Decoration Day!!!

Good Monday Morning To You!!

I hope you have had a good and a safe week. Let me say Happy Memorial Day to you from all of us here at Friendship Harmony. When I was a boy it was known as Decoration Day? Does anyone else remember that? Every year my parents would load up the car and head for “down home.” For us, down home was Harlan County, Kentucky. We would go to the graves and “decorate.” My Mamaw and Papaw Cooper were buried in a family plot on top of Little Black Mountain. The hike up the mountain was through thick brush on a copperhead infested hillside. Each year it became more and more difficult until dad finally said we could not go up there any more. Those graves were grown over and abandoned until just a few years ago when the State of Kentucky put a road in. I have not seen it, but I’m told the graves look nice, are well kept, and you can drive up to them. I’d like to see them one day.

Yesterday was a super day at Friendship Harmony. The attendance was good and the presence of God’s Spirit was evident. With it being Memorial Day weekend, we sang patriotic songs. We started with Abraham Lincoln’s favorite hymn, “The Battle Hymn Of The Republic.” I too have always liked that song. For our offertory, our pianist played “The Star Spangled Banner,” We followed that by pledging to the American Flag. It was a very moving and enjoyable service.

Last week we looked at death from a practical standpoint. The three points were: The pain of separation; The hope of expectation; The joy of jubilation. This week we look at death again, but this time from a theological standpoint. The message can be seen on our internet video ministry. You can see it at www.facebook.com/friendshipharmony. Remember, you do not need a Facebook account to access the videos. This week’s video should be ready by tomorrow (Tuesday) morning. I hope the videos are a blessing to you.

Thank you for being so dedicated to both our written blog and our videos. We do them with the desire to serve our Lord Jesus Christ, and to be a blessing to each of you. Be sure to contact us from time to time; we love hearing from you. Our E-mail address is fhbcsjc@gmail.com.

Summer Camp

Good Monday Morning To You!!!

Hello to you. Welcome to the blog. Whether you are a new reader, or have been reading for a while, I want you to know how much I appreciate you taking the time to visit with me.

Sitting on my desk is a photo sent to me by my friend of the past 55 years, John Miller. It is so hard to call him John; to me he has always been Johnny. The picture is of him, the others in our cabin, and me at Camp Meachem in Mentor, Kentucky. I’ll never forget that summer. It was 1964, and I was 10 years old. Johnny went to camp every year, but I’d never been. In order to go, you had to be a member of the YMCA. I remember dad taking me to the Powell Crosley Jr. YMCA on Hamilton Avenue in Cincinnati. As I recall, the building was brand new, so they had a special deal on memberships. Dad signed me up, and I was going to camp. I couldn’t wait! Every year Johnny would come back and tell me all about his experiences. I wanted in on all that fun. The day soon came and dad drove me to Mentor, which sits right on the Ohio River. It seemed like a long way from home, but in reality it was not too far from Cincinnati.

When we drove into the camp, I was so excited about baseball, crafts, movies, and hiking the mountains. Actually they were hills, but to a ten year old, they were mountains. Some of the “veteran” campers warned us to not let our leaders take us on an overnight camp out. They said that way back in those hills was “Headless Hattie.” Headless Hattie was a lady who had been killed by a camper and she was out for revenge against the one who had killed her by chopping off her head. Since she was headless, she could not tell one kid from another, so she struck at random. I didn’t believe the story, but still enough doubt was in my mind that I didn’t want any part of hiking those mountains. I figured daytime wasn’t safe either since Hattie was headless and wouldn’t know the difference. As it turned out it rained quite a bit that week, so there was no hiking. I was fine by that!

My favorite camp experience was getting off by myself and walking the banks of the river. As I looked across the river into Ohio, everything I could see was natural. There was nothing man made in sight. I remember wondering if this was what it looked like to the Indians, and the early explorers. Surely it must have been. Even at age ten, I felt connected to the past. I was seeing what those historical people saw as they saw it. As I looked, I wondered what thoughts must have gone through their minds.

I don’t know if Camp Meachem exists any longer. I wonder if you can still look across that river and see only God’s handiwork, without any man made distractions. In any event, I look at that picture often, and my mind goes back to those care free days of my youth where your only worries were being axed to death by a headless old woman. Long live the memories!

Yesterday was an absolutely fantastic day at Friendship Harmony. The service was good, and we were honored to have a new family in attendance who had just bought a house across the street from the church. They are from Pennsylvania, and were on their way back to take care of personal business before coming to Pine Island permanently. It spoke volumes about the Christian character of these people who, before leaving on their trip, made time to attend services.

