West Cocoa Chat

A couple of nights ago we were asked by a dear sweet sister in our church to come to her hospital room, anoint her with oil, and pray for her using the James 5 model. She was very concern about some medical tests she was having done the next day and wanted the results to lead to the least invasive treatment.

Shamefully I haven’t read Yancy’s new book on prayer but I have read some of your comments concerning the same. I too worry about “prayer” becoming a substitute for “the good fairy” and especially in this particular venue I worry about someone having an unrealistic expectation when he or she calls on the elders in the vane of James 5.

Then God arranged for me and my fellow elders to pray with this sister. As we were talking to her she relayed how she had faith in what God could do through this practice. But the “doing” that she alluded to was not so much about getting “your wish” but rather getting something we all long for whether we’re facing the commute to work or a deadly disease, peace.

She told us the story of her husband who was on his death bed with cancer. He asked her to ask the elders to come and anoint and pray for him. Those of us who have lost spouses or parents know the prayer – “God, send a miracle and cure my loved one.” But not this dear lady who reminded me of the essence of James 5. She told us she knew her husband was going to die and although she wanted and would have liked a miracle what she prayed for was peace, peace for her husband as he passed from this life. What a powerful faith she possesses and she reminded me that the result of “sins being forgiven” is peace.

I know you guys have experienced this but once again the Lord demonstrated to me that when I thought I was being the instrument of encouragement, I was encouraged.

Have a great day my fellow members of our blog church.

James 5:13-15: Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praises. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up, and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him.

The following is an excerpt from an article posted on one of our local (WFTV Channel 9) T.V. Channel’s website. You can read the entire article at http://www.wftv.com/money/10405430/detail.html

Workers who are chronic offenders may be running out of ideas. Forty-one percent of hiring managers said they have received unusual or suspicious sick day alibis. Sixty-two percent did not believe them, according to the survey. When asked to share the most unusual excuses employees gave for missing work, hiring managers offered the following examples:

1) Employee was poisoned by his mother-in-law.
2) A buffalo escaped from the game reserve and kept charging the employee every time she tried to go to her car from her house.
3) Employee was feeling all the symptoms of his expecting wife.
4) Employee called from his cell phone, said he was accidentally locked in a restroom stall and no one was around to let him out.
5) Employee broke his leg snowboarding off his roof while drunk.
6) Employee's wife said he couldn't come into work because he had a lot of chores to do around the house.
7) One of the walls in the employee's home fell off the night before.
8) Employee's mother was in jail.
9) A skunk got into the employee's house and sprayed all of his uniforms.
10) Employee had bad hiccups.
11) Employee blew his nose so hard, his back went out.
12) Employee's horses got loose and were running down the highway.
13) Employee was hit by a bus while walking.
14) Employee's dog swallowed her bus pass.
15) Employee was sad.

The survey was completed in September 2006 and included 1,650 workers and 1,150 hiring managers nationwide.

Here is my read on some of the excuses:
1. It’s conceivable.
2. Remove the word “buffalo” and insert the word “cow” for us folks in West Cocoa.
3. no comment
4. no comment
5. Not in West Cocoa.
6. Possible around the Holidays.
7. This is one for Steve.
8. Anyone want to take this one?
9. I don’t wear uniforms but it could happen.
10. Is there any other kind?
11. Greg?
12. Greg, Randy, and the Puckster – this would apply to the Chuckster.
13. Only if it was a school bus here.
14. I don’t own any dogs.
15. This could occur after an elders’ meeting.

O.K., time for you to have fun. What has been (if you care to share) either your best excuse for missing work or one that you’ve heard?

I have come to look forward to Thanksgiving for the last few years because it seems to be the time that I re-unite with a childhood friend of mine, Bob, as well as his lovely wife Shelby and their son, Nathen. Bob and I have known each other since third grade which would roughly be about 39 years. Are you up for a “third grade story?”

In third grade we both had Mrs. Lowry and we were both a handful. One day, we were both sent to opposite corners of the room. It was probably due to not being able to control are incessant talking. At some moment when we were both suppose to have our respective noses in the corner; we peeked at each other. During this unauthorized peek, Bob gave me the (as it was called in the “Pueblo Incident”) “Hawaiian (that would be the bird) good luck sign.”

On the occasion of our second unauthorized peek I decided it was time to return fire which I promptly did only to hear Mrs. Lowry say, “Cecil Walker, go to the Principal’s Office now!!!” As I walked out the door I turned to see my good friend of 39 years laughing at me. My actions resulted in being introduced to the “Board” of Education.

