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Author Archives: Geoff Cocanower

Lessons from Holy Week #5: What He Did Speaks to What I Must Do

06 Apr

If you are like me and watched the two hours of Passion of the Christ, there were many times that you had to turn away because of the recognition of what it meant for you. I mean seriously, Jim Caviezel is a representation, but the pain that Jesus clearly had to experience in those moments of torture and ultimately on the cross is something that I could never even imagine going through. And as if the physical pain wasn’t enough, there was the spiritual and emotional side of this whole experience.

At the end of this whole process, Jesus has to take on the separation of his connection to his Father. AND he took on the weight of the world’s sin and defeated death. All very much inside His ability, but a huge deal nonetheless.What a completely incomprehensible event that took place here. But the fact of the matter is this:

Jesus had to go through the incomprehensible so that I could join Him in the pain.

You’re probably saying, “What?” Listen, I can’t stand pain. Nothing about pain or discomfort is at all attractive to me. But the idea of being spiritually cut off from your father AND bearing the burden of taking on my sin, makes no sense to me. Thankfully, Jesus doesn’t ask me to do those things. Jesus doesn’t require me to defeat death (Praise the Lord!), or take on the sin of the world (cause that would just be bad.). Jesus does those things because if He doesn’t, I would never know about what suffering looks like.

To pick up your cross, each day, seems like something that we could never do. Especially for some of us, some of the things that Christ calls us to lay down can be very painful to lay down. Forgiveness of an incredibly difficult hurt, the pride of our own self-sufficiency, our history and the life that we have made of it, just to name a few. My point is, it can be painful, extremely painful to surrender our lives to Christ. And unless Jesus does the incomprehensible we won’t know to what extent Jesus is calling us to sacrifice for His name.

We will never be able to take on the weight of sin, nor are we expected to. But Jesus went that far. So instead of asking, “Just how much are you asking for me to sacrifice, Lord?” we should approach Jesus knowing that it costs us everything to follow Him and nothing less. So, what is He asking of you today? What is it that you think you will never be able to give up? I wonder what it looks like to give that thing up. I think it looks like the suffering Christ for His people. Beautifully incomprehensible.

 
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Posted by on April 6, 2012 in Life

 

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Lessons from Holy Week #4: Jesus Prepped Himself & His Team

05 Apr

The reality of this week in history is that Jesus knew exactly what was coming on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. He knew that He would die, how He would die, and how He would rise. So, there weren’t any surprises coming Jesus’ way this week. But that didn’t stop Him from preparing for the events that were about to take place.

It’s fascinating to watch Jesus prepare His team. He even so bluntly tells the Twelve what is going to happen, all the way down to betrayal and the emotions that they were going to feel in that time. The Last Supper is the ultimate in describing servant leadership. I am so amazed at how Jesus treated and personified His character in how He cared and led the Twelve. But He’s not done yet.

Jesus then takes the time to prepare Himself in the Garden. He isn’t just sitting there, listing off all the ways that He doesn’t want to suffer so that God can take that into account. He isn’t praying to God to make the suffering that He is about to go through be easy and not very painful. He’s praying for His Church. He’s praying for himself. He’s reminding the people why He’s doing what He’s doing, and it is powerful.

The lesson for me today is this:

You can’t imagine sending troops or going into battle without prepping with the most obviously effective exercise available to Christians.

Listen, I need to be about prayer. I need to prepare myself, every single time I go to battle, I need to start in prayer. Why would I not come into the presence of the Almighty and prepare myself to give Him glory? So, I’m learning and I’m trying to apply.

What about you? What battles are coming up that you need to prep well for?

 
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Posted by on April 5, 2012 in Life

 

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Pray Mombasa: A Cause to Come Behind

04 Apr

Next week, I am leaving to go with Pastor Dave and Christy and Anna Wendel to head to Kenya, Africa. We are going to be heading to a place called Mombasa. Mombasa is an area that has seen a ton of things and has a high potential of being a place that can be impacted with something new, something fresh, something that is Jesus. I can’t tell you how pumped I am about this one.

You can join! Check out www.PrayMombasa.com and keep up with us. Most of my blogging time will be spent keeping that website updated throughout the time that we are in Kenya. So, will you join us? On April 11? Pray with us. Let’s see how Jesus will move when His people pray.

 
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Posted by on April 4, 2012 in Life, NMC

 

Lessons from Holy Week #3: He’s Still Working

04 Apr

So, it’s Holy Week and Jesus knows what is coming on Friday. He knows the pain that He is going to go through, the whipping, the abandonment of His followers, the turning away of His Father, the betrayal and deceit, all of the things that will encompass the end of this week. I mean, think of your worst week ever and it still doesn’t even come close to what Jesus is about to experience. And yet…

And yet, in the midst of all the knowledge of the coming suffering and sacrifice, Jesus is still on mission; He’s still pressing hard to bring the Kingdom of Heaven to Earth. How many incredible lessons on the Kingdom and what it is like, how it gets portrayed here on Earth and the ways that God expects us to live in communion with Him get laid out in this week. All kinds of parables and stories and lessons come from this week.