Following the service was our monthly fellowship dinner. This month featured Mexican dishes. In the past we have featured Italian, and it was wonderful. I was impressed how well our ladies did with Mexican. Maybe in the future we can feature Chinese. On second thought ---- naw!

The message was titled, “Death, What Meaneth Thou.” The notes are below and the brief video will be available Tuesday morning. To see the video go to www.facebook.com/friendshipharmony. Scroll until you find the video. You do not have to have a Facebook account to watch the video. Now, here are those notes.

Death, What Meaneth Thou?©
John 11: selected
1 in a series of 2 By Victor Cooper
05/17/14

Intro: For a believer in Jesus, Death does not claim the victory, but rather is the victory!

I. The pain of separation. Verses 17-21
A. In Scriptures death means separation, not cessation.
B. Death hurts? Paul said it had a sting.
1 Cor. 15:55a O death, where is thy sting?
C. Separation brings sorrow. v19
1. Mary, Martha, and their friends felt it albeit differently.
2. Jesus also felt the sorrow. V 35 Jesus wept.

II. The hope of expectation. Verse 22
A. Martha’s statement was not one of faith, but of cultural teaching.
B. Verse 39 shows that Martha’s statement to Jesus was not one of faith.
C. Verses 40-43 allows for hope.
1. Christ calls on the Father as Martha had suggested in
verse 22.
D. Christ was confident.
E. Mary and Martha had hope because of Jesus’ confidence.

III. The joy of jubilation. Verses 43-45
A. Sadness turned to joy.
B. Joy became faith.
C. Faith produces more joy.
D. Sorrow is temporary, but joy is eternal because Christ is eternal. Cf Psalm 30:5, “For his anger endureth but a moment; in his favour is life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.”

PRAYER REQUEST AND UPDATE:
1. I heard fom a mother of two sons in Wisconsin who is struggling with some painful issues. Please pray for Karen and her boys.
2. My wife, Miss Bessie, is doing some better, but is still having pain from her broken ribs, and punctured lung. The doctors tell us that it will take time for her to heal, but in the meantime she is to take it easy and not exert too much. When our doctor told us that, I thought, “This is going to be interesting.” Trying to keep Miss Bessie down is as easy as putting a racehorse in the gate, starting the race, while telling the horse, “Stay, don’t run!”

If you have a prayer request please send it to us at fhbcsjc@gmail.com. I will not reveal your full name and excact location, but please let people pray for you. The blog is now reaching over twenty six thousand readers world wide, so you’ll have lots of people bombarding Heaven with your need.

Have a good week. I’ll see you tomorrow (Tuesday) on the video, and again next Monday Morning With Pastor Vic!!!

This Year's Mother Of The Year Is Awarded To ...

Good Monday Morning To You.

I hope all you moms who are reading this had a good Mother’s Day yesterday. We had a really good Mother’s Day service at Friendship Harmony; I’ll tell you about it in a minute.

Last week I shared a prayer request concerning my wife, Miss Bessie. Last Monday afternoon I took her for an X-ray, and after reading the films, the radiologist told us to go straight to the Cape Coral Hospital Emergency Room. The ER physician looked at the X-rays and ordered a CT Scan. The scan showed that she had 4 broken ribs, a punctured lung, and a partially deflated lung with a touch of pneumonia. This was on top of the fractured wrist we were already of. The CT also showed bruising on her liver, but they were not too concerned about that. As I said last week, our orthopedic doctor, Michael Jugan, believes her hip is the problem and the reason for the fall. Thank you for your prayers, and I’ll keep you posted.

Yesterday I gave much thought to my own mom, Alene Cooper. She was a tremendous mom. Every night at bedtime she would come in and sit on my bed and listen to my bedtime prayers. She taught me two. One was, “Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the LORD my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I pray the LORD my soul to take. A-men.” The other was, “I see the moon, the moon sees me. God bless the moon, God bless me. And God bless mommy, and God bless daddy, and God bless …..”

Did you pray either of these prayers? The lessons she taught me about prayer stays with me to this very day. The first prayer was a prayer of faith. It was faith in God and faith in prayer. The second was a prayer of thinking of others. I would later learn that was called an “intercessory” prayer. I may not have known the theological technicalities of it in the late 50’s and early 60’s, but I did learn about the importance of prayer.