Fast forward 39 years and we’re still close friends even though he lives in South Carolina and I live, well, you know where. Bob and his family rolled into West Cocoa this past Wednesday night. Our schedule went something like this:
Thursday:
1. Fry 2 turkeys and a turkey breast.
2. Watch football, go Dolphins, the Bucs ran into “Romo-metum.”
Friday:
Men – play golf
Women – shop
Teenagers – I don’t want to know.
Friday Evening:
Men – Go to “Crash-a-rama!” (http://www.orlandospeedworld.org/) From 8pm to midnight, it was 4 hours of destruction and mayhem.
Women – more shopping.
Teens – w/men.

Saturday:
Men- watch football. South Carolina beats Clemson. My FSU Seminoles give it a valiant try but lose to the Gators. Notre Dame doesn’t help the Gators as they’re pummeled by USC.
Women – disgusted with men.
Teens – being trained by the men.
All in all we had a great time with Bob, Shelby, and Nathen.

Sunday was a day to be proud of my son. He taught the Teen Class. They’re a tough crowd (I was their teacher about a month ago.) and in a bit of a funk that usually comes around this time of year. Steven told me later that teaching the class did him more good than his fellow teens. Does that sound familiar to you preachers out there?

Now we’re back in school and making the push towards exams and Christmas. Have a good day my fellow members of the Blog Church.

Today was our last sermon from Tim Woodroof’s book, “Walk This Way,” on “the beatitudes.” In Matthew 5:10 – 12, Jesus says:

5:10 "Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.5:11 "Blessed are you when men cast insults at you, and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely, on account of Me.5:12 "Rejoice, and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

One of the reflection questions at our lifegroup was, “When have you been persecuted for the sake of righteousness?” One of the members of our lifegroup stated how he feels persecution the most when he is trying to win someone to the Lord. He said it usually comes when I don’t have the answer to a question either about life or the Bible and the “questioner” knows that he is a Christian.

He stated that his knowledge about the Bible is somewhat limited but he is learning. Then he made a statement that on the surface is funny but as I think about it more I perceive a depth that I want in my walk. He said, “I don’t know a lot about “pre-millennialism” or “post-millennialism” but I do know this; if Jesus shows up in the clouds, I’m “rolling” with it!”

I fear at times I make faith, knowing Christ, doctrine, and other aspects of my walk with the Lord too complicated. Like my dear brother I just want a faith, sensitivity to the working of the Holy Spirit to know when God “shows up,” it’s time to “roll with it.”
Have a happy Monday my blog church.

The events of the last few days plus some comments I heard on the radio this morning prompted this post. You may or may not have heard of the incident with Coach Bobby Knight (Texas Tech) and one of his players.

Seems that Coach Knight was trying to make a point with one of his players during a game. Now depending on your definition of force or excessive force, Coach Knight used his finger to lift (or strike) the player’s face up so he could look him in the eye. Apparently both the player and his family said they did not disapprove of Coach Knight’s actions.

It was in discussing this incident that I heard our local “Sports Talk Radio” guy say when a parent signs their kid up to play for Coach Knight, you know what you’re getting. You’re getting a coach that demands a lot of his players. To his credit Knight has almost a 90% graduation rate that is almost unheard of in the NCAA. Then he spoke of Indianapolis Coach Tony Dungy.

Tony Dungy is well known as not only an excellent NFL coach but also a man of faith and character. The point he made was both Coach Knight and Dungy demand and try to build character in their players. Their methods are poles apart but both are after the same thing, winning teams and men of character. The guy on the radio then made this statement, “Character is like a religion, you have to bleed it and live it.”

Most of us will never have (or maybe want) the opportunity to play for men like Coach Knight or Dungy to have our character molded. But we all have access to the ultimate model of character, Jesus Christ. I couldn’t help but think of “character” this past Wednesday night.

It was the last night of our “Men Only” class. Several of the men indicated that while trying to live a life of character, a Christ-like life, they had met with some failures. The overriding cause seems to be sexual sin in the form of pornography. Satan has certainly found a weapon that is easy, accessible, and plays on a man’s sex drive.

But through our conversation I couldn’t help but think that these men were still men of character. Perhaps real character is knowing one’s flaws and knowing that I need help from a “higher power,” in this case, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Perhaps our church is on the verge of a time of healing and truly worshipping in “Spirit and Truth.”

May God bless all of you.

There must not be too many places other than Florida in which one could be attending baseball games one week before Thanksgiving. That has been our status for the last two nights. The never –ending Fall Ball (we were told it was over, for good, finished) season was resurrected these past 2 nights.

We played Space Coast Jr./Sr. High last night. Steven didn’t start due to coming in as the second pitcher in the 3rd inning. It was one of his best outings as of late giving up no hits, no runs, and striking out 3. In the 5th inning he went out to left-field and finished the game there.

