25th Anniversary

September 1 marked my 25th anniversary o staff of Tenth Church. It's a real milestone for me, particularly since I joined staff while in graduate school with the intention of going back to Italy, where I had had a ministry to students, within three years. What a surprise to realize that my work in Italy was done, and my new field of service was in Philadelphia! I was deeply touched and honored by the recognition given in the morning worship services, and the generous gift toward my upcoming sabbatical, which will nearly cover the airfare to Asia where I hope to spend most of this time. My hearatfelt thanks to all who contributed to this gift! Providentially, Ken Rudy, one of our global partners, who now lives in Colorado, was in the evening service on Sunday and we met for lunch on Monday, and planned out my time. I hope to teach English in Pnom Penh for a few weeks, then visit my friends, Susan L in Hanoi and Shelagh W in Thailand while I'm in the area. I expect thatt his will be a time of challenge and growth and learning what is happening in that part of the world. What a gracious gift from the Lord and from all of you!

Recent Adventures in the Hospital

Dear Friends,



Tomorrow, September 25, I will be having a cardiac catheterization at Jefferson Hospital. If you find this surprising, you can well imagine that I am in a state of shock. This is totally unexpected, out of the blue. Remember, I’m the one who has been following a super healthy lifestyle these past years. How could this be happening to me?



These past few days since the cardiologist called to say that the stress test that I took last Monday was abnormal, I’ve been thinking, “This is not happening to me. This is happening to someone else.” But it is, in fact, happening to me, even though I trained on a treadmill for the stress test, after all there was nothing whatsoever wrong with my heart…



Two people have given me new perspective on this situation. My sister, Cheryl, said, “This is a proactive thing to do.” I was thinking of the procedure as a real defeat, but it isn’t, it’s a grace from the Lord. Phil Ryken noted that God was gracious in that like the cancer, they caught the situation early. I can only conclude that God is good to me.



So I ask for your prayers. I don’t know what will come of this. Either the hospital will release me a few hours after the test or they will keep me and do the next stage of treatment which could range from medication to angioplasty to a bypass. It’s one of those situations when all I can do is to trust that the Lord knows what He is doing.



Two years ago when I had had a series of medical problems, including surgery three times in six weeks, the Lord reminded me that “Every branch that does bear fruit he prunes that it may bear more fruit.” I see this whole situation as yet another pair of pruning shears. I don’t know when the fruitfulness will come, but the pruning continues and I covet your prayers.



Sincerely in Christ,



Cora


Dear friends,



Thank you so much for your prayers.



Last Monday as per schedule, I went to Jefferson Hospital for a cardiac catheterization. After I woke up from the procedure, they just wheeled me into a room on the tenth floor, without even asking me about being admitted. Later the cardiologist came in to tell me that I had a 90% blockage at a critical juncture in the front of my heart and that I was an excellent candidate for single bypass surgery. Thanks. Just what I wanted! How could this be happening to me anyway? I ‘m the one with the healthy diet and lifestyle!



Meanwhile, my friend, Stephanie Fuller, who is doing a fellowship in cardiothorasic surgery at Jefferson found my name on the patient list, looked up the pictures from the catheterization and came to see me. She explained the ins and outs of the surgery involved. When she finished I was ready to sign on the dotted line.



My doc consulted a wide range of cardiologists about what to do. The next day he came in with a clear explanation of alternatives. They could do bypass without even stopping my heart. They break the sternum to get to the heart, take a blood vessel from the chest and graft it onto the heart. They could try balloon angioplasty but the obstruction was in a really inconvenient part of my heart and it might not work. They would have to insert a stent which might not stay put in that location. He was very thorough in outlining all the pros and cons of each alternative. Then he said that he had asked each of the people with whom he consulted, “If this were a close relative of yours, say it was your wife, what would you do?” I thought was a great question! Evidently to a person they said, “I’d try the angioplasty.” So that’s what I chose.



The doctor that he had chosen to do the angioplasty wouldn’t be available until Thursday, so I had to wait. Meanwhile, I got visits form the surgical team who were most anxious to get me into their operating room.



I also got visits from so many friends. And I know that people were praying. I felt so supported. In fact, I felt as though I was being carried through this whole situation.



