebook page.

‟All their talk at the Table was about the Lord of the Hill” (p. 53).

‟Jesus and his apostles reclined at the table. And he said to them, ‛I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer’” (Luke 22:14-15).

Pilgrim’s supper time at the house Beautiful resembles the Last Supper and Holy Communion. Their feast proved to be secondary to their conversation about the Lord. Charity posed a penetrating question to Pilgrim about his family and why they did not accompany him. Christian’s explanation was fraught with passion for the souls of his family. He wept. Because Christian did warn and invite his family to join him, Charity assured him that he will not be held accountable for their sin (a reference to Ezekiel 3:19).

They continued to lift up Jesus and how His death released the power of death over us. When we partake of Holy Communion we celebrate our Lord’s death, remembering His perfect and sufficient sacrifice for the sins of the whole world, for you, for me.

Takeaway: When our friend from Germany comes to visit, she anticipates what she calls ‟table talk.” Usually over cups of tea, we gather at the kitchen table, and she gets to ask my husband and me anything she’s been pondering. Her questions are always biblically based, either about a puzzling passage of Scripture, a relationship, or a situation at her university. This Q & A time reveals what’s been on her mind and how dedicated she is to knowing the truth.

Your Turn: How does the Last Supper connect with the time that two disciples watched Jesus break bread in the village of Emmaus (Luke 24:30-32)? ____________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________

I welcome a guest blog from my grandson-in-law, Ted Voigt. He and Sarah, with my two great-grandkids, are missionaries in Ireland with the Church of the Nazarene. They have started their travels in the U.S.A. this month. He’s a good writer and I couldn’t pass up sharing his reflection here, for it touched my heart strings.

“We have a complicated relationship with the idea of home. The main idea of home for us is of course where we live, but for Sarah and I, where we live doesn’t always feel like home. And then, of course we are traveling around the U.S. and it doesn’t feel like home anymore either, even though what we’re doing is sometimes called ‘home assignment.’

“Having said that: I spent a few days with my parents in a place that is for me more like home than anywhere else. I went swimming in the pool where I learned to swim. I cooked in the kitchen where I learned how to cook. I drove the streets where I learned to drive. I watched a baseball game with the people who taught me to watch baseball. I prayed in the church where I learned to pray.

“If you’ve ever gone back to a place you once knew, you’ve had the experience of being amazed at both the things that change and the things that stay the same. My high school has been leveled and rebuilt, while the dairy where we got milk is completely untouched by the passage of time.

“Most of my meals lately have been more about ‘who’ than ‘what,’ and I think the very best ones have been simple home-cooked dinners. That’s a rare treat while traveling, and I’m always grateful for food cooked by friends and family.

“Spending time in this place is always a reminder to me of who I am and where I’ve come from. So much of my quirks and slants can be attributed to the years I spent with the people and places of my childhood, and remembering that and owning it gives me a new confidence going forward as me.”                                ~Ted Voigt 6/22/2018

I naturally move from love shown by my Daddy to the love of my Father God. My Daddy’s love made it easy for me to see and accept love from God my heavenly Father. My daddy modeled God’s love. Not all daughters have that example and privilege, either because of absence or neglect or worse. I record here some scattered memories of my times with Daddy:

Precious were the times Daddy carved out of his busy work schedule for the two of us to have time together. I know that some of those times involved more than the two of us, times we shared all together as a family, but my take away is how Daddy made me feel special.

Clockwise: Daddy, Martha, Tom, Minnie, Mother, and me in the middle. Photo taken in Mobile, AL in the entryway of my parents’ apartment.

We rode bikes; we have photos of those bikes with baskets. At one time they had bicycles built for two and so my parents, sister and I went on bike rides, as so I’d been told but not remembered. Daddy and I also walked around the neighborhood in the evenings. These were times to talk and I remember most that Daddy spoke to me about Mother, that he wanted me to help her around the house. He taught obedience and modeling love, for my response was to obey and to love.

In those times I understood also that love is active and binds husband and wife as well as parent and child. Mother and Daddy demonstrated the command of Deuteronomy 6 where the parents are to teach God’s Law to their children as they “walk by the way,” as natural as walking and talking together, relating to God and to each other.