I just can’t get over this reality that even in His final week here, knowing what He was about to endure, He is fighting the fight with everything that He has. He doesn’t back down. He doesn’t complain or whine about what is coming. Actually, one could make the argument that He presses in to His calling and His mission. Jesus, in His final days, presses even harder. I love it. But, more than that, I want to see that happen in me.

What about you? What do you notice about this week in the life of Christ?

 
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Posted by on April 4, 2012 in Life

 

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Holy Week: Lessons for the Learner

03 Apr

So many times we read Scripture in a certain context or in a certain light. We read it as a love story, an instructional manual, a history book, etc. But in this time, Jesus does some significant teaching to his disciples, but also to the people. Everytime I read this passage, I can’t get over the lesson Jesus teaches by cursing the Fig Tree and then entering the Temple.

There is something significant about the connection between these two passages, especially in the context that I read it. I want to see the Church be the Church and do what God has called it to do. That drive comes from seeing dysfunction and thinking that it isn’t going great. So, you can start to see why this lesson would be significant.

Every other time that I read something about the Church not being who it is supposed to be and not stepping up to fulfill the purposes that Christ has for the Church, there is bad things that happen. People fall over dead, tables get tossed, people usually suffer greatly. in this case, the tree gets the punishment and shows us how intent Jesus is for us to bear fruit when we are supposed to bear fruit.

So, as we approach Easter, it is my prayer that when Christ looks on His Church that he doesn’t desire to curse it, that He sees it moving in the right direction. That when Christ sees the Church doing what the Church is supposed to do, that He can move the Church in the direction that He wants to move; that we can truly be His hands and feet. Because when we are the way we are supposed to be, I think we are under His control and that there is nothing that can change that movement.

 
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Posted by on April 3, 2012 in Church, Life

 

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Lessons from Holy Week: Palm Sunday

02 Apr

You know that moment when you think of something and then realize that it is too good to let slide away? Yeah, that just happened. I was sitting in my office, working on some stuff for this week, and it just hit me like a ton of bricks: This is Holy Week.

I mean, in the life of a Christian, this is one of the most important week’s ever recorded in the Bible. It is so important because without it panning out exactly as it was prophesied to, Jesus is not who He said He was, God was not who He said He was, and this whole thing is a sham. This is a very significant week in the life of a believer. So, I decided to take some time and really focus my thoughts and processing into this week and the lessons I pull from Scripture. I encourage you to journey along with me in the comment section!

At the beginning of this week, we receive Palm Sunday. I still remember having the palm branches in my hand as a kid and loving that I got to swing this thing around. Heck, I just loved having someone focus their attention on me every time that I swung that branch around like a maniac. I didn’t really know much about what it meant, partly because I lack the memory to be able to remember all of that and because I really didn’t care, I wanted a palm branch.

I was reading through the account of Palm Sunday with our Preteens and Junior Highers on Sunday and loved the lessons that even I was learning out of this passage in Matthew 21. There is so much to be pulled from these passages of Scripture. Some of the things that I notice are:

  • Jesus entered Jerusalem unlike every other king that would have entered that stage. While others would have entered on a valiant steed, Jesus came in on a donkey. He came in on a donkey to signify the peace that he embodies and came to the people with.
  • The people that were praising Jesus through their mindset and their worldview of thinking that He was going to come in and tear down the things that were already in place.
  • The lesson of how Jesus instructed them (the Disciples) where they would find the donkey (next to a colt, also indicative) representing the provision of God to do even the things that aren’t comfortable or easy.
  • The theme and pervasive undertone of humility throughout the entire story is deafening in our world of pride, greed, and comfort through our own effort. His greatness was made obvious through His embrace of His nature.

It is Palm Sunday. He rides in, humbly, on a donkey, only to go out, humbly on a cross. I mean come on. This speaks so incredibly much to the nature of His leadership and the way that He desires His followers to follow. It’s Palm Sunday and He knows that Friday is coming. But He isn’t complaining. He isn’t fussing. He isn’t trying to make this a big deal about himself. How about that for your last week on the job? Makes you think twice about the way that we want to be treated when we are going out or when we are making a very clear and significant sacrifice.

But today it’s Monday. The city is still enamored with Him. They are still amazed by Him.

Look, today, the lesson for me and maybe it is for you is simple.

When we let our emotions and desires be determined by our current situation, we lose the opportunity to see our situation through God’s perspective. 

I don’t know about you, but Jesus rode in on a donkey and out on a cross. I think a lot of times, we want to ride in like a hero in an epic movie on a white steed so people look to us to save things; to be to them who Jesus is supposed to be. And when we get done with whatever we are set to do, we want people to praise us and desire us and want to have us be the center of their attention; to be to them who Jesus is supposed to be.

I know I need to be more like Jesus. This might be one way.