They did the procedure first thing on Thursday morning, before the surgical team began their day’s schedule. They stood by to see if the angioplasty was going to work before they went to work. I felt like a real celebrity, holding up the progress of the surgeons.



The doctor who did the actual angioplasty was fantastic. He did a very difficult and risky procedure and he did it skillfully and successfully! God is so good to me!



After the procedure you need to lie still for several hours. That was probably the hardest part. After a few hours one of the team came to pull out the tube in my thigh through which they treaded the balloon. That wasn’t fun and I bled a lot. She had to apply pressure to stop the bleeding. As a result the whole lower midsection of my body is more bruised than it’s ever been before. I expect that perhaps my heart is also bruised, yet it was still the less invasive of the procedures. I’m glad to have blood flowing through my heart again. This means being on a regimen of aspirin and Plavix, which I don’t like, but I’m grateful to the Lord for His goodness to me.



I was released on Friday and I’ve been lying low ever since. This has taken more out of me than I’d expected. I’m so grateful to everyone who has prayed and who has been there for me. Thanks so much for your encouragement, your support and your prayers.



Gratefully in Him,



Cora

Cora's Comments

Cora's Comments

The Place of Healing

As a counselor I work with people who have been deeply wounded emotionally and spiritually. As I sit with them in their pain and relive some of their traumas I pray for the Lord's healing in their lives. Listening, being there with a hurting person is an important ministry. Assuring them of God's love and sufficiency is one thing. Having a person actually reach out and grasp with both hands God's provision is the result of the working of the Holy Spirit

A number of years ago I was working with several women who had been abused in childhood and who had not only scars but emotional wounds that were still open. How much I longed to see each of them gain a measure of wholeness. I prayed with them in each session that we had together and in my devotions I pleaded with God to give me the key to their healing.

My answer came at a concert. It was Christmas time and I went to hear Handel's Messiah at the Academy of Music. I went to the concert to relax, to bask in the beauty of the music and to be blessed by the texts from Scripture. I was hardly expecting an epiphany.

It came in the chorus, "SURELY, SURELY, he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows." If you miss it the first time, they repeat it, "Surely, Surely, he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. And with his stripes we are healed."

Of course. When Jesus died on the cross he bore all the sins we have or will ever sin and all the sins against us. His redemption is complete!

All real healing takes place at the cross. Jesus has already done all that needed to be done to provide healing for wounded people! As we take our sorrows and griefs to him, he gives us wholeness in exchange.

God rarely zaps us and takes away all our pain at one time. He wants to make us into mature disciples, not spoiled children. We can handle only so much pain or painful memories at a time, but God meets us at every level of painful memories. He strips off that layer, like the skin of an onion. And he brings healing to that layer of pain and trauma as we bring it to the cross.

One day we will be perfectly healed and there will be no more painful layers to peel off. It's hard to imagine what it will be like to be made perfect, to be without pain or brokenness. But we will never forget the source of our healing, because we will be with our nail scarred Savior thorughout eternity.

The New Covenant

On Saturday we had an extraordinary wedding here at Tenth Church. A couple of Jewish Christians were married in a ceremony that was at the same time both Jewish and Christian. A choir of Messianic Jews sang a medly of Hebrew worship songs before the ceremony began. There was a canopy at the front of the church under which the ceremony took place. Then men wore yalmakes and both one of our pastors and a Christian rabbi performed the ceremony. The rabbi said the traditional blessings in Hebrew and then translated them into English. The couple drank from the traditional wine glass, carried down the asile during the procession by a young boy who might otherwise have been the ringbearer, and the groom broke a goblet, a traditional rememberance of the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. The ceremony was beautifully Jewish.

The Ceremony was also beautifully Christian. As believers in both the Old and New Testaments, we believe that all the Jewish ceremonies point forward to Jesus Christ, the Messiah and the fulfillment of those ceremonies.

To make this clear, our pastor, Marion Clark, gave a short homily on the New Covenant. The Old Covenant was the covenant between God and Israel given on Mount Sinai. God promised to be their God and their protector. The people's part was to obey God's Law. He gave them the ten commandments to obey and to guide them in their religious and moral lives. It was a good covenant. The only problem with it was that sinful human beings were incapable to keeping it. So at one of the lowest moments of Israel's history, when Jerusalem was under seige from her enemies, in the midst of famine, suffering and privation, God promised that he would make a New Covenant with his sinful people. Jeremiah records this promise in chapter 31 of the book that bears his name. This a new covenant in that it is not based on the outward keeping of the law. God promised to write His law on the people's hearts and minds. He promised to be their God and that they would know Him, from the least to the greatest of them. What makes this New Covenant so wonderful is that it is based not on our trying to keep the law but on forgiveness of sins: "For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember thier sins no more."