Read this unsettling quote from Patrick Fagan of the Heritage Foundation:

“America today is one of the most dangerous societies into which a child could ever have been born. One-third of the children conceived never make it outside their mother’s womb. One-third of those then who are born, who make it outside the womb, are born to a single parent family.  Mother and father don’t love each other enough to be married. They’ve rejected each other. Of those who are then born to loving, married fathers and mothers, 40 percent are going to see their parents divorced before they reach adulthood. As a result, only about 30 percent of children conceived are going to reach adulthood in an intact, married family where mom and dad are still together. We have created for our children a culture of massive rejection…. This is not progress.”

And this is why crisis pregnancy centers exist in our communities. There are over 850 Care Net centers in the United States. For these we praise God. These centers are evangelistic. When we offer Christ’s saving power to clients, we not only save their babies, Christ can save their souls. But the task is not finished.

I’ve been asked why I’ve volunteered at CPC or Life Center. Most usual motives are not in my experience. As long as I can remember I’ve attended church and I can testify to a saving relationship with Christ Jesus. As a virgin I married young and had four trouble-free pregnancies and births. I’ve always had a support system and no need for government’s social services. What led me into the pro-life movement is the truth. Life begins at conception. Life matters. And I want everyone to know the truth – that abortion is a serious moral wrong.

How can you and I get/stay involved in telling the truth? The ways are numerous. Besides being a trained volunteer at a pro-life center, we can support such efforts with our gifts and prayers. We need your prayer support. Find out what hours a center is open in your area. How about taking a portion of that time and pray for this ministry of helps and healing?

Little by Little

I point out one Scripture passage that gives us hope. It concerns the Conquest of the Promised Land. The Lord said,

“I will not drive them out before you in a single year, so that the land may not become desolate and the beasts of the field become too numerous for you. I will drive them out before you little by little, until you become fruitful and take possession of the land” (Exodus 23:29-30).

God has enabled the pro-life cause to be fruitful only because He is in charge of the conquest. It has been 45 years since the Supreme Court decision of Roe vs. Wade that legalized abortion. It’s been one conquest after another, little by little, but we are going to possess the land because God is the sovereign Author of Life.

Isn’t the answer to this question obvious? If you have to do something, you do it. But we often put off what’s even important and what’s required. I studied this question while altering a dress: Why am I doing what I have to do? I simply could not delay, for I’m to wear the dress at our granddaughter’s wedding tomorrow. So the process is a have to, not something I can put off until later. The date of the wedding is my motivation.

I pondered this question over 30 years ago when our soon-to-be son-in-law came for dinner. Paul asked, ‟How long before we eat?” He then used that bit of time to make phone calls to a few of his church youth group. Listening to his end of the conversation, I could tell he was connecting well, asking about their day and such. After he finished his calls I complimented him. Paul confessed that he did not like making phone calls. ‟Then why are you doing it?” He said, ‟Because the teens like using their phones.” These brief phone calls helped him stay connected with the youth. I venture to add that this practice could probably not be found in his job description, but Paul used it as a means for better relationships, even when he did not like doing it. That won my appreciation for this youth leader and future family member.

Those examples give us two reasons why people do what they do. One, there is a deadline, a have to get it done kind of thing. Two, we do what other people like or what makes them feel appreciated. We could add other examples to that latter reason. Husbands and wives, moms and dads, anyone on the job will perform unpleasant acts simply because the other person likes it that way. It could be how to fold towels, which way the toilet paper rolls, being on time for dinner, finishing an assignment before the deadline. You can add a dozen more samples. That now son-in-law doesn’t like to gather and take out the trash on Thursday nights. After some years of my daughter doing that task, Paul took over. He said, ‟It must be done, life goes on.”

Number three is duty, taking care of responsibilities, a great motivator. When our children participated in sports or gym at school, uniforms were required. I had to be on top of laundry requirements and get those gym shorts washed or get the grass stains out of baseball uniforms. One morning I awoke and remembered that one child needed cookies for school. It got me out of bed early. She had volunteered her mom to bake cookies for a classroom event.

