Category: Blog

REFLECTIONS ON THE SUNDAY SERMON

Linda Waltersdorf Cobourn, EdD

 March 30, 2025

Pastor Amy Peters, Speaker

FAMILY

Finally, all of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble

1 Peter 3:8

What would it have been like to grow up in the earthly family of Jesus? Our church members called out the adjectives as Pastor Amy talked about the importance of family, both natural and spiritual. We know little about the family life of Jesus when He was a child in Nazareth. The Bible gives us a few facts.

Isn’t this the carpenter’s son? Isn’t his mother’s name Mary, and aren’t his brothers James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas? (Matthew 13:55)

Jesus had at least four named brothers. James, probably the writer of the Book of James, and Judas, the writer of the Book of Jude, became followers of Christ. We know less about Joseph, also called Joses, and Simon.

People knew Joseph, a carpenter, as the father of Jesus. Probably because of His birth in Bethlehem and the family’s sojourn in Egypt, no one questioned the parentage of Jesus or His birthdate. The belief exists that Joseph, crucial to Jesus’ early life, died before his ministry began. The Bible’s last reference to Joseph is in Luke 2:48-49.

And are not his sisters here with us? (Mark 6:3)

Jesus had at least two sisters. The plural form of “sisters” shows that there were at least two biological sisters.

This is the little we know of the natural family of Jesus. We probably know a great deal more about our own families! But we know quite a bit about the spiritual family, of which we can be members.

There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. (I John 4:18-19).

In the spiritual family of Jesus, we have perfect love. We are not perfect people, but the love of our Savior surrounds us.

Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves (Romans 12:10).

We are commanded to love one another. No matter what.

But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. (John 1:12)

Anyone who believes in Jesus as Savior becomes part of God’s family.

            The natural family of Jesus may have had seven or more people living in one house. That’s a big family! But the spiritual family is even bigger. Over 2.6 billion people acknowledge Jesus as Savior.

We need to take care of one another and continue on the path before us.

And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us (Hebrews 12:1b).

How is God asking you to care for His Family?

A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR.

Everyone has a “God story” to tell! Please talk to me about sharing yours. If you’ve enjoyed reading this and would like to read more about my faith walk, please join my free blog at: lindaca1.substack.com

 

REFLECTIONS ON THE SUNDAY SERMON

Linda Waltersdorf Cobourn, EdD

 March 16, 2025

Pastor Amy Peters, Speaker

BREATHING

He says, “Be still, and know that I am God;
    I will be exalted among the nations,
    I will be exalted in the earth.”

Psalm 46:10

“I missed the exit!” exclaimed my daughter. “Sorry, I’ll get off at the next one and head back.”

I closed my eyes and concentrated on my breathing. One, two, in. Three, four, out. I wondered how my husband, awaiting a heart ablation at Hahnemann Hospital in Philadelphia, was breathing. While Ron tried to remain positive despite the multiple surgeries he’d had in the last ten years, the cardiologist was concerned about Ron’s heart. It was enlarged and only working at 30% capacity. An ablation—which destroyed parts of the heart to restore normal rhythm— was minimally invasive, no surgery had ever been routine for my husband.

“It’s not 9 O’clock yet,” said Bonnie. “Surgery isn’t until nine. We’ll make it.”

 

“Sure,” I said, although I had my doubts. Ron was probably already being prepped for surgery and might be on his way to the operating room. I held back my tears. I’d always been able to pray with Ron and kiss him before each surgery. It looked like I might not make this one.

“Let’s pray,” I told Bonnie. “I’ll call Chris. She can pass the word at church today.”

 

Breathe in the Spirit of God.

At Sunday’s service, Pastor Amy spoke about JD Walt’s ministry and a breathing exercise that can help us to calm our hearts and minds and concentrate on God. The video is at https://youtu.be/Sypz7muHWOE. It’s a simple practice that can provide assurance for us in any situation. Be conscious of your breathing as you try this. Breathe and exhale deeply. Remember that Jesus grounds you. Your breath comes from God.

Be still. Inhale deeply and hold for a count of two.

And know. Expel your breath for a count of two.

That I. Inhale deeply and hold for a county of two.

A God. Expel your breath for a count of two.

You can continue the verse using two words at a time to rest in the mercy of God. As JD Walt reminds us in the video, we have nothing else to do in those moments but to rest in God and be his Child.

My daughter and I knew our loved one was a Child of God. As Bonnie expertly drove us back to Hahnemann, we breathed and prayed. God knew what was best for Ron. I knew our entire congregation would also be praying, alerted by my best friend, Chris.

We reached the hospital at 9:30 and took the elevator up to Ron’s room, expecting he would already be in surgery. But my husband greeted us with a bright smile.

“They canceled surgery,” he said as we hugged and kissed him. He didn’t know why. In a few minutes, the cardiologist stepped into the room.

“We were preparing him for surgery,” he said, “when suddenly his heart went back into rhythm. It’s beating normally now.” He held his hands up. “I can’t explain it.”