Centuries later at what we call "the last supper" Jesus passed a cup of wine to His disciples and said, "Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins." (Matt. 26:27-28)

What a wonderful privilege God has given us to be partakers of the New Covenant! Jesus died for our sins so that God's justice could be satisfied. God forgives our sins as we ask for forgiveness on the basis of Jesus' death in our place. And we can actually know God. We can come into His very presence to worship and praise Him, to confess our sins and to find forgiveness and cleansing, and to share with Him everything that is in our hearts. Our obedience then, comes from a new heart and a new mind, focused on our wonderful Savior and on His Word, which He has placed in our hearts.

Tenth CHurch Blood Drive December 6, 2005

Cora,

The Red Cross is very pleased with the results; I was disappointed of course since being only "4" short of thea, goal is hard to face. Nevertheless I think we did the best we could under the circumstances.

Officially we collected 56 productive pints of blood on a goal of 60. Red Cross says this time of year is really tough because people have so many commitments.

I was especially pleased that many neighborhood people came in. One girl was approached on the street and she said she might be back but was "apt hunting." I wished her well, told her a little bit about the church and she returned later to donate! She said she wanted to find an apt in the neighborhood so she could attend our Church! She had never heard of us before.

This and other contacts make the whole thing worthwhile in the end. The trainer at the gym came back and donated this time. We made him feel VERY welcome! Also my Jewish dentist came and was impressed by the warm welcome. He had never donated before!

Jay, George and Ed did a fine job at the refreshment table. I believe George is the most popular person at the drive. Even the red cross wanted to know "if George would be there!" I also give hearty thanks to Danya Kellberg who is a saint at the reception table. Tom Witmer got the posters hung in the neighborhood. We should also thank the faithful in the congregation who donated, especially those that had to travel to do so. We couldn't do this without them.

The Church staff presents a fine example by being so faithful in this work. By donating and by being so enthusiastic you all really make a difference!

Many thanks all around and to you Cora for your fine support. I couldn't do it without you!

Jan

Being LIke Christ in His Death

This week I’m reading in Philippians in my devotions. It’s a wonderful book, full of love and joy, exhortations to Christian unity and a real focus on Christ as our righteousness.

As I read the third chapter I was reminded of two things. First of all I recall reading Dr. Boice’s commentary some years ago, in which he stated that the whole book of Romans is summarized in Philippians 3:9, “and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—a righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.” (NIV)

The second was an insight I got while dealing with a reluctant counselee a few years ago. I was sharing with this person the need to die to self and to allow God to have complete and total charge of his life. I found myself quoting key passages on the matter such as Galatians 2:20 “I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I but Christ lives in me, and the life that I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Eventually I got to Philippians 3: 10, “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, being like him in his death.” My friend walked out of my office rejecting the whole idea of letting God be in charge of his life.

At that point I was too wound up to do much good work, so I went home to have lunch. All that I had said in that session was running around in my head as I walked home. “How can I be like Christ in His death? What is the essence of Christ’s death that I can be conformed to it? I can’t be the atonement for the sins of the world. What does this mean, anyway?” This was all churning around inside of me.

As I was standing in my kitchen with an empty saucepan in my hand it hit me like a thunderbolt. “What is the essence of Christ’s death that I should be conformed to it? The essence of Christ’s death is, ‘Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me, nevertheless not my will but Thine be done.’”

Being a very strong willed person I found this really earthshaking. It’s a matter of submitting my will to the Lord and allowing Him to have the final say. I needed to be reminded of this fully as much as my friend. I also need to re-read Philippians from time to time to remind me of this. If we are going to be like Christ we must be absolutely in tune with God and be ready to His will even if it means facing what we dread most.

I know Christ and am becoming increasingly and progressively more deeply acquainted with Him. I’ve known something of the power of His resurrection. These past years I’ve learned something about the fellowship of His sufferings. Becoming like Him in His death is definitely a “growth area”, something that I still need to work on.