So think about that question—personally and corporately—and see what answers you develop. Why do you do what you have to do? Apply the question to those at work and even to your children. What’s behind us, pushing us to do something? What drives us to perform?

Sitting at my desk at church, I’m gazing out the window. Earlier I had been thinking of Evelyn Underhill’s meditations on the Lord’s Prayer, some perceptive ideas on the significance of Jesus’ petition, ‟Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10, KJV). Underhill’s lesson on the Lord’s Prayer has profoundly challenged me.

However, looking out my window and watching the construction going on, my thoughts have moved from the spiritual to the mundane. I have been absorbed in watching a backhoe digging a rather deep trench across our former patio. Sitting at the controls is a woman—not something I would have expected to see—intently maneuvering the extended shovel and scooping out precisely the amount of dirt necessary to be removed for whatever purpose the trench is being dug.

Her face betrays no hint of a nonchalant attitude; she is serious about her job and intent on doing it right. Being a woman in a position where one might ordinarily expect to find a man, and the only woman on the construction site, one might easily assume that she may be a bit self-conscious. Then again, maybe past experience has already earned her place behind the controls of these earth-moving machines.

Needless to say, spiritual parallels are begging to be drawn. I am struck by the power of the backhoe. It’s not a large machine, as earth-moving equipment goes, but as it bites into the dirt and scoops up shovelful after shovelful, it does so with no strain on its engine. It was built for this task. I think: Oh God, you have made your Church for tasks far greater than it often performs; yet so often we strain even at jobs that are much smaller.

I am impressed by the woman at the controls. Surely, she has been told numerous times that this was no place for her; but she refused to be denied. Had she, like many a little boy, dreamed that someday she would operate such a big machine and persisted until she got the job? So I muse: Oh God, how many times have we given in to the suggestion that the job was too big for us, or that this was really a job for someone else? Have we been persistent enough in reaching for our dreams, those urgings that came from you?

The expression on the face of this backhoe worker is intense as she carefully removes the right amount of dirt. I know that hours of practice have honed her skill to manipulate the shovel to do what she wants it to, and I have enjoyed watching as she has guided its reach and its retrieval. This observation has led me to think: O God, how intent have we been in doing a task far more important than digging a trench? You have commanded us to go into all the world and make disciples, and sometimes we are so casual in our response. We have too frequently lacked the intensity of this woman on the backhoe in developing our spiritual skills and in doing the job you have given us. Lord, teach us how to dig.  ~William B. Coker, Sr.

Adapted from the World Gospel Church newsletter (several years ago)

As the east sun comes through our bedroom window I awake each morning to read a plaque written in fine calligraphy. I study the impact these imperatives should make upon my life.

‟Whence thou hast come”: I’m thankful for my godly heritage. My Christian parents taught me how to apply biblical knowledge. From them I learned what a family looks like, how respect should be sewn in the fabric of my life, the importance of an education, and the value of speech (what to say and not to say). But when I put a personal twist on ‟from where I have come,” I must give praise to God who saved me from being a good little girl to being redeemed and striving to be Christ-like. As the saying goes, I have come a long way.

‟Whither thou goest”: Eternal life is mine. I know I will spend eternity in Heaven with Jesus. But until then, it’s also important to know where I’m going here on earth on a daily basis. Each morning I ask what I’ll be doing, what is my purpose, and how will I fulfill it that day. God has given each of us a purpose in life, a goal to accomplish not only at the end of life. At church our pastor reminds us each Sunday morning that we have only three things to do: ‟Love God, love others, and serve the world.” That’s a lot to do in a day, but it’s worth setting our minds to doing.

‟& before Whom thou shalt stand”: This is the most important of the three imperatives. One day each of us will stand before the One who made us, who sustains us, and who has given us His grace for daily living. But do we know Him? Do we know who God is, what He is like, what He has done for us? God the Father gave His only Son, Jesus Christ, as the sacrificial Lamb to pay for our sins, for my sins, your sins. Jesus is the One before whom we will stand. ‟This shouldst thou know.”

Soon I will start my last year in the 70’s. But as mother would point out, when I have a birthday then I’ve begun the next year. When I celebrate my 79^th birthday, I’ve finished that year and in my 80^th year. Not what I want to hear. Mother is correct, though, for I’ve completed 79 years and on that day I start the next year. She would say, ‟I’m in my 80^th year.”

