Sunday, November 24, 2019

11-24-19 Thankful for worship


Scripture:    Luke 6:46-49

I am more thankful for Nov 4, 1974 than I am Aug 23, 1959.

Aug 23, 1959 I was born – Nov. 4, 1974 I was reborn.

The event on Nov. 4, 1974 would not have happened without the event that happened on Aug 23, 1959.

Let’s look at it – Richard and Phyllis Cooper were both born in 1928. She grew up in Oak Harbor then Toledo, he grew up in Toledo. They met at Divilbus high school, dated, fell in love, went to the University of Toledo where she graduated while he worked for Jeep and then got involved with rainbow sweepers selling them door to door eventually moving to Columbus where he became a regional supervisor – they had two sons and hit a rough patch in their marriage. Another woman gave birth a few weeks before their second child was born and Richard was the father of that child too. For most people that would have ended it but she decided to stay and try and make things work. Things still did not work well, but they did give birth to a third son, Jeffrey Kramb Cooper on Aug 23, 1959 after 3 days of labor and less than 3 years later, they would divorce.

I would say my birth is somewhat of a miracle – not physically – but the fact that my mother, an educated woman, stayed with my father and had another child seems like a miracle to me. So, am I thankful for my birth? Am I thankful for the parents God gave me? Am I thankful I was born into a situation I knew very little about till after my father passed away? Am I thankful that I grew up in a place and time where other people’s parents also looked out for you, and prayed for you because they knew your family did not attend church? I am absolutely thankful for all of that. I thank God for every part of my story. It is exactly because of my story that it led me to be in the right place at the right time when Jesus spoke my name and I responded to His invitation to accept him as my Lord and Savior on Nov. 4, 1974.

My rebirth was filled with an even worse story, but the bad parts of that story happened 2000 years prior when Jesus had to hang on a cross and die for my sins, so I wouldn’t have too. Therefore, I am even more thankful for my rebirth on Nov 4, 1974 than for my birth on Aug 23, 1959.

Thankful for kim – my family etc.

2 Corinthians 4:15



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