Love Thy Neighbor

Everyone shows shows love in different ways, but as Christians there is no question we must show, this most excellent virtue to neighbors and enemies and everyone in between. The question is how to does this play out in everyday life. Does love mean we give everyone a Valentines card or roses? No we need to redefine love according to Jesus' definition, and his definition (as evidenced by his actions) of love is desiring God's best for a person. When the woman who was accused of adultery was brought before Jesus in John 8 how did he demonstrate God's love? He not only saved her physical life, but he cared for her spirit in this famous phrase, "Go and sin no more." The question for me is, "Do we love people enough to tell them, go and sin no more?

In our permissive culture it seems that no one wants to stand up for truth, everyone is ok, everyone is a nice and good person. No one these days takes criticism well because in a post modern culture there is no authority save oneself. Yet for Christians our authority is Christ who calls us to obedience and to discipleship through discipline. No one likes discipline but endures it for a time because they trust that it will produce the desired results. No kid wants to give in to the discipline of his parents, but they trust the parents are acting in the kids best interests. Should we think any less of our relationship with Christ. Does God not discipline those He loves? Doesn't He tell us to go and sin no more? Should we not then do that same to the people we love?

I know this seems like a tall order, but imagine the alternative to tell somone you love them and let them destroy their life. How is that love? Too many parents have enables their kids to make bad choice in the name of love, which turned out to be anything but love. In fact it is laziness on the part of parents to correct their children, or ignorance on how to in fact to teach them to live a virtuous life. Parents cannot teach something they don't know. So my hope is that as Christians we can be a voice of love and salvation for our society, a voice that says, Go and sin no more. We need to hear Jesus say it to us each day, and at the right time in a spirit of humility and peace, with respect we should say it to others to save them, and truly demonstrate God's love to them.

One of my seminary professors was fond of defining love this way. "To love someone means that I am unwilling to wallpaper their jail cell for them." What a superb definition of love. We want someones best, we don't want to make them feel good about their addiciton, their oppression, their sinfulness. Hollywood would have you think that love means we all go about our business and not get involved, and not care what other people do. But loving someone demands action, demands involvement. To love our neighbor means that we care about their well being now, and also their eternal salvation.

So my question for you is, "How well do you love?"

Parenting

Hello world,

I have just a few minutes before John or J2 as he is sometimes refered to (thanks Emma) wakes up. Today was the first day that I had both boys by myself. Not a big deal, since I took James to day care, but I was at home with John and did all the Mr. Mom things, and he behaved well. I worked a bit while he slept. He didn't even wake up when I used the drill, which is way different than James. I just wanted to ask parents what they've learned through their kids. I have learned a lot about myself through the naughty stage that James has been going through. I learned that I jump too quickly to wanting to spank, I learned that I want my kids to be as close to perfect as possible, I learned that I can have patience and pity if I'm in the right frame of mind. But when I'm tired and stressed, I don't tolerate much. I used to think I was so easy going, and I am most of the time, but I take my kids discipline seriously, and I don't want them to be brats, or greedy, or inconsiderate kids and adults. But they are not my kids, they are Gods, and I have to keep praying for wisdom on how to raise them. I don't know if there will be unique challenges to raising two boys, but I suspect that they will fight, and compete, which is ok as long as they do it lovingly. :) I think i'm pretty naive here, but I can hope. In any case, God continues to teach me a lot through my journey as a parent. I think I'm becoming a better pastor because of them as well. Now if I can only make more time to visit people and work on my sermons more... that is my earnest prayer. Amen.

John Bunyan Cocar

Greetings folks!

It's been a crazy few months at the Cocar household. This summer has been spent getting ready for the arrival of our new baby boy, John Bunyan Cocar. He finally came on August 27th at 3:25 AM. He was a bit of a surprise, not having him, but how early he was. We were thrilled to have such a healthy boy, he was 7lbs. 11oz. and 21 in. long. James is adjusting very well to his baby brother. Two days after we brought John home, James fell in the driveway and broke his collarbone. He was in a sling and ace bandage for a few days, which got him some more attention than usual, that has helped the transition. He is on the mend now and is without a bandage, we are looking forward to his birthday party this Saturday.
Rachel has been a doing remarkably well after the delivery. She was up and about a day after the surgery, and has not needed much pain medication. Thank you for all the prayers, God has certainly had mercy on us. Although, we don't sleep very well since John wakes up every 2 hours, we have been blessed.
I have felt a bit awkward not going to church for the past two weeks, but it's been good to spend time with the boys and Rachel. Also Jim and Arden Olsen, (Rachel's parents) have been here for the past two weeks. Life is getting back to normal, and now we just have to adjust to two boys. They say going from one to two is the hardest and I don't know if I want to find out if they are right or not. I think two boys is enough for us to handle. Praise the Lord they are healthy and we are doing well.
So that's where we're at, I promise my future posts will be more about theology and/or home improvement, but for now I have to catch up on my sleep.

Good Night.

My adventures in plumbing

Greetings cyberspace,

It's been a few months since my last post, but things are fairly much the same. Our house is still under construction, my son is still not potty trained (working on it), the church is doing well, could always be better, and Rachel is still very much pregnant, but doing well. So life is good. My current project has been to put in a toilet into our basement. We had this huge walk in shower that was probably 6x6, way too big for a shower, so we decided to add a toilet. Last Wednesday I broke up a bit of concrete and made a hole big enough and deep enough to see that there is a clay pipe right under where I wanted to put the toilet. I was unsure so I asked around and it turned out that it wasn't that big a deal, except clay pipes are really delicate, they are really thick, but they crack easily. So the hole got a lot bigger real fast, and I exposes the pipes pretty much all the way around. There is the main stack for the house which is cast iron and a floor drain from the laundry room all going to this clay pipe. And wouldn't you know it, it was cracked. There was sewage leaking into the ground, it was all mud, so nasty. Anyways I should have waited for plumber, but I was impatient and didn't want sewage spilling into the basement. So I broke off the pipe and that's where I got stuck, I've never done a ton of plumbing so I didn't know what I was doing, but I knew someone who did.