You see, when we are born we are already nine months old. When we celebrate our first birthday, we have completed that year (and more) and start our second year. Complicated? Not really. It’s a matter of calculating correctly in the amount of years we’ve lived.

Then there’s the association of how one feels and one’s age. In my mind I don’t feel 79 (or 80). I look back in time and I don’t feel either young or old. But in my body I sometimes feel older than the years since my birth. I look in the mirror and often see my mother. Except for my skin; hers was smooth, few wrinkles or brown spots. Except for her hair; she had more grey at age 80. It’s just the age that shows on me. But she lived past 90.

Where am I going with this? Nowhere in particular. I’m having a birthday and that causes me to reflect. I want to go somewhere, perhaps make more use of the years that are yet to be.

Jack London, journalist, wrote: “The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.” I’m not so sure about all of that. And I’m curious what you think of it.

Today is the one-month-away date for Chrissa’s wedding. Lots of plans and doing, but life goes on. While Becky bakes for the wedding, she also plans and cooks for the church youth Purity Weekend and college exam treats. Becky seeks to ‟maintain relationships with others and keep [her] creative edge, while also doing everything else in [her] life” (Dan Balow, a Laube agent).

For myself, I have been taking some online courses in writing. That’s what I want to do, what I do, what’s considered my job. I’m serious about writing—articles and a book as a WIP (work in progress). As I took notes on these classes and also read the daily blogs from The Steve Laube Agency, I began to see some connections between good writing and good spiritual growth. So I have to give credit where it’s due.

Balow also wrote: ‟The successful author-life is equal parts creativity and discipline, make-believe and real-life, story-telling and deadline-meeting.” I can hear you now, that doesn’t sound like spirituality. Give me a chance.

When we get creative with our discipline (writing or spiritual) we will accomplish more and enjoy it more. Story-telling can be our own testimony. Link that with a deadline to share and we become more passionate about spreading the Good News. Now you may have me on the make-believe and real-life part, but let’s consider it. Children are caught up in their make-believe world for play is their job. It even prepares them for real life as they are good imitators of parents and teachers. Perhaps we could learn something from the children in our lives. The Apostle Paul commissioned us to imitate Christ.

‟In the Gospel of Luke, the fourteenth chapter, Jesus tells a couple of parables and then sums them with a ‘count the cost’ statement which could be taken any number of ways, I suppose, but relates to a person living life as a believer. Have no illusions, there is a cost” (Balow). Sum it up and make the connection: ‟Successful authors [and Christians] already counted the cost and decided it was worth it” (Balow).

More on this to come another time. AC

My notes from Pastor Rob’s sermon this Easter Sunday morning:

The tomb is empty! Why ought we to care?

The Gospel means Good News. Yes, I know that, but what I did not know is the historical significance. Such as when victory prevailed over battles, the men “spread the good news” (see 1 Samuel 31:9). There was a need to tell.

Mark opens his book with: “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God” (1:1). In ancient Greek the word gospel is always plural, but here Mark breaks the tradition and uses the singular form of gospel. There is no news as good as this Gospel. The remaining of his book explains the purpose of this good news. He has to tell it. Peter proclaims Jesus as the Messiah (8:29), and the soldier near the Cross said, “This man really was God’s Son!” (15:39).

Today, Easter Sunday, we proclaim the good news that Christ has risen. You would want this to be true, for it’s a story of God who loves you!

The Gospel is not advice (counsel), for that means we need to do something. It’s on you!

The Gospel is a report of what has already happened. The Gospel takes the burden off you. It’s on Jesus! Our part is to come, receive. It’s grace and hope. God comes to find you. He seeks to set you free!

“And Can It Be” by Charles Wesley

He left His Father’s throne above/ So free, so infinite His grace/ Emptied Himself of all but love . . . Long my imprisoned spirit lay/ Fast bound in sin and nature’s night . . . / I woke, the dungeon filled with light/ My chains fell off, my heart was free/ I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.

I repeat: You would want this to be true, for it’s a story of God who loves you.