He only got up one time and for some reason, he chose to use his “wood bat.” He normally swings his wood bat in the “on deck circle” as he is warming up but this time he decided to use it at the plate. I think he was taking the words of his hitting instructor to heart when he told him at one practice, “If you can get a hit with a wood bat, you know you’re “the man.”” It didn’t take long for players on both sides and those of us in the stands to notice this vision of “baseball past” taking place right before our eyes. Of course being the ever supportive father that I am, I’m thinking that Steven’s good judgment was flying “past” my eyes.

On the second pitch Steve ripped one down the left-field line for a double! One of the dads standing next to me said, “I have a new nick name (nick names in the past have included: “Wheels,” “Spider Man,” and the ever present “S. Walk.”) for your son, “Old School.” After the game (we won 8 to 1) several dads came up to Steven congratulating on his “wood bat double” calling him “Old School.”

Now, switching gears and introducing (Judy will love me for this) a “new Blog Cash Cow.” Ladies and gentleman, give it up for:

Buddy - our cat who thinks he is a dog. This is a picture of Buddy taken last Thanksgiving. Buddy is unlike most cats in that he is very social. The more people in the house, the more he wants to hang with the humans. This past Sunday we held our “Life Group Meeting” at our home. This is due to “the Chuckster” (a friend of Greg’s and Randy’s and a fellow Pepperdine Lecture attendee) being in the process of remodeling his kitchen without the same kind of “help” that Steve had last year.

At the end of our Life Group meeting we always join hands and hearts in prayer. Now technically Buddy doesn’t have any hands but he did want to be part of our prayer. As we were praying Buddy began meowing and rubbing up against all of us in the circle. When he came to me (I was praying out loud at the time) I politely pushed him off with my foot. This cat who thinks he is a dog must have thought I was trying to teach him a new trick.

His response was to crawl under the coffee table we were standing around. He used to do this when he was a kitten but being the full grown cat that he is, it took a considerable amount of scratching, rolling, and literally pulling himself under that table to make it work. Then he proceeded to swipe at everyone’s feet as we were praying causing “holy laughter” to break out as we attempted to finish our prayer.

Does this prove that cats can be “religious” as well? Have a good day my fellow members of “blog church.”

BTW - I'd like to thank Dee for the new link at her blog site.

Good morning blog church. I'd like to welcome Dee Andrews (http://deeandrews.net/) to the West Cocoa Chat. Dee has become a valuable member of our (I think Dee coined this phrase) "blog church." I also wanted to pass on a video series for men that we've been watching on Wednesday nights at Central.

You can find information about this video series at http://www.muscleintegrity.com/mens.aspx?pID=23348

Neal Jeffrey was a quarterback at Baylor University from 1972 – 1974. (http://www.nealjeffrey.com/index.htm) He went on from Baylor to play a couple of years in the NFL. Now, you might be thinking that this is just another “ex-jock” who found the Lord and is now parlaying his faith into money. They thing you need to know about Neal Jeffrey, a D1 quarterback, NFL quarterback, and now the “Prayer Minister” of the Prestonwood Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas is this-
Neal has a severe stuttering problem or at least he did.

The first video we watched it was somewhat distracting but as you get to know his story you notice it less and less. Neal told about playing quarterback as a stutter. At that time his stuttering was so severe that he couldn’t call out signals at the line. He joked about how in each game, he would walk up to the line, smile, and enjoy the disbelief in the defense’s face as the Center called the play and the signals.

Another highlight for me was a lesson on “lids.” Neal states that we all have “lids” holding us back that are either self-imposed or imposed on us by others. Obviously for him his stuttering was a lid. He stated that he always wanted to preach but knew that would be impossible with his stuttering. Then Neal has a “lid-lifting” experience while in college which you can only attribute to the working of the Holy Spirit in his life as his stuttering begins to diminish and he starts out on his desire to preach. Of course it’s not hard to look in the Bible to find people like Moses who God touches and uses to His Glory and in the process lifts their lids.

Last night Neal told the story of “the hug” using Eph. 1:6. He said that being “in the Beloved” is like being in a big bear hug by God. To illustrate this Neal told of 2 incidents in his life.

The first occurred in his senior year when he quarterbacked Baylor to a victory over Texas. Neal stated that it had been years since Baylor beat Texas. Neal comes out of that great victory the hero. Baylor never beats Texas and when they do it’s largely due to his efforts. He said after the game, his father, a big man with broad shoulders, big hands, waits for him outside the Locker Room and gives Neal a huge “man-hug.”

