The Coburn Blog

After some decision making, I have decided to start this blog over.   This past Sunday at church was a really great sermon, that really made me think about the content I have been posting on my blog lately. I wish I had a transcript of it.  It was about how we should not put anything else in our lives above God, and how we use him as our support system in our lives instead of our friends, pastors, and anyone else down here on earth.

For instance, Jeremiah 29 verse 11-12 says “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and i will listen to you”

PSALM 46:1 says  “God is our refuge and our strength, and ever present help in trouble”

my personal favorite, which he didn’t talk about today, is John 3:16  “For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believith in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life”

The story he talked about to the congregation was really interesting.  It was a different pastor then we normally have  (our church has like 3 different pastors who take over the sermons when our main pastor is off in another state or country).

The story goes, Him and his wife had been struggling with their 18 year old daughter since she became a teenager.  She started to rebel against the family when she turned 18, got involved with one boy who was into pornographics and drugs, then she got involved with another guy who said he was a pastor, but turned out to be too controlling and into alcohol and drugs.  Now mind you, this story was coming from my pastors own family experiences.

Anyway, he went on to say that him and his wife were at their witts end to figure out what to do for her, until he read PSALM 46:1,  then they realized what they had to do.  He said him and his wife had to step asside and let God handle it.  He said the more they tried to handle it themselves by pressuring her more into going to church and preventing her from seeing guys, the more rebellious she became. The more they pulled her towards them, the further she went away.

So finally they understood what they had to do.  They started to understand thru Gods word, that God and the Holy Spirit  is a much better father then they ever could be, so they stepped aside as her parents, and let God handle it.    They prayed and prayed and prayed for their daughter, that she would eventually find her own way.

Well, he said it took awhile, for God does things in his own time, not ours, but she eventually got so down in her life, that she became to know the Lord again on her own, and soon after started going to church on her own, met a nice man there,  and now she’s happily married to the pastor of that church she attends, and they had their first child together this past May…

Wonderful story huh?   That story just totally touched me.  I particularily thought it was interesting how he talked about  “control is the enemy”,  in that, when you try to control your kids lives, thats the enemy.  Instead, God tells us to  “hand our sorrows, problems, and conflicts in life over to him”.

He ended the sermon by saying “many times, we forget to put God first in our lives.  We goto church only for the glory of ourselves”.  He also says “many times, we forget to put God first by concentrating on our college degree to better ourselves, for more money, for more materialism, and all that, all these are signs of the enemy”.   We live to serve God, not for ourselves.

In Sunday school, we watched a video that expanded on that, talking about how for many of us, death is the enemy.  Think about it for a minute, alot of us, when we get really depressed, who do we turn to? myself included? who do we turn to when we are in trouble?   Our mom?  our brother or sisters?  our pastor?  our friends? strangers over the Computer?   According to the scripture, which speaks very clear on this,  for when we start to feel depressed, sad, lonely, or even mourn our lost loved ones, we should all remember PSALM 91:4  which says “He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge. his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart”.

I thnk the best part about being a christian, is that, It doesn’t matter what sins we commit down here on earth.  In the eyes of God, no sin is any better then another. In God’s eyes, a 10 minute fight about tooth brushes is no better then comitting adultery against your spouse,  either way its a sin,  and in God’s eyes, NO sin is better, or bears more weight against us, then any other.  When we sin, or how many sins we commit, isn’t how we get to heaven, or burn in hell,  that decision has nothing to do with how many different types of sins we commit,  for we ALL commit sins, even the highest popes of the world commit sin, we are only human. God forgives us of all our sins regardless of what they are, for it explains how in John 3:16.  God loves us Unconditionally!  We all should strive to be a little more like him each day, for he teaches us the true meaning of forgiveness.    Its so wonderful, according to John 3:16,  All God says we must do to make it to heaven, is one thing..  “believe in him”   thats all.. We will have everlasting life as long as we believe in him, putting no other gods before him.  Now how hard is that?  When your feeling down, depressed,  if you need a friend to talk to, to comfort you, to cry on, what better friend do we have then the Lord himself?   When we have a problem we don’t know how to fix, don’t even mess with going to your pastor, or your mom, or even your friends….just, pray… talk to him, cry to him, lean on him, give HIM your problems,  because once you’ve given your problems to God, you no longer have any problems in your life, God takes them all away, and finds solutions to all of your concerns and worries and burdens in your life. May not be in the time frame we expect, impatience is also the enemy, but God is always there for us, for those who open their hearts to him 

We are only human, we don’t have the sight to see what happens every where around the world, or around the universe, so we don’t understand why bad things happen, but if we truely put our faith in the lord in all things, he takes our sadness away, he takes our burdeons we carry around with us away, if we continue to hold onto these burdeons of ours, then we are not putting our faith completely to him as we should. If we start to question “why did God let this happen” blaming God for it, then that means we are loosing our faith in him, and having faith is what makes good things happen to us.

Sometimes God puts us in situations knowing we will sin against him if he puts us in that situation, like for me its the computer. The computer is my sin, but i know God puts me in this situation, to teach me how to be a better christian.  God puts us in bad situations sometimes to lead us to the right path, so that we become worthy of being one of his disciples one day.   I know when I was a kid, my parents were overly religious and I hated going to church every Sunday because my parents made me go, not because I wanted to..  So when I became an adult,  I rebelled, and told myself for a short time that I would never goto church again cuz my parents made me……but it was thru my sins, and the pain of these Fistulas, and the failure of my two past marriages, that lead me back to God, the son, and the Holy Spirit, and now I’m a better christian then I ever was before,  because now I understand “why” we go to church every Sunday..but I had to learn that for myself, I had to take that road on my own to figure that out,  and thats the bottom line.