Bonnie and I looked at each other. “Do you know what time that was?” I asked.

Dr. Engle looked at his watch. “Around 9:05, I think.”

We nodded, understanding that God had heard and responded to our prayers.

I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.

John 16:33

            We live in a troubled world with many unknowns. But we can, always and anywhere, breathe in the peace of God. How can you trust His peace today?

A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR.

Everyone has a “God story” to tell! Please talk to me about sharing yours. If you’ve enjoyed reading this and would like to read more about my own faith walk, please join my free blog at  Quirky: Because we’re all a little different | Linda Cobourn | Substack

As for God, his way is perfect:
    The Lord’s word is flawless;
    he shields all who take refuge in him

Psalm 18:30 (NIV)

REFLECTIONS ON THE SUNDAY SERMON

February 16, 2025

Pastor Cliff Werline, Speaker

“Lord, be my shield,” I prayed as I started my car at 6:15 am on a cold Friday. Since my retirement from teaching in June, I hadn’t needed to be out in the winter’s morning hours, but today my daughter needed me. Living with a condition known as “iron-deficiency anemia”, Bonnie requires iron infusions every few months to bolster her red blood cells. Usually, her husband is able to take her to the series of five infusions over three weeks, but Jared was unable to get off today. I was happy to help.

But driving when it is still dark out is not something I do lightly. I have a visual disorder called keratoconus which causes double-vision and “halos” around lights. Still, a mom does what a mom has to do.

“Be my shield and my buckler!” I said as I drove the twenty minutes to her house. “I take refuge in you, Lord!”

God is perfect. As Pastor Cliff pointed out on Sunday, there are very few “perfect” things in the world. Among those scarce things are the Word of God and the Sacrifice of Jesus. Nothing else is truly flawless. While the pearl in John Steinbeck’s book, The Pearl, is said to be “perfect, reflecting light and refining it,” only God and his law are perfect.

The law of the Lord is perfect,
    refreshing the soul.
The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy,
    making wise the simple.

Psalm 19:7

As any of my ninth-grade high school students could tell you, having the “perfect pearl” did not work out so well for Kino and Juana.

How much better to trust in the promises of God! God is always faithful to his promises.

God treated me to a beautiful view of the sunrise on my drive, and as I pulled up to Bonnie’s house, I thanked God for his protection and faithfulness. God, however, wasn’t finished. He had something else in mind to gladden my heart.

Bonnie and I were sitting in the waiting room at the hematologist and we started talking about her brother, Allen, an adult with autism spectrum disorder. Back in October, I’d done one of the hardest things a mother could ever have to do: I committed him to a psychiatric hospital because his autism mixed with traumatic grief had spiraled him out of control.

“He’s come a long way since the hospital,” my daughter commented. “When he calls me every day, he actually has a conversation with me.”

I nodded. People at church also mentioned that Allen was more engaged during and after services.  Finally agreeing to medication, my son was adjusting to a life in which he had more control. “He wants to learn to cook more things,” I told my daughter.

Just then, a woman sitting in a chair across from us broke in.”I don’t mean to interrupt,” she said. “But are you talking about someone with autism?”

I told her it was my son and she told me she had a niece on the spectrum. We conversed for the next few minutes as Bonnie went into get her infusion, and I reached into my purse and pulled out a card that had the link and QAR to my blog. “I write about autism, ” I told her, “among other things. Maybe you would be interested in reading it.”

She took the card. “I am signing up now!” she said. And she did. We talked for a few more minutes, sharing the knowns and the unknowns about the spectrum disorder,  until she, too, was called back.

Among the many reasons I retired–and I had a hundred!–was the desire to write more about autism and widowhood combined with faith. And I had just had the opportunity to reach one more person.

 For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God.

II Corinthians 1:20

This world, Cliff reminded us, is just a shadow of what we will one day experience. Yet if we allow ourselves to, we can experience the glory of God wherever we are, even in a waiting room.

Where can you find God today?

Linda Cobourn also writes at  Quirky: Because we’re all a little different

 

Reflections from the Sunday Sermon

Todd Bezilla, speaker

February 9, 2025

 

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.

Mark 12:30-31

It was a very chilly 52 degrees in the house when I woke up on Sunday, January 12. I sighed, pulled myself out of bed, and went to the basement to try and cajole the old heater into surviving one more winter. I had a lot of practice at this, so I banged it a few times in strategic spots and waited for the clanking noise.

Nothing.

I sighed and ran back upstairs to get ready for church, knocking on my son’s door as I headed for the shower. Unlike the heater, he responded.

“Cold today!” I warned him. “Get dressed quick! I turned the electric firelog on!”

We left for church shortly after; I prayed my heater might decide to function while I was absent from the house.

I, like you probably, am used to such things as heat and running water. I tend to think of myself as a physical being, concerned with the physical needs of myself and my son. My spiritual self is just a part of me. But Todd Bezilla’s sermon on this past Sunday, February 9, caused me to think of myself in a different way.