Neal tells that a year earlier, Baylor was playing TCU for homecoming. Again Neal is the quarterback and as the 4th quarter starts Baylor is down by 20 points. Neal quickly engineers 2 touchdown drives and as the 4th quarter is coming to an end, Baylor gets the ball back with a minute and a half to go in the game. Neal states that he drives the team down to the 12-yard line of TCU with time running out. He throws a pass out in the flat to a back but instead of running up the sideline (later the film shows the back could have scored untouched if he had gone up the sideline) he chooses to run into the middle of the field and is tackled at the 6-yard line.

Back in the 70’s a quarterback had to throw the ball out of bounds to stop the clock. Neal states that he knew he would have enough time for one more stab at the endzone if he just gets the ball out of bounds. The ball is snapped and Neal throws the ball out of bounds with just seconds on the clock. The trouble is it’s 4th down!

Neal had lost track of the downs and in essence threw the game away. You have to appreciate Neal’s sense of humor when he states, “You haven’t lived until you’ve had 40,000 sets of eyes on you when you pull the biggest bone-head play of your life.

After the game Neal said that he was inconsolable. He went into the Locker Room, showered and walked outside. Guess who was waiting, that’s right, his father and, just like a year later when he would give his son “the hero” a big man hug and tell him he loved him, Neal’s father grabs him, hugs him close, and tells him he loves him.

As Neal said, so it is with God. Our “beloved-ness” isn’t based on our performance. We’re in the “hug” of God because The Creator loves His creation.

I’ll leave with Eph. 1:3 – 6. 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,1:4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. 4 In love1:5 He 5 predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind 6 intention of His will,1:6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.

In light of Greg’s recent (http://gregengland.com/) post, “Christmas Is Finally Over”, Randy’s (http://randywray.com/) “How Many Of Me” post, and Brady’s (http://evendays.org/) “I’m A Quaker” post, I thought I would put a fun website on this post. Trouble is, I didn’t fine one of those cool, fun websites. So instead, whip out those calculators (Scientific is fine, no graphing calculators required) and warm up that slide-rule, we’re going to have some real fun! That’s right my fellow members of our blog church, we’re going to do some math!

Now hold on before you hit that “back” button. We’ll mix in some dinner as well. Come on, give a poor old middle school math teacher a chance. Are we ready? Here we go.

This is called “Your Age By Dinner and Restaurant Math.”

1. Pick the number of times you like to eat out during the week. Must be 1 or more and less than 10.
2. Multiply that number by 2.
3. Add 5.
4. Multiply by 50.
5. If you’ve already had your birthday this year, add 1756. If you haven’t had your birthday this year, add 1755.
6. Now subtract by the 4 digit year you were born.
7. You should have a 3 digit number.

The first digit should be your original number you picked for the number of times you like to eat out.

The last 2 digits should be your age.

Now, who said math isn’t fun. BTW – this will only work for the year, 2006.

For the second weekend in a row, my wife was the ramrod of a special event for a large group of people at our church. This past weekend was my in-laws 50th Wedding Anniversary. Barb cooked prime rib, Alice Springs Chicken, and an assorted number of side dishes. The most technical part of the experience for me was stuffing the prime rib with garlic. Yes, you can say and think it – “Man, if Cecil wasn’t there the whole experience would have been a travesty.” I digress.

Any way, it was wonderful experience to celebrate the lives of Frank and Anita. 40 folks were in attendance and the stories that were told were priceless. Anita being the oldest of 5 children and the only girl had to withstand constant aggravation and down right black-mail from her younger brothers when Frank “came a courting.” Both her brothers, Claude and Dave said there were many Friday nights were the only way they had any chance of going to a movie was to bother Frank and Anita to the point that they would each receive a quarter to leave them alone.

We had several neighbors who recounted how they went to Frank to ask him for advice on a home project only to have Frank at their house doing the project. The man is in his early 70’s and just recently helped one of our neighbors put down wood floors.

Our 16 year old was in attendance and although he prophesied that he would have a horrible time, he smile, laughed, and conversed with the best of them. It was an especially stressful weekend for all of us. Seems Steven had one of those stressful weeks that 16 year olds have and he seemed at times bent on taking some of that stress out on us. Then there was last night.

After we got back from our life groups last night Steven seemed in a better mood. When he got out of the shower he asked me, “Dad, what is today’s date?” Now, if you’re a parent and you’re asked that question by your son in high school, what are you thinking or perhaps fearing? Anybody?

I’ll tell you what I was thinking – He’s getting ready to spring some project on us which happens to be due tomorrow! Thankfully I was wrong. No, he wanted the date so he could read from a devotional book (“Good Night Blessings” by Chuck Swindoll) and in fact, he wanted to read it to his mother and me and then discuss it as a family.

