Handout for ACDA 2013

Thank you for taking time to attend my session at OMEA. I look forward to other opportunities to interact with you.

As promised, here is the handout from the session – in larger print so it can be read . ACDA gospel slideshow

If you are interested in ordering the resource, Gospel Songs Your Choir Will Love To Sing, you may also order that on this website by clicking on the bookstore tab.

 

 

Are You Convinced?

I am an advocate of Facebook and other forms of social media. I believe they offer wonderful opportunities to reconnect with people I may not have seen in years. I enjoy the opportunity to share thoughts and ideas and the ability to minister to those in need is amazing. Yet, I am continually disturbed by the things people disclose – defeatist attitudes, pain disguised as machismo/ghetto-girl, hopelessness disguised as ‘I don’t care.’ I read statuses that reveal no real plan for futures- just a hope that if you throw ideas out, they will come to fruition. I see people living their lives on Facebook because they don’t have true friendships and intimate relationships with people they really know. The heartbreaking thing is that many of these attitudes come from people who profess a belief in God!

Read these words….

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:35, 37-39 NIV)

If you are truly convinced that nothing can separate you from the love of God you can change your entire existence. God DOES love you. And God desires the best for you. You may be the prodigal child but if you will look up from your battles (pig pen), consider how you got to where you are (own your own stuff), make up your mind to run back to the Father, your life WILL have a turnaround and you won’t need to be defeated! What or who shall separate you from the love of God? Only YOU are capable of doing this! Be CONVINCED that you are MORE than a conqueror! Be convinced that God loves you. Be convinced that everything going on in your life now is but a “light affliction.” IN ALL THESE THINGS you are more than a winner. That means you don’t have to barely slip through. You can walk boldly out of things that sidetrack others. NOTHING – death, life, angels, demons, future, present, height, nor depth – can EVER separate you from the LOVE of God.

Convince yourself to believe the truth more than you believe the lies you believe right now!

Loretta M. Cox Funeral Plans

Loretta M. Cox

January 31, 1938 – September 3, 2012

Mom’s Pennsylvania Memorial Program

Saturday, November 3, 2012 Memorial Celebration, 10:00 am

St. Luke’s Christian Community Church
325 Tilghman Street
Chester, Pennsylvania

In lieu of flowers the family requests donations to Doxology Ministries International, Inc, a 501c3 charitable corporation. Your donations are tax exempt. Checks may be sent, payable to Doxology Ministries, to PO Box 340926 • Dayton, OH 45434

Mom’s California Memorial Program

Friday, September 7, 2012 Memorial Celebration, 6:30 pm

Shield of Faith Fellowship of Churches

1750 West Holt Avenue

Pomona, CA 91768

In lieu of flowers the family requests donations to Doxology Ministries International, Inc, a 501c3 charitable corporation. Your donations are tax exempt. Checks may be sent, payable to Doxology Ministries, to PO Box 340926 • Dayton, OH 45434

————-
Private Family Service Thursday, September 6, 2012

Tillman Riverside Mortuary (2874 Tenth Street, Riverside, CA 92507).

Interment: Riverside National Cemetery, 22495 Van Buren Boulevard Riverside, CA 92518

American Folk Songs

Thank you for attending our session at OMEA.  Feel free to download our list of ‘must not forget’ songs. Please send me yours in pdf format so I can share it with others!!

Thank you,

American Folk Songs

Chump Change Thinking

I will never forget a message a young speaker gave to the youth during one of Omega’s Youth Explosion events at the Downtown Y. I don’t remember his name but I’ve never forgotten his message. From time to time I find myself thinking about his words. Today, sitting on a Delta flight from Atlanta to Dayton, in that place between sleep and wakefulness – that place where God and I have many business meetings – I was drawn back to this message. The path was a bit circuitous as my thoughts often are. I was angry and frustrated at myself for eating everything that wasn’t nailed down… in multiples… this past week. I was on vacation I tell myself. The pitiful excuses I give myself are legion and by now routine. So are my declarations, chief among them ‘I’ll start fresh on Monday.’  As I imagined myself posting signs around my house “Don’t just start, FINISH” the Lord sent me back to that Friday night so many years ago and to this young man’s talk with fresh ears.

As we sat on the floor, the speaker asked a series of questions:

Q: If I offered you $50 would you ride a skateboard from Dayton to Columbus? Without hesitation we  respond, ‘Absolutely not! No way! Forget it! Too far!’ No one accepts his offer.