The guy who told me what to do in the first place, a deacon at the church, Ed, volunteered to come over and help me fix the problem. I was ready to patch it back together and forget about it, but he knows how to do this kind of work and he was willing to help. It worked out really well because he was planning on coming to Vacation Bible School with his wife to help out, and he said he'd just come help me instead. He's a great guy, totally humble and kind, honest and hard working, my kind of guy. So we worked for 2 hours to get it all fixed up and ready to be used as a sewer again. He let me grind off the clay pipe, which I did, fairly well, I prayed before each cut, because if it broke off it would break off too deep and we couldn't get a rubber gasket on it. This happened once, but we were able to fix it. So now we have to finish putting the shower drain in, fill the hole back up with sand, then top it off with concrete, and finally add the toilet and build a glass wall in between. Piece of cake. I learned a lot this week, not much of it theological but I learned about ID and OD, important plumbing things to know. I hope my sermon this Sunday didn't suffer for lack of more preparation time. Lord knows I could always spend more time preparing. I trust in God's goodness and mercy. I didn't feel like I left the people with that one importnat thought, but it was more of an experience of loving other people. I pray that it was honoring to God.

Peace.

Since Christmas

Greeting blog readers... its been four months since my last post, but it feels like only yesterday. A lot has happened since Dec. Most notably James is so much bigger and wiser. He talks more than Rachel and I do, and he's always on the go. Although recently he has learned to sit still and do one activity at a time. He has even started sitting at the table with Rachel and I. He's a great kid, and I'm proud to be his dad. One thing that is not so great is that he has yet to sit through church. On Easter he sat/squirmed through the first 15/20 minutes until childrens sermon, then went downstairs to play. I think at almost three I was sitting through church, although throughout my childhood I was always trying to find out ways to get out of church. But I'm sure as he matures he'll learn to sit through church. We'll have to make sure it's not too boring... :)
Speaking of church, that is going well. It could always be better, but I'm thrilled with how well everyone works together and how God's Spirit is present and working. There are certainly challenges, but compared to other pastors and situations, we're very fortunate. God continues to be so good to us.
On the house front we have almost finished renovating our kitchen, it's be a LOT of work, and a lot of money, but it's looking good, and we're happy to have a functional kitchen that is safe and convenient.
More theological discussions to come...
Peace

the problem of evil

Recently Rachel and I were given a book about the Tsunami that happened in Asia back in the Christmas of 20o4. I remember some of the devastation, but didn't really grapple with it back then. I was still in seminary and newly married, so the event passed by like so many other tragic events. This book is entitle "Where is God in the Tsunami?" I don't usually need a dictionary when I read a book, but I do with this book. But regardless, it's a good read about the problem of evil. Why did the tsunami take place? Who is to blame? Can we say that God punished those sinful people, like some preachers claimed right after the event? The author Hart is arguing against atheists that say, "See look, there is so much evil and devastation, how could there possibly be an all powerful, all loving God?" The old question of, if there is an all loving and all powerful God, how could there be evil. Either he is not all loving, or he is not powerful enough to stop it. These are good questions, how can we as mature Christians answer these people who look at the world and say, there can't be a loving God.

I know how I would respond, right now. I'll let you all know if I get an new insight into this answer from the book. What do you all think of how to asnwer this historically difficult question?

Fall...literally

Well the reason for my absence to this blog site has been due to a small but painful condition, called a hernia. I got it late August, early Sept. I was not paying attention to some of the things I was doing, and I was lifting heavy things and playing with James, (ie. throwing him up in the air), and doing some wood working, etc... And then I started having a pain in my right side. Nothing big at first, just some discomfort, but in a few days it was really hurting. Went to the doctor to have it fixed, and I had to wait for two weeks. I went to Rockford to see a dr. there and it was the same story, two weeks. So I waited in pain, I preached in pain, and then the week I was supposed to have surgery I got sick. I had a fever of 101.5 [ there was a rumor at the high school that i had a fever of 105, I think i'd be dead]. Anyways, my surgery got pushed back to last friday. It went alright I guess. I was hoping it wasn't as painful as it turned out to be. And the wierd part is that the incision is painful, but my HIP, oh... my hip really hurts. It feels like someone is tearing my hip off when I move it just right... But all the pain as subsided in recent days, I'm able to do things now, like stand up straight, walk, move, things I couldn't do before. We'll see how I do preaching on Sunday. So that's where I've been. So I haven't been to volleyball much until yesterday, and we had a home game, which we WON!!! It was great to beat a team that had beaten us so much in the past few years. We're definitely not where I want us to be, but we're getting there. The season will probably be over before we reach our full potential, but it was a good win.
On the home front, Rachel is eager to have me back to full strength. I haven't been able to help out with James too much because I can't lift him, and even putting on his pants this morning hurt becuase he squirmed too much, and it hurts for me to twist and move quickly. That's life.
I hope you all are well.
May God bless you, and watch over you. I know He has me and my family.

Peace