I can say that although we had a somewhat stressful weekend the sleep I got last night was truly restful. Thank-you God for having a 16 year old – soon to be a man teach this 48 year old a valuable lesson.

Have a good day my blog church brothers and sisters.

Working as a Christian teacher (sorry Randy) in a public school setting can make for some interesting situations. At our school each teacher has nine weeks of “morning duty” and nine weeks of “afternoon duty.” Each teacher is given a post to supervise students and to direct them to certain areas of the building while denying them access to others in the mornings and afternoons.

My job (“should I choose to accept it”) is to prevent students from going into the 400 wing classrooms in the morning unless they have a valid (like “My Mom wanted you to have this $50 gift card to the Outback Restaurant because you are one of the top 5 teachers in the entire civilized world.”) reason. This morning 2 students came up to me at my post and asked for permission to pass. When I asked them for their “valid” reason, they said, “We’re going to the “Christ on Campus Club meeting.” I told them they had selected wisely and gave them permission to pass. As the 2 young men walked past me one of them said proudly, “Yeah, we’re Christians!”

For all of the flack Public Schools sometimes take I just wanted you to know that there are some rays of His light in our facilities. Speaking of rays of light let me relay another incident that took place at one of our local High Schools and was relayed to me by one of the teens (Daniel) in our youth group.

Daniel told me that a student in his class sneezed and several people responded with, “God bless you.” He said his teacher immediately made an announcement saying, “You are not allowed to say “God bless you” when someone sneezes in here.” When asked why she stated that someone might not be a believer in God and thus would be offended.

Daniel said almost on cue several students said, “I’m not offended by God. God bless you.” He said several others said, “I’m a Christian and I believe in God.” He said the rest of the class was taken up with people sneezing and multiple people saying, “God bless you.”

Isn’t it great to know that we have young people practicing the words of Paul in Romans 1:16:

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.”

For the past few “Thursdays,” I’ve settled down into a routine of having breakfast with (as my wife calls them) “the boys.” The “boys” consist of a former “Sgt. Major of the Army,” a retired manager of a Defense Contractor, and a recently retired manager from NASA. “The boys” eat breakfast on Thursday mornings and then go to our church to cut the lawn and take care of the grounds of our facility. The “Boys” have 2 additional friends, one is a retired insurance agent and the other is a retired officer from the U.S. Coast Guard. I now look forward to Thursday mornings for I enjoy the banter, the discussion, and the wisdom passed back and forth by these men of my father’s generation.

Today at breakfast I was reminded of the “4 friends” from Mark 2. Here are the verses that came to mind:

2:1 And when He had come back to Capernaum several days afterward, it was heard that He was at home.2:2 And many were gathered together, so that there was no longer room, even near the door; and He was speaking the word to them.2:3 And they came, bringing to Him a paralytic, carried by four men.2:4 And being unable to get 20 to Him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above 21 Him; and when they had dug an opening, they let down the pallet on which the paralytic was lying.2:5 And Jesus seeing their faith said to the paralytic, "My son, 22 your sins are forgiven."

You see, 4 of these “boys” have been taking care of one of our members who needs help. “John” (I’ll call him) served our nation during the Vietnam War. John was wounded in a fire fight while in Vietnam. John still has the metal ammo belt, hole and all. It stopped some of the bullet that was meant for him and saved his life. John was also sprayed by “Agent Orange” (a de-foliate) which was used to clear the Jungle. Like so many of the Vets of that war, all John wanted to do was to get home and “forget” about the war. John came home with some psychological problems brought on by the effects of Agent Orange as well as the trauma he went through.

To sum it all up, his flight from the war cost him the “Purple Heart” that he earned as well as benefits and medical care which the Veterans Administration offers. John has gone years without the benefits and care that he deserved, that is, until he met “4 friends” from our church, the “boys.”

One of the “boys” went over to John’s trailer and helped him straighten out his financial situation as well as the various medications he was taking following heart by-pass surgery. Another one of the “boys” used his expertise with insurance matters to see what kind of relief John could get concerning his various prescriptions, some costing almost $5 a pill.

Another “boy” helped John fill out the various forms required to receive “Veteran benefits.” And still another one of the “boys” took John on his visits to a Veterans’ Hospital using his influence to “push” John through the system.

Four friends making a difference in a brother’s life. They didn’t cut away a roof but the “red tape” they did cut through probably saved John’s life. Oh, did I mention that all these “boys” are in the same Life Group at our church.

Here’s to 4 friends who in the name of Jesus are making a difference in the life of a truly “weaker” brother.