Q: If I offered you $500 would take the challenge?  With very little hesitation nearly everyone repeats the earlier answers - NO! The only ones who accept are small children who aren’t quite sure what he’s talking about anyway and the homeless man who came in to get free food.

Q: If I offered you $5000 would you ride a skateboard from Dayton to Columbus? A few stalwart listeners agree to take the challenge. But the majority of us, albeit more slowly this time,  reluctantly respond in the negative. It’s too far. Skate-boarding 70 miles is dangerous. $5000 is just not worth the effort it will take to complete the challenge.

The final question: Would you ride a skateboard from Dayton to Columbus for 1 million dollars? Every head – even mine – vigorously nods, emphatically states YES! I’ll do it! I don’t even know how to ride a skateboard. I tried it once and fell flat on my buttock before I knew what happened.  But my lack of skill riding a skateboard doesn’t matter. I’ll learn to skateboard. I didn’t care if it took two weeks to make it. A million dollars would change my life!

Why did so many decide that we could complete the challenge for a million dollars when just a few minutes earlier we had been vehemently declaring that the trip was too far and the challenge too dangerous? Our young speaker explained:

When the goal is big enough, the details don’t matter!

Even in a poor economy few would choose to ride to Columbus on a skateboard for $50-500. The risk is too great and the reward too small. Even $5000, a hefty sum to be sure, is not enough of an incentive for most people. And of those who accept the challenge, most will give up before they reach Dayton’s city limits. Ah, but a million dollars is a goal big enough to make most people look at the details with different eyes. Yes, it would be hard. Yes, there would be pitfalls. Yes, there would be struggles. BUT, the goal is worth it. When the goal is big enough, the details don’t matter! When the goal is important enough people do what they have to do to reach the desired end. A Dad rushes into a burning building to save his child; a single Mom in her 30s works full-time while she earns a law degree; a retired grandmother raises three grandchildren because the parents can’t/won’t; a husband & wife decide to lay aside their differences so their children won’t have to be divorce statistics. I’m sure you could come up with other examples.

What, you might be asking, does this have to do with the internal argument about how much I ate on vacation?  Why do I constantly sabotage myself by giving in to Krispy Kreme donuts, fried fish, late night eating, not exercising, short-cutting my sleep to watch late night TV and the many other things that I know are wrong for me? Could it be that I have yet to see these issues as million dollar goals? Losing 10 pounds so I can ‘look cute/young/sexy/fit into smaller clothes etc’ is a chump change goal, not worthy of my total engagement so I rarely give it my consistent, best effort. On the other hand, being healthy/improving the quality of life, a special gift from God,  is a million dollar goal. And if this is the true goal, there is no room for excuses. Yes, it’s hard at times. Yes, it requires sacrifice and self-denial but the goal is big and important! That’s million dollar thinking. Sitting in 11A on Delta flight 2337, I knew exactly what God was trying to tell me.

In what area are you guilty of chump change thinking? Do you need to go back to school so you can have a career and not a job? Do you need to be more consistent with taking your medicines or managing your weight?  Are you allowing your children to run wild? Is your marriage lackluster?  Is your relationship with God relegated to Wednesday night and Sunday morning?  If so, you might want to change the lens through which you are viewing the situation. Chump change thinking will never lead to anything lasting and permanent. Chump change thinking will always give up before the goal can be reached. Chump change thinking will allow you to deceive yourself with excuses that make you feel good or justified for a minute but keep you mired in wrong actions. It’s time to be grown up enough to put aside chump change thinking, elevate our focus and reach for higher goals and higher heights! You can do all things through Christ who strengthens you.

When the goal is big enough the details don’t matter!

A Dad

I wrote this poem last year for my husband of nearly 30 years, Gerald A. Cox, Jr. I repost it to honor him and all of the wonderful Dads in my life (a truncated list):  Danny McNeal, Sam McNeal, Sandy McNeal, Walter Brinkley, Deione Cox, Derrick Cox, Derrick Cox, Jr., Dameon Broadus, Phillip Cox, Keith Mary, Keith Bullock, Kevin McNeil, Flint Fowler, Keith Cosby, Tom Howell, Kevin Jenkins, David Abney, Daryl Ward, & Walter Green. I love you guys!!