As I said earlier, the service at Friendship Harmony was tremendous. I know it seems like I always say that, but it is true. The attendance was good and the Spirit in the service was awesome. I thank our Lord Jesus Christ for meeting with us at church. Without the presence of the Holy Spirit, we would be just a club.

The message was called, “Mother Of The Year: Naomi. The message came from selected passages in the book of Ruth. We talked about Naomi being acquainted with sorrow and hard times, yet knowing the LORD was sufficient to see her through. Untested faith is shallow faith, and Naomi’s faith was deep and steadfast. This was from Ruth 1:3-5.

We saw from chapter 1 verses 7-9, we saw that Naomi was considerate of the needs of others. She had buried her husband, then her two sons, leaving herself and her two daughters in law. Naomi was going back home to Israel and told the girls that they could return home and find husbands among the men of Moab.

In chapter 1, verses 16-18 we learned that Naomi was a highly treasured woman. Her daughter in law Ruth said this to her. Ruth 1:16-18
“And Ruth said, ‘Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God: [17] Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried: the Lord do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and me.’ [18] When she saw that she was stedfastly minded to go with her, then she left speaking unto her.” What a fitting compliment for a fine lady.

We saw that Naomi was a descerner of God’s will. To accomplish this she had a close personal walk with the LORD. Are you able to descern the will of God? If not, perhaps you need to draw closer to Him. This we saw in chapter 3, verses 1-4. From this wise counsel of Naomi to Ruth, Ruth and Boaz eventually marry and have a son named Obed. He grows and has a son named Jesse, who in turn has a son named David. David would not only become Israel’s greatest king, but from him one day the Messiah, Jesus would be born. Naomi knew the will of God for Ruth, and her simple act of faith blossomed into a Messianic line.

Finally we learned Naomi was known to others as a person blessed of God. From verses 14 and 15 of chapter 4, we saw how others recognized the hand of God at work in the life of Naomi. May we all, women and men alike, follow the fine example set forth by dear Naomi.

May the LORD bless your upcoming week with the blessings of good health and Spirit filled days. There is no video being posted tomorrow, so I’ll see you next Monday Morning With Pastor Vic!!!©

Prayer request: Do you have any?

Good Monday Morning To You!!

I trust you have had a good week. My week was good, but my wife, Miss Bessie, has had a tough time. Last Sunday evening, I was out and she decided to stay home. After my visit, I decided to drop by Wal Mart to buy a shovel. I was surprised that our Wal Mart does not carry them. As I drove home, I had an uneasy feeling as I got closer. When I went up the steps onto the porch, I could hear moaning coming from inside. When I went in, I found Miss Bessie lying on the floor. She was in terrific pain from falling. The first question I asked her was, “Did you hit your head?” She told me she had not, but that she could not get up, nor could she reach the phone. When I asked her what had happened, she said she got up out of the chair, took one step, and went down. She hurt both her knees, her ribs, her shoulder, her hip and her wrist. She still hurts terribly. Last Tuesday she saw our orthopedic surgeon, Michael Jugan, who told her that he believes her hip was the culprit. Back in November of 2012 when he replaced her second knee, I remember him telling her then that her hip would soon need some attention. Last Tuesday he put her wrist in an “air cast,” which is what we used to call a removable brace. He wants her to wear it for a month. He also wants the other injuries to “settle down,” then he wants a more thorough exam of her hip. I ask you to keep her in your prayers.

May we at Friendship Harmony pray for you? Please feel free to share your prayer request with us. You can contact us at fhbcsjc@gmail.com. I will share your request on this blog so others can pray, but I will respect your privacy, and will not give out your name and location unless you give permission.

Yesterday was a very good day at Friendship Harmony. The service was uplifting, and we were blessed at the invitation to have a lady come and request membership in our church. I served as her pastor once before in another location, and I am so honored to have her with us. She studies her Bible faithfully, and she can ask some very deep and thought provoking questions during Sunday School. Her husband is ill, but possibly one day he can come also. His name is Larry, please pray for him.

The message title was, “I Will Extol Thee” from Psalm 145. The 10 minute version of the video should be ready to view on Tuesday morning. To see it go to www.facebook.com/friendshipharmony. Remember, you do not need a Facebook account to view the video. I do hope it is a blessing to you.

Have a good and a safe week, and remember, if you have any prayer requests, please share them with us at fhbcsjc@gmail.com. If you have any questions concerning Scriptures, you may use that E-mail as well. May the LORD bless you, and I’ll see you next Monday Morning With Pastor Vic!!!