 
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Posted by on April 2, 2012 in Leadership, Life

 

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Time for Selah

01 Apr

This past Wednesday, we took some time to practice an Old Testament tradition of selah. Basically, it means to “stop and listen.” To stop listening to the noise of the world and just listen. Another way to interpret it is to “stop and think about that.” It shows up often in the Psalms after certain passages in the book.

Interestingly, it is a bit of a normal happening in the Psalms and is a lost idea in today by most of us. I’m convinced that if we were to employ this practice more often, we might find ourselves hearing God’s voice more clearly and more consistently. All it takes is shutting off some things and becoming more and more comfortable with silence and the opportunity to hear His still, small voice.

So, this week, most students in my area are on Spring Break. What if we take some time and just shut everything off. Stop and simply listen for His voice. Don’t talk. Don’t ask for anything. Just listen. I wonder what happens.

 
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Posted by on April 1, 2012 in Life

 

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It Only Takes a Spark

31 Mar

It all starts back up again this weekend, and the question about this Final Four for me is, which team will be the hottest in each game? I love comebacks and I love underdogs, even if it is just by default that they are the underdog. I love seeing teams overachieve in the tournament.

Now, I realize that each of these four teams, probably had expectations of going deep into the tournament when they started the year out. But, the reality is that any team can get hot at any point and steal the show. We all remember the shot that Bryce Drew hit to send Valpo to the Sweet Sixteen; Shaka Smart and the boys from VCU shocking the world in 2011; Brad Stevens and the Bulldogs of Butler University, a little college in Indianapolis, shocking the world and making it to the National Championship, only inches away from knocking off one of the most storied basketball programs in the country in Duke. And, most times, every fan loves it.

The reality is, it just takes a spark to get a team going. One thing that a coach might say, a player might do, a situation might push a team towards, but there is always one thing that sets a team on fire. And nobody really knows what that thing is until it happens.

I wonder what you might be the spark for when it comes to the things in your life? Who are you connected with that God may want to use to spark the fire in someone else?

I’m going to enjoy the games tonight. But first, I’m going to do my best to spark my Teen Camp Team so we can get fired up about following Jesus with this opportunity. Sometimes we only get one shining moment, but that shining moment only comes when we get the spark.

 
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Posted by on March 31, 2012 in Leadership, Life

 

Emotions of an Emotional Guy

28 Mar

Not an emotional guy.

I am a relatively emotional person. I wouldn’t say that I am tossed and thrown by the wind, but it can definitely seem that way with how I get excited about things and how I can get frustrated with the ineffectiveness of other things at nearly the drop of a hat off the Empire State Building. It’s not like instantaneous, but it can be pretty quick depending on the day. Some people call that bi-polar, but I’m not one for self-diagnosis.

The fact remains that it seems that there are more and more overly emotional people in the world than there once were. If there aren’t, the few that do exist, now have a much louder platform than they once did with the advent of Social Media Technologies like Texting, Twitter, and Facebook. But there is something that I have learned lately that applies, so greatly to the life of a believer and the way that we can perceive our world and its given situations.

The Simple Principle today is this: “When I let my emotions drive my perspective, I lose proper perspective.”

Now, some of you are saying, well, DUH! But for us people who struggle with self-awareness, this isn’t so obvious. The reality still remains that we can get so fired up over things or so excited over things that those emotions begin to drive how we see situations taking place. So rather than allowing my emotions determine how I actually view things, I have decided to follow these simple steps to “emotional freedom” in situations that require it:

  1. Identify the Realities: As emotional people, we can get so caught up in how a situation feels that we lose sight of what is actually happening. We lose a bit of our grip on reality. It is important that we strategically and accurately define what the reality is and not what the reality + our emotions are.
  2. Capture the Causes of our Emotions: After we identify the reality, it is important to qualify our emotions appropriately as well. Our emotions have a purpose just as much as the worldview that we have that generates those emotions has a purpose. All of these given emotions are important to consider and deal with as well. If they go untouched or unexamined, they will most likely rear their ugly head later and continue to distort our view of reality.
  3. Assess the Action: Fact of the matter is, in leadership or followership, once we understand the real reasons why we feel a certain way, we can determine whether or not that directs a specific action or inaction. However, this action, if it is going to be fulfilling, must be in a response to the actual reality that is causing our given emotions. Otherwise, we will continue to remain in the same state as it concerns that given situation because it will have remained the same.

All in all, I am glad that I am an emotional person because normally, it drives me to do the work that I do, the way that I do it. However, it can sometimes get me into trouble and leave me a bit distressed and struggling to understand many things when it goes unchecked. It seems good to harness these things so that they can be used for good.

 
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Posted by on March 28, 2012 in Life

 

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Well Isn’t This Interesting…

27 Mar

My Grandpa sent me this yesterday. Thought it was interesting and thought it was worth sharing. This is Paul Harvey in 1965. Seems Paul and I might have some similar views.

What do you think about this one?

 
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Posted by on March 27, 2012 in Life

 
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