 

Donna Cox for her husband of nearly 30  years

Being a father is a relatively easy task

All it takes is the passing of appropriate body fluids at the opportune time

Being a father doesn’t necessarily mean responsibility

Nor does it automatically bestow certain privileges

But being a Dad – ah, that’s an entirely different matter

Being a Dad isn’t easy

It requires everything a man has to give – and then some

A Dad sacrifices personal desires and plans so he can be available to his child

A Dad wipes runny noses, dirty behinds, and dries salty tears

A Dad plays silly games and sings goofy songs

And makes up outlandish stories – for the price of a smile

A Dad will dress in a boa and frilly hat for a tea party with his girl

A Dad will shoot bad guys, scale mountains and leap tall buildings with his boy

A Dad will take three hours doing a one-hour job so his child can ‘help’

A Dad will kneel by his child’s bed and pray while she sleeps

or gives birth to her own child

A Dad will slip $20 into his adult son’s hand before he heads out the door

A Dad doesn’t have to give birth to a child to love him or her

So his grandson can put big shoes on small feet and call him ‘Dad’

A niece can sidle up to her uncle and, in her heart, call him ‘Dad’

A Dad seeks intimate relationships with his children

He knows he can’t expect them to give what he isn’t willing to provide

So he shares his mistakes and struggles in the hope his child will share hers

A Dad can be a father with ease

BUT a father has a long road to walk before he can be a dad.

Happy Father’s Day to a Real Dad!

Christian Enough?

Last night I had a wonderful conversation with a UD student over dinner. The topic of our conversation could be the subject of entire conferences – is it ever appropriate to use the N word?  Considering I had, earlier that morning, read a Facebook status in which a friend referred to “Nigga squirrels” messing in her yard, I was prepared to give my comments on usage. But I digress. As I said, that’s another topic altogether.  What captured my attention then and has continued to stir my spirit was his response to my question about whether or not he was a Christian. My young friend told me that he was probably as much a Christian as I. My response – there are no degrees to salvation. Either a person is saved or not. If he is a Christian, he IS as much a Christian as I am – no more, no less.  I find nothing in scripture that supports the notion that some people are super Christians and others are not. Scripture teaches that all fall short of the glory of God and are in need of God’s mercy, that’s from the pulpit to the farthest reaches of the sanctuary, from senior citizen to young child, from the ‘been saved all my life’ to the person who just asked Christ into her heart.

Becoming a Christian is a very simple matter: Romans 10:9 If  you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. You don’t have to jump up and down and twirl around four times, say 200 hallelujahs, There are no super Christians but there certainly are carnal or baby Christians (Read 1 Cor. 3:1-9). I had another conversation with students in my sacred music and worship class (I love my job!) about this. The Church has established all kinds of traditions (rites/rituals) and doctrines – very important ones to be sure – that are too often elevated above the simple truth of the Gospel of Christ. I reminded my students that Christ didn’t have this conversation with the thief on Golgatha’s hill.

Thief – will you remember me when you come into your kingdom?

JC – I’d love to my friend but see, you haven’t been baptized and it’s obvious that I can’t give you communion right now. There is no time for you to get your life together and change your thieving ways. As much as I’d love to help you, if you don’t do these things, I’m going to have to let you roast in hell.

No, Jesus very simply told the man ‘today you’ll be with me in Paradise.’ (Luke 23:43)

So, I reminded my students that once they accept Christ as savior it is a done deal. Don’t misunderstand, it is possible to accept Christ and still live a life of total depravity and in such a way that you are responsible for ushering others into hell.  None of it would undo the completed work that Christ did on your behalf. YET, why would you want to live so far beneath the life Christ came to give? Becoming a Christian is easy. Being a Christian is the journey! Christ came so that you could have and live an abundant life! But,  in order to experience the abundant life you need to move beyond the carnal/baby Christian stage so you can feast on the meat of the Word instead of continue to drink its milk! There is only one degree of salvation – saved or not. But, there is a wealth of difference in the way that salvation is lived out.

In some sense, perhaps my young friend’s response to my query about his salvation helps us to think more fully about this important season. We owed a debt we could not pay. God loved with a love we cannot understand. Because of that matchless love, God sent His only son to earth to pay our debt. Christ willingly took upon Himself each and every one of your sins and my sins. He willingly allowed Himself to be hung on the cruel cross, to suffer, and ultimately to die in your place, to die in my place. That makes us equal! And when Jesus thwarted death who thought he could keep Jesus in that borrowed tomb, He brought each of us into a resurrected, new life. This life demands an individual and daily response – to choose life instead of death.

How do you answer the question? Are you a Christian? If so, you’re already as saved as you will ever be. The question, then, is not related to how saved you are. The question is Where are you on the journey?