I’m a spiritual being.

The words of the prophet Jeremiah in 1:5 make it clear; God formed us as spiritual beings. 

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew  you,

    before you were born I set you apart;

    I appointed you as a prophet to the nations. 

 

If we were truly physical beings, we’d have only dust to look forward to!

and the dust returns to the ground it came from,

    and the spirit returns to God who gave it.

Ecclesiastes 12:7

Dr. Todd gently reminded us that we are all just TEMPORARILY housed in a physical form. Our bodies are not designed to last, how ever well we treat them. And if we spend time caring for our physical bodies–as we should, because they shelter the spirit–then we ought to spend even more time working on our spiritual selves. We need to make sure we are growing in our spirits. How? Well, we know an apple tree is doing what it should if it produces apples. We should, as spiritual beings, produce fruit.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,  gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

Galatians 5:22-23

This involves a change of mind-set. What we endure right now–such as my heater issues–are temporary. They are merely physical problems. But if we focus not on the CREATION, but on the CREATOR, we can become more like Jesus. Well, a little bit more, anyway. We can

to be made new in the attitude of our minds

Ephesians 4:23

I’ve changed my mind about my heater. It continued to defy my gentle and not so gentle cajoling, and within days I found myself not only installing a new heater, but also new gas lines and new electric wiring. These were safety issues that may have existed way before we moved in. And they could have caused many problems. My son and I stayed in a hotel for three days while people who know about these things were at the house.  During that time, however, I was able to realize how blessed we had been. We were safe; we were warm. We took a break from the world, played card games, watched movies, ate take-out, and watched the snow fall outside.

You will keep in perfect peace

    those whose minds are steadfast,

    because they trust in you

Isaiah 26:3

Was it perfect peace? Well, not yet. I’m still working on it. And that’s okay, because growing your spiritual self takes time.

Whatever it is that is keeping you tethered to the physical world today, do not make it your top priority. 

Commit to the Lord whatever you do,

    and he will establish your plans

Proverbs 16:3

 

Doesn’t that sound better than kicking a heater?

What do you need to do today to work on your spiritual self?

Dr. Linda Cobourn is a writer, editor, and teacher. To learn more about Linda’s faith journey as a spousal caregiver, a widow, and the mother of an autistic adult son, you can follow her on https://lindaca1.substack.com/

Valentine’s Day can be tough for widows. Last year, a student asked me what I thought I would get from my husband for Valentine’s Day. She hadn’t realized he had died because, she said, “You always talk about him as if he is alive.”

It was a lovely compliment that got me thinking about the years since Ron passed and how each Valentine’s Day has become a little less painful. I am still a widow, but I have come to learn the true meaning of love.

⁴ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

⁸ Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.

I Corinthians 13:4-8

What is the true nature of love? It is impossible for human beings to live up to what the Bible describes as “love.” Ron and I were married for almost 44 years. We had a good, solid marriage despite the two decades Ron was ill, but we fell short of these ideals often. I know I was not always as patient as I wanted to be, and I know that Ron often envied other couples who had more material wealth than we did.

It is only God who can live up to the ideal of love. After all, he created the emotion within us. He sets the standards for it. The verses we think of as “the love chapter” were not intended by Paul to be romantic, but rather the foundation of all things.

The church at Corinth struggled with immorality, idol worship, and self-interest. Paul wanted to remind the church that whatever they did, it did not matter if it was not done in love. These verses are full of 15 action words that constitute real love. I’ll look at just two in this post.

1. Love is patient. Truth. Loving Ron was not always easy. In 1994, he began having mental issues and was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. For years, he swung on the pendulum between manic and depressed. There were many nights I heard him playing basketball on Allen’s court in the backyard at 3 AM. There were other mornings I awoke to find him gone with a note hastily scribbled on the kitchen table. Ron’s bipolar was difficult to explain to others outside our family. In a way, his car accident in 2000 made it easier, because people understood physical maladies in a way they could not fathom mental illnesses.But I made the choice to love Ron. Not because it was easy, not because he was always lovable, not because I was necessarily a good person. I did it because I had taken a vow to love him. I had made a commitment, the same commitment God makes to us.
2. Love is kind. We should always react with goodness and kindness, but it’s a hard thing to do. There were times Ron blamed me for his illnesses, yelling that if I really loved him, I would cure him. Of course, curing Ron was beyond my human power. I did the best I could by taking care of him, taking him to doctors, working extra jobs to pay the medical bills not covered by insurance, and trying to understand that he needed someone to blame and I was handy. In the early years, I tried to reason with him. Eventually, though, I would just pat him on the shoulder and turn away.God never turns away from us. God always responds to us with love, even when we are dead wrong.

Have you ever found it difficult to love someone, even when you knew it was the right thing to do?

Want to read more about Linda’s life as a widow and the mother of an autistic adult son? Check out her blog at Quirky: Because we’re all a little different.